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inkblackorchid · 2 months

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What the hell happened with Crow: an autopsy (Part 3)

Trying my absolute damnedest to finish this one and part four sooner now that I've finally covered the Pearson backstory. *Ehem* Hello again! I hope you're ready for more yelling about a certain spiky-haired Blackbird aficionado, because I sure am.

To get some things out of the way first, though, here come the usual disclaimers:

This is part three of a series of posts about hpw Crow's character was handled during 5Ds' whole run. You can find part one here and part two here. Reading them technically isn't required, but things sure will make a whole lot more sense if you do. (Bring snacks, they're long.)

This post isn't meant as a Crow hate post, nor is it meant to convince people who didn't vibe with his character to change their mind. This is my very long winded-attempt to analyse the writing decisions surrounding his character as best I can, without too much bias. That said, full disclosure, I do personally like Crow, so there's a good chance that will shine through whether I want it to or not. But also, I'm trying to have fun here, so please cut me some slack.

In case you haven't read my previous Crow posts (no shade there) and/or still believe the many, many production rumours that have been haunting the 5Ds fandom since the show's original run, please let me burst your bubble(s) with some insanely comprehensive research by someone over on Reddit (thanks again to @mbg159, who's also here on tumblr): No, Crow was not meant to be a dark signer, or the final boss of season 1, and his spike in screentime has nothing to do with his cards. And also, No, Aki didn't get less presence in the narrative because her VA got pregnant. What if you don't have the time to read either of those long posts? In that case, please take away this simple, very easy rebuttal of why the above theories are bullshit: Their would-be "key points" don't line up with the 5Ds production timeline. At all. Not even vaguely. So please, ditch them, let them die, seeing them still talked about makes me feel like I'm gonna break out in hives. And for the love of god, don't use this post or in fact anything else I post to pit Aki and Crow against each other. Both characters have their strengths and their reasons to love them. I am not the least bit interested in starting any character discourse. So please, spare my sanity. Ok? Thank you.

And now, we can get to the good part at last. In my previous post in this series, I stopped my analysis at episode 95, a.k.a. part two of the Pearson backstory. In this post, I will thus be picking up right after, at the very start of the WRGP—with the Team Unicorn match. The goal for this post is to analyse Crow's part in this particular arc, then provide some food for thought/ideas on how things that rubbed some people the wrong way could have been improved.

More below the readmore, and I give you not just my usual warning, but an extra warning, too: The universe will not let me write short things, so tread with caution, stay hydrated, and expect a veritable dissertation below, because this post feels long even to me, who has long since lost her sense of length when it comes to text. (But I'm well aware this is the result of me refusing to split the WRGP part into two separate posts, so I take full responsibility for that.)

Since we left off right after I chewed through all the issues with Crow's rather belated backstory and especially Black-Winged Dragon last time, we jump right into the thick of things now, with episodes 96 and 97, which serve as the preamble to Team 5Ds' first WRGP duel against Team Unicorn. Crow only gets two major things to do during this short stretch of episodes, the first being that he's Team Unicorn's gateway into roping Yusei into a duel during practice, which helps them set up a ruse that baits the 5Ds gang into sending Jack as their first wheeler because they think Jack's deck is best suited to countering Andre's—which, as it later turns out, it is not.

(Arguably the screenshot where Crow gives off the strongest Youngest Sibling Vibes during the entire show. Look at him, all chastised.)

Crow's second role is an odd one that I argue only he out of the main three guys could fulfill at this point: He's the one to get injured right before the Team Unicorn match, rendering him unable to compete, which leads to Aki offering to take his place for that particular match.

(Pictured: Bird Boy regretting all his life choices up until that point simultaneously.)

Here's the first moment I have to talk about in greater detail. See, the thing is, I don't know what the fandom consensus on Crow getting injured here is, but I argue that this moment was a (rare) strategic decision made by the writers at this point. Crow's injury accomplished several things: 1. It sets up the mystery of why his back wheel locked up out of nowhere, which is later paid off through Team Catastrophe's shenanigans. 2. It organically allows Aki to take his spot without introducing any argument about which of them is "worthier" of having that third spot. 3. Through this, it also allows him to actually bounce off Aki for once (a point I will come back to below, during the Team Catastrophe section). And 4. It allows the show to (TECHNICALLY) pay off the setup they did in letting Aki get her turbo duelling license and train with the boys. (Generally, Crow's and Aki's character writing intersects a bit during the pre-Diablo incident WRGP section, something I'll touch on below.)

Moreover, I think this is also the only match where they could have done something like this, and the reason for it is very simple: Team Unicorn are one-off opponents whose presence in the narrative is only relevant as far as it concerns the WRGP, and they are also one of the first teams the 5Ds gang faces. If we think about the opponents Team 5Ds has after this, it becomes very obvious why Crow could only be injured during this duel: If they had tried pulling this stunt later, it would have forced the writers to pull Aki centre stage during a much more plot-relevant duel than this one (which they were apparently allergic to, but let's not go there), not to speak of the fact that it would have forced them to sideline someone they were definitely trying to sell as the third portion of their protagonist trifecta, which would have probably been awkward. (If not for the fact that they literally did this to Crow later in the show, but I'll get there. Yes, I know there's a lot already that I'll still be "getting to".)

The thing is, whether or not it feels like an awkward writing choice to make so early in the big tournament of this arc (you be the judge of that), Crow's injury finally allows him to have a few interesting character moments for once. For one, there is his immediate disappointment about being forced to stay on the sidelines. Aside from the fact that this is a human and relatable reaction to his injury, it stings even more for the character than it does for us as the audience, because Crow got a moment where the Satellite orphans he previously took care of cheer him on for the tournament literally within the same two Team Unicorn preamble episodes.

(Say what you will, this is just stupid cute.)

So when Aki eventually offers to take his place during the match, he's understandably apprehensive—and again, this is human. It may seem mean in the moment, but from a character writing standpoint, it's a natural response. Plus, it's certainly more interesting to watch the group have a bit of conflict among themselves, rather than everyone immediately jumping straight to acceptance. It introduces tension, and, for however brief a moment, raises the question of whether Crow might refuse to let Aki take his spot. This is also the point where Aki and Crow's character writing officially intertwines, at least for the stretch of episodes between the Team Unicorn duel and the Team Catastrophe duel. And you know what? Say what you will, but I think it does a world of good for both of them. The 5Ds cast, as lovely as it is, doesn't get a lot of room to bounce off one another where it concerns personal matters anymore, once the WRGP starts. Arguably, they get little time to bounce off one another outside of plot-related discussions at all once this portion of the show comes around. The characters are treated as "fully developed", and thus, the writing largely doesn't take the time to show us how the group naturally interacts with one another anymore, especially not with how many side characters (chiefly Bruno and Sherry), antagonists, and duels the show now has to juggle. So Aki and Crow getting even a smidgen of personal conflict here is honestly a breath of fresh air. The interaction kicked off by Crow's injury isn't completely plot-irrelevant, like most character interactions during the pre-WRGP were, but it's not something that feels like it's only there to explain the machinations of the antagonists to the audience, either.

Let me go through this in a little more detail to illustrate my point.

So, episode 97. Crow storms off after Aki offers to take his spot, while Aki heads out to prepare her runner, intent on helping her team. The personal motivations here are already very nice and reflective of these characters as we've gotten to know them up until this point: Crow's angry and disappointed (mostly at himself, which is noteworthy!) because he can't compete. And specifically, he's angry because not being able to compete in the first match means he can't show the kids his duelling like he wanted to. Then there's Aki, whose offer to take Crow's place is every bit as much of a strategic suggestion as it is a bid for acceptance from her. Acceptance, which is the thing she's been all about ever since she was introduced, basically. So she pleads with her friends to accept her, see her as an equal, and allow her to duel for the team, which they do. And Crow initially throws a fit, but then...

(Listen. You have no idea how much Crow and Aki getting to actually be friends means to me.)

He comes around to the idea and not only gives Aki his express permission to take his spot, he even coaches her a bit right before the match. Moreover, as his text states above, he literally entrusts her with the kids' hopes, as well as his own. This quickly brings both of them full circle: Crow, who already has a theme of legacy attached to him, passes the torch to Aki for this match, and in so doing, offers her the acceptance she asked her teammates for. (Frankly, stuff like this makes me wonder why on earth people were so eager to pit these two against each other, when their shared moments are actually some of the best-written during the often rocky WRGP arc.) So, though this injury pulls Crow out of the duel, it, funnily enough, ties him better into the story and to the other characters.

From there, we then dive into the Team Unicorn match proper. And well, being injured as he is, Crow doesn't exactly get a whole lot to do there. However, since we're in the portion where his and Aki's writing overlaps a bit, I do need to go on a quick tangent about what Aki's portion of this duel means for Crow.

(Sigh. Okay, buckle up for a quick and rough detour.)

First, something I need to get out of the way and off my chest: I have made no secret out of the fact that I hate Aki's portion of this duel, save for the moment where she summons Stardust. Hell, this duel segment is pretty much universally hated by anone who has even a smidgen of sympathy for Aki. It's regarded by many as the very moment the writers axed Aki's character, and for good reason: After all the buildup surrounding her getting her turbo duelling license, the supposed "payoff" of it all is that she gets to duel against Andre for a depressing four turns before being defeated immediately, which leads into Yusei's frustrating portion of this duel, which, to my knowledge, isn't regarded any more kindly by fans than Aki's segment. It's a massive let-down, simply put. But the thing is, it's not just a let-down for Aki. After all, the brief character conflict she had with Crow about taking his spot here can and should be regarded as part of the setup for this moment, and as such, it can also be considered to be wasted the second Aki leaves the track after barely making an impact whatsoever.

However, I do need to mention that I have a theory on why this segment was handled the way it was, mostly because I feel like Crow's later interaction with Aki, shortly after she's out of the duel, underlines it (mind that this is just my personal theory, though, after having watched the show perhaps more times than can be considered sane): I think there is a cultural aspect to this duel. See, the word ganbaru, which anime subtitles often like to translate with "do your best" or something along the lines, has a greater significance than the translation implies. Though it's not inaccurate per se, there's more than just the idea of doing your best behind ganbaru, because it's something like an umbrella term not just for doing your best and succeeding, it's also the idea that you have to keep trying, even if you don't succeed. It's related to tenacity, to persistence, even in the face of terrible odds. And make no mistake, I don't mean the Japanese equivalent of "if at first you don't succeed, try again" here. I genuinely do mean "you have to keep trying, even if you fail". There is no guarantee of success here. And for that reason, the idea behind ganbaru is also that it's not simply the success that has value, but the effort made in the attempt to attain it, regardless of the result. (Side note: I tried to scrounge up a resource I could link to that nicely explains this concept, but unfortunately, all the promising articles were paywalled and the ones I learned it from require institutional access to lecture materials.) And this is where I will posit the tentative theory that this is exactly what the 5Ds writers were going for with Aki's segment of the duel—it was very much meant to be the payoff for her turbo duelling license setup and her plea to take Crow's place, but it wasn't so much her success that was meant to be valued, as the effort she (and by extension, Crow) made for and during this duel. And this is where Crow's little pep-talk with Aki after she's out of the duel comes in, because it feels like it supports exactly this interpretation:

(This is essentially the whole sequence. Note how Crow, despite so fervently entrusting Aki with his and his kids' hopes prior, doesn't admonish her for making a bad showing in the slightest.)

I don't think it gets any clearer than it is here. During this sequence, Aki is painfully aware of how poor her performance was against Andre, especially after she was so insistent on duelling at first, and despite having been entrusted with Stardust by Yusei, to boot. Yet, Crow doesn't have a single word of criticism to offer her. Instead, he even tells her she did well and that nobody's perfect. It very much reads as valuing Aki's effort over the result she achieved to me, and thus seems perfectly in line with the idea behind ganbaru.

However, if we assume I'm correct about the intentions behind this writing choice, we come back to why Aki's segment of the duel is so hotly debated and why it may have arguably been a disservice not just to her, but to Crow, too, character-wise. Because the majority of non-Japanese watchers of the show culturally don't have a 1:1 applicable concept like ganbaru, this writing choice was more likely to fall flat for them, because to someone who wasn't raised to understand the idea behind it, Aki's portion of the duel doesn't register as a payoff; it registers as a massive disappointment, because it feels like the writers, who had so much setup already done for her, let her fail on purpose, just to later let Yusei attain his arguably dumbest victory of the entire show. Thus, they also essentially waste the conflict she had with Crow about whether she would be allowed to take his spot in the first place, because with how little she achieved during the duel, she may as well not have gotten on the track. (Figuratively speaking. Please Do Not take this to mean I would prefer a version where Aki hadn't duelled at all. That would be worse. It would be infinitely worse.)

(Also, side note: If this post reaches anyone who's actually Japanese and still remembers this duel, I would genuinely love your input on whether my interpretation is feasible or just wishful thinking. Did you interpret Aki's part of the duel the way I did here? Or did it fall flat for you, too? If what I'm saying here feels like an absolute reach, please tell me. I'm honestly just trying my best to make things make sense here and remembered this concept from some classes I took in Japanese studies at uni.)

With all that in mind, it doesn't come as a surprise that some people were just as frustrated with the way Crow was barred from duelling here as they were with Aki's segment or Yusei's later victory. But it is what it is��the Unicorn duel concludes the way we all know it to, and with that, the show begins setting up the following duel with Team Catastrophe.

The only other, non duel-related, noteworthy thing that happens between the Unicorn and the Catastrophe match is a brief appearance at the Poppo Time by Sherry, who admonishes the signers for celebrating their victory early and warns them about Iliaster. Why do I bring this up? Because it's one of less than five times that Crow is in the same room with Sherry. Remember, Sherry. The girl he later, during the finale, talks out of working for the big bad evil guy because he suddenly seems to have such a deep understanding of her motivations and character that he can accurately deduce what argument will make her understand that working with Z-ONE won't give her what she's looking for. So, does Crow get a meaningful interaction with her during this scene, then? Nope. Not even in the slightest. Crow says exactly one sentence that is aimed at Sherry during her appearance, and that sentence is this:

(What a meaningful conversation!)

And yes, I will come back to Crow and Sherry's dynamic in particular. But we'll save that for the Ark Cradle arc post. For now, just keep it in mind as we move along to the other WRGP duels.

So. Team Catasrophe.

During the duel against this team, which was previously only hinted at ominously, the writing for Crow and Aki overlaps again, and this starts with the writers essentially doing a complete switcheroo of what came before: Instead of Crow getting injured and being unable to compete, it's Aki who crashes, ends up in the hospital, and is thus forced to give up her spot during the duel. (This also goes hand in hand with her suddenly losing her powers, which we are given absolutely zero explanation for, but let's not talk about that clusterfuck here. If you're interested in my opinions about that particular trainwreck, I have a rant for you.) Additionally, it's during this stretch of episodes (103-105, which is a whopping four episodes less than Team Unicorn got) that we find out that not only Aki's crash, but Crow's previous one, too, were both sabotage, caused by the rather unscrupulous Team Catastrophe by way of a special card that can cause real damage even when there is no psychic duellist present. (A card we also find out was given to them by Placido/Primo, but this is irrelevant for both Aki and Crow.) Crow's reaction to this piece of information, particularly once Aki gets injured due to the same thing, is where things get interesting for him again, because he gets pissed, to say the least.

(A moment I imagine firebirdshippers must have been positively delighted about.)

Here, I have to reiterate an earlier point: Think what you will of Team Catastrophe, of Aki's crash, and of the sequence where her powers suddenly don't work, but this moment here, where Crow gets angry on her behalf and swears to duel Team Catastrophe into submission—not because he wants his kids to cheer for him, or because he wants to prove himself, but as revenge for his friend—is one of sadly only a handful of moments the writers use to show the strengthened relationships between the individual members of Team 5Ds after the dark signers arc. It's one of the precious few scenes that actually shows, rather than tells us or lets us search for scraps in the subtext, that the signers, and the members of Team 5Ds as a whole, care for each other outside of revolving around Yusei like planets around the sun. Even if it's laughably small, it's at least a hint that there are individual friendships between the other signers, too, that they all stick around one another for reasons beyond gravitating towards Yusei for one reason or another. And for that alone, I'm grateful that they put this here, even if Team Catastrophe was otherwise so ridiculous and made such a bad showing at their actual match that they could barely be taken seriously as antagonists at all.

Speaking of which. The actual meat of the matter. The Team Catastrophe match. What does Crow do here? Well, he duels! Even though he wasn't supposed to, for injury-related reasons. What both his participation as well as the actual duel accomplish, though, are that they not only showcase previously established character traits of Crow's again, but they also make a (possibly unintended) callback to a previous, major duel Crow took part in: His dark signer duel against Bommer/Greiger. Where and how? Let's see.

Firstly, Crow's participation. The reactions of the other characters to this make it very evident that Team 5Ds did not plan for this, with Yusei and Jack even going as far as to say they "had no choice" but to let Crow duel, because he insisted. This is perfectly in line with the stubbornness we already know from him at this point—a stubbornness that was also a major reason for why he took Bommer on and later continued his duel with said man, despite Yusei showing up and telling him he shouldn't be duelling a dark signer.

Secondly, there's the manoeuvring thing, and here's where I can call attention to a fun tidbit: The WRGP isn't what introduces the concept of manual mode during turbo duels to the audience. It's Crow. During his duel with Bommer. Being crafty and a bit shrewd as he is, Crow, during said duel in the DS arc, purposefully switches to manual mode when he duels Bommer, because he figures that attacks that can deal real damage can probably be evaded if you actually have control over your runner and aren't stuck in autopilot.

(Don't believe me? Here it is. And frankly, it is somewhat hilarious, yet also very fitting that Crow is the only one who thinks to do this during a duel with a dark signer.)

The reason this particular bit is relevant during the Team Catastrophe duel is because Crow essentially repeats this trick here. Of course, it's a bit less impactful now, given that manual mode is standard for WRGP duels, but still: Due to Hook, the Hidden Knight, Crow is forced to pay attention to the track and manually evade the monster's attempts to make his back wheel lock up during the duel, mirroring how he thought to manually evade Bommer's attacks during the DS arc.

Thirdly, there's the revenge angle, and this one is a particularly juicy callback. Remember, Crow's major reason for taking on Team Catastrophe, despite being injured, is that he wants to get revenge for Aki. This directly parallels how his major reason for duelling Bommer during the DS arc was that he wanted revenge for his kids, whom he believed to be dead at that point in time. (It also, interestingly, establishes a bit of a connection to his deck, which boasts a fair amount of revenge effects, but I'll not get into that here, seeing as I've talked about Crow's cards a bit before.)

Keep in mind, despite all the things listed above that this duel accomplishes, it's also by far the shortest WRGP duel. It lasts a whole six turns, total, which is ludicrous compared to the likes of 27-turn Team Unicorn, 26-turn Team Taiyou, or 25-turn Team Ragnarok. And I don't think it's controversial to say that the Catastrophe guys are probably the most forgettable WRGP Team, too. Yet, somehow, despite all its shortcomings in terms of memorable antagonists and plot relevance, this is one of the best duels of the WRGP where Crow's character writing is concerned. Now, I'll be perfectly candid: Coming into this post, I did not expect the Team Catastrophe duel, of all things, to end up being as good at actually showcasing Crow's character and his ties to other characters (who aren't Yusei) as it was, but here we are. And we had better hold on to the good the Team Unicorn - Catastrophe segment did for Crow, because the next thing that's coming up is a harsh break from the WRGP, starting with the sudden appearance of Placido's home-engineered army of killer duel robots. And what does Crow get to do during this part?

Uh. Well.

(Pictured: Bird Boy being demoted to benchwarmer while the city's being ransacked by murder duel robots.)

Nothing. A whole lot of nothing, is what.

During the duel robot invasion, we only ever flash back to Crow to ascertain that he is, in fact, useless during this part of the show, something he shares in common with Ruka, Rua, and Aki here, because all of them get pretty much nothing to do while Yusei finally gets the hang of accel synchro. Granted, Aki gets to save a little girl at the hospital, but in comparison to Yusei's lengthy, plot-heavy duel with Placido, this feels like a consolation prize. And for once, Jack is only marginally better off, too, because sure, he gets to beat up a couple of robots, but that's it, really.

Where Crow is concerned, his plot relevance doesn't actually resume once the Placido duel finishes, though. (And neither does Rua's, Ruka's, or Aki's, while we're at it.) Because wouldn't you know it, the next big thing directly after the duel robot invasion are the Red Nova episodes, where three out of five signers (Crow, Aki, and Ruka, unsurprisingly) are removed from the screen almost in their entirety again while Jack gets his much-needed dragon upgrade so he can keep up with Yusei, in order to uphold his status as a classic, almost-evenly-matched yugioh rival.

Speaking of upgrades and dragons, let's make a quick detour while our protag and rival duo take their express vacation to the Nazca plains. It is, of course, no secret that no signer outside of Yusei and Jack ever got a dragon upgrade within the anime. (No, I'm not forgetting about Life Stream Dragon. But that one, unlike Shooting Star Dragon and Red Nova Dragon, was a.) teased all the way back in the DS arc and b.) didn't have a unique summoning method or some other gimmick that made it an "elevated" synchro. So I'm discounting Life Stream as a "proper" dragon upgrade on purpose.) Is this the point where I start arguing that Crow should have gotten one, then? Well, not quite. Not with the writing the show canonically gave us, at least—after all, with how late Black-Winged Dragon was introduced, it would have been bonkers to upgrade him here already, if even at all. However, I do argue that the way the show hands only Yusei and Jack upgrades seems a bit... off. Now, I know why only those two get upgrades, or at least I think I do. After all, they're the central protag/rival duo, and within the framework of the character archetypes the larger yugioh canon has created for itself, this would have always made them the first, if not the only candidates for dragon upgrades. What feels a bit off to me, though, is that specifically the 5Ds cast feels like it... chafes a bit against those character archetypes, for lack of a better word. The problem is this: The signers, as far as the first two arcs are concerned, are sold to us as equals who all have very powerful ace monsters. Yes, Jack and Yusei are still undoubtedly the best duellists among them, but not on account of having uber-powerful extra special monsters that were acquired through supernatural means that are categorically inaccessible to the other signers. However, with the appearance of Shooting Star and Red Nova, this changes. While Yusei and Jack were previously and would have always been the two guys who had a Special dynamic with a capital "S" on account of their character archetypes, their acquisition of the dragon upgrades—and even more so, the lack of upgrades their fellow signers receive—now decidedly puts them in a different power bracket and skews the balance between previous, supposedly "equal" characters. (Which, unfortunately, is yet another thing that makes everyone else easier to sideline.)

Why do I bring all this up in a post dedicated to Crow? Because this new power imbalance arguably impacts him more than the other signers—because he's Team 5Ds' second wheeler and doesn't miss another WRGP match from here on out. Thus, that power imbalance is felt in the upcoming duels, where Yusei and Jack bust out Shooting Star and Red Nova like it's nothing, while Crow is left manoeuvring with the somewhat underpowered Black-Winged Dragon and whatever else he can come up with. This is also why I claimed that the show did sideline Crow in some aspects further above. Because while some parts of his writing go to great pains to establish him as part of a protagonist trifecta that is now supposed to take centre stage before the other characters, he also permanently lives in Jack and Yusei's shadow, ultimately barred not just from reaching equal status as a signer (due to his late and rocky introduction and dragon acquisition), but also barred from becoming the equal of his foster brothers as a duellist. Frankly, I'm surprised the show didn't make this a plot point, because the first thing my mind jumps to when I think about this is whether Crow felt left behind after his brothers acquired such immensely powerful, special cards. But more on my personal writing ideas later. For now, let's just put a pin in the power-imbalance thing.

So, when is Crow back on screen in any meaningful role, then? (Note that I mean this as literally as possible. As per my discussion about "screentime" and my gripes about it in part two, I gloss over the parts where Crow is on screen, but could be traded for any other signer or even a lamppost without affecting the scene at all.)

Well, the next thing Crow gets to do isn't exactly glorious, but it sure is funny.

(I want you all to remember that he has to wear this costume and play this part in Team 5Ds' absurd plan to capture Yaeger/Lazar because he lost at rock-paper-scissors. This will never not be funny to me.)

Ignoring the hilarious outfit and Crow playing the bait at a fabricated cup ramen promo event meant to lure Yaeger in, bird boy does actually get something that's not just for funsies to do during the two episodes where Team 5Ds is trying to get more information about Iliaster: He gets to have a duel revanche against Yaeger, who, if we remember the DS arc, ditched him the last time they squared off. Much like the Team Catastrophe duel, this one, too, calls back to previous duels Crow has had: For one, it's the obvious conclusion to his unfinished, first duel with Yaeger. And for two, Crow repeats a "trick" (for lack of a better term) here that is also unique to him: losing on purpose, which we remember from his duel with Lyndon.

(Identical-looking clown family jumpscare be upon ye.)

And again, much like getting injured for the Team Unicorn duel, I argue that this story beat here is something that could also only have been accomplished with Crow. Because he's the only one who has previously duelled Yaeger, firstly, because not wanting to make a child cry by beating their dad in a duel makes sense for him as a character due to him being a family-oriented person who loves children, secondly, and because losing on purpose in this scenario is a tactic that would seem out of character from anyone else, thirdly. (We recall, the only times Jack and Yusei, respectively, ever consider/offer to lose on purpose is when the lives of people close to them are on the line, in the shape of Carly/Rally. As for the others, aside from not being present, Aki, Rua, and Ruka are so heavily sidelined at this point that they would have never been an option for this. And if his writing is anything to go by, Bruno is mostly purposefully forbidden from accomplishing Plot Things, especially through duels, while he's Bruno.) But hey, due to the way this episode is set up, losing on purpose works out for Crow, because it convinces Yaeger to stop hiding and actually share his knowledge about Iliaster. This, by the way, is the second scene where Crow gets to be in a room with Sherry for a longer stretch of time. And look, him joking that Sherry might kill Yaeger if he doesn't spill the beans about Iliaster soon is fun and all, but in light of the Ark Cradle duel later, I have to point out that he, again, doesn't get to have so much as a shred of a meaningful conversation with Sherry here. Again. But moving on. The scene with Yaeger at the Poppo Time then leads us first to the small sequence in the arcade where the gang has to win a simulated duel to get Yaeger's encoded intel, then to episode 116—the Moment Express episode, where, due to this being a Yusei, Sherry, and Bruno-focussed episode, Crow gets nothing to do again. (And also doesn't get to interact with Sherry again.)

Congrats! We've survived the WRGP break. This leaves us with three more WRGP duels before shit hits the fan and the Ark Cradle arc commences. And full disclosure, I'll be doing a bit of a quick-fire round of those three duels. Why? Because despite them all having their merits in their own rights (they're the better liked duels of the WRGP for a reason), there honestly isn't that much focus on Crow during them. He duels, yes, and I've seen people point this out over and over again as the supposed smoking gun that shows how Crow had so much more relevance and screentime than Aki and yadda, yadda. We've been there. And it's not that I can't see where this argument is coming from—I'll be the first to tell you that it's a travesty that Aki never got to duel in the WRGP again outside of the Unicorn match. But I want to use the final three matches to dig into how the way these matches—and especially the opponents to go with them—were set up made it nearly impossible for Aki to replace Crow again during any point of the WRGP finals.

First, episode 118. This is the only preamble episode we get for the first two WRGP finals teams, and here, our group is split in two: Yusei, Bruno, and Rua introduce us to Team Taiyou, while Jack, Aki, and Crow introduce us to Team Ragnarok. There isn't much to say here, because the only thing this episode does for Crow is a shallow repeat of what the Team Catastrophe duel did: By putting him in a group with Aki and Jack, and letting them decide among themselves, independently, to check out the exhibition match, it implies that he voluntarily spends time with signers who aren't Yusei. Thumbs up. Gold star. You made an effort (I guess). Then, the real fun starts.

Round one. Team Taiyou.

(Pictured: The sweetest country bumpkins to ever grace this earth. Yes, I'm biased.)

So here's the deal with Team Taiyou, from a narrative standpoint, as best as I can grasp it: They are a callback to Team 5Ds' roots. Specifically, to the boys' Satellite roots. The Taiyou boys come from humble origins, have only one, mostly home-engineered duel runner, and play using old cards that are widely considered shitty, as 5Ds canon tells us. They are essentially the non-signer, countryside version of what Jack, Crow, and Yusei once were, which is why this is the first duel where the duellist constellation on Team 5Ds' end couldn't possibly have been altered. Team Taiyou is there to remind us where our boys started, so it has to be our boys duelling them. This also goes for Crow, even though this duel otherwise doesn't accomplish much for him, character-wise. Instead, it's more of a narrative wink at the audience, as well as providing a breather between otherwise extremely tense, plot-focussed duels. But yeah, Crow's part in this match isn't much to write home about; he doesn't get any verbal interactions that are very meaningful to his character, can't get so much as a scratch in on Zushin, even with Black-Winged Dragon, and is defeated so Yusei can take out the legendary giant.

Round two. Team Ragnarok.

(Behold the pizzazz of at least two contenders for Haircuts With The Most Spikes in the show.)

Though this duel is framed as being even more so aimed towards bolstering Jack's character writing than Crow's, given the inclusion of Dragan's personal history with Jack, Team Ragnarok gets significantly more interesting for Crow again than Team Taiyou did. This is, of course, mainly because of Brave/Broder. Where Team Taiyou were a callback to the 5Ds boys' roots, Team Ragnarok are their narrative foils. Dragan is the duellist who lost his pride to contrast Jack, who's brimming with pride at all times, and Harald/Halldor is essentially the rich, "destiny isn't bullshit, actually" version of Yusei. Meanwhile, unlike the first two, who highlight our 5Ds boys' characteristics by contrasting them, Brave acts as Crow's mirror. Through Team Ragnarok's flashbacks, we see that he gets almost exactly the same, lovable-rogue-type backstory that Crow did during the DS arc, just in a different setting. The only, major difference between them is that while Crow is more down-to-earth, Brave likes to be pretty flashy.

(Keep in mind that he's doing this on a runner. Is there such a thing as courses on how to do acrobatics on your runner? Like there are courses for vaulting on horseback irl? I'm overthinking this again.)

Unsurprisingly, the duel thus ends up addressing the similarities between Crow and Brave, mostly through two things: One, the duel essentially becomes a contest of who can out-trickster who, culminating in the famous, ridiculous-in-the-good-way sequence where Crow activates a trap from his graveyard, to the shock of pretty much everyone present. And two, despite being on opposite sides, the two bond over their concern for the children they took care of and their concern for children in general, which is expressed most clearly in the scene where Crow's kids, in an attempt to hold the poster they made for him higher, very nearly fall over the barricade in the WRGP stands. Despite the hefty length of the full duel, these are pretty much the only things actually related to Crow's character that come up, though. They're good, don't get me wrong, but in a duel that is otherwise this dense with plot, Aesir shenanigans, and Iliaster foreshadowing, it's no surprise that the duel doesn't add that much to Crow's character, outside of giving him someone he can bounce off very well and relate to. Again, though, we are faced with the same situation as with Team Taiyou: Due to the way the members of Team Ragnarok are written, meant to contrast/parallel one male duellist each from Team 5Ds, nobody other than Crow could have taken the third spot here, either. It would have felt awkward from a narrative standpoint (as much as I would have loved to see Aki duel more).

Now, finally. Round three. Team New World.

(Welp. Here come the robots.)

I had to check to make sure I wasn't misremembering this, but due to the way this duel was set up so José/Jakob could bust out Meklord Emperor Granel with a ridiculous amount of attack points, Crow gets a resounding four turns total in this duel. (Gee, I wonder which other character got this treatment during a WRGP duel.) During those four turns, there are only two things he accomplishes: One, leaving behind two combo pieces Yusei later uses, and two, showcasing the shrewd tactics that earned him the label of "trickster" during the Ragnarok duel by bringing out a non-synchro monster that can take advantage of a synchro monster's attack points and effects—Aurora the Northern Lights. And arguably, this is a very smart play, moreover, it's the only time anyone in the show has the bright idea to not use synchro monsters against the known and feared synchro-killer Meklords. Unfortunately, as smart as it is, the narrative doesn't reward Crow for this play—José all but shrugs what could have been a turning point in the duel off, then proceeds to steamroll Crow the next turn, leaving Yusei to score the win, as usual. To get back to the "Crow got so much more screentime than Aki during the WRGP" thing for a second, of all the duels in the WRGP finals, this is arguably the one where Aki could still most easily have taken Crow's spot again, because here, it doesn't matter whether it's him or someone else, as this duel isn't tied to his character in any way. Unfortunately, due to the Granel-steamroller-strategy, this is also the duel where letting Aki take his spot again would have been the biggest shot in the foot, because unless they had changed Team New World's strategy, Aki would have gotten brutally guillotined here, same as Crow—something I can't imagine anyone, not even people who hate Crow, being happy about.

With that, though, we've finally made it through the WRGP. So, what's the bottom line here? Frankly, speaking from my own interpretation, Crow occupies an... odd spot during this tournament, to say the least. Though he does get to duel the majority of the time, few of the duels actually cater to his character in any way. Moreover, he only gets to be the star of the show in a WRGP duel once, during the by far most forgettable match against Team Catastrophe. And mind that I use the term "star of the show" very loosely here, because the problem the WRGP arc as a whole has, in my opinion, is that the rather lame Team Catastrophe duel is the only one in the whole tournament that isn't won by Yusei, which categorically means that any of the other character's big moments are usually undermined by the fact that they ultimately still need him to save the day. Thus, moments like Aki summoning Stardust Dragon and Crow using an anti-synchro-killer strategy that for once actually forgoes synchros are somewhat cheapened by the fact that they're not actually the turning-point moments they're initially painted as, because ultimately, Yusei always has to be the one to save the day. What's worse is that this almost feels like a bit of a non-issue that could have easily been fixed—given that the show tells us that teams can shuffle around their line-up for a match any time. But unfortunately, the writing never interacts with this as a possible strategic element, nor does it ever seem to consider letting Yusei lose, or forcing him to give up his spot for a match. I feel the need to say that I don't put the blame at Yusei's feet here, though: This strongly feels like an oversight by the writers, and perhaps a disproportionate need to have a nigh-infallible protagonist (on the duelling side of things) that their audience would never run the risk of calling "lame". For Crow, though, this chiefly means one thing: In any duel other than the Catastrophe one, it was always clear that even if he partook, he would never finish the match. And yes, this is technically an issue Jack has, too. But this is where the character writing outside of the duels comes into play, too.

Unlike Jack, who actually gets to do something during the Diablo invasion (albeit very little), who gets his very own dragon upgrade and who gets a very personal, pre-duel plot with Dragan, the show's writing doesn't bother giving Crow a lot of plot- or character-relevant things to do, once the WRGP starts. This is also why I was so surprised at how much the Unicorn and Catastrophe duels embrace his interactions with Aki—compared to the later duels in the finals, this portion still makes Crow feel genuinely relevant and interwoven with the other characters. Meanwhile, out of the three final duels, only the Ragnarok one actually tries to establish a connection to his characterisation, through Brave. The Taiyou duel only sets itself up in such a way that Aki partaking instead of him would have been awkward. Meanwhile, the New World duel just has him being treated like a floormat in a sad parallel to Aki during the Unicorn duel, seeing as they both get a nice moment where it looks like they might turn the duel around (Aki summoning Stardust Dragon and Black Rose Dragon onto the field at the same time; Crow summoning Aurora the Northern Lights, which couldn't be absorbed by the Meklords), only to have their hopes dashed as they're mercilessly cleared off the track. Outside of the duels, many scenes sadly give the impression that they may as well not have included Crow, though—he often gets so little to contribute to a moment or even to say at all that substituting him with a cardboard box seems like it would not have impacted the scene in any way. And that's without addressing his non-existent connection to Sherry, which feels extra glaring, given his later interactions with her on the Ark Cradle.

All in all, the WRGP feels like a very mixed bag, where Crow's character writing is concerned. His belated backstory, which I talked about in part two, is front-loaded and asks as many questions as it answers. Then the tournament commences, gives him some actually decent character interplay with Aki for once (at the cost of letting her succeed in the tournament, it seems), only for him to be basically irrelevant during the WRGP pause again. And once the whole thing resumes, it becomes this hot-and-cold thing where some duel aspects seem tailored to him, while others treat him as completely expendable. The end result is an arc where I'm left wondering why exactly the writers felt the need to make it seem like Crow made up one portion of a protagonist trifecta, if they never actually bothered treating him as equal to the other two. (The answer, I believe, lies somewhere between the fumbled setup they did for him during the Fortune Cup and DS arc, and the way yugioh in general treats its character archetypes. But that's just speculation on my part.) The one, saving grace the WRGP (outside of the Pearson backstory) has for Crow is that it at least doesn't introduce any new character- and/or timeline inconsistencies. In fact, his character stays remarkably true to form once the tournament begins.

Okay, onto the final bit, then. As I've done in both previous posts, let me delve into completely subjective territory and offer some ideas on how this arc could have been handled to make it seem a little less all over the place with Crow. And since his writing here canonically intersects with Aki's several times, let me try to do it while offering the best of both worlds to both characters, if I can.

As far as Crow's backstory is concerned, I've already offered my solutions to that in part two. Now, to stay consistent with my own suggestions, I'll try to branch off what I wrote in the last post. This means that, as per my previous two analyses, we're dealing with two scenarios again: One, Crow stays a signer and we try to touch canon as little as possible. Two, Crow isn't a signer and we adjust canon in whatever way we need to to make him feel interesting and necessary despite/because of that.

First, though, let's get two adjustments I personally would have made in both versions out of the way:

The way the WRGP is structured puts every character that isn't Yusei at a massive disadvantage, where character moments in duels are concerned. Thus, I propose an overhaul. Among the changes I think could have benefitted the characters (yes, all of them) are: One - Aki actually getting to accomplish something during the Unicorn duel (she can and should still have her moments with Crow, but maybe let her portion of the duel end in her thanking him for coaching her, creating a more upbeat scene that strengthens their friendship, which could double as good setup for their later double-duel against Sherry). Two - letting the Team Catastrophe duel actually play out properly (as in, they become more meaningful as opponents by having a better strategy, for example, and Crow could stick it out longer against them, in order to make this more so his win than Jack's. Also, why not let Aki actually see him get back at Team Catastrophe for her?). Three - giving Crow an actual character moment during the Taiyou duel (what if one of the country boys had played a card or two of the ones he learned to read from? It could have helped drive the parallel between the two teams home.) Four - letting Crow's anti-Meklord strategy get at least a little payoff, if only for two turns (show us at least proof of concept, damn it!). Yes, the Ragnarok duel is the only one I wouldn't rewrite (unless special circumstances are introduced, see below). Additionally, let Team 5Ds alter their line-up more than once, damn it. Let them actually strategise about the duels, let them take into consideration who should go first when and whose deck might be better suited to which scenario. Also, remove Yusei from at least one duel. Doesn't matter how, just let him not partake once. Perfect setup to let Aki duel again, and would also allow for spicy character interactions. (Arguably the best duels where this could have been done would have been any of the final duels, though it would have also required rewriting the antagonists somewhat in any case.)

For the love of god, give Sherry and Crow some setup. Let them actually interact, let them introduce their philosophies to one another, just do something, anything to make Crow understanding and talking sense into her during the finale seem earned. A few chance meetings, or maybe even a tiny side-plot could have done so much here. And if you can't let them interact outright, at least let Aki and Crow talk about Sherry! Double whammy! The two characters who end up duelling against her are made to seem even more like a team, and Crow actually gets to find out what Sherry's deal is on-screen. Just. Set. it. up. I beg you.

There we go. Now, onto the two branches.

Option A: Crow stays a signer and obtained Black-Winged Dragon.

Seeing as Crow's signer status, funnily enough, isn't all that relevant during the tournament itself (save for two notable exceptions), there aren't that many fixes to be made here. Crow can still get injured, miss out on the Unicorn duel and be the star of the Catastrophe duel. But giving him something to do during the duel robot invasion that isn't standing around and hoping Yusei will fix everything would also be nice. It's fine if he can't drive out there and duel, but why not let him do something else? He's a crafty guy, why not let him find, say, a way to fry the Diablos' runners, taking a few of them out even from a semi-stationary position without duelling them? He could at least get as much of a consolation prize scene as Aki got with her saving that child. Then there's Team Taiyou, which, save for what I proposed above, is a duel that doesn't feel like it needs changes. Crow does his thing here. That's it. The same goes for Team Ragnarok, especially given that they're specifically written to oppose an all-signers Team 5Ds. Finally, there's Team New World, which, if I'm being completely candid, I would personally overhaul to change the cyborgs' strategy entirely in order to actually let all three members of Team 5Ds shine. But this is the version where I touch canon as little as possible, so... Aside from what I wrote above, no changes needed. Just make Crow seem a little more relevant, make his strategy have at least a little payoff, even if Granel's back out and menacing literally two turns later.

Option B: Crow, as per my previous posts, isn't a signer and doesn't have Black-Winged Dragon.

This is the version that would categorically require heavier changes, though they honestly don't arrive until the break in the tournament. Unicorn and Catastrophe stay the same, I would still propose that Crow gets to be a little more useful during the Diablo invasion. But! In this version, seeing as he never acquired BWD, the break in the WRGP would be an excellent spot to let Crow acquire an upgrade for his beefy Blackwing ace monster of choice. Give him a little side-plot, too, something to do, something where he proves himself. Maybe let him run into Iliaster here, or maybe call back to Pearson again and introduce the new Blackwing upgrade as a treasure Pearson stashed away before he died (maybe this could have even been the card Bolger was actually after; the world is our oyster here). Then he's beefed up, too, and actually feels a little more on the same level as Jack and Yusei. The tournament recommences and again, the Taiyou duel could stay mostly the same, I think. Ragnarok and New World are where it gets really interesting, though. The way I see it, Ragnarok could go two ways with Crow not being a signer: Either he partakes as he did in canon and his non-signer status is called out as a peculiarity by our Swedish boys who happen to be obsessed with fate (which would make his performance against Brave seem all the more impressive), or, due to this being a duel all about destiny and celestial pissing contests, Crow's spot is given to Aki again for this duel due to her signer status (this would, obviously, require rewriting Brave, perhaps even switching him out for a Ragnarok lady instead). As for Team New World, this duel would honestly be a lot more juicy with a non-signer Crow, because much like he was for the dark signers, a non-signer Crow would essentially be an unknown in their plan for the cyborgs. He would be the guy who's Not Supposed To Be Here. Granted, he would still be beaten, but he could still get an excellent moment where his out-of-left-field anti-Meklord strategy genuinely seems to turn the tables for a bit, angering José and providing even stronger setup for Yusei to win later.

Aaaaand that's that. Somehow, I get the feeling the WRGP had the least things that needed fixing because it also had the least actual character writing. But that might just be me. It's late and I have been writing for A While. But hey, I got out part three faster than part two! I consider that an achievement.

Now, while I get my talking points in order for part four, I hope you'll have fun chewing on this one. See you in the grand finale to my Bird Boy dissertation.

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charlietheepicwriter7 · 7 months

Text

Hey, Little Songbird

Final Chapter - AO3

Three days after the defeat of Gabriel Agreste and the arrest of Lila Rossi, Felix was invited out for ice cream by his classmates.

A little flustered, he’d agreed without thinking. Rationally, there was little reason to why Lê Chiếninvited him to join, and even less of a reason why Felix accepted. There was still too much to do in the wake of Hawkmoth’s arrest; lawyers to speak to, statements given to police and press alike, entertaining his mother who’d overtaken his home to take custody of Adrien… Frivolities like ice cream socials couldn’t be entertained.

Despite that idea, Felix found himself smiling under the sun, surrounded by classmates as they all took turns at the food cart.

Couffaine and her girlfriend—a few days of diligent study only unearthed a few of his classmates names, not all—stepped out of his way, a sundae to share between the two. He approached the ice cream stall and—“Where is your menu?”

The man, Andre or something similar, smiled merrily. “Ah, so this is your first time at Sweethearts Ice Cream? Allow me to explain.” Picking up his scoop, Andre started to fulfill his order despite Felix having never ordered anything. “Sweethearts Ice Cream has a special ablility; to connect the hearts of two people in love. The harmony of two hearts in love influences the flavors of the ice cream. And there!” With a flourish, Andre offered him his waffle cone ice cream. “Blackberry for her hair, blue bubblegum for her eyes, and black cherry for her secret you keep in your heart.”

“…This is a terrible business model.” Despite his words, Felix paid the man and took his cone. “I don’t even know who this could refer to.”

“Really? You have no idea?”

Nearly dropping his ice cream, Felix whirled around. “M-Marinette!? When did you get here?”

“Just now,” she said, squeezing up beside him at the counter. “Hey, Andre.”

“Marinette! You’re ready to give Sweethearts Ice Cream another chance then?” Andre grinned at them both. “Or… would you two like to try my Couples Sundae? It’s free for new lovers.”

Felix flushed, a protest frozen in his throat. Fortunately, Marinette could still speak. “No, thank you,” she said, voice pitched higher than usual. “Just a regular ice cream, please.”

“Of course, of course.” Changing his scoop for a fresh one, Andre started on a new waffle cone: a base of yellow with dark chocolate, with a scoop of bright blue on top. “Banana for his hair, cotton candy for his eyes, and…” He flipped the cone over and dipped it in chocolate, “…a dark chocolate shell, since you broke through his.”

Blushing, Marinette accepted her ice cream. Felix offered her his arm and escorted Marinette towards a bench separate from the class, who were watching them. Lê Chiến even offered Felix a grin and a thumbs-up, to which he awkwardly returned with a nod.

“How…” She paused to take a bite of her ice cream, dark chocolate snapping between her teeth. “How has everything been? I’m sorry for not being in class the past few days, but it’s been so busy…”

“I can only imagine.” Marinette—or rather, Ladybug—has been in and out of the police station as often as Adrien was, giving her statement. Between that and the press conference Mme. Bustier stopped class to let them watch yesterday, if she’d spent more time as Marinette than Ladybug these last few days, Felix would French-kiss Rossi. “It’s been quiet, especially once Ladybug announced that Gabriel was Hawkmoth. Ms. Bustier tried to make us talk about our feelings, but everyone’s still a bit too shocked to discuss it.” After all, it wasn’t every day when you discovered your classmate’s father was the terrorist who turned you into a supervillain. Reporters had hounded their class from the moment the news dropped.

They were even worse towards his family.

“The school’s talking about shipping in a therapist for us,” Felix explained. “Not only that whole Akuma Class nonsense, but also because we were in direct contact with a terrorist for months on end. So, you have that to look forward to when you get back.” Rossi was allowed unrestricted access to vulnerable minds for over half a year. There was no doubt his class needed therapy… including Marinette.

“At least she’s been expelled from the country,” Marinette said, sighing. “Honestly, that was harder than giving my statement ten times over. The Prime Minister wanted her trial on French soil. I had to argue with the Prime Minister! All for Lila.”

“Why?” Felix would never do anything to help Rossi.

“News of her involvement is going to drop any day now. People are already trying to attack Gabriel in his cell; when the mob of public opinion finds out about her, they’ll start trying to get her too. At least this way she’ll be tried back in her home country, by people who were never directly affected by her actions.”

Felix didn’t like it, but “It’s understandable. People are also trying to get to Adrien, despite his innocence.”

Marinette nodded, half-expected that. “How is Adrien? I haven’t heard from him at all.”

“One of his photographers leaked his phone number, so Mom took his phone away so he wouldn’t have to read all the vile filth people send him. He’s getting a new one soon.”

It wasn’t that Felix didn’t understand why people were so upset. Gabriel turned Paris into a battleground and friends into foes, but… the police had already released a statement denying Adrien’s cooperation regarding Hawkmoth, yet there are still hateful phone calls and texts coming in at every hour from people who wanted someone to blame. At least Mother was keeping a record of who sent the more illegal messages: the threats, the doxing, the… suicide baiting.

Their family lawyer would be well fed in the coming months.

It was hard with Adrien in his house. Awkward. Despite Adrien’s frame-job, he was still family, and Felix was someone who supported his family. But that didn’t mean Adrien was forgiven. Felix didn’t forgive, and he’d never forget.

Surprisingly, the tabloids were kind towards Felix. He made no effort in hiding his involvement in the case, both as the whistle blower for Hawkmoth and as a hero involved in the final take down. Mother had cut out some particularly flattering articles out to hang in their manor parlor, but fortunately the threat of arrest and restraining orders kept most of the rats away.

“How’d Adrien take it?” she asked.

Felix bit his ice cream, so he’d have time to answer. Damn that ice cream man. It was delicious. “He didn’t believe it at first… didn’t want to believe it. He’s seeing a therapist on Friday.”

Marinette wrapped her hands around her ice cream cone. “Poor Adrien…”

“He’ll recover; he’s stronger than you think. He’s already made plans to hang out for the weekend.” He gestured at Alya and DJ Boy, leaning against each other and sharing a sundae. Alya caught his eye and waved. “Everyone’s going to be okay now.”

“Yeah.” Marinette drank in the sight. Not just Alya and her paramour—though they earned a smile for finally making up—but their other classmates as well. Felix had never been invited to a class outing before, but even though they’d broken up into subgroups of couples and friends, everyone looked happy. “We’ll recover.”

The sun shined down on them all, warming skin like a heated blanket. Felix studied the melting treat at hand. “So. Ladybug?”

She flinched.

“I haven’t told anyone,” he reassured. “I understand why it’s a secret. I understand why you didn’t tell me. But…” He sighed. “I’ve been keeping this to myself for days. Can you please just… confirm?”

She took a deep breath. “Yes.” She peeked at him from the corners of her eyes. “This is me, confirming. Yes.”

Okay. A shiver ran through him. Marinette was Ladybug. His best friend was a superhero and trusted him enough to be a superhero too.

He was in love with Ladybug.

As was Chat Noir. And half of Paris. Shit.

“So, what gave me away?” she asked.

“Little things. Nothing anyone else could put together.” Little things that added up into the big picture. The way Ladybug knew he’d worn a hoodie earlier that day, the inherent trust she had in a man she previously punched in the face, the way she looked at him. But most importantly, Felix felt that she’d wanted to get caught, that Marinette had wanted him to know she was Ladybug, and that was what removed the block in his mind preventing him from realizing.

“Small mercies,” she muttered. “Did you really think I was Rena Rogue?”

Felix hid his face in his ice cream. “…It made sense at the time?”

She laughed at him. “Alya’s never going to let you live that down.”

Alya? Why would Alya care—? Oh. He felt his face growing red and it had nothing to do with the weather. “She really won’t, will she?” He asked, sounding faint.

“Yeah, you really dropped the ball on that conclusion. You should have heard her complain! “Your boy is so stupid, how do you even stand him?””

And now Felix was blushing for a different reason. Her boy?

“—I tried to keep her from talking about it in front of the other temporary heroes, but I think Viperion knows. Carapace definitely does.”

“Did she complain in front of Hawkmoth too?” he grumbled, wishing he was wearing a hoodie to better hide his face. “Throw Rossi into the loop while she’s at it? Maybe my mother would like to know all my follies?”

“Oh! Speaking of your mom—” Marinette pulled a chain out from under her shirt. His breath caught in his throat. She’d kept it on her person? “You can finally return this to her.” Threading the wedding ring off her necklace, she placed it his hand, its matching pair resting on his finger.

He squeezed it, the smooth ridges cutting into his palm… and returned it to her. “Keep it. It’s exactly where it needs to be.”

“What? But this is the entire reason you were here!” She tried to give it back again. “It’s your family ring!”

“It’s my family’s wedding ring,” he corrected. “And while most would consider this too forward of an approach, the realization that you’re the most eligible bachelorette in Paris is making me react… strongly. So, I was thinking about a spring wedding? After we graduate Lycée, of course, so it would be a long engagement—”

Marinette covered his mouth, face blush red from the tips of her ears to the neckline of her shirt. “What!?” She asked, voice cracking. “M-M-Marriage!? Felix, we can’t…”

“Well, yes, not right now. That’s why I said after Lycee.” Obviously. “I don’t see what the issue is? My family has had arranged marriages for centuries, and we like each other. Right?” Had he misidentified her feelings? She always acted sweet with him and blushed when he flirted, but what if he was wrong? What if he humiliated himself and ruined their friendship in one swift move—

“Of course I like you, but you haven’t even asked me out on a date yet!” She burst out, causing the rest of the class to glance over. She buried her face in her hands and continued, voice muffled, “Dating comes before marriage; I can’t believe I have to explain this to you!”

Oh. That was the issue. Gently pulling her hands away, he dabbed at her tears with a handkerchief. “I’m sorry, Marinette. I got ahead of myself.” Alya glared at him from over Marinette’s shoulder. Nosy overprotective reporters, getting in everyone else’s business… “I didn’t mean to pressure you. What I mean with the ring is… a promise. I would love to be in a relationship with you, if you’d have me.”

She looked up at him from underneath her lashes. “A promise?”

“To stay by your side and support you in your endeavors.” His family’s marriage vows echoed in his mind, passed down from his grandparents, from his grandfather who was so in love with his grandmother that he couldn’t think of a world where she wasn’t his equal. “As long as you stay by my side and support me in return. To lift you up through the hard times and rejoice with your success. To be equals in all things. That’s what I want to promise you.”

Tears budded in her eyes. “To stay by your side… to be equals… that’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

“Then, would you do me the honor of being my girlfriend? And going out on a date with me?”

Her tears ran down her face, but her smile lit up the entirety of Paris with her joy. “Yes. I’d love to, Felix.”

Taglist: @graduatedmelon @novicevoice@dur55@kris-pines04@18-fandoms-unite-08@moonlightstar64@bee-a-garbage-shipper@sol-o-shade@kittyotakunoir666@tinyterror333@allieoftheenemy@marichat00@xgxmxtx@two-faced-biatch@feliciakainzofspades@evil-cricket@emilytopaz@spicybelladonna@chocolateherringtacofan@user00000003@wannajointhecrabcult@happymonster-pants @duquesapincarrasca @throneoffirebreathingbitchqueen @sxltinette @kittydemon9000 @thetrashypanda423 @unoriginalmessess @toodaloo-kangaroo @troycattribunny@nikipuppeteer

#ml salt #lila rossi's lies are exposed #felinette #fandom felix #lila salt #felix graham de vanily #marinette dupain cheng #alya cesaire #hey little songbird #mlb #miraculous fanfic #salt fanfic #thank you all for reading #your comments meant the world to me #except for the lila anon

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marksbear · 1 year

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hi papa bear! i want you to take your time answering this request giving whats been happening recently, i just don’t want you to feel rushed, so please have a speedy recovery. joe has been consuming my brain recently, so could i request a joe goldberg x male reader where the reader is like this super sweet guy (on the outside, so maybe he works as a florist or something) and joe is infatuated with him. and when joe tries to break into his house, he ends up getting caught and tied up, which he then sees a whole ‘nother side of reader (so like, really dominate). but he isn’t really complaining, and reader starts to take interest in joe. and i’ll just leave it to you to let your imagination go wild, you can or can’t do smut, i’m just desperate for joe content. have a good day! and thank you if you end up doing this request!

I love Joe to my core! But sadly I don't have the chance to watch season 4, so this would take place in season 3!

Warnings! Breaking in, pervert Joe, LIME, teasing, stalker, killing mentioning, slight voice kink

JOE GOLDBERG X "Sweet" DOM MALE READER

How did I let myself get dragged here?

Joe thinks to himself as he follows closely behind the group of neighbors inside Madre Linda.

Including himself and his wife Love, Carry and Sherry, Matthew and his son Theo, Andre and Jackson.

He didn't know where the hell Sherry was taking the group. Everybody besides him and Love seemed to know this route through the neighborhood very well. Everybody was in a happier mood. Not the usual fake happy mood that everybody in this place shows. No. An actual happy mood.

Even Matthew seemed in a little happier mood knowing the place they were going to.

Love already tried to ask the group hundreds of times about where they are going, but they didn't budge her answer.

"I don't want to be here. I should be with my real true love Marienne. I'm just wasting my time here rather than being with her. God. Why the hell did Love drag me here with her. I swear if we take one more left----"

Joe's train of thoughts gets cut off.

"Were here!!" Sherry squeals in happiness as her husband opens the door welcoming everybody inside.

Joe stays outside a little looking at the sign. The sign read "Wildflowers!" with bright colored lights.

"You gotta be kidding me." Joe thinks to himself looking at the decorated outside with all types of flowers and colors. Joe was already thinking about the people who was mostly likely inside the shop already judging everything about it.

After a while of scanning Joe walks inside with Sherry announcing quite loudly.

"Goldberg's! Meet the most beautiful and calmest place in Madre Linda!" Sherry exclaims.

Joe looks inside the flower shop looking for anything to pick up his interest.

"Sherry! You guys are here to welcome back!" A pre-teen voice says happily welcoming the group inside. The boy looked around ten to twelve he had green eyes almost matching the whole aesthetic of this place.

"Here you go~" The boy hands Sherry a white rose with a wink causing her husband to laugh.

"Caleb my man! Where are your parents? Specifically your dad." Cary says emphasizing the word dad. "He's----" The boy gets cut off by a pair of gloves on his shoulders holding him tight startling the boy.

"His dad. Is right here."

Joe's eyes look up from the boy's face and to his "father's."

"Well, hello there... You're not my usual type, but i'll make exceptions. You sound way too young and sweet to even be any kind of father. You obviously don't care about being dirty taking note of the little dirt smudges on your face. Your hair is a bit messy, but still well put together. You take off your gloves and aprons maybe to look better than you already do. You look at everyone with a smile before slowly you lock eyes with me."

"Oh~ Is this the oh so famous Goldberg's I've been hearing about?" The florists ask with a sweet smile before reaching his hand out to Joe and love.

"Y/n L/n nice to meet the both of you."

Joe reaches out his hand as well letting Y/n grasp it and shaking it before sadly letting go and shaking Love's.

"You and Lara are still doing that fake dad and mom thing?" Matthew questions with an eyebrow raised.

"Well last week was supposed to be the last time, but I couldn't bare the thought of Caleb being taken away. And plus his mom asked us to only for a bit longer. I just couldn't say no." Y/n answers with a smile.

"Now I gotta get back to work feel free to chill." Y/n says before leaving.

"Y/n L/n..." Joe thinks to himself one last time as the man leaves.

TIMESKIP

Joe stalked and learned about Y/n. He learned his work hours, his friends and groups, how he always likes to help others before him. And so on.

So now Joe was outside Y/n's house looking around making sure the close was clear. Y/n's car wasn't in the driveway signalling to Joe that he was out. Joe knew that Y/n had dinner plans with one of his many friend groups. And Joe knew that the "sweet" Y/n wouldn't bail on anything.

Joe stalked up to the house carefully before walking around the outside of the house looking for a open window or unlocked window.

"Finally an unlocked one. Y/n were you hoping that I would break in how sweet of you." Joe thinks as he opens it and steps inside.

Joe shuts it after him before taking a look at his soundings.

"Beautiful house you got Y/n. You even got books here! Just perfect place for the both us."

Joe walks around the house picking things that Y/n owns that were left around. Like jackets, Polaroid photos, rings and even shirts laying around before stuffing it inside his backpack. Joe begins to walk up stairs looking through rooms and areas looking for a specific place.

"Found it." Joe thinks to himself as he looks around Y/n's bedroom.

Before Joe could fully go inside his bedroom something smashes against the back of his head knocking him out cold.

Y/n stood over Joe with broken pieces of a plant pot in his hands. Y/n tosses the pieces to the side before staring down at Joe's body. Y/n picks up Joe's arms before dragging him back downstairs and into the living room laying him down on the floor.

After a while Y/n comes back with a chair and rope.

Y/n sits Joe's body on the chair before tying up his arms and legs to the chair. Once Y/n made sure everything was nice and tight on Joe, he used extra rope to gag Joe's mouth. Y/n begins to walk around his house making sure there's nothing valuable stolen.

Couple minutes later Y/n goes back in the living room checking up on Joe.

Y/n watches from behind as Joe slowly lifts up his head regaining consciousness. Y/n could hear muffled and quiet noises from Joe. Some of the noises sounded like his name.

Y/n slowly stalks up closer to Joe before walking in front of him standind in front of him with arms crossed.

"I knew you were a bit creepy, but never took you as a robber Joe. If you're gonna at least break in someone's house at least double check no ones here! Now when I take this rope out of your mouth you better not scream or any bullshit got it?"

Joe's POV

When were you so dominant? And god why is it making--- No not the time for this. How come you'd never show me this side of you? Were you hiding it on purpose... Y/n you tease.

As you take the rope off of me I get to get a good look of your face.

You still look so good. Even though your hair looked a bit like a mess and your clothes were wrinkly you still looked so fucking good.

"Now that you can talk. Tell me why the hell you're here." You say with venom laced in your tone.

Y/n... What are you doing to me?

"What? Are you just gonna keep staring at me? Now answer the damn question Joe."

"I was- Uhm I was doing Love a favor. She thought she left her purse here and she kept nagging me to come to your house and get it That's all I swear!" The lie falls out of my mouth.

"Then why are some of my clothes in your bag?" You ask tossing my bag in front of me with some of your clothes falling out of it.

I was left speechless. I didn't mean to not say anything, but the words just got stuck in my throat.

"So, Joe i'm gonna ask you one last time why'd you break into my house?" Your questions keep leaving me speechless. It felt like my body was paralyzed under your dominant eyes.

You sit on the couch across from me arms still crossed with your legs spread. You began to tap your foot impatiently.

"Because of you." I say barley above a whisper. I see you cock your eyebrow signalling to me you didn't hear me. "I said because of you."

"Really. Because of me. You broke into my house for me?" Your tone made me feel even more stupid.

Stupid in love of course.

We stare at each other for a long time making eye contact without a word. Your eyes look and study me. If only I could hear your thoughts Y/n.

“So I’m guessing you like me. What about your wife and son?”

I think about my answer for a second before saying. “Yes of course I like you. I’ll do anything for you and I mean anything!” “Anything Goldberg?” “Yes I’ll do anything!”

“We’ll then, you caught my interest Joe. Now it’s just your job to keep my eyes on you.” Once those words fall from your lips my heart burns with excitement.

You walk up to me untying me from the tight ropes before helping me up.

Then my body acts on its own.

REGULAR POV

Joe wraps his arms around Y/n’s shoulders bring him close in a tight hug.

As if Joe lost all control of his body he grinds and rut into Y/n clearly wanting something. Joe kiss and nibble on Y/n’s neck.

“Ah ah. Not yet Joe~ I just don’t fuck anybody’s married husband. I’m to sweet for that.” Y/n says lightly pushing the eager man away from him.

“And especially when that man’s wife is coming over for dinner.”

“Huh?! W-Why is she coming?”

“Unlike you she actually knows how to interact with people before breaking inside their house. And plus it’s good that she’s coming here.

Y/n takes a hidden knife off the table giving it to Joe.

“It’s for own benefit Joe. We can be with each other if you just kill her! We can raise Henry fine. We just need her out the picture first before anything.”

“So Joe. Are you still willing to do anything for me?”

THE END

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armoricaroyalty · 6 months

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Previous | Chapter Start | Beginning | Next

author's note: this scene is so basic and yet it's one of my favorites from the chapter so far? I really love these two together, despite the circumstances...

Transcript under the cut!

Nakawe Palace // Armorican State Visit - Day 2

ANDRE | [offscreen] | Leonor? Where are you? LEONOR | On the balcony. ANDRE | G'morning. Are you working? LEONOR | Yes. ANDRE | Oh...can't you take the morning off? LEONOR | I took the evening off and I came back to 200 unread emails. ANDRE | The entire country would go to pieces without you. LEONOR | I know. [sighs] What do you want for lunch? ANDRE | Uh...I dunno, I just woke up. Why? LEONOR | Today's shipment of oysters arrived spoiled, and now the head chef is in crisis. Do you want chicken or beef? ANDRE | Chicken? LEONOR | Thank you. LEONOR | Now. Last night, you said you had something to tell me. ANDRE | [sighs] You're all business this morning...is any of that coffee for me? LEONOR | Help yourself. But you said we had to talk, so. Talk. ANDRE | I'll admit, part of me hoped you'd forget about it... LEONOR | Not likely. LEONOR | ...although I do appreciate the effort you put into distracting me. ANDRE | Well, if you give me another chance, I'm sure I can do better— LEONOR | Andre. We do not have unlimited time together. Enough stalling. It's not half as charming as you imagine it to be. ANDRE | [sighs] It's about Elise. ANDRE | [offscreen] She's leaving me. LEONOR | ...ah. [beat] Has she said so directly? ANDRE | [sighs] Not in as many words. But the night before I left, she said that our marriage was over if I didn't break things off with you. LEONOR | ... ANDRE | I love her, but...I can't do that. I made a promise to you. And I intend to keep it, whatever it costs me. ANDRE | [sighs] Her exact words were, "I won't tolerate this disrespect any longer." LEONOR | Do you think she intends to follow through this time? ANDRE | I think she got tired of waiting for me to get bored with you. She thinks you're my mid-life crisis. She doesn't understand how it is between us. LEONOR | [softly] And how is it between us? ANDRE | Leo...if I were divorced and I were entirely unencumbered, would there still be something between us? LEONOR | "Entirely unencumbered..." What do you mean, Andre? ANDRE | Your grandmother thinks I should seriously consider abdication. LEONOR | And what do you think? Are you seriously considering it? ANDRE | Elise has been the backbone of my reign. There's no point in beating around the bush. She's always been more popular with the public because she's one of them. If she leaves me and says why, the entire country will be crying out for my head. ANDRE | What would you do in my position? LEONOR | ...I would do whatever gave me the best chance at happiness. ANDRE | [laughs] Not very Armorican of you...where's duty, where's sacrifice? LEONOR | Hmph. You're carried that duty for over 15 years. There's no shame in passing the torch to a qualified successor. ANDRE | It won't be seen that way at home. The press will have a field day. They'll say I betrayed my wife, abandoned my family, and deserted my kingdom. LEONOR | The truth is always more complicated than what's in the press. ANDRE | Please. The only complicated thing about me is you. LEONOR | [laughs] You're such a romantic...you know I love you, don't you? ANDRE | I love you, too. ANDRE | Saints, listen to us...where do we go from here? LEONOR | Well, that depends on you. ANDRE | [sighs] Like every other damn thing. LEONOR | That's the burden of the crown, Your Majesty. ANDRE | Don't you start. [both laugh]

#armorica story #chapter 3 #behind the scenes #character: andre st. fleur #character: leonor reyes #infidelity cw #armorica collabs #nexility sims

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curvykittyyssmutfics · 4 months

Text

What You Need

A/N: too many au fantasy fics where Jordan is the fine ass neighborhood weedman consume me lately. Someone help! 😭 Also, I hope its clear when I refer to J as they or he and she. They when I or a character is vaguely talking about them in general; he or she to help differentiate between their ability to transition or whoever your being intimate with at the time. I hope that makes sense. Just wanted to put my own flavor on my stories but still respect the proper pronouns. I'd love feedback on my Jordan li fics. And please remember, these fics can take a long time to write so pretty please don't flag them as your content consumption is your responsibility. Anyway enjoy!

I step out my brand new stark white BMW, rolling my narrowed eyes as I scan the immediate vicinity. Not payin no mind to the group of dudes starin my way a few cars down, I realize Jordans ass aint nowhere to be found. Too many times over the years of em bein my connect, this mf done made me walk up them damn rickety stairs to grab my sack when they lyin ass specifically promised to be in the lot.

I'm already inna rush to get to my date with Dre. That's why was tryna get a little relaxation; I really didn't wanna show up all tense and hit him with all this attitude at once. A little me time to calm my nerves would do my ass some good after this nightmarish day. And maybe if the date goes well enough, Andre could gimme a hand with that too. Though its impossible to deny if the plug wasn't such a fuck boy, I'd be tryin to give them this work instead. But in no way am I finna compete with any of the hoes on their team.

Bending to reach into my ride, I snatch my cell from the cup holder and slam my car door. My nails click clack across the screen as I text Jordan. I'm already teetering on the edge of insanity so I'm not in the mood to be late or deal with their cocky ass attitude. This was so not supposed to be one of my usual pick ups that lasted over half an hour cause of their antics.

Me: you told me you'd be in the lot when I pulled up.

Not more than 10 seconds go by before I get a response.

This Fuckin Guy: my bad cutie, jus cum up here.

Me: i already let you know I had plans and to be down here this time.

This Fuckin Guy: ik but I had to serve last min. damn.

I roll my eyes as I read the word 'serve'. Yeah, they probably up there servin some lil bitch on her back. For some reason that thought got me on 10.

Me: cus you always wastin my time boy. but fine, i'm comin up.

Me: and my shit better be ready too.

This Fuckin Guy: whatchu need again?

This Fuckin Guy: nvm, Daddy knows exactly what you need..

This Fuckin Guy:

Nibbling my bottom lip softly, I stare at the pic of they fine ass way longer than I'd ever admit to em. Fuck, they just don't realize how many times I've woken up from random scenes of them starin at me like that before diggin me out. Panties and sheets be so fuckin drenched with my juices when I slid my fingers between my lower lips and replayed em back in my mind over and over.

It's so fuckin Jordan to be on standby waitin for some snarky ass remark back, I'm sure of it. But I dont give them the satisfaction, continuing to climb the stairs carefully in my dainty heels.

And I'm absolutely proud of the way I ignore the pounding and slick building between my thighs as I head up the last step and briskly walk to Jordan's apt. Damn I feel a bit pathetic from gettin so horny from a photo that wasn't even a shirtless, nude or dick pic.

I don't even get a chance to knock on the door as an attractive slim blonde with a messy bun and black skin tight leggings opens it. Her expression a bit shocked at first as we briefly stare at each other before she gives me a small smile and quickly walks towards the staircase. Of fuckin course they have some damn bimbo on her way out as I'm coming up. Typical fuckin Jordan. Can't even deny the girl was kinda bad though; that lil fact gone get Jordan popped fa sho.

"Really? Tryna fuck me right after you jus slid in sumn? Nasty ass.." I throw insults at them as soon as I step inside, slamming the door in hopes the lil hoe hears.

"Fuck you on about now?" Jordan's voice is bored from her spot on the couch as she rolls up, not even bothering to look my way.

"I'm speakin on the fact that you tryna hit right now but you got some broad leavin as I'm comin up. Like, the fuck?"

These hands rated E for everyone and they know that. I put a hand on my curvy hip and stare em down. Smoke is finna start steamin out my ears at Jordan's nonchalant behavior. Walkin up to the couch I flop down on the opposite side, full lips pressed into a thin line. Unfortunately my gaze melts more into eye fucking than the daggers I was jus hittin em with as I notice how attractive they are, so damn focused rollin the perfect blunt.

"I ain't fuck her." Tone of voice resembling one to use with a child; clearly she think I'm playin.

I follow the line the tip of her tongue makes as she finishes rolling the blunt. Damn, how I need to feel them doing that allover my fuckin body. I pray Jo ain't got super senses too, like I would just die inside if she could actually smell how wet I was for them right now.

"That right? Then why shawty hair was messy? And why you lookin relaxed as fuck, like you just took a load off? Talkin bout literally.."

"Ion know.. Why you ain't ask her? Told you, I had a order. And maybe I'm calm cause I'm always chill. You needa relax too, princess. Let's smoke."

Always tryna smoke ass; not sure how there's ever any left for them to sell. I roll my eyes at her slick ass, leaning back and folding my arms. Jordan finally looks up at me, dark brown eyes trailin down my frame slowly as she openly ogles my fit.

"Spark it then. But I can't stay long. I told you: I got plans tonight."

"Yeah, you said that. But you ain't say what you got planned the night."

"Cause that's nun ya concern-" my mouth is quick to slam shut at the penetrating stare I get before I can finish my thought.

I've seen that look before; would kill for a view of it while Jordan digs me out actually. (I almost whimper out loud as I envision just that. ) My attitude is immediately extinguished as she checks me without a sayin a fuckin word. She holds my gaze for a few seconds before casting her gaze back down, givin the blunt one last light lick. Clearly amused and feelin triumphant with how I'm put in my place, she openly grins. The silence only lasts half a minute be I speak again.

"Gotta date tonight." I say quietly, absolutely hating myself for how weak my voice comes out.

I expect another death stare but only receive a frown and flared nostrils as Jordan continues to look down. And then more silence. So I speak up again.

"You mad?" Tone a bit stronger this time.

That gets me someneye contact.

"The fuck you think?"

"Well, you shouldn't be since you just-"

"Why you so worried if I'm fuckin when you clearly tryna get ran through tonight?"

The question is like a whip across the face. My cheeks heat as shame flushes through me. My mouth open and closes a few times, struggling to respond. Jordan waits for my response with a confident smirk, transitioning before pulling in a big hit.

"I'm not- I.. That's not why-"

I'm interrupted as he leans over to my side of the couch, grabbing my neck and pulling me in. Sexy ass taking advantage of my lips parting in shock at his grip to blow smoke into my mouth. I take it in without a thought, immediately becoming pliant for him as I inhale. It feels so fucking intimate I want more in an instant.

"Who's the date with?" His fine ass asks me softly, hand still lightly grasping my throat. His thumb rubs my skin there lightly as he takes this moment to assess my fit again.

"Andre." I answer on an exhale, mesmerized by the way he licks at his pretty pink bottom lip.

That makes him pop his gaze back to me, his hold a bit firmer as he reconnects with my y/e/c eyes.

"You not fuckin goin, ma. We clear."

"We're clear."

My response is instantaneous and I have no idea who've I've become in this moment. What I am painfully aware is that he's gettin hard, silver basketball shorts doin nothing to hide his yummy fuckin girth.

Clearly my pussy is way more interested in gettin piped by Jordan than Dre; our close proximity has my desperate empty cunt clenching nonstop. I feel like I'll combust if they don't touch me soon.

"What a good fuckin girl you can be. Who knew?"

The praise has the softest of sounds bubbling from my lips as he takes a longer drag, leanin forward to give me another hit. Since this one's bigger, it has my mind a bit hazy as I exhale. I close my eyes, arms droppin to my lap as I enjoy the high and his big palms wrapped around my neck. A shiver of arousal runs through my frame as he moves to whisper at my ear.

"You like when I tell you how good you are for me? Cause you are honey." I moan an affirming 'mm hm' as Jordan licks and kisses at the sensitive spot behind my lobe. "In fact, can fuck my good girl like she need. Is that what you want? Huh? Itchin for Daddy to slide in them guts? I can.. And I will princess. Gonna get that lil pussy creamin round my cock in no time."

I should be shamed in how my head nods rapidly without my permission, mouth opening to say yes but moaning like a whore instead. I'm completely in shambles, loving the way my welcoming high enhances my craving for his cock.

"Lay back then. Show me how pretty that pussy is." He demands, releasing me and gesturing to the carpet with one hand as he takes a hit and sets the blunt down in the ashtray with the other.

Normally I would at least try to be sensual, make a show of it but I'm too tense right now. I don't even bother to undress as I lay on my back as quick as I can manage, swiftly slippin of my heels and throwing them aside. I'm so thankful for the access the deep slits my fit provides. I only need to spread my thighs and pull my salmon colored thong to the side.

"Damn that lil kitty.. So beautiful, look how she flutters at me baby. Think she want Daddy to come play in it."

Those dirty words make me hungry; fuckin pulsating at how he talks to me. I watch lustfully at the way Jordan stands and strips to his snug black boxer briefs. He smiles at me like he knows something I don't. Get goosebumps from how he stares down at me like he wants to wreck me.

I'm salivating when he pulls his long cock out through the opening and starts shows off. He strokes from tip to the base slowly, starin between my legs like hes inna trance. Dark brown eyes intently focused on the way wetness starts to stream from my slit to my juicy brown ass. I'm so jealous of the way he milks drops of precum on every upward stroke, consistent little grunts of pleasure spilling from him; I want that pleasure.

"Come on Daddy, I'm so ready for it." I goad him.

"Mmm. Fuckin lil slut for me know that?" He groans as he gets on his knees between my legs.

"Yeeees, I knooow." I moan out to his fine ass. "Wish you'd do somethin bout it already."

Grippin the base of his dick, he swipes back and forth through the excess moisture leakin from my slit while grabbing the blunt to take another hit.

"Aight, bet. Legs: shoulders."

I stall for just a moment at his simple request before obeying, setting an ankle at each of his shoulders slowly. My tummy clenches at the thought of the deep fuck I'm about to receive.

Jordan grunts lowly, slidin through once more before slappin my clit thrice with his twitching length. My wails are fuckin thunderous, dramatic ass fuck as an intense sensation swirls in my pulsing cunt. Too damn sensitive, soggy little button throbbing ferociously, I miss the descent of his cock to my drenched hole as the sensations flow throughout my overwhelmed frame.

"Damn you so noisy, baby. Ooooh fuck, Daddy gone enjoy this shit."

He moves forward, tip of his dick pushing at my opening as I groan in absolute peril at his thickness. Gripping and yanking at the plush carpet, breath punching out as his mean ass pulls back and thrusts into me sharply. The deep rumbling moan in his chest has a warmth lickin up my spine as my lil puss struggles to strangle the first few inches of his fat cock.

"Waitwaitwait. Pleeease Jo, please! Sobig, too much. Juswait, juswait.." I whine, releasing the carpet to slap and push at his toned chest and abs.

"No." Jordan snaps, snatching my wrists together and bringing the blunt back to his lips with his free hand.

"Do what you need to take this dick cept that. Do that shit again and it's up." He says, thick smoke billowing from his nose as he gazes at me ferally.

His pace to start is fuckin lethal. I'm already cock drunk when he pulls out and stabs in half way repeatedly, hastily dropping the blunt back in the ashtray. My toes curl at the feeling of him fucking me so roughly. Each thrust gives way for the next, helps make me even slicker so he can slide in further. It's happening too quick, he's digging me out faster than I can breathe. My freshly waxed eyebrows pull together as I yank at his grip on my wrists.

"Oooh shit, that feels sooo good. Yeeees, y/n. Can't believe I'm in these guts. Mmmmfuck, don't fight it. You wanted this shit, right?" He asks, serving me powerful precise jabs.

I realize now that my lids are shut tight, eyes rolled back; my mouth open wide as I sob at the intense fucking I'm receiving. For the sake of satisfying him I offer two jerky nods to his question, pussy walls fluctuating sporadically around his prick.

"Not even in all th-the way. Gone let me all the way inside ma?"

I wish I could've stopped the involuntary 'nooooo' that I moan but at this point my brain is becoming mush. It should be illegal for how fast Jordans reduced me to an incoherent mess.

"Ahhhhh y/n, thas not nice. Why you so mean to me all the time?"

Jordan's teasing damn near falls on deaf ears as he takes my right ankle and adds it with the other. Freeing my wrists he places a thumb on my clit and rubs quickly, holding both legs over his left shoulder. My hands quickly find their place back into the carpet, yanking handfuls as he sadistically unravels me with pure amusement on his face.

It's a surprise I don't deafen us both with the shrieks being forced from me. His frenzied pace increases as he spears me over and over, staring intently at the way I take his cock. My orgasm is so dangerously fuckin close to the surface and I hope he's ready.

"Oooh my go- shit! Ain't neva had a pussy so tight, so fuckin weeeet round my shit. Gone let me keep her all to myself? Huh ma?"

"Yesyesyesyes!"

My crazed chants is the best I can do at this moment as he molds the shape of his dick to my walls. Overwhelmed and overstimulated would be an understatement; finna have me gushin his dick in under 5 and that's a fuckin record for me.

"Good giirrrl, pretty. Ah, ah, this- aahhh God.. This my pussy now y/n. You mine now. Got it?"

Fuck me all these questions don't help my scrambled mind. This a fuckin quiz or something? My response is a garbled jumbled mess of high pitched keens.

"I said do you fuckin understand?" He growls out with one brow raised, passionately drilling my pussy faster.

"YesJo, yeeees! 'M sorry, 'm sorry. SosorryDaddy- please!" I keen in hopes of some type of mercy.

But I get none. Tears track done my cheeks like a heavy rain on a stormy night from being subjugated to this all-consuming pleasure.

"Awww, you look so cute when you cry on my dick baby. Thas it, take it just like that for me. Uhhhfuck, gonna give my perfect princess a big ass nut. Know you want it too y/n; gonna make you leak wit it."

Thanks to his persistence he actually slides into the hilt. I wonder if he can see his long fat cock in my tummy. He's so fuckin big that I wouldn't be surprised. A chuckle reaches my ears as I feel the dam about to burst.

"Mmmm.. Naw ma, wish I could see my fuckin dick in ya tummy-"

Christ, I didn't even know I was voicing my fried ass thoughts. Such a fuckin shame it's at that moment I come and unfortunately miss the rest of his sentence. My cunt compresses the dick that's hell bent on unraveling me from the inside out. The pleasure spikes and my back arches as I fight to accept it. I shake like a leaf as he fucks me fiercely, fingers speeding on my beating little button. A clear stream splatters against his lower body as he praises my efforts.

"Did so good for meeeee, ah ah ah fuck! Mmm, hell yeah y/n! Pleeease gimme my reward! Earned it didn't I? Need it so bad, so fuckin bad! Cuuum baby! Good girl, good girl! GOOD. FUCKIN GIRL!"

I give him two more squirts as he punctuates his words with searingly deep stabs before a heavy warmth blooms in my achy abused little puss. Fuck me, the sensation of Jordan filling my cunt like he owns me is addicting; so damn soothing to the battering I just received. Almost feels like a soothing balm applied to a sore limb. And God damn if he ain't so damn loud as he comes to his end, complementing my poor over used lil puss over and over.

He ceases rubbing my clit to grip both of my legs in a bear hug and creampie me till his nut begins to leak out generously from around his dick. Daddy leaves kisses up and down my calves and legs as he roars out the last of his pleasure. Wish I could snap a pic of the way he tosses his head back before dropping it forward, puffing out heavy grunts of my name; his hips giving stuttering circles as he drains the last bit of his cream into me.

Finally, I'm able to gulp in some air as he hips halt their sweet torture, both of us huffing like we just finished a marathon. Jordan sits back on his haunches, palms sliding down to pull my ass into his lap with both hands. He stays just like that, big dick slowly beginning to soften within me. Daddy looks so fuckin handsome: so damn flushed and sweaty, long damp strands of hair fall into his face; pretty eyes low from smoking and all the work he just put in as he gazes at me with a endearing expression. I press a shaky hand to his chest, feeling his heart race just as fast as mine.

"Get what you need, ma?" He asks, smile dazzling the fuck outta me.

"Yes Daddy."

#jordan li x you #jordan li x reader #jordan li x y/n #jordan li #black reader #all readers #black fanfiction #smut #daddy k!nk #creamp!e #dirty talk #submisive and breedable #derek luh #Spotify

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maddipoof · 1 year

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There is nothing like staying at home, for real comfort 🌷- pick a character or a few and come up with a prompt and I’ll write a fluff blurb <3

hi hi can u do robin buckley and her asking u to go out with her (which u assume is just as friends) but then she confesses to u on the date and it's just super cute

this is so awkward why cant i phrase things normally

Eeeeeeee thank you, I love you, this has been sitting in my docs for forever but you're finally back so it can finally see the light of day!!!

a/n: ummm to many princess bride references but I love it more than anything soooooo i'll reference it til I die <3 wc:2.4k Also, like, hardly proofread :( but I hope you like it <3 (you're an amazing friend and everyday I'm so grateful for you sara)

“Steve,” Robin rushed behind the counter and kept her back to the edge, a poor attempt to not be recognized. “Steve, Steve, Steve, please, I beg, I can’t do it. You have to help me. When do I ask you for anything?”

“Literally every day.”

“Steve, please, literally I am asking you to help the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen and you’re saying no.”

“I still don’t understand why you can’t talk to her.”

“Why can’t I talk to her?!” She looked around frantically trying to find you, making sure you weren’t close enough to hear her panicking. “Jesus Christ! Have you met me?! I’m a disaster. Last time I talked to her, I couldn’t stop!”

“I remember, Keith got all bent out of shape cus you left a line of 3 people.”

“Heh, yeah,” she agreed with a sarcastic laugh. “Also, I was saying so many things even I couldn’t keep up. It was horrible. It was so bad, I—” Steve turned her around by the shoulder and you smiled at her and held up the VHS in your hands. She finished the other half of the rotation and stopped Steve from running off to the back. “You cannot leave me alone, please, I beg of you,” she mouthed.

He twirled his finger around in the air, meaning ‘turn around,’ and pushed the swinging door open with his back, mouthing “Do it”. Leaving Robin to her own devices indefinitely.

“Hi, um, just this.” You put The Princess Bride on the counter. The 5th time you’ve rented it in 6 months (which she definitely knows from the records on your account and definitely not because she’s been keeping a mental note of everything you like. That’d be ridiculous).

“You really like this one.”

Your eyebrows kind of twitched in a way that made her regret so much as breathing wrong around you, but it vanished before she got the chance to grovel for forgiveness. “Yeah, uh, I really like it.”

She doesn’t even need to ask for your phone number anymore. It’s been on constant repeat in her mind since last Saturday and every Saturday before that. “And your phone number?” But she thought it’d be weird, too forward for you to know she knew it by heart.

“You don’t know it by now?” You raised an eyebrow and she gave you a half smile. She typed it in faster than you could watch her fingers to make sure she got it right, and the lack of hesitation did not go unnoticed by you. She really knew it.

“Uh, did you know…while they were filming, Andre the Giant needed an ATV to get around set since it was like, up on a big hill?” She asked while you counted out the change. She didn’t even want exact change. She’d put up with it. She’d make 97 cents for you, even though they’re fresh out of dimes.

“I did know that. Did you know Cary Elwes broke his toe on said ATV?”

“I did not. How’d he manage that?”

“His foot got caught on the petal and I guess it was enough to break his toe.”

“Oh wow.”

“Sorry, it’s uh, a little over.” Your fingers brushed her palm as you handed her the coins.

“Thank you,” she whispered and you felt the chill of her hand, but you wanted nothing more than to warm them in yours and never let go. She never counted change so fast, just to get to give it to you faster; for your fingertips to brush again. “Um, heh–“ she cut herself off for fear of further embarrassment.

“Sorry?”

“What?”

“You were saying something.”

“Yeah, it was dumb. I don’t–“

“It’s not dumb.”

“Yeah?”

“Now I’m curious so you kind of have to tell me now.”

“I suppose I do then. Do you want–” she huffed and started over. “Are you doing anything Thursday night?”

“I’m working til 6, but I’m free after that.”

“Yeah, at the- the arcade.”

“The arcade, yes. But what were you thinking?”

“Hm?”

“You asked if I was busy, was that just out of curiosity or did you want to go out?”

“Go out?”

“Is that a question?”

Robin just then noticed how close both of you were leaning on the counter. “Um, heh,” she cleared her throat with an awkward laugh. “They're having a special showing, at the drive in, just a town over, and uh, I was wondering if you–If you’d wanna go with me?”

“I’d love to, but I don’t have a car, my brother has it that day.”

“I don’t either.”

“My brother usually picks me up, we get off work at the same time so he could just drive me over to yours and we can figure out something else?”

“If you really want to go, we should go. I really want to take you.” You both smiled brighter than the sun at that. But then Robin had to go and have the worst idea of her life. Worse than following a middle schooler into a secret Russian bunker. “Maybe, uh, Steve could drive us?” She definitely saw the way both corners of your mouth dropped, but you were quick to pick them back up.

“Yeah, yeah. That’s uh, that’d be great. Pick me up at 6:15, yeah? Give me a chance to get ready and then we’ll go?” Robin nodded, mortified, dying on the inside, how could she be such an idiot. You spoke while walking backwards towards the door, “Great, you have my number. Give me a call if anything changes.” You never speed walked to the car. You didn’t even have the chance to turn the key in before you were throwing your head back against the rest. “Fuck, fuck, fuuuck,” then you realized you walked out empty handed. No tape in sight. “Goddamn it.” You were not going back in there.

***

“Oooohhh, is somebody ready for their big date?” Cecelia, your coworker, walked into the bathroom where you were checking your eyeliner in the mirror.

“It’s not a date.”

“The drive in with Steve ‘the Hair’ Harrington? Sounds like a date to me.”

“He’s just dropping us off.” You so, so, so carefully fixed a flake of mascara without messing up the rest of the look.

“Oh, so you’re going with someone else?” Cecelia leaned her back against the small cabinet diagonal from the 2 stalls. “Tell me everything.”

“You know the girl he works with, Robin?” She cocked her head. “Buckley?” Still nothing. “Dirty blonde, in the marching band, plays the trumpet, took AP Spanish freshman year? It was a whole thing.”

“Oh her. Yes, yes, I know her…You’re going on a date with her?”

“Well, I was kinda hoping yeah, but now she’s having Steve drive us ‘cause neither of us have a car, so now I just don’t know.”

“But you want it to be a date?” She stepped up to you and licked her thumb to fix your lipstick.

“Yeah.”

“Then kick him out. Make him fetch you guys some drinks, some popcorn. Tell him to see how many numbers he can get before the Fire Swamp.”

“They’re like a bonded pair! I can’t just separate them like that.”

“You can and you must.” And then she checked her watch. “Better watch it, Sappho. You’re cuttin it close. All that yearning is gonna make you late.”

“Fuuuuckkk.” You groaned then practically ran out the door.

Right out the door and right into Robin.

“Hi,” you smiled regardless of the disappointment in the lack of romantic undertones. You smiled big, and so did she, like your faces didn’t know how to do anything else when you looked at each other.

“Hi, how– how are you? I didn’t mean to scare you, they told me you’d be back here and I didn’t want to seem like a jerk and wait in the car for you to come out because that’d be– that’d be pretty, really shitty. And… yeah, how are you?” You were surprised she didn’t run out of breath, she hasn’t run herself out like that to you in a while. She hasn’t been nervous around you like that in a while.

“I’m good, better now that you’re here. How are you?”

“Good, really good. It starts at 7 but we should get going now if you want a good spot.”

“Yeah, that’d be great.”

“Perfect…I, uh, I hope you don’t mind, Steve brought Max and El, the boys had a campaign and they were all bored.”

Everything she says makes this less and less of a date. Whatever, doesn’t matter, you’ll take her in whatever way you can get her.

“No, that's ok. They’re cool.”

“The coolest.” She offered you her arm which you gladly took.

You’d known each other for months, why did it feel like you didn’t know what to do with each other.

“Hey, how’s it goin?” Steve asked when he got out to open the back door for both of you.

“Good, pretty good. I’m excited for tonight.”

“Good. I should warn you, me and the kids–” “We’re not kids.” “ –will probably be taking off early, Max wants to go look at some supernatural museum she found nearby, but we’ll definitely be back to pick you guys up. It’s a pretty short walk.”

“We have to walk there?!” Max asked with enough attitude to rival Mike’s. Steve gave her a look paired with a sharp nod trying to get her into the front seat. Trying his hardest to be a good wingman.

She shook her head and mouthed fine, then El took the middle seat and Max did the same head nod with her to get her to one side. Robin slid in first to take the middle and you got the seat next to her.

It was a fun ride, Steve and the girls were at their funniest, doing their best to paint Robin in only the most complimenting light. You got the perfect spot. Not too close to the front or back, the perfect distance to see the whole screen but not have it in your face and the concession stand was far enough that it was a walk but there’d be none of it’s traffic buzzing around you.

Somehow, Robin convinced you to stay behind and fix the radio to the right frequency while Steve took her to get a pep talk drinks and popcorn before he left.

“You’re gonna be fine. You were great in the car.”

“Steve, no, listen to me, I cannot do this alone. You cannot leave me.”

“Robin, listen to me. Ok? The whole time in the car she was smiling, she’s having a great time. She really likes you. You feel that electricity?”

“What?”

“The electricity? Between you guys, it’s like off the charts. You got this, man. You’re fine.” He put a hand on her shoulder and El handed her the massive popcorn from one side and Max gave her the extra large slushy with two straws from the other. Then they both gave her big smiles and two thumbs up.

“You got this,” El said and Max gave her another pat on the shoulder and off she went.

You had just got the radio right when you saw her coming down the row of cars. Clearly, her hands were overfull so just as she came up to the car you opened the door and oh fuck.

In a flash of blue, slushie was all over. All over Robin, that is. “Oh thank god none of it got in the car.” She gasped, though her lips were on their way to turning just as blue.

“Robin, no, what about you?!” The urgency was enough to pull you over the center console rather than out the door and around the front to brush off the few pieces that clumped together. “Are you ok?! I don’t care about the car. I’m so sorry, my depth perception has been so messed up from staring at the computer all day, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I was– I wasn’t thinking.”

“I don’t think that’s how that works,” she mumbled.

“Come on, let’s go change.” You started pulling her in the direction of the bathrooms.

“Into what, I’m soaked.”

“Yeah and if you don’t get into something dry; like my sweatshirt that I promise you I don’t need before you try and tell me I’ll be cold; you’ll freeze.”

“I really don’t– You don’t have to.”

“Yes, I do. Come on.”

You took her into the family one, the big clean one right in the center of all the rest. “Here.” You pulled off the big, fluffy, crew neck and she thought she’d drop dead when she caught sight of the way your shirt rose up the slightest bit. You held it out to her and it took her a second to remember that she wasn’t dreaming.

“Thank you,” and leave it to Robin Buckley to say the dumbest joke at the worst moment. Just as she was about to pull her soaked shirt over her head, “Wow, and here I was thinking we’d get to at least a third date before you got me in such a compromising position.” She said with an unforced laugh at the end with her head still deep inside her sweatshirt so she didn’t see the feature film that was your face trying to figure out what she meant.

“This is a date?”

Really catching her off guard while she’s pulling a soaked bra, now probably stained blue, out of the sleeve.

“Uh, did you– I just– I thought–” She tried to go for the door but you caught her eye.

“I want it to be.”

“You do?”

“I’ve been tearing myself up all week ‘cause I wasn’t sure. But I really wanted it to be. So,, is it?”

She nodded fervently, “Yes, yeah, absolutely.”

“Good, so uh, do you maybe wanna go get some hot chocolates instead and we can take that blanket Steve was trying to be sneaky about and cuddle in the back seat?”

“As you wish.”

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you liked it and if you did I'd love to hear what you think <3 Comments and reblogs mean the world to me 💕💕💕 Support your creators babes

#robin x reader #platonic steve and robin #robin buckley x reader #robin buckley #wlw fanfic #sapphic fanfic #robin buckley fanfiction #robin buckley blurb #robin buckely #platonic stobin #stranger things fan fic #stranger things fic #stranger things x reader #stranger things fanfiction #stranger things #dell's fics #sara 🌷#della celebrates 100

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fangirlingfromdownunder · 5 months

Text

Comfort from a Wolf Pack

Summary - Part 43 in the Comfort series

Pairing - Dean Winchester x Reader, Reader x Sam (platonic), Reader x Bobby (father-figure), Andre (OG Character) x Reader (best friends), Garth x Bess

Series Masterlist | Masterlist

A/N: Hey guys! Before we get into this week's chapter I just want to say that I really want to do a Christmas Writing Challenge for myself where I write festive Imagines leading up to Christmas. If you guys have any prompt ideas (& pairings) that you would like me to attempt please send me a message. I love hearing from you! Anyway, back to the series now, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

After a few more fuel, food and toilet stops and swapping driving between the two of you after each stop, you finally pull into Garth’s driveway. Once Dean shuts off the engine you turn around to Destiny.

“Hey, Sweetie, I know you’re probably pretty nervous about this. But I promise Garth and Bess are really nice people. They’ve even got a little girl probably just a little younger you. So come on, you ready to go meet them?” She sheepishly nods and you hear her stomach growl. “I’m sure Bess is just getting something yummy on the table for brunch too.”

You climb out of the car and help Destiny out of the backseat before going over to join Dean at the front step where he’s already chatting with Garth. Garth pulls you in for a tight hug, then pulls away and crouches down to Destiny’s height.

“So, this little beauty here must be Destiny? I can smell your pure blood from here. Come on in, Bess and Gertie are excited to meet you.”

Garth pushes the door open and stands against it to let you all pass him. As you walk inside Bess comes out from the kitchen to greet you, a little girl by her side. “Hi guys, you must be hungry. Got some options for everyone. Come on in.”

You follow her into the dining room where she’s set the table. There are a few fresh cow hearts but also some bacon and pancakes.

You shoot her an appreciative smile as you take a seat. “Thanks, guys. We really appreciate you doing all this for us.”

Garth brushes his hand through the air at you. “Don’t mention it. You’re family. Dig in.”

Bess serves out a couple of the smaller hearts, one each for the little girls and then a bigger one for her and Garth, while you and Dean help yourselves to the pancakes and bacon.

After breakfast, Gertie invites Destiny up to her room to play, so you take the chance to discuss plans.

Dean starts off rather bluntly, “How do you guys feel about growing your pack?”

Garth and Bess share a look and a nod, then Garth says, “She seems like a real good kid. But she’s been through a lot, I think you gotta give her a little time to adjust. Everyone at this table knows what it’s like to lose someone. It ain’t easy.”

Bess then adds, “And she’s pureblood, like me. So, it’s clear she knows nothing of human life. And hanging around with hunters. Being raised by hunters. I don't know. I think she should stay here with us, but I don’t want to force her to if she’s not comfortable.”

You nod, “I agree. We…Or I, was wondering if we could just stay a few days and see how she settles?”

Bess nods. “Sure. The girls can share and you guys can take the guest room.”

You smile at Bess, “Thanks. Let me help clean up here,” then you look over at Dean. “I trust you can handle the bags?”

“I got it,” he says. He gets up and kisses the top of your head before heading out to the car; Garth follows suit, kissing Bess and then following Dean out to help with your bags. You and Bess stand up as well and start stacking the dirty dishes to cart them into the kitchen. As Bess fills the sink with hot water and dishsoap you pick up a tea towel so you can dry.

“I noticed the rings. Congrats,” she says as she starts to wash the dishes.

“Thanks. I never really believed hunters could have love like this. But with Dean I know it’s worth the struggle. You and Garth’s relationship gave me hope too. If a hunter and a werewolf can make it work, anything’s possible.”

“Yeah. He’s worth it too. But uh, and I don’t mean to overstep, but you and Dean don’t seem to be on the same page about the pup.”

“No, you’re not overstepping. We’re not. I don’t think he wants a child at all, let alone a non-human one. He’s struggling with his training that all monsters are bad, but also he doesn’t think he’d be a good father. But I know he would be. And I just…I feel like I need this. I had an ectopic pregnancy earlier this year and ever since then I’ve just felt like something is missing in my life.”

“I’m so sorry about the pregnancy. I guess my biggest advice is that if you want to go down this road with Destiny, make sure you both get on the same page and do it for the right reasons. She’s not just a puzzle piece to fill a hole in your life, she’s a child who has lost her parents and needs support, love and guidance.”

“I know. I just need a chance to talk to Dean without a little eeves dropper. Would you be able to watch her while we go out somewhere and discuss it?”

“The girls sound like they’re having fun playing together upstairs. Take your time.”

You finish drying the dishes and stacking them on the bench for Bess to put them in their rightful homes. “Thank you again.”

“Just go talk to your husband. Communication is key.”

You hang the towel back on the hook and make your way upstairs towards the sound of your husband’s deep and carrying voice. You lean against the door frame of what you assume is the guestroom as Dean’s placed both of your bags on the end of the Queen-sized bed and wait for a break in his and Garth’s conversation. They go quiet once they sense your presence. Dean beckons you over with his hand and you go into his arms. He leans down and kisses you as Garth quietly slips out of the room.

“You wanna go for a drive?” he asks.

“I was actually gonna ask you the same thing.”

“Perfect. Let’s go.”

You take Dean’s hand as you walk back down the hall. As you pass Gertie’s room, Destiny runs to the doorway, a concerned look on her face. “Where are you going?”

You squeeze Dean’s hand before letting go so you can crouch down to her height. “We just gotta go out for a bit. Pick up some human food and such since Garth and Bess don’t keep much here. You stay here and play with Gertie. You’re safe here and we’ll be back soon, I promise.”

She hugs you tight as she nods. “Okay.”

“Alright. You be good. We’ll be back soon.”

She nods again as she unwraps her arms from your neck to go back to playing with Gertie’s dolls. You stand up and lace your hand with Dean’s again as he leads you back downstairs and out to the car. Like the true gentleman he is, he opens and closes your door for you before going around to the driver’s side.

“You’re amazing with her,” Dean says as he starts the engine and reverses down the driveway. “You are so…You’ll be the perfect mother.”

“Yeah, about that. We have a lot to talk about…”

“I know.” He places his hand on your thigh like he always does when driving.

“We only just got married. I only just finally convinced you to go through with that. I don’t want to do anything to push you away. I know you’re scared of taking her in, of trying to raise a non-human. I know how you were raised. I understand your reservations, I do. But…”

“But you wanna do it?”

“The pit in my stomach…the hole in my heart…it feels smaller when I hug her or care for her. I know it’s only been a couple of days, but running a bath for her, comforting her, explaining things to her, it all just feels right. It feels like what I should be doing.”

Dean just nods as a heavy silence falls over the car. After a few minutes, he pulls a park near a park. You can see a lake in the horizon. He shuts off the engine and opens his door. “Let’s go for a walk.”

You open your own door and walk around the car to meet him and take his hand as you walk onto the grass towards a metal bench seat that overlooks the lake. You enjoy the view, the sounds of birds and the breeze filling the silence and comforting you.

Eventually, you say the only thing you can think of to try and calm the tension, “I love you, Dean. No matter what, okay?”

He drapes his arm over your shoulders pulling you to lean against him. After a while, he finally breaks his silence, “Buying those clothes for her the other morning…I’ve never felt so out of my depth. But playing the part, telling the lady that I was doing a favour for my wife, picking up a new wardrobe for our daughter…that part was easy. It almost felt natural.” Feeling himself tear up at the emotions bubbling in his chest, he clears his throat before continuing, “If you really think we can do this…If you really want to do this…I’m willing to give it a shot.”

You turn around and look at him in shock. “Really?”

“I’m still worried about all the ways it could go wrong. And there are a lot of stipulations I need you to promise me. But you’re starting to convince me that maybe, just maybe, anything is possible.”

You lean over and kiss him, pushing all your emotions into it, letting your lips convey all your feelings without words. A few tears slip down both of your cheeks from the overwhelming emotions.

When he pulls away to take a breath he says, “You don’t know my conditions yet.”

“I don’t care. The fact you’re willing to even consider this means so much to me.”

“You’re not the only one that left something behind in that hospital. I was right there with you. I’ve been telling myself it was for the best, especially when those demons came after us. But, the truth is, the day you showed me that positive test, all my dreams changed. All that mattered to me then was keeping you and our baby safe. And then Bobby called and said you were in the hospital. That was my worst nightmare come true. I can’t go through that again. Shoot me, stab me, kill me, friggen send me back to Hell, but I can’t watch you like that or have that taken away from me again. The only thing I could compare that pain to is the first time I lost Sam.”

You hug him tight, letting your tears soak into his flannel. You know he’s not generally the vulnerable or emotional type, so the fact he’s comfortable enough to let all his walls down with you is so overwhelming. “I love you so much,” you whisper into his neck.

He gently places his hand on your cheek and guides you to face him again, making direct eye contact before shutting his eyes as he brings his lips to yours softly. When he pulls back slightly he leans his forehead against yours and whispers, “I’m ready to get out.”

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

Tag list: (Leave a like or comment on this post or let me know below if you want to be added to the tag list for this series)

@bitchwitch1981, @muhahaha303, @justrealizedimmascifygurl, @mcdowell-123, @leigh70, @marvelsmarauder, @losa12308, @tapedeck-hearts, @luvjaida, @peachtxa, @ambearsstuff, @shadow-of-a-cloud, @slut-for-buck, @iprobablyshipit91, @sassy-pelican, @fallenlilangel99, @heavenlyhopeful0, @nelachu2423, @ladysparkles78, @canyouimaginethatstory, @mrlonelycat

#dean winchester x reader #dean x you #dean winchester #supernatural #spn #dean winchester fanfiction #dean winchester imagine #dean winchester fic #dean winchester fluff

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crabmaiden · 11 months

Note

✨ hello talk abt inside job please i binged the first 8 episodes today which is actually v impressive for me which is to say. i am enjoying it

i have no clue where to start, there is so much to say!!! well, first off i’m glad to hear that you started it and are enjoying it so far! that’s good pacing too, i think, iirc rey and i watched part 1 in one day and part 2 the next? i could be wrong but it is a fairly short watch so it shouldn’t take too long though it SHOULD be longer! sucks ass that netflix cancelled it, the show is/was successful? sure it’s not as "big" as smth like stranger things but you’re not giving it the chance!!!!!!! i’ve heard rumors about adult swim potentially picking it up so it can be renewed for a s2 and with the panel that’s supposed to happen this week(?) for upcoming hbo max and adult swim projects and announcements i am HOPING for smth inside job and/or infinity train related!!!!!!! a girl can DREAM OOGGHHH inside job fr is so good, it’s so different from your typical adult animation? it’s NOTHING like s*uth park or f*mily guy (censoring so this doesn’t end up in the tags LOL) whereas it doesn’t rely on "shock value" or gross shit which i appreciate and the references to pop culture on top of other things? god SO GOOD it’s literally the reason rey and i watched akira too AND I’M SO GLAD WE DID I ENJOYED THAT MOVIE AS WELL i love the balance between humor and serious topics too? i won’t spoiled much since you haven’t gotten to those episodes yet but inside reagan and appleton are genuinely so well written imo (even if i have personal gripes but they don’t at all affect the overall perception of the episode(s)!)

the characters too omg. there are very minimal characters i can point to and say i genuinely hate them. glenn might be an obvious one and a couple others but i don’t want to sound like a hater LOL my point is i LOVE the cast the characters are generally so well written? reagan is some of the best autism rep i’ve seen ANYWHERE i just really wish they didn’t refer to her with aspergers. brett too obviously i am him fr fr fr but he’s generally so relatable even rey has said before they relate to some of his traits. i love how he’s so open about his (social) anxiety yet isn’t portrayed in the stereotypical "shy introvert" way. gigi i feel like she’s so underrated she deserves more love 😭 i wish we knew more about her too? again i won’t spoil but idr them really going into her deeper as a character or anything. andre and myc are both so funny too. i LOVE myc’s comebacks and i also love how they managed to make him so expressive without actually having a face? fun fact i only recently learned he shared an actor with murray stranger things but after that it ALL made sense i kept trying to figure out why his voice sounded familiar. oh and reagan’s va is janis mean girls! and rand is jd heathers. crazy how that happens! what a small world. anyways this was way longer than i thought it would be even after saying "idk where to start" LOL ofc if you ever want to know my opinion on anything and/or just talk more just let me know!!!! my inbox / dms are always open for you <3 thank you so much !!!!!!

[ ask game ]

#✏️💭#☆ bonnie

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have-some-heals · 7 months

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Ardent-2 & Kuraokami & Khione & Sybll on missing friends

The three bowls of ramen let off wife’s of steam into the crisp fall air. The bowls were perfectly crafted giving the trio of guardians a stunning visual before they embarked on their next mission.

“You know” the exo titan began as he picked up his chopsticks and separated them with surprising grace. “The best part about these errand missions for Zavala and Ikora have got to be the chance to come to the tower… well I mean for me any way I guess you get to spend more time here..” Ardent-2 nudged the warlocks arm who sat next to him. The ramen and meat the warlock had secured slipping from the chopsticks to plop back into the bowl at the sudden touch.

“Don’t give ‘em such a hard time Ardent!” Exclaimed the hunter sitting on the opposite side of the warlock. “It’s got to be real hard on ‘em being the favorite for all these missions you know” the awoken hunter poked at her ramen with one chopstick before clumsily trying to pick up a clump of noodles. “KuraKura even has Eris’ ear right now with some secret mission. I basically had to beg to see the new armor she gave ‘em just to get Ada to design me some that fit.” Sybll stated in a partially angry partially defeated tone.

The warlock remained silent and simply ate his food. He had shown the younger hunter the gear Eris had given him for his work… gear which he’d personally thought was a bit stuffy. One set made home feel like he was a new light stick back in the library while the other was made of wood. None of it was his style nir something he’d be caught in, especially while meeting his mentors. The hunter however clearly did not share that same view as her normal armor had been replaced with armor similar to that of the wood style armor he’d gotten.

“Is tat why yous have flowahs growing outta you?” Ardent-2 asked bluntly while slurping up a strand of noodles. The titans look had changed a bit as well, though not as drastic. The normally dark metallic shades had been lightened Andre were now pastels. Like the previous set though the titans power had created cracks that illuminated the area around the titan.

“Don’t talk while you eat, it’s rude” Kuraokami said sternly before sipping at a small cup of warmed sake. “The gift from Eris was her way of thanking me as she couldn’t pay for the personal errands. That’s all” the warlock gave the hunter the side eye. “And I’m sure if you worked up the courage to talk to her instead of sending all those images and videos of the hellmouth you could have gotten a set as well.” The warlock turned his glare on the titan “and your time being spent at other posts has more to do with your little friend as I recall… at least that is what I would assume since I’ve taken your last 10 missions for you…”

Both the hunter and titan looked at their bowls in defeat.

“Eat before the rest of the team arrives” the warlock stated dryly returning to his own bowl. After a few minutes of silence the titan and hunter returned to going back and forth taking small playful swipes at each other.

The warlock had been tasked with putting together a team to investigate the sudden spike in energy on the moon again. It had Eris Morn concerned and she was unable to peel herself away to investigate. The titan and hunter had never officially worked together before but they had a few common teammates including Kuraokami and had ended up in the same clan.

“Report: the requested guardians have responded” the warlocks ghost Khione suddenly stated to the group. “We will need to find alternatives or delay”

“Who did you ask besides us” Ardent asked raising a brow.

“The idea was to bring together a group I knew and trusted. Khione give us thier responses please” the warlock pulled out a small black book and began writing as the ghost spoke.

“Book is unreachable at this time his ghost implied that the hunter may have retired.” Khione displayed a holographic image of the hunter before swapping to a titan. “Cannon-02 is unable to assist as he is working with Shaxx at this time.” Finally the ghost flipped to the a Hunter. “Clan leader Ace remains out of contact. Herself, Crow, and an unnamed guardian seem to be on a special mission on the other side of the planet.”

“Please put out a call for any guardians that are high ranking. I fear what we might discover in the dark of the moon”

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puckish-rogue · 9 months

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Financial Opportunities Within the Criminal Underworld aka What the Fuck do the Saints do to Make Cash

Hi, everyone! It's me again, your favorite big boi and resident criminal organization expert Andre. Today we'll be having a semi-brief discussion on what exactly does the fictional gang known as the 3rd Street Saints do to keep the BIG CA$H MONEY flowing. Cause no one ever said running a powerful and sexy gang like their own was gonna be cheap. While I won't get into the specifics regarding the amount of money earned with each and every business venture (do that on your own time), I want to give a general idea of how big of an operation this all is. Especially when you take into account this blog's canon regarding the gang spreading out across the globe.

Now the Saints operate on both sides of the law, though anything that would be considered "legitimate" is still questionable at best. For the sake of simplicity and getting it out of the way, I think we should start by describing the various criminal activities they operate. As a whole, the Saints have their hands in a number of different ventures that operate outside the confines of the law. Their biggest ones being; racketeering, arms and drug trafficking, sex work, loansharking, smuggling, chop shops, illegal gambling, protection rackets, fencing, cyber crimes, and murder-for-hire. On an individual level, members of the Saints are more than welcome to start up their own side-hustles to earn even more cash so long as a percentage of that goes back into the gang. Everyone's doing their part, y'know?

Of course there are plenty of other ways members of the gang can make easy money, whether individually or for the Saints as a whole. Theft (and I'm using it as an umbrella term because there are many types of it) is always a go-to depending on the scope of it. You can go from something as simple as a smash-and-grab to a full-blown heist with all the planning that goes into it. Again, everyone is free to work as they please, so long as they remember to send back some cash. Otherwise you can just fuck off and work on your own without being in a gang.

As the Saints grow in size and expand outwards across the US and the world at large, I like to imagine that they'd take a moment to really think about what sort of work fits the environment that they're in. Not every new location will provide the same opportunities one may find in a different city. So why not accommodate? Adapting to one's surroundings is the key to both personal and financial survival. And while the Saints may be rather unorthodox in the way they manage themselves, you can't deny the fact that they've come a long way from being a mere street gang.

Now let's jump over to the other side of the law and discuss how they earn within that area.

As brought up in a previous post, there is an hourly city income you can receive in both the second and third games of the series. I'm not going to bring up the first game because that was an entirely different iteration of the Saints and we're focused on the Boss running it.

In SR2 and 3 you're able to purchase various stores that give you different amounts of profit, which then all add up towards your total city income. In the second game this is limited to stores and restaurants, but in the third we're given the chance to buy up properties as well. Said properties can range from condos, local stores, a sex shop, to even an entire airport. If you'd like to learn more, then I'd suggest checking out this link here.

Now of course I like to imagine that the gang have other means of gaining a steady flow of income that don't completely fall under the topic of nasty crime. You know for sure that some of the Saints run their own fronts like restaurants, clubs, or anything else that can be used as a means to launder money. The Boss is of course no exception either, as I can see him doing the same here and there to generate more cash.

Some time ago I would have said that the Planet Saints stores definitely create revenue for the gang as well. But after much thinking and taking into consideration what the state of the world is like after what happened at the end of my revised SR3 plot for this blog, I think a majority of those stores have outright closed. Mostly because it's kind of hard to market a gang when they've gone and embarrassed an entire government and probably scared the shit out of other world leaders as well. Not to mention a good chunk of the public.

That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if there were at least a handful of Planet Saints stores that were still operating. Mostly cause let's be real here; the concept of a celebrity criminal has been a thing for ages now. That kind of reputation can still go strong even years down the line. And with my ideas of the Boss doing work that blurs the line on whether he's for the people or a selfish piece of shit, you know damn well there will still be people itching to grab the latest in Saints merchandise. Especially if it's like chic streetwear or something.

One last thing to mention are the former Syndicate strongholds in Steelport that are turned over to the Saints once they've been acquired. The 3 Count Casino, the Burns Hill Reactors (which was definitely made into a nightclub), Safeword (a brothel), and Powder (designer weapons store) are obviously making bank for the crew as well.

Again, I won't do the math to try and realistically think about how much cash they're earning on say a monthly or even yearly basis. But this is definitely stuff to consider for threads and anything else that might involve business opportunities for the gang in the future. I think what's funny to me is that this probably doesn't even come close to what much more established criminal organizations across the globe might earn on the daily. Like some of these fuckers work off of that old money shit. But I mean hey, maybe these bozos can get on that level one of these days.

#i’m more of a puckish rogue ⚜ { headcanons }#Why be a Nobody When You Could be a Saint? ⚜ { 3rd Street Saints }

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muggle-born-princess · 1 year

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Though the Creator of Scarlet Lady does seem to downplay Andre’s neglectfulness towards Chloé which is quite concerning, I’d still say Scarlet Lady is just as garbage as MLB canon (and the creator is just as bad as Thomas) it just has a better coat of paint

Alright, for those who don't know:

I made a post explaining if people could make a Lila redemption, what ideas would they have.

Later on, two asks came to me explaining to me what Lila is like in the fan comic Scarlet Lady.

For those who don't know, Scarlet Lady is a fan comic by @zoe-oneesama. Basically, it's Chloe with the Ladybug Miraculous and she acts like a selfish brat throughout the comic with it. At least that's my best guess.

Now honestly, as someone who has yet to read it herself, I have heard so many opinions on it. People either love it because it fixes the mistakes canon made or people hate it because many consider it "Chloe salt."

However, just because one does better than the other doesn't necessarily mean it's good either; so I will give the anon who sent me this credit that they do have a point by saying it has a better coat of paint.

Now again, I have yet to read the comic myself and I'm still debating if I should, so if anyone is reading this ask, just take my post with a grain of salt and understand where I'm coming from.

And as I said before, I do not think Zoe (the creator of the comic) is nowhere near as bad as Astruc is because unlike him, Zoe does at least stay true with the comic's content and doesn't promise a redemption or change in Chloe.

She right out states that Chloe is at her worse (or probably more tolerable than she is) than she is canon. She knows that Chloe will be a selfish, shallow, spoiled brat. She will not change at all.

Something Astruc attempted to do, but failed miserably by click baiting us with Chloe as the bee holder. Only to reverse it in the end.

So there, that's all I have to say.

Will I give Scarlet Lady a chance? Maybe.

Is it possible that I may love it or hate it? Yes and No. Hell, I could downright be in between with it.

All I'm saying is please take what I have to say about it with a grain of salt and know that while I'm not one to speak about it just because I haven't read it, doesn't mean I'm not allowed to talk about once in a while or even defend the creator of it as well.

#scarlet lady #miraculous ladybug #zoe oneesama #asks #anon

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keepingupwiththealfeans · 2 years

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What's a s2 scene you NEED to see from:

Stella

Terra

Andreas

👀

I NEED MANY MANY SCENES SKYE AND YOU KNOW! But okay... you gave me A LIST OF THE MOST UNEXPECTED PEOPLE HERE AND I LOVE.

Also sorry I am aswering like two days late, but I had to let this sit for a bit.

Stella

You know how much I ADORE Stella, she is the love of my life. I would protect my baby AT ALL COST. And also I have the hots for her (and Hanna as well, cuz amazing girl).

What I want to see is Stella taking back her own narrative. It has been suggested by Stella herself, that her mom always was the one to control her and the things she did. People she talked to and had relationships with. Coming back to Alfea, realizing her mom has her again, I want her to stand up for herself. Because now she isn't alone, has the girls.

I believe, Stella is hurt by the constant rejection of her mother, to take her as she is. Human, with feelings and ideas, someone who want to thrive with her own personality (which has been to this day overshadowed by her mother. On one had - I wanna see Stella trying to resolve her problem with her mom, to get closer to her (or at least try, cuz I know that won't happen, based on those promo pics we got). Then failing and realizing the Winx are the answer to her long not answered question, lingering in her mind. Then the realization hits, which might be hurtful for Stella - knowing her mother will never fully accept her and her feelings, choices and ideas. From that will spring the doubt and maybe anger, which eventually grows to her taking her own narrative and just saying fuck it , and doing something her mother wouldn't expect. Join the side her mom isn't on - so not Rosalind's side. This would strain their relationship even more, but now Stella won't feel much of a regret and just stand by her word. So in conclusion, I want Stella to come out of her shell and be Stella. Not what her mom wants, the society or Rosalind expect. Because I know my girl - she has a good heart, just didn't have the chance to show it.

Also maybe some resolving with Sky? Like I know they talked in S1 but still, I feel there is much what is left to say. Sky was her best friend for a long time, the ONLY person who knows the real her. And brushing that all off with a two minute convo, isn't enough. These two deserve their time together. Sky loves and adores Stella, it's obvious. I just want him to tell her, her tell him. Just give them scenes togehter, please. (No I don't want them to get back together, even tho Stella x Sky are my hearts close favourite).

Terra

Give her a stolyine that doesn't resolve only around that she is plus-sized. Terra is beautiful on her own (Eilot is just... oh god, lovely, beautiful), and I don't want her to linger another season about her being "not good enough". Terra has a lot of room to grow, and I believe we will see some resentnemnt against her father in connection to Rosalind. Tho I understand where Ben is coming from - he wants to keep his children safe so he goes with the flow. Terra on the other hand - seemed always the most independed of all from the Harveys. So make Terra independend, I want to see her amazing things. Maybe find love, but this isn't necessary.

WHAT I DON'T WANT TO SEE ON THE OTHER HAND is her and Flora being rivals. Doesn't make sense, because in S1 se sounded that she adored Flora, and it would be super weird if there was a tention betweetn them. Like... because Flora in her eyes would be considered more beautiful? They better not pull this narrative, or I will be throwing hands.

Andreas

Fave dilf in town. I have a love-hate relationship with Andreas honestly. What I wanna see? Him trying to bond with Sky but being very unsucessful, therefore angry at Beatrix for no reason. He wants his son to respect him, love him but Sky doesn't want anything to do with him if necessary. Beatrix being the victim in all of this (honestly, she is the victim all this time, but we are not ready for this convo). So Andreas would be on edge all the time, which would make his work a bit tacky. Sky being the thing that makes him angry the most but also makes him hurt the most. I want to also know his backstory SO MUCH!!! Where does his personality come from? Why choose Rosalind over his child and wife (??)? How did he survive? How about Beatrix - what is their backstory?

I don't see him getting a redemption arch and I don't even want it. I want to see him even more corrupt, because his son is rejecting him and Beatrix isn't doing it for him. Even if he brought her up from a babe, she will never be his blood. This making him angry and Beatrix hurt (oh no, I cannot babble about Beatrix too much). Eventually I want to see him die - but maybe not this season (Brian, I am looking right at you, S3 comfirmation, now). I just want him to lose his shit by every episode that comes :)

This was super messy, maybe not enought but hopefully enough for now. Thanks Skye being the only one to actually as something, so I can talk forever.

#q&a #ftws #ftws stella #ftws terra #ftws andreas #terra harvery #fate the winx saga

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armoricaroyalty · 1 year

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Andre's promises weren't worth much, but he had never intentionally misled her. It was the sort of thing you could substitute for trustworthiness, in a pinch.

Previous | Chapter Start | From the Beginning | Next

author’s note: according to the timestamps on the DMs, the andre/leonor affair started out as a joke on december 16th and then became an entire fleshed-out thing in record time. this was supposed to be a quick diversion and here we are, 3 months later...

9:17 PM / February 27th, 2016

FREDERICK | ...how could you? In public? Surrounded by press? FREDERICK | You’re not even trying to hide it. It’s like you don’t even care. ANDRE | That’s unfair — FREDERICK | [scoffs] Unfair? To who? Your wife, maybe? You know, my mom? ANDRE | [sighs] I’m not going behind her back, Freddy. She knows about Leonor. She always has. FREDERICK | ‘Always has?’ How long has this been going on? How long have you been lying to everyone? ANDRE | Freddy please, I never lied — FREDERICK | Bullshit! You lied, Dad! You’ve been cheating on Mom — ANDRE | Please, keep your voice down — ANDRE | —and give me a chance to explain. It’s not what you think. FREDERICK | I saw you! I saw the two of you together! ANDRE | And I’m not denying it! Leonor is...very important to me. ANDRE | [swallows] When my mother died, I — I had to be strong. I became the Crown Prince overnight and they never gave me time to grieve. ANDRE | [offscreen] Leonor never expected me to play a role. She gave me space to grieve. She took care of me. FREDERICK | [offscreen] So you slept with her? ANDRE | [offscreen] No. You have to believe me: I never crossed that line. FREDERICK | [offscreen] Did you love her? ANDRE | [offscreen] ...yes. ANDRE | I loved her and I loved your mother. I loved them both, but I chose your mother. For twenty years, I chose her — and her. All three of you. ANDRE | Twenty years, Freddy. I loved your mother, I raised you kids. I did everything everyone asked of me. And now, I want to do one thing for me. ANDRE | I never meant to hurt anyone. FREDERICK | ...I don’t think that matters, Dad. FREDERICK | You used my international debut to meet up with your mistress. Was this whole thing just an excuse for you to get your dick wet? ANDRE | [shocked] Frederick — FREDERICK | No! You don’t get to lecture me, you’re a liar and a cheater — ANDRE | Life isn’t black and white, Frederick. Someday you’ll understand — FREDERICK | No, Dad, I’m not like you! I’m not a selfish piece of shit! I’ll never understand why you would cheat on your wife, who loves you. ANDRE | [sighs] I hope so. I hope you’re a better man than me. If you are...that’s your mother’s influence, I think. ANDRE | Your mother is a good woman. She deserves better...And that’s why I have to ask you to keep this a secret. You can gate me, but don’t make this public. Don’t humiliate her like that. ANDRE | I’m proud of you, Freddy. You’ve been working so hard. FREDERICK | Dad... ANDRE | I’ve been holding you back. I was worried...but I shouldn’t have been. You’re a good kid, I know you’ll do the right thing. FREDERICK | I... FREDERICK | I won’t tell anyone. ANDRE | [offscreen] Promise? FREDERICK | Promise. ANDRE | [offscreen] You’re a good man, Freddy. Thank you. FREDERICK | [offscreen] Sure. FREDERICK | [offscreen] I’m not doing it for you. ANDRE | [offscreen] I know. FREDERICK | [offscreen] I’m doing it for Mom. ANDRE | [offscreen] I know.

#armorica story #chapter 2 #chapter 2 part 3 #behind the scenes #character: frederick st. fleur #character: andre st. fleur #character: leonor reyes #character: mary yokoyama #armorica collabs #nexility-sims #infidelity cw #manipulation cw

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hqmillioncorn · 1 year

Photo

Looking for TRUE LOVE Looking for TRUE LOVE To love me so, so~

originally written back in august 2022! guest starring my friends wols Lunya Lanya, Coco Cocoda, Andres Sacapuntas and Himbo Hooters :v)

Endwalker Spoilers

after the hectic events of saving the world and everything they know and love, Lunya happens to overhear Babycorn mutter something about carrying love letters with her.

only...those letters don’t belong to her.

“WAaaAAaAAAAaaaAAAA!!!”

“I told you! If you had just told me about the letters it wouldn’t come down to this.”

Held upside down as she was, it was hard for Babycorn to ask Lunya to please put her down. While she was very used to Lunya picking her up like she weighed nothing more than an actual ear of millioncorn. It was another thing however, to be held so easily while being upside down and with no chance of being able to wriggle her way out.

All Babycorn could continue to do was say, “WAAaaAaaAAa!” as she hoped that her backpack would be able to hold its contents inside amidst all the shaking.

And if it didn’t…

Then Babycorn didn’t know what she would say if all her secrets came tumbling out! Unfortunately for Babycorn, Lunya wasn’t one to give up so easily.

Very soon the heavier things inside the backpack started to fall out, which mostly included a variety of snacks and one Calca doll that had been suddenly interrupted mid-nap. Just as she landed and was about to give Lunya a piece of her mind, a heavy set of extra clothes landed on her.

Then Lunya spotted it, her indented target! A couple of sealed letters, alongside a partially eaten popoto, came falling out alongside each other. “Ah-ha!” Lunya said, her eyes lighting up in excitement.

As Lunya continued shaking even more and more letters came fluttering out of Babycorn’s backpack. It almost looked like it was spitting the letters out of its mouth. Maybe it was Lunya’s imagination but the backpack looked almost as distressed as Babycorn did.

Though considering the kind of company (especially the inanimate kind) it wouldn’t shock Lunya if the backpack was in an actual emotional panic.

Once Lunya was certain that every last sealed envelope had fallen out of Babycorn’s backpack she stopped shaking the shaken Lalafell. As easy as Lunya had picked Babycorn up, she flipped her right side up and set her back down. Lunya made sure that Babycorn had found her footing before letting her go and leaping to grab the mysterious letters.

Apparently, Babycorn had been hiding them in her backpack ever since they had come back from Ultima Thule. Since then she’d been doing a good job of keeping them a secret. Though part of the reason for that was that she just plain forgot about them.

It wasn’t until today, when an innocent comment about how heavy her pack was from the copious amount of ‘Love Letters’, caught Lunya’s attention. Though she and the others weren’t too surprised at first. One surprising thing about Babycorn was the amount of letters from secret admirers she received on a weekly basis.

Andres had the theory that it was just one very determined person sending them but after a team of experts (Reese, Lunya and Andres who was there for moral support) analyzed the letters they determined, without a shred of doubt, that the letters were from all sorts of different people.

Though it was strange that Babycorn waved off love confessions and even marriage proposals with a simple hand wave, over time it eventually just became a sort of background noise to daily life.

So hearing Babycorn complain about love letters wasn’t anything too surprising.

What had raised Lunya’s suspicions, that no one else seemed to pick up on, was Babycorn muttering to herself how the love letters didn’t even belong to her.

“If anyone finds them and reads them it’ll be super embarrassing!!” Babycorn cried. Her hands were clasped together, praying that Lunya would give the letters back to her. She was praying rather hard for someone who had only found out what praying was only a few years ago.

“It would be embarrassing for who? You? Or the person these belong to?” Lunya looked down at the envelope in her hands and then back at Babycorn, her expression hardening. “You didn’t steal these from someone, did you?”

Babycorn bounced up and put her hands on her hips. “No! Of course not!” It sounded like the very idea of committing mail theft seemed to insult her personally. “Hythlodaeus gave them to me because he was keeping a promise to someone!” She crossed her arms and looked away, pouting.

While Babycorn didn’t immediately realize her mistake, Lunya had.

“Oh, did he? What else did he say?” Lunya turned the envelope around to get ready to remove the fancy seal on the back. The seal was in the shape of a happy face and orange in color.

“Ummm…He said something about keeping a promise of holding onto them! But he said he felt that it was only natural that I should have them now! Or something like that…” Babycorn was using all of her brain power in trying to remember what Hythlodaeus had told her that she wasn’t really thinking twice about what she was admitting to Lunya.

Lunya was halfway through opening the envelope when she stopped to look up at Babycorn again. She did recall seeing Hythlodaeus walk up to Babycorn to talk to her back in Ultima Thule. Though at the time wondering what the two of them were doing wasn’t exactly at the forefront of her mind.

However, now that the emotional highs and lows of saving the world were all over and done with, Lunya could put all of her effort into figuring out this mystery that had been bothering her for over two hours.

“So when you say that Hythlodaeus felt that it was only natural that you have these letters...? What do you think he meant by that?”

“It’s cause’ Maize wrote them. You know, the Ancient me and Cherry were sundered from. I guess that’s why.”

“Inchresting…” Lunya opened the envelope with ease but noticeably didn’t remove the letter inside.

At that very moment the gears in Babycorn’s head finally made the right turns and she realized the several mistakes in the things she had been saying for the past few minutes.

“Wait-! Waitwaitwaitwait!! I-I mean I..! I don’t know what you’re talking about! I…I don’t have any love letters! What are you talking about?!”

Babycorn looked around frantically for anything that might help her get out of the hole she dug herself into but all she could see was the Chocobo stables behind her and Lunya in front of her, still holding the most incriminating piece of evidence so far, an envelope.

“Luluuuuuu! Please please don’t read them!!” Babycorn begged

Lunya paused for a second, thinking. “Considering they’re probably written in some ancient language I doubt anyone is going to be reading them anytime soon.”

“Oh yay!”

“But I’m sure we can find someone to translate them!”

“Oh no!”

———————————–

Lunya burst into the front door of the mansion, dragging Babycorn behind her.

“Who wants to help translate some ancient love letters?!” Lunya held up several of the envelopes that were scattered outside in her hand.

Babycorn let out a small and sad, “Wehh….”

———————————–

It turned out there weren’t many people home. Though Lunya did manage to find and recruit Coco, Himbo and Andres into helping her and Babycorn decipher the letters. Though it was great she found help and these three were admittedly not the worst people to help with translating love letters, they probably weren’t too high up on the helpful tier either.

Considering one of them hadn’t realized they were in love for years, the other was too busy preparing for the dinner shift at his restaurant to really pay attention and the last one was Andres Sacapuntas. In that order.

Babycorn sat on one of the tables in the basement, angrily kicking her legs. She watched as Lunya set down and spread a handful of letters onto an adjacent table.

“I think it's good they're no help! I don’t wanna know what those dumb things say anywa-” Before Babycorn could finish her sentence Lunya put a freshly baked cookie in her mouth.

Babycorn happily munched on her cookie, forgetting her worries. “Hey!!!” Himbo leaned over the counter from the kitchen and pointed at the plate of cookies on the table, “Those are for tonight’s opening!” Himbo had already told Babycorn countless times that she wasn’t allowed to eat the restaurant's food.

Though it’s not like that ever stopped her.

“If they’re for tonight then you have time to make more!” Lunya assured him. Not to mention that despite his protests Himbo still let Babycorn eat food directly off the table because she was, in her own words, helping.

“Mpmmh mppmhh! These are really tasty!!” Babycorn said, stuffing another cookie into her mouth. Lunya had moved the plate with cookies at arm’s reach for Babycorn, hoping that the snacks would distract her for the time being. Lunya made sure to take a few cookies for herself too.

Then if she happened to run out of those, Lunya had her eye on a basket of freshly baked breadsticks. Not only for Babycorn but also for herself and Coco.

Once he heard Babycorn’s compliment, Himbo beamed with pride. “Why, thank you! Now if you’ll excuse me-!” He hurried deeper into the kitchen to bake some more. The sounds of Himbo defying several laws of physics in order to make enough food for his restaurant echoed through the basement.

“I hope he makes more cookies~!” Babycorn sang to herself. It seemed like she had completely forgotten the reason they were all down here in the first place. Which was good news for Lunya but bad news for the Babycorn of a few hours from now and then some.

Lunya held one of the letters with the intent to see if there was anything written on it she could understand. Before she could even try to do that however, Coco called out to her holding a letter of his own in his hand. “Did Babycorn really tell you that Maize wrote all these?” Coco asked. It’s not like he didn’t believe her but there was just something about the letters he was looking at that didn’t feel right.

“That’s what she told me.” Though there was really no evidence besides word of mouth from Babycorn herself. Even so, there was no way Babycorn would lie about something like that. It was way too specific of a lie to come from her. “Why do you ask?” Lunya continued.

Coco took two letters in his hands and lifted them up for Lunya to see. It turns out that Coco was right, there was something incredibly off about them. The paper looked faded, which wasn’t too surprising considering how old some of these letters were. Then again, alongside those letters there were others that looked like they were written yesterday.

Though the weirdness didn’t end there. The contents of the love letter were all written in a bright red with an erratic writing style all over. The letter ended with what Lunya assumed was a huge signature at the bottom of the page.

What Coco was holding up resembled something more akin to a message from a murderer and not anything that was made with romantic intent. “I-I see…” Lunya was starting to realize why Babycorn didn’t want anyone looking at these things.

“Y-You don’t think it could be b-b-blood?! Do you?!” Coco trembled.

“Actually…It looks more like crayon to me.”

“Huh-?” Coco flipped the letters over to look at them again. It was like Lunya pointed out, the letter (thank goodness) wasn’t written in blood. Instead apparently someone had taken the brightest red crayon they had and made it brighter by several shades, then used it to write a particularly scary looking love letter.

Andres leaned over from the seat he had taken next to Coco and examined the letter with him. “Heh! This looks like a little kid wrote it.” Andres laughed at everything down to the penmanship to the fact that it had scared Coco. Though that last one was directed more at Coco than the author of the letter.

“That’s because Maize wrote it as a little kid.”

Everyone turned to look at Babycorn. Even Himbo poked his fluffy head out of the kitchen.

Despite dropping an incredibly important fact about the forbidden love letter lore, Babycorn looked as carefree as someone could look, happily chewing on the few remaining cookies on the plate.

“Did Hythlodaeus tell you that too?” Lunya asked. She knew very well that the particular letter that Coco examined was sealed. There was no way that Babycorn could have opened it and resealed it again. Babycorn was nowhere near precise enough to pull off something like that.

Not while Lunya had personally seen Babycorn tearing envelopes in half with her teeth to open them.

For a second it looked like Babycorn was about to explain what exactly it was she meant, until she blinked a few times and instead she looked about as confused as the rest of them were. “Uhh, I don’t know. Maybe he did?” She had her doubts that everyone would just blindly accept ‘Just a feeling’ as a valid explanation.

“Is it just a hunch?” Coco asked.

Babycorn looked at him, confused. “Aren’t those the things on Dhalmels?”

“Babycorn. That is a hump.” Lunya helpfully explained.

“Oh!” That made way more sense, “Then yeah-! It’s a hunch! I have that!”

There was a collective sigh across the room, even from Himbo. Though perhaps the only reason he knew the difference was because of his background as a chef. Otherwise he most likely would have been on the same wavelength as Babycorn.

After letting out a sigh Lunya chuckled to herself and looked back down at the pile of letters now with a hunch of her own.

Before she could put her hunch to the test however, Andres spoke up. “Hey Babycorn? Can you just tell us what these dumb letters say so we can stop looking at them and go something else?”

In fact, Andres had very specific plans for today that had been rudely interrupted by him being nosy over Babycorn’s secret letters. But now that was taking too long and it was getting in the way of walking My Son along the Costa del Sol coast. Admittedly it hadn’t been the original plan, but several people told Andres that walking a Goobbue through Limsa Lominsa was a really bad idea.

Babycorn was quick to jump on Andres’ remark.

“I already told you! I don’t know what they say!” Babycorn snatched another cookie from the plate and angrily took a bite of it. It had been drilled in her head by now that talking with her mouth full was rude but she didn’t have anything else to say at that point.

“Are you sure you really don’t know what they say Babycorn?” Lunya innocently asked.

Babycorn quickly swallowed, “W-What do you mean? You said no one could read them, that includes me too! Besides, I’m not that good at reading anyway…”

Lunya closed her eyes and thought back to when she first confronted Babycorn about the letters. “If I remember right, you were worried about what was written in the letters even before I mentioned that they were written in a language that none of us know very well.” Lunya jumped out of her seat and began to walk towards where Babycorn sat on top of a table, “So then, what I’m wondering is…”

As Lunya’s eyes snapped open she stared directly at Babycorn, a knowing glint in her eyes. “Can you explain why you started panicking about what’s written in the letters then? If you really didn’t know, then you would have no reason to!”

Of course Lunya and many others knew that Babycorn tended to be a jumpy person. A leaf blowing in the wind would probably be enough to send her running on certain days, but there was something off about the way Babycorn was acting about this situation.

The others seemed to agree with what Lunya was theorizing, by the way they were nodding in understanding. Their own gazes turned to Babycorn to see what she would say in return of Lunya’s accusation.

Babycorn was quick to jump to her own defense, “O-Of course I panicked I mean…I-I mean even if I didn’t know what was written on there love letters are just super embarrassing!! Just the idea of one…I-It’s embarrassing!! I don’t know why you would ever make one!”

A loud and confident “Ha ha!” rang out from behind Lunya and Coco.

Andres Sacapuntas was now standing on the table he’d been previously sitting at. His hands were on his hips and on his face was the same dumb confident smirk that Babycorn always dreaded seeing on him. “That’s a lie if I ever heard one!” Andres’ voice sounded different for some reason. More boastful.

He pointed right at Babycorn, which due to her previously established jumpy nature, was enough to get her to jump back. “You ask me to help you read the stupid love letters you get all the time!” Andres shrugged and shook his head in a manner that looked like he was almost having a little too much fun doing this. “Heh-heh, I can’t remember you ever being embarrassed about them! Every time I read one you asked me to read another then another! You wanna know what I think-?”

“No!” Babycorn answered.

Despite Babycorn’s answer, Andres continued to talk. “I think Lunya’s right! And that she should explain why she’s right because all I really wanted to do was stand on this desk and say you were lying!” Then after all of that, Andres was back to sitting down and waiting to see what would happen next.

After all that build up the others couldn’t help but be confused. “Thanks Andres.” Lunya looked back at Andres in time to see him wink at her. At least, she guessed that he was winking at her, it was hard to tell with an entire eyepatch in the way.

Either way this was his own way of saying ‘You’re welcome.’ To his credit Andres did provide valuable evidence against Babycorn’s claim.

“Um! I mean-! You see-” Babycorn stumbled and tripped over every word trying desperately to find something else to say. Unfortunately there was nothing else she could say. It looked like she was finally caught in the tangled web of lies she had created herself completely by accident.

“I think what Andres was trying to say was that you’ve been lying to us this whole time!” By the playful smirk on Lunya’s face, it looked like she was having a lot more fun than she was letting on.

As stated before, Babycorn had been lying but that didn’t mean she was actually smart enough to realize there was no point in admitting she’d been caught. “I-I haven’t been lying about anything!” Babycorn pouted, “And that’s the truth!”

“You know exactly what’s written in those letters! There would be no reason for you to panic if you didn’t!” Lunya decided not to give Babycorn anytime for her to helplessly try and wiggle her way out of this, so she went right into her second point. “Not only that-! The Babycorn we aaall know wouldn’t even give a second thought to a bag of love letters! Even if they didn’t belong to you!”

“Yeah!” Coco chimed in himself, “You’d probably try to open them to see if they had chocolate inside…”

“You don’t know that!” Babycorn stood up on her tippy toes to try and make herself seem more intimidating. And just like the other times she had tried this, it had pretty much no effect.

“Wait-! Didn’t you actually do that last Valentione's day?” Coco recalled.

Babycorn held her breath, racking her brain for anything she could say that would prove what Coco said wrong. In hindsight she could have said something as simple as ‘No I didn’t!’ but Babycorn very often overcomplicated even the simplest of things. Much like this sentence and the last.

In the end her response was a simple, “Yeah?! So?!”

Lunya thought back to that day in particular. It had taken almost all day for her, Babycorn and the others to apologize to the droves of Mail Moogles on Babycorn’s behalf for committing mail theft. Maybe the promise she made that day not to steal any more mail was the reason why she got so upset before.

Babycorn couldn’t help but notice that everyone’s eyes were on her now. She was mad but she wasn’t sure who she was mad at. It wasn’t at her friends, nor was she mad at Hythlodaeus but maybe she should have been since he was the one who’d given her the troublesome letters in the first place.

Or maybe she was mad at Maize?

She was the one who’d written these stupid love letters in the first place!

“You really wanna know who that letter is for?” Babycorn dreaded what was going to happen in the next few minutes of her life. It almost made her wish she was back at the edge of the universe instead. Almost. “The one you’re holding in your hands right now?”

Lunya nodded. She leaned in holding the letter close to her

‘I know I can always trust you. I’ve always trusted you with everything, and so have you. I know.’

Babycorn hunched down, trying to make herself look as small as possible. A direct contrast to how big she was trying to make herself earlier. Lunya heard her say something, a faint whisper of a-something. Whatever she did say was too soft for any of them to hear.

‘I’ve wanted to ask you if we can run away together! Just the two of us!’

Himbo’s ear twitched, “Uhhh, what was that? Can you speak up?” Not that he was all that curious about the whole love letter affair everyone brought into the restaurant but it was hard not to get a little invested at this point.

‘If our paths ever start to separate, if both of us suddenly lose our way…That’s why…!’

Babycorn’s eye twitched, then all of a sudden, and without any warning, she jumped off of the table she had been standing on.

‘I’ll pull us back together again!’

“Maize wrote that one for Emet-Selch!! There I said it!! She wrote it for him!!!”

The letter in question almost slipped from Lunya’s hands in shock.

Before Lunya could even open her mouth to react accordingly Babycorn pointed at Coco. “And the one Coco’s holding she wrote for Hermes! You know-?! That Hermes?!” Unfortunately, Babycorn decided that she wasn’t going to stop at just those letters.

“The letter written with blood was for a girl that shared a piece of her chocolate with her!”

“And that one’s for a boy who was just in the same play as her!”

“That blue one is for some person who held the door open when she walked in!!”

“Someone delivered food for her twice and she wrote that one!”

“That one’s for Emet-Selch!! AGAIN!!!!”

There were so many letters scattered around that Babycorn spent the next few minutes listing off Maize’s several one off crushes. There were, of course, some repeat ones. As it turned out she had written to a girl that volunteered in a garden more than once and also (to Babycorn’s disappointment) Emet-Selch more than a couple of times.

Babycorn sat down and lowered her head in defeat. “The one Coco’s holding is the last one she wrote…” she let out a sigh and laid down on the table’s bench. It was the one written to Hermes just before the Final days.

Maybe Hythlodaeus had given her Maize’s letters not only because they “belonged” to her but maybe he also thought Babycorn could keep Maize’s business private.

Babycorn hoped that wherever Hythlodaeus was he wouldn’t be too mad about what she just did.

After Babycorn’s several outbursts the entire basement was silent, save for the sound of sizzling coming from the kitchen. When the smell of burning ovim meat started to fill the kitchen Himbo was the first of the group to come out of their shocked states. “Ah?! My meat!!” Himbo adjusted his chef’s hat and ran towards the stove.

Lunya looked at the letter then back at Babycorn then at Coco for good measure. “I see…” was all she said as she made her way over to the bench Babycorn was laying on. They were both very small so there was still room for Lunya to sit next to Babycorn.

Then Lunya let out a snort of laughter.

“Hey!!”

In the span of a second Babycorn sat up straight and turned towards her. Lunya was laughing out loud now, with tears in her eyes. “Lunyaaaaaaa! Noooooo!!! Stop laughiiiing” Babycorn whined, “I knew you guys would make fun of meeeee!” Babycorn used both of her hands to lightly punch Lunya’s shoulders. While Lunya kept laughing louder and louder, Babycorn kept crying her name out in vain.

“Heh.” Andres let out a single laugh. “I can’t believe your Ascian wanted to date skunk man.”

Unfortunately for Babycorn, Lunya was too busy laughing to correct Andres on his terminology.

Instead, Coco took it upon himself to set the record straight. “Um, actually Maize wasn’t an Ascian. She was just an Ancient! Like ours!” Coco looked over to Babycorn, making brief eye contact for a split second. He laughed, “But I guess she did want to date a skunk man.”

Babycorn screamed and jumped over the table to attack Coco.

———————————–

Lunya placed the last of the bandages on Babycorn, placed squarely on her forehead under her heavy bangs. “There we go!” Lunya took a step back and looked over at the fairly large dent on the floor that Babycorn had created when she crashed into it while trying to attack Coco.

Himbo had run out of the mansion in a hurry to find some way he could fix the floor before the restaurant opened, but not before giving the job of cooking food for the night to Andres. Thus really earning his Himbo namesake.

Coco, still hiding under the table, finally peeked his head out to see if Babycorn was still after his life. Lucky for him (and her) Babycorn had quelled her bloodrage and settled instead for angrily sitting on the floor with her arms and legs crossed.

“I’ve healed most of your injuries away but you have to make sure you don’t go crashing into any more floors.” Lunya flicked away a splinter that Babycorn had gotten in her hair, “Got it?”

As with any instruction that Lunya gave her, Babycorn promised to uphold it for as long as her memory cared to hold onto it. “Yeah…” she sulked, once again remembering the embarrassing ordeal that had occurred just moments before.

Before anyone could stop him, Andres decided to pop into the scene. “Oh my god. I still can’t believe that your weird tall past person wrote all these cringe letters to these people.” Andres would give every can of orange dye in his inventory to be able to read the letters out loud to Babycorn every second of the day.

“Yeah I know.”

Though Babycorn knew very well that just because she was a sundered part of Maize, it didn’t mean that she was Maize. Just a part of a greater whole. She certainly had an easier time wrapping her head around the concept considering her entire history of already being another version of some other person.

“It’s just embarrassing! You guys get it right?!” Babycorn cried, “Like…Like-! She wrote so many of them! And the people she wrote the letters to?! Why did she have to like-like them?! Ugh! Don’t tell me she wanted to marry them! Gross!” Babycorn stuck her tongue out and shook her head in disgust.

Lunya and Coco exchanged a pair of glances. Both of them happened to be privy to just four people Babycorn had actually previously shown more than a speck of romantic feelings for. Those lucky four happened to be Raya-O-Senna, Hildibrand, a random catboy in Gridania who once showed her where the Leatherworker’s Guild was, and a fancy Elezen guy in Ishgard.

Lunya held in a giggle and gave Babycorn a soft pat on her head. Truly the sundered and sliced apple did not fall far from the very tall tree. At least, not in this particular case it didn’t.

“It’s still pretty funny though.” Coco said at the risk of Babycorn leaping up to attack him again but he was 99 percent sure she wouldn’t dare try again.

“It’s hilarious actually.” There was just something inherently funny about Babycorn’s Ancient of all people to have had so many crushes. Lunya could only imagine that this was the exact scenario that Hythlodaeus saw coming when he gave Babycorn those letters.

Not only that, but Emet-Selch himself would probably be just as horrified, if not more so, than Babycorn was to learn that Maize had written love letters to him. Considering they had never been delivered to him.

“Lunyaaaaaa!!!” Babycorn whined again.

Right at that moment in time Babycorn’s traveling backpack came hopping down the stairs and towards them. It had a sad look on its face. Almost like it was actually feeling guilty that it had let all those letters spill out.

While Coco hid behind the table it hopped right past him and stopped in front of Babycorn. “Oh no! I’m sorry I left you alone outside Hungslta! I didn’t mean to!” She grabbed the sad backpack and set it right next to her.

Coco carefully came out of his hiding place, he was shaking all over. “I-It has a name?!” he didn’t want to add yet another thing Babycorn owned to his list of things he was very afraid of.

Lunya looked at the pack as it looked back at her. It looked like her first instinct was right, it was alive. Just a bit. “Aww! It’s cute!” Lunya playfully reached her hand out to give it a little pat before turning back to Babycorn.

Her expression grew serious. “It hasn’t eaten anyone right?”

“No one that I know!”

That wasn’t exactly the answer Lunya was hoping to hear.

At that moment Hungslta began to cough something up. Using one of its straps it reached down its zipper to pull something that it had been carrying around for a while now.

And to Babycorn’s horror it was-

“Huh?! An Emet-Selch mammet?!” Babycorn screamed, “Where did that come from?!”

Hungslta casually dropped it in Babycorn’s hands, her opinions on Emet-Selch at the moment withstanding, Babycorn would never let a mammet drop onto the ground and potentially break. She promised Cherrypit she would take care of all his dolls, no matter what.

Lunya took the opportunity in Babycorn’s introspective thinking to take the Emet-Selch mammet from her. “Hey?” There was all sorts of confusion in Babycorn’s voice. She wasn’t sure whether or not to be mad that someone had taken it away from her.

Lunya turned the mammet in all sorts of different directions, examining it carefully. Until she held it right side up and pointed it towards Babycorn.

“Aww! Look, I think Maize gave you his eyes!”

Babycorn screamed and ran up the stairs and out of the basement.

Lunya was right behind her, holding up the Emet-Selch minion like one would hold up a baby lion on a giant rock. She was struggling to call after Babycorn with how much she was laughing, “W-Wait! Ha ha! Babycorn you have to reaaaally look!” Babycorn’s screaming could still be heard from downstairs.

Coco scrambled out of his hiding place and followed after Lunya. “D-Don’t leave me here with that thiiiiing!! You guys!!!” He ran up the stairs with his eyes closed in fear, “It’s gonna eaaaat meeeeeee!!!” Coco yelled. Living in a semi-haunted house had made Coco adept at running around with his eyes closed.

Meanwhile, Hungslta happily hopped right behind Coco and up the stairs.

Andres looked up and wondered what the heck everyone was yelling about. And as he flipped a burger in the back he made sure to take note that he had no idea how to cook.

#endwalker spoilers #ffxiv spoilers #this all snowballed because i drew what babycorn had in her backpack #i always think its very funny how lunya can just pick babycorn up like nothing #yet babycorn cant lift up a bag of groceries without spraining her wrist #hungslta is a backpack that babycorn found herself in the great gubal library after endwalker when she went there with tilika #anyways yeah maize had a lot of crushes but she really liked emet-selch a lot ahahaha look at this doofus #then she liked hermes but she also loved a lot people #she wasnt too good with her words so she wrote confession letters sometimes she would consider giving them to the people she loved #but she always chickened out at the last second and trusted her bestie hythlodaeus with them themis has some too #she also thought lahabrea was hot too but more in a like Yeah hes hot kind of way not write a letter kind of way #theres also one for themis but one of her dolls was entrusted with that one #i cannot state enough just how many she wrote #venice is running around with like 20 of them #oh yeah venice is still around btw #but hes just a lifeless doll for now

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