#he's like a disney princess if animals followed disney princesses around to annoy them instead of helping them

[kqluckity]

some people are haunted by the narrative. some people are haunted by their past. some people are haunted by capybaras. qquackity is haunted by all of them

#he's like a disney princess if animals followed disney princesses around to annoy them instead of helping them #do i need to put a disclaimer here too that this is a light hearted post please don't take it too seriously i'm joking etc etc? #qsmp #mcyt tag #i'm just joking here. this is a joke.

[zarvasace]

Next is Depth! He is dark Sky. (He gets his own special dramatic portrait—the perspective mostly works? Idk I need to practice and find some good refs for this sort of thing.) So much rambling about him and his design under the cut.

Masterpost

The most striking thing about Depth is how normal he looks. Disregarding a few odd features, he looks like Just Some Guy, at least until he opens his mouth. He occasionally feigns being mute around others so he can keep the charade of being human up for longer, since his voice sounds truly awful. Depth is paler than Sky with much darker hair and orange-red eyes, but is otherwise identical. He doesn't mind that, and chooses to play it up a bit with very similar clothes, too. His tunic is rust-colored, opposite Sky’s spring green, and his chainmail is pointed and jagged on the ends instead of smooth. He wears a purple sash with more angular designs and lines, which matches the purple charm that keeps his cape on. 

Depth’s sailcloth is both a source of pride and a sore spot. He made it to contrast Sky’s, dark and tattered, but one of his very secret desires is to get one as beautiful as Sky’s, made by Sun, maybe dark, but functional and lovely and a reminder of her. 

See, Depth doesn't understand Sun—he doesn't actually know her, though he has memories from Sky. He wants her to be a damsel in distress that he can rescue, he dreams of her choosing him over his Light, but he doesn't realize that she won't. He loves his idea of her. While Depth follows [insert LU bad guy here]’s directives, he makes his own plans and he has his own agendas, and many of those plans aid him, in some way, to win Sun’s affection. 

However, as Depth has been growing into the leader role, he's starting to become attached to the other Darks. He's annoyed by them, but his plans have started to expand to benefit them in a way that doesn't necessarily benefit him, too. He might have a little altruism in him, after all. 

Despite that, unfortunately, Depth remains someone who would not save the world, but someone who intends to damn it over and over again. He doesn't flinch at the thought of Demise’s curse, in fact, he would welcome it. He likes the idea of having a purpose and a destiny. He wants to coddle the few people he cares about and would set everything on fire to do it. He says he loves Sun more than Sky ever could, but he would lock her away to keep her "safe."

Depth is the de facto leader of the group, since he's driven and has ambition. He has a very strict idea of what the other Darks should be doing and gets upset when they don't do it. He hates being touched and is ruthlessly practical. Once, when Nothing was being particularly annoying and tried to steal Depth’s sailcloth, Depth broke at least one of Nothing's fingers. He hasn't gotten close to injuring someone like that again, due to equal parts nobody bothering him like that again and him trying to be a little gentler. He doesn't hesitate to threaten injury to keep order, though. 

Depth knows about Ghirahim as a sword, and wants to wield it, but is under the impression that he needs to prove himself worthy first. (Whether or not [LU bad guy] actually intends to let him use it is a different story.) Depth is one of the more skilled sword fighters among the Darks, remembering formal training, but his sword isn't anything special. In a fight with Sky, they would be evenly matched if it weren't for Sky’s ability to use a Skyward Strike, and Depth's inability to block that much light. 

Depth’s special ability is his voice. In a mundane way, the others try to not make him use it, because it's almost painful to hear. In a magical way, Depth’s voice carries over long distances. When he sings, he can summon creatures like bats, crows, rats, and snakes, and they'll listen to him for a time. When he screams, his voice is a magical, short-range wave of destruction. Yes, he's an evil Disney Princess. Depth doesn't feel any strong affinity for the animals he attracts, but he doesn't let Dire or anyone else hurt them, and he doesn't send them to their deaths. He mostly uses them as spies and distractions. 

Depth is one of the more dangerous members of the Dark Chain—not because he’s physically imposing or particularly powerful, but because he can see beyond the next mission and is determined to ruin the Lights once and for all. He's one of those who would happily kill his Light—but only after Depth shows him how he has lost everything dear to him. 

#my art #lu z darks au #is this even lu anymore #i mean technically im using the lu interpretations so okay #linked universe

[riddles-n-games]

I think it's time for some more animal headcanons, but Evajacks edition-pets aka Evangeline is the one who suggests pets but Jacks is annoyed because all of them have weird attachment to him or bother him just because (he's sure all of them are VERY aware of his annoyance with them and do it on purpose). Basically, in summary Evangeline is a Disney Princess that attracts all animals but Jacks is also the rare Disney Prince with such capabilities, albeit in a strange way of his own without even knowing why.

Anyways, given that they live at the Hollow, all sorts of creatures live in the surrounding woods so they're attracted in some way or another to this place, mostly due to its magic. The little dragons that already inhabit the area around the Hollow don't really count as pets, according to Jacks, because Evangeline keeps letting them in even though they SHOULDN'T be there in the first place but Eva is very fond of them. Sometimes, they can be found curled up next to her when she's taking a nap or reading a book and Jacks gets annoyed because he wants her to himself (he’s secretly very cuddly and a touch-starved baby from all those years of yearning; he loves all the kisses and hugs he can get from his Little Fox 🥰). But he tolerates them and he’s fond of a particular blue one (his name is Azul but Evangeline likes calling him Little Blue) who is often Eva’s little helper and sometimes when Jacks makes hot chocolate or apple cider for Evangeline, the little dragon will heat up the mug for him.

They'd have a fox (yes, because anything is legal in the Magnificent North at this point and not like this is actually bad just bad owners-we do not condone those here), this beautiful rare pink female that Evangeline names Rosey. She’s the one who has a weird attachment to Jacks and loves following him around. Now, she became a pet once Evangeline found her in the woods one day injured with a leg stuck in a hunter's trap (not one of Jacks'). She managed to free the vixen and brought her back to the inn to treat her; the Hollow magically set up a place for treatment which made things so much easier. When Jacks found out, since it was one of the times he wasn’t trailing her as she had gone to the apple orchard, he pretended to be annoyed and exasperated as to why she bothered bringing her to heal when she was likely going to free herself or die. Of course, the love of his life was very much unamused by that statement and she continued on with her task. However, later that first night with them, Evangeline woke up to go get water and check on the fox but to her surprise, she found Jacks tending to her instead. He rewrapped the wound in fresh bandages, held up her water bowl so she could drink and gave her some raw meat from his latest hunt, and most shocking of all, he let her rest her head on his thigh as he stroked her fur and even sang quietly to her. Evangeline went back to bed but she never told Jacks that she knew what he did although he likely sensed her presence anyways. Ever since then, Jacks has been figuratively attached to the hip with Rosey despite him hating this, especially since she often loves pawing at his leg to get a treat for him (but he does often have a little bag tied around his waist for that specific purpose; again, BIG softie). He has lost his finesse for sneaking around due to her constantly trailing him, giving him away. Rosey does have free reign to roam but she prefers staying at the Hollow with her favorite human (Jacks, of course; he needs someone to keep him company and share treats with, duh-though, she adores Evangeline, just bothers her less although Eva is very amused by Rosey's antics with Jacks). Eventually, they also have another addition join them, an old friend that somehow made her way over to them, Princess of the Fluffykins! Eva was very delighted to see her again and the two vixens actually get along quite well. One of the cutest things they do together is curl up by the fireplace on cold winter nights in a basket with plushy heart pillows and a blanket to keep them warm.

If they owned a cat, I could see them having the equivalent of a Norwegian Forest Cat (it could be called the Great Northern or the Northern Longhair) or a Persian (Elantine's Cat, the Elantine, the Valendan Royal, Meridian Fancy, or Empress's Longhair). But I could really see it being a Persian type cat and it would be a male called Mr. Fluff that adores Evangeline but absolutely HATES Jacks (the feeling is mutual). This feline can hold a grudge like nobody's business, rivalling Jacks's own reputation on that front (and this man has been alive for at least a century, longer than that furball as Jacks likes to call him) and they can last for long periods like the one between him and the Fate. No one is safe and the tension could be sliced with a sword. Though they avoid each other like the plague, many times has Jacks found the furball sitting in his go-to spots, especially if Evangeline is there and Mr. Fluff has the audacity to look smug, too smug despite swishing his tail unhappily at his other owner. Jacks often tries resorting to mind controlling the furball until Evangeline catches on and berates him for it but the cat will try scratching him otherwise until Jacks eventually either gets a chair for himself or manages to get the grumpy feline to bug off but not before he gives a swat and a warning hiss. The only one to keep the peace is Evangeline and despite the household always being a whisker away from collapsing in on itself, Eva is really the strongest glue.

#evangeline fox #jacks #jacks prince of hearts #jacks of the hollow #evajacks #jacks x evangeline #animal headcanons #evajacks headcanons #evajacks pet headcanons #eva got to have her fox #jacks is owned by that cat and he KNOWS it too just doesn't want to admit #a curse for true love spoilers #acftl spoilers #once upon a broken heart #the ballad of never after #a curse for true love #ouabh #tbona #acftl

[sardonic-the-writer]

c!Technoblade x Reader

━"Golden"

━Technoblade

━Tw: None

━Notes: This was requested by @Sqermy_Geco Hope this is good enough dude!

━Song: "Lemon Boy" By: Cavetown

━GN!

Techno romped through the woods with a grunt. He swung a dull machete, getting rid of any loose greenery in his way and creating a sloppy path. His horse, Carl, followed lazily along behind the broad shouldered man. The animal was munching on a stray piece of hay, looking like he had just walked straight out of a children's picture book for barnyard animals.

Techno brushed some stringy strands of pink hair out of his face that had become untucked from the loose bun that rested at the nape of his neck. The air was hot and humid in this part of the forest, making his hair dampen with sticky sweat.

Some small critters chittered in the tall trees above the pair. If he could understand them, Techo might have understood that they were making fun of his strange skull he wore as a mask. But sadly, Techno leaned more towards the anarchist end of the spectrum instead of a Disney Princess.

With some more grunts and groans of annoyance, Technobalde finally turned around to face his faithful steed. Standing at a towering height, he sheathed his machete with a hiss.

Carl barley even looked at his owner, too used to his dramatic behavior at this point. Techno spread his arms out as if to say, 'well?'.

"What're we supposed to do now?" He grumbled in a disgruntled manor. Carl seemed to roll his eyes, not even bothering to hold his head up anymore than he needed to. Techno continued to stand there for a moment with his arms outstretched, growing even more annoyed with how disinterested Carl was acting

"Useless horse...you're lucky that I like you." He whispered that last part in fear that someone would hear him. Carl's ears perked up in the slightest bit of joy, but Techno either didn't notice or chose to ignore it.

The ex-warrior had spun on his heel again. Bringing out a sharper blade this time, he hacked away at the shrubbery in front of them once more.

It took him a couple of tries to find a better clearing, but eventually the vegetation became less thick. It allowed him and Carl to walk through more clearly.

Techno exhaled sharply from his nose, a puff of steam following in the hot air. He hadn't expected his journey to search for Phil to be this extravagant. He had expected a couple big trees and night of rain, not full ass forests with mini ecosystems and temperatures fit for a tropical storm.

"Hey, you dropped something."

"hEh?"

Techno whirled around while withdrawing his sword quickly. He didn't want to take any chances. This new voice could be Dream for all he knew.

But instead of seeing a green adorning man with a ceramic mask, Techno watched as the tip of his sword met the neck of a figure leaning softly on a tree next to him.

Techno's face hardened from the initial surprise; analyzing them with suspicion. The new person had moss growing on various parts of their body, giving off a sort of soft look to them. Some stray mushrooms and other fungi sprouted from their head and shoulder blades with pebbles laying underneath them. It gave off a natural sort of vibe with how wody they looked and all. They also wore baggy clothing that looked almost like pajamas with how soft they were. Beige and brown seemed to be the only colors in their wardrobe.

A hand reached up to their mouth. Techno tensed his muscles in preparation to swing the weapon and chop their heads off, but all the person did was stifle a yawn.

"I said you dropped that." They pointed to something at the ground by Technos feet. Their eyelids drooped slowly with the incantation that they were tired. In all honesty, Techno was becoming more and more wary of this person. Not because they posed a threat, but because they weren't screaming in fear or shaking like a leaf. After all, that was the general reaction someone had when meeting him.

Spotting a quick glance at what their finger was loseley pointing too, he saw his signature compass with the words Phil engraved in silver font. Scooping it up hasilt and showing it into his robes deep pockets, Techno resumed to starting the new person down.

"Who are you and what is your business here?" His voice jumbled up a few of the words with his deep sounding voice, causing the person opposite him to blink once.

"Im (Y/n). I was just taking a nap when you woke me up. You're quite loud you know?" They had a soothing voice; like the one you would hear read an audiobook to you out loud. (Y/n) rubbed their eyes after a second. Not in a cute way like a puppy would, more like a highschool student that had stayed up too late reading fanfiction and was running off of three cups of coffee.

"Taking a nap?" Techno elected to ignore the last part of their sentence.

"Yeah." They turned their head, the skin on their throat getting dangerously close to the tip of the sword Techno still had pointed at them. "Over there." (Y/n) watched as Techno followed their line of vision. Just over a couple meters away lay a large rock underneath a shady tree. There were a couple of snails and slugs resting on the side, looking far more comfortable than Techno had felt all day. The sight made him feel a bit envious that such small creatures could be more at peace than him.

"Why were you sleeping on a rock?" He asked. So far, everything about them had confused him. (Y/n) bore a striking resemblance to how George would act, with their sleepy state and all, but at the same time was a lot more chill. Techno was sure he'd never catch George within three feet of a slug, much less acting this calm while having a dangerous netherite weapon right at their adams apple.

"So...are you going to hang around and nap with me, or do you have to go?" (Y/n) questioned the male, turning back to him with dull eyes. They had failed to answer his question, but Techno just waved it off. Techno faltered. A nap? Why would he take a fucking nap?

"You look like you need one." They added on, going as far to nod their head at his eyebags. Techno wondered if he really looked that tired. Phil told him that he looked like death on a stick all the time, but I guess that's what happens when you're on the constant grind. No sleep for the mighty.

"Uh, no. I have to be somewhere." He finally brought his sword down with drawn eyebrows. (Y/n) shrugged, their large clothes shifting when they did so.

"It was a nice try. Now I guess I have to-" They paused to let out a tremendous yawn "-go tend to some of the animals now that I'm up." They smacked their lips after yawning for so long.

Techno rolled his eyes, already leaving. This interaction had been kind of pointeless. He had only wasted precious time in finding his way to Phil.

"I didn't expect you to say yes anyways. Everyone always leaves. Even that nice little blonde kid and his mean brother. He had a scary mask. Stole some of my stuff too." (Y/n) added the last part as soon as Techno was close to leaving completely. All of a sudden the pinkette spun back around and grabbed the front of their shirt in one swift mood.

(Y/n) looked the most shocked and awake that Techno had ever seen when he did that. But the man paid no attention. He chose to focus on her words instead.

"You said you saw a man in a mask?" He breathed out slowly. (Y/n) nodded with sharp pupils.

"Did he say where he was going? Did the other kid do much?" Techno barked. They didn't respond at first, prompting Techno to growl and shake them a little. "Answer me!"

"They didn't say, but the taller man took all my torches and a fishing net I had." They said with a look riing on the edge of confusion and fear. Techno cursed while letting go of (Y/n). They stumbled back a bit from the force, already looking more alert now. Being manhandled by a scary looking stranger does that to you.

"You're coming with me." He gestured at them with a ringed finger. "I need to find out where they went and you're my only lead at this point, no matter how sad that sounds." Techno spoke up suddenly after a beat of silence. The corners of (Y/n)'s lips dipped a little, but they didn't protest.

The whole reason Techno was traveling this far out to see Phil was to find Tommy after all. The pair had been exchanging letters via crows for a couple weeks, talking about searching for the kid. Despite how much history Techno and Tommy had, the piglin knew that exile was not a kind thing; especially for someone of Tommys age. Snagging Dream in the process of the search would just be a bonus at this point.

And now that he had a witness that could also act as a guide through this damn forest, Techno was adamant with taking (Y/n) with him. It didn't matter how weird they looked and acted, he was just happy that he was one step closer to cornering his blonde brother.

(Y/n) sighed, following behind Technoblade as he walked over to Carl with tense shoulders. This was bound to be an interesting trip.

THREE UPDATES IN THREE DAYS??? WHO EVEN AM I

I watched Tommys YLYL loose stream today. His chat is so unfunny I swear. Although he did look really nice today, as always :D

This was my second request. Im serious when I say to drop those requests on me. Dont be shy, I should have them out within the next day depending on how in depth you are about them.

Also, Karl needs to close his chat istg. They baby and put him down too much, as if he can't stand his ground. They make him seem like this small puppy dog that can't do anything by itself. Man's is litteraly a grown man with his own agenda and life, so shut up.

Thanks for sticking around to read my shit. I love you all so much. I feel like I don't say that enough. Please take care of yourself.

And you, yes you, you look especially nice today.

Why are all the people that read this so pretty

1805 words

-WayToSarcastic

#technoblade #technoblade x reader #dsmp #dsmp x reader #unique (y/n) #fanfiction #(y/n) #this was a request #cool plot! #karls chat sucks

[lucifers-favorite-pen]

How The Obey Me Brothers Would Do in a “The Forest” AU

Fandom: Obey me

Pairings: None

Warnings: Swearing, idiocy, mild gore

The Forest was just released for the new Oculus headset, and Levi could NOT pass up this opportunity. However, it’s just his luck he got his hands on a cursed copy of the game, and ended up sucking the House of Lamentation into the game! Here’s how our favorite boys faired in the universe of “The Forest”

Lucifer:

Is pissed.

Bitches about it heavily

Is irritated that he has to find and wrangle a digital son now as well as his siblings. 

Would definitely help everyone else build a little shelter before nightfall, but would be grumbling about how much work he has to do at home and how far behind this would put him. 

Doesn’t let MC lift a finger and is 100% a mother hen the whole time. 

Seems inconvenienced by the whole cannibal thing, until he realizes magic doesn’t exist here and he has to use his melee fighting skills to kill them. Skills that are a little rusty...

Teams up with Beel to be the camp dads and take care of everyone

Super paranoid about the stability of the walls and the house at the beginning

Dies from eating a poisonous berry. He didn’t know he could be affected by poison in this game.

Over all, does his best to keep everyone alive, and feels really bad when someone dies. 

No longer feels bad when he learns that the worst thing that happens is you lose all your stuff and you respawn. 

A solid 7/10 job. Probably dies a few times due to someone else being an idiot, but is a pretty good survivalist when push comes to shove. 

Mammon:

Is also pissed

He was in the middle of counting the grimm from his latest modeling gig when he was sucked into the game.

Bitches and moans with/at Lucifer, but tries to build and maintain a shelter.

Who’s Timmy?

I don’t think crows exist in the game, but seagulls do and they all land on his fingers and he makes friends with them.

Is very upset when one of his brothers kills a bird for food or to simply carry around its head as a trophy. 

Sees cannibals and tries to trade with them with the grimm he has in his pockets.

Dies on sight.

Now when he sees or hears cannibals he screams and cowers behind MC 

When they go away or the screaming stops, he stands up straight and dusts off his jacket “Psh, I wasn’t afraid! I was trying to comfort you from behind! YOU were the one afraid”

After a while in the game, he gets his shit together and honestly kinda kills it. 

This is the avatar of greed, you know he is going to gather and horde so many valuable resources and then guard them with his life. 

“Mammon I’m hurt please stop hissing at me and let me have the medicine bottle”

*hiss* “You can have ONE pill and ONE pill only”

Over all, the definition of “They had us in the first half ngl”

8/10 for managing the group’s food and resource stores so well and only dying a fuck ton of times. 

Levi

...oops?

Feels quite guilty, but is also secretly pumped to immerse himself in the game.

Was extremely skilled at this game IRL and tries to explain how it works to everyone else, but they’re all so pissed and no one’s listening.

“That’s fine, who would want to listen to a yucky otaku like me anyway!” 

Magic doesn’t exist here, but that doesn’t stop Levi from yeeting himself into the ocean and turning into a giant sea monster while his brothers complete the game. 

They don’t want his help? They don’t want to know that the cannibals can’t swim and that they’ll be safer if they build a boat and live in a boathouse on the water? Fine. Then Perish <3

That goes for Timmy too, fuck that kid. 

Doesn’t want MC to suffer tho, so he’ll kill a few sharks and throw them up over the wall with his tail. (I’m assuming that if the game is released for Oculus Rift that they will get their shit together and also make sharks edible)

Is having a grand time taking over the ocean. 

Will sometimes go to shore to visit MC. Everyone is confused as to where he has been and how he is thriving. He just smiles and jumps back in the water.

10/10 strats. Never once dies. Tells everyone what they were doing wrong and how they could have had it easier when they beat the game and are back IRL out of spite.

Satan

Angy

Is throwing things in their spots while building the shelter, but is still helping

Spawns in with the book he was reading in his hand.

That book is eventually stolen from his grasp in the night and used as kindling for the fire.

Lucifer explains that if he didn’t steal his book they all would have died. 

Satan does not give a fuck

“Use the kid’s stupid fucking drawings you dipshit!”

“I can’t they’re story items!”

Goes on a rampage and kills so many deer, effectively feeding the group for a week.  

Sees the cannibals for the first time and thinks “same” 

Pretty good fighter and pretty resourceful when it comes to making armor and weapons. 

Outfits MC with the all of his prototypes and tells them to go run at a tree

“How do you feel, MC?”

“Like I ran at a tree with a deer skin on my chest”

“Interesting”

Very upset at the whole no magic thing, but will work with it.

Over all, 7/10 job. Dies a couple times from cannibals and the other monsters, but makes it to the end.

Asmo

Oh dear. 

Oh dear this sweet summer child. 

“Why are we looking for this child when he’s so ugly?”

Is distraught and so very upset this is happening to him. Cries variations of “woe is me” for the first five hours of game play

Does not help build a shelter

Does not help gather food and resources

Does not help period. Only whines. 

Sees cannibals sprinting and jumping towards the shelter and pushes Lucifer in front of him

“Take him! I’m too pretty to die!”

“HEY!”

What follows after the first three days is a slow decent into madness. 

Ends up butt ass naked for the majority of the game because the clothes he spawned in with were ripped to shreds and “No animal skin clothing in this world is good enough to adorn my perfect body”

Starts speaking to the animals and becomes friends with all of them like a Disney Princess. 

The animals come to his aid when he lets out a specific shriek that calls them to his side.

Spends his time weaving flower crowns for MC, his brothers, and his animal friends. 

Everyone knows he’s snapped when Beel brings back the dead body of a cannibal and Asmo dips his dirty little finger into an open wound and wipes the blood on his lips. 

“I just love this shade! Don’t you?” 

5/10 job. Dies multiple times from trying to befriend hostile animals, but also has an army of woodland creatures at his disposal by the end of the game.

Beel

Bro you know this mans is about to make this game his bitch

Spawns in with a cheeseburger.

Eats the cheeseburger.

“I have a son?”

“I HAVE A SON :D”

“Where is my son?”

Honestly the thought of Beel in this game is so sexy like I’m simping so hard rn 

Grab your water skins and buckle up bc it’s about to get thirsty up in here y’all

A shirt? Beel doesn’t know what those are anymore

He crafts one of those shoulder harnesses out of hide and bone and sticks a bone shiv thing on the forearm 

Don’t mess with this demon when his dinner and his family is on the line.

Is not afraid of anything except the death of his loved ones.

Cannibals? Nah, dinner.

Other monsters? Nah, dinner. 

Full shirtless lumberjack mode with Lucifer, and later Mammon, when cutting down trees in the forest. MC is drooling. 

Definitely makes a game out of how many trees they can all chop down before giving up.

Plays knuckle bones with Belphie and MC using real knuckle bones. 

Doesn’t want to share his food with the others but will if they didn’t get anything to eat that day. 

Chef Beel. That’s it that’s the post. 

10/10 job. Only dies once throwing his body over Belphie’s sleeping one to save him. 

Get’s annoyed when he finds out Belphie was fake sleeping

Very sexy. Would watch. 

Belphie

Nah dude no thanks 

Alexa play “Wake Me Up When September Ends”

Alexa play “Billie Jean”

“And the kid is not my son”

Get’s so fucking pissed when he finds out he can’t sleep without everyone else deciding to sleep too so he just lays down with his eyes closed and hopes for the best.

Doesn’t help with anything unless someone asks him to

Even then he’ll roll his eyes like brat and slowly do it

An actual sloth

No like he clings to MC and Beel like a sleepy sloth 100% of the time

He can’t find any cows and is sad so he settles for the local deer instead. 

Fake sleeps through most of the whole thing, paying monster and cannibals alike absolutely no mind. Beel will take care of it.

Freaks the fuck out when Beel dies on top of him and goes into a rage and kills everything in sight. 

Very sweet reunion when he realizes that they just respawn.

No longer pays death any mind and continues fake sleeping. 

0/10. Virtually useless. 

Masterpost

#obey me shitpost #obey me memes #obey me headcanons #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me levi #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmo #obey me asmodeus #obey me beel #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphie #obey me belphegor #obey me swd #obey me! #the forest #obey me au #obey me shall we date #obey me fanfiction #obey me

[obeymeluv]

Could I please request an MC who has two male Doberman, who wondered in the Devildom somehow and found them? They are both very aggressive and protective of their owner, following them around RAD and anywhere really. Also I imagine them smelling MC and having the brothers scents on them, and they don’t like it so they start rubbing their scent over MC instead, and becoming territorial over them. Thank you and I love your work!❤️

I’m not sure which characters this was for since there weren’t any tags so I just did the bros. Enjoy! School is starting to kill me but I’m also trying to get ahead so things don’t get as messed up as they were last semester. The likelihood of it messed up is very high and out of my control and I’ve yet to come to terms with that. Anyways, enjoy :)

Lucifer:

He quite likes dogs so when these two wandered through the portal on accident, he wasn’t against letting them stay.

They look like proud, tough dogs. He’s a fan. They look like they could make some serious faces and he’s quite amused

Almost makes him sad that he can’t have Cerberus close like that

Did NOT expect them to be so aggressive and protective over you

Good boy statements retracted for the BOTH of them!

Super salty they see him as a threat (HIM? HOW DARE THEY?!) and will actually growl back at them and flare his wings if no one’s around and it’s on the wrong day

They are CONSTANTLY rubbing up on you and making efforts to separate you and he hates it

They jump up on the furniture and stretch out on it so obnoxiously! It’s ridiculous! One of them even took his chair when he got up to get something and you didn’t make them give it back!

His only reprieve is spiriting you away to his study and even then, they whine until you come out

Tries to be very subtle about spraying you down/wiping you off if he thinks you smell too much like them. He’s starting to hate the smell.

Mammon:

All pets are good pets to this one (birds are just the best).

He might be planning to steal your dogs. They look regal and badass and perfect for someone like The Great Mammon, you know?

Wants to play with them and is very sad when they want nothing to do with him, and borderline get aggressive with him. 

Boy is super offended. HE’S THE GREAT MAMMON!

Mammon goes to you for comfort (TAKE THAT, YA DUMB DOGS!) but has another freak out when they thread themselves through his legs to separate you.

He somehow accidentally ends up straddling one and it tried to bite him in the Grimm (and he’s not talking about his wallet!). He backs up so fast he trips over one of them and tails go waggin’ as they smugly snuggle up to you and he gets smacked with puppy tail

All of his openings to sit or wiggle his way next to you have been replaced with puppy face. Or they’ll lay in front of the space and growl at him when he moves towards it

They’ve basically trapped him in the hallway outside your room because they just sit in the doorway and growl at him

He pouts and goes to complain to his crows

Levi:

Didn’t trust the dogs when they came in, and his sin animal isn’t even a prey animal! They make him skittish and he’s not sure why.

They just look loud and he’s not a fan.

He gets very flustered when they stand between the two of you, growl, or give those airy barks.

Levi usually triggers his demon form to protect himself and has wrapped himself in his tail

The dogs sometimes run him into the wall if he tries to walk down the hall with you. You try to wrangle them and keep them on your side only, but one has broken off, fallen back, and come up and nudged him in the back. He nearly hit the roof!

They don’t seem as focused on him as his other brothers, so he’s grateful for that. In fact, the worst thing they ever did (besides pretending to bite but not actually getting close enough to do so), was farting in a space HE wanted to sit in! AND OF COURSE SOMEONE CAME IN AFTER AND THOUGHT HE DID IT! HE DID NOT!

They seem to steal all your pets and affection and it definitely send him into a muttering spiral in his room. 

Satan:

Also admires these proud looking doggos, although he’s partial to cats

Probably has the worst relationship with them out of all the brothers because he KNOWS what they’re trying to do and is ready to play this game

What’s this? A ball? GO GET IT! Given how demons can throw, the dogs may be gone for a while

100% reads about animal psychology in his spare time. Anything about canine or pack dynamics, too. He WILL speak their language and make himself acceptable enough to hang out with you like before they came along. If they do not accept him, they will submit to him.

If they make angry noises at him, he makes angry noises back. It’s not childish, it’s training them! He and Lucifer have the most success with this ‘backtalk’ because of the aura they give off

These are not dumb dogs. They will get back at him, too. It’s very much a ‘2 vs. 1, distract him!’ where one of them grabs a book and leads him on a chase while the other snuggles up to you and takes his spot

He may stay away from you a bit after that, nursing his precious book

If they watch you leave from the House of Lamentation during school days, he makes faces at them as you leave. Of course, he doesn’t know Diavolo gave you and Lucifer clearance to bring them to RAD so he hears the door open across the yard and just starts booking it because they’re coming for him (he has no regrets).

Asmodeus:

How could anyone (or anything) hate him? Have you seen him?!

Definitely compliments them before he realizes how territorial they are. Admires their shiny coat

Asmodeus can negate most of the bad blood with his charming gaze but it does get exhausting. The dogs always seem on the cusp, even with it

Still cuddles up to you and snuggles with you but does so sparingly because it takes a lot out of him to use his charm on animals (harder than people), especially when he can’t feed to keep his energy up

Starts telling himself things that make it sound reasonable for not being around them (”I don’t want to smell like dog,” or “I don’t want to ruin my outfit.”)

Thinks their territorial behavior is cute but also annoying. He already has to deal with his brothers and now he has to deal with DOGS, too? Ugh...

Realizes he can outsmart them with some basic demon transportation and often uses that to steal you away. He’s grown up in a house full of brothers so he can block out some whining. It’s fine.

Asmo: 1, dogs: 0.

Beelzebub:

Would any animal actually hate Beel? He seems like such a cinnamon roll soul that I can’t really any animal hating him. He’s basically a Disney princess in a demon body

These dogs may be territorial but he thinks they’re more bark than bite

They may make an exception for Beelzebub because Beelzebub = food.

Do they stand in his way or try to herd him away from you? Beel honestly thinks they’re playing and will pick them up and move them, too.

The dogs are kind of stunned after that. HE JUST PICKED THEM UP?! Their confidence is shaken

If they bark at him, he’ll make a noise back. May get a little too into it and turn it into a ‘who can make the biggest noise?’ thing. He wins that, too, not realizing demon vocals are different for dog hearing.

All the dogs really have to their name when it comes to Beelzebub is that they can make it into your lap faster or that you’ll stop what you’re doing to scratch their head if they put it on your leg. That’s it.

Beel is the only one they don’t really bother because they’ve tried and lost that fight too many times.

Belphegor:

He is the failed Beelzebub prototype. Where Beel succeeds because of his strength and mannerisms, Belphie cannot. He’s too quiet and passive.

Honestly, he scared the dogs as much as they scared him. He was probably asleep when they came through the portal one day after a quick trip back home

The dogs literally start barking and prancing forward. Belphie is annoyed. Too much noise. Cracks his tail like a whip to make it stop.

The dogs honestly don’t even track him that much or make a fuss when he shows up because he’s gone most of the day. It’s a constant ‘forgot you were here, you’ve done me a frighten!’ with Belphie

He’s definitely scared them so bad they’ve peed on the floor (but he’s only done it twice). The first time was when they tried to take his pillow from him, and the second time was when one of them bit his tail and tried to pull him off  the couch after you’d slid in beside him

Overall, these dogs have learned not to mess with Belphie.

[amarits]

M: Got any premises on the back burner that you’d care to share?

So very many, but rather than go through them I’ll share a scene from Camp Murder. I’ve got a couple chapters of that one written that I keep almost posting. The kiddos are middle-schoolers attending a summer camp, and Roy is having a good ol’ sulk in the woods.

--

Roy had been following rabbit tracks for ten minutes when they stopped abruptly at a set of large cat tracks. He crouched beside them, studying the shape of the pads. Were those cougar tracks? This close to camp? He took pictures of the clearer tracks and started following them. Backwards, of course. The last thing he wanted was to actually find a cougar. But maybe if he could get an idea of where it was coming from, he’d know if it was a risk to the campers. Usually, cougars avoided areas with people. 

He followed the tracks on a winding path out of the thinner, friendlier woods that surrounded the camp into the thicker, untamed forest that stretched on for half the state. He and Ollie had hiked for days through this and never gotten close to the other side. 

In a mile, the flat ground would start rising in small hills that eventually became mountains. They usually did a camp trip to one of the smaller hills at the end of the week, and had a cookout at the top to celebrate “conquering the mountain”. He snorted. It was ridiculous. He and Ollie had climbed real mountains and that took days, not a couple of hours of casual walking. 

He lost the tracks at one of the low rock outcrops stretching out from the mountains. That was probably good. The mountains were where the cougar was supposed to be. Far from camp, and unlikely to bother them when they came out as a group. Still raised the question of why it had come so close in the first place, but maybe it was hunting a deer. 

He walked around the outcrop, looking for more tracks. He should probably start heading back towards camp. It was already going to be almost dinner by the time he got back, and Ollie was only gonna get angrier the later he was. 

His eye caught on another cougar track and he turned to inspect it. It was next to what appeared to be… shoe prints? 

“Hello!” a voice exclaimed at the same time that a small figure swung down to dangle upside down from a branch directly in front of him. 

“Jiminy Christmas!” Roy exclaimed, stumbling backwards and raising his hands in… was that supposed to be a martial arts position? Stupid. What was he going to do, karate chop the threat?

“What are you doing out here?” the figure asked. Now that it was still, Roy could see it was a boy about his age with black hair, blue eyes, and deeply tan skin. Mexican, maybe? His bright orange camp shirt hung down around his shoulders and he swung back and forth on the branch by his knees. 

“What am I doing out here?” Roy asked. “What are you doing out here?”

“Talking to the birds.” He had an accent, but it didn’t sound the same as the Mexican kids he’d met. More European.

“Talking to the… What are you, a Disney princess?” 

The boy grinned like that was a compliment instead of the insult it was meant to be. “Maybe.” He swung harder and let go with his legs, flipping to land on his feet in front of Roy. Roy stepped back to avoid being hit, but shouldn’t have bothered. The boy moved like he was born to fly. 

“I’m Dick,” he said.

“Roy,” Roy replied cautiously. “Do you even know where you are?” 

“Sure!” Dick exclaimed, turning his whole body to point. “Camp is that way.” 

Roy silently pointed in the actual direction, about 40 degrees clockwise from where Dick was pointing. He’d made sure to keep track of landmarks and the sun while he walked so he wouldn’t get lost. 

Dick kept his finger raised. “What makes you think you’re more right than me?” 

“I live here,” Roy said, also continuing to point steadily in the correct direction. He could keep this up as long as Dick could.

“In the woods?”

“Basically. My dad’s a counselor. I’ve been here for months.”

“Huh,” Dick said, mulling this over as he lowered his hand. “That sounds awful.”

“I know, right!” Roy exclaimed. It was the first time someone had said “awful” instead of “great” or “fun” and he felt vindicated. “I am so tired of everything. You’re new, though. Why’d you skip out on activities?”

“They were trying to make us sit still and make bracelets and it was sooooo boring.” As if to punctuate his point, Dick flipped backwards into a perfect handstand, and then just stayed on his hands while he talked. “I asked to use the bathroom, and then a bird was singing at me and that seemed way more interesting so I followed it.” He whistled in an actually pretty good imitation of a chickadee. 

Roy felt weird talking to Dick’s feet, so he crouched to look him in the face. “Well, you’re lucky I found you. You’d probably be lost forever and die.”

Dick didn’t seem at all concerned, which probably meant he was stupid, but at least he was interesting.

“What are you doing out here?” Dick asked, swinging his legs back and forth without his upper body moving at all.

“Following cougar tracks.”

“Cougar?” Dick asked. Roy wasn’t sure if he didn’t recognize it because he was used to a different name for them or if English wasn’t his first language.

“Puma,” Roy said. “Mountain lion.”

At ‘lion’, Dick’s face lit up and he flipped back onto his feet. “Where?”

Roy pointed at the ground under him. “You’ve trampled all over that one.” 

Dick lifted a foot and looked down at the muddled track under his hand and shoe prints. “Whoops.”

“I’m sure there’s another one nearby,” Roy said, searching in the direction the cat seemed to be coming from. There were more shoe prints. Big ones. He glanced back at Dick’s feet. Definitely too big to be his. Poachers, maybe? He scowled. That would explain why the cougar left its territory. 

“What?” Dick asked, trailing behind him.

“Nothing. Here.” He pointed at another pawprint. This one also had a shoe print overlapping the edge, but it was cleaner. 

Dick hurried over and stared down at it. His eyes narrowed and he tilted his head. “That’s not a lion track,” he said. “It’s a tiger.”

“It’s not either,” Roy said. “Mountain lion. Lions and tigers live in Africa.”

“Not all of them,” Dick said.

“All the ones that don’t live in zoos.”

“Nuh uh,” Dick insisted. “We have a tiger.” Roy rolled his eyes at the blatant lie. “We used to have a lion too, so I know what the prints look like.”

“Mountain lion,” Roy repeated. “You don’t even know what animal I’m talking about. Mountain lions are smaller and eat deer.” He held a hand at about waist height. He thought that was right. He’d never actually seen one in person, though he and Ollie had turned around a few times when they saw tracks. 

“Then this is definitely a tiger,” Dick said. “Because the prints are tiger-sized.”

Roy gave up on trying to talk sense to him, following the shoe prints instead. It looked like there was more than one style of tread, but it was harder to tell on the dusty slope up the rocky outcrop. They were big, though. Definitely not kids. Could be counselors, but he didn’t think it was likely. Could be a band of poachers. They followed the cougar, not perfectly aligned, but definitely traveling parallel. 

“What are you doing?” Dick asked, following. While Roy tried to walk lightly, separate from the trail he was following, Dick barged through like Godzilla entering Tokyo, destroying the path underfoot. At least we’ll have no problem knowing which way we came from, he thought, annoyed.

“Tracking poachers,” he said. “Probably. I guess they could just be campers.” He didn’t think so, though. Not with how closely they were following the cougar tracks.

Though to be fair, that’s what he and Dick were doing too.

Dick gasped. “They want to kill the tiger?”

Roy felt the last of his patience slipping away. “It’s not a ti—!” His voice didn’t so much trail off as just stop, the rest of his word swallowed by a silence more complete than the end of their voices and steps. There were no bird sounds, he realized. He should have noticed earlier. Prey animals disappeared when predators were around. 

At the top of the outcrop, a man lay much too still, a bleeding gash in his side. Roy knew he was dead before his inhale became an exhale. There was too much blood. His skin was too white. He thought he could see actual guts through the sliced skin, and he was not going to throw up. He was not going to…

Oh, god. He had to at least check. He knew first aid and CPR and pretty much every emergency medical procedure they’d teach a thirteen-year-old. Normally when he was hiking, he had a simple med kit in his pouch, but he didn’t have it, didn’t have any gear at all because he hadn’t planned to be hiking. Stupid, stupid. Ollie had taught him to always be prepared, and the first time his training would have come in handy he was completely useless.

Dick reached the man before him, crouching down and pressing his hands against the open wound. Roy felt like he was pushing through water while Dick ran alongside him on the shore. He finally reached them what felt like minutes later, falling to his knees next to Dick and reaching for the man’s throat. He adjusted his fingers three times.

“There’s no pulse,” he said, his voice sounding hollow to his own ears.

“There must be something we can do!” Dick exclaimed, pushing harder against the wound.

“We can’t save someone who’s dead!” Roy yelled. His eyes lingered on the blood trailing over Dick’s hands. It took his brain a few minutes to register why. The wound was fresh, or it wouldn’t still be bleeding. Recent like the cougar attacked the man, then wandered a couple of miles towards the camp?

Or recent like it came back?

“Dick, we need to go,” Roy said, standing up and backing away, looking into the woods around them for any sign of the big cat. Or anything, really. The birds were still silent. He didn’t hear any rabbits, or squirrels. He didn’t hear anything. 

“We can’t just leave him!” Dick said, turning tear-filled eyes towards him.

“He’s dead!” Roy repeated. He pulled his phone out of his pocket. No signal, of course. It barely even got a signal in the camp. He and Ollie had high-powered walkie talkies and SEND devices for hiking, but he didn’t bring his because he was stupid. 

He turned on the camera instead and started taking pictures. The body with Dick still holding his blood-stained hands to the wound. The surroundings. Anything that might be a landmark.

“What are you doing?” Dick snapped, like he thought Roy was some kind of sick paparazzi. 

“We need to go get someone and bring them back here,” Roy said. “I can get us back to the camp, but I’m not positive I could find our way back here.” He pocketed his phone, still backing up. “Come on, I’m serious. We need to…” 

He stopped. Dick’s head snapped up at the same time, so Roy knew he heard it too. Something that sounded like deep breathing, like a motorcycle revving up, like purring broadcast through a sound speaker. He jerked his head back and forth, trying to find the source and not seeing anything. 

You weren’t supposed to run from a cougar. They’d think you were easy prey. You were supposed to try to look big and intimidating. Fight back if you had to. Grab a stick or a rock. 

But he didn’t see it. It might not see them. It would be a lot simpler to just not encounter it at all than to convince it they weren't easy prey. They were such easy prey. Who was he even trying to kid?

“Run,” he whispered.

Dick didn’t have to be told twice.

#roy harper #dick grayson #batman #young justice #batfam #ask game #ask #anon #wip #camp murder

[miraculouswolf99]

Music Opens A Person's Heart

I must warn you of the events that happen in this story. It is not a salt story even if there are mentions of Lila and Chloe in it. But I give the warning for how this story contains homophobic actions and talk of suicide. But this is still a story that I hope people will enjoy as it focuses on Adrien and Kagami learning more about their friends Lyon and Vallia.

Thank you and I hope you like the story.

*****

Adrien was in the locker room just finishing up all he needed to do after he finished fencing practice. He was just glad he was able to get through it without an akuma interrupting it like they usually interrupt his piano lessons and regular classes in school.

Plus, fencing was his time to hang out with Kagami without the pressure of being on a date. A date where tabloid reporters or paparazzi could harass them. He really liked Kagami, but both of them liked their privacy and hated having to deal with the constant flashing cameras, the never-ending questions about their relationship, and the speculation about the answers that they do not give.

Currently, he was going to be heading out with Kagami. His friends Lyon and Vallia invited them over for a home-cooked Greek meal. Since the twins were from Greece and both could cook quite well, they wanted to share this part of their culture with them. Kagami had been talking with Adrien about getting to know them more since they had known Adrien longer than his other friends. Other than Chloe, anyway. She was curious. Especially since they were from another country just like her.

It also helped that they also had his father's approval because of how their family is rich, very charitable, and incredibly well-connected.

Adrien soon met Kagami outside of the locker room. She was looking forward to dinner. Not only did she want to learn more about her boyfriend's friends, but she also had never tried Greek food before. She knew the names of some dishes but didn't know much more than that.

"Ready, Kagami," Adrien smiled at her and took her hand.

"I always am, Adrien," Kagami smiled back.

They were on their way out of Dupont when they heard something. It was music coming from somewhere else in the school. The sounds of a violin.

"You hear that too, right," Adrien asked his girlfriend.

"I believe I do," Kagami says. "Whoever is playing is really quite talented."

The two were very curious, so they followed the music. The music room did not get much use at Dupont. All the musicians that attended the school mostly preferred private practice or just performing for their friends like with Kitty Section. Kagami was still confused by their choice of a band name. She just didn't understand why such a silly and odd name was their choice. And if he was being honest with himself, Adrien didn't understand either. But they both mostly just shrugged it off.

Walking toward the music room, the two could hear the violin music more clearly. It was a beautiful soft tune that also had some type of musical feeling to it. Like they could tell that it belonged in a Disney movie or a Broadway show.

They opened the door and walked in. They were shocked by what they saw.

Inside the music room was Lyon Garden, the Ice Prince himself. He was playing the violin was as much grace and elegance as someone that had probably been playing it for years. His eyes seemed to be closed and his back was to the door, so he had no idea that they had come inside. There was no sign of his Flower Princess twin sister, Vallia Garden.

He continued to play until the song ended. Adrien and Kagami were both really impressed by the Greek's skill on the violin. He had never revealed much about what he liked to do other than archery. And most really only knew about his skills with a bow because when anyone annoyed him or made him mad, he would threaten to shoot them with an arrow. And considering that he was as skilled in archery as Adrien and Kagami were at fencing, odds are that he would not miss if he did shoot at someone.

When he stopped playing, Adrien and Kagami could not help but start clapping, applauding the amazing performance. Lyon immediately shot around, his eyes now fully open as he saw that he had gained an audience of two people. He did look relieved when he saw that it was just Adrien and Kagami. If it was anyone else, he might have been reaching for his bow.

"You two are lucky that I am holding my violin instead of my bow," he said, returning to his Ice Prince persona. "I don't do well with people sneaking up on me."

"You and Kagami will get along great, then," Adrien chuckled.

The fencing prodigy lightly punched him, Adrien bringing out her playful side the more they spent time with each other.

"You are really talented, Lyon," Kagami complimented the archer.

"I have been practicing the violin for years," Lyon says. "I find it to be an elegant instrument with a lovely sound. Unless you play it wrong and then it sounds like a dying cat."

That made the two fencers laughed at his comparison. Lyon then checked the time on his phone.

"I guess I was playing longer than I thought that I was," he said. "Can't have you two coming over and not even be in my own house to greet you two."

He packed up his violin and then walked over to the fencers with his bag and violin case. They both smiled at him as they all left together.

"I take it that Vallia is already at your house," Adrien guessed.

"Yeah," Lyon nodded. "She is probably gathering all the herbs that we need from our greenhouse as we speak."

"Is it a coincidence that you guys have a rooftop greenhouse or did you specifically choose that house," Adrien asked.

Lyon and Vallia live with their father in a manor/mansion almost as big as Agreste Mansion. It is just on the next street from Adrien's place. The Garden family now owned it and made it a family vacation home where they were currently living while they were in Paris. They even turned a side room on the bottom floor into a flower shop so that their father had a job even while their family sanctuary would keep them rich for generations to come.

"It was unused when we moved in," Lyon says. "We had to fix it up, add new windows, and install a sprinkling system for when we can not do the watering ourselves."

They started walking to the Garden vacation home. Thankfully it was a slow day and not even Hawkmoth was active. The last thing that the secret Cat Noir and White Wolf needed was to have their dinner ruined by an akuma attack.

"I have seen this place on the market for years," Adrien says as they approach the manor. "It's been so long that I never thought that it would be bought."

"I think that the saying is 'never say never,' Adrien," Kagami tells her boyfriend.

"Well, I certainly have learned my lesson now," Adrien chuckled.

He placed his arm around her as they got closer to the house. When they got to the door, he opened it for her and Kagami let out the closest thing to a giggle that she could let out and then went inside.

"You two are sickly sweet," Lyon playfully rolled his eyes. "My sweet tooth hurts, now."

"Don't get used to it," Adrien smirked. "Once Kagami gets a sword into her hand, sweet is probably the last word that you would ever use to describe her."

"You are lucky that I do not have my sword with me right now, Agreste," Kagami slapped him on the shoulder again.

"You two are fencers, my sister is a master at the bo-staff, I've seen Marinette and her mom both use martial arts very well," Lyon rolled his eyes. "I have surrounded myself with violent people and I did not even know it."

"Just lucky, I guess," Adrien chuckled.

"Plus, there had also been Mason..." Lyon froze after he said that name, completely freezing.

"Uh... Lyon," Kagami waved her hand in front of her new friend's face.

She shared a look with Adrien. They had never seen Lyon freeze like this before. He could make you feel like you had a case of frostbite with his icy attitude sometimes, but this was something new to them.

"Paris to Lyon," Adrien shook his shoulder.

It took a minute, but Lyon eventually snapped out of whatever trance he had been put in.

"My apologies," he said. "I do not know what happened."

"Let's... Let's just go upstairs," Adrien says.

Lyon nodded. He led them up the stairs. Sharing another look, the couple followed him. They did not know much about what had happened, but there was something familiar about it to them. To Adrien, it was like when he first tried to talk about his mom after she went missing. To Kagami, it was like after her father had first died. Lyon was feeling grief and froze when he mentioned the person he was grieving over.

It was a very quiet walk up the stairs. Lyon had a tendency to go icy a lot, but that was more because he generally liked to be quiet and cold in crowds. He uses it as a way to filter out those that are trustworthy or not. To see which ones are brave enough to see if there is a heart beyond the icy persona.

As they entered the main area of the house, upstairs, the French boy and Japanese girl felt like they had been teleported to Greece. The walls were all completely white but were lined at the bottom with a beautiful ocean wave-like painting at the bottom, where the wall met the floor. The floor was also mostly ocean-themed tile with some silver and blue carpets dotted here and there. There were also multiple pictures on the walls with either their family, their family sanctuary, the animals in the sanctuary, or just pictures of the Greece scenery.

The furniture was also mostly typical chairs made out of strong strands of wood that were woven together as a basket would be. Some were regular tan wood while others were white. But they all had cushions to make them more comfortable. There were two couches in the living room with the chairs. One was a regular white leather couch while the other was a bench-like couch that was hanging from the ceiling by strong but thin white ropes.

The manor was divided by floors, so it was very different on the inside to Agreste Mansion.

Soon after they got into the room, Vallia came walking down another set of stairs. In her arms was a Little Red Riding Hood-type basket that was filled with a lot of herbs.

"Welcome to Garden Manor," she smiled at the two of them.

"Thank you for the invite," Adrien smiled back.

"It's a pleasure meeting you," Kagami says.

Vallia puts the basket down and then shakes Kagami's offered hand. She eyed her brother, who had seemed to have gone into his icy persona, which was unusual since he was around her and their friends.

"I'll be right back to help with dinner, Vallia," Lyon tells her. "I... I just need something in my room."

"Oh... Okay," was all Vallia managed to say before Lyon almost seems to run out of the room.

"I don't think I have ever seen him act like that before," Adrien says. "Yes, he is the Ice Prince to those like Lila and Chloe, but this is different from that."

"Did something happen on your way over," Vallia asked as she took the basket of herbs into their very large kitchen.

"Well, would it matter that we found Lyon playing the violin before we came here," Kagami said. "Would that be relevant?"

Vallia sadly nodded. "He mention anyone?"

"Well, we were having a nice talk on our way here," Adrien tells her. "He was joking about being around so many violent people."

"Then he mentioned someone by the name of Mason," Kagami says. "That was when he froze up."

Vallia sighed again. "Yeah, that would pretty much do it."

"Who is Mason," Adrien asked. "But you do not have to tell us if you don't want to."

Vallia looked at them, thinking what she could say. The twins have always been private people, one of the reasons why they don't like Alya and her need to film so many things, but did not mean that they could not open up just like everyone else.

"You two might want to sit down for this," Vallia says, sitting in a chair herself.

Adrien and Kagami took a seat on the hanging couch, which was the closet piece of furniture to the gardener.

"Is everything okay," Kagami asked her.

"We'll be fine," Vallia says. "Lyon just needs some time. He cared about Mason more than almost everyone in the family."

"Who is he," Adrien asked.

"Mason is... Mason was... our older brother," Vallia started, shocking the couple. "He was older than Lyon and I, but younger than our brother Apollo. The violin you saw Lyon play used to belong to him. He plays it to always have a part of Mason with him since he had been a violin prodigy."

"What happened to him," Kagami asked.

"Well, you two know fully well that Lyon is gay," Vallia says.

The couple nodded. Lyon was very out about who he chose to love. And the fact that he and Luka never really hid when they were making-out certainly made it loud and clear which way that they swung. Adrien always snickered when he would see the very obvious twitch of annoyance in Lila's eyes when she was around and saw them. Adrien knew that it was because now there was another rich and handsome guy that she could not lie her way into a relationship with. Especially when he, himself, started publically referring to Kagami as his girlfriend.

"I think there isn't anyone in Paris that doesn't know that," Adrien chuckled even with the tense atmosphere.

"He is very open with his relationship with Couffaine," Kagami says. "I once caught them making out after practice."

"I don't think a single person in school hasn't caught them," Adrien chuckled again. "I once saw Lyon chasing after Aurore and threatening to shoot her with an arrow because she had apparently taken a few pictures of him and Luka. She was laughing the whole time, so I don't think she knew how serious Lyon was about shooting her."

"He only shoots poachers, animal abusers, and animal traffickers, if I remember correctly," Kagami said.

"Yes, but we are getting off track," Vallia got their attention again. "The point is, Mason was also gay. He came out of us when he was twelve. We accepted him, of course, but not everyone was like us."

"God," Adrien gasped since as a model, he knew how much the world of fashion was very open to the LGBT community, so homophobia was horrific to him.

"Mason was very popular, especially once he got to high school," Vallia continued. "His friends knew he was gay, but Mason was also very private. So he was not really out in the open as Lyon is. So he was also very popular with the girls since they did not know better. But one girl was not going to take 'no' for an answer once she saw a handsome and rich guy like Mason."

"I guess that is why Lyon hates Lila so much," Adrien said. "He sees her constantly hanging on my arm no matter how much I tell her to let go."

"Do I need to threaten her with my sword... again," Kagami reached for the blade that was in her fencing bag.

"Later, Kagami," Adrien put his hand on her girlfriend's.

"Her name had been Cleo Sora," Vallia says. "She was basically like the worst versions of Chloe and Lila out into one person. The Queen Bee of the school that did anything to keep her power and always seem like the most important person around. She saw Mason and thought that he would be the perfect King Bee, even when that is not a thing. He turned her down... a lot. No matter what she did, how she dressed, or how much she tried to drape herself over him, he always made it clear that he would never be interested in her. It came to the point that his friends were basically a protection squad to keep her away from him."

"Sounds like what Nino and Kim have become to protect Marinette from Lila," Adrien said.

"The problem was that since Cleo was very popular, and that she had powerful tv hosts as parents, she always had people listening to her," Vallia says. "The more Mason rejected her, the angrier that she got. She saw herself as perfect and as basically more perfect than even Aphrodite, the literal goddess of beauty. That was when she eavesdropped on Mason and his friends and found out he was gay. She didn't like that."

"Oh my," Kagami gasped, not liking where the story was going.

"She started vicious rumors about Mason," Vallia looked to be fighting tears. "Saying that he only had friends because he slept with them all, that hit any girl that approached him in private, that he abused the animals that he took care of at the sanctuary. More and more people turned their backs on Mason no matter how many times he and his friends denied everything. Not even pointing out that there was never any proof to the rumors helped them."

"This girl really is like Lila and Chloe," Adrien said. "Only worse. Not even Lila has lied about Marinette sleeping with anyone. And Chloe only ruins days, not lives."

"Mason might have been six years older than us, but Lyon and I saw how much it was hurting him," Vallia could not stop the tears that flowed down her face. "Mason became more distant by the day. He started to stop coming to dinner and barely showed up at the sanctuary anymore. He was strong, but even the strongest wall gets knocked down if you hit it enough. Cleo managed to find him in private and threatened that if did not give up his 'f*****t way of life' and date her, she would scream rape to everyone within hearing distance."

"God," Adrien gasped.

"Lyon was the one that found him," Vallia was barely keeping it together. "Mason was hanging by the ceiling fan in his room. Lyon freaked and basically lost it. Mason couldn't take it any longer. His resistance broke and could not take the shame that such a rumor would bring to our family. That was also the day that the 'Ice Prince' was born. None of us were ever the same, but Lyon was especially hit. Mason was a hero to Lyon, probably the one person Lyon would ever see as perfect. Mason killing himself basically froze Lyon's heart for a long time."

Kagami might have been known as the Ice Queen around Dupont, but she looked to be fighting her own tears as she heard the story. Adrien was looking down the hall where Lyon had disappeared down. He had no idea that his friend held so much pain inside of him.

"We had no idea," Adrien said.

"Lyon doesn't like talking about him," Vallia says. "He wants to keep it under lock and key as long as possible."

"I get it," Kagami says. "I know more than others how much easier it is to hide our real emotions behind a mask of ice."

"If I was in Lyon's place, I probably would have done the same thing," Adrien admitted.

"Lyon can be very open when he wants to be, but he will always have a wall up," Vallia said. "Playing the violin, Mason's violin,  helps him remember without breaking down."

"Music soothes the savage beasts," Adrien remembered from one of the trips their class had taken to the zoo.

Vallia nodded. "If there is one thing that Lyon knows, it's that music has power."

Adrien and Kagami had both known pain and loss. They were not going to push Lyon, but they knew that they were going to be there for him. After all, Adrien was a musician as well. So he knew the healing power that music had as well.

#ml salt #slight lila salt #adrien agreste #kagami tsurugi #warning #homophobic actions included #suicide mentioned #love yourself #always be who you are no matter what #original character

[liskantope]

Some briefer(?) reactions to major Disney films 1989-1998

I consider the Disney Renaissance (around the period I refer to in the above title) to have been the last official leg of my chronological journey through major Disney features through Disney+ (for this one I need to mention that I’m excluding CGI animated ones on this journey, except when I feel like watching them on the side). I logged some thoughts on the films I watched in the two earlier legs of the journey here and here, where honestly I intended my notes to be short and not turn into full-blown mini-essays for each movie. Those posts turned out to be major timesucks and I can’t afford that now, but I thought I’d jot down a hodgepodge of reactions and just be briefer and sloppier about it. I feel like I have overall less to say about this set of films anyway, since they’re pretty much all very high-quality and are talked about extensively in the cultural discourse much more than films from Disney’s earlier eras.

As I was still trying to stick to taking one day for each year in the Disney Studios timeline and major film production by Disney picked up pace a lot at the start of this era, I wound up doing a rather intense marathon of one full Disney movie each evening: over ten evenings (corresponding to the years 1989 through 1998), I watched the ten movies The Little Mermaid, The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Lion King, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, and Mulan. I would have watched Tarzan the following evening, but I had very recently sort of re-seen it when it came on Netflix -- I didn’t see it for the first time until an outdoor event near the end of grad school not that many years ago; I didn’t bother paying full attention on seeing it the second time a couple of months ago and couldn’t much get into it on the second viewing.

The thing about the ten major animated Disney movies on this list is that, while I can’t say I love all of them, the uptick in quality is dramatic right from the start and never wavers. Every single one of these films just seems objectively better than Pete’s Dragon, The Fox and the Hound, or Oliver and Company. This will help me be a little shorter-written when talking about them, as it’s easier to expand on specific criticisms than to wax on about how great something is.

[EDIT: Okay, these still turned out pretty long and more on the polished side. Guess I’m just not that capable of being brief and sloppy.]

The Little Mermaid, 1989

Although we didn’t have the video at my house growing up, I somehow knew The Little Mermaid quite well; I guess I watched it quite a few times. I went a gap of many years before seeing it again in college (I’m fairly certain that my college girlfriend and I watched it together, in fact). My reaction at the time was that although it was well enough done with good music, the story was terrible. This was right around the time I watched a performance of Once on This Island, a musical based on Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Little Mermaid” on which, of course, the Disney movie was based. I thought the tragic tale told in Once on This Island was beautiful and scorned The Little Mermaid for cheapening it. In fact, my opinion was quite scathing in the way that my opinions more often were when I was younger. So I was a little wary on watching it again.

I’ve mellowed out since my college days and don’t hate the story quite as much now -- in particular, I can’t really blame Disney for Disnifying a mature tragedy into a more lighthearted tale with a happy ending -- but I still think it’s kind of bad. We’re back to Disney princesses (I think for the first time since my first round of Disney films?), this time with a Disney princess who had goals that didn’t involve meeting her prince, until she actually meets him and every other interest, including staying in the world she grew up with where to which all the people who ever loved her or knew her are confined, giving up her voice, and drastically changing her physical form. And this is all for a prince character of flatly generic personality who is superficial and dim-witted enough that he only knows his true love by her voice. (I don’t understand why this isn’t the Disney Renaissance-era film that routinely gets criticized for being anti-feminist rather than... a certain other one also on this list.) Also, while King Triton isn’t by any means a flat character, his sudden turnaround at the end and almost lightheartedness at saying goodbye to his daughter presumably forever doesn’t quite feel right.

I was very surprised at how much I’d completely forgotten among plot events and certain scenes in the movie. For instance, as the action neared the climax, I really had no memory of how Ursula would be defeated and watching it didn’t jog my memory.

This is the first of several films on this list where I noticed a sample of what I’m starting to think of a set of 90′s sitcom/romcom tropes, in this case the situation of the romantic leads courting very publicly with all the other characters watching and cheering it on and working behind the scenes to help it happen. This shows up again in Beauty and the Beast and (to a slight degree) Aladdin below.

Great music of course, even slightly better than what I remembered. Fun fact: you know that “Part of Your World” song, almost certainly the most widely popular in the film, the one that musical theater kids at my (and maybe your) middle school always used for auditions? Apparently it was almost cut from the film, mainly because it was shown to a test audience of little kids who all fidgeted and got visibly distracted.

The Rescuers Down Under, 1990

I don’t have too much to say about this one, the first Disney sequel ever. I had only ever seen the first Rescuers before and, as my previous set of reviews indicates, didn’t particularly like it, but came in to this one a little more optimistic since some consider it better than its predecessor. They aren’t wrong -- this movie was similar to The Rescuers but better, I think. Although the villain was just as forgettable, the setting was far more enticing (at least to someone like me who has never been to Australia and thinks of it as exotic), and the dynamic between the main mouse characters was more engaging. Here we have another subplot that somehow reminds me of a 90′s-ish sitcom/romcom, with the aborted marriage proposals and a love triangle -- not that love triangles hadn’t featured in movies for decades, but something about how this one was done felt distinctly more modern.

Beauty and the Beast, 1991

Ah, this is not only one of the Disney movies I saw the most as a kid but one which has only grown on me as I’ve gotten older -- I consider it one of the most groundbreakingly beautiful of the animated classics ever made, one of my very favorite Disney productions of all time. We got the video when I was only five or so; I remember distinctly that it came out on home video (right after coming out in theaters) right around the same time that 101 Dalmatians came out on home video and that my mom explained to me that she was choosing to buy Beauty and the Beast instead because of its superior music. She was right about this -- not that 101 Dalmatians has bad music, but it’s hard to measure up to Alan Mencken’s masterful compositions for Beauty and the Beast. For me it solidly ranks in the top three Disney movie soundtracks ever, one of the others being that of Mary Poppins and the third being from an easily-predictable film later on this list.

I’m pretty sure I remember watching portions of this movie every morning for weeks before leaving for kindergarten (this is what makes me think we got it when I was five), and I continued to enjoy it throughout childhood. I next watched it when I was much older, but I can’t remember exactly when. During college I got hold of the soundtrack of the musical, which since has been one of my favorite musical soundtracks to listen to. I never actually got to see the musical until last December when it was showing in my hometown, and I thought it was excellent. Interestingly, there were a number of scenes that I assumed had been added for the musical but I had actually forgotten were in the movie -- unlike with certain Disney musical films *ahemMaryPoppinsahem*, they didn’t take many liberties with the musical except to add a number of new (very good) songs.

Leaving aside the top-notch music and exquisite animation, the story in my opinion is one of the most beautiful and distinctively memorable stories Disney has ever told, not to mention entertaining without every being silly or over-the-top. It speaks of compassion, drawing out core goodness from an ugly exterior, and the fact that, to quote the enchantress from the start of the tale, “beauty comes from within”. Belle is also, to my mind, the most feminist Disney protagonist ever to be seen up to that time, which is why I get super super annoyed that so many people point to this movie loftily shouting “Stockholm Syndrome!” I feel it’s kind of inevitable that I quickly address that here, even though I’ve brought it up on this blog several times before. (Also, for an excellent takedown of the “Beauty and the Beast is a sexist story because Belle has Stockholm’s Syndrome” take, see this video essay of Lindsay Ellis.)

When watching the musical last winter I kept an eye out for justification for the Stockholm’s Syndrome take that I might not have remembered and couldn’t find any, but it pains me to admit that I did find a smidgen of justification, for someone determined to be a bit uncharitable, in a particular bit of dialog from the movie. I don’t recall it appearing with quite that wording in the musical, although it’s entirely possible that the musical has those exact same lines and I just wasn’t being observant. Here it is:

BELLE: What did you say?

BEAST: I release you. You’re no longer my prisoner.

BELLE: You mean... I’m free?

BEAST: Yes.

BELLE: Oh, thank you. Hold on, Papa. I’m on my way. [tries to hand mirror to BEAST]

BEAST: Take it with you. So you’ll always have a way to look back... and remember me.

BELLE: [in sweet, deeply moved tone] Thank you for understanding how much he needs me.

So okay, maybe Belle comes off as showing just a bit too much unqualified gratitude here, an oversight that the writers circa 1990 clearly should have avoided in case diagnosing female characters with Stockholm’s should ever become trendy twenty-something years later. But this could be remedied by a quick rewrite of the dialog in that one scene; it’s not as though the whole plot has to be changed away from its inherently misogynistic nature.

And that’s all I want to say on that one aspect of this absolute gem of a Disney production. Despite a few minor issues I noticed, such as Maurice being a little too innocent and helpless, and it lacking my very favorite line from the musical (“Belle don’t you recognize the beast within the man who’s now before you?” at the end), Beauty and the Beast comes about as close to perfection as it gets.

Aladdin, 1992

Although I didn’t see this major blockbuster hit when it first came out -- it was probably considered a bit too intense for me at kindergarten age -- this is the first time that I was aware on some level that a particular Disney movie was a new release. (One of my few sharp memories of kindergarten recess was a boy standing on a stump or low piece of playground equipment making proclamations to passersby for minutes at a time that alternated between, “You are a street rat!”, “You were born a street rat!”, and “You will die a street rat!”, and how this made me consciously contemplate the concept of present/past/future tenses for the first time.) When I saw it, I loved it -- it was clearly the most exciting animated movie out there. At some point in childhood I thought it was bested by its sequel, but a few years later as a teenager I decided that the tightly resonant plot of the original Aladdin made it the best Disney movie ever. I’ve definitely mellowed out my opinion on this, as Aladdin certainly has flaws and some other features are more deeply meaningful to me as an adult, but I still hold up Aladdin as one of the greats. I saw at least parts of it as an adult on TV and saw it very recently prior to getting Disney+ when it appeared briefly on Netflix, but I was perfectly happy to rewatch it yet again on Disney+ the evening after watching its predecessor as Aladdin is fun and entertaining every time.

In this animated production we have finally topped The Great Mouse Detective in terms of animated action. We have topped most movies that ever came out prior in terms of a manically funny yet also soulful character in Robin Williams’ role as the genie. The story is excellent, apart from having only one female character, and my being bothered just a little by the slough of magic tricks dominating the action towards the end -- I tend to prefer universes where magic requires scholarly study and careful training (e.g. The Black Cauldron) rather than “genie points his finger at you and now you have the ability to point your own finger and make anything happen that pops into your head”. The sultan continues the trend of old man characters who are portrayed as helpless and infantile -- in this case, even more intensely, since the sultan has none of Maurice’s brilliant smarts. But I’m mostly nitpicking here -- Aladdin is well deserving of its high status in the history of Disney.

The Nightmare Before Christmas, 1993

I was very glad to finally get a chance to see this movie, because I clearly remember knowing about it from the time it was being advertised back in 1993, and I heard about it during my entire childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. Although it seemed that most of my friends had seen it growing up, it didn’t look much like my conception at the time of a “normal movie” or even normal content, and so I don’t recall ever asking to watch it. But my recent-day self recognized that it’s quite a classic and was curious to see it.

I don’t regard The Nightmare Before Christmas as one of the really great Disney productions, but I strongly admire how original it was (particularly for its time) in every single aspect, including use of claymation, overall aesthetic, intriguing characters, and story. It was also fun to see what seems to be the only Disney musical that is done in the style of opera, that is, where the entire story is told in songs without any extended non-musical dialogs. And the songs are quite good in their own way, too. I don’t particularly want to see the film again, but I might not mind getting a soundtrack of it.

The Lion King, 1994

This is the first Disney movie -- and I believe the first movie of any kind, in fact -- that I went to see in the theater. I remember it as a powerful and sometimes overwhelming experience, but as a movie I overall liked even as young as I was. This is remarkable especially considering that much of the story feels more adult in nature than almost any other Disney animated feature.

What can I even say about this one? I think the general reaction to watching it is almost unanimously shared. My impression is that what its creators were going for, more than anything else, was epicness, and they succeeded in a way that had never been done through animation before. Apparently the entire (incredibly epic) opening number was shown as the trailer -- a questionable move, but understandably it got people very excited about The Lion King’s release.

One of many particular things that makes The Lion King stand out is the profound darkness of its main villain, perhaps the most chilling that has ever appeared in Disney. An argument can be made that not only murdering a major protagonist halfway through the movie but convincing the child that he’s to blame is the most evil act we’ve ever seen from a Disney villain. I’ve seen it pointed out that it’s vaguely ableist to give the villain an ugly scar and even make it his name. Some have suggested that they should have made the villain the handsome and strong one and given the scar to one of the heroes -- Simba or Mufasa -- instead. I’m definitely sympathetic to this point of view, and I totally agree that Scar shouldn’t actually have been someone’s name. However, without getting bogged down into something that could be a lengthy post all on its own, I strongly feel that in a way it adds to the depth of our villain’s depravity through the backstory that it implies. And by the way, his ending is probably my favorite out of the fates of all Disney villains.

The music also follows the film’s ethos of being as epic as possible (well, with the exception of a couple of the songs, but they were still fine songs). “The Circle of Life” and the instrumental music propel The Lion King’s soundtrack to possibly the very best in all of Disney.

To be sure, this movie does have more flaws than I remembered. As I said, Scar is a terrible name to give any of the characters, especially in a story where everyone else’s name comes from Swahili. Pumbaa is basically just one big fart joke. (Although, I give the writers major credit for managing to switch the tone to accommodate fart jokes within like five minutes of Scar confronting Simba over Mufasa’s death.) The video essayist Big Joel has pointed out interesting things about the story and made some rather troubling points about it, although to me that almost just makes the film deeper and more thought-provoking rather than actually worse (I see the Chronicles of Narnia this way). But overall, The Lion King has well earned its high rank on the list of highest grossing films of all time.

----------

At this point in Disney’s history and my childhood, apparently I decided that I didn’t care to see new Disney films coming out because I was content with watching my old favorites over and over, and anyway I was getting older and discovering that non-Disney movies could be quite entertaining as well. Therefore, I didn’t see any of these last four until adulthood, even though they all came out when I was still a kid.

Pocahontas, 1995

I was glad for the chance to finally see Pocahontas for the first time, unfortunately not before hearing countless references to it as being Problematic while I would have preferred to go into it completely uninfluenced by popular opinion. I had actually seen songs from it and Disney books of it as a child and it didn’t interest me at all. On finally watching the film, I found that I got what I expected on both counts: it wasn’t  terribly interesting or gripping, and it doesn’t really pass the muster of today’s higher standards of responsible storytelling about colonialism.

All that really sticks out at me looking back (after some delay in writing this post, so that it was over a month ago that I watched this) is that the plot felt a bit atypical in two ways. One, a character, who is neither a protagonist really nor a villain, is killed off around halfway through -- a daring move that The Fox and the Hound chickened out of doing, but I shouldn’t have been all that surprised given that Pocahontas’ very predecessor did this with a protagonist in a much bigger way. And two, the story ends sort of anticlimactically: I can’t help feeling a bit disappointed when a big Disney animated feature doesn’t end with a lot of action, despite realizing that this more peaceful kind of ending being a reasonable alternative is basically the entire point the story wants to make.

The songs are sort of meh, at least by the high standards of Disney movies of this period. Nothing more really to say on this one.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1996

Here is another movie that I had never gotten around to seeing before, despite having been somewhat more interested in it than I ever was in Pocahontas. And this turned out to be the main breakout attraction on this list, as I found it nothing short of spectacular (save, perhaps, the music, which was “only” quite solid, maybe not spectacular).

I would nominate this for the award of most mature movie among all the animated features included in this journey. I would almost say its ideal audience is adults, not children. It showcases an abusive relationship with enough intricate care to be worthy of analysis through abuse discourse on Tumblr. It displays lust and sexuality in a way that I don’t think I’ve never seen anywhere else in Disney animation. Its violence and political undertones are quite dark. It examines religion deeply (which is as far as I know unique in Disney), and the capacity of religion to bring out both the best and the worst impulses in humanity is exposed. Its main villain is one of the more multi-layered ones. It treats physical handicaps and deformities in quite an honest way and subverts expectations with its love plot.

Perhaps the only thing one might reasonably criticize this movie for is the characters of the gargoyles, which are clearly present to lighten the tone a bit so that the film isn’t entirely heavy and austere. But I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised -- I think the gargoyle stuff could have been executed in such a way that may have made the whole film sag, but instead they were done just right: the gargoyles are depicted as being animated only in the mind of Quasimodo. This means in fact that in a way, they actually implicitly add some gravity to his situation. (Consider that in a more typical Disney film there would have been some sort of cheesy sentient animal friend instead whose existence would not have been confined to the protagonist’s imagination.) Here I’m going to choose to ignore the fact that the gargoyles do seem to interfere in the final battle with some explosives, a possible inconsistency which is minor enough to be glossed over.

Anyway, I think before I unsubscribe from Disney+, I might just give this one a second watching.

Hercules, 1997

Although I never saw this one growing up, I did get talked into watching it by my college girlfriend who had been fond of it growing up. I distinctly remember not caring much for it when I saw it with her. My reaction at this later stage of my life is basically the same. There’s something about the animation style that I find subtly grating and distracting. And there’s something about the story itself that feels like way too light and cartoony a take on ancient Greek mythology (although it’s not like the ancient Greeks had a particularly heavy or dark mythology, and what else could I expect from Disney, really?). I guess that stories that are so explicitly centered around a young man’s quest for hero-hood and being godlike just don’t speak to me that well, and I didn’t find any of the characters that appeared to be especially memorable or engaging.

I did like the muses and enjoyed their singing but can’t say I love any of the musical numbers. So, I respect the effort and earnestness and general respect for ancient Greek culture that went into Hercules, but my overall reaction is still meh.

Mulan, 1998

I had only seen this movie once before, during a trip with some grad school friends back some years ago. One of my best friends at the time, who was with us on the trip, highly recommended it as pretty much her favorite Disney movie as she especially liked father-daughter stories. At the time, the film didn’t make a particularly strong impression on me, although I could recognize its quality. Watching it again on Disney+ has given me a deeper respect for it as having quite a good story and characterization, fine animation, and pretty decent music. I like both Mulan and Mushu as characters, and I enjoyed their dynamic.

I guess it’s telling, though, that I don’t really have all that much more to say about it. Maybe I don’t relate closely enough, maybe the movie didn’t imprint itself on me at an early enough time in my life, maybe I don’t engage that well with any plot that involves organized warfare, I don’t know. But I think I can only really like this film on a more dispassionate, intellectual level, rather than feeling touched in any kind of resonant way by it.

I think it’s interesting to note that Mulan is actually pretty rare among Disney protagonists in having two parents who survive through the entire story. And that moreover, despite it being billed as a father-daughter story to me (and I’m not denying that it is somewhere at its core), Mulan never directly interacts with her father except at the beginning and the very end.

Anyway... since watching all of these, I’ve been watching the more recent major films sort of sporadically: The Return of Jafar (a favorite of mine at some point in childhood, but with maturity I can now see why it was direct-to-video), The Emperor’s New Groove (quite good, better than expected), the first half of Home on the Range (about as bad as I expected, hence my quitting halfway through), WALL-E (as good as I remembered from when it came out when I was in college), Enchanted (one of my favorites, not on Disney+ so I got it through... other means), The Princess and the Frog (a real treat, slathered with Louisiana flavor), Tangled (sweet but nothing outstanding), Frozen (one of my favorites from seeing it in the theater; however I had never seen the first ten minutes which makes a major difference!), and Frozen II (which I had been sorry to miss in theaters last winter, a bit of a weird story but not bad and absolutely the most stunning animation I’ve ever seen). And, of course, Belle’s Magical World, the infamous mid-quel to Beauty and the Beast; this was not a major film but I just had to see if it was as legendarily bad as people say and, yes, it was.

I’m very glad to have been able to get a break from Netflix by taking a tour through the main history of Disney -- including many childhood memories, would-be childhood experiences, and more modern things from my adulthood -- thanks to Disney+.

#Disney films #the little mermaid #feminism #sitcoms and romcoms #the rescuers #beauty and the beast #stockholm's syndrome #aladdin #robin williams #the nightmare before christmas #the lion king #ableism #bathroom humor #chronicles of narnia #pocahontas (disney) #hunchback of notre dame (disney) #abuse #hercules (disney) #greek mythology #mulan

[princesssarisa]

10 facts about Shana and her mother Darika. Plus the full OC interview with each of them :)

Here they are! Shanna, the “Beauty” of my wlw Beauty and the Beast retelling (which still lacks a definitive title, though I intend it to include the word “rose”), and Darika, her mother.

Shanna 10 facts 1. She is 14 years old during the story’s prologue, 17 when the main plot starts, and 19 by the end.

2. My facecast for her is the late Israeli singer Ofra Haza (best known to some of us for providing the voice of Moses’s mother Yocheved in The Prince of Egypt) when she was very young.

3. She’s mixed race. Her mother’s ancestors were white pseudo-Europeans, while her father’s came from a Middle Eastern-inspired culture. Both practiced the same Judaism- and Shamanism-inspired religion, though. She’s her world’s equivalent of a Jewish person who’s half Ashkenazi, half Mizrahi.

4. Her name is partly a variant of the Yiddish “Shaina,” meaning “beautiful,” and partly an abbreviation of the Hebrew “Shoshanna,” meaning “lily” or, more significantly, “rose.” It has nothing to do with the Hebrew “shana,” meaning “year” – they’re just almost-homonyms.

5. Unlike most traditional Beauty and the Beast Beauties, she’s the eldest of three sisters, not the youngest. Her two sisters aren’t wicked, but they are a bit of a handful because they’re so young, and she’s had to be their responsible caretaker. She plays that role well – her little sister Zuri sooner calls for her than for their mother when she needs help – but it’s kept her from fully exploring her own potential, which she finally does get to explore during her time with Liriel, the lady beast.

6. Her personality is very much like Disney’s original animated Belle: bookish, sweet, emotional, full of dreams, yet intelligent and strong willed too. She’s more socially awkward than Belle, though, and unfortunately, she also has the self-doubt of Robin McKinley or Megan Kearney’s Beauties. Unlike Belle, she’s internalized the idea that she’s odd and oversensitive, so she tries to act like a “normal” down-to-earth villager, until the year she spends with Liriel makes her realize her worth just as she is.

7. She’s an aspiring author and poet. At age 13, before her family fell into poverty, she wrote a play based on the popular story of the heroine Lady Yasfira, portraying her as more flawed and dynamic than in most retellings, giving more sympathy than usual to the “evil” queen who opposed her, and portraying them as having once been friends. (Think either The Prince of Egypt or Wicked, or both.) The play was never performed at the time, but years later, with Liriel’s encouragement, she fine-tunes it, and then they perform it together for Liriel’s animal servants – this plays an important role in their growing feelings for each other.

8. She rarely lets herself get angry, but when she does, she can verbally annihilate you.

9. She realized she was bisexual at age 11 when, after her first crush on a boy at her school ended, she developed a new crush on a girl. She probably realized this more quickly than most real-world bi girls do, because the setting, Zalina Island, has no homophobia. She never acted on her crushes, but only out of shyness, not because she saw anything wrong with liking girls.

10. Despite her gentle personality, she’s not especially femme: she’s more soft butch, or maybe futch. She dislikes dresses (fortunately, Zalina Island has no taboo against women in pants) and generally wears just one or two feminine articles, like a shawl or earrings, with otherwise boyish clothing.

Interview (as she would answer it around the middle of the story)

What did you want to be, when you were a kid? There were so many things I wanted to be at different times. A queen, a princess, a duchess, a prophet, a traveling bard, an actress, a shepherdess, a farmer, a lady knight, a prime minister, a priestess, an acrobat, a cook, a kitchen maid, a dressmaker like my mother, a merchant like my father, a doctor, a midwife, a goldsmith, a fairy… and eventually, I realized that the one way to be all those things was to be a writer.

When did you know you wanted to be a writer? As soon as I was old enough to realize that stories didn’t come out of thin air, but where written by people. I wanted to do it as soon as I knew I could.

Who inspires you? My mother, my father, and a wide array of fictional heroes and heroines.

If you got to choose, where would you like to live? With whom? I’d love to live in a castle. I try not to care where I live as long as my family is with me, but my dreams of living in some splendid beautiful place never seem to die. I wouldn’t want it unless my family was there too, though.

Which item would you never give away? My journal, where I write down my secret thoughts, poems and stories.

Tell us about the biggest mistake you made in your life. Until recently, I might have cited the time I forgot to write an important history essay for school because I got lost in writing my play Yasfira and Anefri. Or else the time I lost my temper with my three-year-old sister Zuri and hurt her feelings so badly that she ran away and was missing for over an hour. But now, there’s no doubt that my worst mistake was asking Mama to bring me back a unique flower if she could find one on her trip to the city. Who would have thought a flower would cost so much?

Did you ever fear for your life? Yes, the moment when I saw Lady Liriel for the first time, after I followed Mama back to her lair – half wolf, half dragon, and entirely terrifying – and even more so, when she sniffed the air and I knew she smelled me hiding there.

There’s people who say you’re strange. Do you have any comment on this? I’m afraid it’s true. So often my imagination feels more real than the real world, my mind flies off to places that no one else believes exist, my emotions swell and crash like tidal waves no matter how much I try to swallow them and put logic first, I’ve always asked too many questions, and I feel less alone with only my books, paper and pen than I do in crowds of people.

Tell us something about you that nobody knows. Well, not many people know how strange I am anymore. I’ve learned to copy Mama and pretend to be as sensible and down-to-earth as she and our neighbors are, instead of spewing my feelings and dreams the way I used to. If the villagers knew about my romantic fantasies or the stories and poems I write in my head, they would laugh or scold even more than the people in the city did when I was small. 

What would make a perfect day for you? A few hours spent reading, a few spent writing, and maybe a trip to the theatre in the evening, with people who understand me and let me feel free to be myself.

Darika 10 Facts 1. She takes on the father’s traditional role in the Beauty and the Beast story. Her husband was a merchant, but he died in the same shipwreck that destroyed his merchandise and left the family impoverished. But a few years later, she learns that one of his ships survived after all, has to travel to reclaim its cargo, but gets lost in a forest… and we all know the rest. Recent BatB retellings have put a lot of effort into answering the question “What happened to Beauty/Belle’s mother?” in interesting and poignant ways. To be different, I thought “Why not make her mother the living parent?”

2. My facecast for her is the New York City Criminal Court judge Rachel “Ruchie” Freier. Not that I know much about Judge Freier, but her face look right for the character.

3. At the beginning of the story, she’s 35 years old. By the end, she’s 40.

4. She was born in a small, poor village at the base of the White Pine Mountains. Her parents died when she was a baby, so she was raised by her grandfather and her older sister, who have since died too. 

5. She worked as a seamstress in the village until she met and fell in love with a wealthy young traveling merchant from an elite port city. Despite the disapproval of his social circle, they married. After his death, she took their daughters back to her home village to start a new life.

6. Her impoverished upbringing and family tragedies have toughened her. She takes a very practical, hardworking, no-nonsense approach to life, tries to teach her daughters to do the same, and is calm and resolute in the face of hardship, focusing on “What are we going to do about it?” She sometimes loses patience with her daughter Shanna’s dreaminess and sensitivity, which makes Shanna, who adores and idolizes her, feel inadequate and weak.

7. Inside, though, she feels just as deeply and intensely as Shanna does. Her love for her family is limitless and she’s actually very dependent on Shanna, who fills the role of the family’s nurturing caregiver more than Darika’s temperament lets her do.

8. One thing she and Shanna have in common, which Shanna learned from her, is strong integrity and deep compassion for others. For her, the best part of being rich was all the good she could do for the poor, while the hardest part of becoming poor again was having so little to give to those even poorer.

9. Her sewing is more than just her job – it’s an art. She embroiders the clothes and quilts she makes with all kinds of colors and unique designs. The vibrant images she creates are an outlet for the emotions she doesn’t express.

10. Her personality is inspired by assorted beloved literary heroines, both classic (Jane Eyre, Elinor Dashwood) and modern (Tamora Pierce’s lady knight Keladry of Mindalen). For all their differences, and though they’re much younger than Darika, all these heroines are quiet, practical, dignified, staunch in their integrity, deeply caring and passionate on the inside, and yet with masks of stoic self-control that they only drop when intensely provoked. I like those heroines and admire them, yet sometimes their popular role model status annoys me, because it’s hard for a highly sensitive, naturally effusive person to act like them. So Darika pays tribute to them, but the story will also emphasize that her daughters don’t need to be like her.

Interview (as she would answer it around the middle of the story) What did you want to be, when you were a kid? A forest sprite or a good witch. I had a wild imagination in those days, before the real world tamed it.

When did you know you wanted to be a seamstress? When I first learned that the flowers and birds on my childhood quilt hadn’t sprouted there by themselves, but were embroidered by my mother, and that the storytelling tapestries that hung on the village temple walls were sewn by other villagers in the same way. I wanted to create beauty like they had, and to tell stories through pictures, while at the same time creating useful things for others: clothes, blankets, handkerchiefs, etc.  I think I willed my own talent for sewing into being to do just that.  

Who inspires you? My older sister Shanna; the namesake of my daughter. We lost our mother very young, so she took on the role of mother for me, and every day her love and strength have inspired me as I’ve raised my own children.

If you got to choose, where would you like to live? With whom? I would live in a clean, elegant, comfortable house with my daughters, a servant or two, and my husband, if only I could bring him back.

Which item would you never give away? My wedding ring.

Tell us about the biggest mistake you made in your life. Three of them, one directly after the other. First, when I was lost in the Great Forest during a storm, I took shelter in what I thought was an ordinary cave. Then, when I found that the inside looked like a castle, I should have turned and left; even then I knew that such an enchanted place would be dangerous. But I was cold, wet, and afraid I would die if I went back out into the storm, so I stayed. Last but not least, when I discovered the greenhouse garden in that castle-cave, I crept in and picked a rose as a gift for my daughter Shanna. Who would have dreamed a single flower would cost so much?

Did you ever fear for your life? I feared for my life when I was lost in the storm, but even more so when I came face to face with Lady Liriel. I’ll never forget the sight of her matted fur and vampire-bat fangs as she glared down at me.

There’s people who say you’re cold and stony. Do you have any comment on this? They don’t really know me.

Tell us something about you that nobody knows. Very few people fully know me, not even my daughters. I play the role of the calm, practical peasant woman, but it’s only skin-deep. Shanna thinks all her wild passions and romantic dreams came from her father, but really she inherited them from me too. My grandfather knew the secret me, and so did my sister, and my husband. But they’re all gone, and as I’ve buried each of them, I’ve buried those aspects of myself more deeply.

What would make a perfect day for you? A quiet day of embroidery by the fire at home, with my daughters all near me and all happy.

#my writing #oc ask #10 facts #oc interview #shanna #darika #my ocs #cinefantastiquemitho

[joyofcrime-elinorhigh]

 Hello everybody, my name is JoyofCrimeArt, and legacy can be an fascinating thing in regard to animation. Since cartoons are made with the intent of being seen years or even decades after they're created, it can be interesting to see how the general consensus people have about a series can change over time. One day you can be on top of the world, and your series is loved by critics and audiences alike. But then, something happens. Sometimes it's a specific episode. Other times a season. Maybe it's a controversy within the fandom. But whatever it is, something happens that causes peoples opinions to turn. And suddenly your show has gone from being universally praised to becoming much more divisive. And when something like that happens, it can be hard to recover. It happened to Steven Universe.  It happened to Rick and Morty. And it happened to Star vs. the Forces of Evil.

 Created by Daron Nefcy,  Star vs. The Forces of Evil  premiered on the Disney Channel and Disney XD in 2015,  and quickly became one of the hot cartoons that everybody was talking about. It makes sense, as it came outright around the time where more continuity based fantasy series were really starting to take off, so it's natural that it became a hit. While the series was generally well regarded upon its debut, as time went on the series became much more of a "love it or hate it" type of show. And while that's not too uncommon for any show that amounts a large flowing, what makes Star vs. so interesting is that it seems like nobody can seemingly agree when the show got bad, if it did at all. Some people say the quality dipped after the first season. Others say the third. Some say the fourth. Others say that the show was good until the finale. And some say that the show was solid throughout. This divide among fans is why I feel confident calling Star vs. The Forces of Evil one of the most divisive shows of the 2010's, even if the debate around it isn't nearly volatile as other series. But now that the series has ran its course I have to ask, does it hold up? Did the show really go down hill, or is the hate undeserved? That's what I'm here to find out.

 I feel like I'm in an interesting place to talk about this series because, while I tend to try to keep up with all the big name animated show coming out, I actually didn't watch most of Star as it was running. I watched the first season until my family cut cable right before the finale of season one (You know, around the time people started to care about the show.) And only caught up with the show in the last year or so while doing research for my "Top 30 Cartoons of the Decade" list. So I went into the series mostly blind with the exception of a few spoilers. I just felt like this was important to point out as I feel it may have an effect on my view of the show.

 Also, while I usually try to go spoiler free when I do a general overview of a series, for this review I may have to go into some spoiler territory. Since this series features an ever changing status quo, as well as a lot of major characters who aren't introduced until late in the series' run, doing this review completely spoiler free would be difficult. So I'm going to be doing this review under the assumption that anybody reading this has already seen the show, and are just curious to hear my take on it, or don't care about being spoiled.  So if you wanna go in blind I suggest you sign out now.

 But to everyone else, let's dive in and talk about Star vs. the Forces of Evil.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hJ5ecrpp8k

 Star vs. The Forces of Evil stars (He, get it. I'm funny.) Star Butterfly. A princess from the dimension of Mewni who, upon her fourteenth birthday is given a wand of unbelievable magical power. However, after causing nothing but trouble with her new found powers in her world her parents decide to ship her off to Earth, where she can be somebody else's problem. There she befriends a human boy named Marco Diaz and the series mainly follow these two as they go on all sorts of magical adventures as they battle all sorts of evil monsters and ne'er-do-well who want to take the wand and use its power for themselves. Or at least that's how the series goes at first. As the series goes on it begins to focus more on the world building, as Star and Marco discover that the kingdom of Mewni isn't as great as they first believed, and are forced to battle political corruption, conspiracy within the royal family, and the generation spanning systemic racism against monster kind.  

 The best place to start when talking about the show are the characters. Lets start with the main leads.

 We got Star, your typical fun-loving, ditzy, hyperactive action girl. Which seems to be a common trend in Disney Channel cartoons now that I think about it. But she does enough to stand on her own. She's a fun character, and an overall good lead for the series. I admit that her bratty nature and general stupidity could turn some people off, and there are times  where it can get a little annoying, but I never minded it all that much. I think that's kinda suppose to be the point of her character. She's a royal, and spent her whole life with a silver spoon in her mouth. So it makes sense she would be a bit selfish and be unaware of the world around her. And she does improve over the course of the series, as she begins to take her job as a princess more seriously and spends much of the series actively fighting against monster prejudice. Though I'd be lying if some of these less desirable elements of her character don't continue to pop up every now and again, even later in the series and especially in the last couple of episodes. Also she's kinda a sociopath. Like especially early on in the show there are like...a lot of casualties to Star's antics. I'm kinda surprised Disney let them get away with that.

 Also, can I just say that I am sick and tired of people asking "When is Disney going to include their first LGBTQ+ princess, completely ignoring the fact that Star is bisexual as fu*k. Like, come on now!

 Marco is also a good lead. He's a neurotic, responsible, karate student who often acts as the straight man to Star's antics. However, I like the fact that he's not a total stick in the mud. Sure he's more cautious than Star is but he's still capable of getting in on the adventures as well. He comes across as a realistic teen with his own set of flaws. Namely his insecure nature and general social awkwardness. I also like that due to his expertise with karate he's able to hold his own in a fight even without magic. He always feels like Star's equal and never like a sidekick. He and Star have a great dynamic in general, and the two play off each other well. They contrast with each other and It feels like the two really cover each other's flaws. And it's kinda refreshing seeing two characters who are so different manage to genuinely get along with each other.  

 But of course, we also have the forces of evil that the shows title so clearly mentioned. Each season focuses on a different villain, and something that I really like is how all four major villains are introduced relatively early on. So the show doesn't suffer from that "Dragon Ball Z" type thing where it's like "Haha! I know you just defeated the villain, but now's there's an even BIGGER villain who we just haven't happened to mention until now!" They've always around in the world, and many of them even start out as joke villains only to become more serious later down the line. And they manage to do that in a way that feels very believable.

 The best example of this is the shows first villain, Ludo. Who upon introduction is portrayed as a completely comedic villain who Star could easily take in a fight. But things change when a new more serious villain, Toffee, usurps him as the season one antagonist. Stealing his castle and army in the process. Come season two and Ludo is left alone, having lost everything, and is forced to toughen up in order to get back what he once had. He builds a new army, stronger than his first. He finds a new castle to form his base in, and becomes a genuine threat to our cast. Scrappy underdogs villains who lost everything might be one of my favorite tropes in fiction. Other examples of this trope used effectively would be Peridot in Steven Universe and Jamack in Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeast. However, while those shows use this trope as an opportunity to have these villains go through a redemption arc, Star goes the other way and uses it as an opportunity to make a character become more of a threat. That said, he never loses the comedic charm that made his fun to watch in the first place. Part of me honestly kinda wish that Ludo stayed the main villain of season two, instead of being usurped Toffee yet again. That said, the episode "Princess Quasar Caterpillar and the Magic Bell" does a good job giving his arc a satisfying conclusion.

 Speaking of antagonist, let's talk about Tom Lucitor. Star's demon ex-boyfriend. While not a season spanning villain like Ludo or Toffee, he has several appearances early on as a recurring antagonist only to go down the more traditional "redemption arc" route later on. And I just want to say upfront, Tom is one of my favorite characters. Not in the show, but in fiction in general. It would of been so easy to make Tom your generic "toxic boyfriend" arch-type but even early on it's made clear that even though he's an antagonist, he isn't pure evil. His love for Star is genuine, but the problem is that he hasn't earned it. He tries to improve himself and become a better person but his own anger issues and jealousy keeps getting in the way. Specifically jealousy of Marco because he seems him as a romantic threat. But as time goes on, he does become better. He learns that he and Marco have a lot in common and eventually accepts that he can't make Star love him, and lets her have her space. And that, ironically, causes Star to becoming willing to open up to him again. They become friends and eventually get back together. But what I like is that while he has gone through efforts to improve and work through his problems, they still persist throughout the series. He's still very insecure and is looking for constant approval from Star. He still is jealous of how close Star and Marco are even though he has become friends with both of them. And it's shown several time that Tom tends to put his own problems above the problems of others. It shows that even though he wants to change and is willing to change, that doesn't mean that change come easy. It takes time and can be a long process. These are realistic character flaws that make Tom such a more complex and relatable character in my eyes. I relate a lot to Tom with his desire and constant struggle to improve as a person, and I feel like it's a struggle that's easy for a lot of people to relate to. Also...he's just such an edgy dork. He's...he is good boi.

 Another fantastic character is Eclipsa. Introduced about halfway into the series, Eclipsa was a former Queen of Mewni who was imprisoned in crystal due to dabbling in dark magic and for running away from her arranged marriage and marring the King of the Monster, Globgor. The show builds up mentions of Eclipsa early on, with characters talking about how evil and dangerous she was. Eventually she becomes free from her prison (cause lets be real, whenever there's a villain sealed away somewhere you KNOW they're going to get out.) But surprisingly, when we see her she actually doesn't seem that evil. She's polite, kind, and is even willing to go through the proper legal channels to prove that she isn't as bad as people say she is. She is an excellent example of a morally ambiguous character cause for the first several episodes we the audience don't really know if she is actually a good person who's just been judged too harshly by society or if she is actually evil and this is all an act. As even as the show goes on and it becomes clear that Eclipsa is a good person at heart they still manage to keep the audience guessing. Much like Star, Eclipsa can be kinda selfish and impulsive, making her a bit of a loose cannon.  Despite the shows title "Star vs. The Forces of Evil" Eclipsa goes to emulate one of the shows major themes. That life isn't that black and white.

 The show deals a lot with shades of gray when it comes to its characters, as all characters have there own motives and backstories and relations with each other that can make them either allies or enemies depending on the circumstances. An example of this is the Magical High Commission, a group that monitors magic across all the dimensions. throughout the series it is shown that they stand on the side of Mewni. So in season two when Mewni is being conquered by  Ludo and Toffee they're good guys. But just like most most people in Mewni they hate monsters and believe that Eclipsa is evil. Making them antagonist in seasons three and four. Their motives stay the same, but their role in the series changes.

 However despite my praise not all the characters are  great. In fact the show can be kinda hit or miss with their cast. The characters that are great are really great, but then you get characters like...

(Art by JelloApocolypse)

 You know what, I have to be honest. I kinda like Pony Head. I know a lot of people say she's annoying and selfish and contributes next to nothing to the plot...and they're right. But I also just kinda like her. I think what makes her more bearable to me is that she's kinda disliked in-universe. Even Star, who is Pony Head's best friend, often times get sick of her crap. Real talk though, can we all agree that Pony Head is basically just a discount Lumpy Space Princess from Adventure Time?  Like, they're nearly the exact same character.  

 A character who I don't like as much though is Glossaryck, the magical spirit guide that lives in Star's spell book. I never really got his deal. Sometimes it seems like he likes Star and genuinely wants to help her become a better magic user, while other times it doesn't seem like he really cares. He dies in the beginning of season three only to come back a few episodes later acting like a wild animal and yelling "Globgor" over and over again without any explanation as to how or why. Than at the end of season three it's revealed that it was all an act and he was fine the whole time. Like...why? We later learn that is a highly recognized historical figure in Mewni. Why is he yelling his name? And why does nobody question why he's doing this? I can buy that Star and Marco might not know who Globgor is but most everybody else seems to. I keep expecting that moment for his motivations to click. Where it's revealed how everything he's done was all an elaborate ploy to help Star or something, but it never really happens. Though my opinion of him does slightly increase in season four, but that's just because Keith David took over the role of voice actor. And adding Keith David can make anything better.

 Some characters can even change in quality between seasons. Janna is this edgy punk girl who joins the main cast in season two as a new friend to Star and Marco. I liked her well enough in season two even if some of her more abrasive elements could be somewhat obnoxious. She's more or less absent for most of season three. Then come season four she returns and I found her more annoying. I don't know if her character got worse or if it was just the fact that her character didn't work as well in later episodes after the show had become more dramatic. But near the end of the season, they give her some long overdue character growth. Not a lot, but some. And I found myself liking her more.  

 There are other characters in the series as well, and they tend to vary. Star's mom, Moon is a BAMF and I like Buff Frog a lot. Jacki and Kelly are fine characters, though I admit there's not that much to them outside of being love interests for Marco, though they still have there own personalities. King River's kinda annoying but I've seen worse examples of the "dumb dad" trope and Alan Tudyk gives a great performance.

 And since I don't have time to go over my thoughts on EVER character in this series, I'll do what ever online review does when they don't have time for nuance. Create a tier list!

 If It's not apparent by now, the characters in this show run the gambit. With the best ones being some of my favorite characters of all time, and the worse one's just being generally annoying. However, if there's one thing that this show excels at is not painting things as black and white. No character is evil without a reason and all the heroic characters have un-heroic flaws to their characters with unique motivations that make sense for their characters. (For the most part anyway.)

 The shows animation is also really good. Featuring thick outlines and a lot of nice coloring on the characters. (Even if some of the background colors can be a bit drab at times.) Most of the first season is done in flash, but it's good flash, which does well to accentuate the character expressions and the fluid action scenes. Part way through season one though the show's animation changes to more traditional animation. I think there is a bit of a divide on which style people consider to be better, but I personally prefer the look of the later seasons. The bouncy look of the early season one episodes look good, but I don't know how well that would of worked in the more dramatic and somber moments that happen later on.

 I also appreciate the world building. The first two seasons are set mostly on Earth in the town of Echo Creek, but the last two seasons changes things up and focus much more on Mewni, allowing us to explore both settings. I know some people don't like the change as it resulted in several of the characters introduced earlier being written out of the show but I never really minded that. I think Mewni and the cast of characters who inhabit it are on the whole more interesting than the people of Echo Creek. (I mean does anybody really miss Sensei Brantley?) Plus the change in setting allows us to get a bit of a role reversal with Marco being the fish out of water, and Star having to show him how her world operates. And even if you do prefer the Earth setting we still cut back to it on occasion. And when you add it all up the total series runtime between the two setting is fairly evenly.

 I like how characters can kinda come and go in this series, as it shows that the world doesn't revolve around Star and Marco. And it allows the writers to see which characters people gravitate to and focus on them while keeping less interesting characters out of the way. It also allows for character arcs to actually have conclusions, without the need for them to be drawn out just for the sake of keeping characters around longer.

 Let's talk about themes for a moment. Specifically the main theme of prejudice and  systemic racism in the show. It's handled...okay. It's kinda standard stuff and it doesn't go super complex on the issue, but for what it is it works though. That being said the show can be a bit confusing in terms of what counts as "monsters" and what are just regular races in this world. Which can make the metaphor a little muddled. I get that the idea is that there is no difference, and that monsters are only deemed as bad as an excuse for mewmans to justify their mistreatment of them, but it can still be confusing as to who's oppressed and who isn't and to what extent. I feel it would be even more confusing for a younger children watching who might not understand all the nuances of this stuff. However, the way the show tackles this isn't bad either. And the fact that the show tackles this element at all is admirable.

 But who cares about systemic racism! That's not the real reason people are watching this show! We all know that everybody is really here for the shipping!

 Yeah, as the series went on the shipping seems to become a much more major element within the series. So much so that to many the increased focus on the shipping is often cited as one of the main elements that caused the show to go down hill. However I never really minded it. I mean Star vs. has always been a bit of a love letter to the shojo/magical girl genre and romance is a very important element to those types of shows. So it makes sense that it would be used here. And I think it's used pretty well here overall. These are just kids struggling through these types of feelings for the first time, So it makes a lot of the stupid decisions that they make feel a lot more believable. But if this kind of thing isn't your cup of tea, it might end up bothering you. Because they do devote a good amount of time on it.

 But you're probably wondering, who do I ship? Am I team Starco or team TomStar? And honestly, while shipping has never been something I've ever gotten too invested in, if I had to pick I would probably have to say team Starco. Which may be surprising as I previously went on and on about how Tom was one of my favorite characters of all time. But this is the way I see it. Tom's whole arc is about learning how to get over his jealousy and controlling nature regarding his relationship with Star. And it's shown that even after he's dating Star, and has everything he thought he wanted, he still couldn't fully get over his hangups. Even though he loves Star and Star loves him, it's clear that the relationship still isn't exactly the most healthy. And it's clear that they are going in different directions in their lives. Tom knows what he wants. To be with Star. But Star doesn't know what she wants. Not all relationships have to end because one person does something wrong or because one of the parties involved is a bad person. Sometimes two people just aren't compatible in that kind of way. And seeing Tom be the one to break up with Star shows just how far he's come as a character. Plus, like I said earlier, Star and Marco have great chemistry. And I do genuinely see them working as a romantic couple, beyond the fact that there the two main leads.

 Besides, StarTom is technically incest so....

 *record scratch!*

 Oh wait, you didn't know about that.? Yeah, according to the official "Star vs. the Forces of Evil Magic Book of Spells" Star's Great Great Great Grandmother Rhina Butterfly was in a relationship with John Roachley, a second cousin to the Lucitor's. Now granted that would mean that Star and Tom aren't THAT related. But still. Incest none the less. Not that it even matters anyway since all of the Mewmans are descended from like five random people!  

Seriously, this is some Ishigami Village levels of incest we got going on here.

 But despite how heated the flames wars can be, I think we can all agree that Tomco is the best ship anyway. Like come on now.

 So yeah, even the shipping elements didn't bother me. To be completely honest, while the show did have some problems here or there, I found myself enjoying the show well into the fourth season. But I knew it was coming. Since I was watching the show months after the series had concluded, I had heard things about the finale. A finale that figuratively "cleaved" the fan base. But in order to talk about the finale we have to go a few episodes back and talk about the episodes leading up to it. Obviously spoilers ahead.

 To briefly recap, at this point in the series Eclipsa had become Queen of Mewni along with her husband Globgor after Star relinquished the crown to her. And many of the Mewmans are upset by Eclipsa's new "pro-monster" policies had left to live with the former Queen Moon. Meanwhile Mina Loveberry, a legendary monster fighter from generations far gone, had begun building up an army to invade Eclipsa's castle and take Mewni back from the monsters. A lot of people I hear don't like Mina as a final villain, but honestly I was surprised by how threatening they were able to make her despite how goofy she is. And her backstory about basically being a magically altered super solider driven to the point of insanity really helped to make her sympathetic. (Like I said, in this show everyone is painted with shades of gray. Even genocidal lunatics.) She invades with a Solarian Knight, a giant magic powered mech and it takes all of our heroes working together to barely defeat it. Until it is revealed that it was only one of many. It's an amazing twist that really leaves you wondering "How are or heroes going to get out of this one." Up to this point I was digging this final arc. But that's when I finally got to it.

 To me, the moment where Star vs. the Forces of Evil got bad was the moment it was revealed that Moon was working with Mina to reclaim the thrown from Eclipsa.

 It just doesn't fit Moons's character to do this. While it is shown throughout the season that Moon does not agree with Eclipsa more extreme policies, It was still shown that while Moon may be against Star's decision to give the crown to Eclipsa, she acknowledges that since Star was queen at the time and was within her right as queen to decide what was best for the kingdom. And in previous episodes she seemed generally happy not having the responsibility that comes with being queen anymore. But now she suddenly wants her kingdom back? If she wanted it back, all she had to do was say so from the start. At the start of the season most Mewmans still hate Eclipsa. It would not be that hard to stage a coup if she really wanted, especially since the magic high commission and all of Mewni would be on her side. Why would she work with Mina, who Moon knows is insane and racist even by Moons standard? Sure Moon and Eclipsa definitely don't see eye to eye on a lot of things but Moon still wouldn't want her dead, and Moon knows that Mina wants to kill her. I know she thought she could control Mina's army but that's still a big risk. It seems uncharacteristically reckless for a character as intelligent as Moon to make these choices.

 So then, after it turns out that Moon can't control Mina's army, our heroes are basically screwed and are forced to hide out in a special tavern located at the edge of the universe to wait things out while Mina begins rounding up all the monsters in Mewni. They are all trying to figure out a plan on how to possibly defeat Mina's army when Star suddenly goes on a rant about how magic is bad. And this idea had been brought up a few times in the series, but overall had never really been portrayed as a major aspect. But suddenly the show treats this as if it's all the magics fault, and that everything would be better if it was gone. And that's when Star comes up with the genius plan to use go to the magic dimension to destroy all the magic. Thus making Mina's forces useless. And while I admit that yes, they are very much been pushed to a wall here, this has to be one of the most overkill ideas they could of possibly think of!

 Now, I've seen a lot of people online saying that by doing this, Star would be committing mass murder on a multiverse scale, potentially destroying many universes. And I think that is a bit of a reach. From what we see in the series, it seems to me at least that magic is kinda a rare thing in the universe. That's why so many villains are trying to steal the magic wand away from Star. And I see very little implying that there are whole universes that are reliant on magic outside of Mewni. THAT SAID THOUGH, this would result in the deaths of a lot of innocent people. But Star really only seems concerned with the fact that once magic is destroyed, all people who come from parallel universes will return to their home universe, meaning she won't be able to stay with Marco. Which makes Star seem beyond selfish and generally pretty horrible.

 Hekapoo, one of the high commission members, despite being made of magic and knowing that she will die from this, is totally on board for this plan because plot. And our heroes travel to the magic dimension to destroy all the magic. Which they do. Defeating Mina's forces and leaving her powerless. She still manages to escape however because nobody decides to actually, you know, try to arrest the person who just committed a political coup and nearly whipped out an entire race. They just let her walk off, because she's powerless now. I mean what's the worse she could possibly do, right?

 So yeah, Mina is defeated, but everybody is sent back to their home dimensions. But somehow, through the power of love I guess, the universes of Earth and Mewni begin to merge. Thus allowing Star and Marco to be together. Happy ending, I guess? I don't know.  Like Star and Marco being together is treated as a good thing. But we also see humans screaming as there world have now been overrun by monsters. Is this suppose to be a joke? A bittersweet ending? I'm not really sure.

 In concept the idea of a universe merge is actually a pretty interesting idea. As it feels like a natural progression of the shows themes of racial tolerance and mutual understanding. Now that we've gotten semi-tolerance between monsters and mewmans we could now have an arc about trying to bridge the cultural gaps between the humans and the mewmans. Plus it would be a good way to appease both the people who enjoyed the earlier seasons focus on Echo Creek, and fans of the later seasons who preferred the stories set on Mewni. It's not a bad idea, but it needed to A.) be set up better and B.) needed more time to be fleshed out. I get that it's designed to be a sequel hook, but it's not like this is something that the series had been building up to to the point where we the audience can put together what happens next. As is, it's just weird.

 So yeah, the last couple of episodes of Star vs. where a total mess. It's fitting that the finale to Star happened to come out the same day as the finale of Game of Thrones. While I'm not going to act like there weren't some parts I liked or some good ideas sprinkled throughout, this finale was pretty bad. How do you have a show that preaches acceptance and equality and end it with a genocide?! But hey, genocidal problems call for genocidal solutions am I right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ufmrn7BCuA

My God, It's Dragon Ball Super all over again.

 And the worse part is that the series didn't have to end this way. Cause the show actually had a pretty good episode about half way through the season, "Cornonation" which would of acted as a great series finale! With the series ending with Eclipsa as Queen and ruling with Globgor by her side, with the mewmans finally accepting monster kind. You'd have to change a few things, like rap up Mina's plot and put Star and Marco together, but other than that it could of really worked. Admirably it may end up feeling more like a finale for Mewne as oppose to a finale for Star but it would thematically fit with the message of the series. Or if you really wanna keep this finale more in tack just don't have Star destroy the magic. Just have Star, Moon, and Eclipsa go off and do the one thing the three of them had never tried doing. Working together. And have them defeat Mina the old fashion way. They even allude to this idea in the tavern episode before Star goes on her whole "We gotta destroy the magic" kick.

 It is a bit ironic to think that a show that's whole message is about unity could end up being so divisive with it audience. I genuinely believe that had the show ended on a better note, people would look back on the show more fondly. Despite the flaws. To the people who don't like Star vs. The Forces of Evil, I can understand where you are coming from. Even if you ignore the finale there are things to not like. A lot of things aren't very well explained and the show has its fair bit of plot holes. The series can be repetitive with its frequent shipping and "racism is bad" episodes. And some of the characters can be a bit annoying, including our main lead at times.

 That being said though, I have to say, I can't bring myself to hate this show.

 I don't know what it is, but I just found myself getting really invested into this series. Maybe it was due to me hearing so much bad things about the later seasons that I had low expectations, and while that may be part of it I don't think that's the whole reason. When you watch as many cartoons as I have, and for as long as I have, it becomes harder for things to impress you. Sometimes it can feel like your just checking shows off of a box, which is something that I've been trying to improve upon. But watching this show, it brought me back to the way I felt back in the early 2010's when I first started getting into these types of series.  For all of Star's flaws, and trust me there are many flaws, it felt like it was doing something unique. Like it was in it's own little world that wasn't quiet Adventure Time and not quiet Steven Universe. And the series stuck with me after I finished watching it, which is surprisingly kinda rare. It's why I became interested in doing this review in the first place.

 Star vs. the Forces of Evil is a flawed show. Very flawed. But I'd rather have a flawed show that's unique than a perfect show that's something I've seen a million times. And while I may not be a fan of how it ended, I don't think that should completely take away from all the good that this show has to offer. This show isn't going to be for everybody, and If you somehow made it this far into the review without seeing the show than I hope I've said enough to help you figure out if this show is right for you. But for me, despite everything, the series still has it's magic.

 What did you think of Star vs. the Forces of Evil? I really genuinely want to know on this one.  Did it go downhill and if so than when? Leave those thoughts in the comments down bellow. Please fav, follow, and comment if you liked the review. And have a great day.

#Star vs The Forces of Evil

[ambssssssssss]

The Swan-Mills Family Discovers Kingdom Hearts

Part 1 of ?

I don't go here but anyway

One day, after the last curse is broken by True Love's Kiss shared between Emma and Regina, the two of them are at the Mills household with a tumbler of apple cider split between them debating on letting Snow plan them a huge extravagant wedding or just sneaking off to the courthouse one day, when Henry comes home. He's absolutely buzzing with excitement as he walks straight into the den and turns on his PS4 (he's probably more than a little spoiled by now, which annoys Regina to no end but he's still her little prince so she actually doesn't mind all that much) without so much as a hello to his mothers.

Emma and Regina follow him and blink curiously as the opening credits for a game they don't recognize begins to play. The style is a little outdated but it looks like the animation had been updated recently based on Emma's very limited video game knowledge. Curious, Regina picks up the case the game came in and turns it over in her hands.

"Kingdom Hearts?" She reads the title aloud, her inflection morphing as the words change into a question. Henry hums.

"I know everyone is pretty tired of the fairytale thing but I couldn't resist getting this. It looked like so much fun."

"I don't really think we can get tired of fairytales considering the fact that we're living one," Emma says, but her curiosity is peaked and she seats herself on the arm of the couch next to Regina. "But this game is about fairytales?"

"Kinda. It's hard to explain Ma," Henry eyes don't leave the screen as he sets the brightness, difficulty level, and controller vibration intensity. "But there's a ton of save slots if you want to play too."

"We'll just watch for now kid," Emma tells him , absently rubbing Regina's back with one hand. Henry nods and presses the button to start the game.

The family of three all find themselves almost immediately engrossed in the story of the game. The beginning is a little slow, though the choices and questions are interesting. Henry had accepted the staff and given up the sword, leaving the shield alone. The Heartless, the enemies Henry had to defeat, were actually pretty cute. At least, they were until an enormous, shadowy figure of the main character, Sora, appeared. Henry made a few comments on how the fighting style would improve as Sora gained more skills but Regina was more interested in the surface the character stood on. Each one depicted a different princess and Regina wondered what they might symbolize.

Another round of questions and Henry was told that his journey began at dawn and then the game finally, truly began. As Henry directs Sora to explore the place called Destiny Islands, Emma repositions herself so she's sitting on the couch cushion instead of on the arm. Regina settles against Emma's side with her legs tucked underneath her and her head against Emma's shoulder as they continue to watch. Henry, seated on the other end of the couch closer to the television, is leaving forward with the controller in his hands. His brow is furrowed in concentration as he races against Riku, for the 7th time, and loses again. Emma has to hold in a chuckle as Henry groans and begins the race again. Regina is relaxed in her arms and if not for the way she had maneuvered their hands together and was absently playing with Emma's fingers, Emma would have thought she had dozed off. Henry let out a little cheer as he finally beat Riku in the race and the family watched the next cutscene with interest. There seemed to be quite the mystery to solve, people in strange robes, and even the makings of a love triangle between Sora, Riku, and Kairi.

By the time Emma remembered that they were supposed to meet up with her parents for dinner like they did every Tuesday, Henry had already beaten the huge shadow figure for a second time, gotten a weapon called the Keyblade, and was wondering around a world called Twilight Town after a long cutscene that revealed more familiar Disney characters in the game. Thankfully, these were characters that Emma was certain were just fictional. She had no idea what she would do if she ever met a real Donald Duck or Goofy.

"Time's up, kid. We've gotta meet you're grandparents for dinner." Emma called when Henry found a save point and he groaned good naturedly but complied. After donning shoes and jackets, the Swan-Mills family made their way to Granny's diner chatting about the game.

"I think we should restrict this to a non-school night game," Regina commented as they stepped through the door to Granny's. Charming and Snow had already claimed a table for the whole family so they made their way over. "Clearly it is easy to lose track of time playing this."

That was an understatement. Regina and Emma hadn't noticed the hours passing, three of them to be exact, and they were only watching Henry play.

"What's this?" Snow asked curiously after pulling each of then into a hug one by one. Charming did the same for Emma and Regina but traded a fist bump with Henry instead as Emma greeted her baby brother.

"A new game Henry is playing," Regina answered as they all took their seats again.

Henry launched into a startlingly in depth run down of how the game came into existence, its reputation of having a hopelessly convoluted storyline, several branch off games that were not necessary to play but would fill in a lot of gaps outside the two main games, and the much anticipated release of the third game in the main franchise, Kingdom Hearts III.

"Sounds interesting," Charming said after Henry finished his long winded explanation and began to devour his food. Regina was glad that the explanation was over if only so Henry could eat his food while it was still somewhat warm. "And it's about fairytale characters?"

"Sort of. The game was developed by Square Enix but they collaborated with Disney for this. Most of the characters are either from Disney or another video game series called Final Fantasy."

Snow asked about the plot of the game but Henry shrugged his shoulders. In it's most basic form, the game was simply about light versus dark, good versus evil. Henry didn't know how much this game would delve into the shades of grey between good and evil but he was eager to find out.

"You'll have to let us know how the game goes," Snow said after they finished their meal and were walking out. Henrt nodded enthusiastically as he gave his grandmother a parting hug.

"I thinks its gonna be awesome," Henry said as he pulled away. Then he looked over his shoulder at his moms and smiled his most charming smile. "Even if nothing can be as great as your story."

Emma chuckled. "Nice try kid, but you're not getting extra game time tonight."

"As soon as we get home its homework, shower, then bed. You have school tomorrow," Regina completed, taking Emma's hand in her own as they walked out.

Charming laughed as Henry shrugged his shoulders, "Worth a shot."

The Swan-Mills family walked back to Mifflin street and Henry, as instructed, grabbed his bookbag and went up to his room to complete his homework for the night as his moms retreated to the study to finish the cider they had started earlier.

"He's right you know," Emma commented sometime later from her spot on the couch in the study. Regina, sitting at her desk and reviewing a few documents she would need for a meeting the next day, looked up curiously.

"What are you talking about darling?"

"Henry," Emma rose from the couch and made her way to Regina's side as she spoke. "He was right about us. No story will ever be better than ours."

"He was sucking up so we would let him play more video games," Regina rolled her eyes but still put the papers she was reviewing down in favor of pushing away from the desk and pulling Emma down into her lap.

"Doesn't mean he was wrong," Emma placed her arms around Regina's shoulders, one hand tangling in long, dark hair as the other caressed Regina's cheek.

"I suppose so," Regina tilted her head back slightly to look Emma in the eyes. "As long as our story has a happy ending, I think it will be the best one ever told."

"Our story has the happiest ending of all because it's not an ending. It's a beginning. The beginning of us."

Emma leaned down and kissed Regina then, slowly and surely and with the confidence that she'd get to do so every day for the rest of her life. As Regina poofed them up to their bedroom in a cloud of light purple magic, videogames could not have been further from Emma's mind.

#swan queen #swan mills family #fanfic #look this got out of hand quickly #quarantine has me reading sq fanfic #and playing kingdom hearts #and well now here we are #also i haven't watched ouat since like mid season 4 so #might be a bit ooc #i don't care #part 2 coming maybe tomorrow #that's a lot of tags #long post

[coffeecomicsgalore]

Chasing Feelings

Summary:  An akuma causes the entirety of Paris to be changed into Disney characters.

A/N:  The story stays the same. The alternate universe only happens during the entirety of the akuma battle.

Ao3

Day 6: Disney AU

Adrien groaned to the sound of his alarm. His hand fumbled around the bed in search of the dreaded rings, finally finding it beneath his pillow. Turning off the sound, Adrien covered his eyes with his arm to drown out the light coming in from the windows. Thoughts of the raven-haired girl crossed his mind again. Well, it wasn’t like he stopped thinking about her. He barely slept a wink while his mind replayed the entire day on a loop. The way she smiled, her braveness, the tears, sobs, and giggle. The way she said she liked Adrien put a smile on his face, but the shattered pieces she laid on her balcony thinking he didn’t feel the same way broke him too.  

Adrien didn’t want to think that Marinette was second best. She didn’t deserve that title. She was worth so much more than that. But how was he to feel when he loved Ladybug for so long? It was funny how all of a sudden, Marinette just came in and swept him off his feet like she has. It’s like she had this supernatural power about her that just draws people in.  It wouldn’t be the first time someone fell head over heels for her, he thought. Nathaniel, Nino, Luka... and now me?    

Adrien turned his head and noticed that Plagg was nowhere in sight. “Hey Plagg?” Adrien called out. “Plagg? I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I need some advice again.”  

After a few moments of silence, Adrien shot up from his bed. “Pla-” A heaviness was felt from his head. He ran his hand through his hair and realized his messy golden locks were longer than the night before. So long in fact that they trickled down his back, spread across the length of his bed, and fell into a neat pile on the floor. He then noticed his room looked smaller than he remembered, focusing on the stone veneer in the round room. “What the- What is this?!” He yelled. “Plagg! Plagg? Where are you?”  

Adrien climbed out of his bed nervously. He searched around the room, careful not to trip on his freakishly long locks. “What in Disney hell is going on here?” Sitting on the bench that was where the couch would usually sit was a black kitten with green eyes staring intently back at him. “Plagg? Is that you?” The kitten blinked its eyes. “What is going on?”  

Adrien noticed the tv was missing so he grabbed his phone out of his pocket and turned on the news. Nadja Chamack was on the camera looking like fair maiden. “Don’t be amused, it’s just the news. An akuma by the name of Queen Mean has taken over Paris turning everyone and everything into the characters in the Disney realm.” Adrien scowled at the television. Princesses, kings, and queens were walking around. There were animals talking to each other. A few cars had turned into carriages. Buildings have been changed into homes relating to certain time frames. Then he saw a swarm of sweeping brooms cleaning the streets downtown.  

Adrien looked down at his hair and grumbled under his breath. “Great. Now I’m being mocked by an akuma. Rapunzel? Really? Is my life such a mirror to that movie? Why couldn’t I have been Eugene? No. I just had to be Rapunzel...”  

Fear struck him as the news drawled on. “Marinette? Oh no. Marinette! Plagg? What if something happened to her?” He looked down at the kitten and then groaned. “I can’t even change into Chat! What am I going to do?”  

He ran over to the door to find a way to leave and noticed it was locked and barricaded. He picked up his phone again to message Marinette, Nino, and Alya to see if his friends were okay. After a few minutes with no responses, an uneasy feeling settled in his stomach.  

Adrien happened to look up and notice the spotted heroine running on the rooftop across from him. Adrien ran towards the window, tripping over a strand of silky hair in his path. Finally making it to the window, Adrien called out to her. “Ladybug!”  

Ladybug turned and swung her yo-yo to his window. “Adrien? What happened to you? Why is your home a tower?”  

“I don’t know? I woke up and was turned into Rapunzel.”  

Ladybug stifled a laugh, which only made Adrien scowl at her. “Great, now I’m being laughed at.”  

“No. No. I’m sorry. You just look cute with long hair, that’s all.” Ladybug stopped and pressed her lips together as she blushed a color close to her suit. “Sorry.” She squeaked.  

He sensed her uneasiness. “It is kind of funny.” He rubbed his neck as he thought of a way to change the subject. “You must be the epiphany of lady luck if you were able to avoid being changed into a princess.”  

Ladybug tilted her head. “Actually, I was changed, but not into a princess. Luckily, pun intended, I was transformed into a Mulan version of myself.”  

“Of course, she’s your perfect mirror.” Adrien said with one of his model smiles.  

Ladybug could see something was wrong. His smile wasn’t genuine; he looked a weird mix of worry and annoyed. “I want to ask you if you are okay, because I can see that you’re not, but I have to capture this akuma and change everyone back.”  

She caught me. “You’re right, I’m not. I’m worried about my friend, Marinette, and I can’t even leave my room to find her. My door is locked and none of my friends are responding.” Adrien felt as defeated as he looked. He hugged himself as he whispered. “I hope she’s okay.”  

Ladybug smiled at the comment. “She’s fine. I happened to see her when I tried to follow the akuma. She looks like she’s a warrior of some kind so I bet she’s safe from anyone endangering her.”  

Adrien relaxed at her words. “Do you mind getting me out of this tower? I want to check up on my other friends, too.”  

Ladybug nodded and reached out to grab him. He looked at her, then to his cat (When did he get a cat? Ladybug thought), and grabbed him before going back to Ladybug’s outstretched arm.  

Adrien smiled sheepishly. “I don’t go anywhere without him now. He’s my... he’s my companion cat! Yeah. Kind of like companion dogs, but I can’t have a dog, so I got a cat instead. Ha-ha, ha. Ha.”  

Ladybug tilted her head in confusion, shrugged it off, then with a flick of her wrist she whisked the three of them out his window. “Go find your friends. You’re sweet to think of them before yourself. Especially with 21 meters worth of hair trailing you.” She kissed his cheek. “You know, you are just as brave as Chat Noir. Never stop being brave.” She said as she whisked away.  

All of a sudden, a flash of white surrounded him. He was lifted off the ground and a loud crackle could be heard. A moment later, he was dropped back onto the ground with Plagg now floating in front of his face. Adrien got up and noticed his hair was now back to its normal length and the tower had changed back to the mansion.  

“Kissing breaks the spell?” He said as he turned to Plagg. Plagg shrugged his shoulders, not knowing where to go from here besides the obvious. “Doesn’t matter. I need to go find Ladybug. Plagg, claws out!”  

Ladybug scoured the vicinity as she watched the akuma work. She hears the tapping of Chat’s boots as he landed beside her. “Chat. I was worried about you. Did you get turned into an actual cat or something?”  

Chat rolled his eyes. “No, actually I was turned into a handsome prince, thank you very much. But I’m here now. It just took a while because my kwami had changed too. How about you, bugaboo?”  

“I was turned into Mulan. Tikki wasn’t affected since she was hanging out in the miracle box at the time. I was lucky with that. I could still change into Ladybug as soon as she zipped out of it.”  

Adrien sighed. “What have you figured out? I found out how to change someone back to normal.”  

“I figured out that the akuma is in her staff. See? She reminds me of Maleficent.” She furrowed her brows. “How do people change back?”  

“Kissing. Not sure if it’s true loves kiss, or just kissing in general, but I was able to transform back.”  

Ladybug felt a pang of jealousy. Shaking her head from the feeling, she whipped her yo-yo at a building near the akuma. “Come on, Chat. We have an akuma to beat.”  

After a half hour of battle, Marinette walked out of the bakery with a treat bag in her hand. She still looked despondent, still feeling the lingering sadness from yesterday along with the now lingering pang of jealousy. Why does this have to be so hard?  

“Marinette?” A voice called out from the gray sedan pulling up beside her. Adrien opened the door, not waiting for the car to come to a complete stop. “Hey.”  

“Hey,” Marinette said softly. “Grabbing a bite to eat?”  

“No. I actually came to talk to you. Wait, Marinette, what’s wrong? You didn’t get hurt during the akuma did you? Ladybug told me you were fine. I should have tried to find you. I’m so sorry.”  

Marinette looked at him with so much love. She pulled him into a hug, both to help stop his ramblings and just for even thinking of her like this. While it was still confusing, she couldn’t help the overwhelming feeling that was building up inside her.  

Adrien returned the hug, wrapping his arms around her waist and leaning his cheek on her head. “I’m here for as long as you need me.” They stayed there for a long time until Marinette felt comfortable enough to pull back.  

“Sorry. I just had a rough night. I didn’t sleep very well.”  

“I know the feeling.” Adrien said calmly. “Are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?”  

“No. But I’ll be okay eventually.” Adrien stared back at her knowingly. “I know I can come to you, but it’s something I have to figure out myself.”  

Adrien grasped her hand lightly, interlacing his fingers with hers. He waited a moment to see if she would pull back, especially since he now knew how she really felt about him. Adrien smiled when she didn’t pull away and asked if they could talk before school started. She agreed and made their way towards the school, hands still clasped together.  

His mind was clearer now. After the akuma, Adrien raced back home and finished getting ready and finally asked Plagg for advice. While it was all cheese metaphors, Plagg helped him understand his standpoint between the two girls. His fear of Marinette getting hurt by the akuma only contributed to his growing awareness of his love for her. Marinette was not second best. She was not an afterthought. Marinette came into his life and opened up his heart at the very moment he needed her to.  

Ladybug will always be his first love; that will never change or go away. She was the reason he understood what loving someone was. But Marinette gave him the chance to understand what loving someone who loves you back truly meant. She made him understand how to love all the bits and pieces of someone’s life that no one else in the world knows. She understands the power of freedom, the power or kindness, and the power of giving. She’s not afraid to show herself in her own Marinette way. She’s brave and beautiful and everything in between, and wanting to love and understand everything that hasn’t been shared with him yet will be like a treasure that has yet to be found.  

Adrien guided her to the bench and gestured for her to sit. “Do you want to sit?” Marinette nodded her head. As soon as she sat down, she pulled out a croissant and handed one to Adrien. “Is that your breakfast?”  

“I have an extra one in here. Please, take it.” She smiled. Adrien grabbed the croissant and nibbled at the end and she grabbed another for herself. “So, what did you want to talk about?”  

Adrien swallowed hard. “I wanted to apologize for how I acted yesterday. I should have never asked you to do the duet with me.” Marinette stopped eating and slowly laid the croissant down to her lap. Her head lopped down slightly and Adrien could see a tiny tear stroll down her cheek.  

“No, no! Marinette, no. Please don’t cry. That’s not what I meant.” Marinette refused to look up, afraid of what he was going to say next. He let out an exhaustive sigh. “No. What I mean is, I should have never asked you to do the duet with me as friends. I got so flustered yesterday that it came out all wrong.”  

Marinette finally had the courage to look up at him, her eyes red-rimmed from the heat of the unshed tears.  

Adrien pulled Marinette into a side hug, rubbing soothing circles up and down her arm. “What I’m trying to say is, I want to take you out on a proper date. Not one where we just sing and play against the tune of the piano. I want to take you out to dinner, maybe a movie, or walk the Seine or see the sights at the Eiffel Tower, and then maybe we could do the duet. But only if that’s what you want.”  

Marinette looked up at him in both wonder and confusion. “But... what about the other girl? You said you were in love with someone else when you drove me back home from the wax museum.”  

“Yes, I did say that. And that’s because I was in love with someone back then. As a matter of fact, I still do, but I love her as my best friend. You’ve managed to sneak into my heart in ways I never thought possible. You are absolutely beautiful inside and out. You have the heart of a saint, the patience of one too, and you are so caring and sweet. There are so many amazing qualities in you and I want to soak them all in and love every little piece of you for as long as you let me.” Marinette smiled as tears strolled down her face. Adrien grasped her hands and placed tender kisses to each of her knuckles. “So, Marinette? Will you go out with me and be my girlfriend?  

Marinette wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned her forehead against his. “Yes. I would love to go out with you.”  

And with that, Adrien cupped her cheek and nuzzled his nose against hers, a silent plea to kiss her soft lips. When she smiled, she bit her lip inviting him in. Closing the gap between them, Adrien started with a simple peck, but Marinette drawled it out longer until they were both lost in each other's warmth. The kisses felt like they were alone and far away from the world; the warmth of the sun and the slight breeze that surrounded them assisting in their fantasy getaway. The only thing that brought them back to the small bench on the side of the school building in Paris was the bell alerting them that class was about to begin.  

They pulled away, both smiling, both realizing that this was the right thing for them. They felt safe and warm and loved. There was no confusion, no desolation, and no torn hearts for other people. Just two people melded together at the right moment at the right time.  

“Come on, mon chérie,” Marinette said as she stood up, “or we’ll be late for class.”

#Chasing Feelings #lovesquarefluffweek2020 #ladrien #adrienette #ladynoir #ml fanfic #ml #miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug fanfiction

[darkdevasofdestruction]

OC asks - YuGiOh & Assassins Creed

OH YES, THIS IS GONNA BE FUN~!

--- YU-GI-OH

1. What is your OC’s favorite color?

She loves green! It’s a calming colour that highlight her eyes and gives her a more alluring look.

2. Does your OC collect anything? What do they collect?

Not sure if it counts, as she doesn’t collect physical things, but she loves to take pictures of everything that makes her happy and look at them from time to time.

3. What kind of things is your OC allergic to?

Idiocy. 

4. What kind of clothing does your OC wear?

Black jeans, with a regular green top, a black vest-like trench coat and knee length black boots, so pretty basic.

5. What is your OC’s first memory?

Uhhhh......Like, as a child?  I suppose it’d be when her mother smiled at her and gave her the family heirloom, the Millennium Medallion.

6. What’s your OC’s favorite animal? Least favorite?

She loves all animals, but at first, she loved Wolves the most, since she thought it would suit her loner personality. Her least favourite animal were, ironically, foxes, because her father blamed every mistake on her and her ironic name.  That is, until she meets Seto and Mokie, and becomes friends with Yugi’s group, who taught her that instead of listening to the bad stuff, she should make her own name meaning, and since then, she wore her name and spirit animal proudly.

7. What element would your OC be?

BYFIREBEPURGED

Well, if we go by elements meaning, I think either Earth, because she is a nurturing and healing person who helps others without realising. Either that, or water, because she is calm and relaxes people, but she can also become an outright tsunami.

8. What is your OC’s theme song?

I think “Too Late” by Dead by Sunrise, since it shows how desperate she was to find an escape from the darkness she succumbed to once her mother and younger sister were killed in a car accident and she was left under the strict hand of her father who had inhumane expectations of her and wanted only perfection and for her to follow the path he dictates.

9. Do you have a faceclaim / voiceclaim for your OC?

I never thought of that, to be fair? For voiceclaims no, but I imagine her to have a pretty versatile voice, feminine and casual most of the time, but can go low enough to either sound alluring or have a hint of poison darkness.

As for face claims, while creating my Game of Thrones OC, I stumbled upon this picture and she’s been my “faceclaim” if I can’t do a drawing of her, or if the fandom doesn’t have anime/cartoon characters, but real people.

10. What deadly sin would best represent your OC?

For a long time, I’m pretty sure it would be Envy, because she’s see happy people with no family issues, and envies them so much, having dark thoughts about them.

11. What are your OC’s hobbies?

Games of all kinds, travelling, staying in the nature, relaxing outside.

12. How patient is your OC? How hot-headed are they?

She’s incredibly patient with everyone and everything, in most situation, but can’t handle bad behaviour and dumb questions, especially if repeated, and especially if she’s tired, concentrating or the repetition of the conditions is a much too high number.

13. What is your OC’s gender / sexuality / race / species / etc.?

Kitsune is a human girl, but I haven’t thought of her sexuality or romantic orientation before, since she’s only ever attracted to Seto.

14. What foods does your OC like to eat? What are their least favorite foods?

She loves any kind of home-made food, but can’t stand some sea-food dishes.

15. If your OC could have any pet, what would they choose? Why?

Do foxes count?  If not, dogs and snakes would be her first options.

16. What does your OC smell like?

Okay, so, there’s this perfume and shower gel that I love so much and they smell SO good, like chocolate...So yes, that exactly.

17. How do they make a living? What kind of job do they want / not want? What is their dream job? What do they think of their current job?

She’s a student, so she has no actual job, but her dream job revolves around technology - Either a programmer or a game developer, both options, later, allowing her to work together with Seto.

18. What are your OC’s greatest fears? Weaknesses? Strengths?

She’s afraid of being manipulated and controlled again, insects and loneliness. Her biggest weakness is her kindness and the fact that she has a hard time denying anyone’s requests, so she can very often be walked all over, if someone doesn’t interfere. Her strengths are her perseverance and ambition that keep her going on and not giving up.

19. What kind of music do they listen to? Do they have a favorite song?

She loves rock, trap and indie songs mostly, and has a hard time choosing only one song, but one of them would be Scorpions - “Still Loving You”.

20. If they came from their world to ours (if not already in our’s) how would they react? What would they do?

Honestly, the Yu-Gi-Oh world is pretty similar to ours, so I don’t think it would be a huge problem to adapt, and would try to make friends and pursue her dreams.

21. What personal problems/issues do they have? Pet peeves?

Apart from her family issues with her mother and younger sister dying and her father being a controlling jerk? She gets pretty restless when she feels something is wrong, and would go in an overly-protective mode and often get herself in trouble.

Her pet peeves are when people chew too loud, being too loud in general, people looking at her phone and people who aren’t punctual or go back on their promises.

22. What kind of student were they/would they be in high school?

“The Nerd” trope. Straight As, loner, shy, but that’s mostly because of her father and how he’d punish her if she didn’t do perfect, and would move her to other schools/cities each year, depending on where his business would lead him.

23. What is a random fact about your OC?

Her hair has more personality than she has. No matter how much she tries, she can’t get it nice and neat, so she stopped caring and leaves it as untameable as it wants it to be.

24. What is their outlook on life? What is their philosophy / what do they think in general about living?

She’s a realist that can often slide down to pessimism or fatalism, as she doesn’t actually have any experience in the real world and is afraid of failing  and ruining everything around her.

25. What inspired you to create them / how did you create them? Were they originally a fan-character? What was their personality / design like when you first made them?

Honestly? She’s based on me and how I really am or I’d want to be, in a way. I love how I look with red hair, and I love foxes and their various portrayals and meanings, so I used them to create Kitsune, but instead of giving her black eyes, like I have, I gave her green eyes, like emeralds, to give her that touch of mysterious seductive aura around her.

26. Who is the most important person in their life? Why? Who is the least important to them (that still has an impact and why?

The most important person ALIVE in her life is Seto, because he was the one to take her away from her father and show her they are more than their bad parenting and tragic backstory. (Basically, after some exam results were showed, and she didn’t get the marks he expected, her father went to the principal’s office and realising the girl was using her mother’s old Duel Monsters, proceeding on lighting it on fire, making the girl freak out and put the slightly aflame deck in the principal’s aquarium, before having an outright breakdown, only for Seto to get mad and sass out the father, who was supposed to be a future business partner. When she left the school, she saw Seto and went to thank him, but he only asked if she wanted to babysit Mokuba for a short period of time when he’ll be in another country with business, and from then on, they bond.) On the other hand, the least important person, who still impacts her life, is her father, for the reasons stated before.

27. What kind of childhood did your character have?

Does it count as your usual sob story? Because until she was 13, her childhood was the dream childhood, but when her mother died, it all went down the drain.

28. What kind of nervous habits do they have? Do they stim? Do they have any kinds of addictions?

She tends to wet and bite her bottom lip a lot, she always walks out with earphones and music at max volume to avoid anxiety, walks fast when alone, focuses on her phone to combat the same anxiety and awkwardness, and when impatient or focused, she plays with a strand of her hair, drums her fingers on the table (she likes it when she hears the tapping of her nails), or bounces her leg.

29. If they could choose their epitaph for their grave, what would they choose?

Game over. Respawn time : 3...2...1...

30. Do they want to get married? Why or why not? Would they ever want kids? Do they have kids? Why?

She can’t stand children, they annoy her very much and especially doesn’t want to go through the whole childbirth mess, or have her child hate her. As for marriage...She is afraid of marriages, of rather said, of the possible heartbreak of a divorce, but she wouldn’t actually mind having a dream/fairy tale like small wedding, to make everything beautiful and ethereal.

31. What is their most traumatic memory/experience? What is their favorite memory?

Her most traumatic experience is hearing that her mother and sister got in a car accident, and while her mother was killed on the spot, her sister died in the hospital, in front of her, not long after giving her her favourite Duel Monsters card : Madolche Cruffsant , just because it was hella cute.

Her favourite memory is either her mother teaching her Duel Monsters, or her reading her Disney Princess stories.

32. If they could have one thing in the world, what would it be?

Her mother and sister back to life.

33. Would they ever kill someone? What would someone have to do to push them to kill someone? If they would kill someone, why?

She’d only kill in self-defense or to save someone else, otherwise, the farthest she’d go, is a hell of a beating.

34. What social groups and activities does your character attend? What role do they like to play? What role do they actually play, usually?

In a group of friends, she’s the moral and emotional support of the group, as well as the one to attempt to stop others from doing impulsive and reckless decisions.

In a game, she’d be the healer, priest, shaman or white mage.

35. How is your character’s imagination? Daydreaming a lot? Worried most of the time? Living in memories?

Her imagination goes through the roof, as she always day-dreams about literally everything and anything and reads a lot. Yeah, she does worry a lot and lives in the past, but she’s trying to work on it.

36. What does your character want most? What do they need really badly, compulsively? What are they willing to do, to sacrifice, to obtain?

She needs affections, validation and comfort. (Give her a hug pls) She’s used without it, so she wouldn’t do anything physically/aggressively to obtain it, but it’s eating her alive when she’s overthinking and doubting herself. Other than that, she knows she can obtain everything she wants by herself and just a bit of work.

37. What’s something that your character does, that other people don’t normally do?

I don’t think she does anything special that she does and others don’t... But she likes to carry Mokuba on her shoulders.

38. What would your character do with a million dollars?

Would make sure she doesn’t have to depend on anyone’s money, since she can’t stand being a burden to anyone, and would use the rest to make even more money, so one day, when she’ has a proper and constant living, she could help create animal shelters and donate to different charities.

39. What is in your characters refrigerator right now? On their bedroom floor? Nightstand? Garbage can?

Bubbly soda, water, chocolate and food in the fridge. A fluffy carpet on the floor and nothing else. Her laptop, a bottle of water and a bag of snacks. Fruit remains, empty snacks bags and other random useless things.

40. Your character is getting ready for a night out. Where are they going? What do they wear? Who will they be with?

She’s going on a calm walk on the shore, barefeet, with Seto, feet in water and letting the breeze mess up her hair even more. Kitsune’s wearing a soft coloured flowery patterned  dress that’s above the knee, it’s flowy and somehow transparent with an underskirt, and the sleeves are long and loose, all the paired with a pair of sneakers that she can easily take off, knowing she’s going to the beach.

41. What does your character do when they’re angry? Why?

It takes a LOT to make her to visibly show her anger, but she’s going to become extremely verbally aggressive, insulting, sarcastic, barely able to keep herself from getting physical.

42. Does your character have any scars? Where did they get them from?

Nope, she’s clean.

43. What was the most offensive thing your character had ever said?

“If I wanted to kill myself, I’d climb your ego and jump down to your IQ, that’s lower than your shoe size. In fact, it’s non-existent, much like my respect for you. Get the hell out of my sight, can’t you see nobody wants you here? You’re going to be missed like the leprosy.”

44. How does your character react/ accept criticism?

If it’s not actually an insult or a rude remark, she’ll listen and see what she can do with the advice, more more often than not, she still does whatever she thinks it’s right.

45. If your character was given a slice of pineapple pizza and they HAD to eat it (or something bad would happen), how would they react? Do they even LIKE pineapple pizza?

She never tried pineapple pizza, so she’s not sure how she’d react, but it’s just 1 slice, so it won’t kill her. She’s not a huge pineapple fan though.

46. Your character is given a voodoo doll of themselves. What do they do with it? Do they see if it actually works? She takes a needle and gently pokes her hand, and if it’s actually true, she’s gonna keep that doll a secret for safe-keeping, so nobody will ever be able to use it.

47. Can your character draw? What do they like to draw? Do they doodle?

She’s not THE best artist in the world, but she draws cute things like flowers from time to time to relax. As well as that, she draws flowery borders on her notebook pages.

48. What were their parents like? How has that affected how they are as an adult?

I already talked too much about her father, but her mother was a sweet and kind soul, and incredibly ambitious and playful and competitive, which is why she won countless gaming competitions. Her mother’s angelic soul and kindness was the way she wanted to grow to be, and whenever she gets angry, she gets reminded of her father and hates herself for doing something he does that she hates so much.

49. Does your character like candy? Do they get sugar rushes? What are they like when they get a rush?

She loves sweets, but she doesn’t feel the need to eat too many, especially at the same time, so she doesn’t get sugar rushes, nor does she get hyper.

50. If your character was presented with imminent and unavoidable death/fatality, how would they react? Would they try to avoid death anyways? Would they try to make their last days count?

She would cry a lot and would try anything in her power to alter her fate, but if it isn’t possible, she’ll try to spend as much quality time with Seto, Mokie and Yugi’s gang as possible.

---

ASSASSINS CREED

I haven’t gotten around to actually drawing anything for AC unfortunately, and I’m not sure I’ll ever get around to do it ^^”

---

1. What is your OC’s favorite color?

She loves Green and Blue, but the longer she stays in Masyaf, the more she misses the beautiful shade range of purple and lavender.

2. Does your OC collect anything? What do they collect?

In her time, she didn’t collect anything, but when she traveled back in time to Masyaf’s 1191 timeline, she started picking different flowers, pressing them in an empty tome that Malik gifted to her, and together with him, she would draw the flower on the other page, and write information about the plant in cause, with the help of her beloved Malik, both in her language and in his.

3. What kind of things is your OC allergic to?

As to quote a line from the Secret Crusade novel...

“Stupid Altair. Arrogant Altair. He was in trouble.”

4. What kind of clothing does your OC wear?

During her time, in the Japanese Brotherhood, as she is the Master Assassin of the Stealth branch, she wears mostly black, light clothes that allow her to sneak around, spy, snipe and blend in.

In Masyaf time, she had to wear the usual male Assassin outfit that literally engulfs her, which is really annoying as she can’t play to her strengths, so she has to fight quite a lot to get some practical adjustments to the outfit, and ones that won’t attract civilian nor templar unwanted attention.

5. What is your OC’s first memory?

Her elder brother singing this song to her : LULLABY

6. What’s your OC’s favorite animal? Least favorite?

She loves foxes so much. She knows she looks like one, and she uses everything to her advantage, and since she doesn’t actually remember her real name, she chose “Kitsune” as her assassin name.

Also, keep spiders away from her, or she’ll feel her soul leave her body in a split second.

7. What element would your OC be?

Fire. Without a speck of doubt. She’s a little, smug firecracker.

8. What is your OC’s theme song?

I think “Demons” by Starset works pretty well, as whilst she’s a strong person, she still has moments of weakness and needs someone by her side, before she loses control of herself and become someone she’d hate.

9. Do you have a faceclaim / voiceclaim for your OC?

Same person as before. I don’t know who she is, but she’s my muse.

10. What deadly sin would best represent your OC?

I believe Pride is going to give her a looot of trouble.

11. What are your OC’s hobbies?

She loves ice skating, singing, dancing in the moonlight and chilling on the grassy ground, watching the clouds pass by.

12. How patient is your OC? How hot-headed are they?

This little firecracker is somewhere in the middle ground, because yes, she is definitely patient in a lot of circumstances, but Gods, when she gets angry or impatient, you can literally see fire around her.

13. What is your OC’s gender / sexuality / race / species / etc.?

Kitsune is a human girl who never thought of love, as she was married to her work as an assassin, but when she arrives in Masyaf, she falls in love with Malik Al’Sayf.

14. What foods does your OC like to eat? What are their least favorite foods?

Cherries! She loves fruits in general, but she LOVES to seductively eats strawberries or tie cherry steam knots! On the other hand, she won’t eat anything that looks weird or not aesthetic.

15. If your OC could have any pet, what would they choose? Why?

Give this girl a horse, she loves feeling the feeling of wind in her face as she feels the horse speeding up! It’s like she’s on a motorbike again, but a bit different!

16. What does your OC smell like?

Vanilla and Roses <3

17. How do they make a living? What kind of job do they want / not want? What is their dream job? What do they think of their current job?

Kitsune is the Master Assassin of the Japanese Brotherhood’s Stealth Branch, so it’s needless to say that she gets her pay from this.

18. What are your OC’s greatest fears? Weaknesses? Strengths?

She fears getting close to anyone, only to have them dying on her again, just like her parents and older brother. Her weaknesses are her physical strength, her fear of the unknown and the fear of failure. She is small, fast and agile, has an amazing sight and always does her job at perfection, thanks to her ruthlessness, and can easily seduce and manipulate people with words and a simple bat of her long lashes.

19. What kind of music do they listen to? Do they have a favorite song?

Give her the loudest rock music and the best trap and dubstep remixes, she loves the energy she gets from those kids of songs.

20. If they came from their world to ours (if not already in our’s) how would they react? What would they do?

She is from our world...Sort of, so she won’t have too much of a problem living her life at leisure.

21. What personal problems/issues do they have? Pet peeves?

She has a hard time straying from the rules or showing mercy because she’s been brought up by the Brotherhood since she was 7. Her parents died at such a young age (as they too were assassins) that she doesn’t remember them, and the man who took care of her, as per her parents’ death wish, died when she had to assist him on her first mission, at 12 years old, which was a chaos and he died saving her so she could make sure the mission was a success.

Her pet peeves are people getting too close to her when talking, breathing too loudly, children misbehaving and slow internet.

22. What kind of student were they/would they be in high school?

She didn’t actually go to a regular school, but was trained and taught by the brotherhood, where she was an incredibly perfectionist and diligent student.

23. What is a random fact about your OC?

She absolutely L O V E S to playfully flirt with people she likes, which makes Malik the one to endure all her flirting.

24. What is their outlook on life? What is their philosophy / what do they think in general about living?

She doesn’t care if she dies or not, as long as she’s happy. She’s an assassin, she’s been fearless for as long as she can remember.

25. What inspired you to create them / how did you create them? Were they originally a fan-character? What was their personality / design like when you first made them?

I love Malik, I want someone to flirt a lot with him, I flirt a lot with my friends, and hell, Kitsune, as I said, she basically myself with green eyes and maybe better make up skills. 

26. Who is the most important person in their life? Why? Who is the least important to them that still has an impact and why?

The most important person in her life that is alive is Malik now, as her “Elder brother” died, and she never got personally close to anyone in the brotherhood, only professionally.

There’s nobody who really influences her negatively, apart from her own self and her perfectionism/over-thinking or the brotherhood creed.

You could say that, half-jokingly, her least favourite person is Altair because he’s a jerk who caused Malik to lose his arm and Kadar to die, but she forgives him when she sees true redemption in him.

27. What kind of childhood did your character have?

It was a pretty basic childhood, her elder brother taking care of her while studying and training for the brotherhood, and for her, that was normality so nothing was weird.

28. What kind of nervous habits do they have? Do they stim? Do they have any kinds of addictions?

She bites her lip very hard, until the point she draws blood, she cracks her knuckles a lot and she has a sort of internet addiction that went down the drain when she went back in time and realised her Brotherhood wouldn’t/couldn’t bring her back in her times.

29. If they could choose their epitaph for their grave, what would they choose?

I went down in the flames of success, so better throw my ashes in the Haunted Mansion from Disneyland Paris, or I’m gonna haunt everyone.

30. Do they want to get married? Why or why not? Would they ever want kids? Do they have kids? Why?

She’s an assassin, so she sees no reason to marry, or worse, have children, which she can’t stand. However, that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t want to to wear a pretty dress, have a nice hairstyle and make up and dance in the moonlight, alone, with Malik. It’s the closest she would get to a normal, domestic family.

31. What is their most traumatic memory/experience? What is their favorite memory?

Her brother dying in front of her, and him yelling for her to finish the mission and return to the Brotherhood, otherwise they’d kill her is a scene that still haunts her every nightmare.

On the other hand, her favourite memory is her brother singing to her that Lullaby, something which she took up and would sometimes sing to Malik, or would sneak out at night and sing while dancing by herself, trying to find a bit of freedom and sense of self.

32. If they could have one thing in the world, what would it be?

Her brother back...And maybe some fucking WiFi and electricity...And a bathtub...With bath bombs...And scented candles...

33. Would they ever kill someone? What would someone have to do to push them to kill someone? If they would kill someone, why?

She’s an assassin who struggles with showing mercy, need I say more?

34. What social groups and activities does your character attend? What role do they like to play? What role do they actually play, usually?

She’s the one who flirts and jokes a lot, I guess you could say she’s the popular girl stereotype?

In an RPG, she’d be the assassin, rogue or even warlock or necromancer, without a doubt.

35. How is your character’s imagination? Daydreaming a lot? Worried most of the time? Living in memories?

She doesn’t have too much time to day-dream, but now that she’s stuck in the past, she has more free time to do nothing but imagine random scenarios that would never happen.

Kitsune doesn’t live in the past or future, she lives in the moment...In a way that is borderline robotic and as if she tries to forget the fact that she’s human at all.

36. What does your character want most? What do they need really badly, compulsively? What are they willing to do, to sacrifice, to obtain?

She wants to find a life that won’t bind her to the Brotherhood in a way that she’d have to sacrifice everything for it. She wants a normal life that still has some of the assassin thrill, but not the risks...Keep the adrenaline though, she hates getting bored.

She doesn’t know yet what or how to achieve this utopia, but perhaps the fact that she’s in the past, with a Brotherhood that she’s not officially part of, might prove enough for her.

37. What’s something that your character does, that other people don’t normally do?

Does anyone flirt in Assassins Creed 1? Because if they don’t, Kitsune does A LOT.

38. What would your character do with a million dollars?

She’d take Malik with her and travel the world, exploring every inch of it, away from everybody she knows, and going to all theme and amusement parks.

39. What is in your characters refrigerator right now? On their bedroom floor? Nightstand? Garbage can?

Her laptop, phone and tablet on the nightstand, along with a water bottle and food. She has notebooks and ink and feathers on the ground next to her bed, since she’s usually too lazy to go to the table. There’s...No fridge in Masyaf, unfortunatelly...No more chocolate or ice cream... Lots of sketches and messed up scrolls in the trash.

40. Your character is getting ready for a night out. Where are they going? What do they wear? Who will they be with?

She’s so used to wearing either assassin or sexy clothes, that she chooses to wear something so simple and casual, like a pair of sneakers and a simple sundress, taking Malik on a walk at night, as during the day she wouldn’t really be able to dress as revealing, in public.

41. What does your character do when they’re angry? Why?

She tries to calm herself, but when she can’t help herself, she’d either go physically or verbally violent and harsh, depending on the gravity of the situation.

It doesn’t take long to piss her off, but it takes a LOT to actually get her to lose her temper.

42. Does your character have any scars? Where did they get them from?

She has a scar on the left side of her face, going from the forehead, to her eye and down to the middle of her cheek, because of the accident in Solomon’s Temple when she sneaked to get the artifact.

43. What was the most offensive thing your character had ever said?

“Tell me… Is being stupid a profession or are you just gifted? Why Don’t You Slip Into Something More Comfortable. Like A Coma? Wait, don’t worry, I can help with that. Whatever permission you thought you had to speak to me, I hereby remove. Honestly, did I ask you anything? No? Good, because nobody asked for your opinion, you filthy little mudblood.”

44. How does your character react/ accept criticism?

Can’t take it, especially if it’s not sugar coated or said in a gentle way, so she could understand it’s not an insult or an attack, but a suggestion.

She’d do whatever she wants regardless.

45. If your character was given a slice of pineapple pizza and they HAD to eat it (or something bad would happen), how would they react? Do they even LIKE pineapple pizza?

Pick up the pineapple slices, throw them at Altair’s face, then eat the pizza slice with no problem.

46. Your character is given a voodoo doll of themselves. What do they do with it? Do they see if it actually works?

Would keep it safer than her own heart and would try to track down whoever did the doll, in order to kill them. She doesn’t need potential killers on her case.

47. Can your character draw? What do they like to draw? Do they doodle?

She’s not too bad, but she likes drawings plants, animals and landscapes, which is why she likes to draw every plant she collects. On the other hand, she can’t doodle when absent-minded, she only taps the front of the pen on the table or paper.

48. What were their parents like? How has that affected how they are as an adult?

She didn’t really know them, as they died when she was too young, so they didn’t exactly affect her in any way. They weren’t bad people, despite being assassins, but as far as she heard around the Brotherhood, they were diligent, intelligent and reliable, so she was proud to be their daughter.

49. Does your character like candy? Do they get sugar rushes? What are they like when they get a rush?

She doesn’t get sugar rushes, nor does she eat too many sweets at once, but if she’s in a playful mood, she can get a bit more energetic than usual.

50. If your character was presented with imminent and unavoidable death/fatality, how would they react? Would they try to avoid death anyways? Would they try to make their last days count?

She’d try to see if it can be avoided, but if not, not a big deal for her. She’d just do the weirdest things possible and spend quality time with Malik and Altair, maybe even trying to make the Masyaf Brotherhood a better place, teaching them new healing methods and whatever...If she was in a good mood, at least.

#assassins creed #assassing creed oc #malik al sayf #Altair Ibn La'Ahad #yugioh oc #yugioh #Kaiba Seto #Mokuba Kaiba #yugi mutou #kitsune shimada #oc #my oc #oc asks

[marunalu]

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs from 1937

Okay, this is one of my first childhood movies I’ve ever watched, so my option may be based more on nostalgia and maybe I’m a little bit biased.

Enjoyment: 

Even after all these years, I really enjoy this movie. The atmosphere and music, the lovely animation and the lovingly designed characters. Everything just fits together. You actually feel like you've landed in the middle of a fairy tale by yourself. There are a few scenes that scared me as a child, such as the transformation of the queen into the old beggar, or the scene as Snow White flees into the woods and sees all the grotesque faces and creatures. These scenes still give me goosebumps. This movie is not particularly action-packed, but it’s not trying to be anyway. It’s more a movie to relax from a stressful day and let yourself be carried away into a fantasy fairytale world. The evil queen's death scene is still one of the most iconic movie villain deaths to this day. Another interesting detail that I found out is, that the two vultures are supposed to be an allusion to Nazi Germany. If you look at the eyes of the vultures, you can see the colors of the German flag black-red-gold and these animals are also a symbol of death and evil.

Animation: 

I just love the animation in this movie. Yes, it's a little bit outdated, but there's so much love and detail behind it. You can really see how much work and time the animators put into it. Great details like the astronomical signs of the zodiacs above the magic mirror, or while Snow White still lives in the castle, it lies in both sunshine and shadow, which is supposed to represent the presence of good and evil living together behind the walls, but as soon as Snow White has left the castle, the next time we see the castle, it’s wrapped in deep darkness, since only the evil queen is still present inside of it. The landscapes look like realistic nature scenerys und honestly, the animals have no fucking buiseness to look so damn cute. I like that the animators gave humans a look with more realistic proportions, while the animals and dwarfs look more cartoonish, cute and funny. That creates a good balance. I also enjoy how the animators try to express feelings und moods with pictures, such as after Snow White was "killed" and the dwarfs and animals mourn over her and it's raining so heavily outside as if the whole world is crying together with them. Scenes that are supposed to be sad are sad. Scenes that are supposed to be scary are scary and scenes that are supposed to reflect hope and happiness do just that. Really, they did a great job!

Music:

Just like with the animation, I can mostly say good things about the music in this movie. Although it’s also somewhat outdated, it fits perfectly in every situation and scene. In creepy moments it’s scary, in carefree moments it’s light and bright and in sad moments it’s sad. Some of the songs are also really good mood-lifters, like "With a Smile and a Song" or "Whistle While you Work." Seriously, if you feel depressed or don't feel like doing chores, just listen to these two optimistic songs, I'm sure you'll feel better afterwards. At Heigh ho I still have to whistle with the melody, I just can't help it and "The Silly Song" and "The Washing Song" are also two very funny and mood-lifting songs.

Funny:

There were actually some funny moments in the movie that made me giggle or chuckle. The funniest scene in my opinion was probably when the dwarves were forced to wash themself and panicked. Dopey and Grumpy are definitely the funniest of the dwarfs, although Grumpy clearly doesn't intend to. Among the animals, it is probably the turtle. The poor guy is always the last to arrive, after all the action is already over and is always the one to whom something stupid happens, be it falling down the stairs or being overrun by the other animals. Interestingly, none of the funny or silly moments come from human characters, only ever from the dwarfs or the animals. Fun fact: there was a kind of competition among the artists that was even fueled by Walt Disney himself. It was kind of a contest among the artists who created the funniest scene involving the dwarfs and which Walt Disney would like the most in the end. The winner received a special bonus from him.

Characters:

This movie is full of lovingly designed characters, whether Snow white, the dwarfs, the animals, the hunter, or the evil queen. However, it must be mentioned that none of the characters has a really complex personality. Snow White is just a pure-hearted angel, the evil queen is just an evil bitch (and I love her for that), the personalitys of the dwarfs correspond to their names and the prince was completely wasted material. I think the hunter and Grumpy have the most complex personalitys of all. The hunter shows loyalty to the queen, but does not follow her blindly and lets Snow White flee instead of killing her, knowing that the queen's mind is evil and twisted. At the beginning of the story, Grumpy has a misogynistic attitude, although unfortunately it’s not discussed in more detail why. I think it would be interesting to find out. The movie only mentions that he thinks all women are evil and try to wrap men around their little fingers. He is always portrayed as grumpy (heh) and in a bad mood, but deep down he cares for the other dwarfs and later Snow White too. He is also the bravest of them and has leadership potential. He reminds me a little of my late grandfather, maybe thats the reason why he is my favorite character in the movie XD

Inequality & diversity:

Fortunately, as far as I could tell, there were no racist hints and moments in this movie. Grumpy's misogynistic behavior at the beginning may a bit annoying and as already mentioned, I think it's a shame that it was not dealt with in more detail. Maybe he was in love with a woman once and she broke his heart? Fortunately, however, he takes this behavior off after a while and shows that he actually cares for Snow White and wants to protect her like the other dwarfs. There are people who think that Snow White is degraded as a useless little housewife, because she does the dwarfs’ housework and that's sexist in their eyes. Although I can understand where this kind of thinking comes from, I disagree. Snow White clearly shows dozens of times during the movie that she greatly enjoys doing housework, cooking and baking, unlike Cinderella. It’s even more important to mention, that Snow White doesn’t consider it obvious to be allowed to live with the dwarfs, even though she is a princess and could simply order it. No, instead it’s important to her, that she has to work to be allowed to stay. The dwarfs give her a place to stay and protect her, so she helps them with the housework and cooks for them. And the most important thing is that she likes to do it. Another point is that Snow White is definitely portraied as the boss in the house. She makes it clear to the dwarfs that they should adhere to certain rules of decency and can also be quite strict with them, almost like a mother. The dwarfs listen to her (albeit reluctantly when it comes to washing) and are grateful for her help. I personally don't see anything sexist about it. It would be different if the dwarfs forced Snow White to cook for them and doing all the housework stuff.

My conclusion:

Watch it! This is not an action-packed movie, but more suitable for relaxing and freeing yourself from stress. This movie is full of positive messages as always trying to stay optimistic, even if you are going through dark times (always remember that Snow White had to leave the only home she knew, was demoted to a kitchen maid by her stepmother and who also wants to see her dead, just because she is more beautiful then her and still Snow White manages to look positive into the future). It also contains an important message to children: don't just welcome every stranger into your house and above all, don't eat (and drink) everything that a stranger offers you! I give this movie 7 out of 10 stars!

#Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs #disney #disney movies #reviewing disney movie #ranking disney movie #list #english is not my first language

[writinginstardust]

Pining For A Prince | Part 2

Pairing: Keith x Lance

Warnings: some swearing and mentions of drinking/sex

A/N:  We must thank god for strangers who can’t keep their mouths shut for they may be the key to ending the pining of my two favourite idiots. Also I’ve not been to American Disney in forever so I’m working off very limited knowledge of how stuff works there but I’ve googled and like the tunnels and stuff under the parks are a real thing, they just might not be exactly as I’ve made them but like who cares? Let me know what you think!

Word Count: 2793

*

At the happiest place on Earth a new day brought with it a very tired and grumpy-looking group of 18-24 year-olds and one surprisingly chipper 20-year-old attempting to carry a frankly outrageous number of caffeinated drinks. That 20-year-old was of course Lance because apparently he was the only one who had anything close to a healthy sleep schedule.

“Morning everyone!” He greeted as he entered their favourite lounge area under the park.

“He brought coffee! Thank god, I think I might die without it!” Allura was the closest to being awake of them all and called out the second she saw him. Immediately he was charged by all his friends as they scrambled to get their caffeine fix.

“Alright guys, let me put these down and then you animals can kill each other for your coffee.” They backed off and gave him room to get to one of the tables but were back at it before he even had a chance to grab his own drink.

“Lance, sweetie, you are an angel. Thank you!” Allura pressed kiss to his cheek as she passed with Romelle who grinned and gave him a thumbs up.

“Thanks doofus!” that was Pidge who was clearly so tired she hadn't noticed her costume wasn't on right and the sight made him chuckle a bit before a warm hand clapping him on the shoulder drew his focus. He turned his head and was met with a sleepy smile from Keith. It was probably the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen in his life and he felt his cheeks flush as it brought to mind a very vivid image of what it would be like to wake up to that every morning.

“Thanks man. And thanks for ordering it the way I like, Shiro always refuses to.” Another surprising thing Lance had learned about Keith was that instead of the expected bitter black coffee, he liked the most sickeningly sweet stuff Lance had ever tasted. It was honestly disgusting and he didn't understand how Keith could drink it like that but with his odd coffee taste, who was he to judge?

“No biggie, I know what you're all like without it.”

“I'd argue that we're a delight without the caffeine but I was about ready to kill someone just for a sip when you turned up.” The statement came from Nadia and knowing her as Lance did, he absolutely believed it.

“Looks like I got here just in time. You guys enjoy, I've gotta get changed.”

“Oh shit, me too!” Apparently Keith had only just realised he was still in his own sweatpants and t-shirt rather than his costume.

“You're  hopeless in the morning. C'mon dude, let's go. You too Matt, you've forgotten your tights.” Lance grabbed their hands and tugged them into the changing rooms, not thinking about the fact that he was about to see Keith in a state of semi-undress that his body likely couldn't actually handle.

It took him longer it should have to get in costume, his eyes frequently being drawn to to Keith. It wasn't his fault. Keith was really, really hot. It's not like he hadn't known that before but suddenly being confronted with the reality of Keith's abs- Lance's brain short-circuited.

“Hey Matt, come help me with this would you? Shiro normally does it for me.”

“Sorry, I've got coffee to drink and a little sister to annoy.” Matt, who had until then been doing absolutely nothing, flashed them both a cheeky grin and grabbed his untouched coffee before rushing towards the door. “I'm sure Lance would be happy to help though!” And then he was gone. Bastard.

“You mind?” Keith seemed unconcerned with Matt's sudden, odd behaviour and oblivious to Lance's internal struggle between wanting to be close to him and wanting to run away at the thought.

“...Uh, yeah okay.” He shrugged in what he hoped was a nonchalant manner and made quick work of sorting out the last of Keith's costume. He might have lingered, hands smoothing down some of the fabric for longer than was necessary, but he would deny it happened if Keith decided to call him out on it.

“Thanks.” Keith’s voice was unexpectedly quiet and strained and Lance flicked his eyes up in surprise, not having noticed just quite how close their faces were, breath mingling in the small gap between their lips. Lance was too startled to move away or in fact do anything but stare. He’d never been quite this close to Keith before and was caught in the violet of his eyes, even more beautiful up close, he could get lost in those eyes for days.

After a few more moments had passed and Lance had still failed to move or react in any way but staring in awe, Keith’s cheeks developed an adorable blush that he knew was going to be stuck in his mind all day. Keith cleared his throat and that finally broke his trance. He stepped back quickly, feeling his own cheeks heating up and praying that the older boy wouldn’t notice.

“Uh, yeah...no problem dude.” He flashed him a quick smile before hurrying to finish dressing himself, needing to not be alone with Keith any longer. Footsteps passed close behind him as Keith made his way to the door and Lance tried not to look at him, still feeling awkward. He breathed a sigh of relief when the door finally shut and closed his eyes, leaning against the wall. Images of Keith’s soft smile, his cute blush, his beautiful eyes flashed before him and he groaned, scrubbing at his eyes to try and get rid of them. They wouldn’t go.

“Fuck,” he breathed out. It was going to be a tough day.

It only got worse a couple of hours later. A little after the park opened they were all still lingering near the castle meeting guests and taking photos. Normally by then many of them would have left, Lance and Allura off to New Orleans Square, Pidge to Pixie Hollow, the princesses to Fantasyland, Matt pretty much wherever he pleased, but they’d all got caught up by the sheer number of guests wanting to meet them today.

A cute little girl in a purple dress and mouse ears came up to him, eyes wide with the wonder he saw countless times a day.

“You’re prince Naveen.”

“I am little one, what can I do for you?”

“I wanted to tell you that you’re really pretty.”

“Why thank you, you’re very pretty too.” The little girl blushed and giggled at the compliment.

“But don’t you think Tiana is the most beautiful?” Her gaze strayed to where Allura was entertaining a family with 4 young children and Lance followed it. He knew what the girl meant, Allura was stunning. Movement behind her caught his eye as he watched and he flicked his focus to it, spotting Keith leading a girl of about 11 in a little dance, both of them smiling brightly. God it was adorable.

“You’re right, Tiana is very beautiful. You want to know a secret though?”

“Yes!” The girl’s smile widened further and she wiggled about in excitement.

“I think Prince Eric is really pretty too.” He whispered it to her and she giggled again before whispering back.

“Can I tell you a secret too?” He nodded. “I think he’s pretty too.” Lance grinned.

“I think you should tell him that. Just don’t tell him what I said. Pinky promise?” He held out his little finger and she wrapped her own around it.

“Pinky promise.”

“You know, I think Princess Tiana would like to meet you, we should go see her now, it looks like she’s free.” The little girl glanced over and sure enough the family previously occupying Allura were just getting ready to head off. Lance took her hand and walked the few feet between them and Allura.

“Princess, I’ve got someone for you to meet. She thinks you’re really pretty.” The little girl blushed but smiled anyway. They spent another minute or so talking with her and allowed her parents to take some photos before they each gave her a quick hug and she skipped away in the direction of Ezor and Keith. He looked over at said boy and felt his stomach flip. He really shouldn’t have mentioned thinking he was pretty but his mind had been occupied with him and it had slipped out. It was okay though, it’s not like Keith would find out.

“Stop staring, you’re being obvious.” Allura whispered, smirking when he turned back to her. The crowd had thinned significantly and they were finally able to head off to New Orleans Square, walking slowly arm in arm.

“Maybe I will, but only if you stop looking at Romelle every 30 seconds. You’re the one that’s being obvious.” He smirked right back. Two could play at this game.

“I really don’t like it when you’re right.” She let it drop after that and they continued walking, stopping every now and then to talk to a few park guests, neither noticing their crushes gazing after them.

A gentle tug on his costume brought Keith’s attention away from his conversation with Ezor and down to a giggling little girl with mischief in her eyes.

“Hey kiddo, you need something?”

“I need to tell you something but it’s a secret so you can’t tell anyone else.”

“I promise I won’t say a word.” He crouched down and allowed her to lean in and whisper in his ear.

“Prince Naveen thinks your pretty.” Well that wasn’t what he expected at all. He felt his cheeks heat up slightly and he leaned back to look at her questioningly.

“Did he tell you that?” She nodded vigorously.

“Yep, do you think he’s pretty too?” His eyes flicked involuntarily over to Lance who was walking away with Allura and he felt a dopey, in-love smile spread across his face.

“I think he’s very pretty. You can’t tell anyone though.”

“I promise.” He didn't believe that at all, assuming she'd probably made a similar promise to Lance, but seeing as she'd already talked to him he felt his secret was probably safe. She didn't say anything more and ran off back to her parents leaving a very mentally whiplashed Keith in her wake.

He spent most of the next hour completely unable to focus. Sure he managed do his job well, pretending was second nature by now, but his mind was racing a million miles an hour. What had Lance meant by calling him pretty? Was the child being totally honest? Did this mean Lance might like him as well? Or was he reading too much into the compliment? He didn't want to get his hopes up though and wasn't sure what he'd even do if Lance did like him back, there was no way he'd ever be able to actually ask him on a date himself, even being certain of his feelings.

He groaned as he entered his usual break lounge, why did having feelings have to be so difficult? James, looking very nice in his Flynn Rider get-up, Romelle, Nyma, and Adam all looked up as he entered, the four of them calling out half-hearted greetings from where they relaxed, recovering from the heat as best they could before having to brave it again.

“Hey guys.” He grabbed some water and flopped into a seat beside Adam, making no further attempt at conversation as he continued thinking about what Lance had apparently said.

“Something on your mind?” Adam was looking at him quizzically, he'd learned to read Keith pretty well over the years they'd known each other.

“Nothing to worry about,” he lied, faking a reassuring smile that he knew Adam would see right through anyway. Luckily for him, or unlucky as the case may be, a new voice interrupted.

“So, Romelle, tomorrow: Allura, me, Nadia, James, Hunk and Shay, beach barbecue and drinks? You in?” Of course it was Lance, the one person he couldn't be around right now. “Oh, hey Keith!”

“Hey Lance,” he said it so quietly he wasn't sure the other boy even heard and shrunk in on himself at Lance's gaze on him. Lance studied him for a moment longer confused by the awkward response but shrugged it off quickly. A knowing glance between the two boys and smirk from Adam made Keith want to curl up and die.

“Romelle?” Thankfully Lance turned his attention back to the girl.

“I'd love to come, I'll need a ride though and if you're all drinking…” she trailed off. Romelle lived too far from their favourite, virtually unknown, little beach to walk.

“You could stay with Allura for a couple of days, she said she doesn't mind.” Keith could hear the plotting tone in Lance's voice. At least someone was likely to get their happily ever after soon.

“Sounds great.” Romelle was definitely blushing and Keith was with everyone else in hoping this might finally get the two girls together. “Keith should come too though. You've got the day off right?” And now everyone was looking at him expectantly, Romelle with a wicked smile. Maybe Keith wasn't as invested in her happiness as he thought.

“Uh- is there any point if I can't drink with you guys?” Keith lived as far away as Romelle and he'd never been thankful for that until now. It may just be his ticket out of a day of Lance-induced torture.

“You could stay with me if you want?” Did Lance really have to be such a considerate friend all the time? Really? Keith couldn't deny that the chance to be alone with Lance, spend the night with him, would normally have been a gift but today it seemed more like a curse. Of course now he had no good reason not to go. It would be weird not to accept the offer.

“Alright then, you're sure you don't mind?”

“Yeah it's no problem dude, everyone's still on for dinner at Hunk's tonight yeah? V can catch a ride home with Axca, Shiro can take your car, and I’ll give you a ride if that's okay? Like no offense, but I do not trust your driving.” Keith contemplated arguing in defence of his driving but ultimately just nodded his agreement to the plan. Apparently one night at Lance's was becoming two and this was really not going to be good for his heart. “Awesome. I'll see you guys later then.” He waved and left the lounge allowing Keith to relax again at last. For about five seconds. Adam leaned over and whispered to him.

“I know I'm not technically the big brother but I'm doing this on Shiro's behalf.” Keith didn't like where this was going. Anything done on behalf of Shiro was not a good thing in his books. “Have fun on your date and remember to use protection. We don't want little Keith and Lance hybrids running around just yet.” Keith so nearly smacked him for that.

“How is it that you of all people have such a poor understanding of how biology and gay sex work?” He glared. “And it's not a date.” He added as an afterthought. He kind of wished it was though.

“Sure it's not.” He couldn't be bothered to argue anymore and instead opted for rolling his eyes and shoving Adam away, sinking further into his seat and spacing out again. Lance, once again was at the forefront of his mind and he spent a long time trying in vain to figure out what on earth he had meant when he'd said he was pretty. He continued drawing blanks and had only succeeded in giving himself a headache by the time Ezor shook him back to reality.

“Come on, break time is over, we've got kids to entertain.”

“Right,” he said, still a bit dazed, “coming.” He was about to say goodbye to the others when he realised they'd all already left. If he hadn't been so preoccupied with Lance thoughts he might have realised that obviously they wouldn't still be there, his break had started later after all. However, unfortunately Lance, whether present or not, had an uncanny ability to completely scramble his thoughts and throw out any sort of logic he might have.

Sighing, Keith scrubbed a hand over his face and went to a mirror to check his appearance, touching up his costume makeup a little and smoothing his hair back in place. He followed Ezor back through the tunnels and out into the park, desperately trying to push the last lingering wisp of Lance from his mind but it clung on stubbornly, not unlike Lance himself. It was going to be a long day.

#klance #keith x lance #keith #lance #keith kogane #lance mcclain #vld #voltron #klance fanfic #voltron fanfic #klance fanfiction #voltron fanfiction #vld fanfic #disneyland AU #klance fluff #Fic - Pining For A Prince