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sneezemonster15 · 2 years

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I don't understand why Sasuke looks very sad in Gaiden when talking to Naruto about their "collaboration" (for some reason it's written bolded too)?

Ah Anon.

Okay so I have wondered about this too and I had been thinking of writing a post about it, but kept avoiding it. Mainly because Gaiden is convoluted, to say the least. And in order to make sense of it, some contained speculation was in order. However, it is informed speculation, in any case. Here goes.

Why did Kishi write Gaiden? To give Sarada a back story. But he is doing so many other things in it. It's like he is helping outraged fans to make sense of the ending, the one that made SS canon. It's like he was trying to provide a bridge, to fill a gap, in order for us to understand what happened to Sasuke and Naruto at the end.

My suspicion started here.

This was the point when I felt like Sakura has had a clear realization. The clear impression that I got here was that Sakura knew what Sasuke meant. Sasuke did show her some consideration when he was still part of team seven and I felt like she still entertained the thought that maybe Sasuke still had that consideration for her. But war arc showed her again and again, how Sasuke's goals and feelings and priorities had absolutely nothing to do with Sakura and that irrespective of how Sakura feels for Sasuke, Sasuke wouldn't reciprocate.

He saves Naruto from the lava dimension despite a very able Naruto's admonition, but not Sakura who, if weren't for Kakashi, would certainly have perished. And to add insult to injury, Sasuke even explains to Naruto why he did it, while not mincing words about how much Sakura and Kakashi were just circumstantial by-products of his rescue operation. Sakura knows that Sasuke has prioritised Naruto over her before and is still doing it, even at the cost of her potential death. This incident served as a failed litmus test for Sakura.

Sakura would plow on regardless of course, because she still thinks she deserves it, that she deserves him. She has a very twisted sense of self importance, something that is a product of entitlement and immaturity. She was ready to abandon Konoha and become a traitor to trail after Sasuke the first time he was leaving, she was still begging for his attention during the war and even afterwards, while he announced his intention to kill Naruto. Even the horrible genjutsu Sasuke put her in without a second thought wasn't enough to make her re-evaluate her feelings for Sasuke. Her obsession for Sasuke isn't at all about him or how he feels, not like she was ever interested in knowing, but it's about her and that she wants to possess him, even if only in name. So even when she knows Sasuke doesn't and probably never will reciprocate her feelings, she never stops trying. She is after the glory of nailing Sasuke, pun unintended; because it uplifts her own image in her head, that 'she' was the one who finally got to 'get' Sasuke, not Ino, not anyone else, her. At the end of the day, her burning desire to claim Sasuke as hers is stronger than her need of Sasuke's reciprocation, loyalty to Konoha, protecting Naruto or anything else.

So when I saw this panel in chapter 699, it made sense.

Sasuke rejects Sakura's offer, like always, after giving her an unenthusiastic monosyllabic apology in the previous chapter, but it made sense that she would still follow after Sasuke. If a surefire murder attempt, a disturbingly malevolent genjutsu, steadily consistent apathy and vocal disdain wasn't able to budge Sakura's resolve of pursuing Sasuke mindlessly, why break from tradition now?

Sakura's attitude towards Sasuke made me think, what more needs to happen for this girl to realize Sasuke just isn't interested? Everything that ensued after lava dimension convinced me that it doesn't matter what happened or didn't happen, Sakura won't change. That it was never really a question of what would finally make her understand that one sided love doesn't work, but it was always a question of how much was she ready to go through, as long as she gets to have Sasuke.

Well, we are probably never going to find out because Sakura's obsession and one sided 'love' is a much stronger motivation for her than her self respect and long term happiness. I kinda feel sad for her, she just makes for such a forlorn and pathetic figure, so wrong about what really constitutes happiness in life and hence, suffering for it in a world where Sasuke, her husband and father of her child doesn't see her, call her, write her, touch her or recognise their child. :/

When Sasuke was leaving Konoha in chapter 699, his statement to Sakura intrigued me. He does give her an explanation, and assuredly states that he needs to sort out some other things that have been on his mind. I wonder what those things were and how much they had to do with the events that transpired in the preceding chapter, the intense interaction with Naruto that acted as his emotional catharsis and changed his direction in life. Because I believe chapter 698 was a love confession. Post chapter 698, Naruto knows how Sasuke feels for him. Sasuke knows how he feels for Naruto. Sasuke also knows how Naruto feels about him, but that he is still hesitant and confused, as he can't reconcile feeling that way for a boy. But on a fundamental level, he knows.

Of course, Kishi had to find a way to write this whole thing creatively and effectively to mitigate the risk of being too explicit about writing a gay love confession in shounen. But all the evidence of Naruto being a closeted homosexual was already established shrewdly by Kish. He obviously knew he couldn't legitimize a gay couple in shounen so he wrote that horrible ending for money but he knew that he was breaking rules of storytelling. He indicated, like I wrote in another post, that Konoha didn't present the ideal conditions for Sasuke and Naruto's relationship and possible union to be legitimized, especially because now Naruto and Sasuke had the weight of the world upon their shoulders.

I surmise that Sasuke thought deeply about Naruto, their relationship and the possibility of a potential union during his journey after the war. He came back and perhaps presented such a proposal to Naruto but Naruto couldn't accept. Naruto had the weight of Konoha's, his friends', and more importantly his parents' expectations on his shoulders, that he will marry a girl one day.

So even though he realised that he felt quite differently and passionately for Sasuke, he decided to reject the offer. He subsequently married Hinata with what is decidedly the most uncharacteristic and lacklustre of motivations and emotional affectation (I mean, Kishi meant for us to notice it in The Last where he decimated Naruto's character, don't you think?).

But Sasuke accepted him nevertheless. His love for Naruto is like a rock steady faith, a prayer. No matter what happens, he can't and won't stop loving and caring for Naruto. He joined in Naruto's goal of uniting all shinobis, and he is accountable to Naruto. So when this panel appeared, I couldn't help but notice a few things.

Sasuke is a man very much in control of his facial expressions, he doesn't let weakness or vulnerability show in any way, it's his character trait. Except when he is with Naruto. His expression here is clearly sad, dejected, resigned, this is very uncharacteristic of Sasuke especially when he is not in an extreme situation. He sounds like a man who didn't get what he wanted (from Naruto) and now is just going through the motions. He sounds like he is taunting Naruto plainatively, kinda like - You got what you wanted Naruto and I am doing what I promised you. What else is there to it?

There's an element of suffering and melancholia here.

Of course he would rather put himself in harm's way over Naruto, but I couldn't help but notice, like you said, how the lines were bolded out, like Kishi really wanted it to be emphasized. Like I said earlier, one has to pay attention to the deliberation and intent with which the author decides to relay information about the characters and their respective equation.

Naruto here looks stung and properly admonished, like Sasuke's taunt really needled him. It doesn't look or sound like their usual banter. It sounds serious, something that is coming from a much deeper place. And then I noticed Sakura's eyes. She looks panicked, alarmed. Why? Why would she panic at Sasuke taunting Naruto like this? By this time, she knows that Sasuke would always prioritise Naruto over her. It just made me think that she knows something about Sasuke and Naruto. Or suspects something. It's possible I am reading too much into it, but Kishi didn't do it without a reason, that much I am sure of. Everything is intentional. I felt like there's a lot of unsaid things here, just roiling under the surface begging to be noticed since Kishi's hands are tied. More so because of the repeated insistence of Kishi to portray SS as forced and unloving, like it was written to keep appearances. Like the way they talk about each other, calling each other 'my husband' and 'my wife'. Who talks like this in Naruto universe? It's weird. Like Sakura mostly sounds like she is overcompensating for the fact that her husband is almost always away and her child is missing because she couldn't do her job properly.

Then there's obviously Sasuke's very visible distaste at seeing Sakura, his wife he has seen after a decade, followed by his general lack of interest in being around her.

He is quite frankly admitting that the only reason he is with Sakura is Sarada. That's how they are connected.

It's not like Kishi doesn't set up the plot for this. It all starts because Sarada cannot reconcile her mother's lack of knowledge about her husband and his whereabouts with the paltry explanation Sakura has been giving Sarada her entire life. Sarada basically represents the curiosity of the fans, since we are all asking the same questions she is.

It's also very amusing to see how Kishi makes Naruto know and tell the answers to the questions Sarada was asking Sakura. And Naruto obviously knows Sasuke's whereabouts at all times. This makes my suspicion even stronger that SS was written as a sham couple, an couple in name only, just for keeping appearances, because well duh. The real couple is very much still Naruto and Sasuke.

And the way Naruto and Sasuke interact with each other or talk about each other, like an actual married couple, only strengthens this suspicion.

It's the fact that Kishi underlines the fact so pointedly that where Naruto and Sasuke know each other intimately, Sakura doesn't even know if Sasuke wears glasses. Where Naruto and Sasuke actually sound like how old married couples sound, Sakura and Sasuke still talk of each other in a very cosmetic manner, which sounds put on. Where Naruto was able to comfort Sarada about her father in a span of a few hours, Sakura couldn't do it in over a decade.

Sakura is still pulling her usual manipulative endeavours to force Sasuke's hand but Kishi relentlessly points out, certainly more times than necessary, how Sasuke and Sakura's marriage is only just a sham, a couple that has never kissed.

Like seriously, why is this needed? If the objective of the story is to provide a sob story for Sarada so that the audience might feel like potentially rooting for her, why imply that Sasuke is just not into Sakura. Like what narrative purpose is it serving in the story exactly? If Gaiden is supposed to serve as a story to set up Sarada's character firmly in Boruto series, through unraveling her central conflict (estranged father daughter relationship), and subsequently resolving it, either ideally do it with Sakura's help (Kishi does it through Naruto :/) or at least don't make it worse by dropping hints left and right about how absolutely farcical SS is! It totally defeats the purpose of the story.

Why would Kishi do it?

From what it looks like, it seems like Kishi is only providing an explanation as to what might have happened in the blank period after the war.

On his travels, Sasuke meditated over the course of action he should take about Naruto and then, he finally proposed to Naruto. Like a love proposal. But Naruto wasn't ready to come out of the closet, so he declined. He haphazardly married Hinata to satisfy everyone's expectations, and Sasuke understood but wasn't necessarily happy with it.

Meanwhile, Sakura relentlessly chased Sasuke and Sasuke, somewhere along the way, relented for a misjudged moment, and as a result, Sarada was conceived (even though the story of her conception sounds very shady), but Sasuke's first priority was always Naruto and the promise he made him. So he couldn't be around, didn't help that he didn't love Sakura. But since family ties were important for him, having grown up with a strong understanding of what a family entails, he couldn't completely abandon them either. So he married Sakura. But is he happy about it? Well clearly not.

In conclusion, Sakura would gladly take the tiny scraps Sasuke throws at her as long as she gets to call Sasuke her husband. Sasuke would give her those tiny scraps if it means his child would get some semblance of a family life, and Naruto would call Sasuke his rival but would talk and act like Sasuke's spouse for all means and purposes.

Does it happen in real life that closeted gay men choose to stay closeted forever for the sake of societal expectations? Sure. Does it happen in real life that people in unloving relationships stay together for the sake of their children? Absolutely. Has it been documented and portrayed in media? Also yes.

Is there a speculative element in my theory? Yes. But I simply don't see any other way to explain this rationally, everything considered.

It's upto fans to decide which theory works for them. But this works for me.

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immaturityofthomasastruc · 3 years

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Master Fu: Master of Failure (200 Follower Special)

Mentors are some of the most important characters in all of pop culture, as they help the protagonist advance in his journey while helping them improve in skill and personal growth. Because of their vital role, mentors tend to be among some of the most memorable characters in their respective franchises.

Mentors can be a variety of people, from wise sages, to former soldiers, to just regular people with a strong moral compass. What matters is the impact they have on the hero, and the role they play in the story.

Master Fu does a poor job at accomplishing both of those qualifications.

Like, well, basically every bad thing in Miraculous Ladybug, the ideas behind Master Fu were interesting in concept. The problem was the execution, or rather, what little we got with Master Fu. Yet he still manages to be memorable (no pun intended) for all the wrong ways. But before we get into Master Fu, let's get into a problem with Miraculous Ladybug in general that plagues several characters and plotlines.

Order of the... What Exactly?

Despite being “the last known member of the Order of the Guardians”, Master Fu hasn't really explained much about the Order he's from. All we really know is that he was trained to guard the Miraculous and distribute them to worthy people. And the Order does this... why exactly?

This is a huge problem with Miraculous Ladybug, the underdeveloped lore behind a major part of the story. Despite being connected to the Miraculous, you know, the magical artifacts the show is named after, we still don't really know much about why they were formed in the first place, and what their connection to the Miraculous is.

Oh wait, the origin of the Miraculous actually is explained... in an issue of the tie-in comic.

Someone seriously thought it was a good idea to explain that Kwamis are connected to abstract concepts like creation and destruction, and how the Miraculous were created, both very important things to learn, AND THEY DID IT IN A GODDAMN TIE-IN COMIC THAT ONLY LASTED THREE ISSUES!

I shouldn't be expected to read supplementary material to understand the backstory of a show. You don't need to watch Star Wars: The Clone Wars to understand the tragedy of Order 66, so why would you expect your audience to read a comic book to understand the origin of the magical objects that give your main characters superpowers?

Even the explanation we got isn't that detailed. Okay, fine some guy created the Miraculous to give the Kwamis tangibility (which actually explains how they can phase through solid objects), but... how and why? How was this sage able to see Tikki, how was he able to create the Miraculous, and why did he do it?

This extends to the Order of the Guardians as well. How and why were they formed? What exactly do they even do besides guard Miraculous? Why do they even guard the Miraculous in the first place? We even learn more about their methods, and trust me, I'll get to that later.

In Xiaolin Showdown, the pilot episode of all things explains why Shen Gong Wu are so important, and why the Xiaolin Dragons dedicate their lives to protecting them, because they maintain the balance between good and evil, and if they fall into the hands of evil, the world could fall into 10,000 years of darkness. Yeah, the first episode actually does a good job at explaining the backstory of the show, who would have thought? And it's from a show that has a better representation of Chinese culture when this is what the main character looks like.

Overall, the Order of the Guardians is an underdeveloped concept that does very little to help out Master Fu as a character. If the backstory of a character is so vague, how can we even understand the character's motivations in the first place? And by God, are Master Fu's motivations confusing.

Master of Not Doing Anything

Before I started working on this, I saw a video review of Miraculous Ladybug by someone who had never seen the show before, and only did so because one of his friends said they would start watching One Punch Man if he did. Even though he only mentioned Master Fu a few times, he described him as “a dude with a jewelry box full of superhero bling”, and felt like that was all those unfamiliar with the show needed to know. As someone who is familiar with the show? Yeah, that's basically all Master Fu is.

Despite being classified as a mentor, Master Fu doesn't really do a lot of mentoring. Sure, he occasionally talks to Marinette, but whenever things get rough, all he really does is hand out a Miraculous for Marinette to give to someone else temporarily.

And I've said it multiple times, but the Rent-A-Miraculous system is a horrible idea. Not only does it require Ladybug to basically leave Cat Noir to fend for himself while she rushes over to Master Fu, she has to think of an ideal candidate for the Miraculous she takes, find said candidate, rush back to where the Akuma is, hope Cat Noir wasn't incapacitated by the Akuma, and then haul ass to Master Fu's place to return the Miraculous as soon as the fight's over.

The idea of introducing new heroes is interesting, but because we see them so rarely, they don't really feel that important. I get that the title is “Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir”, but I just wish the show would do more with the temporary heroes, like see how it affects their lives. Unfortunately, I can't, thanks to “Miracle Queen”, as usual. I'll get to that episode again later on.

Even when Master Fu takes out the Miraculous, he doesn't really help Marinette think of which one to choose. He just says something like “Take a Miraculous, but be sure to return it to me when you're done.” It doesn't matter, because Marinette apparently knows how all fifteen Miraculous in the box work. Hey, wouldn't it have been nice to see Master Fu actually teach Marinette how every Miraculous works? Maybe have him suggest which Miraculous to take based on the Akuma's powers? I'm just saying, maybe you can take time away from Ladybug and Cat Noir fighting a giant baby to actually give more focus on other characters.

Before that, he was just planning to do nothing and hope Ladybug and Cat Noir could reclaim Hawkmoth's Miraculous for him. According to Tikki in “The Collector”, Marinette isn't even supposed to see the Guardian, and only met Master Fu because she found the Grimoire. So despite being “Guardians of the Miraculous”, he doesn't even help out the random people he decided to give Miraculous to? It's a miracle Ladybug and Cat Noir survived an entire season without any real guidance from Master Fu.

The third season tries to do something by having Master Fu train Marinette to become a guardian, but all of the training is entirely offscreen, and by “Feast”, he just says that her training is complete, and then makes her a guardian against her will in “Miracle Queen”.

Then there are moments unrelated to the Miraculous where he fails to actually be a mentor. Everyone knows about how stupid it was that the writers wanted the audience to sympathize with Adrien for threatening to quit being Cat Noir while Paris is flooded, but this also could have been a moment where Master Fu helped him talk about his feelings, or maybe dispense some wisdom about how hard it is to understand if someone actually trusts him or not. You know, act as a mentor to Adrien?

But instead, they brush over this potentially interesting character moment, because that would actually imply that Adrien has flaws. Because we all know Astruc loves to show the audience that Adrien Agreste is basically the second coming of Jesus Christ, right? And even though the episode making a big deal about Adrien not knowing Master Fu, they really don't have any meaningful conversations outside of that episode, except maybe “Party Crasher”. Though the episode does have Master Fu taking action when Ladybug is incapacitated by the Akuma by giving a Miraculous... to someone he barely knows swimming in Adrien's bathtub. Even he regrets his choice a few minutes later.

And then there's the fact that despite it being his job to guard the Miraculous, he does literally nothing to figure out where the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous are. Sure, he briefly talked with Marinette about Gabriel possibly being Hawkmoth in “The Collector”, but she did most of the investigating in that episode.

Hell, “Sandboy” establishes there's a way to contact Nooroo, the Kwami of the Butterfly Miraculous, on his birthday, but Master Fu turned it down, so they did it behind his back! For the love of God, this is a chance to figure out who Hawkmoth is and bring the conflict with him to an end, and you're passing it up?! In “Heart Hunter”, Master Fu says that Hawkmoth “talks a lot, but hasn't achieved much so far”, but you could easily apply that to Master Fu himself.

Outside of giving Miraculous to Marinette to borrow, what has Master Fu actually accomplished in the story? Maybe his backstory will shed more light on him as a character, and won't just make him look even worse.

The Bungled Backstory

One of the most frustrating things about Master Fu's backstory is that it actually has some pretty good buildup.

In “The Collector” we learn that Master Fu made a mistake that led to the destruction of the temple the Guardians operated out of, and the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous were lost in the process. This does a good job at setting up the mystery of what Master Fu did to destroy the temple in the first place. It continues in “Sandboy”, where Master Fu's worst nightmare is him heing haunted by the ghosts of the guardians he accidentally killed, and then we see in “Backwarder” that Master Fu had confidants to help him keep the Miraculous safe from what are assumed to be the Nazis. Because I guess guardians get to share their secrets, but not Ladybug and Cat Noir?

And then we learned the full backstory in “Feast”. Much like how “Oblivio” and “Cat Blanc” killed any chances of me ever showing any sympathy to Alya and Gabriel respectively, I lost all respect for Master Fu after watching this episode.

We learn that Fu was chosen to be a guardian at a very young age, and had no other choice but to start his training. One day, he was assigned to watch over A Miracle Box as a test for twenty-four hours without any food, water, or sleep. He decided to use the Peacock Miraculous to create a Sentimonster to get him some food, but his anger corrupted the Sentimonster that made it go on a rampage to eat the Miraculous in the temple... and somehow set the temple on fire judging from this shot.

In my main blog, I had originally made a post calling out Master Fu for what he did, but since then, I've mostly softened up. This is just a fan theory you are free do disagree with, but I like to think that Fu was supposed to use a Miraculous during the test. Maybe he was supposed to use the Mouse Miraculous to get some food while one of the clones sat and watched the box, or use the Horse Miraculous to sneak to the kitchen.

My problem comes from how his backstory affects his actions, and makes him look like a complete hypocrite.

Even though he hated the fact that he was basically drafted to become a guardian when he was only a child, he saw no problem handing out Miraculous to children who weren't that much older than he was when he burned down the temple. I don't even think he should even qualify as a master. His title shouldn't be “Master Fu”, but something more along the lines of “Acting Master Fu” on account of the other guardians burning to death.

Say what you will about Zordon for recruiting teenagers with attitude to become the Power Rangers, but what makes him more likable than Master Fu was that he actually cared about them. He routinely gave them advice, never really lost his patience with them, and understood they had lives outside of their jobs as Rangers. Hell, he was even willing to let them retire to peruse major opportunities in their lives, like Jason, Zack, Trini, and Kimberly, because he knows what it's like to be trapped in a situation that prevents him from living a normal life.

In fact, if Fu really hated being forced to become a guardian, why did he have no problem doing the same thing to Marinette? If anything, Fu should hate the Order of the Guardians, but it's never really explained what really motivated him to continue their practices.

Usually, a backstory related to a supporting character is meant to be followed up by the main characters doing something so history doesn't repeat itself. Anakin Skywalker was driven to the Dark Side because he was afraid of losing someone close to him, with the Jedi Order giving him no support due to their rules against personal attachments. This ideology is subverted in the original trilogy when it's Luke Skywalker's compassion for his father that motivated Anakin to rebel against the Emperor and fulfill his destiny as the chosen one.

But instead of learning from past events, or maybe realizing the Order of the Guardians was never as noble as we were led to assume it was, Master Fu just upholds their tradition of enlisting child soldiers to protect these world-ending artifacts while barely doing anything to help them out. And nobody ever acknowledges there might be anything wrong with the Order.

The Cowardly (and Hypocritical) Turtle

Despite being established to be 186 years old (which still hasn't been explained), and the destruction of the temple happening when he was a child, Master Fu hasn't really done anything with his position.

Despite having all the time in the world, as well as a Miraculous that lets him teleport anywhere, he still hasn't found the missing two Miraculous that Gabriel managed to find at least 129 years after he lost them, give or take.

There's also the fact that, at least, according to the flashback in “Backwarder”, Master Fu may or may not have chosen to sit down and let several historical atrocities and conflicts happen because he didn't want to risk losing the Miraculous. You know, minor things like the Taiping Rebellion, the Crimean War, World War I and II, the Rape of Nanking, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Tienanmen Square Massacre and God knows what else. What did Master Fu even do while he ran around the world to keep the Miraculous safe anyway?

These both factor into the biggest problem with Master Fu as a character: He's a coward.

Whenever he's confronted with a tough situation, Master Fu's first instinct is to run away and hide. As soon as the Sentimonster that destroyed the temple returns, he takes back Marinette and Adrien's Miraculous and runs away. As soon as Hawkmoth finds out about his existence, he packs up his stuff and runs away. When he's captured by Hawkmoth and Mayura, he gives up his position as Guardian and forces Marinette to take on the role, so he can run away safely.

And once again, despite hating the Order for forcing him to train to become a Guardian, Master Fu has no problem with forcing Marinette, someone who was only a few years older than he was when he was drafted, to become the next Guardian of the Miraculous, all while conveniently losing his memory in the process, which implies that Marinette will lose her memory when she retires as Guardian. I once made a submission to Terrible Miraculous Ladybug AU's joking that he only made up the whole amnesia thing just to dump the responsibility of being Guardian on Marinette, but with his appearance in the Season 4 teaser, I'm genuinely worried that may be true.

And yet, despite every incompetent thing he's done, the show keeps trying to portray Master Fu as this wise old soul, because like with so many characters, the writers think if they keep saying things that aren't true, the audience will just give up and accept these ideas as fact. “Master Fu is a wise mentor”. “Alya is a good journalist”. “Ladybug and Cat Noir are equal”. “Chloe is irredeemable”. “Gabriel is a sympathetic villain”. “Lila is a good liar”. “Thomas Astruc responds to criticism like an adult”.

And I'm not against the idea of a flawed mentor either. I already talked about how complex Dr. K is as a character, and how her connection to Venjix makes her an interesting mentor. What I want is for the narrative to acknowledge that Master Fu is way out of his league. I want someone, anyone, to actually call him out for how poorly he's handled things. I don't want to be told he's a great mentor when the evidence clearly shows otherwise.

But it seems like we may never get that in the show, even though it looks like he's going to return in Season 4.

Let's just hope Master Su-Han is a better mentor, and actually appears in more than a single episode before being escorted off so Marinette can't have any confidants as Guardian. Who am I kidding? That's basically what's going to happen.

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geniusgub · 3 years

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sweatpants//spencer reid

genre: fluff

warnings: nothing really. sad spencer for about two seconds.

word count: 2.7k

i have plenty more one shots on my wattpad so let me know if any of you want to see more of this type of writing :) make sure to reblog and comment :))

i fell in love with spencer reid the moment i met him. i fell in love with absolutely everything about him. his smile lit up the little bookstore as his glasses drifted further and further down his nose, and his hair hung over his forehead in messy, unbrushed curls. from the first time we locked eyes after he got a book down from the top shelf for me, i envisioned our whole future together.

we saw each other casually after our first meeting despite how badly i wanted more. we quickly realized that we frequented the little bookstore at the same time on saturdays and we just began to "accidentally" run into each other over and over at the same exact day and time. of course, i made sure to be there every saturday for the next three months just for the chance of seeing him.

i finally got the balls to ask him out after the fifth month of these meetups. he seems surprised and he blushed, then tugged on his tie to loosen it around his neck. he accepted quickly and we went bowling the next week. we were both horrible and eventually asked to put the bumpers up because the amount of gutter balls we were throwing were astronomical. but that "first" date was the first time i noticed something very important about spencer reid.

he wears a variation of the same outfit every single day, no matter what he's doing.

sweater vests, button ups, slacks, ties, and converse. sometimes a cardigan. these items get mixed and matched everyday and sometimes don't match, but the chaos of his outfit colors just suits him. and it suits his penchant for wearing mismatched socks. but i continued to realize more and more about his wardrobe as we spent more time together.

if we went out: slacks, button up, tie, converse.

if we had dinner at his apartment: slacks, button up, sweater vest, tie, converse.

if we cuddle on the couch: pajamas.

there's no in-between with him and it took me a while to decide if i loved this or thought it was odd. i landed somewhere in the middle. he would sometimes start to squirm in the middle of dinner and go to change into pajamas to be more comfortable.

i never commented on this because i knew he liked the way he dressed and i didn't want him to think i hated it. he's already an insecure person, despite me loving him with my whole heart and soul, and i'd feel so horrible if i added onto that. so i would sit through the squirming and the tie-tugging and the quick unlacing of shoes after a long day of converse wearing. i grinned and gave him lots of kisses because i love him regardless of his fashion choices. or lack there of.

but spencer continues to grow and thankfully, i grow with him. i start a new job and spencer continues to thrive at the bau. i move into his apartment and he decides that this is the perfect time for a change. a new haircut. super short on the sides and long on the top. i nearly keeled when i saw how utterly handsome he was with his new haircut. i jumped his bones immediately.

but the sweater vests and same brown cardigan didn't quite hit the spot anymore. i would find spencer standing in front of the mirror before work, silently wondering if the black or brown cardigan would look better with his gray sweater vest. still, it was endearing but eventually it becomes too much.

i pass a department store everyday on my way home from work and it started to pique my interest. one day when i got off work early and knew spencer wouldn't be home, i stopped off. the store was huge and had a humongous selection of styles and brands to choose from. i knew i had to bring spencer.

when i told him i wanted to take him shopping, he tilted his head in confusion like an adorable puppy. "what do you need? new sweaters? it is almost winter and i know you got rid of most of your winter clothes when the summer came. did you—"

"no, honey," i laughed, silencing his confused, off-topic rant. "i'm taking you shopping. for you."

another head tilt. "for me? i don't need anything."

"i know you don't need anything," i clarified, running my hands through his freshly cut hair, "but i want to treat you. and besides, i think you've outgrown some of your wardrobe and it's time to get some new items."

so that leaves us now, walking hand in hand into the department store. he's holding me tighter than usual as i lead him to the men's section, but i don't complain. i know he gets nervous in public places and i have no problem with a bit of coddling.

"so, i was thinking," i say as i flip through a rack of undershirts, "you could get some new dress pants. maybe a pair of jeans. maybe some blazers or just suit jackets. that way your style can grow but you can also wear your trusty button ups and ties underneath."

spencer pouts. "i like it better when we shop for you."

i stifle a laugh as i find an appealing gray blazer and search for spencer's size. "and why's that, bub?"

"because then you get to pick out cute clothes and i can watch you try them on."

"well, this time, i'll get to watch you try them on," i wink and hand the blazer over to him. "hold that. please and thank you."

spencer huffs and drops my hand so he can hold the hanger of the blazer. i continue walking through the racks and in my peripherals, i can see spencer glancing around the store and at the racks surrounding us. he follows behind me like a lost puppy, the amount of items in his hands growing as i pass every rack.

"how would you feel about," i pick out a set of matching maroon pants and a maroon blazer, "this color?" i told it up to spencer's chest. he looks down at the garment and scrunches up his nose. "no? that's okay. i think navy's suit you better anyway. no pun intended."

"babe?" he wonders softly as i move over to a rack of ties. "why are you doing this?"

"doing what?" i pick up a tie that is blue with pink flamingoes on it and drape it over his shoulder.

"taking me shopping. wanting to redo my wardrobe or something."

"well," a new tie on his shoulder- a yellow base with blue whales, "you have had the same wardrobe since i met you, and that was many years ago. you've grown up, spencer. maybe some new clothes could reflect that."

i watch a pout come to his face and his shoulders deflate. "you don't like the way i dress?"

i pout right back at him, trying to not seem so mocking in my expression. "i love the way you dress. but i think it might be time to replace that same brown sweater vest you've had since college. that's what i'm talking about. we don't have to do this if you don't want. we can go home."

spencer thinks for a second. he adjusts his hold on the handful of blazers and trousers in his arms and takes another glance at them. "i'll give these a try."

the pride swells in my chest and nearly bursts out. it's no secret that spencer hates change. he would rather his life stays exactly the same all the time. meals, furniture arrangement, train schedule, his wardrobe. clearly, he would rather wear the same clothes for the rest of his life than branch out a bit. so him agreeing to do just that nearly makes me cry right in the middle of the department store.

we push on and spencer continues to trail behind me and hold the clothes i pick. once his knees are practically buckling under the weight of the chosen clothes, i agree to let him start part two. the fitting room.

he disappears into a room and i sit across from the door in a fluffy armchair that probably has more germs on it than a public bathroom. okay, maybe that's just dramatic. but it has enough germs that i'm sure spencer would refuse to sit here, or maybe even get grossed out that i'm sitting on it.

"uh," i hear my boyfriends voice from behind the door, "i think i did it."

i hold in my giggle. "you think?"

"i mean, i put together an outfit. don't know if it's any good. it's definitely not as good as the things you put together."

"just let me see."

the door pops open and my jaw nearly hits the floor. my spencer is standing there in navy slacks, a navy blazer, a vest, button up, and a tie. he looks exactly like i expected him too. my same loving, quiet, genius boyfriend but much older and mature. he looks phenomenal.

but spencer scrunches up his nose and turns on his toes to look in the full length mirror. "i feel like all of this is too busy. there's too much happening."

"no, baby, not at all," i come up behind him and slide my hands across his back and then around his waist. "it's such a good look on you. it's spencer reid but as an adult."

he furrows his eyebrows and looks at me through the mirror. "are you implying i dressed like a child before?"

"no, no, not at all," i nudge his waist and he spins back to me. "it's a perfect outfit. you put it together perfectly. the colors, the different pieces."

spencer's face lights up as he watches me adjust the lapel of his jacket. "really?"

"yes!" i smooth down the shoulders and then tug on the cuff links. "it's perfectly your style. you don't think so?"

"mm," he looks back down at his own body and shakes out his arms a little. "i guess it is. it's just...different."

"it is different but it's a good different. you're still the same old genius who could go on for hours about mushrooms or doctor who or whatever. so you," i pat his shoulder and go up on my toes to kiss his cheek, "get into a new outfit and show me again, okay?"

spencer agrees and closes the fitting room door. we stay at the store for nearly two hours, picking out and trying on potential outfits. spencer even starts picking items on his own, but he comes to me in the cutest way to ask if i like the things he's picked out. i always do. and even if it's not my favorite piece, he obviously likes it so i tell him i love it.

we spend hundreds and split the bill. i insisted i pay because i was the one who brought him here, but he insisted he pay because the clothes are for him. we found a happy medium.

i don't know what i thought was going to happen after we basically replaced his wardrobe. apparently, i didn't think about what the next work day would be like. because i wake up before spencer and go to make breakfast and only listen to him shower and get dressed.

"good morning!" spencer chirps, practically skipping into the kitchen.

"morning!" i say back, putting pancakes on a plate for him. "here's your—" and i absolutely freeze in my spot at the sight of him in a dark tan jacket and slacks, a purple button up, and a matching gray tie. his hair is perfectly swooped across his forehead and he's grinning, practically glowing in his new outfit. "holy shit."

"you like it?" he holds up his arms a bit as if to gesture to his appearance.

i just stand and stare at him for another minute, clutching the plate in my hand so tightly that i fear i might break it. but spencer chuckles, taking it from me and placing it in front of the chair he always has breakfast in.

"i might not let you out of the house looking this good," i finally manage to say. "you'll come home with a new girl on your arm and forget all about me."

spencer pouts. "i'd never do that to you."

i grab onto his cheeks and lay a huge kiss on his lips. "i know you wouldn't. you look amazing, spence. even better than yesterday."

spencer comes home that night and beams about the compliments he got from his coworkers today and thanks me for encouraging him to expand his wardrobe. i don't accept his thanks because i'm just happy to see him feeling more confident in himself than ever.

however, my job is not done yet.

as much as he loves his new clothes, i give him a few weeks to adjust to his new normal. i let him get used to needing a few extra minutes in the morning to arrange an outfit and to the washing process before i spring something new on him. but once i can tell he's completely comfortable with his new wardrobe, i stop at the department store after work again.

"spence?" i call into the apartment as i kick my shoes off, clutching the paper bag in my hand.

"hi!" he calls back, emerging from the study with a book in his hand. "you're late."

i hold up the bag for proof. "i stopped at the store again." spencer follows me into the bedroom and sits on the edge of the bed in anticipation. "well, first, i saw a couple more ties that i liked," i take those out of the bag and throw them over his shoulder. "but i got these!"

i pull out three perfectly folded pairs of sweatpants and four plain colored tee shirts. spencer unravels each item and then looks up with his eyebrows furrowed. "i don't get it."

"okay," i giggle, placing my hands on his shoulders, "when i go to work, i wear my skirts and blouses and heels, right?"

like the puppy he is, he tilts his head to the side in confusion. "right."

"and when i got to sleep, i wear pajamas. but between the blouse and the pajamas, i wear sweats. you, my love," i boop his nose and instantly, an adorable pink hue paints his cheeks, "don't own sweats. you go from suits to pajamas. and again, i'm not saying that i don't love the way you dress. i'm just looking out for your comfort. if you hate them, i'll return them. simple as that."

he runs his hands over the tee shirts and runs it between his fingers. "they are really soft."

"i got the ones that are 100% cotton because i know you like how it feels."

"i'll try it," he concedes, smiling up at me. "thank you. you're too good to me."

"you deserve the world, angel face."

the next day, he gets called away for a case and i don't see him for almost two weeks. we call and text as much as possible, but we both get so busy that it's nearly impossible. so i stick to sending him good morning and goodnight texts and praying that he comes home in one piece.

after nearly two and a half weeks without him, i come home and see his car in the parking garage where it always is. i squeal, running all the way to the apartment and bursting through the door.

spencer is lounging on the couch, thankfully in one piece, and reading a book, dressed in gray sweatpants and a white tee shirt. he looks up and grins when i enter, standing up and pulling me into his arms.

"i can't believe you're sitting here," i mumble into his neck, "and looking so good when i'm not around."

spencer laughs into my shoulder, kissing my small bit of exposed skin. "well, you're here now so you can enjoy it."

"you look so fucking hot," i blurt out, grabbing a handful of his cotton shirt and tugging him towards the bedroom. "let me show you just how hot i think you are."

"god, i love this new wardrobe."

#spencer reid #spencer reid one shot #spencer reid fic #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid fanfiction #dr reid #dr spencer reid #criminal minds #matthew gray gubler #mgg

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wing-dingy · 3 years

Text

Hey there! So I said I was half tempted to post some mk fanfics, so i did *nervous jazz hands*

Basically just some subscorp, fluff with very little plot, basically Hanzo has a restless night and decides to drop by the Lin Kuei temple for some comfort in his lover, Kuai Liang. Also includes Hanzo feeding Kuai, because Kuai is such a workaholoic that when he has time to eat he forgets to. I’m a sucker for lovers taking care of each other 🥺😭 like literally the file name for this fic was “oops all fluff” lmao

Oh, and a few puns because back when I rped as Kuai, I had this whole thing going on where he makes more puns than he should be allowed to and i got too attached to it as a hc lol

well hope y’all enjoy cuz all i want is some gotdamn happy subscorp

Kuai Liang took a deep sigh as he laid back in the snow. Far past midnight, many of the students fast asleep, but not the Grandmaster himself. No, instead he was laying in the snow, bare of any clothes save for his briefs. His clothes were neatly folded in a pile by him as he laid, now closing his eyes. The thoughts were vanishing, nothing but emptiness in his mind. It was a new form of meditation he had picked up, becoming one with the snow. It was always when the ice began to coat his body as he let go of himself and his grip on the world that he knew he had succeeded in his meditation session.

Sometime into his meditation, he heard in the distance the sounds of snow crunching. Someone was approaching. He opened his eyes and sat up to prepare himself for a potential visitor. But when he looked around, he saw nobody, only the footsteps. Perhaps just a student wondering, looking for something to do to tire themselves out. He laid back down, then closed his eyes after a few thoughtful blinks. And there they were again, the footsteps, snow crunching and packing under the weight of somebody approaching near. Next he heard the slow scraping of metal, and that was when he rolled over and stood up to face his visitor.

“Your hearing hasn’t failed you quite yet,” Hanzo teased as he sheathed his katana. He was without his armor, just casual clothes as it was late, but he still carried his weapons on him, just in case. “But still, that was too close.”

Kuai smiled sweetly as he faced Hanzo. “Hearing is one of the most important senses. These ears will never fail me. But I felt my timing was amusingly dramatic no?” The cryomancer stepped forward to Hanzo, arms open. Of course Hanzo opened his arms and they united in a tight hug, cold and warmth meeting, fulfilling the temperatures each other craved. “It is wonderful to see you again, Hanzo. But why are you here? It is quite late.”

“I was having another restless night, I wanted to see you...” Hanzo let go of Kuai just slightly, just enough to see his face while still holding him. “Why were you laying in the snow? Is your cryomancy not enough to keep you cool?”

“I was meditating.” Kuai answered. "You are free to try it with me, if you're interested."

Hanzo looked down at the snow, then back up at Kuai. "I worry I may melt the snow."

"You are quite hot, you make even me melt." Kuai winked at him, causing Hanzo to blush lightly.

"Is that another pun of yours?"

Kuai had an awful cheeky smile. "Perhaps.” The cryomancer let go of Hanzo to retrieve his clothes he left on the ground and began to at least put on the pants. Sweat pants, just to emphasize it was the Grandmaster’s leisurely hours.

“You can still meditate if you please,” Hanzo offered.

“And what would the fun be in having to pretend you’re not here with me? I would much rather spend time with you.” Kuai took a hold of Hanzo’s hand, once again the cold meeting hot, and out in the snow it caused a subtle steam from their strong hands holding each other. Then Kuai gently pulled Hanzo guiding him towards the doors. “Come inside with me, I will prepare you some tea.”

“Perhaps I can make you some food, too.”

“You needn’t, Hanzo. Not if it is making you go out of your way.”

“I want to feed you, my snowflake. I know you forget to eat sometimes when you get so caught up between work and your own personal time.”

“A fair point.”

“When was the last time you had eaten?” Although it sounded like Hanzo was scolding Kuai, he really wasn’t. He wasn’t mad at all with Kuai, it was just his worry for Kuai’s well being coming out in how he naturally expresses it.

“Lunch time, about… 6 hours ago.”

“Do you not feel hungry?”

“I suppose I do now that you mention it. I suppose I can’t ever say no to your cooking, I do enjoy it.”

“Good,” Hanzo huffed.

Inside the temple was much warmer, something the Grandmaster always made sure of every night for his students. While he was a cryomancer himself, and he understood some of his students were also cryomancers, there were plenty that were not. The nightfall’s cold would be far too bothersome if they tried to endure it in their sleep, and a warrior without proper rest is a vulnerable one. It was even warm enough for Hanzo to notice, giving him a cozy vibe, which he didn’t mind at all given he tends to like it warmer… Except for when holding Kuai.

Kuai took Hanzo around to the temple’s large kitchen, and let go of his hand just to begin preparing to boil the water for their tea. In the meanwhile, Hanzo looked around at the options of foods to work with for him and his lover. Something meaty, of course, since there were tons of meat stored and ready for cooking. Much of the Lin Kuei’s diet consisted of meat, it was easiest to obtain, as animals were more abundant than anything agricultural. What they did have besides meat was always received by the Special Forces to help them maintain at least some semblance of a balanced diet. Very nice of them.

“What do you plan on making, Hanzo?” Kuai asked.

“I am thinking of kushiyaki. It should be quick enough to prepare,” Hanzo answered as he began to pull some meat, labeled ‘game’, out of the fridge.

Kuai loved hearing Hanzo’s Japanese. He could literally just be listing various foods in their Japanese names and Kuai would be head over heels for his lover’s mother tongue. “What is kushiyaki, dear?”

“Kushiyaki is like the yakitori, except that it can include non-poultry meats on it. Usually it is only meat on it, but I suppose some vegetables would benefit us.” It probably didn’t count as kushiyaki then, rather than a regular grilled kebab.

“Would you like some help preparing the meat?” Kuai asked, already drawing a knife from a drawer. “I can hardly cook, but I am quite skilled in cutting.”

Hanzo nodded. “I would appreciate that.”

And together they chopped the meat into cubes and rectangles. They cut off enough for five skewers, part of Hanzo’s plan. Of course, this was unnoticed by Kuai Liang until Hanzo had already flavoured and spiced them and began to put them on the skewers. “Hanzo, we may have to make another one to even the amount.”

“No, my love. I am only going to have one, maybe two. I want you to eat the rest so you are eating enough.”

“Hanzo,” Kuai muttered as he felt the love and care from his love. “Are you sure?”

“I am.” Hanzo set down some bell peppers and carrots on the counter in front of Kuai’s cutting board. “Now please, help me chop the vegetables. You seem to have quite an abundance of peppers.”

Kuai took a few peppers, and with a new knife began to cut them. “General Blade warned us the harvest would be plentiful that shipment.”

“You do know if you ever need produce, I can supply you with some, right? My temple has a garden with plenty of vegetables.”

“Indeed, but I do not want to take from your supply for ours.”

“Our clans are allies, Kuai. We must help each other.”

“I cannot disagree with that, but I do want you to take care of your clan.”

“Just as I take care of you?” Hanzo teased as he leaned in to kiss Kuai’s cheek, then continued on to set up the grilling process of their food.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” Despite how deadpan his tone was, he was very clearly joking. “But of yourself, what made you so restless tonight?”

Hanzo closed his eyes for a moment and sighed deeply. “Nightmares, I suppose.”

Kuai frowned with deep sorrow for Hanzo. “I am sorry to hear that.” He knew that they both suffered deeply from trauma, from all the fighting, protecting Earthrealm, their past feud, their own hardships through life and death as revenant and wraith, and their losses through time. They really had gone through it all, and then some. Nightmares were just a side effect of the trauma, one they both suffered from, sometimes together. “Did you need to talk about it?”

Hanzo thought about talking about it, but shook his head. “Not this time, thank you.”

“Very well then.” Kuai gave Hanzo a tight hug from behind and sighed. “Regardless, I am always happy to be here to help you, and I am glad you have come over here for comfort. I will always welcome you here, my love.”

“Thank you, my snowflake…” Hanzo did straighten himself from his vulnerable position, and instead began to help Kuai put the meat and vegetables onto the skewers so they could grill them.

“I almost dare to ask if you can cook those yourself, but alas you had already set up the grill.”

“You seem to have an affinity for my hellfires cooking your food.”

Kuai smiled. “It leaves a taste of love.”

“You are a sap.” But of course, it was one of the traits Hanzo loved about Kuai.

As their food cooked, the tea had successfully boiled. Kuai began to place the chamomile tea bags in, to turn it into tea. That was when a horrible pun came to mind. “Hanzo, how do you make holy water?”

“I would not know.”

“You boil the hell out of it.” That cheeky smirk again that showed the self-proclaimed pun-master was proud of another crack of a joke. Of course, it was always adorable, the way Kuai actually thought these puns were humorous.

Typically Hanzo didn’t like puns, they were cheesy and cheap, but Kuai was the only person allowed to make puns. He shook his head with a small touch of a smile. “You are adorable, Kuai.”

“I take pride in being the only one allowed to make puns around you.”

“Good. Though I still would not have thought of you to be the one to make such jokes.”

“Cage may have had a slight influence.” Kuai Liang gently touched along Hanzo’s forearm with his cold finger tips. “It’s easy to make puns when you’re as cool as I am.”

Hanzo huffed a small snicker. “You are certainly cooler than Johnny Cage, I will give you that. ”

“How generous of you, Hanzo.”

“I can say plenty more nice things about you, my dear snowflake.”

“And I, about you.” While the chamomile tea was finishing boiling into the water, Kuai grabbed a lemon from the fridge to chop it in half. A strong squeeze poured lemon juice right out of the lemon and into the tea kettle where it boiled into the tea, then back into the fridge it went when it was no longer of use. Next was the honey, which he had to retrieve from a jar within the pantry. As he set the jar down, he looked over at Hanzo. “You know,” Already Hnazo knew a pun was about to come, it was that damn set up. “I’m not sure if honey is needed in this, since you’re already ‘sweet’ enough.”

Okay, that pun may have got Hanzo blushing lightly again. “Yes… Well… Not as sweet as you.” Oh Hanzo, bashful at sweet praises, just as he had been with his wife a very long time ago. He tried to carry on, returning to the task at hand. He took the skewers off the grill and set them down onto a plate. With the tea finishing just in time, Kuai poured them both a cup, and the settled at one of the kitchen’s islands to consume.

Together they ate and drank their teas, discussing their lives and what they had been up to. Kuai had plenty of new stories about his dragons, and the ghosts he’d been noticing at the temple. Hanzo spoke of his students, the gardens’ new blooms, and a new training regiment he had started. But what they both had in common was missing each other. Kuai could fly over on his dragon any time, Hanzo could hellport any time, but alas it was about their scheduling. They missed each other deeply, they missed each other’s quips, touches, shared pain and healing and comfort, each other’s languages of love. All of it. They were both Grandmasters of their own clans just wanting to forget about the world to be with each other.

Which eventually led Hanzo and Kuai in front of the door of the Grandmaster's bedroom. Initially it had just been to walk him there, and Hanzo had planned on leaving to return to his own temple, but Kuai pulled Hanzo in as he entered his room. "You should stay the night here, Hanzo. I think the both of us could use a night together."

"I should return to my temple, I do not want to be leaving my students without word of where I am."

"My dear, they know of our love, and they know you have slept here before. They will take the hint in the morning when you return."

"I suppose. I just worry if something is going to happen while I am gone."

Now Kuai realized what Hanzo's nightmares were about, what caused his restlessness. He was having nightmares of losing his clan once again. He was having those traumatic memories of losing them before. Kuai Liang sighed. "I will not force you to stay here or there. But I promise you, they will be okay. I understand your fears, as a Grandmaster myself. When I leave, I get worried my clan will be attacked and slain. We worry because we care, and we care for them as deeply as we should be. But alongside care, we must provide them with trust. We must be able to trust that they can fight for themselves and protect each other, should they be attacked. I know your students will be safe, because they have been taught by the greatest warrior I have ever fought in my whole life. Nobody compares to you, Hanzo.” Hanzo reflected on Kuai’s words. Funny, he felt the same way, that Kuai was his toughest opponent, so surely the Lin Kuei must be great, too. “And as well, Hanzo, I’m unsure if you noticed but one of my students is at your temple for the night. We’re not the only ones visiting each other. Should anything go wrong, I’m more than certain she’d come home to alert us.”

“I was unaware of your student staying at my temple. That does help to know, I suppose... But you are correct in your words, I need to give them trust that they can protect themselves.” Hanzo looked at Kuai’s large bed, noticing one more blanket on the bed than before, and a rather thick one, too. A significant difference that warmed his heart. It meant Kuai was seeking warmth in his sleep, attempting to reach the same warmth of the pyromancer. “It seems I should sleep with you tonight anyway,” He noted as he lifted the blanket.

“I find myself sleeping better with a bit of warmth, it reminds me of you,” Kuai confessed as he sat down on his own bed.

“I find myself needing at least a fan on when I sleep,” Hanzo also confessed. “The cold grounds me when I start to get too nervous.”

“We truly do complete each other.”

Hanzo began to start taking off his own clothes, as well as leaving behind his weapons all onto a neat pile on the floor close to the bed, so Hanzo may retrieve them in the morning. Then he got in bed with Kuai, and as he got comfortable Kuai was already holding him, admiring the natural warmth of Hanzo rather than the blanket.

“Do you feel well enough to sleep again, Hanzo?” Kauai asked.

Hanzo nodded. “I think I do.”

“Good, I’m glad.” Kauai closed his eyes with a sigh, and started to feel himself drift to sleep. “Sleep well, Hanzo. Wake me up if you need anything, I won’t mind.”

“And I hope you sleep well, too.” Hanzo hesitantly closed his own eyes. And together, in each other’s arms, in each other’s elements, they both fell asleep together.

#mortal kombat #subscorp #kuai liang #scorpion #sub zero #aaaaa my first time posting fanfic here 😳😬#posting fanfics to try to work up my courage tho lets fucking gooo #also i dont apologize for any hcs or portrayals except yes i do dont kill me

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five-rivers · 4 years

Text

Interview With a Ghost, Part 2

Part one is here. The Dannymay prompt used is ‘Bones.’

"Well," said Captain Jones, over the intercom, "that answers that question."

"Not really," said Patterson. "It doesn't really explain all the ancient China stuff. We didn't even ask him about that."

"I think it does, actually," said Collins, tapping his fingers on the table. "If he didn't want people to know that he'd died and was continuing to live his human life, what better way to throw them off the trail than by mimicking a old legend like that?"

"But the Fentons said it wasn't well known," said Patterson. "Who would have known about it when the Fentons first showed up?"

"It certainly narrows down the list of potential..." Collins groaned. "What do we even call this? Victims? Suspects? Possibly dead people?"

"Before you two get too tied up in semantics," said the captain, voice coming through the intercom again. "We have some things to discuss. My office."

Collins and Patterson weren't the only ones assembling in the captain's office. Captain Jones had called Molly, the medical examiner, in as well. She sat on the chair in front of his desk, a stack of papers in her lap.

Jones shut the door behind him and locked it. "Alright," he said, rubbing his face and sinking into his chair. "So, before you called me in to watch that interview, I was talking to Molly. She told me some interesting things about Phantom's body. I assume you've already told these two what you've learned."

"I've gotten a little more, since then, actually," said Molly.

"Go ahead, then," said Jones.

"Well, at this point we're pretty sure that the cause of death is electrocution... Or we would be, if it wasn't for the whole 'only half a body' thing he has going on." Molly sighed. "He has electrical burns on his bones. They're black in spots."

"Ouch," said Patterson. "What a way to go."

"Yeah. Let's not bring it up to him, okay?"

"It might be a way to figure out it's him, though, make him break cover."

Captain Jones cleared his throat. Collins and Patterson turned to look at him, expectant.

"That brings us to the bones of this matter, so to speak," said Jones.

Collins suppressed a twitch of his lips. The captain liked puns, but admitting that one found them humorous could be hazardous. Mainly because it would result in more puns.

"What is that, sir?" he asked.

"Do we want to expose Phantom? Assuming that he is masquerading as a living person, something I'm not entirely convinced of. Especially considering your mention of legends and 'ancient China stuff.'" The captain circled the words with air quotes. "Care to explain?"

"The Fentons believe that Phantom is the same ghost as one that shows up in a bunch of legends around the world," said Collins. "We were going to look into them, next, but Phantom showed up."

"So, in other words, there's some evidence that he's, what, hundreds of years old?"

"I suppose," said Collins.

"Which would mean that's someone else's body. Because there's no way it's that old, right, Molly?"

"Not unless all that ectoplasm in it preserved it, somehow," said Molly. "I wouldn't entirely discount that, by the way. I'm not an ectologist."

"And everyone who is, is a suspect because of the ectoplasm and the body's age," put in Patterson.

Captain Jones cleared his throat. "As long as that's not the case," he said, "that means that, if Phantom is playing at being alive, he's doing it with someone else's life."

There was a pause, the words heavy on the air.

"You don't think he actually killed anyone, do you, sir?" asked Patterson.

"No," said the captain. "I don't. But it's something we have to consider, because if it is the case, then we have an obligation to reveal him. But if it isn't... What do you think will happen if we reveal Phantom and he leaves? If he's just continuing his- his 'life,'" again his hands came up to make quotes, "and he's not hurting anyone, there's no reason to reveal him, and many reasons not to, including the safety of the city."

"There is a reason to reveal him, even then," said Patterson. "If he's lying about it being an accident. If he was murdered. Or if the accident wasn't as out there as he wants us to think it is. I mean, he's a teenager. They don't just drop dead for no reason, and, well, Dave's wife had a point."

"You mean with her comment about abuse," said Captain Jones.

"Yeah," said Patterson.

"If it helps," said Molly, "there aren't any other detectable signs of abuse on his body."

"There's another issue," said Collins.

"Yes?" said the captain.

"What if Phantom decides to object to our line of questioning more physically?"

"You mean, if he attacks us?" asked Patterson.

Collins shrugged. "He is a ghost. And a kid. And we're putting a lot of pressure on him. I don't think any of that is conducive to rational decision making."

"I guess we can't argue that he isn't violent," said Patterson, making a face. "But what can we do? We can't definitively say what's going on."

Captain Jones glared at his desk as if it had offended him. Maybe it had. It was a horrible mess.

"We need to keep investigating," said the captain. "But I want you, all three of you, to be circumspect. We need a different explanation for why you're asking questions."

"Why?" asked Patterson. "Phantom already knows."

"Because of his 'enemies.'" Air quotes again. "We don't know who they are, or the real reason he's so anxious to keep everything quiet. We don't even know if he's talking about humans or ghosts. And," said Captain Jones, after a significant pause, "I don't want the Guys in White to get wind of this at all. They can have that corpse over mine, you got it?"

To Collins' great relief, the captain had chosen to deal with the Cult Division (aka Cameron Daily and his computer) himself, which left him and Patterson free to strategize on other fronts. Specifically, to whittle down which children they should interview, how they should be interviewed, and whether or not it was possible that any of them were Phantom.

"If he can shapeshift, then he can shapeshift," grumbled Collins, massaging his temples. It was far too early for this, and he'd been here until midnight yesterday, getting paperwork together and sending for class lists from the school. They'd had to explain why they wanted them. "His body type could be anything." He reached for his coffee. He was almost out.

"But," said Patterson, "we have his body. The body types match."

"He could have changed over two years," said Collins. "Teenagers usually do. He could have, I don't know, simulated a growth spurt in his human disguise, or whatever."

"Still, he couldn't have changed that much, not while escaping suspicion," argued Patterson.

Collins grunted. "Maybe," he agreed.

"And he's got to go to Casper High, he gets to ghost attacks there too fast for him to go to school anywhere else."

"Mhn," said Collins. "Sure, I guess."

"Has to be someone who's been there for two years, because of when everything started. So it can't be and of the freshmen or sophomores. Has to be someone who's an incoming junior or senior."

"Or someone who graduated last spring," said Collins.

"You're right," said Patterson. She tugged on the end of her braid. "That might complicate some things. Still. I think these are the most likely candidates." She pushed a list of circled names and pictures across their shared desk. "We can interview them today."

Collins glared at it, the way he glared at everything that wasn't coffee at this time of day. "Patterson, I thought we were doing interviews with kids to find the conspiracy theory kid."

"Well, we can do that, too, and ask around to see if anyone's been acting ghostly."

"Fine," said Collins. He squinted. "'Wesley Weston?' Dear god, who names their child that?"

"I don't know. It's better than some celebrity baby names that I've heard of," said Patterson, shrugging.

Collins put the list down and rubbed the heels of his hands into his eyes. "What was the theory again, anyway?" he asked. "That Phantom was the Fenton kid?"

"Daniel. Yeah. I've got him circled, here." Patterson tapped on the list.

"Do you think there's any merit to that?" asked Collins. "The Fentons are ghost hunters. You'd think they'd either notice and stop hunting him, or, well, you know."

"It would explain the ectoplasm, though. And maybe the electrical burns. They're inventors, too, and that thing on their roof has to have some kind of fancy wiring."

"That would be-" Collins wracked his brain for a suitable adjective and came up empty. He shook his head. "I don't think we can make that conclusion from a forum post you barely remember, Patterson. It sounds good, but-" He shook his head again.

"But it is pretty unbelievable. I still think we should ask him."

"Just like that?"

"Why not? You saw how he reacted to your question yesterday. His poker face needs work."

Collins' desk phone rang. He picked it up. "Detective Collins speaking," he said.

"Hey, this is Molly."

"Yeah? You have something new for us?"

"The body is gone."

"What?"

"Phantom's body. It's gone. I think there's been a break in."

I tentatively plan to continue this for day 25: Break.

#danny phantom #dannymay #dannymay 2020 #day 16

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sanderssidesfanfiction · 3 years

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If There’s a Place I Could Be - Chapter Two

If There’s a Place I Could Be Tag

July 7th, 2000

Emile was talking to some of his high school friends as they hung out by the pool, just enjoying their last free summer before college started. “Any plans when you go to college, Faith?” Emile asked.

“I don’t know,” Faith shrugged. “Finding a boy might be nice, but it’s not at the top of my list. You?”

“Finding a boy would be nice,” Emile agreed. “But I’m not looking for a Mister degree, either.”

Faith laughed and Peter shook his head. “You’re gonna get into some chaos, Emile, I just know it,” he said. “You’re that kind of guy. Not a bad thing, just...a thing.”

“Hey, I know you guys think I’m crazy, but I still say that chaos finds me, not the other way around,” Emile defended.

Faith shook her head. “You seek out people to be your friend, and they bring chaos with them. If anything, it’s a combination.”

“All right, you’ve got me there,” Emile conceded.

September 10th, 2000

It was two days before Emile saw Remy again, and when he did, it was when he was with his friend Clara. “Remy!” he exclaimed, walking over. “Good to see you again!”

“Emile!” Clara yelped, running after him. “Don’t bug him! He’s in my business class, he’s mean and a huge stick in the mud!”

“Come on, Clara, that’s my potential friend you’re trash talking!” Emile said, giving Clara a look that roughly equated to play nice. Except there was no please or any other option, really. “How have you been doing, Remy?”

Remy looked up and rolled his eyes. “Oh, joy. It’s you again.”

“Well, yeah, I told you I’d talk to you again if I saw you!” Emile said, swaying from side to side, and grinning. He was happy he had accidentally run into Remy again. He was worried he might have to fabricate an excuse to get to Remy again. And he didn’t want their relationship to be built on lies, not ever but definitely not in the beginning, where all the important stuff came around.

“Emile, he clearly doesn’t want to talk to us, we should just go—”

“Don’t be silly, Clara!” Emile exclaimed. “He doesn’t have any friends! Someone has to break the ice!”

Clara hesitated. “Well, maybe you can break the ice with him, but I’m not in the mood to be insulted again, so I’ll go hang with our other friends, if you don’t mind.”

Emile waved her off. “Yeah, sure. I’ll see you at lunch.”

As she walked away, Remy sighed. “You’re pushing her away,” he warned. “If she thinks you favor me over her she won’t want to be your friend anymore.”

“Well, I don’t typically favor any one friend over the others I have, so we’re all good!” Emile said, sitting down in a chair next to Remy’s.

“I said ‘she thinks,’” Remy pointed out. “Not what you actually do.”

“You’re really determined to rub me the wrong way, aren't you?” Emile asked with a little laugh. “I hate to break it to you, but that’s pretty hard for anyone to do.”

“You’re an only child, aren’t you?” Remy asked. “Otherwise everything I’m saying would get under your skin a little more. Because this is all stuff my older siblings would point out to me.”

“They don’t sound very nice,” Emile said with a frown.

“Eh,” Remy said with a shrug, “They didn’t use so many words, and they were a little less blunt about it, but they always made good points in the end. Or, Vanessa did. She’s the one who told me my friends were only friends with me so they could get dirt on me or it was because of a dare.”

“That...that sounds horrible,” Emile said.

“You get used to it,” Remy shrugged. “My only real friend when I was younger was my older brother Toby. Then he moved away to college, and...” Remy sighed. “I’m all that’s left.”

“I’m sorry,” Emile said softly. “It always hurts to lose a friend.”

“He doesn’t even write anymore,” Remy said, eyes distant. “He said he would and one day, he just...stopped.”

“Do you have any idea why?” Emile asked.

Remy shook himself with a jerk and sighed. “Yeah, but it’s private. It’s a family matter.”

“Okay,” Emile said. “But I’m always here if you want to talk.”

Remy gave Emile a half-hearted glare, before returning to the book that he had been reading.

“So you’re not from the area, are you?” Emile asked.

“What makes you say that?” Remy asked.

“Well, you’re hanging out on the campus on a Sunday. Most people who I know would not go to a college campus on a Sunday morning just for fun,” Emile said. “Which dorm do you stay in?”

Remy didn’t respond for a good minute or two. Then, he sighed, and muttered, “East Benz.”

“Really?!” Emile asked. “So do I! What floor?”

“Fourth,” Remy sighed.

“Oh, that explains it! I’m on the second,” Emile said. “Still! It would nice to visit your dorm room sometime, maybe? Or you could come to mine! We could hang out and stuff!”

Remy scoffed. “Why would I want that?”

Emile tried to not let that sting, but it was hard. It was clear that Remy had been through some rough things in his life, so it was a small wonder he was trying to distance himself from everyone and everything. But Emile knew that would destroy even the toughest of people, and he wanted to stop that spiral before it got too far. Remy certainly wasn’t making it easy to be around him, though. “You know what? You’re right. You wouldn’t want that, because you don’t want friends. Forget I asked,” Emile said, wilting in his seat.

Remy looked over at him and rolled his eyes, groaning. “Don’t look so put out about it, kid, I’m trying to ease you into the real world. The real world is full of bumps and sharp turns and things that will hurt you. You can’t always get what you want.”

“Yeah, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need,” Emile said, looking at Remy.

“You don’t need me,” Remy scoffed.

Emile shrugged. “How do I know that, if you won’t even let me get to know you?”

Remy looked Emile over, and Emile resisted the urge to squirm under the scrutiny. He wasn’t nervous because a cute boy was looking him over. Or, that wasn’t the only reason. He really wanted Remy to give Emile a shot. And if not squirming under his gaze was what it took to get Remy to listen to Emile, then Emile would make sure he didn’t move an inch. “You’re really not going to give up, are you?” Remy asked with a sigh.

“No,” Emile said, completely honest. “I want you to have someone you can go to on this campus, no matter who it is. Even if it winds up not being me, everyone deserves to have a shoulder to lean on.”

“Not everyone,” Remy sighed, closing his book. “What do you plan on doing to pass the time?”

“I was thinking we could walk around town, get to know where we’re living for most of the next four years a little better,” Emile offered.

“I have nothing better to do,” Remy sighed, packing up his book into his backpack next to his chair and slung it over his shoulder. “Do you have a car or should I take this back to my dorm?”

“I have a car!” Emile said. “So, does that mean you’re coming?”

Remy sighed. “Yes, Emile. I’ll join you on your walk around town center. But only if we don’t have to walk to the center of town, because that would take an hour.”

“No, we can just drive down there and window shop,” Emile said, standing up. “Come on, I’ll show you to my car.”

Remy was probably rolling his eyes at Emile’s enthusiasm, but Emile didn’t care. He was so excited to get Remy to join him that he was practically skipping on the way to the student parking lot close to the East Benz dorms. “Ease up on the enthusiasm,” Remy said once they were at Emile’s car. “I agreed to walk around town with you, not marry you.”

Emile shook his head fondly. “Look, I’m excited, and I get to be excited. If I choose to express that, then that’s my choice.”

Remy blinked in surprise. “You really are a shrink,” he muttered. “That’s just great.”

“I know, right?!” Emile asked, getting in his car as Remy did. “I’ve wanted to be a therapist since I was twelve.”

“Do you even know what sarcasm is?” Remy asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Emile said, turning to Remy with a grin as he pulled out of the parking lot. “But I choose to ignore yours.”

Remy laughed in shock and Emile grinned wider. “That’s not nice!” Remy exclaimed.

“Since when do you care about nice?” Emile asked. He felt a little mean for asking it, but really, if Remy wanted to play hardball then two could play better than one. He just hoped that Remy might mellow out, because he doubted he could play hardball forever. But he really didn’t want to lose Remy as a friend, especially considering what he now knew about Remy’s views on friends.

Remy stared at him in shock, before he actually smiled for the first time, and Emile very nearly crashed the car from staring. “Touché, kid. Touché.”

They made their way to town center quickly, and Emile parked the car at the edge of a parking lot by an abandoned building on Main Street. “Shame that no one’s using this building,” Emile sighed.

“I know,” Remy agreed. “It’s prime real estate, too. Like, Main Street? You could make a prime coffee shop or bookstore out of this place.”

“What would they call it, do you think?” Emile asked.

“Well, if it were some coffee shop, it’d probably be a dumb pun, like...I dunno... Sleep Easy.”

“‘Sleep Easy’?” Emile asked.

“Like speakeasy, the places where you could get alcohol in the Prohibition era? You know. The coffee’s so good it should be illegal,” Remy laughed. “That kind of dumb pun.”

“Oh, but that’s not dumb, that’s really cute!” Emile exclaimed.

Remy snorted. “You’d be exactly the kind of customer that would lap that sort of thing up,” he said. “And no, that’s not a compliment.”

Emile frowned. “Remy, I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but...you’re kind of a mean person.”

“Just figuring that out now, are you?” Remy asked.

Emile started walking, and Remy followed him, which seemed like a victory, but Emile wasn’t so sure anymore. “So why are you hanging around me? If you’re a mean person and you don’t like me, why would you stick around? Why me?”

Remy leaned down and picked up a rock that was lying on the concrete, tossing it in his hand over and over. “Well, for one, you’re the only person who’s made an effort to be around me to the point where the annoyance at you being around is less than the annoyance at you making an effort to be friendly with me constantly brushing you off. For another, someone needs to toughen you up to the harsh reality that is...well, reality. And I don’t trust that job to anyone I don’t know. I don’t know anyone else on campus, so that falls on my shoulders. For a third, well...if eye candy wants to hang around me, I certainly won’t object to a pretty boy hanging around where I am,” he threw the rock at the concrete and the two of them watched it skip and skitter across the sidewalk in front of them.

“I-I’m sorry, did you just call me eye candy?” Emile sputtered, brain grinding to a halt.

“Yeah. I’m into men, virtually exclusively, I’ve found. If you have a problem with that, say something now rather than later and we can forget this whole friendship ever even started,” Remy said.

“No, no, that’s not it at all! I just...didn’t expect you to be gay. Heteronormativity at its finest,” Emile laughed.

Remy glanced at him. “You’re gay too?”

“Bisexual,” Emile corrected, “But yeah, under that umbrella.”

“Sweet,” Remy said, flashing another genuine smile.

Emile found himself blushing at Remy’s smiles, and he was inwardly a little worried. Even if Remy was gay, Emile wasn’t sure Remy was the type of guy he could be happy living with. Arrogant, stand-offish, degrading? No, he didn’t want to be with a man like that. Why did he have to be so cute?

They walked until they got to the stores, and both of them started talking back and forth. Remy was very closed off at first, but he started to open up the more they were out and about. When they finally had to get back to the car, it was because all the stores were closing and it was past dark. “This was fun,” Remy said as they walked back.

“I’m glad,” Emile said, smiling a little. “Would you be willing to do it again?”

“Yeah, probably. Not with like, a gigantic amount of people, but definitely with you,” Remy said.

“Does this make us friends?” Emile asked hopefully.

Remy paused in his walking and turned thoughtful. “Well, you’re more than a familiar face, now,” Remy said. “But I wouldn’t necessarily use the word ‘friend.’ Acquaintance, probably.”

“Okay,” Emile said, laughing. “I’m very happy you’re my acquaintance, then.”

Remy ducked his head away and scrunched his shoulders up, but Emile could have sworn he heard Remy mumble, “Me, too.”

#if there's a place i could be #sanders sides fanfiction #remile #emile picani #ts sleep #our creations

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kinkymagnus · 3 years

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hey speaking of convoluted roleplay, personally i like playing with truth serum. and look, i’ve got three modes with truth serum (maximum angst, tender fluff, and KINKY SHIT) and we’re just gonna stick with the third one for now so this isn’t ten years long.

so like you know classic fun fake power dynamics scenario like (damn now i’ve got the whole “mob boss” alec on the mind fuck) boss/secretary or maid or some shit, or the hero/villain shit i’ve had brewing for like a year, or the dragon/prince stuff i’ve had for longer, or whatever, the point is magnus is tied up and helpless and being “”made”” to take it, trying not to “break” as alec drags orgasm after orgasm from him, except at some point in all his cute “struggling” and weak “denials” of how he shouldn’t do this, alec casts a truth spell or gives him something and when he rubs the head of his cock at magnus’s wet pussy and teases him, asks him what he wants, magnus chokes out a please, please fill me with your cock, i want it so bad, and whines and begs for him all flushed cheeks and humiliation at being such a slut ;)

like this works in so many scenarios like magnus trying to get himself under control, or even to just make what he’s saying seem less desperate (”i need this” comes out as “i want this so badly”) and his face burning as alec whispers dirty things in his ear about what he could do to him and magnus can’t help the yeses and pleases that are torn from his lips, can’t help how he sobs out thank you, thank you, oh, fuck, when alec slides into him (and sure they slip up and magnus can’t help but whine i love you or fuck i’m so glad we did this but honestly it’s just another sweet reminder you know?)

and like even just in different specific roleplay scenes like. mob boss alec and lawyer magnus or even just you know in some way magnus getting bent over a big scary mobster’s desk and getting teased and examined and licked until he’s sobbing, told how pretty he is, pinning him down firmly so he can’t struggle or squirm away (there are many potential roleplay scenarios just specifically with mobster alec actually like. ��paying off a debt” or “teaching him a lesson” lol) and then alec slaps his ass and asks him to say exactly what he wants and magnus tries to say whatever his “lines” are (you know like just let me go or i’ll pay you i swear or whatever you want to go with i don’t know) but instead all he can do is whine fuck me, please, make me cum on your cock and alec laughs at him and he’s embarrassed but so so wet??? amazing. or like alec “”threatening”” him you know but magnus is just like oh fuck i want you so bad i want you to pin me down and fuck me hard and alec’s like well i guess we could work out....an alternate arrangement ;)) (i picture these dorks not being incredibly good at those scenes bc they keep making cheesy puns or winking or slipping up with an i love you or a gentle kiss lmao but honestly it’s sweet and who cares about immersion when you’re having fun)

boss alec pinning his secretary or his maid against a wall and teasing him, rubbing his clit through the thin fabric of his skirt or slipping a hand under his shirt and magnus melting into it and wanting to kiss him so badly, like, alec bending him over the desk or taking him against the wall and when it kicks in magnus is just babbling about how much he loves alec’s cock and alec’s hands and alec and alec asks him if he’s a little whore and magnus Very Eagerly is like yes yes i’m a whore i’m your little slut sir and i mean alec just has to reward honesty, doesn’t he?

also idk why but i just imagined a sorta bad boy alec/nerdy magnus vibe? like. twi malec perhaps, and who knew “””shy””” nerdy lil magnus was such a kinky slut when you got to him open up a little? for some reason i’m imagining seelie magic in this one. lmao like this feels more au than roleplay (although it could just be REALLY lore heavy or some shit) but like they’re college students. alec’s a sexy Bad Boy with a cool leather jacket and magnus is like a quiet nerd but they go to some seelie party and truth shenanigans (magical truth or dare gone horribly wrong? just seelie pranks making the place of partying a no-lies zone, and then either magnus blurts something out or alec blurts something out or they hook up normally (magnus feeling Weirdly Bold, bonus if one of them did blurt something out because of the truth thing but didn’t realize) and then when they start hooking up they’re like “hm mayhaps something is up” lmao fuck idk

ANYWAY dragon alec pinning “”””””””innocent””””””””” prince(ess for some fun feminization kink perhaps?) magnus to his bed, exploring his body and stripping off his layers of clothes one by one, magnus helpless and loving it underneath him, all oh we shouldn’t, i shouldn’t, and half-protesting even as he sighs and melts into every touch and whines and shivers with pleasure, and like, hey, CONVOULTED ROLEPLAY WITH A STORYLINE, he’s supposed to be an ~innocent virgin~ or you know ~wait for his prince charming~ or whatever and here he is getting fucked and ruined by the dragon guarding his tower instead, letting a dragon kiss his tits and spread his legs and lick his clit and fill his cunt with that Big Dragon Dick which just adds to the whole humiliation, pretty “”innocent”” little princess lifting his skirts and begging a dragon to raw him hard) and then, you know, bing bang boom truth spell and suddenly all those little half-protests and bitten back whines of pleasure (what if someone sees? and i should call the guards and alec laughs all low like wouldn’t you like that, if your guards came in and saw you like this, saw me about to stuff your pretty cunt full--go ahead, sweetling, call the guards, we’ll give them a show--) morph into very loud slutty moans of pleasure and begging breathlessly for alec to do all sorts of filthy things and even magnus looks shocked at some of the things he’s saying

actually that was supposed to be mostly in character but there’s another fun part--obviously magnus consented to the truth whatever beforehand but this could also lead to him blurting out something even he didn’t expect (like, especially kinky/filthy and/or Soft(TM)) so it’s just like. magnus tied up, legs spread, face burning, pussy wet, having just let out a very long string of pleas for something incredibly explicit and dirty--i can’t think of a good example but like bonus if it’s twi magnus (bc u kno ;) ) and alec’s just like.....damn and magnus is like was that too much and alec is like no hold on i’m just taking notes babe

but really tho like even if he’s at that point a little too fucked out to notice or care, sometimes alec gets just the incredible pleasure to see magnus totally fucked out and shamelessly begging for alec to fuck him and call him a whore and spank him and edge him or whatever else and he’s just like 🥰 i love my husband 🥰

ALSO this one is a little more dicey but pandemonium/public sex? i imagine it’d have to be a controlled crowd bc, you know, truth serum, but like, magnus getting fucked nice and hard and babbling all these sexy whiny desperate things????? in front of everyone??? (bonus actually if it’s more of like. an area thing, or if alec had some too--this wouldn’t work for all of the scenarios probably but also magnus losing his mind and getting the living daylights fucked out of him all while alec is whispering just like. the softest validation in his ear and he literally Knows it’s true? good.)

speaking of the whole knowing it’s true part that in particular makes it very hot for alec like magnus is babbling and whining so much about wanting alec so bad, wanting alec to do all these filthy things to him, and like, a) validation, magnus wants him This Bad, b) consent sexy and knowing just how much magnus likes it when he bends him over and spanks him and pins him down and makes him cry with pleasure? good. c) again just Hot like all these things he’s saying he a hundred percent means and it’s not that he doesn’t other times but there’s something really good about knowing magnus literally can’t lie and is one hundred percent not holding back and he’s just begging for alec’s cock :)

i have so many thoughts on truth serum, even just this like, one third of the categories i have for truth serum ideas lmao

#dlfgdfg yeah lots of air quotes oops.#trans magnus smut #also consider.... dragon alec 'catching' magnus #just saying

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heythatpenguinhere · 4 years

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“For as Long as We Have”- Eleteo Finale Fanfic

SURPRISE! Another Eleteo fanfic! This is inspired by the finale art we got and some creative interpretations into how dramatic and angsty an ending could be. Enjoy the feels <3

The blinding light of the scepter’s magic followed by a rumbling shock wave sent everyone in the immediate area of the blast to the ground.

Dust particles swirled about as groans and the shuffling of movement could be heard by those attempting to gain their bearings.

Of those thrown to the floor by the force of magic was one Royal Wizard…

He was the closest to the blast, arm outstretched and with a name echoing from his lips, lost amidst the sound of the collision.

He was now laying on his back, eyes closed and ears ringing, a groan/cough mix coming from his throat. His mind was temporarily jumbled and a mess. He was feeling sore all over and confused with where he even was…Why was he laying down? Why did everything feel so fuzzy and strange? What was this cold feeling settling inside him?

Honey-colored eyes looking back at him sadly shot him forward.

“ELENA!” Mateo cried, breaking the general silence that had filled in the air.

He frantically made his way, crawling over his bruises towards what was now a crater… A crater where the crown princess was last seen standing.

“No… No, no, no.” Was all he could utter, kneeling at the edge of the impressively sized hole in the ground.

His eyes were rapidly filling with liquid as he scanned back and forth through the cloudy darkness searching for any sign of Elena. His head moving erratically, hands scrapping on the rumble.

Shaking the tears off to see clearer, he began to make out what appeared to be a figure laying still in the chaos. Tumbling face-first into the hole, he quickly righted himself and made his way to the now confirmed body in front of him.

Her head lay facing towards him, as he last remembered seeing her, body covered in the erupted dirt and dust.

His hand shook horribly as he inched them towards her face. She looked like she was asleep.

Despite being marred by the dirt and tainted with scraps here and there, she looked at peace as if she knew what was going to happen to her and had accepted it with no regret.

He could barely force her name out of his mouth at this point. His body was beginning to shake like his hands were and the tears were coming in full currents down his face.

“E-Elena…?” He said, carefully caressing her cheek and wiping away some of the dust; praying for a response of some kind though he knew… he knew deeply the truth.

When he heard no response and felt no movement under his fingertips, he finally broke.

A guttural scream of agony filled the air, alerting everyone fully to something being terribly wrong.

Mateo’s body collapsed over Elena’s as he couldn’t stop the sobs and grief that poured from him. He briefly was aware that someone sounded like they were running towards him and it appeared like another was crying as well; he was just lost in a pain he had never felt so deeply in his entire life.

His soul was fully torn in two.

The agony was red hot and icy all at once, coming in waves with tears and convulsions over him.

Elena Castillo-Flores was gone.

Her last act was one of bravery, selflessness, and love, vanquishing the Four Shades of Awesome and saving everyone she had ever cherished.

In doing so she ripped a gaping hole that would never be replaced in the hearts of everyone who loved her. In the hearts of all those who didn’t know how they could ever survive without her and hoped to never find out…

Mateo de Alva could barely breathe.

There were no words to explain his pain… Elena was… Elena was his very heart. She was his best friend, his soulmate, as much a part of him as his very breath. With each beat of his heart and the magic that flowed in his veins, he had loved her. He truly had. Despite being young and having gone through the motions that came with that realization, he knew that he did.

He had never told her. At least not physically.

Instead, he said so in everything he did. In every admiring smile, in every goofy laugh, in every comforting hug, every gentle touch, every concerned glance, every astonished expression, and more.

How he longed for her nose boops or a pun right now; any sign that she was here and safe with him again like before…

He should have never let her go by herself. How could he have allowed that? Now clinging to her body he knew he would regret that decision for the rest of what was left of his life.

“Mateo…” A voice said through weepy sniffles and he felt a firm grasp at his shoulder.

“Mateo… We must let the royal family know…” Victor said, pain evident in his words too.

A hiccuped sob came from the young wizard’s mouth.

“I-I can’t… I won’t leave her…” He said only raising up lightly to face Victor.

He knelt next to Mateo with his arm still held out in support. Behind him Carla stood with stunned tears, Naomi was softly sobbing into Gabe’s chest, Gabe was holding onto Naomi with a tight grip and closed eyes, and finally there knelt towards the side of the group was Esteban…

When his eyes met Esteban’s, a whole new slew of emotions emerged within him.

As if sensing the sudden change in the atmosphere and the rigidness of Mateo’s form, Esteban stood up slowly. He too made his way over to the crater and carefully dropped beside them.

His mouth hung open with no words, seemingly stunned. His eyes running over and over his cousin, the fallen princess, and the Royal Wizard who protected her so fiercely.

“I hope you’re happy,” Mateo said in a detached and clenched voice.

“I-I never wanted this… Please you have to know… I never wanted this!” Esteban exclaimed, pounding his fists to the ground and beginning to weep.

But what was there to be said? What could be done now? All that was left was the aftermath.

Mateo could feel hatred begin to rise in him and decided to just look back down at Elena’s face; something that always used to calm him before. He gently fixed the bangs framing her face; his fingers cherishing the softness of her cheeks and each strand of chestnut hair. He tilted her head upwards to a more comfortable position and just… just gazed at her.

“I’d give anything… anything to bring her back…” He thought through new tears.

“Mateo… I know you have no reason to trust me especially right now but what if… what if I knew a way to potentially save Elena?” Esteban whispered, still clinging to the ground under him.

Everyone notably froze at his insinuation and Mateo for his part took Elena into his arms instantly, cradling her head against his chest. He defensively glared at the once Chancellor.

“Don’t you dare touch her.” He said through clenched teeth, ready to strike if he had to. Just because Elena wasn’t with them anymore, did not mean he would stop protecting her and being by her side like he promised.

Esteban looked up with pleading eyes.

“Please listen to me… I think I know something we can do, but we have to do so quickly… Please, I beg you to let me try.” He pleaded with the wizard, rushing over to him only to have Victor stop him, tamborita aimed ready.

“Victor. You have no reason to trust me either, I know I have wronged you, but please let me try and right my wrongs. Elena… Elena deserves to live… She didn’t deserve all I’ve put her through and much less this fate. I have to try, please…” He stated, desperation seeping from his words.

Mateo didn’t know what to think. He was absolutely right. Elena had suffered terribly due to his actions. The entire royal family had and now partially due to his actions, she was gone… Why should he trust anything he had to say? But then again… what was there left to lose?

“Victor, let him try,” Mateo said through closed eyes, praying he wouldn’t add this to his long list of regrets.

“This has to work… Please work.” Esteban chanted to himself, lifting his now cracked scepter. It was a bitter reminder of his betrayal, but he hoped that right now it would be the thing that would help mend his deepest wrong. He didn’t know what he would do if it didn’t.

Closing his eyes, he visualized Elena. Her small child form running with him through the palace halls. He pictured her tight hugs when he lost his parents. He saw her disappear in Shuriki’s spell. Recalled her reappear to bring down the evil sorceress with his help. Navidads, birthdays, adventures, royal council meetings, and everything in between. Her life through his eyes flashed in ribbons.

“Elena, I am so sorry.” He said and lightly touched his scepter to her still body.

He poured into the spell all his regret, guilt, pain, grief, and even love for his family. Dark purple magic began to swirl around them and illuminated the crystal scepter Elena had been holding when she passed. The blue crystal began to glow slowly and soon grew brighter and brighter.

Mateo looked at the scepter and then Esteban. The light and dark magic spiraled together, encasing Elena… For a moment he was worried and then the dark hues began to lighten until they too were golden in color, swirling and swirling faster and faster around them. All around could be seen memories displaying Esteban’s memories with Elena from his life.

They looked on in awe.

Esteban kept concentrated, however, chanting Meruvian words and phrases without stopping. The swirling continued, the wind picking up with it, and producing a small cyclone.

Suddenly Esteban opened his eyes and the magic burst forward, flooding into Elena’s body as he collapsed backward in exhaustion.

Victor ran over to examine him and breathed a sigh of relief; he was alive. But what about Elena?

Mateo was on her again instantly.

“Elena!” He yelled, clutching onto her form again.

His fingers on her face slowly began to recognize the feeling of warmth… Color seemed to return to the princess, spreading from her heart to the rest of her body. Mateo could only hold his breath, not being able to fully believe what he was seeing happen before his very eyes.

“M-Mateo?” Whispered a familiar feminine voice as Elena’s lids began to open slightly.

The royal wizard could now gaze into her eyes again... He was actually looking into her again…

Mateo could not contain his emotions and he found himself breaking down for the second time that fateful day.

“Oh Elena!” He wept as he hugged her now breathing, living body.

She seemed to still be out of it and confused to what was going on around her, but Mateo just couldn’t stop the tears from coming. She was here. She was there with him again. He was too afraid to let her go and have her disappear again.

“Thank you. Thank you truly.” He said, turning to Esteban’s fallen self and the tears of joy continued to flow as the rest of their friends ran to them, equally as emotional, and showering the princess with all the love they had.

“Presenting, Elena Castillo-Flores, the Queen of Avalor!” Armando proudly proclaimed.

The throne room was filled with friends, royals, dignitaries, and beyond. Warmth and happiness filled the area as cheers began for the newly crowned queen.

Standing in front of the crowds, her mother’s crown on her head and her brand new blue gown flowing around her, was the Queen herself. She was a vision. The picture of elegance and beauty. Her heart glowing through her.

Raising her crystal scepter, the room was engulfed with its familiar glow as the cheers continued and sounds of awe.

She could not believe she was truly here.

Her entire life leading to this moment.

Looking to her sides, she saw the people who helped her get to this moment. Her friends, her family, they were her pillars. She took the time to examine each face, internally thanking every single one of them for all they had done.

Her Grandparents who helped raise her and guide her.

Her sister who had inspired her to be herself.

Naomi who had always been so honest from the beginning.

Gabe who had always been true and protective.

Even Esteban who had turned back around for family.

And finally Mateo. Who when she began to think, had a never-ending list attached to him.

Glancing over her shoulder just enough, she saw him staring at her in complete awe, pride, and care. His smile was bright and so authentically him.

And now she was here getting to see it another day and for hopefully as long as she lived.

The stone railing of the ballroom balcony was cool under her fingers. The sky was bright with stars that twinkled. She smiled feeling as though she could just envision her parent’s bright faces amidst the galaxy above. She touched one hand to her heart and knew they were there with her and had always been. It was a tender moment to mark the start of a new journey in her life, while never forgetting her very beginnings.

“I love you mami and papi. I hope I make you proud.”

“A penny for your thoughts your highness?” came a teasing voice from behind.

She smiled. Without having to even turn around she could sense Mateo’s warm, comforting form. She could recognize it anywhere.

“Don’t start with that.” She said laughing.

He smiled warmly before stepping beside her, leaning on the balcony to join her. From her vantage point she could see the stars reflected in his eyes, mixing with the beautiful tones of green and gold that existed in them.

“So, what’s next Elena?” He said breaking his concentration from the sky to her, moving closer to take her hand gently as if she would blow away in the breeze.

He had been extra protective since her near demise, his hands always near and ready to reach out.

She didn’t have to ask him to know that that incident had scarred him to this very moment. She could see it in the little things. He held her a little tighter and more tenderly now. Her encounter with death had caused a change in him.

“I’m not really sure if I’m honest. I guess I’m just taking each day at a time… not taking it for granted…” She spoke honestly with a small smile directed at him.

His own smile slightly faltered. There she saw that flash of hurt and something else cross his features.

Squeezing his hand she whispered carefully, “I know we haven’t really talked about it and you haven’t brought it up, likely not to worry me and we don’t have to now, but I want to know what’s next for you too?”

Without missing a beat he replied with confidence, “Whatever is next for you, is next for me.”

Momentarily shocked by his words, she didn’t register he had moved even closer until she could feel his breath lightly hitting her cheeks. She didn’t dare move when she did finally notice.

“I don’t have the full details, but I know I’ll be by your side for as long as I am breathing. I’ll be here... however you’ll have me.” He whispered back into the small space between them.

The air was growing tense and igniting with something she couldn’t quite name. It felt pleasant and scary all at once, like looking into the ocean before you jumped in. It was an unknown territory full of sparks and possibilities.

“I still need you by my side. That I know.” She said was a slight tremble of uncertainty.

He leaned in even closer; she didn’t know any closer existed…

“Then that’s where I’ll be. I promise.” His eyes flickered over her features and settling on the space that held her lips.

As the breeze blew by and the moon glowed, illuminating them both, their promise was sealed with the space between them finally closing. Two hearts intertwined for as long as they would have...

BONUS SCENE:

A squeal of excitement could just barely heard behind the glass doors.

“I knew it!” Naomi said punching Gabe’s shoulder, whose mouth still hung open like a fish.

“Cough it up Nunez,” She said closing his jaw with her hand.

Gabe sputtered, a blush on his cheeks, and began to dig through his pockets.

“And the both of you can deliver my crate of dolces to my room later.” Said another voice.

Luisa stood there with a smug smile and arms crossed in victory. The two teens groaned and she laughed before looking back through the glass doors that led to the occupied balcony where the Queen and her Royal Wizard were engulfed in their own world. Her grand daughter’s future was going to be so bright and full of love from all around, this she had no doubt about.

#Elena of Avalor #elena castillo flores #eleteo #mateo de alva #fanfic #angst #romance #fanfiction

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faewhump · 4 years

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Unseelie Pet: 25. Chapter

Lady Áine reflects about her position as Malachi’s vassal and the change she observed in Alex.

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Content warnings: mentions of torture, mentions of whipping, mentions of dubcon, mentions of abuse, dehumanisation, captor bonding

Tagging: @astrobly @galaxywhump @slaintetowhump @castielamigos-whump-side-blog @whumpsideblog @thewhiteraven73 @ohmywhump @u-n-o-f-f-i-c-i-a-l @a-terrible-pun @deluxewhump @ariirenn @frnkieroismydaddy @insanitywishes @swordkallya

In a way Lady Áine’s strong magic was both a blessing and a curse at once. Of course being powerful had it’s advantages in the cruel and backstabbing world that Court life could be, there were only very few faeries that would dare to fight her. But at the same time it bore the great risk of attracting the attention of older and even more powerful Fae. Áine had never minded standing back and letting others scheme and struggle for power, happy to just be left to live in peace. Unfortunately, that comfortable life hadn’t lasted long once Lord Dara had taken note of her magical strength.

He had been one of the most influential Fae at the Court at the time, and when she repeatedly refused to swear him her loyalty, he began to view her as a potential threat and decided to remove her rather sooner than later. In the end it had been a visiting Fae that had saved her life and offered her a place at his Court, under the condition that she would repay the debt through her service. It hadn’t been what Áine wanted, but ultimately she didn’t have any other choice than to accept Lord Malachi’s offer.

He wasn’t the worst High Fae to be obligated to, he generally treated his vassals with respect and had never been anything but polite to her. And yet, if it weren’t for her debt to him, she would leave this Court immediately. She had thought that the faeries at the Court she’d grown up at were bloodthirsty, but it had been nothing against the pure sadism the inhabitants of this palace showed towards their captured humans. When she’d arrived there had been talk about Malachi having killed his previous ‘pet’ only recently, and in a way she’d been glad that it hadn’t been around anymore and that he seemed disinterested in taking another.

But then Kieran had stumbled into the Court. She knew that ‘Kieran’ wasn’t the human’s actual name, but unlike Malachi she felt uncomfortable referring to him just as ‘the pet’ in her head. Of course Kieran wasn’t the first pet she’d healed, many faeries at the palace relied on her for that service. As much as she hated fixing up the poor humans just so their owners could break them again, there was no way she could refuse and leave them to slowly die of their increasingly worsening wounds.

When she’d first heard that Malachi had taken a pet again she’d expected to be called right away, already dreading to be confronted with the kind of mess her lord usually left behind after torturing an insubordinate faerie. But instead it had taken over a month until Malachi had required her to look at his pet, and only for her to detect self-inflicted malnutrition. She still had mixed feelings about that day, on the one had she felt guilty for being the one who had uncovered Kieran’s deceit and thereby condemned him to discipline, but on the other she was glad that he’d been eating more healthily since then.

By now she’d tended to the human many times, the instances becoming more and more frequent with every passing month. At first it had been wounds caused by outsiders or accidents, then those that stemmed from punishments, and recently even ones Malachi had inflicted for nothing but his own pleasure. Thankfully, the injuries were never severe, or even close to life threatening, and mostly consisted of shallow cuts and bruises that stuck to non-dangerous areas. It appeared that Malachi had learned well from the shock of his previous pet’s death and was now careful as to not make a similar mistake again.

Overall Kieran made a quite healthy impression, especially compared to the pets of other faeries. He always wore clean clothes, was fed a plentiful diet, and even got to go outside, albeit only at the end of a leash. His room was comfortable and contained many different things for him to entertain himself with, and Malachi gave him lots of attention as well. He seemed satisfied, happy even. And yet Áine felt nothing but pity and sadness whenever she saw him.

This time Malachi had punished him for talking back, and it took Áine all of her self-control to contain her anger at the way Kieran clung to him while she healed the whip marks on his back. There was something about this that struck her as particularly sickening; Kieran shouldn’t seek comfort from the person that abused him. What made things even worse was that he’d clearly known that before, she remembered the way he had twisted away from Malachi’s touch and reassurances at the beginning. But now there was none of that left anymore.

“Hush, sweetheart, hush,” Malachi soothed the crying human in his lap. “You took your punishment so well, I’m very proud of you.”

“Thank you, master,” Kieran sniffled, and Áine cringed.

“Is there anything else, my lord?” she asked stiffly.

Malachi smiled at her. “Yes, please have a look at my pet’s wrists as well, the silly thing couldn’t keep still enough last night.”

Kieran blushed and obediently held his hands out to Áine, who fought to swallow the bile rising in her throat, unwilling to even think of what situation had caused his wrists to become so chafed by restraints.

“I’m sorry, master,” Kieran mumbled, glancing up at Malachi with wide eyes.

Malachi chuckled. “Not to worry, my love,” he reassured and pressed a kiss against his pet’s head.

Áine hated the adoration in Kieran’s eyes, hated the way he melted into Malachi’s touch, hated how he preened at the attention. He didn’t even seem to mind that the Fae had hurt him only a short while ago, if anything he seemed more embarrassed by the fact that he that needed to be healed at all. Of course Áine was glad that he appeared to be happy, but it did come at quite the price. In a way it was just incredibly saddening to see how even one of the most stubborn and wilful humans caved in eventually.

Kieran had held up so well in the beginning, only pretending to give in to lull Malachi into a false sense of security, and had even tried to run away multiple times. But something had happened after that last escape attempt, something that had turned him into a docile lap pet for good. She didn’t know whether it had been the shock of what Darerca had done to him, the week he’d been isolated afterwards, or the mark that Malachi had carved into his shoulder. Maybe it had been a combination of the three, coupled with the sickeningly sweet affection the Fae showered him in.

With how attached to and imprinted on Malachi the human seemed, Áine couldn’t help but hope that her lord wouldn’t be as fickle in his affections as some of the other faeries were. Kieran was so utterly dependant on Malachi, Áine held do doubt that it would break him to be cast aside now. She’d seen it happen before, discarded pets being sold off to another faerie despite begging their owners not to, or simply dying of neglect eventually. Áine clenched her teeth, swearing to herself that she would never let that happen to Kieran.

Suddenly, an idea formed in her mind. What if, once Malachi lost interest, she somehow managed to convince him to give his pet to her? She glanced at Kieran who looked up at her so vulnerable and trusting as she healed his chafed wrists. She could help him forget all the horrible things he had gone through with her magic, help him forget Malachi and bring him back to the human world. There he could live out his life happily, untroubled by what had happened. Though of course she would only remove his memories with his permission, unless his pain over the separation was too strong...

“Thank you, Lady Áine,” Malachi said. “You may be dismissed for now.”

“You’re welcome, Lord Malachi,” Áine replied and turned to leave. Throwing one last glance over her shoulder she looked at Kieran whose attention was solely focussed on Malachi again.

I’ll get you out of here, Áine thought, No matter how long it takes until Malachi loses his interest, I promise I will make sure you get back home.

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bookworm555 · 4 years

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*Reuploaded FOR THE THIRD TIME because I realized that this never showed up in any of this fandom’s tags the first two times I posted it :/ Now I am trying this as a text post with images instead of a typical art post because nothing is freaking working and I am so frustrated.

Because read-mores apparently make my post glitchy, I apologize in advance for the length of this post, and hopefully, it doesn’t clog your dashes/the tags too badly.*

Another CatCF/WWatCF sketchdump~

The top drawing is the characters from the 1971 adaptation ten years later (which was an excuse to draw 80′s fashion, haha).

Ten years later doodles (from left to right) Top row: Violet and Veruca Second row: Mike, Charlie, and Augustus

(I think Violet turned out to be the best of these doodles!)

Some headcanons for the ten years later drawings (this would have been the section under the read-more, if it worked :/ ):

I always headcanoned the characters in the ‘71 version to be thirteen, minus Mike, who I saw as eleven. So basically everyone in the drawing is twenty-three except for Mike, who is twenty-one.

Violet: For years after the nightmare that was the factory tour, Violet struggled with major body image issues, especially about her blue skin. (And is homeschooled because of this.) However, eventually, her mindset basically became ‘Wonka thought this was a punishment? Fuck that; I’m going to embrace it’, so she became more confident.

Once this confidence hits during her late teens, she uses her unusual appearance to her advantage (especially when it comes to attracting visitors/potential buyers to her dad’s car dealership).

She doesn’t go to college; instead, she works at her dad’s place, and basically learns how to be a mechanic.

She hasn’t chewed gum since the factory tour.

When Charlie contacts her and the others, she is hesitant to respond back, but ultimately does (to sass him, at the very least). During the group’s future meetups, she’s basically the glue that keeps them together.

Veruca: Unlike Violet, Veruca carries a lot of guilt about what happened during the factory tour, since her father was punished along with her. He fell wrong, and as a result, was paralyzed from the waist down, and is now in a wheelchair. Veruca was lucky; aside from a broken ankle, she did not suffer any worse injuries.

Because of this, Veruca becomes mute (her mouthing off and constantly asking for things is what led to her–pun not intended–downfall, so she decides that it would be for the best if she stops talking altogether.)

Despite the Salts being wealthy, Wonka paid all of their medical bills. Even though it would have made sense for them to take him to trial, they decided not to (Henry did not want anyone to see him in his new state, and Veruca’s anxiety spiked even thinking about the factory).

When Charlie contacts the four ‘rejects’ ten years after the tour, Violet starts to bring Veruca out of her shell. Though it is ultimately Augustus who helps her feel comfortable speaking again, due to his soft-spoken personality.)

Mike: Like the others, Mike was very traumatized by what happened to him during the tour. (Especially since he was younger than the rest of them.)

While Violet embraced her altered state, and Veruca withdrew from the world, Mike became bitter. Very bitter. Because, while sure, Wonka and co. were able to get him back to about normal size [after stretching him waaaay too tall and thin the first time; his mother fainted, then had plenty of choice words for everyone involved when she came to], the process was incredibly painful, and involved basically rubber-fying his bones and muscles temporarily (yeah, he still had no idea why Wonka would even create a candy that did that).

Because of that, he has scars all over his body–the most on his arms, legs, and torso–so he always wears long-sleeved shirts or jackets, and long pants.

He is pissed that his life was ruined at age eleven; sure, he was obnoxious, but he was a KID. Now he’s stuck with chronic pain, not to mention the occasional breakdown because he has no idea if he’s actually HIM, or just a copy that was beamed through Wonka’s television room that managed to keep his soul. (Yeah, he doesn’t like to dwell on that; he prefers to think that that would be impossible.) [A/N: That part comes from the fact that Wonka stated that the chocolate that appeared in the TV screen was a copy of the much larger chocolate bar that was beamed through the air, and not the original bar itself]

When Charlie contacts him, he almost sends a nasty letter back, but something in him pauses, and he ends up sending a civilized response. It wasn’t Charlie’s fault all this happened to him; Charlie was the nice one, and, though he would never admit it to anyone, on the tour, he thought Charlie was cool. Goody-two-shoes, but in the ‘Lovable TV Protagonist’ sort of way.

As the five of them start meeting/corresponding through letters, he lets Charlie past all the walls he put up, and is definitely the closest to him in the group.

Charlie: Happily becomes Wonka’s protege after the tour. He is ecstatic that he not only gets to live and learn to work in this magical place, but he and his family are finally out of poverty!

He goes to school during the day, then learns the tricks of the candy trade in the afternoons and evenings.

However, about ten years after winning the tour, Wonka just…vanishes. And that’s when Charlie finds the videos showcasing what happened to the other four Golden Ticket winners after their mishaps.

Charlie is appalled; looking back, they were all so young. Of course, they were bratty; that’s how kids ARE. (Sure, some of them were worse than others, but they didn’t deserve their fates! Essentially, the four ‘losers’, plus Mr. Salt, were toyed with and tortured, and their parents could not help them.) Mike’s was especially horrible, to him; it was the only tape he couldn’t finish.

This makes Charlie feel a little guilty; he got off easy, even though he also disobeyed the rules.

He is also torn; on the one hand, Wonka was a great mentor, and he was fond of the man–he made a good father-figure, for him. But on the other hand, this was a man who thought the way to get rid of a kid’s bad habits was to torture them.

Before he could think otherwise, Charlie writes letters to the other Golden Ticket winners. He doesn’t expect anything nice back, but is surprised to find that they are all willing to talk to him.

He is relieved; he wants to right the wrongs done to them.

Augustus: The poor guy falls into a deep depression after the tour. Sure, he was thinner, but he had no problem with how he looked before. Not to mention, even the smell of chocolate and other sugary sweets makes him very nauseous. Oh, and there’s the not-so-small fear of drowning that he picked up, as well as severe claustrophobia.

He felt like a part of him was lost, since he could no longer enjoy his favorite foods. Or food in general. He ate to not starve, but that was it.

He was already quiet, but after the tour, he withdrew into himself even more, preferring to spend time with the neighborhood cats rather than people. (Yes, he is definitely a cat person.)

But he still has his kind heart, so when Charlie Bucket sends him a letter, he responds right away (and is the first one to do so).

When they start writing more letters to each other, and eventually meeting, he helps the others through their trauma, while ignoring his own. He thinks he’ll always be stuck this way.

Veruca disagrees.

And in terms of schooling, only Augustus went to college. As for high school, Violet and Mike were homeschooled, Veruca went to an exclusive, posh academy, Charlie stuck with public school, and Augustus went to a private school.

Now, if anyone was interested, these are the outfits that inspired the ones I drew (though, obviously, I took artistic liberties with some of them). I wanted to give them each a different style: Violet’s is the outlandish fashion the 80s are famous for, Veruca’s is demure and preppy, Mike’s is pretty unassuming, but with a slight edge, Charlie’s is comfortable/casual, and Augustus’s is comfortable/slightly formal.

Left to right: Violet, Veruca, Mike, Charlie, Augustus

(And I imagine the back of Mike’s jacket looking like this, aka with a vent, which is why the back of the jacket isn’t visible in the gap of his legs):

WOW, that got so long (oops…), but those were just my ideas for how these characters would interact and act ten years later. Hopefully someone enjoys this, XD

#bookworm555 #charlie and the chocolate factory #willy wonka and the chocolate factory #mike teavee #charlie bucket #augustus gloop #veruca salt #augustus x veruca #charlie/mike if you squint #at the very least they become veeeeery close friends in this #violet ends up with hmmm...winkelmann?? idk?#-kidding-#unless XDD #my art #please please please show up in the tags

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whaq · 3 years

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Fuck You, Animu (1/4)

A dumbass’ war of heart and mind A few months ago, I hit a creative block. Despite considering myself a jack of many mediums, I couldn’t for the life of me bring myself to make--well... anything. While I do have a Google Keep of creative ideas I’ve come up with over the years, I was unable to find the drive (pun shoehorned) to get started on any of them. This sent me into a bit of a spiral. A lot of creatives probably empathize: you find yourself lacking the motivation to create so it starts to negatively affect your self-worth, which is tied to your ability to make things, and this lack of confidence compels you to just succumb to melancholy, finding yourself the victim of a self-fulfilling prophecy to become a slacker because you think you already ARE one.

I was a couple months into this when a buddy of mine hit me up asking if I heard about a call for local anime reviewers. At that moment, it almost felt like divine intervention from God, who I only ever felt in the burning sensation radiating through me whenever I was within 10 feet of a church. An anime news site, let’s call em Animu, with a relatively large following, was searching for writers who would join their staff to review anime being released in the winter season with a salary to boot. As an avid anime fan myself, who just so happened to have honed his critiquing skills over years of media consumption {that has since ruined my viewing experience for the foreseeable future (I legitimately suck the joy out of every piece of media I consume now)}, I saw this as my opportunity to be able to use my skills for some form of monetary gain; which was always a concern of mine throughout my life. Growing up, I was never really good at anything that could easily become a profession later in life. I was too awful at biology to become a doctor, not smart enough at maths to be the next Pythagoras, nor was I athletic enough to shoot a basketball, let alone make it in the NBA. I was good at talking in, and understanding, English... and that was it. At the time, I didn’t realize I had a knack for writing and oration, but even once I did, I found that the trajectory towards being a professional for either of those fields wasn’t so simple. Most people still have the childish idea that “Oh, writers write books and speakers do… speaking things!” but it waters down such a wide yet closed off section of the professional world. Writing alone has so many different specializations: journalism, screenwriting, book authoring, all such niches that don’t have as established a path as scoring high on the Bar exam or being scouted on varsity; it’s difficult to find a place in this world with that skill set, a fear that a majority of creatives have. So I needed some form of validation, an instance of acceptance that’ll allow me to finally believe that my work is worth something and, most importantly, enjoyed by someone. So I started working on my application for Animu by selecting three different series that I was interested in tackling: Re:Zero, Cells at Work, and Kaguya-Sama: Love is War. Starting from zero The posts after this contain these reviews in the state I submitted to Animu. I spent about a month working on these. Re:Zero’s review was close to my usual style of critique, which focuses on the technical aspects and their execution as well as commentary on any relevant subtext, minus the subtext. I wanted to seem as professional as possible with the first one and tried to keep to the proposed 1200 word word limit. With Cells At Work, however, I tried to have a bit of fun. There were many rumblings around the community about the series’ cancer episode which I was eager to capitalize on. That said, upon rewatching the episode, I came across some potentially problematic scenarios that could’ve been blown out of proportion by some headline-chasing media outlet; so that’s exactly what I did. No, I wouldn’t in my right mind compare chibified blood cells to Nazi sympathizers (then again, I’m never in my right mind). Lastly, was Kaguya-Sama, which became my favorite anime of the past couple years. This series was the first anime that got me to actively follow the source material as it hit two of my most identifying traits, being a cinephile and humor academic, as well as a side I’m slightly embarrassed by, my interest in romantic comedies. I wanted to attempt a review that was just hype-hype-hype as it was what the series sparked within me. Oh, and you SHOULD read Kaguya-Sama. Bleeding out After a modicum of proofreading, as well as some peer review from my closest confidants, I sent over my application and I waited. As my heart raced on the day of the announcement, my name was nowhere to be found. To add insult to injury, I was informed that I scored absolutely horribly by Animu’s criteria, my highest grade being one that’d flunk in the most forgiving of schools. While you’d expect me to be crestfallen, I was actually ecstatic to know that the community I’ve been a part of, a local one no less, had people with an even larger passion and greater skills than even I. As someone who went through childhood being made fun of for my interests that have somehow developed into geek chic and gone mainstream (something that, contrary to most of the community, I’m happy to see), I was glad to see how much people like me had developed from waifu worshipping weaboos to outstandingly ornate otaku. Hell, I was content to have made some content. I was looking forward to seeing the fruits of labor from those who were more deserving than me. So imagine my surprise when what I found posted a month later was absolute garbage. I’m not going to get into detail, seeing as said details could lead to someone getting doxxed just because they didn’t meet MY oh so high standards (/s), but what I will say was that the quality of the content indicated something more telling about the whole ordeal. I have taken part in two completely different student publications in my time, and I can say with utmost certainty that THE GRADE SCHOOLERS I MENTORED WROTE BETTER, AND THEY WEREN’T EVEN PAID. Still, it was nice to know I still had it in me to make something of substance. And on this commemorative day, I open up my blog by making public my entries for all to ridicule. As much as I talked down the winning entries, I don’t believe mine were perfect. Like most of my work, it’s rushed and rambly, full of tangents and misnomers. But, it’s very me, and I’m quite happy to see something from me see the light of day.

I hope you find some amusement in my bemusement.

p.s. Yes, the headers are attempts at relating to the three shows p.p.s.s. Yes, they’re BAD attempts at relating to the three shows

#anime #manga #review #anime review #rant #petty #spite #critic #critique #nerd

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saveyourself · 4 years

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Can you elaborate on Benzedrine's relations with any/all of the other characters?

YES YES I CAN NONNY

w/ Sandman -

- best friends. steals his stuffed animals.

- thinks Sandman is very much too headstrong and is very much right. calls him “Sandy”.

- refuses to admit that sandy is right when he’s like “yo get some sleep”

- likes to hand Sandman random things to see if he’ll ask if it’s dangerous or not and likes to not tell him the answer, but also forces him to wear a helmet when sandy’s a dumbass who’s like “i saw a cute boy at the Crash Track so therefore I need to drive eighteen hours there to potentially see him again”

w/ Detonator (also known as Horseshoe Crab but I did not like the name)

- benze: “hey yo you got any weed” detonator: “YOU SMOKE?” “look okay just tell me where it is”

- likes to nap in detonator’s nest of clothes since detonator can’t sleep for shit.

- dyes stuff with him!!! its a Bonding Thing ok!!!

- stupid, stupid puns and a lot of that’s dangerous you think so?

- likes to make Detonator play nurse; Detonator is a bad nurse despite actually having a technical-degree.

w/ Phoenix (or Donnie The Catcher but fuck names)

- phoenix is the only one who knows how to party but also is the only one who knows how fumes work and tries constantly to get benze to fumigate his lab. it’ll never work so it’s become a running joke.

- the only one who can cook so therefore benze gets to try a load of random food, some of which tastes good.... others not so much but benze’s tastebuds are barely existent in the slightest

- “hey phoenix how are yo - “ “you stupid little gremlin what did you do”

- alternatively: “hey benze how are you -” “WHY DO YOU LOOK LIKE A ROTTEN PULLED PORK SANDWICH?”

w/ Poison

- oh boy they kinda hate each other. it’s less a crew rivalry thing and more like they’re exes who, when they were together had horrible horrible communication issues and it was a whole debacle, just don’ even ask about it. benze still has the red fox poison gave him and like it’s his whole world.

- they get along as friends, but like, there's so much bickering over stupid shit it’s hard to comprehend. they’ll argue over a bottlecap if you give them the chance.

- so very badly wants to use poison’s attitude as a drug because something that disgustingly potent has got to give you a cool ass feeling

- basically just scornful exes despite neither actually having too much malintent tbh

w/ Ghoul

- ghoul and him were kinda friends growing up since Sandman and Ghoul were like best friends growing up, so they’re friends, not near crew or best friend worthy but acquaintances.

- likes to build things with ghoul. they make very deadly weapons when combined because benze can come up with the semantics and ghoul can actually build them - see, the block-radius glass shard bombs.

- “i’ve known you for like four years and worked with you on like fifteen projects but um hey what’s ur name” “oh thank god i’m not the only one i just call you the doc when i need to”

w/ Kobra

- tolerates him. doesn’ rly like him but hey whatever drama Sandman decides to put himself into is not a concern of benze’s unless he ends up heartbroken, right?

- thinks he’s kinda cool tbh.

w/ Jet

- didn’t actually meet jet for years but when he did they were like instant friends

- jet taught him how to ew and he taught jet the best way to make random shit out of hair bleach and whatever’s left over in the diner’s disaster of a kitchen and it was like the one week where jet made more shit explode than ghoul. was a blast all around, pun intended.

- asks jet for advice sometimes when he’s conflicted on what to do and that’s mostly because jet tends to make more of the leader-y tough decisions that poison can’t make and benze finds himself in that position all the time

w/ himself.

- lots of self-deprecation crammed in there if only because he’s sort-of a perfectionist when it comes to projects

- when it comes to general hygiene and the state of his lab... not so much.

- hates that he’s chubby but tbh that's because he grew up in an environment within bli with all the lithe and skillful kids and he was the scientist and he always stuck out and boy there is a lot of repression going on there.

- fancies himself as a mad scientist and that much is true tbh

#Anonymous #dr. benzedrine #dr. benzedrine headcanons #mr. sandman #young detonator #phoenix menace #kobra kid #party poison #fun ghoul #jet star #sorry it took me a lil while i had to eat some oreos #hope u see this nonny!!!#if u DO write something you GOTTA send it 2 me or update me on it !!!

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leah-ocarina · 4 years

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Hooooooo boy! Warning: SU Future spoilers ahead just in case people haven’t thought to add it to their mute list yet.

This line. This line fills in a missing piece of Rose’s puzzle that has been driving me nuuuuuuuuuts.

“One knew your mother was trying to change, but she couldn't understand why. The other never expected her to change at all. Now, I get to understand everything. Now, they finally get to have each other.”

I didn’t think it was Rebecca Sugar-like to just have Pink Diamond pivot on her heels so hard just because she saw a human one time. This tells us something that I wasn’t really expecting.

Even before our Pearl was even born Pink Diamond already suspected she was fucked up.

If I had to guess I’d say it might be Volleyball’s eye that made her start thinking about it. Or maybe when Volleyball was taken. Or perhaps it was something we know nothing about yet. She clearly didn’t fully realize it because she still wasn’t spending her time thinking about how her actions affected others by the time she left Spinel (confirmed in a Rebecca Sugar interview), and our Pearl was around when she got her colony. (If you look at Steven juggling in that dream and then at Spinel juggling it’s almost shot for shot and it seems to pain Pink Diamond to see, so I would be shocked to find out Volleyball and Spinel were in service at the same time)

If I had to guess it went something like this:

• Volleyball’s eye got fucked up because of a temper tantrum.

• Pink Diamond felt bad but Volleyball assured her it was fine and not her fault.

• Pink Diamond was then like “Oh okay. If you say so I guess it isn’t my fault after all.”

• Though she didn’t think about it or reflect on it at all, doubt got tucked away in the back of PD’s mind.

• Something we’ve yet to see happened and PD clammed up (no pun intended)

• Yellow and Blue were way more gentle with... ‘obedient’ gems than

White or Pink, so it’s possible Pink Diamond got an earful/abuse of her

own.

• Seeing what White did to PP may have been the trigger.

• Could have been she was trying to act grown-up enough for a colony.

• It could have been something we haven’t seen yet. Time will tell.

• Our Pearl came along after whatever that was, and PD had already been suppressing her outbursts for a while, which is why Pearl didn’t know about them

• Seeing that human reminded PD that innocent bystanders can get hurt just by being near a destructive force, and her transformation into Rose began.

If you ask me getting shaken up by Volleyball being taken is the only thing on my list of potential triggers that would have created such a huge personality change. I wonder how long it was between Pink Pearl being taken and our Pearl showing up. PD and Pearl seemed pretty new to each other in the flashback, so it could be our Pearl was specifically made to help with the colony.

Anyway, getting back to the quote, when Volleyball said it was just an accident and she was standing too close, that was probably true. But Volleyball never expected Pink Diamond to change so instead of making PD reflect on how not fucking okay it is to have a freak out like that with somebody standing right next to her (repetitively I might add), she not only let it go, but probably insisted it wasn’t a big deal. Our Pearl was never physically hurt by Pink Diamond and it’s very telling that she ‘didn’t understand why’ PD would want to change herself and settle into the loving and compassionate Rose Quartz we all know from the beginning of the series. That can only mean that from our Pearl’s PoV she was already ‘kind’.

It’s so, SO important for our Pearl to be able to come to terms that Rose didn’t always do ‘I’m trying to do what’s best for everyone even if my methodology is flawed’ and that her needing to change was 100% necessary. I’m really excited for this ‘coming to terms with Rose once being the horrible Pink Diamond’ arc that seems to be forming. I hope Volleyball sticks around. I don’t think she and our Pearl can fully heal without one another. Now somebody please help Spinel I don’t trust the Diamonds with her.

Closing thoughts: I think the reason Pink Pearl was the only one visibly scarred by Pink Diamond has to do with the fact there was actual (even if indirect) violence involved. My parents used to scream at each other all the time, but one time they started throwing shit. I wasn’t even in the room and I think it would have been enough to crack my eye if my physical form had been linked to my psychological one. I’ve always heavily identified with Rose Quartz since the beginning of the show, and it’s been disturbing to me that out of all this horrible stuff that’s coming out of the woodwork I just... haven’t stopped feeling that connection. When I was in middleschool I was a toxic fuck. I think Rose is/was really a walking embodiment of what can come from a dysfunctional household and, like me, realizing how fucked up a person you are and breaking that cycle. Nothing will ever excuse what she’s done, but reminder her redemption arc is played in reverse.

#Rose Quartz #Pink Diamond #Pink Pearl #Volleyball SU #Steven Universe Future Spoilers #Steven Universe Future #Steven Universe spoilers

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queercapwriting · 4 years

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So potential prompt for the holiday series: just a cheesy hallmarky movie fic. Girl meets girl for some reason they're on opposite sides of a business they have to work together to make Christmas or Chanuka festivities a reality and they end up falling in love. But this time, ITS FINALLY GAY! but that's also a lot so also totally cool if it's disregarded...

“I don’t understand,” Maggie rolled her eyes -- for what felt like the four hundredth time -- at her supervisor Professor M’orzz. “They’re astrophysics. We’re xenobio. Why on Earth - no pun intended, I guess - would we work with them on a stupid holiday party?”

Professor M’orzz sighed, also for what felt like the four hundredth time. “Because, Maggie, the show of unity will be good for the overall science department. Funding and all that. And anyway, it’s as you said: astrophysics and xenobiology. You realize that both departments are dismissed by the entire rest of the department as speculative sciences, right? That should give us some kind of bond, you’d think, no?”

Maggie sighed, knowing when she was caught in a truth. “Yeah. I know. Just. They’re so into... math.”

Professor M’orzz smiled at that. “Well I’m sure you and their representative will have a lot to learn from each other while you plan the department’s holiday party then.”

“And why me, again?”

“You know why. The student doing the most prestigious work in our program, being the face of our holiday party slash fundraiser? We need the money to continue our research, donors love to give around the holidays, and you know it.”

Maggie sighed, heavy and deep and with a slight exaggeration that she knew would aggravate anyone else, but that Professor M’orzz would have affection for.

“Fine. Who am I collaborating with, then?”

She didn’t know that the person she was collaborating with was right down the hall in the astrophysics lab, having the same conversation with their professor.

“Oh come on, J’onn,” they said, because Alex Danvers was far past formalities. “It’s a cheap ploy for money, and -”

“A cheap ploy for money that will keep this department running, Alex,” J’onn said. “It’ll help pay for that accelerator I know you and Mr. Allen were chatting about earlier this week.”

Alex glared, knowing when they were defeated. “Fine. I’ll meet up with this Sawyer woman then.”

“Good,” J’onn smiled, as Alex set off toward the xenobio program office.

They met each other in the hallway and knew each other instantly, by reputation and, somehow, by instinct.

“Danvers,” Maggie greeted with a slight glare and head tilt.

“Sawyer,” Alex clasped their hands behind their back as though to take shaking hands off the table completely.

“So we’ve got to work together on this stupid party,” Maggie said.

“At least we can agree it’s stupid,” Alex smirked.

“Might be stupid, but I’ve got some ideas.”

"Yeah, xenobio’s all about ideas with no observational data for follow-through,” Alex murmured, forgetting everything J’onn had tried to teach them about diplomacy.

“Well,” Maggie nearly stood on tiptoes to look Alex in the eye, but seemed to think better of it, “getting money for both of our departments with this damn holiday party is well within my no-observational-data’s jurisdiction,” Maggie said, and she had the audacity to smirk along with that infuriatingly sexy - wait, no, just infuriating, right? - little head tilt.

“Your jurisdiction ends where I say it does,” Alex returned, knowing even as they spoke the words that they were being way over the top. But Maggie seemed to like over the top, because her smirk only deepened.

“My lab. Seven pm. We’ll do some planning then, okay?”

Alex blinked, and Maggie seemed to take that as ascent as she turned on her heel. “See you around, Danvers.”

So Alex, flummoxed, had no choice but to head to the xenobio lab at seven that night.

If they were honest, they’d always been enamored of the subject. They were considering doing further graduate work in both astrophysics and xenobio -- the fields were so interlinked that the rivalry made absolutely no sense. But, alas, competition like that had a momentum of its own, and who was Alex to mess with an unstoppable force?

Except Maggie Sawyer seemed to be an immovable object of some kind.

Because by the time Alex showed up, Maggie had an entire whiteboard full of ideas for this stupid holiday party they were supposed to throw, complete with scribbles in the margins about the ways that tardigrades’ capacity for coming back to life after extreme desiccation could be used to help fuel crop growth in arid regions, and tiny, hastily-scrawled notes about how bacteria that survived thermal heat vents in deep oceans could be useful for understanding the origins of... well, of everything.

It was like she’d been party planning, all Chanukah this and Christmas that, with a strong dose of fundraising everywhere, and then gotten so sidetracked by her own genius that she had to stop and scribble out her ideas before they leaked away, elusive and never to return...

Alex did that kind of thing, constantly, in their own notebooks, on their own whiteboards...

So they walked past Maggie, without so much as a greeting, to squint -- not at her holiday party notes -- but at her scientific ideas.

Maggie didn’t move, but rather watched Alex quietly, as they stared at her ideas, looking for all the world like Alex was scrutinizing her naked body -- because really, they might as well have been.

“You know,” Alex said into the silence after several long, long moments, “if I’m understanding your horrible handwriting correctly --”

“Well this is starting off great --”

“Then if we exchanged some of our data, I think you could help me understand some of what might happen on rogue planets and I might be able to help you engineer some solves on your desiccation-scaling problem.”

Alex finally turned to look at their forced colleague, and Maggie was tilting her head, staring between the whiteboard and Alex. “We would do better sharing data than hating each other, wouldn’t we?”

“That’s what J’onn is always saying.”

“Professor M’orzz, too.”

Alex took a deep sigh, and Maggie gave that infuriating smirk again. “Well, maybe this holiday party’s a start. Planning now, the fun stuff later?”

There was a sparkle in Maggie’s eye, Alex thought, when she referenced fun stuff, and for a moment -- just a moment -- Alex wondered whether she meant fun science or fun sex.

Or both.

Or maybe it was all just in Alex’s head.

They really needed to get out of the lab more.

“Come on,” Maggie smirked again, and yep, Alex definitely needed to get out of the lab more, because they definitely should not be finding this xenobio woman attractive. Maggie reached under a desk to pull out to utterly ridiculous-looking hats.

One was a tall green pointy thing with elf ears on the sides; the other was a floppy red Santa hat. “If we’re gonna plan this damn thing, we might as well get in the spirit. Come on.” Maggie held both hats out to Alex, bobbing her hands up and down to indicate that Alex should pick one.

“Absolutely not,” they crossed their arms over their chest.

“Oh come on. If we have to do this, we should do it right.”

“I’m Jewish,” Alex protested as a last resort, and Maggie tilted her head deeper for a moment before diving back under her desk.

“A beanie, then. Simple, but wintery. And I’ll be an elf.”

She tugged the elf hat deep over her head, so the fake ears covered her own. Alex couldn’t help but snort and accept the blue beanie Maggie held out.

“Okay. So. Are we going to plan the biggest, most money-making and fun-having holiday party of all time, or what?” Maggie asked.

“If you’re gonna go, go hard,” Alex muttered, a smile creeping onto their face. Because Maggie was mocking the whole thing, even with her enthusiasm, and it was so Alex’s style that they couldn’t help but admire her.

Plus, all those scribbles in the margins...

They stayed in the lab well past midnight, sidetracking every hour or so to get into broader discussions about their fields, their passions, the things they most wanted to discover, the ways they both wanted to use their studies to change the world, the solar system, the galaxy.

Somewhere in between, they also divvied up who would be responsible for venue, food, invites, decorations, music, and the best ways to actually get a solid mix of grad students, professors, and rich alumni in the room.

By the time they agreed to call it a night and head home, neither of them quite thought the holiday party was such a stupid idea after all.

They met a handful more times in between. More logistics and more details. But -- not that either of them would admit it -- more often than not, their meetings became excuses to talk science, to talk to universe.

To talk about Maggie’s father and Alex’s mother, Maggie’s hometown and Alex’s surfing.

To talk about anything and everything under the sun, under the ocean, and above Earth’s sky.

Neither of them noticed, or would admit it.

Until the night of the holiday party neither of them wanted to plan.

Alex wore an elegantly green dress, backless and just this side of tight.

Maggie wore a red suit, white shirt, red tie, slim cut and just this side of swoon-worthy.

They stopped when they saw each other, because usually they were in sweats and glasses and yesterday’s makeup, pen stains on their hands and goggles on top of their heads.

They stopped when they saw each other, because suddenly, all their conversations, all those excuses for meetings... clicked.

“You look beautiful, Sawyer,” Alex breathed, running a hand through the buzzed side of their hair self-consciously.

“And you look handsome, Danvers,” Maggie smirked, but this time it was warm, not sarcastic, and Alex wondered when that transition had happened.

“This uh...” Alex gestured around the room, at the party still being set up around them. “We did good.”

“We did,” Maggie grinned, even as her eyes were glued to Alex’s body.

“Still my jurisdiction, though,” Alex murmured as the two stepped closer to each other. Something about gravitational forces between unstoppable forces and immovable objects.

“Not a chance,” Maggie shook her head as they entered each other’s space, no need for words when they’d both already said so much with their planning, their late nights, their bodies, with their dreams and their scribblings in the margins.

“Merry Christmas, Maggie.”

“Happy Chanukah, Alex.”

They didn’t need any mistletoe to tell them to kiss.

Professor M’orzz and J’onn fist-bumped behind them, because they’d definitely had holiday hopes for the two all along.

#sanvers #sanvers grad school au #sanvers au #sanvers fic #12 days of sanvers and supercorp christmas

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nobodyfamousposts · 5 years

Text

This Story Deserves a Better Class of Villain

Can I take a moment to indulge in some salt—or at least pretend that I don’t otherwise do so on a daily basis—and note just how horrible Gabriel is as Hawk Moth and the overall set up of the show in general?

And I don’t mean horrible as in him being a monster—we all know he is. I mean horrible as in him being an idiot. I know I’ve called him as such before, but I think I haven’t quite fully explained just WHY.

By all counts, the entire premise of the show shouldn’t even work. We are shown in Origins that Gabriel has found out about the Miraculous (later revealed to be because his wife is in a coma directly because of one), has found Nooroo and the Butterfly Miraculous, has discovered that combining two very specific Miraculous will grant him ANY wish, and at that point decides for an as of that time unknown reason that he wants those two Miraculous and is willing to use the one at his disposal to obtain them.

So what does he do?

Does he create an akuma that can just locate Miraculous? No.

Does he create an akuma who can translate the magic book he has? No.

Does he create an akuma that can accomplish his wish for him without the need for the Miraculous? No.

What DOES he do then?

He immediately chooses to declare himself a supervillain and starts attacking Paris with the clear expectation that the two specific items he is after are 1) somewhere in the city and 2) will show themselves in order to stop him.

And what does he have to base this expectation on?

NOTHING.

This is a problem for multiple reasons.

First off, since Gabriel has no idea where the Miraculous are, that means he has no indication that any Miraculous would just happen to be in the same city as himself, much less the specific two he needs. He doesn’t know about Fu either, or that there would be ANY Guardian. So the fact that Fu just HAPPENED to be in Paris at the time and thus in a position to act against him is mere coincidence—or rather contrived convenience, because we wouldn’t have a story if he wasn’t.

Second, he’s making a major assumption that whoever has the other Miraculous knows about it. Given that the Miraculous look like normal items, they could very well be on display in a museum or antiques kept in a lockbox somewhere. He has no way of knowing!

Third, he’s assuming that if someone does have the Miraculous and is aware of what they have, that they would in any way be willing to reveal themselves and fight him. He even comes out and states as such—“what attracts super heroes better than a super villain?” This would require that whomsoever has the items in question not only knows about them but that they WOULD use them to be superheroes or that they would use them specifically against him if he presents himself as the opponent. He even comes right out and declares himself as an intentional supervillain specifically for this purpose. What if the people who had the Miraculous didn’t care?

Fourth, he’s assuming that if anyone DOES come forward to stop him, it’s actually going to be someone with any Miraculous at all. This is a world where superheroes are noted to already exist. That means that someone like say Majestica or some other random hero with a NON-Miraculous-based backstory and powers could show up and kick his ass. Given Alya and her fixation with heroes as well as Damocles and his Owl-themed Batman-esque repertoire, it’s fully possible that someone would have jumped from the woodwork to challenge him and they quite possibly would have been completely normal.

Fifth, he’s clearly expecting that if any of the Miraculous ARE to be used against him, it will be both of the specific two he’s after and not, oh I don’t know, ANY of the fifteen others we now know exist. There are specifically Miraculous that can make shields to protect people and paralyze the akumas—either of which would be notably more conducive to a much quicker fight. Not to mention we know of at least one Miraculous now that can specifically travel through TIME (which could be used to go back to before Gabriel sends out the first akuma and promptly take him out then and there before any of this can happen).

What it comes down to is that Gabriel’s plan can only work due to a number of conveniences that all just HAPPEN to be the case. That doesn’t speak of Gabriel’s efficiency or ability as a villain, that speaks of the narrative causality and Fu’s own foolishness for playing into Gabriel’s hands like this and putting himself and the rest of the Miraculous at risk.

If Fu was hanging out somewhere in another country, Miraculous Ladybug wouldn’t even be happening. In fact, to prevent the issues of the series, all Fu would have had to do was just…NOT respond to Hawk Moth’s appearance at all.

Arguably, this could be a matter of Fu trying to retrieve the lost Miraculous, which is all well and good except that his first inclination is to just hand off BOTH of the most powerful Miraculous to teenagers without telling them ANYTHING about what they’re doing or why.

That said, let’s focus again on Hawk Moth.

So okay, his plan worked by sheer luck, and not only are the EXACT TWO MIRACULOUS he needs suddenly present but they’re being used to fight him by teenagers who are new to their powers and new to being superheroes, and thus either prone to making mistakes or overlooking some of the major potential pitfalls of superheroing.

So what does he decide to do?

Does he make an akuma to track them down in their civilian lives so he can grab the Miraculous when they’re unprepared? No.

Does he create an akuma who can just brainwash all of Paris at once so the heroes will hand over their Miraculous? No.

Does he create an akuma and set up a situation to draw them into a direct trap? No.

Does he create an akuma that is sneaky—one that nobody actually realizes is an akuma so it can get the drop on the heroes? No.

Does he in any way look into investigating these heroes or try to figure out who they are so he’ll have that advantage? Hah hah, NO.

Instead, he pulls a Rita Repulsa and just sends out an akuma every so often ONE AT A TIME to draw the heroes out, have a fight, get defeated, and monologue while throwing in a pun before he calls it a day.

The big problem is that all of his akumas are loud, showy, and above all—OBVIOUS. Anyone who sees the akuma is immediately going to run. When the akuma appears, people are immediately going to send out warning and call for the heroes. And thus the heroes are generally going to KNOW that Hawk Moth is attacking and go in prepared for battle. For a guy who is the head of a company and a world renown fashion designer, he knows NOTHING about subtlety.

It’s the same thing every time. Someone feels an emotion he can take advantage of, he sends out an akuma to turn them into a monster, they wreck shit with no real purpose other than what the akuma themselves want or just to get the heroes’ attention, and then the heroes come out and save the day. That’s it. With few exceptions (by which I mean like…MAYBE two), that is every episode up until the Heroes Day two parter, which is quite possibly the first attack he fully plans for, goes all out on, and very nearly wins because of it.

It may be the nature of his particular powers in that he has to take advantage of situations made available to him, but even then, he isn’t taking full advantage and there’s no reason for it. On two occasions now, he’s been able to akumatize Miraculous users, first in Queen Wasp and then on Heroes Day—something he clearly planned for in the latter. On both occasions, he had them completely under his control. But rather than have them go and hand over their Miraculous to him to increase his own arsenal before their otherwise inevitable defeat at the duo’s hands, he just has them act like any other akuma and wreck havoc.

His weirdly convoluted style of planning becomes evident particularly in Collector, where it was officially revealed that yes, fan theories and TV tropes was actually right in that Gabriel Agreste is Hawk Moth.

In Collector, his Miraculous book was lost and while he KNOWS it was because Adrien took it, he ASSUMES that somehow his enemies have it, ASSUMES that they will somehow know the book is his, ASSUMES that they will suspect him because of it, and proceeds to akumatize himself to try to trick them into thinking he’s not actually Hawk Moth.

And what evidence does he have for all this? What is there that supports this overly complicated plan to counter this possible suspicion from his enemies?

Again, none.

Even if he DID somehow manage to look into things to see what happened to the book, the most he would find is that Lila stole it and then threw it away. Nobody saw Ladybug grab it from the trash or run off with it. He has absolutely NO reason to believe Ladybug or Chat could have gotten ahold of the book or especially that they would track it to him. No reason except for sheer paranoia.

The fact that he happens to be correct doesn’t make any sense. If anything it’s another example of the situation being contrived for the sake of him rather than him actually planning for the situation.

Even worse is that at the end of that day, it’s a pig-tailed schoolgirl reminiscent of a certain pig-tailed superhero who just HAPPENS to show up with the book and return it. For all his paranoia about the heroes, does he even suspect that this girl might be one of the very heroes he’s fighting against?

Hahaha, of course not!

All in all, it’s another indicator of bad writing when the plot is turning on itself to justify Gabriel’s canyon-sized leaps in logic. Gabriel as a villain has the appearance that he is SUPPOSED to be an intelligent and dangerous mastermind who is always just one step ahead of the heroes. But instead, he’s a monologuing recluse who appears overly paranoid at the strangest of times and needs a matter of plot convenience to prove he’s justified in doing so.

The fact that his plans even work for however long they generally do speaks less of his ability and more of the desperation of the writers to make him seem like a real threat rather than the sheer fluke he actually is.

#ml salt #hawk moth #gabriel agreste #hawk moth is an idiot #gabriel is an idiot #gabriel salt #hawk moth salt

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