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immaturityofthomasastruc · 10 months

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IOTA Reviews: Derision

Well, here we are. This is the episode you've all been waiting for me to cover. The one people claim is the cream of the crop when it comes to badness, not just for the insane amount of retcons and cases of character assassination, but for how it retroactively makes one of the most criticized parts of the entire show worse by comparison. If you've seen the episode, you know what I'm talking about.

Let's get into the fourteenth episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fifth season: Derision

We start off with Marinette waking up for the day before getting a call from Adrien, who gives one of the clunkiest pieces of exposition I've ever heard on this show, and that's saying something.

Adrien: I was just going to tell you how excited I am that we're meeting at the swimming pool later, and to wake you up just in case you were still sleeping.

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Just as she hangs up, Marinette's hands start to tremble, having visions of a locker, hinting at some old memories resurfacing. Just to get this out of the way, but one thing I want to give this episode props for is the way these panic attacks are portrayed. The colors change, the environments warp around, and it gives off a very uneasy feeling. It kind of reminds me of this one episode of The Twilight Zone, “Little Girl Lost”, which used similar visuals to depict the otherworldly atmosphere of another dimension.

Marinette meets up with Adrien at the local pool, and has another panic attack. Kim and Ondine seem to notice this.

Kim: Woah, Adrien. That must've been some prank you pulled to make Marinette freak out like that. What did you do to her?

Ondine: It's not funny, Kim! Can't you see Marinette's not okay?

Kim: Oh, come on. She always reacts like that when someone pranks her.

Kim then proceeds to tell Adrien and Ondine (and by extension, the audience) about what he means. I'm going to talk a lot about this, so to make things easier for all of us, I'll give you the short version so you have an idea of what happened.

About a year before the events of “Origins”, we see Chloe was bullying Marinette even more than she did before then, constantly pulling sadistic pranks Megan from Drake & Josh would find to be overkill, while making her late to class. To make things worse, none of her teachers believed her and took Chloe's side all the time, giving her detention on the weekends. Mylene, Rose, and Juleka try to help Marinette, but apparently, Chloe orders them to not talk with her before saying that “she'll be there to make Marinette's life a nightmare”.

The only person with the common sense to help out Marinette is Socqueline, that girl from “Jubiliation”. Socqueline learns that Marinette has a crush on Kim, who is even more of a jerk than he was during the first half of Season 1, and when Marinette thinks about asking him out to the swimming pool after school, Socqueline advises Marinette to be careful. Sabrina tips off Chloe to Marinette's plan, so Chloe goes to give Kim advice to pull a prank on Marinette. At the pool, just as Marinette confesses her feelings to Kim, Kim gives her a box full of spiders, causing her to panic and fall backwards into the pool. Chloe films the thing with the intent to make it go viral, but Socqueline stops her plan before she can upload it. Kim doesn't seem to see what he did was wrong, seeing it as a harmless joke as Socqueline tells him to piss off.

It's here that Marinette determines that if she ever has feelings for a boy ever again, she'll need to be super prepared, explaining how much she knows about Adrien and his schedule in later episodes. Chloe then gets Socqueline expelled from school just a few weeks before the end of the school year. Marinette blames herself for what happened, but Socqueline tells her that sometimes, no matter how dire the odds seem, she needs to muster up the courage to fight the good fight.

Oh, and Marinette was almost akumatized by Monarch again, but it's really just an excuse to keep her away while Kim tells the story.

So... let's talk about this flashback. Clocking in at about ten minutes, almost half of the episode's runtime, this is easily the part everyone (myself included) seems to have problems with, for all kinds of reasons. Let's break down each and everything wrong with this flashback.

#1: The Portrayal of Chloe

Surprisingly, this is the least of my problems. Compared to Kim (who I'll get to later), Chloe is mostly in character with how she's usually portrayed by this point in the series. She's egotistical, she orders Sabrina around, she hates Marinette, and throws her father's name around over and over again like it's a boomerang. My feelings on the wasted opportunities with her character aside, this does make sense seeing how this takes place before Season 1.

But there's the problem. This takes place before Season 1, and Chloe does things she never did in Season 1, or any of the other seasons for that matter. She clearly has the teachers and principal doing what she wants, she can boss the other students around (which I'll also get to later), she pulls sadistic practical jokes on Marinette, and even uses her dad's name to get Socqueline expelled. In the show, she doesn't really do any of this. Sure, she can occasionally use her dad's influence to get what she wants (Lady Wifi, Rogercop, Frightningale, Determination), but it was never to this extent. While she also tried to act like she was better than the rest of her peers, barring Sabrina, nobody ever listened to her or took her seriously. Chloe also tended to focus on bullying Marinette, but she didn't do these kinds of practical jokes. Usually, it was either sabotage (Mr. Pigeon, Despair Bear, Gabriel Agreste) or just general name calling, and she picked on other students too (Dark Cupid, Reflekta, Antibug, Sole Crusher, Penalteam, Deflagration).

The point I'm trying to make is why the hell did Chloe stop acting this way? What caused her to stop being as bad as she is here? I get the whole point of this episode is to show how terrible Chloe is, but you're showing off all her bad moments in a flashback and never considering the other things she's done that would be just as effective. Wasn't the main idea behind Chloe's “damnation arc” that she started to change, but went back on her ways and became worse than before? If that's the case, I have to reiterate, why was she even worse in this flashback?

I also have an issue with making the cause of all of Marinette's trauma because of this prank by Chloe. Yes, the prank was terrible, and trust me this isn't me once again going “GRR! CHLOE STAN ANGRY BECAUSE RICH GIRL IS EVIL IN FLASHBACK!”. It's more along the lines of “Really? We're really doing this?”. While I'm glad that after Chloe's betrayal at the end of Season 3, the show is finally considering the idea of making her more than just comic relief as a villain, it feels like a case of too little, too late.

After so many years of making Chloe out to be harmless unless she screams her daddy's name, now you're treating her like a serious threat who traumatized Marinette for life? Chloe is the cause of Marinette's trauma? This is like if the person who killed Bruce Wayne's parents turned out to be a joke character like Egghead or Crazy Quilt. Just because a serious villain does something important to the story, it doesn't automatically make their prior unfunny antics go away.

But my main gripe with the portrayal of Chloe here is that this flashback fails to do something that still hasn't been done in almost five seasons and eight years: Explain just why Chloe hates Marinette so much. Chloe is unusually cruel here, and doesn't even have a reason to torture Marinette like this. Usually, Marinette gets in the way of what she wants, but here? Marinette doesn't do anything to warrant this level of dedication. You would think for a flashback sequence focusing on her and Marinette's history, they would actually explain why Chloe likes to single out Marinette, but they don't. The writers would rather take time out of the episode to remind the audience of why Chloe is the way she is, and why it isn't acceptable, than clarify what Chloe's deal with Marinette is.

Rose: She’s this way because her mother left her when she was young.

Mylene: So did mine, and you don't see me having fun bullying Marinette.

Gee, I wonder if Astruc himself had a part in writing that exchange or not.

If you're willing to acknowledge previous episodes while also discussing how poorly Chloe treats Marinette, it would help if you finally did something to inform the audience about why Chloe likes to torture Marinette in the first place. Did Marinette show Chloe up at a fashion show? Did Marinette impress Chloe's dad one time? Did Marinette just spill coffee on Chloe's shoes? I will take literally anything, no matter how stupid the explanation is, over getting nothing after eight years.

It's also pretty rich that that scene was trying to say that what happened to Chloe doesn't justify her actions when not only do we never get a scene like that pointing out how creepy Marinette obsesing over Adrien was, but later in the episode, Marinette specifically pins all the blame on Chloe in one line.

Marinette: Adrien! I know what's wrong with me! It's not my fault, and it's not your fault, either! It's all Chloe's fault!

So remember kids, just because bad things happen to you, it doesn't excuse your unflattering actions... except when it does, and in that case, it's all the fault of the person who wronged you in the first place.

#2: The Portrayal of Kim

I'll admit, I'm not really the biggest fan of Kim as a character. I don't hate him, but it feels like after Season 2, he just became that guy who really loves to swim, where even characters like Max, Marc, and Nathaniel had more depth to them. This episode however? Yeah, I couldn't stand Kim here.

Just like with Chloe, Kim is sort of in character as the same eccentric dude who has a habit of being insensitive and accidentally upsetting people (Animan, Syren), and I need to emphasize the “sort of”. Just like Chloe, this goes against his characterization in Season 1, where he was shown to be a bully like Chloe was (Lady Wifi, Timetagger, Origins) before later episodes made him a nicer person. However, unlike Chloe, the show sort of tries to retcon Kim's rude behavior to be more in line with his Season 5 self by portraying him as more of a bully who simply isn't aware of how harmful his jokes are, but it doesn't work because of how cruel he seems, and he doesn't have the excuse of knowing how terrible he is like Chloe does.

There's also how easily he goes along with Chloe's prank when she literally insults him and Marinette to his face.

Chloe: I heard Marinette asked you to go with her to the swimming pool.

Kim: Yeah, we’re going swimming together. Cool! 'Cause I love to swim!

Chloe: That’s not why she asked you, dummy!

Kim: It's not? Then, what are we going to do? Chloe: She wants to declare her feelings for you! Kim: For me? But why?

Chloe: Probably because she's utterly ridiculous, and so are you, which makes you two perfect for each other!

Kim: Oh? You think so?

There's not being aware of how insensitive of how you are to others, and then there's not being able to comprehend basic insults. Chloe doesn't even try to give Kim a backhanded compliment or secretly insult him (“You really like swimming, don't you? Good thing you can swim better than you do in class.”). She just calls him a dummy, and Kim still falls for her trick. If you want to have Kim fall for Chloe's plan, don't make her so obviously cruel. For God's sake, you're making the class in the Lila episodes look smart by comparison.

And even after retelling the story, Kim still thinks Chloe highly, not only saying how pretty she is right in front of his girlfriend, but he still thinks the joke was the funniest thing ever. After five seasons, Kim of all people should know about how mean Chloe is, given he was literally kidnapped and brainwashed into serving her while she sided with Hawkmoth (Miracle Queen).

The worst part is that Kim has nothing to do with this story at all. You could literally replace him with any other guy, even a nameless background character with no lines, and nothing would change. Hell, I'd argue it'd be even better as having Marinette be embarrassed in front of some rando would highlight the impact it had on her self-esteem when she tries to go after someone of a higher social class. It would also better justify the spider prank if someone else pulled it because “Darkblade” established that Kim was afraid of spiders.

And if you think I'm talking about Kim after this part, believe me, there's more to this schmuck than meets the eye.

#3: The Way Everyone Just... Lets This All Happen

Look, I get what the episode is trying to go for, narratively, and realistically. Sometimes, teachers and other authority figures just don't do their jobs when someone gets bullied. Hell, I was bullied for years by someone who liked to take advantage of my anger issues, and it wasn't until my last year of middle school that the faculty finally decided to do something about it. I also get that this entire flashback wouldn't happen if the teachers realized how cruel Chloe was and got her expelled. What I don't get is how the flashback portrays anyone who was there as unwilling to do anything to help.

First off, Marinette claims that the reason none of the teachers believed her was because they're all too afraid to stand up to Chloe, since she can call her dad and cost them their jobs, but that's far from the truth. The only time we see anyone actually being afraid of Chloe was when Mr. Damocles went back on refusing to expel Socqueline before Chloe threatened to call her dad and get him fired. Other than that, while we only see Ms. Mendeleiev and Mr. Damocles in this flashback, neither of them really show any signs of being afraid of Chloe. They just go along with what she says, and they don't even try to take Marinette's side. Just like Kim, this would be more understandable if these were different characters who were never shown to be this cruel to Marinette in earlier episodes.

Second, while I can sort of buy the teachers not caring about Marinette, the fact that her classmates don't do anything is another story. We saw Mylene, Rose, and Juleka trying to help Marinette, but right after they talk to her, Chloe just orders them to go away, and it's never explained why. Marinette said the teachers were afraid of Chloe, but does that mean the students are too? Again, later episodes would establish nobody takes Chloe seriously as a bully, so this part of the flashback makes no sense. What changed to make them stop being afraid of Chloe anyway? Once again, if these were a bunch of nameless characters who were more apathetic to Marinette's situation, that would make sense, retroactively showing how much Marinette's friends care for her. Instead, it's like that scene in RWBY where the main characters watch a student being bullied by a racist classmate, and all they do is say “Wow, racism really sucks, huh? Anyway, not our problem.”

Third, you're telling me that Marinette came up with multiple excuses not to go to school even with a few weeks left in the year, and Marinette's parents didn't see anything weird about it? They didn't think that something must be making Marinette want to do anything but go to school? I don't think they were even informed about the situation at school, unless you want to be generous and say they knew Marinette got detention. You can't even make the excuse that it would work if these were different characters, but these are Marinette's parents. You know, the same characters the show portrays as loving and affectionate to their daughter? You're telling me they didn't even think to look into the situation, much less talk to Marinette about school?

The problem with all the other characters in this flashback is in order to make what happens possible, they have to be as apathetic as possible. There's being unaware of a situation or being too afraid to stand up (which is unfortunately something that happens when people bullied sometimes), and then there's just not caring about the bully victim at all. It's ironic how even though a big part of the flashback was to show how awful Chloe was, it unintentionally make everyone else in Marinette's life seem just as cruel to let her suffer like that.

But I know what you're thinking. “What about Socqueline? She was there to help Marinette, so why didn't you mention her?” Well...

#4: Where the Hell Has Socqueline Been All This Time?

Like I mentioned in my “Jubilation” review, Socqueline is yet another unnecessary addition to the already overcrowded cast of characters in this show, and it seemed like this episode was meant to justify her inclusion, but it only raised more questions.

Just to remind you, this flashback establishes that Marinette was constantly bullied by Chloe until a nice girl in glasses stood up for her, and inspired Marinette to be more confident.

SOUND FAMILIAR?

Yeah, this flashback is pretty much the same as Marinette's arc in “Origins” was, only with Socqueline in Alya's place. We get it, writers, Season 1 was good. Constantly repeating stuff like what happened in “Mr. Pigeon 72” isn't going to win you any favors.

This really highlights how pointless of a character Socqueline is, as despite supposedly being a really important person in Marinette's life, Marinette herself never thought to tell anyone about her, and judging from how Marinette described her to Tikki in “Jubilation”, I don't think she even stayed in contact with Socqueline after she was expelled. It's not like left Paris afterwards. All we know is that she went to another school and got a job at a local arts and crafts store, so why did Marinette just stop talking with her? Even with Felix and Zoe, they had the excuse of being in different countries, but you can't say that with Socqueline.

Also, this was something I just realized, but if Mr. Damocles got her expelled, why the hell did Socqueline treat him like he was any other customer at her job, much less compliment him as a principal?

#5: The Handling of Trauma in General, and How This Impacts Marinette as a Character

Like pretty much every other serious issue it tries to tackle, Miraculous Ladybug has always had a poor understanding of mental health. When it comes to portraying characters who struggle with some form of grief of trauma, like Adrien, Felix, Chloe, Zoe, and even Marinette, the responses usually amount to some variation of “Grow a pair and get over it, you big baby!”.

With Felix, Chloe, and Marinette, even if their actions are partially motivated as a response to either losing a loved one, trying to emulate their neglectful parent, or as a defense mechanism to avoid repeating an already traumatic experience, they're all proven to be in the wrong, and it's not to teach a lesson about alternative coping mechanisms or support systems. The show just says that they're automatically wrong for what they do, what causes them to act the way they do is never acknowledged, and instead, we're supposed to just act like they're being jerks for no reason. Compare this to Adrien and Zoe, who both had rough lives losing their mother at a young age or living with an abusive mother respectively, and rather than go into detail how it affected them or how they managed to become decent human beings in spite of it, the show just says that they're nice people, so people like Felix, Chloe, and Marinette have no reason to be mean to others.

This is honestly why I feel like this episode's depiction of mental health and dealing with trauma falls flat. In case you didn't know, I asked my followers who had to deal with some form of trauma to share their experiences and how it compared to what Marinette went through in the episode. For the most part, the common consensus seems to be that while the symptoms of Marinette's trauma and her reactions to it are very believable, a lot of it is contradicted by previous episodes, and it seems like it was only there to do a story about dealing with trauma.

So many episodes across Seasons 1 through 4 show Marinette dealing with Kim and Chloe without really any issue, and she showed no problem with starting relationships with Luka and Cat Noir, to say nothing about Nathaniel's brief crush on her in “The Evillustrator”. If Marinette was so traumatized by this prank, why did she want to go swimming in episodes like “Gorizilla” and “Mr. Pigeon 72”? Why did she bother to help Kim confess to Chloe in “Dark Cupid”? Why did she team up with Chloe to sabotage Kagami in “Animaestro”? Why did she suggest Chloe could change for the better throughout Seasons 2 and 3? Why did she continue to let Chloe and Kim use the Bee and Monkey Miraculous respectively, even after they got them from outside sources? This flashback is desperately trying to tie previous events of the series together together, but it only works if you ignore all the times Marinette has interacted with Kim and Chloe without having a panic attack.

Then there's how the flashback tries to connect this to Marinette memorizing all of Adrien's schedule to make sure he won't hurt her, an obvious attempt to rebuff one of the biggest criticisms of her as a character. Here's why it doesn't work.

First off, the setup doesn't work because while Marinette vows to do a better job getting to know the next person she falls in love with and how, in her words mind you, “He isn't friends with Chloe”. Putting aside the kindness he's shown her in “Origins”, she kind of failed to really consider her choice to pursue him if he stayed friends with Chloe if we're going to believe Chloe traumatized Marinette so much.

It also doesn't really explain the more predatory actions Marinette has taken whenever another girl tries to get close to Adrien (The Bubbler, Volpina, Animaestro, Oni-Chan, Heart Hunter), or how she tries to rig up situations to get closer to him (The Gamer, Gigantitan, Backwarder, Party Crasher, Felix, Psycomedian, Glaciator 2, Simpleman). And that's not even getting into how obsessive she is with him in other areas, like repeatedly playing a commercial he was in (Gorizilla), making a bunch of presents for him in advance (Christmaster), trying to kiss a wax statue of him (The Puppeteer 2), sniffing his pillow (Cat Blanc), or all the other times she's creepily obsessed over him.

But of course, you've probably noticed that I've forgotten to mention one key thing about what this flashback means: You know how Marinette tends to act nervously and stumbles a lot around Adrien when she isn't meticulously documenting his schedule? Yeah, they were essentially panic attacks brought on by her PTSD, and the episode tries to act like Kim did to her wasn't funny afterwards. Here's the problem with this.

YOU MADE MARINETTE'S TRAUMA YOUR PRIMARY SOURCE OF COMEDY FOR THE PAST FIVE FUCKING SEASONS!

You do NOT have the right to act like what happened to Marinette was bad when you were constantly playing her anxiety up for laughs for almost EIGHT YEARS at this point!

In addition to all the other examples I mentioned, we had episodes like “Psycomedian”, which confirmed that the same behavior that this episode is trying to say is connected to her trauma was hilarious to Adrien, as well as “Backwarder”, which thrived on playing up Marinette's anxiety towards Adrien and was said to be one of the funniest episodes of the show to work on by Astruc himself.

THIS IS WHAT THOMAS ASTRUC ACTUALLY BELIEVES

#6: Why This Flashback Is Ultimately Pointless

But above all, the biggest problem I have with this flashback is because of how pointless it is. It's trying to better go into detail about why Marinette acts the way she does around Adrien, but did we really need to do that?

This flashback doesn't really reveal anything that we didn't know already. We know Marinette was bullied by Chloe, we know she was a lot more meek and needed others to stand up for her, and we definitely know that we're not supposed to like Chloe. Adding to my earlier point, if we actually got more insight into the origin of Chloe's obsession with Marinette, that would have at least made this flashback important to watch, but once again, despite being a flashback episode, we learn nothing about the characters that we don't already know.

But this flashback is also meant to explain why Marinette is so hesitant to embrace her new relationship with Adrien when we already got a reason for that last season. The first half of the season has made a big deal about how much her feelings for Adrien cost her the Miraculous, so why not focus on that? This flashback just feels like it's here to give more Marinette angst instead of focusing on the things they've already established. And that's not even getting into what she saw during “Cat Blanc”.

Why couldn't we just have a story about Marinette's own insecurities causing her to doubt she can make her relationship with Adrien work, seeing how poorly things ended with Luka? Have her worry that something could go wrong as a result of her need to overcompensate, or worry that Adrien could betray her. That way, you could have Adrien supporting Marinette in a way that reflects their partnership as Cat Noir and Ladybug respectively.

But no. Instead we have this flashback that's taken me about ten pages to fully dissect. And the worst part is that I still have the rest of the episode to talk about. God help me...

So after Adrien and Ondine explain how this prank could have done a lot of damage to Marinette's psyche, Kim decides to find Marinette, and apologize for being so—Ah, I'm just messing with you guys. After all, that would actually make Kim likable. So what does he say instead?

Kim: Come on! Loosen up, you guys! It's like you can't even speak your mind these days.

Ondine: That doesn't give you permission to hurt other people!

Kim: Whatever! I'm the way I am and I'm fine that way! It's not my fault you guys have no sense of humor!

Yep, rather than having Kim realize the error of his ways and maybe be akumatized out of guilt, Kim just whines about how everyone else is just a humorless pansy these days. The writers pretty much made Kim's motivation boil down to “It's just a prank, bro!”. Even Monarch seems to go along with this, as he refers to Kim as “A free spirit feeling unjustly rejected”, when this was right after he called Chloe the prettiest girl in front of his own girlfriend's face. So Monarch sends his Akuma to Kim's goggles, akumatizing him into Dark Humor. Yes, that's really the name they're going with.

Dark Humor is a pretty forgettable recolor of Dark Cupid. Other than inverting the red and black color scheme and giving him a targeting scope on his right eye, there's not much else to say other than the incredibly on the nose name they gave him. His powers are sort of like Dark Cupid's, only now, instead of turning people heartless, they now share his soulless brand of “humor”. At least, I think it is. His Alliance power is the Monkey Miraculous's Uproar, but it's not really clarified if he's only using Uproar arrows or not, judging from the use of the rubber ducky that we've seen King Monkey use before.

Marinette and Adrien transform into Ladybug and Cat Noir respectively, but once they meet up, we get the most controversial part of the episode that isn't connected to the flashback scene: Cat Noir gives Dark Humor the beatdown of his life and is about to Cataclysm him, for pulling a bad prank on Marinette a year ago. Yeah, a lot of people have pointed out that Adrien felt a lot of remorse for Cataclysming Monarch earlier in this season, yet here, Cat Noir looks like someone told him that Kim just shot the Pope. For God's sake, writers, you're five seasons in! How hard is it to determine whether or not you want your hero to be okay with killing people or not?

And of course, this bites him in the ass, as Dark Humor stabs Cat Noir with an arrow, not only changing his Cataclysm into something that creates a bunch of balls from his hand, but also making him just as insane as the rest of Dark Humor's victims. You know, I'm this close to starting a “Remember Season 1” counter, because this is just glorified fanservice.

Ladybug tries to summon her Lucky Charm, but is stopped by Dark Humor, so Ladybug transforms back into Marinette, transforms into Ladybug again, and summons her Lucky Charm for real this time, getting... a toilet. Of course, the only way to combat Dark Humor's bad jokes is by using even worse jokes! Genius! Ladybug places the toilet over Dark Humor's head and breaks it along with the goggles, freeing the Akuma.

Ladybug de-evilizes the Akuma, uses Miraculous Ladybug to fix the damage, gives Kim a useless Magical Charm, and Cat Noir apologizes for murdering Kim by saying his emotions got the better of him, which is like saying OJ Simpson and his wife had a minor disagreement.

Kim apologizes to Marinette for traumatizing her, and I guess that's enough for Ondine to forgive him for saying another girl is prettier than her.

After Marinette sort of explains what happened to Adrien, he goes over to tell Chloe to apologize, and we get... this scene.

Adrien: I know about everything that you did to Marinette last year, Chloe. You're going to go and apologize to her and prove to everyone that you can change. I'm sure she'll forgive you.

Chloe: (laughs) Forgive me? What do I care about her forgiveness? I couldn't care less about Dupain-Cheng's feelings! She and the likes of her only exist to suffer for my entertainment. Why bother having power if you can’t use it against those who don’t have any? You’re the one who’s getting things wrong, with your baker girl! You’re a prince! You belong with me, the princess! You’re in this world to shine! To make fun of all the losers who are only good enough to be used as doormats!

Adrien: You're nothing like a princess, Chloe. I supported you. I gave you multiple chances to become a better person. Everyone reached out to you, including Ladybug and Cat Noir when they gave you the Miraculous of the Bee again. But all you ever think about is yourself.

Chloe: And what else IS there to think about? Losers and nobodies? The little bees? The planet?

Adrien: We will never be friends again, Chloe. You and I are done.

Chloe: Traitor.

Okay, first off, “She and the likes of her only exist to suffer for my entertainment.”? That's the line you're going with? She sounds like a dark lord in an RPG game. How is this the closest thing we ever get to an explanation to why Chloe hates Marinette so much?

Second, ignoring the fact that we already had Chloe end her friendship with Adrien last season (Queen Banana), it's pretty weird that this is the breaking point in their friendship. Adrien doesn't mention all the other times she's bullied people or when she sided with Hawkmoth even when he brought up her time as Queen Bee. He saw her being mean to so many people over five seasons, yet only when he learns Chloe did something to his girlfriend that he decides to finally confront her. If we at least got a line where Adrien acknowledged that he essentially enabled Chloe for so long by thinking she could change, that would have at least sort of worked. Instead, he makes it about how she refused to change herself. Dude, you had the chance to stand up to her for years, and you even did so in one episode before you went back on it (Despair Bear). You have nobody to blame but yourself.

Finally, Chloe is pretty out of character here. She's way too calm about ending her friendship with Adrien compared to what happened in “Despair Bear” and “Queen Banana”. You'd think if the writers wanted this to be a big moment of catharsis for the audience, Chloe would at least beg Adrien to stay a little. But no, Chloe brushes it off when it could easily justify her getting worse in later episodes, and even Adrien doesn't even consider how much he thought Chloe's friendship meant to him. Because these writers are dedicated to making sure that any identifiable trait Chloe once had is removed so you have no choice but to hate her.

But hey, at least the episode's over. What did I think of it?

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Yeah, it wasn't very good.

I just... what else do you even want me to say here? I spent about ten pages going over why the flashback sequence doesn't work, I've already ranted about Cat Noir trying to kill someone with his Cataclysm in previous episodes (Hack-San, Jubilation), and I think you all know what my feelings on the portrayal of Chloe and Kim are.

I guess I can answer one question you may have: Is this episode worse than either “Penalteam” or “Queen Banana”? Eh, not really. Let me explain.

The problems with “Queen Banana” and “Penalteam” went beyond the treatment of Chloe with the way the stories were handled, with “Queen Banana” being a cheap jab at critics and TV executives while propping up their new character Zoe, and “Penalteam” being an excuse to have a soccer episode while making Cat Noir look like a buffoon right before the finale. Most of the problems with this episode have more to do with how they affect the way we see previous episodes, and why some scenes that were already unfunny are even less funny now.

With this episode, you can at least tell there was some effort being made to tell a more serious story here that went into what made Marinette tick. Yeah, it and the themes of mental health and trauma were handled about as gracefully as a ballet dancer trying to get a bear trap off their leg, but there's at least an attempt here.

Of course, this episode is still awful. The conflict with Kim not getting how much of a jerk he was after a year was dumb (as was him being even more of a jerk as Dark Humor), the fact that Marinette's trauma seemed to come and go when the plot needed it to really showed off how forced it is, and it only ends with you having more questions about Marinette and Chloe's rivalry rather than answering them.

While I'm still not a fan of this episode, and would still place it in my top five least favorites, I don't think it's the absolute worst. Although it's still the worst one so far this season from a technical standpoint.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS...KIM

It says a lot when Cat Noir actually tried to murder someone in this episode, yet not only is he not even considered for the award this episode, the person he tried to kill ends up being the bigger idiot. Not only did he easily fall for Chloe's plan when she insulted him to his face, he failed to understand how it affected Marinette for a year, and when he was told about how bad it was, he refused to take responsibility for his actions, blamed it on other people not being able to take a joke, and only gave the smallest apology after he was almost killed for his attitude. It's honestly funny how he somehow comes across as more unlikable than Chloe, the character this episode was made to make you hate even more.

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yootaesowlwrites · 7 months

Text

Until You’re Shaking - Kim Taehyung

W/C: 2.7K

Note: Blank blogs will be blocked. I don’t trust y’all, so make sure you have your age in your bio/desc or something on your blog. Minors DNI.

Prompts: “I never knew you were such a dirty girl / boy.” + “I swear to the goddesses i won’t stop until you’re shaking.”

Warnings: Smut, explicit language, somnophilia (consensual), touching while reader is asleep, light nipple touching, clit stimulation, clit sucking, oral (female receiving), light hair pulling, fingering, cum tasting(?), multiple orgasms, nicknames, unprotected sex(reader’s on the pill), slight overstimulation, aftercare.

Age Warning: I will not take responsibility because you wanted to read this, but if you’re under the age of 18+, DO NOT INTERACT OR READ. Do not take this as educational, this is fiction!

Taehyung lets out a groan as he slowly woke up and stretches slowly, the room was dark from the curtains being drawn, but he could see light coming from it and knew it must have been morning, he turns onto his back and picks up his phone to check the time, quickly seeing it was almost afternoon.

“It’s worth it,” He mutters as he puts his phone back down and turns onto his side to look at you, you had somehow ended up sleeping on your back and the covers had shifted down just below your chest. He lets his eyes roam over your face, taking in how peaceful you look while you were asleep before his eyes slowly begin ascending towards your chest, watching as it slowly rose before falling, he reaches over and presses the back of his fingers against your jaw and slowly glides his hand lower, over your neck and collarbone before moving along your chest and over your breast, he turns his hand over and runs the pad of his fingers over the spot where he knew your nipples were.

He knew your body like he knew the back of his hand by now, he had it memorised by now, and every time he sees you in front of him naked, he falls in love with you all over again and falls even deeper into you when he finds more parts of your body he can kiss and caress. His finger circles around the bud, watching and feeling as it hardens and stands through the shirt, his shirt that you had worn to bed the night before, he takes in a deep breath as he feels something stirring inside him.

“You have just no idea what you’re doing to me, do you?” He mutters. He could see your breathing was slowly deepening the longer he circled his thumb over your nipple. “You, alone, watching you, thinking of you, turns me on too much and all I want to do is make you feel good,” Your body was slowly reacting to what his finger was doing. “You’re always so beautiful and hot…” His hand slowly travels down, moving underneath the covers before cupping your mound and pushing his fingers against your clit. “Sometimes I wonder how I can hold myself back from devouring you with kisses,” He gently presses his finger against your clit before slowly rubbing it.

He could feel blood rushing towards his cock as it hardens, your chest was rising and falling faster as your breathing became heavier, he adds a finger and gently massages the nub, your hips gently jerk at the feeling and a soft moan soon falls from your lips, your head moves against the pillow as your body was responding to him.

“Let me taste,” He mutters and pulls his fingers away, he moves underneath the covers, carefully pushing your legs apart and settling between them, one hand grips your thigh as he lifts your leg over his shoulder. “Fuck, I can smell you already,” His nose presses against your panties before he licks a stripe along your panties. “Hmm, so good already,” He uses his fingers from his other hand to spread your folds, pushing your panties against your clit before pressing his tongue against your clit.

“Taehyung!” You gasp as you wake up. You lift the covers and find him between your legs, his hair messy and his cheeks flushed and his eyes dark with lust. “Fuck,” His tongue swirls over your clit through the fabric again, and you could feel your insides tightening as a slow orgasm was building. His hand grasps your thigh tighter, his fingers digging into the flesh. “I never knew you were such a dirty boy,” You reach down with one hand and grip onto his hair, the covers dropping as you do. You gasp as you feel his lips wrapping around your clit through your panties, and he gently sucks on the nub. “Oh, oh, fu-fuck, Tae…” Your lids flutter as you feel tingles going up your spine. You could feel your panties becoming wetting from not just your juices but his saliva also. “Tae… Oh, my… T-Tae,” His hand caressed your thigh as he held onto it, keeping you from pulling away, not that you were going to.

You could feel his nose brushing against your inner thigh as he turned his head to try and get a better angle of your clit, and fuck, just feeling his hot breath against your skin, especially there, was making your mind spin. You gently tug at his hair and your hips lift slightly, needing more of the feeling he was giving you.

“Mo-more,” You mumble. Your skin felt on fire, and you were starting to sweat from how hot the room was and how it was becoming between your legs. “I need more,” You feel his mouth disappear from your clit and moments later you feel his tongue gliding along your folds before stopping once he reached the crease of your inner thighs.

“I swear to the goddesses, I won’t stop until you’re shaking,” He mutters as he pushes your panties aside. His hot breath hitting your clit causes your back to arch for a few seconds, his nose brushes against your mound before you felt his lips wrap around your clit.

“OH!” You loudly moan, your eyes shut at the sensation that goes through you like lightning. “Oh, my fucking…” You could feel the tip of his tongue pressing against your clit as he sucks on it. “Gosh, Tae-Taehyung…” Your thighs push against the side of his head, and you feel his hand on your thigh sliding higher to grip the crease of your hip. “O-oh,” You feel his fingers slipping against your entrance and press against it, a faint squelch sound reaches your ears. “Oh, fuck,” You were certain it wouldn’t take long for him to uphold his promise about having you shake with pleasure. “Fuck,” His fingers massage against your entrance, threatening to slip in every few times as he pressed down.

“Hmm, hmm,” He hums against your clit, your eyes roll to the back of your head before your lids fall shut in pleasure. The vibrations from the humming were reaching deep inside you and causing the tension to build more and more, and you swear it was close to snapping. “Hmm,” Your toes curl, and you bend one leg to press your heel into his shoulder.

“Tae…” You gasp out. Your upper body turns sideways as you felt your high getting closer and closer. “Oh… my…” His fingers slowly push into you, stretching your walls and stimulating them. “Fucking… Tae,” You probably sounded so desperate for him, but you didn’t care. His fingers curl inside you, and you feel how close they were to pressing into your sweet spot. “Fu- fuck,” You could see specs of dust floating behind your lids, your mind was overflowing with pleasure. His fingers turn inside you and your back arches as your upper body falls flat against the mattress. “TAE!”

“Hmm-mmh,” He hums once more. You almost sit upright at the pleasure that shoots up your spine, his fingers were brushing against your sweet spot, and you could feel your high approaching quickly.

“Oh, my, oh, my…” You chant out. The specs of dust behind your lids quickly turning into stars, and you could feel your entire body starting to tense up. “Oh, fuck… oh, go—OH!” Your head presses hard into the pillow as a sudden bolt of pleasure spreads through you, your mind slips into the clouds as it feels like your body had started to float. “OH, OH, FUCK, TAEHYUNG!” His fingers massage your walls as you release around them, while he continues to suck your clit, easing you through your high. “FUCKING GOSH!” Your other hand reaches up to grip onto the pillows to try and ground yourself. You feel the covers being pushed off your lower half and a sudden rush of cold air blows against your hot sweaty skin. “Fuck, Tae, Tae, Tae,” Your grip on his hair loosens, and you bring your hand to your own hair. “Shit…”

You slowly come down from your high, your breathing was hard, and you could feel your muscles feeling like jelly as they buzzed from the orgasm you had, you knew it wasn’t over, and he would try for another round until you were literally shaking for him. You slowly open your eyes as you felt his lips peppering soft kisses on the crease of your hip, his hand that had gripped onto you now rested only rips after he had ripped the covers off. His eyes were still dark with lust, and his hair was even messier than before.

“How are you feeling?” He mumbles. “And good morning,” You lick your lips, almost wanting to laugh. “How did you sleep?” His fingers were gently tracing over your skin, your walls pulsed, and you quickly felt his other fingers were still inside you and that your leg had been lifted off from him and was layer on the bed now.

“What a good morning,” You breathe out. “I slept okay, I had a dream when I was waking up…” He hums, and you could see a smirk starting to pull at his lips. “But when I woke up, it wasn’t a dream, it was much better than the dream… and it felt good, it felt really good…” He nods and kisses his way towards your belly button before lifting his head once he couldn’t touch your skin anymore and hovers over you.

“It felt good?” He mutters. His hand on your ribs move to press into the mattress to keep himself just above you. “It felt good hearing you moan my name in pleasure,” He dips his head lower. “But you’re not shaking yet, are you?”

“I’m close…” You whisper, staring into his eyes. Your legs twitch as you feel his fingers wiggle inside you, just that slight movement had caused your insides to start tightening again. His face was inches from yours, and you could practically smell yourself on his lips.

“I want to be inside you when you shake,” He whispers before pushing his lips against yours, your eyes shut as you could taste yourself on his lips and reach up to run your fingers through the back of his hair before tangling your fingers in them. His palm presses against your clit, and you feel his fingers begin to move inside you again.

“Hmm,” You moan into his mouth. You lift your leg and wrap it around his waist, pressing your heel into his lower back. “Hmm,” His fingers slip deeper into you and your back arches as you feel them reach your sweet spot. “OHH!” He breaks the kiss just as you let out a loud moan, your walls pulse, and it felt like your clit had gained a heartbeat as he rubbed his palm against the nub. “Tae… Tae…”

“It feels like you’re shaking beneath me already,” He says. His lips press against your jaw, and he kisses down, pausing at your neck to leave several kisses behind on it. “Are you going to be my good girl?” His tone was low, and it was right beside your ear, a shiver runs through you at the feeling of his hot breath fanning against your ear.

“Taaaeeeeee,” You whine. Your high was building faster than your first one, your muscles felt shaky already. “Fucking shit,” You turn your head to the side, giving more space and access to your neck, your other hand wraps underneath his arm, and you place your hand flat against his back before sliding your hand up and grabbing onto the back of his shoulder. “Oh… Ohhh, hmm uhh,” Your toes curl, and you feel your hips lift off the bed, his palm presses harder against your clit as his fingers massage your sweet spot. “FUCKING GO- TAE!” Before you could prepare yourself, your high crashes into you and you come undone.

“That’s it, that’s my girl,” He mutters as he leaves another kiss behind on your neck. “Make a big mess for me,” It felt like your entire body was shaking uncontrollably beneath him, and he could feel it, he absolutely loved having you shake from pleasure. “Give me a few seconds,” You let out a whine as you feel him pull his fingers from you, your hands tighten around him when you feel him starting to pull away, only for him to pause.

“Tae, fuck, don’t pull away,” You mutter, completely lost in the pleasure you were feeling. “OH!” You didn’t even feel him push his boxers down, but you sure did feel when his cock pushed past your folds and pushed against your entrance.

“You’re so wet…” He groans before slowly pushing the tip of his cock into you. Your lips part and you take in an inaudible gasp as he slowly fills and stretches your walls. “Oh my fucking fuck,” You could hear grunts and groans from him as your walls practically swallowed him in.

“Tae, fuck, I’m…” Your words get caught off as you gasp, you could already feel another high building, and it would take long before it would crash into you. “Tae… fuck, Tae…” Your walls pulsed around him, and you hear him groan before his head moves between the crook of your neck again.

“You feel so good…” He groans into your neck. “Fuck, how am I supposed to last when you feel like this?” He slowly lifts his hips, and you feel your walls pulsing at the stimulation, your grip on his shoulder was slipping from the sweat, you could feel the shirt you wore sticking to your skin.

“TAAAEEEE,” You whine as another high crash into you, you weren’t sure how much your body could take as he was slowly rocking his hips into yours, easing you through your high while slowly building up to his own. Your mind was filled with the pleasure you were feeling, and your body felt like it hadn’t stopped floating since your second high hit. “Tae… fucking, Tae…” You manage to lift your other leg and also wrap it around his waist, making him groan as he feels the shift around his cock.

“Fuck, you, it, everything… feels so good,” He groans. Your walls felt sensitive, and you could already feel another orgasm building inside you, the heartbeat inside your clit was beating erratically, and fuck, your body felt absolutely on fire, especially the places he was touching you. “Fuck, you’re milking me…”

“F-fuck, Tae…” You gasp. You could feel his hips slowly speeding up, the stimulation to your walls was making your mind spin even more, and the stars behind your lids exploded. “TAE!” You hold onto him, it felt like everything of yours was shaking as your high was approaching with a rate of not, before you knew it, your mind fell blank from the pleasure and for a moment you thought you had blacked out.

“Fuck, fuck, you feel… fuck, taking me so good…” He grunts above you, you feel him grab onto your hand and squeeze it before feeling his hips rut into yours before stopping. “Fuck, oh, fuck yes,” You felt his muscles twitch as he pressed his stomach against yours, and his cum spills into you as he breathes heavily into your ear, your body was buzzing from the pleasure you had been put through, and it felt like you had no energy left at all. “So good, and all mine,” You feel his grip on your hand tighten before you felt his other arm slip underneath you, and pulls you on top of him as he rolls over, keeping his cock inside you. Both of you breathe hard as you take a moment to let everything sink and cool down. “Are you alright?”

“Hmm,” You hum, trying to search for some energy to properly answer him. Because you were alright more than alright. “I… hmm,” He chuckles and gently rubs his hand up and down along your back.

“Did I go overboard?” He asks. “I feel like I did since you can barely answer me,” This time it was you who chuckles, but he could hear how lazy it sounded when you did. “I should make us some tea…”

“It was good,” You whisper. “Maybe a little overboard, but it was you,” He smiles up at you and lifts his head to gently kiss your forehead, you turn your head and quickly make yourself comfortable on top of him, and with his heartbeat right in your ear, it was a perfect lullaby to lull you back to sleep.

#taehyung imagine #taehyung smut #kim taehyung smut #taehyung oneshots #taehyung one shots #taehyung oneshot #taehyung one shot #taehyung scenarios #kim taehyung imagines #kim taehyung imagine #taehyung scenario #bts smut #bts imagine #bts imagnes #bts scenario #bts oneshot #bts oneshots #bts one shot #bts one shots

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swanimagines · 2 years

Note

I haven't stopped listening to Mr Sandman since the end of the serie, can you do a one shot where F!Reader is quietly singing(unconsciously) the song and Morpheus asks him what is that? please

Fandom: The Sandman

A/N: Not really a oneshot because the scenario isn't detailed enough for one, but here's little something I wrote from your prompt.

Also a note that this is the last Morpheus request I have in my inbox rn, but you're welcome to send more! It's kinda weird how I don't crush on him (yet?) but I've really enjoyed writing for him for some reason as I build my queue and see the love they get (which encourages me to write more) so more requests for him are welcome 😊 Reminder that you may also use my prompt lists if you don't have ideas of your own!

Word count: 627

Visiting Morpheus' palace every night as your physical self was comfortably wrapped up in your bed was something you didn't think would happen. You were surprised that it had happened so often, but Morpheus had told you that he liked having company and since you had shown him so much kindness, he wanted to offer you company too.

In the Waking World, you were quite lonely. There were some people you saw on a regular basis—your work colleagues, neighbors, acquaintances—but they all had their own lives outside of yours. The few friends you made only ever called or met when there was an occasion, which made you feel unappreciated and like you were contacted only if someone was bored, not because people actually wanted to talk to you.

You had told this to Morpheus when you were plotting freeing him from his glass prison, knowing how he was treated in there and the moment you had learned he was there purely because Roderick Burgess was greedy for power, and not because he had done something horrible, you started laying out a plan of freeing him. He didn't speak, and seemed to doubt your honesty until you actually filled your promise, but now he did trust you. He enjoyed you sitting there with him as he worked. Sometimes you read, sometimes you doodled something or then you spoke with him if he wasn't too busy.

Tonight, you seemed to be deep in thought as you doodled into a parchment of paper, smiling softly at each stroke. Morpheus was deep in his own work, but he was distracted as he heard you hum a tune.

"Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream, make him the cutest that I've ever seen, give him the word that I'm not a rover, then tell him that his lonesome nights are over, dum dum dum..."

He frowned as he lifted his gaze at you, and you noticed it and realised the next moment what you had just said, and you felt heat creeping up to your face.

"What is that?"

You laughed nervously, placing your hands over your cheeks and trying to hide yourself from him momentarily. "Um... nothing." You shrugged, turning your eyes back at your doodle. "Just... something silly I've been listening lately, it's quite an earworm."

Morpheus raised his eyebrows and then an amused smile spread on his lips. "A song about me?"

You smiled at him bashfully, fiddling with the quill in your hands. "It's a really old song and when I started visiting you here, I just... I don't know, I ended up listening to it in Spotify quite often. It brings me comfort when I'm not here."

His eyebrows rose slightly, before he smirked at you smugly. "I am flattered to be remembered so fondly by you when you are awake." He chuckled at your embarrassed expression, before getting back to his work.

You bit your lip, your face still feeling hot and your heart thumping, but managed to continue your doodle anyway.

And once you relaxed, you had started to hum the tune again without noticing, but this time Morpheus didn't react to it apart from a small smile on his lips. He wouldn't say it aloud, but he was pleased that you enjoyed something that reminded you of him, even if it was only a song.

He had offered you kindness in return to you freeing him, and it felt good knowing you were enjoying your nights with him, even if your nights went by just sitting together, barely speaking.

Maybe one day he'd appear in the Waking World and spend time with you in your world for a change, surprise you by taking you out on dinner, show you how much he appreciated you too...

---

The Sandman taglist: @jesllianaquilesrolon @stygianoir // send in an ask to be added, and specify which of my fandoms you want to be tagged on! Don’t just say “can you add me to your taglist” as I can’t know what taglists do you mean by that!! ALSO IF YOU WON’T INTERACT BEYOND LIKING, I’LL EVENTUALLY TAKE YOU OFF THE LIST!!

#morpheus x reader #morpheus #dream of the endless x reader #dream of the endless #the sandman #the sandman x reader #morpheus fic #the sandman fic #morpheus x y/n #my works #female reader

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madame-fear · 1 year

Note

HIII

HELLO, I love your blog, your stories make me smile. um um feel free to ignore but i wanted to ask gotham! jonathan and DK! Jonathan, cheering on his partner on his birthday POSTSCRIPT: Yesterday was my birthday XD, another thing, English is not my native language, SO I'M SORRY FOR THE SPELLING MISTAKES

— a/n : hello love !! Happy late Birthday darling!! 🥳❤ AHJDJDK no worries for English cause it's not my native tongue as well! hope u enjoy this ♡

♡ Gotham! Jonathan : ♡

• Our boy will literally immerse you with love. His arms would be tightly wrapped around your waist, and would kiss you happily all over your face.

• The second you wake up on your birthday, he will already be leaving you breathless as he tightly hugs you, and showers you in love; plus, gives you tons of jolly birthday wishes.

• Will literally bring breakfast to bed and will also show up with a bouquet of roses he had brought for you the day before and kept hidden so you wouldn't spoil one of his surprises!

• Probably will let the J Squad and/or the Legion know about your birthday so they can celebrate it with you, if you wish. Or simply, give you gifts... or even help him with gifting ideas. Honestly it's probably that he would call the J Squad + the Legion only so they can give him ideas for your birthday. 🥲

• Will literally take you ANYWHERE you wish. Out for a walk in the park, out for a coffee birthday date, to the shopping mall, etc. And also, will spoil you to no end by buying you whatever thing he sees fit for you, and thinks you'll like! No 'buts' allowed.

“babe, what do you think about this? Do you like it?” “yeah, it seems pretty ni–” “SAY NO MORE. I'll buy it for you!”

• After you come home from nearly being all day out exploring the city for your birthday, he will run a warm, bubbly bath while he sets everything up for a perfect birthday night.

• Jonathan will even prepare your favourite food for you! Which is unusual, since he prefers having you cooking – but oh well, it's your special day.

• ^ Also, he'd prepare your favourite dessert, and will prepare some comfy clothing on top of your bed so you can change into that. Plus, he will prepare some good movie nights for both of you!

• After dinner and shortly before dessert, he will take out every hidden gift he had for you! Each one has a special little note for you, and he will be clinging by your side with a glint of excitement to see how you'll react to it.

• Pretty much will have you spoiled all day long, and will treat you like an absolute ✨ Queen ✨

♡ DK! Jonathan : ♡

• Unlike Gotham! Crane, he's not as expressive or clingy with his love. But, of course, that doesn't mean he doesn't have his ways of showing his beloved that he loves you!

• Even if he's a busy man, he will have someone replace him on his work only to spend more time with you. Literally.

• The first thing you'll see, is a little note with a bunch of hearts surrounding it, greeting you a good morning and a joyful birthday, and that he's on the kitchen preparing breakfast for both of you.

• When you go downstairs to the kitchen, you'll find the whole house set up for your birthday; with balloons of your favourite colours, a bouquet of flowers, general birthday decorations, and all the gifts on top of the living table.

“happy birthday, my love. i hope all your wishes come true, and that you have a joyful birthday, sweet darling.”

• DK! Crane will make you open all the gifts he proudly chose for you all for himself, based on all the knowledge he has on your likings. And, even if he won't show it... he lives for your happiness and the way you praise him when he does/gives you something you absolutely ADORE.

• It may be books, dresses, jewellery... whatever you most desire, he got it! And you're satisfied! (and so he is at your overjoyed reaction).

• Our man will also make you use your best clothing, as he reserved a special spot on your favourite place as to take you out for your birthday, and spend the evening there, together.

• And after you go back home, he will proudly keep spoiling by making a hot chocolate for you, plus he would bring you a small birthday cake of your favourite flavour while he sings "Happy Birthday".

• CUDDLING NIGHT WITH HIM WHILE YOU SHARE CAKE AND HOT CHOCOLATES!!!

• Our Jonathan will make sure he gives you the most special day ever, pampered, and happy. ♡

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saturnznct · 1 year

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d-6; baby’s first christmas | qkn

➸ note; not incredibly christmassy today but since li-wei was born on christmas eve i thought she’d be perfect for baby’s first christmas!!

➸ word count; 942 words

➸ li-wei; aged 1 day

dadmas masterlist | nct masterlist

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ ⋆✦⋆ ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

Snow falls at great speed outside of Kun’s childhood bedroom window. It feels strange, laying in his slightly unfamiliar bed, your brand new baby girl laying on your chest, still unnamed, having only been born less than twenty-four hours ago. It’s late, nearly midnight, on Christmas Eve. You’d been staying at Kun’s family home in China for around a month now, preparing for the birth, and now that your daughter was finally here, Kun’s mother had spent the day filling you up with hot drinks and food, and plenty of rest in between.

Now, Kun is quietly darting around the room, getting himself ready for bed.

‘Want me to put her down for you?’ He offers, holding his arms out, ready to take her from you.

‘Please,’ you murmur, the idea of sleeping suddenly very appealing.

The baby girl whimpers a little as she’s taken from you, but her cries cease as Kun rocks her gently, placing her into the bedside crib.

Kun flicks the lamp off, climbing into bed beside you, wrapping his arms around you and pulling you into his warm embrace.

‘You cold?’ He mumbles, knowing his mother would scold him if she knew you were in any type of discomfort.

‘No. Really warm,’ you respond, already half-asleep.

‘Good. Happy Christmas Eve, darling,’ he kisses your forehead.

You don’t respond, already in dreamland.

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ ⋆✦⋆ ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

The baby wakes you up quite a few times during the night. Kun helps out brilliantly, bringing the baby to you to feed, singing quiet Christmas songs to her when she cries, keeping both of you warm.

It’s around five in the morning when you both come to the realisation that you’re not going back to sleep, so you bring the baby downstairs into the living room, where the gold Christmas tree lights glow softly.

‘Hot chocolate,’ Kun smiles, holding out the warm mug.

’Thank you,’ you take it with both hands, shivering at the way it spreads warmth throughout your entire body.

‘Good morning,’ his mother appears in the doorway, ‘and good morning little one!’

‘Little one is in a milk coma,’ Kun responds, showing off the baby in his arms.

‘Little one needs a name,’ you grumble, ‘didn’t expect her to come so early. Should’ve given me more time to think.’

Kun laughs at you, ‘how about that be our Christmas present to her? Give her a name before the end of the day?’

‘Good idea,’ you smile, continuing to enjoy long sips from your hot chocolate.

Kun settles on the sofa next to you, baby still in his arms, but being mindful of your still aching body.

‘Merry Christmas,’ he takes your hand with his free one, squeezing it gently.

‘Merry Christmas, Kun.’

‘Merry Christmas you two,’ Kun’s father appears in the doorway, ‘ready for presents?’

Your gift giving is a quiet, but lovely event. You’re all not overly reactive in order to keep the baby calm, thankfully she is for the most part, even in the arms of her grandmother.

’This is for you, from me,’ Kun hands you a box-shaped present, ‘I saw it and I knew you’d love it.’

‘You better not have spent too much,’ you shoot him a disapproving look.

‘You’re my wife,’ he shakes his head, ‘let me spend money on you.’

You unwrap the paper to reveal a pretty jewellery box. You lift the lid, to reveal a beautiful necklace, a rose with a stem. It looks almost like it was made of glass, unworthy of you to even wear.

‘It made me think of you. Of us, remember on our first date I bought you roses because I didn’t know what kind of flowers you liked and I thought they were the most clearly romantic option.’

‘And I reacted so well you bought them for me every week for months until you found out they weren’t actually my favourites. Of course I remember,’ your eyes gloss over at the memory. He smiles sheepishly.

‘It’s beautiful,’ you trace the shape of the flower with your thumb, ‘I love it. Thank you.’

You try to lean over for a hug, but he immediately moves to meet you.

‘I love you,’ you murmur.

‘I love you too,’ he kisses your cheek, careful to be subtle with the PDA in front of his parents.

Dinner is of course amazing, as it is made by Kun’s mother, your own meal carefully curated to include all of the ‘warming’ foods for post-birth.

The rest of the day is very relaxed, the four of you sitting in their living room for most of the day, you periodically nursing the baby and being fed and watered by Kun’s parents.

‘Red date tea,’ his mother hands you the hot tea cup, which you happily accept with both hands.

‘Thank you,’ you take a long sip, shivering at the way the warmth settles in your stomach.

’The necklace Kun gave you had me thinking,’ she sits down beside you just as Kun enters the room, holding your daughter in his arms.

‘What is it?’ you ask, eyes never leaving the baby.

‘How about Li-wei? For the baby’s name?’

‘Li-wei?’ Kun questions, looking down at the baby for a moment to try and visualise calling her by that name.

‘You can write it with the characters for beautiful and rose,’ his mother explains, ‘it would be so meaningful for you both.’

You and Kun share a look, almost trying to gage the other’s approval.

‘I really like it,’ he nods, ‘she looks like a Li-wei.’

‘I love it too,’ you smile, ‘Qian Li-wei.’

‘Merry Christmas, Li-wei,’ Kun rocks her, ‘I hope you like your present.’

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vintage-retro-queen · 4 months

Text

Paris Reacts to Too Bad the Sandman Isn't Here

Akuma Class

It was the weekend again, and every student from Bustier's class was all together, ready to watch another episode of Total Drama Island and see what Marinette was going to do in the show.

They were all looking forward to seeing it. Everyone except Adrien and Lila.

Adrien can never forget what his father told him that Sunday morning.

"Reach out to her. With Miss Dupain-Cheng befriending the Corleone's daughter, a connection with the Corleones will take us farther."

He couldn't get the words out of his head. And he doesn't know how to explain it to him either. 'How do I even tell him that she changed her number? If only Plagg was here, he'd know what to do.' he thought to himself.

Lila on the other hand was beyond furious. Ever since she came up with that one little lie of saying that there was a summer camp that she wanted to recommend to Marinette but was scared to, the tables have turned on her in a blink of an eye. She didn't even know that it was actually a reality show. If she had known, she would have been on it and befriended a very popular idol and not the goody-two-shoes. However, she could've sworn that she had seen her somewhere before, but just couldn't put a finger on how, what, and why.

However, before she could think, Alya started to yell. "It's starting!" Everyone started to pay attention to the show that is now starting. When they started to watch, they saw the host, Chris McLean start talking.

"Last time on Total Drama Island, twenty-four campers arrived and learned that they'll be spending the next eight weeks at a crusty old summer camp. The campers were faced with their first challenge, jumping off a cliff into a shark-infested waters, and while most campers took the plunge, a few were forced to wear the dreaded chicken hat. At the Campfire Ceremony, it all came down to two campers, Courtney has experience as a C.I.T. in summer camp but refused to jump, and Ezekiel managed to tick off every female contestant at the camp, including one of the popular idols, with his sexist comments about women. In the end, the first camper voted off Total Drama Island, was Ezekiel. Proving that homeschooling and reality TV don't really mix." "Still serves him right," Alya said, crossing her arms, glaring at the scene where the Boat of Losers arrived for Ezekiel to hop on. As much as Adrien sympathizes with Ezekiel, he is also offended by Chris saying that homeschooling and reality TV don't mix. 'Then how do you explain me in that music video with all of my friends?' he thought, still offended. "Who will be voted off this week in the most dramatic Campfire Ceremony yet? Find out tonight, on Total Drama Island."

After the theme, the scene shows Chris walking into the said scene and holding up an airhorn and megaphone and has it go off, waking up every camper. "Ow! It's seven in the morning!" Leshawna exclaimed and glared in anger outside, "Do I look like a farmer to you?!"

"I guess they're in different timelines from us." Alix guessed, raising a brow.

After most of the campers were all outside, still looking tired and yawning, Chris spoke up to them. "Morning! Hope you slept well." "Hi, Chris. You look really buff in those shorts." Heather said, making Chris wink and say, "I know." Alya scoffs. "Wannabe flatterer. And here I thought Chloe was the flattering type." she says with almost everyone agreeing with her. "Look! There's Marinette!" Rose exclaimed, pointing to Marinette and Lucy walking out of the cabin.

"Glad you two can join us, girls," Chris said. He then continues talking to the rest of the still, tired campers. "Okay, now that everyone's here, I hope you're all ready because your next challenge begins in exactly one minute." "Oh, excuse me, I don't know if that's enough time to eat breakfast," said Owen. "Oh, you'll get breakfast, Owen." Chris said, "Right after you complete your twenty-kilometer run, around the lake."

"A twenty-k run around a lake at seven in the morning? What is he trying to do to them?" Alya asked, making Nino shrug. "Big whoop. I can do a fifty-k run around the city block at five in the morning." Kim brags, causing Alix to roll her eyes. After that, she and the rest of them continued watching the show and surprisingly ignored Lila before she was about to say something.

"Oh, so you're funny now?" Eva questioned, not liking Chris's motives, and started marching towards him with her left hand formed into a fist, ready to punch a man to a bloody pulp. "You know what I think would be funny-" the class looked shocked and surprised seeing Eva like that. However, before Eva can do anything to Chris, she gets pulled back by Geoff and Duncan. "Eva, try to control your temper?" Courtney whispered to her. Eva then turns to Chris again. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?" she asked. "A little," Chris admits. "You have thirty seconds." they then watched and listened to Courtney's confessional. "Okay, that girl, Eva, has got to get a handle on her temper. She's only been here one day, and she's already thrown her suitcase out a window and broken the lock on one of the bathroom doors." "That's terrible," Mylene says, shocked to know that about Eva. "Yeah, if she does have a temper like that, and if there was a competition for that between her and Nora, she would probably win it." Alya said, remembering the time Nora let her temper get the better of her once.

After that, they continued to watch the campers as they started to prepare for their kilometer run. "Okay, runners! On your marks, get set, go!" with that, they all started running. All but Marinette and Lucy. "Girl! What are you doing?! Get to running!" Alya yelled as she and her friends watched Marinette not picking up the pace. That was until they started to see her and Lucy's confessionals come up. "Nettie and I were a bit suspicious about us awake so early and are told to do a run around a lake." "Nettie?" Alya questions. 'What? Did she give Mari a nickname? They only just started to become friends in just the first day.' she thought. "As a result, Lucy and I decided to walk instead. That way, we can see what this challenge really is." "That's very smart of the two trying to see what the challenge is," Adrien says, impressed with the girls' ideas. "Yeah, that way we'll see what Chris is planning," Nino said, agreeing with Adrien about the girls trying to figure out what the challenge is.

As they watched Lucy and Marinette walk to the table where the rest of the Screaming Gophers were, Gwen started to talk, "Hey, wait a minute, if they lost, that means we won the challenge." she said. As the Screaming Gophers sans Marinette and Lucy cheer for their victory, Chris stops them. "Whoa there! Hold your horses, guys. That wasn't the challenge." he said. "What did you just say?" asked Gwen.

"Who's hungry?" there, they all see a table full of home-cooked food. The class looked amazed as they saw the table full of delicious food. Just then, the confessionals started rolling in of Gwen and Owen and then showed Marinette and Lucy's confessionals. "I must admit, the buffet table looked amazing. However, since there were still suspicions about the running and the buffet, I decided to stick with something light. Such as a bread roll and maybe some of the salad." "As much as I want to enjoy a delicious home-cooked meal as if it was home if my hunch is correct, I'm just going to do the right thing and stick to the salad." 'That seems smart for the two.' Adrien thought, smiling. After seeing their confessionals, they all see that most of the campers were stuffed after devouring the buffet. Some of them noticed Lucy quietly snickering to herself. 'What is she laughing about?' Alya thought suspiciously. But both her curiosity was cut off when Chris got on the messy table with a megaphone in hand and announced, "Okay, campers! Time for part two of your challenge,"

"I thought eating was the second part," said Owen. "What more do you want from us?" "Weird goth girl is right. Haven't we been through enough?" asked Heather. "Um, let me think about that. No! It's time for the Awake-a-thon!" Chris announced. "The what-a-thon?" Owen asked. "Awake-a-thon?" Mylene questioned. "Don't worry, this is an easy one. The team with the last camper standing wins invincibility." "So what you're saying is the 20k run and the turkey-eating frenzy were part of your evil plan to make it harder for us to stay awake?" asked Gwen. "That's right, Gwen." "Man, that dude's good." Nino said in disbelief.

They watched and saw that twelve hours later in the show, everyone was already too tired, had bags under their eyes, yawning away, and looked as if they were about to pass out at any minute or any second. All but the last two, Marinette and Lucy. Who are apparently just sitting there. "Wow, that was very smart of Marinette to avoid being out of the challenge," Adrien said, amazed that Marinette was still awake. "Yeah, I wonder if there's a way to actually join her to win the money?" Kim said, curiously thinking of how to join in the show. Just then, they see the confessionals from Gwen, Marinette, and Lucy. "The Awake-a-thon was definitely the most brutal thing I've ever done in my life," Gwen said in her confessional. They then see Lucy's confessional. "Just as Nettie and I suspected. But then again, I feel like this challenge will be a walk in the park. This brings back some memories of when I was with some old friends of mine when I was five and six years old." the kids' eyes widened hearing that Lucy had done this before. Even at a young age. "I know I was too young to do any of that at night, but still. It's pretty much an easy task for me. I got this one in the bag." "So she got to stay up all night with her friends? So cool!" Alix complimented, thinking that it was awesome that Lucy stayed up all night with some friends. "She's so lucky. My parents wouldn't let me do that because of those school nights and curfews." Kim said, feeling a little jealous of what Lucy did when she was little. 'That doesn't make sense. She's a world-known idol. How does she do everything and not get tired even after as a kid? I mean, I do it all the time when I'm Chat Noir, but I don't think that's healthy for a celebrity.' Adrien thought in disbelief, feeling doubts about Lucy staying up every night. They then pay attention to Marinette's confessional. "This won't be too bad. I always take all-nighters whenever I have to do homework, work on design ideas, and work on commissions for my clients. So this won't be so hard." Adrien smiles happily for Marinette. He knows she works really hard on her designs all day and night. Even though he does worry for her well-being, he knows Marinette can win this challenge.

As they watch them and the rest of the campers continue on with the Awake-a-thon, Owen is already down and out. "This is the most boring thing I've ever done in my life." "Tell me about it. I can't read any of my Stephanie Queen books during this whole ordeal." Lucy said, upset she couldn't read her Stephanie Queen books for the challenge. "Bummer. That's not cool of Chris not letting her read through the whole challenge." Nino said, feeling sympathy for Lucy. Juleka nods in agreement since she doesn't blame Lucy for wanting to read some good horror books. That was until they heard them talking still. "Could be way worse," said Trent. "How?" asked Marinette. "I could be stuck here without you to talk to," Trent said to Marinette, making her smile. Gwen smiles as she sees Trent talk to Marinette. They all then see her confessional. "Not gonna lie, but for some reason, I can actually see the two being together when this whole crazed-storm of a show is over. Those two, totally deserve each other." "That's one way to put it, Gwen," Juleka said, smiling and liking Gwen's idea. Adrien on the other hand, felt like his heart was stabbed twice by Gwen and Trent's words to and about Marinette. He was about to say something until they all watched Heather's confessional. "So, my strategy is to get two other campers to form an alliance with me and take to the Final Three. The only question is, who can I find that is either desperate or dumb enough to do whatever I say?" "Uh, probably nobody?" Alix said. Just then, they all see Lindsay in a mid-handstand. "Um, Lindsay? What are you doing there, Bambina?" Lucy asked. "I'm trying to get the blood to rush to my head. I think it's working." "Can I try?" Beth asked her. And Lindsay told her sure. "I wouldn't do that if I were you two," Lucy said worriedly. "Yeah, I'm with Lucy. That doesn't seem so safe." Mylene said, looking at Beth and Lindsay worried. "Lindsay, Beth, can I talk to you for a second?" Heather called. As they head over to her, they are shocked and in disbelief to see Heather talking Beth and Lindsay into forming an alliance with her by telling them that she can take them to the final three. Not to mention Heather telling Lindsay that she can't date Tyler since he's in the Killer Bass team and she's in the Screaming Gophers team. That was until they watched Lindsay's confessional. "Heather said I couldn't date him. She never said I couldn't like him," she said. "That is very true," Rose said, agreeing with Lindsay's opinion. As they continued watching it, they watched as Eva told them she was going to the restroom. And when she walked, her MP3 player dropped from her pocket and onto the ground. That was when the students watched Heather taking it. They looked shocked as she took it with an evil-looking smile while walking back to Beth and Lindsay. "Isn't that Eva's MP3 player?" asked Lindsay. "Yep," Heather replied. "Isn't she gonna get really mad when she realizes it's gone?" "That's what I'm hoping for," Heather said, smirking evilly. The students looked shocked after watching that part of the show. "I can't believe Heather would do that! That girl could be like Chloe and a supervillain both combined with no mask!" Alya said in disbelief with most of her friends agreeing with her.

They continued watching the show, still in disbelief at what Heather did. They see that the sun has gone down and some of the campers are already falling asleep, but are trying their best to stay awake for the whole challenge. Which leaves eleven Screaming Gophers and Seven Killer Bass still awake. "Congratulations, campers. You've made it to the twenty-four-hour mark. Time to take things up a notch. Fairy Tales." "Lucky!" Rose gasped, feeling a little jealous. "Oh, he's not serious!" Gwen exclaimed. "I know, out of all things, he has to choose fairytales? I could be reading Stephanie Queen's Critter Crematory by now!" Lucy complained. "Talk about irony." Juleka murmured, taking pity on Lucy for wanting to read Stephanie Queen's books. As Chris read, more and more of the campers started to fall asleep while the rest were trying to stay awake.

Now there are six Screaming Gophers and four Killer Bass. Meanwhile, they see Gwen, Trent, Lucy, and Marinette having a small talk. "Okay, favorite song?" "Jagged's song tribute to the Parisian heroine Ladybug," Marinette said. 'I guess Marinette is a fan of Ladybug.' Adrien thought to himself. "Too Cool for School by my favorite late Drummer of KISS himself, the Fox, Eric Carr," Lucy said, crossing her heart for the late drummer. Most of the girls awwed when Lucy told them her favorite song from the said late drummer. "I did hear my father explaining that Eric Carr was his and my mother's favorite drummer back in the day. Even Nathalie hummed some of his songs from time to time. Although father did explain that he, mother, and Nathalie were both upset that Eric Carr passed on from heart cancer on November 24th, 1991." Adrien explained, remembering the times his father and Nathalie reminisced the times they listened to Eric Carr's music. His friends looked sad hearing that from him. "That's terrible," Rose said, feeling sad that a good drummer passed on years ago, right before they were born. Lila growled, knowing that there goes her chances of coming up with lies with 'Knowing Eric Carr and how he wrote a song about her as well as a way to express his admiration of her.' They then continued to watch the show after Trent told the girls his favorite song, 'She Will be Loved' and asked them about their favorite colors. Marinette says her two favorite colors are pink and red. "All colors from the 50s to the millennial 2000s. Oh, and black and Navy blue, of course," Lucy said. 'I bet father is going to find some design ideas now that Lucy said what her favorite colors are.' Adrien thought to himself, not aware of hearing Gwen's favorite color. Lucy then asked them for their favorite video game. "Death Arise," said Gwen. "Oh yeah, that action, adventure, and horror game that has you fighting off zombies," Juleka said, knowing what game Gwen was talking about. Lila was about to say something, but they raised their hands at her as a way of saying, 'Not now, maybe later.' which made Lila growl and cross her arms. "Music Gods," Trent said. "Oh, That video game where you play a game guitar, game bass, game drums, and game turntables and play your favorite songs with them. Trent has good music taste," said Nino. They then hear Marinette say hers is Ultimate Mecha Strike III. It was pretty obvious to most of them since they always remembered Marinette playing it sometimes and teaming up with Max in the tournament. They then hear Marinette asking Lucy what her favorite video game is, "Victorian Servant: The Truth for the Vixen's Secret." "Isn't that the game with almost the same storyline as its manga series Victorian Servant itself?" "Yeah, it's kinda like a gender-bent version of that other manga series but with strong female characters and promotes both feminism and the pride community." they all talk about the video game that Lucy said, Lila growled as they all kept on talking and not paying any attention to what she has to say about the Victorian Servant video game.

After talking, they all continued watching the show. It was already fifty-one hours and still counting, and they all see that Justin is still standing there, and doesn't look to be tired at all. That was until Marinette tapped on his face which caused him to open his eyes, startling her and shocking them (the Akuma Class) and the campers. "His eyelids are painted! I saw it!" Eva yelled, pointing it out and getting Chris's attention. "Get out," he said in disbelief. "Oh, I got to see this." Chris then runs over to Justin and sees that they were right that he did paint his eyelids. "That is so crazy incredible! But you're still out, dude," he said. With that being said, that leaves five Screaming Gophers still awake for the challenge. "Is crazy incredible even a word?" "I don't know, but I still don't get why Justin has to paint his eyelids. That doesn't make any sense." As they all continued watching, they saw that it was two days later and on the morning of the show. They all were surprised to see that Marinette was still awake, yet she still had bags in their eyes telling them another story. That was until Adrien noticed that Marinette was looking at something. That was until they watched as Duncan put Harold's hand in a cup of water. "Oh, gross, it works! Dude peed his pants!" Duncan exclaimed, waking Harold up. As Harold wakes up, he realizes that he did and tries to cover himself in embarrassment while they all look in shock, disbelief, and disgust, while Kim is quietly snickering and trying to hold his laughter from seeing that happening on TV, wishing he was actually there to see it in real life. "Duncan! Why did you do that?!" Marinette said, running towards the scene. "Ah, come on, dollface. You gotta admit that was hilarious." said Duncan. Marinette glares at him. "Maybe for you, but that is still wrong." she said. "How immature can you be?" "Yeah, you tell him, girl!" Alya said. They then see the confessionals, starting with Duncan who looks like he's won the lottery after Cupid shot an arrow at him before that. "Feisty. I like that in a chick. And with this one, I think I might have found the one." Adrien's eye started to twitch at the same time with his eye twitching jealously. But he calms down a bit around the same time they start watching Lucy's confessional. "I saw that too, and believe it or not, but I've been through a lot of weird stuff back at my old high school, but that, that was just the lowest of low, even for Mr. Juvie Boy. That was just wrong. But aside from all of that, I got to get the bright side of things." Lucy then grabs a vintage-looking camera, takes a finished photograph out of it, and reveals the photograph to be Noah kissing Cody's ear. "Ha! We've been here for a week, and we're already getting a first ship. How fun is this in our second challenge?" Most of them started snickering and laughing. Most of them except Adrien, who is now watching Noah's confessional. "I didn't know it was Cody! I thought I was kissing Marinette!" Noah then realized what he said five seconds later. "No! I mean-AGH!" Adrien doesn't know why, but for some reason, hearing the guys' comments about and mentioning Marinette like that makes his blood boil.

After that, the rest of them continued watching them, seeing Gwen yawn saying, "I'd kill for a coffee right now," she said. Lucy was taking a couple of whiffs of an essential oil. Lucy then opened her eyes widely and turned her head to Gwen. "Sorry, Gwen. Did you say something?" Before Gwen can ask what she is sniffing, Chris walks in with a cup of coffee in his hand. "What is the matter with you people?" he asks, sipping his coffee. "Come on, fall asleep already." Gwen grabs Chris by the leg. "You got to hook me up, man." She said. "I'll even eat the grinds. Anything!" 'Boy, I would've been the same way as Gwen is if I went through a challenge like this.' Alya thought to herself as she watched Gwen desperately trying to grab the coffee out of Chris's hand. "Alright, you seven stay with me. The rest of you go and get a shower, for heaven's sake. You stink!" Chris said, sipping more of his coffee. "Well, what did you expect, McLean?! You're the one who made them do this dumb challenge!" Alix yells at the T.V. They watch as they see Lucy and Marinette are still awake, and Chris starts talking. "I didn't want it to come to this." he said. "I said that to Chef Hatchet last night. I said, "Chef, I don't want it to come to this." But darn it, these campers are tough. And so, I've come up with the most boring, sleep-inducing activity I can find." 'Great. Now what?' most of the students thought. Just then, Chris opens a book, which they all realize that it was a...

"The History of Canada. A pop-up book. Chapter One."

The class and the campers groaned as Chris read away in the pop-up history book. As Chris goes on in the book, it brung Eva, Heather, Gwen, and Trent to sleep. The class looked worriedly at Marinette. All of them except Lila. Lila was still mad that the new episode of the reality show she and her friends were all watching was taking all the attention away from her. But she then gets an idea in her head. When the time comes, she's going to tell them that she found the show and she's making all these challenges. She smiles, already thinking more of these brilliant ideas in her head. A little while later, Chris announced to the still awake three campers, "Time for a bathroom break. Any takers?" he asked. "I've held it this long, sweetheart," said Duncan. "I can go all day." Lucy scoffs. "Yeah, but I doubt you can hold it for another ten chapters." the class snickered from that and saw the look on Duncan's face. After that, Lucy's saying made Duncan change his mind, and head to the bathroom. "You've got five minutes." Chris said. "Long as you don't mind a little company." "Fine, but stay out of the stall." Duncan warns. After a little while, the class watched and saw Lucy and Marinette, who were starting to feel extremely tired, making them feel worried. That was until Chris received some intel from an intern. "And we have news. It looks like Duncan's taken a dive on the can, which means there is not one, but two official winners of the Awake-a-thon. And those two winners are...." they all watched as they saw Lucy and Marinette murmur something that they couldn't describe what they were saying, and the two girls fell back first, fast asleep, knocked out cold.

"Lucy and Marinette! The Screaming Gophers win!" most of the class cheered for Marinette to win the second challenge. Lila scoffs and rolls her eyes, not impressed about Marinette winning the second challenge. She hopes that by the next episode, she will lose and everyone will vote her off. After watching Heather's trick making Eva mad worked, they all watched the Elimination Ceremony, and to no one's shock nor surprise, Eva was voted off the team. And she was ticked. "Nice. Really nice." Eva said to the other campers, looking as mad as a raging bull. "Who needs this lame-o T.V. show, anyway?" as she stomps off to the Dock of Shame, she ragingly kicks Chris in the shin. As he lets out an 'ow' and holds his possibly bruised leg, he turns to the Killer Bass, telling them, "Have a good night's sleep tonight. You're all safe." they all then saw Courtney's confessional. "See? I told you. You can't act like a total raging psychopath and then expect people to just forgive you, no matter how tough and strong and fast you are." Courtney explains and crosses her arms, "She's never gonna have a career if she doesn't get her act together." "Yeah, but it wasn't even Eva's fault! Heather was the one who started it!" Alya yelled with the rest of her classmates yelling and complaining in agreement.

After that, they turned off the TV, finished it, and headed home. As Adrien heads home, he heads into his bedroom, and turns on his computer, seeing that the same episode is playing live as well. He then realized that he hadn't finished watching the rest of the ending. As he watches Eva in the Boat of Losers, she starts to talk, "I guess my temper got the better of me. Again. But whatever, they just lost their fiercest competitor. I hope they realize that." Just then, she feels something in her pocket. She checks to see that it is a little charm that has Rosie the Riveter that has words that say, 'Stay Strong, Eva! You Can Do It!', an essential oil that is labeled 'Anger Management', and a note that says, "To the strongest gal we know, M & L" Eva smiles, "But then again, there are some people that are actually understanding." she said. Adrien smiles, knowing that it must've been Marinette, feeling that there is hope that Marinette will be turning a new leaf, and hoping that she will keep it up when the show is over. After hearing a knock from Nathalie, telling him that his father wants to talk to him, he turns off his computer and heads off, still hoping that Marinette will be the same 'Everyday Ladybug' like she was supposed to be.

Celebrities

It was the weekend for all of the celebrities of Paris, France. And they are all getting together, getting ready to watch the new episode of Total Drama. Luka smiles as he looks through his chat history with Marinette on the new distance chat app, WhatsAppening. He was glad to see that she was having a blast at Wawanawkwa and making some new friends. He even called and talked to her and her new friends, and they were really nice to them. Even though Heather and Duncan were a little cold-shouldered, they were still pretty chill people in his book. Chris and Chef were even good people after he and his father met the two on the call. Even though the spots were full for the first season, Chris explains if possible, he would be happy to put Luka in the show for the second season if the show gets good ratings and views. Jagged thought it was a brilliant idea for his son to be on the show when they have a second season. His mother was also saying that it was a great idea. Since then, Jagged has started promoting Total Drama on his social media pages. A lot of other celebrities followed along in the blink of an eye. Luka can never forget how many followers he got from Paris to Canada in a millisecond when Jagged started promoting the show.

He then snaps out of it as he starts to hear his dad calling him over. "Luka! Come on! The show is about to start!" Luka runs over to the room and joins the rest of the celebrities on time when the show starts. After watching the recap and theme, the show began with Chris walking into the scene using an airhorn and a megaphone, all of the campers. After seeing most of the campers there, they see Marinette and Lucy exit their side of the cabin and walk over to join the rest of their team. "Glad you two can join us, girls," Chris said. He then starts talking to the rest of the still, tired campers. "Okay, now that everyone's here, I hope you're all ready because your next challenge begins in exactly one minute." "Oh, excuse me, I don't know if that's enough time to eat breakfast," said Owen. "Oh, you'll get breakfast, Owen." Chris said, "Right after you complete your twenty-kilometer run, around the lake." "Oh, so you're funny now?" Eva questioned, not liking Chris's motives, and started marching towards him with her left hand formed into a fist, ready to punch a man to a bloody pulp. "You know what I think would be funny-" Luka and the celebrities looked shocked and surprised seeing Eva like that. However, before Eva can do anything to Chris, she gets pulled back by Geoff and Duncan. "Eva, try to control your temper?" Courtney whispered to her. Eva then turns to Chris again. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?" she asked. "A little," Chris admits. "You have thirty seconds." they then watched and listened to Courtney's confessional. "Okay, that girl, Eva, has got to get a handle on her temper. She's only been here one day, and she's already thrown her suitcase out a window and broken the lock on one of the bathroom doors." "Yikes. I can't imagine seeing what Eva would be like when she's here in Paris." one of the celebrities said, shuddering at the thought of Eva being here in Paris.

After that, they continued to watch the campers as they started to prepare for their kilometer run. "Okay, runners! On your marks, get set, go!" with that, they all started running. All but Marinette and Lucy. Some of the celebrities started yelling, telling Marinette to hurry and pick up the pace. However, she was not catching up with the rest of the campers. That was until they watched both hers and Lucy's confessionals. "Nettie and I were a bit suspicious about us awake so early and are told to do a run around a lake." "As a result, Lucy and I decided to walk instead. That way, we can see what this challenge really is." "Hey, Rock and Roll! That's very smart of you and Lucy, Marinette." Jagged said, raising his soda cup for Marinette and her friend with their way of doing the challenge. After seeing the campers make it to the main lodge, they see most of the Screaming Gophers cheer, knowing they beat the Killer Bass on the run. But before most of the celebrities can react, Chris spoke up. "Whoa there! Hold your horses, guys. That wasn't the challenge." he said. "What did you just say?" asked Gwen. "Yeah, I second what Gwen asked. What did Chris just say?" another one of the celebrities, Chanel Watson asked, agreeing with Gwen.

"Who's hungry?" there, they all see a table full of home-cooked food. Luka and the celebrities looked amazed as they saw the table full of delicious food. Just then, the confessionals started rolling in of Gwen and Owen and then showed Marinette and Lucy's confessionals. "I must admit, the buffet table looked amazing. However, since there were still suspicions about the running and the buffet, I decided to stick with something light. Such as a bread roll and maybe some of the salad." "As much as I want to enjoy a delicious home-cooked meal as if it was home if my hunch is correct, I'm just going to do the right thing and stick to the salad." "Hey, another smart way from my favorite little lady and her friend!" Jagged says as he raises his soda cup again and then sips on it. After seeing their confessionals, all the celebrities saw that most campers were stuffed after devouring the buffet. And only Luka noticed Lucy quietly snickering to herself. Luka was already wanting to know what Lucy was snickering about. Either it was seeing the campers stuffed after devouring the whole buffet, or it was something else in her mind.

He then snaps out of his train of thought when Chris starts talking. "Okay, campers! Time for part two of your challenge," "I thought eating was the second part," said Owen. "What more do you want from us?" "Weird goth girl is right. Haven't we been through enough?" asked Heather. "Um, let me think about that. No! It's time for the Awake-a-thon!" Chris announced. "The what-a-thon?" Owen asked. "What in the world is an Awake-a-thon?" the third celebrity questions, already as confused as the other campers. "Don't worry, this is an easy one. The team with the last camper standing wins invincibility." "So what you're saying is the 20k run and the turkey-eating frenzy were part of your evil plan to make it harder for us to stay awake?" asked Gwen. "That's right, Gwen." "Man, Chris is good." a wunderkind celebrity said.

All the celebrities watched and saw that twelve hours later in the show, everyone was already too tired, had bags under their eyes, yawning away, and looked as if they were about to pass out at any minute or any second. All but the last two, Marinette and Lucy, since the two are both just sitting there. "Those two really dodged a bullet." "Yeah, but exactly how long is that even going to take?" As they question how long the challenge will be for the campers, they see Gwen, Lucy, and Marinette's confessionals. "The Awake-a-thon was definitely the most brutal thing I've ever done in my life," Gwen said in her confessional. They then see Lucy's confessional. "Just as Nettie and I suspected. But then again, I feel like this challenge will be a walk in the park. This brings back some memories of when I was with some old friends of mine when I was five and six years old." every celebrity in the room looked shocked, surprised, and in disbelief hearing that. "I know I was too young to do any of that at night, but still. It's pretty much an easy task for me. I got this one in the bag." "Wow, I didn't know Lucy did that as a kid." another wunderkind said, still surprised knowing Lucy had done that as a child. "I wonder when it started?" another celebrity questioned, curious to know how she did that as a kid. While some celebrities in the room were all questioning the new fact about Lucy, Luka, Jagged, Penny, Ali, and Clara were more focused on listening to Marinette's confessional. "This won't be too bad. I always take all-nighters whenever I have to do homework, work on design ideas, and work on commissions for my clients. So this won't be so hard." "Rock and Roll, Marinette!" Jagged praised. Penny and Clara both nod in agreement. Luka smiles happily for Marinette. He knows she works really hard on her designs all day and night. Even though he does worry for her well-being.

As the celebrities watch them and the rest of the campers continue on with the Awake-a-thon, Owen is already down and out. "This is the most boring thing I've ever done in my life." "Tell me about it. I can't read any of my Stephanie Queen books during this whole ordeal." Lucy said, upset she couldn't read her Stephanie Queen books for the challenge. They then hear them talking still. "Could be way worse," said Trent. "How?" asked Marinette. "I could be stuck here without you to talk to," Trent said to Marinette, making her smile. Gwen smiles as she sees Trent talk to Marinette. They all then see her confessional. "Not gonna lie, but for some reason, I can actually see the two being together when this whole crazed-storm of a show is over. Those two, totally deserve each other." Luka smiles, thinking that is a good idea. Even though his heart started to break a bit, he still thought it was a good idea. He and the rest weren't aware of Heather's confessional, her having Beth and Lindsay in her alliance, and secretly stealing Eva's MP3 player. They continued watching the show and watched the sun go down, and some campers were already falling asleep. But are trying their best to stay awake for the whole challenge. Which leaves eleven Screaming Gophers and Seven Killer Bass still awake. "Congratulations, campers. You've made it to the twenty-four-hour mark. Time to take things up a notch. Fairy Tales." "Oh, he's not serious!" Gwen exclaimed. "I know, out of all things, he has to choose fairytales? I could be reading Stephanie Queen's Critter Crematory by now!" Lucy complained. As Chris read, more and more campers started to fall asleep while the rest were trying to stay awake.

They all continued watching the show. It was already fifty-one hours and still counting, and they all see that Justin is still standing there, and doesn't look to be tired at all. That was until Marinette tapped on his face which caused him to open his eyes, startling her and shocking them (Luka and the celebrities) and the campers. "His eyelids are painted! I saw it!" Eva yelled, pointing it out and getting Chris's attention. "Get out," he said in disbelief. "Oh, I got to see this." Chris then runs over to Justin and sees that they were right that he did paint his eyelids. "That is so crazy incredible! But you're still out, dude," he said. With that being said, that leaves five Screaming Gophers still awake for the challenge. "I don't think there's such word as crazy incredible." Penny said, sipping on her iced tea.

As they all continued watching, they saw that it was two days later and on the morning of the show. They all were surprised to see that Marinette and Lucy were still awake. Yet, they still had bags in their eyes telling them another story. That was until Luka noticed that Marinette was looking at something. That was until they watched as Duncan put Harold's hand in a cup of water. "Oh, gross, it works! Dude peed his pants!" Duncan exclaimed, waking Harold up. As Harold wakes up, he realizes that he did and tries to cover himself in embarrassment while they all look in shock, disbelief, and disgust. "Duncan! Why did you do that?!" Marinette said, running towards the scene. "Ah, come on, dollface. You gotta admit that was hilarious." said Duncan. Marinette glares at him. "Maybe for you, but that is still wrong," she said. "How immature can you be?" "You tell him, Marinette! Duncan must've done that to get your attention on purpose I bet!" Clara said. Luka nods, with all the celebrities agreeing with Clara, all not aware of Duncan's, Lucy's, and Noah's confessionals.

After that, the rest of them continued watching them, seeing Gwen yawn saying, "I'd kill for a coffee right now," she said. Lucy was taking a couple of whiffs of an essential oil. Lucy then opened her eyes widely and turned her head to Gwen. "Sorry, Gwen. Did you say something?" Chris then walks in with a cup of coffee in his hand. "What is the matter with you people?" he asks, sipping his coffee. "Come on, fall asleep already." Gwen grabs Chris by the leg. "You got to hook me up, man." She said. "I'll even eat the grinds. Anything!" "Alright, you seven stay with me. The rest of you go and get a shower, for heaven's sake. You stink!" Chris said, sipping more of his coffee. "Well, what did you expect, McLean?! You're the one who made them do this dumb challenge!" yelled the wunderkind celebrity. They watch as they see Lucy and Marinette are still awake, and Chris starts talking. "I didn't want it to come to this." he said. "I said that to Chef Hatchet last night. I said, "Chef, I don't want it to come to this." But darn it, these campers are tough. And so, I've come up with the most boring, sleep-inducing activity I can find." Chris opens a book, which they all realize that it was a...

"The History of Canada. A pop-up book. Chapter One." The campers groaned as Chris read away in the pop-up history book. As Chris goes on in the book, it brung Eva, Heather, Gwen, and Trent to sleep. Luka and the celebrities looked worriedly at Marinette and Lucy. A little while later, Chris announced to the still awake three campers, "Time for a bathroom break. Any takers?" he asked. "I've held it this long, sweetheart," said Duncan. "I can go all day." Lucy scoffs. "Yeah, but I doubt you can hold it for another ten chapters." some celebrities snickered from that and saw the look on Duncan's face. After that, Lucy's saying made Duncan change his mind, and head to the bathroom. "You've got five minutes." Chris said. "Long as you don't mind a little company." "Fine, but stay out of the stall." Duncan warns. After a little while, the celebrities watched and saw Lucy and Marinette, who were starting to feel extremely tired, making them feel worried. That was until Chris received some intel from an intern. "And we have news. It looks like Duncan's taken a dive on the can, which means there is not one, but two official winners of the Awake-a-thon. And those two winners are...." they all watched as they saw Lucy and Marinette murmur something that they couldn't describe what they were saying, and the two girls fell back first, fast asleep, knocked out cold.

"Lucy and Marinette! The Screaming Gophers win!" All the celebrities cheered for Marinette to win the second challenge. Even though they never had enough time to finish the rest of the show, they were happy that Marinette won the second challenge, and are looking forward to watching the next one next weekend. When Luka headed home, he headed to his room and saw that the show was still going. He watches on his T.V. seeing that Eva was eliminated. He watches Eva in the Boat of Losers, and she starts to talk, "I guess my temper got the better of me. Again. But whatever, they just lost their fiercest competitor. I hope they realize that." Just then, she feels something in her pocket. She checks to see that it is a little charm that has Rosie the Riveter that has words that say, 'Stay Strong, Eva! You Can Do It!', an essential oil that is labeled 'Anger Management', and a note that says, "To the strongest gal we know, M & L" Eva smiles, "But then again, there are some people that are actually understanding." she said. Luka smiles, knowing that it is both Marinette and Lucy. Luka then turns his T.V. off and starts to get ready for bed. 'I hope you're doing great in Wawanawkwa, Marinette.' he thought.

Friends and Family

Everyone was already sitting down and getting ready to watch the new episode of Total Drama Island. Tom and Sabine were glad that their daughter was doing well in Wawanawkwa. After talking to her on WhatsAppening, they see that Marinette is happy being there. Even Marinette's friends from Paris, New York, and Shanghai were glad to see her happy there. They all even got to meet her new friends there. They were all nice, even though Duncan and Heather were a little cold-shouldered, they were still nice. To them, that is. And when they met Chris and Chef, they were nice to talk to. Tom and Sabine even shared some recipes with Chef and D.J.. And Chris said to Marinette's friends that if it was possible, he would be happy to have them on the show. When Audrey heard it from Zoe's phone the one time she visited Paris for a day, she agreed with the idea and started promoting the show on her social media. And Chloe, wanting her mother's attention, as usual, she followed her mother's golden footsteps and promoted the show on her social media as well. Tom and Sabine were surprised to see millions of people standing in a very long line at their bakery the next day. When they finished their shift for the day, they figured out how when they saw that Chris sponsored their bakery. Overnight, their bakery became one of the top ten most popular bakeries. Even Soqueline's family arts and crafts supply shop became popular overnight thanks to Chris sponsoring it.

When they all got ready and turned on the T.V., the reality show was on. After watching the recap, they watched and saw Chris walking into the scene with an air horn and a megaphone in both hands. Using them both to wake up all the campers in the cabins. They then cheered as they saw Marinette walking out of the cabin with Lucy. Chris then starts talking to the rest of the still-tired campers. "Okay, now that everyone's here, I hope you're all ready because your next challenge begins in exactly one minute." "Oh, excuse me, I don't know if that's enough time to eat breakfast," said Owen. "Oh, you'll get breakfast, Owen." Chris said, "Right after you complete your twenty-kilometer run, around the lake." "Oh, so you're funny now?" Eva questioned, not liking Chris's motives, and started marching towards him with her left hand formed into a fist, ready to punch a man to a bloody pulp. "You know what I think would be funny-" they looked shocked and surprised seeing Eva like that. However, before Eva can do anything to Chris, she gets pulled back by Geoff and Duncan. "Eva, try to control your temper?" Courtney whispered to her. Eva then turns to Chris again. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?" she asked. "A little," Chris admits. "You have thirty seconds."

After that, they continued to watch the campers as they started to prepare for their kilometer run. "Okay, runners! On your marks, get set, go!" with that, they all started running. All but Marinette and Lucy. They looked confused seeing the two just walking. That was until they saw their confessionals. "Nettie and I were a bit suspicious about us awake so early and are told to do a run around a lake." "As a result, Lucy and I decided to walk instead. That way, we can see what this challenge really is." "That is a good plan from the two." Tomoe says, impressed with the girls' idea. Kagami nods in agreement with her mother. Socquelle smiles seeing that Marinette has a plan with her camp friend. After a little bit, they see that the Screaming Gophers beat the Killer Bass. But then Chris tells them, "Whoa there! Hold your horses, guys. That wasn't the challenge." he said. "What did you just say?" asked Gwen.

"Who's hungry?" there, they all see a table full of home-cooked food. All the families and friends looked amazed as they saw the table full of delicious food. Just then, the confessionals started rolling in of Gwen and Owen and then showed Marinette and Lucy's confessionals. "I must admit, the buffet table looked amazing. However, since there were still suspicions about the running and the buffet, I decided to stick with something light. Such as a bread roll and maybe some of the salad." "As much as I want to enjoy a delicious home-cooked meal as if it was home if my hunch is correct, I'm just going to do the right thing and stick to the salad." "That's my Marinetta!" Marinette's grandmother, Gina cheered, impressed with her and Lucy's idea. After the confessionals, they see that all of the campers got full after eating the whole buffet, while Marinette finishes eating her bread roll and Lucy is snickering to herself about something. Chris then gets up on the table and announces to the campers, "Okay, campers! Time for part two of your challenge," "I thought eating was the second part," said Owen. "What more do you want from us?" "Weird goth girl is right. Haven't we been through enough?" asked Heather. "Um, let me think about that. No! It's time for the Awake-a-thon!" Chris announced. "The what-a-thon?" Owen asked. 'Oh, so that's what he's doing.' the friends and families thought to themselves, now understanding what Chris was doing. 'That would explain why the food would be mostly turkey. That was very smart of Marinette and Lucy to stick to the salad and bread roll.' the friends thought. They continue watching the show. "Don't worry, this is an easy one. The team with the last camper standing wins invincibility." "So what you're saying is the 20k run and the turkey-eating frenzy were part of your evil plan to make it harder for us to stay awake?" asked Gwen. "That's right, Gwen." "Man, he's good." After Chris told them to move, the friends and family watched as everyone started to head out of the main lodge to the campsite to start the Awake-a-thon. "So, how long do you think it'll be before everyone's out cold?" Trent asked Gwen, Lucy, and Marinette. "About an hour, give or take," Gwen said, giving Trent her answer. As they see Owen walking past them, looking as if he is going to pass out at any second, Gwen added, "Maybe less."

watched and saw that twelve hours later in the show, everyone was already too tired, had bags under their eyes, yawning away, and looked as if they were about to pass out at any minute or any second. All but the last two, Marinette and Lucy, since the two are both just sitting there. "I'm glad Marinette didn't run and eat the other stuff in the buffet," Mirelle said, with the rest of the friends nodding in agreement. "Yeah, that would've been bad." They then stopped talking when the confessionals came on. There, they watch that it was Gwen, Lucy, and Marinette's confessionals. "The Awake-a-thon was definitely the most brutal thing I've ever done in my life," Gwen said in her confessional. They then see Lucy's confessional. "Just as Nettie and I suspected. But then again, I feel like this challenge will be a walk in the park. This brings back some memories of when I was with some old friends of mine when I was five and six years old." all the family members and Marinette's friends looked shocked, hearing that from Lucy herself. "Lucy actually stayed up that young?!" Aurore gasped with her jaw dropped to the floor. "How was that even possible?" Kagami questioned, with Marc asking, "And since when did that happen?" They then continue to hear her confessional. "I know I was too young to do any of that at night, but still. It's pretty much an easy task for me. I got this one in the bag." "Well, I guess that's good if she says so," said Zoe. They then see Marinette's confessional. "This won't be too bad. I always take all-nighters whenever I have to do homework, work on design ideas, and work on commissions for my clients. So this won't be so hard." Tom and Sabine smiled happy for their daughter. They know that Marinette actually does have some all nighters to work up on some schoolwork and her designs. They're all very happy for Marinette. Even though, they do worry about her well-being.

watch them and the rest of the campers continue on with the Awake-a-thon, Owen is already down and out. "This is the most boring thing I've ever done in my life." "Tell me about it. I can't read any of my Stephanie Queen books during this whole ordeal." Lucy said, upset she couldn't read her Stephanie Queen books for the challenge. "That's a shame, really," Marc says, feeling sorry for Lucy. They then hear them talking still. "Could be way worse," said Trent. "How?" asked Marinette. "I could be stuck here without you to talk to," Trent said to Marinette, making her smile. Gwen smiles as she sees Trent talk to Marinette. They all then see her confessional. "Not gonna lie, but for some reason, I can actually see the two being together when this whole crazed-storm of a show is over. Those two, totally deserve each other." they all smiled at that. Even though their smiling faces faded after watching Heather getting Beth and Lindsay in her little "alliance", and taking Eva's MP3 player without anybody knowing, they were still watching the show and watched the sun go down, and some campers were already falling asleep. But are trying their best to stay awake for the whole challenge. Which leaves eleven Screaming Gophers and Seven Killer Bass still awake. "Congratulations, campers. You've made it to the twenty-four-hour mark. Time to take things up a notch. Fairy Tales." "Oh, he's not serious!" Gwen exclaimed. "I know, out of all things, he has to choose fairytales? I could be reading Stephanie Queen's Critter Crematory by now!" Lucy complained, with Marc giving her a sympathetic look on his face. As Chris read, more and more campers started to fall asleep while the rest were trying to stay awake.

Now there are six Screaming Gophers and four Killer Bass. Meanwhile, they see Gwen, Trent, Lucy, and Marinette having a small talk. "Okay, favorite song?" "Jagged's song tribute to the Parisian heroine Ladybug," Marinette said. Tom and Sabine smiled since it was obvious that she kept playing the song nonstop in her room. "Too Cool for School by my favorite late Drummer of KISS himself, the Fox, Eric Carr," Lucy said, crossing her heart for the late drummer. The family and friends smiled and raised their cups in honor for the late drummer. They then heard that Trent's favorite song was She Will Be Loved and then asked the girls their favorite colors. Marinette says that hers is pink and red. "All colors from the 50s to the millennial 2000s. Oh, and black and Navy blue, of course," Lucy said. 'I don't know why, but I feel like mom is going to make some designer outfits for her in those colors after she said that on live television.' Zoe thought to herself. Gwen then says hers is midnight blue. Lucy then asks what their video games are. Gwen says hers is Death Arise and Trent says his is Music Gods. Marinette then says hers is Ultimate Mecha Strike III. "It's true. She's been beating me on every level every time." Tom said, approving it. They laugh and continue watching the show. Marinette then asks Lucy what was her favorite video game, "Victorian Servant: The Truth for the Vixen's Secret." "Oh, I like that series!" Marc says, happily. "I hear it's good." Kagami said, with her mother nodding in agreement. They all continued watching the show. It was already fifty-one hours and still counting, and they all see that Justin is still standing there, and doesn't look to be tired at all. That was until Marinette tapped on his face which caused him to open his eyes, startling her and shocking them (the family and Marinette's friends) and the campers. "His eyelids are painted! I saw it!" Eva yelled, pointing it out and getting Chris's attention. "Get out," he said in disbelief. "Oh, I got to see this." Chris then runs over to Justin and sees that they were right that he did paint his eyelids. "That is so crazy incredible! But you're still out, dude," he said. With that being said, that leaves five Screaming Gophers still awake for the challenge. "There is no such word as crazy incredible." Tomoe mumbled.

As they all continued watching, they saw that it was two days later and on the morning of the show. They all were surprised to see that Marinette and Lucy were still awake. Yet, they still had bags in their eyes telling them another story. That was until Luka noticed that Marinette was looking at something. That was until they watched as Duncan put Harold's hand in a cup of water. "Oh, gross, it works! Dude peed his pants!" Duncan exclaimed, waking Harold up. As Harold wakes up, he realizes that he did and tries to cover himself in embarrassment while they all look in shock, disbelief, and disgust. "Duncan! Why did you do that?!" Marinette said, running towards the scene. "Ah, come on, dollface. You gotta admit that was hilarious." said Duncan. Marinette glares at him. "Maybe for you, but that is still wrong," she said. "How immature can you be?" Marinette's friends all talked in agreement, getting the family's attention, and they were not paying attention to Duncan, Lucy, and Noah's confessionals.

After that, they all continued watching them, seeing Gwen yawn saying, "I'd kill for a coffee right now," she said. Lucy was taking a couple of whiffs of an essential oil. Lucy then opened her eyes widely and turned her head to Gwen. "Sorry, Gwen. Did you say something?" Chris then walks in with a cup of coffee in his hand. "What is the matter with you people?" he asks, sipping his coffee. "Come on, fall asleep already." Gwen grabs Chris by the leg. "You got to hook me up, man." She said. "I'll even eat the grinds. Anything!" "Alright, you seven stay with me. The rest of you go and get a shower, for heaven's sake. You stink!" Chris said, sipping more of his coffee. "Well, what did he expect? He is the one who made them do this challenge." Jessica said, crossing her arms. They watch as they see Lucy and Marinette are still awake, and Chris starts talking. "I didn't want it to come to this." he said. "I said that to Chef Hatchet last night. I said, "Chef, I don't want it to come to this." But darn it, these campers are tough. And so, I've come up with the most boring, sleep-inducing activity I can find." Chris opens a book, which they all realize that it was a...

"The History of Canada. A pop-up book. Chapter One." The campers groaned as Chris read away in the pop-up history book. As Chris goes on in the book, it brung Eva, Heather, Gwen, and Trent to sleep. The family and Marinette's friends looked worriedly at Marinette. A little while later, Chris announced to the still awake three campers, "Time for a bathroom break. Any takers?" he asked. "I've held it this long, sweetheart," said Duncan. "I can go all day." Lucy scoffs. "Yeah, but I doubt you can hold it for another ten chapters." some of Marinette's friends snickered from that and saw the look on Duncan's face. After that, Lucy's saying made Duncan change his mind, and head to the bathroom. "You've got five minutes." Chris said. "Long as you don't mind a little company." "Fine, but stay out of the stall." Duncan warns. After a little while, they watched and saw Lucy and Marinette, who were starting to feel extremely tired, making them feel worried. That was until Chris received some intel from an intern. "And we have news. It looks like Duncan's taken a dive on the can, which means there is not one, but two official winners of the Awake-a-thon. And those two winners are...." they all watched as they saw Lucy and Marinette murmur something that they couldn't describe what they were saying, and the two girls fell back first, fast asleep, knocked out cold.

"Lucy and Marinette! The Screaming Gophers win!" They all cheered for Marinette to win the second challenge. After watching the elimination ceremony, Eva was out of the show. When she rode off on the Boat of Losers, she started to talk, "I guess my temper got the better of me. Again. But whatever, they just lost their fiercest competitor. I hope they realize that." Just then, she feels something in her pocket. She checks to see that it is a little charm that has Rosie the Riveter that has words that say, 'Stay Strong, Eva! You Can Do It!', an essential oil that is labeled 'Anger Management', and a note that says, "To the strongest gal we know, M & L" Eva smiles, "But then again, there are some people that are actually understanding." she said. They all smile, knowing that it is Marinette and her friend Lucy. After that, they all agreed that they would meet again next week, and watch the next episode. And of course, they're going to give Marinette time since she's now getting her well-deserved sleep after winning the challenge for her team.

??? & ???

They both looked in worry as they watched and saw Lucy looking extremely tired. But that all changed when Chris got information from one of his interns. "And we have news. It looks like Duncan's taken a dive on the can, which means there is not one, but two official winners of the Awake-a-thon. And those two winners are...." They then hear Lucy mumbling something that they can hear clearly. "Is it just me? Or is that a sorcerer from a different realm with an evil smirk heading our way?" they both looked shocked as they heard that and ignored Marinette's mumbling. "She remembers." one of them said, holding their clipboard tightly in their arms. Even though they were glad that Lucy and Marinette won the Awake-a-thon, they were more focused on their old friend. "Adrien needs to hurry it up contacting Marinette." the other one growled, gritting their teeth.

Desc Prologue Get to Know My OC Chpt 1 Reactions Pt 1 Chpt 2 Chpt 3 Reactions Pt 3 Chpt 4 Reactions Pt 4 Chpt 5 Reactions Pt 5

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Diabolik Lovers LOST EDEN ー Kou Dark [Prologue]

CHAPTER MASTERLIST

ー The scene shifts to the living room of the Mukami manor

Yui: ( I want to stay with Kou-kun forever... )

Kou: ...What’s wrong, M-neko-chan? Are you getting cold feet, perhaps~?

Yui: W-Well...

ー Kou moves closer

*Rustle rustle*

Kou: Don’t worry! Your Kou-kun will keep you safe~!

Yui: Thanks.

Kou: No need to thank me!

It only makes sense to protect the girl I love! Besides, I want us to be together forever as well...

So rest assured and stick to my side. Okay?

Yui: S-Sure...

( Kou-kun is really such a sweetheart. )

Azusa: ...Kou.

Kou: ーー Uwah!? A-Azusa-kun!?

Azusa: ...You totally forgot about us, didn’t you...?

Kou: Eh!? Ahー ...

Ruki: ...I don’t mind you getting intimate with her. However, you choose the time and place accordingly.

Yuma: Get a fuckin’ room ya two!

Kou: Geezー I know!

We’ll take the lovey-dovey stuff to my room now~!

ー Kou grabs hold of Yui’s hand

Kou: Let’s go, M-neko-chan~

Yui: O-Okay.

( I totally forgot that the others were still here as well. How embarrassing... )

ー The scene shifts to Kou’s room

Kou: ーー Ah, M-neko-chan!

There’s a beautiful view from the window! The skies are clear tonight, so want to watch the stars together?

Yui: Sure!

ー The scene shifts to the balcony

Yui: It really is beautiful...Kou-kun, thank you for inviting me along.

Kou: We might not be able to sit back and watch the starry sky together once we head for the Demon World.

I’m also glad to be able to watch it with you here tonight.

ー He steps closer

Kou: So thanks from me as well. ...Nn.

*Smooch*

Yui: ...!

Kou: Fufu~ Your cheeks are flushed bright red, M-neko-chan~

Yui: B-Because...!

Kou: ...’Because’? You just love me that much, is that what you’re trying to say?

Yui: ...Gosh, don’t tease me...

Kou: Hm~? That wasn’t my intention, really.

It’s just...I can’t help but want to pick on you when I see you react like that.

ー Kou suddenly bites her

On certain CGs, little black roses will appear on the screen. If you click on them, you get an extra line of dialogue.

“Your body’s heating up like crazy...Fufu~ I wonder if it’s because what I’m doing to you~?”

“You’re filling me right up. Aah...I’m afraid I might lose my mind.”

Kou: Nn...Nnh...

Yui: Ah...K-Kou-kun...

Kou: My bad...But you’re just so adorable, I can’t stop...

I promise I’ll carry you to bed in a bit...

Nn...Haah...Nn...Nnh...

Yui: Uu...

Kou: ...Yui, wrap your arms around my back...?

Yui: ...Okay...

Kou: Mmh, thanks...Nn...Nnh.

Yui: ( Whenever I’m with Kou-kun, I nearly forget about what’s going on over at the Demon World. )

( However, I’m sure things will turn out fine in the end. I have faith in Kou-kun after all... )

Monologue

ーー I saw a strange dream.

There’s this girl,

staring right at me.

I wonder who she is?

I don’t recall ever seeing her before.

But I wonder why?

When I look at her,

there’s this sadness spreading through me,

from the very bottom of my heart.

Tears naturally begin to flow.

Having no idea what was going on,

I simply stood there for a while ーー ...

ー The scene shifts to Kou’s room

*Creaaak*

Kou: Nn...Uu...

*Rustle rustle*

Yui: ( ...I wonder what’s wrong with Kou-kun? )

( He’s crying in his sleep. I wonder if he’s having a nightmare? )

( His expression seems somewhat pained and sorrowful as well. Perhaps I should wake him up. )

H-Hey, Kou-kuーー

*Rustle rustle*

Kou: ーー Haah, haah...

M-neko-chan...?

Yui: ...Are you alright? Did you have a bad dream...?

Look, you’re crying...

*Rustle*

Kou: ...Huh? You’re right? I wonder why?

Sorry for making you worry. But I’m fine now, okay?

Yui: ...I see. Okay then...

( We’ll be leaving for Eden in the morning, so perhaps that’s causing some worries for him as well... )

( I’ll try to stay by his side as much as possible so I can be there for him. )

Monologue

ーー The next morning,

the three of us passed through the gate in the human world,

as we headed towards Eden.

Since the nights at the Demon World are very long,

the moon was shining brightly in the sky.

I was soaring through the sky with everyone,

as Kou-kun carried me in his arms.

Kou: Are you okay? Not too scared?

Yui: Yeah. I’m fine because you’re holding me.

Yuma: Anyway, Kou, are ya sure ya want to just throw all of yer celebrity responsibilities out of the window...?

Kou: Hmー? I’m sure it’ll be fine? I did send them an email, you know!

Yuma: An email, seriously...?

Ruki: ...You should inform them of such things personally.

I suppose it is my fault for not thinking of that.

Azusa: Kou...Shouldn’t you head back...?

Kou: It’s fine, don’t worry! I honestly wouldn’t mind if my agency decides to fire me!

I mean, Eden is top priority right now, isn’t it?

I wouldn’t want the situation to get completely out of hand while I’m enjoying the sweet idol life over in the human world!

While it’s fun to be an idol, it’s not like I have any kind of special connection with my job. I wouldn’t mind putting a stop to it right here, right now!

Azusa: ...I see.

Yui: ( I guess Eden is just that important to Kou-kun. )

( Of course, to Ruki-kun, Yuma-kun and Azusa-kun as well... )

Ruki: ...Eden has come into view.

Kou: Ah, you’re ri ーー Eh...?

Azusa: Something seems off about it...?

Yuma: ...Yeah. Let’s get a closer look for now.

Kou: Y-Yeah. Hang on tight, okay?

Yui: G-Gotcha.

( Is that the Eden I’ve been hearing about...? )

( I do believe Azusa-kun was right when he said something seems off... )

ー They descend to the front of Eden

Kou: What’s going on...?

Ruki: ...

Yuma: ...

Azusa: ...Ah...

Yui: ( Has Eden always been this rundown of a place...? )

( Both the flowers and trees have withered and even the building itself looks as if it could collapse at any second. )

Kou: This isn’t the Eden we know...

How...? How did this happen!?

Ruki: ...Accept it, Kou. This is what has become of Eden.

Kou: ...I can’t!

ー Kou runs away

Ruki: ーー Kou!

Yui: Kou-kun! Wait!

ー Yui chases after him to the forest

Yui: Kou-kun...!

*Rustle*

Kou: ーー Let me go!

*Rustle*

Yui: Sorry. But you suddenly ran away by yourself...

Hey, Kou-kun? Where are you going...?

Kou: To Subaru-kun! He’s the current owner of Eden after all!

If only he got his act together, Eden would have never gotten to this state, would it!?

So I have to go talk to himーー

Yui: E-Even so! Let’s calm down first...Okay?

Kou: ...Ugh...

Yui: There might be a good explanation as to why this has happened.

I honestly can’t believe that you’ll do the situation any good by going to see Subaru-kun in your current state of mind...

So don’t you think it’d be better to discuss the topic with Ruki-kun and the others first?

Kou: ...But...

Eden is the only place we have to return to...It’s our hometown.

I can’t possibly remain calm after seeing what has become of it.

This would have never happened if only Subaru-kun did his duty as a King...!

Yui: I understand where you’re coming from...but I’m sure it’s more difficult than that.

Subaru-kun might be having a hard time too after he had to inherit Karlheinz-san’s overwhelming powers out of nowhere...

Kou: ...Why are you taking his side!?

Why can’t you think of how I feel first!?

Yui: ...K-Kou-kun...

Kou: What? You have a problem with what I said!?

Yui: I don’t, but...

Why are you so irritable...?

( He should know that I chose him... )

Kou: Because it’s no fair how that guy always gets it all!

I mean, he’s obviously in the advantageous position here...

Social standing, power, you name it! And what’s more...Without doing jack-shit for it!

Yet he won’t even fulfill his duty in return. I can’t let that slide!

Yui: Ugh...

But I don’t think it’s fair to say that Subaru-kun has got it all?

I mean, I don’t know everything about him but...

I can’t imagine that he’s been living a perfect life without any obstacles.

Kou: ...Ah...

Right. I got the thing he wanted most in this world after all...

...Sorry. I lost my temper for a bit.

Just like you said, it might not be easy to have such immense powers.

Yui: Kou-kun...

Kou: ...My bad, M-neko-chan. Can we make up...?

Yui: Yeah, of course.

( I’m glad he understood. )

( Kou-kun is working on bettering himself. He’s no longer the guy he once was. )

( He can relate to other people’s emotional pain now. )

*TIMESKIP*

ー The scene shifts to the guest room at Eden

*Creaak*

Yui: ( Here comes yet another sleepless night... )

( ...In the end, nothing was resolved even after returning to the others. )

( I wonder what we should do now...? )

Kou: Hey, are you still awake...?

Yui: Yeah, what’s wrong?

*Rustle rustle*

Kou: ...I figured I’d tell you about the dream I had the other day.

Yui: Eh...?

Kou: There’s this woman I don’t know who just kept on staring at me.

As I constantly shed tears while looking back at her...Fufu, strange, isn’t it?

Yui: ( I see. That’s why he cried yesterday. )

...Is this lady someone you knew?

Kou: Nnー ...She’s a stranger to me.

But...At the same time, she seems oddly familiar too...Pwaah...

ー Kou dozes off again

*Rustle*

Kou: ...Zz...

Yui: ( ...I wonder who this woman could be? )

( However, I’m sure he was just uttering some trivial pillow talk... )

Goodnight, Kou-kun...

*Rustle rustle*

ーー TO BE CONTINUED ーー

#diabolik lovers #dialovers #kou mukami #lost eden #diabolik lovers translation #lekoudarkprolog

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darklydeliciousdesires · 1 year

Text

The Dark Passenger - Chapter Two.

I am absolutely thrilled with how well received this was, so decided to treat you all to another update, because I’m kind like that! :)

Previous chapters - One

Words - 3,093

Warnings - 18+ content throughout, minors DNI!

Tag list - In the comments. Please DM to be added/removed

The vibe on Friday night was completely different to when he’d visited The Luna Lounge on a quiet Tuesday, EZ entering the establishment to find it absolutely packed out. He expected no less; the music louder, the air thicker with testosterone, although, he noted, there were quite a few groups of women in attendance, the pounding roar of You Could be Mine by Guns N’ Roses blasting through the club as the girls on stage gyrated to the beat.

He ordered a beer, thanking the bartender before strolling around, his eyes locking upon Camille, his heart flipping as soon as he saw her invert on the pole and slowly slide down, caressing her neck with her neon blue fishnet gloved hands, her underwear matching, the small crowd before her going wild, bills flung in her direction, as naturally they would be.

He slowed, pausing for a second, making sure she saw him before he kept right on walking, heading to the end, where Raven danced like an amped up hellion, standing right in front of her. He could see out of the corner of his eye that Camille had noticed, her eyes flitting over to him, wondering why he’d blown her off in favour of another. And boy, it pissed her off.

Ever since Tuesday, she’d found herself thinking about him, the guy who she’d danced for, and perhaps enjoyed more than she should have. She knew how to have that professional veneer up, even when her clientele was attractive, she had to hold back, not let the lines blur, but as she’d gyrated against him and watched his eyes burn gold as he came, something had been stirred within her, a switch turned on, a flame lit. She was heavily attracted to him, she had to admit.

There was something there, and she knew it. She knew he knew it, too, yet there he was right in front of Raven, and not her. This did not sit well. Suddenly, Camille questioned whether or not there’d be a connection there at all, for him to return to her workplace and not immediately seek her out. If she had been less mildly irritated by it, she might have cottoned on to the game he was playing with her.

EZ could tell with each little glance he offered in her direction that she was negatively affected by his tactics, smirking to himself as he turned his attentions back to Raven, smiling widely at her when she leaned down to pick up her money, sliding a ten into the top of her bra. She blew him a little kiss, continuing to gyrate for him, her curtain of silky, black hair swaying as she moved to the beat, EZ thinking how eclectic the DJ was to follow GnR with Rick Ross.

Camille wasn’t stupid, and by that time she’d sussed his game. Why would he have one eye perpetually on her rather than both focusing on the girl in front of him if he didn’t want to provoke some kind of reaction? She slipped a few times, throwing a dark look in his direction, not appreciating someone playing her like that, but otherwise didn’t react.

She was a tougher nut to crack than EZ had first anticipated. He wouldn’t budge, though. He was much too used to having women fawning over him, his status as El Presidente meaning that he truly did have the pick of whoever he wanted. Camille was no hanger on, though. She was someone who, although regretful over her decision not to go and enjoy the tall, handsome biker, took a little more effort to bed. Especially in the wake of the behaviour she witnessed that night.

Before long, she was exiting the stage, going back to change into a little white lace dress, her neon blue underwear showing through, just as she wanted it to, taking a tour of the tables, schmoozing the guests, flirting up a storm in order to secure the lucrative commodity that was the private dance. She secured one with a college kid, the young guy twenty-one if a day, and a little startled looking, knowing she’d have to be gentle with him. She was perceptive enough to know what would work best in way of tease with her clientele.

For this guy, she perhaps wouldn't grind against him quite as fiercely as she had the big, leather clad dude whose eyes she could feel upon her as she led her customer into the private room, but who was nowhere to be seen when she emerged a while later. She shrugged it off, continuing her tour of the club floor, securing another two dances. It was a profitable night, all thoughts of the dark-haired man who had attempted to play her leaving her mind.

That was, until he returned the following night, Camille working the floor when she saw him enter the club, giving her a little glance before heading right for the stage, embarking on exactly the same routine again and seeking to show his attention to another. This time, he chose Kellie, a girl whom Camille absolutely couldn’t stand, bitchy gossip that she was. She had few friends within The Luna Lounge, Mai and Tallulah being the sole two girls she got on well with, friends outside of work as well. Sadly, their shift patterns meant they often didn’t work at the same time.

Tallulah, or Lu for short was on that night, though, Camille replacing her on stage after an unsuccessful tour of the floor for private dances, the girls exchanging a little cheek kiss as they passed.

“It’s tough out there tonight, babe,” Camille told her friend, Tallulah widening her eyes a little bit.

“Yeah, they need more alcohol in ‘em, loosen those wallets a little!” She snickered softly with laughter, climbing up to the stage, passing Kellie by and taking a glance at the gorgeous Latino man she was dancing for. He didn’t even look at her. She would bend to him this time, he knew she would, watching her as she began to dance, her eyes flitting over to him every so often, checking to see if he was watching her. Of course, he wasn’t.

“That’s right, babe. You work for it.” he thought, smirking to himself. He wasn’t about to give it, though, and in his arrogance, he thought Camille’s display was mainly for his benefit. It wasn’t.

Well, maybe a tiny bit. A girl had money to earn, though. Where the man she desired so heavily was concerned, she was determined not to break, almost as much as he was adamant that he wouldn’t make the first move on her. She would come to him. As it turned out, though, an external force acted upon the latter, spurring him toward her, but not because of anything relating to his attraction to her.

Keeping his focus on Kellie, he heard the commotion before turning his head, seeing a guy reaching up to make a grab for Camille’s legs, attempting to yank her onto his lap but only succeeding in sending her off her seven-inch heels and onto her butt. He could have left it to the bouncer, but instinct kicked in, EZ crossing the ten-foot gap faster than the security and hauling the man back by his collar.

“She isn’t yours to fucking grab at, bro! What’s wrong with you?” he yelled at him, the bouncer giving him an appreciative nod before swiftly taking over, hauling the man from his grasp and out of the club. He then turned to Camille. “Are you alright?”

She winced, trying to arrange herself in a less mortifying position, her right butt cheek feeling both numb and on fire with pain. “Yeah, yeah I guess.”

She was attempting to play it down, he understood that. “Can I do anything?”

“Help me down?” He nodded, reaching under her legs and wrapping an arm around her back, lifting her off the stage. He noticed a distinct lack of care from her fellow dancers, the bouncer jogging back over to make sure she was alright, though.

“Yeah, yeah I’m okay. Thanks, Samuel,” she reassured him, sighing, not looking forward to the likely huge bruise she’d have to cover in body makeup in order to keep looking pristine while she worked.

“Cool. I’ll go and tell Martin what happened.” He exchanged another nod with EZ before leaving to head up to the owner, Martin Yorke’s office and inform him of the incident.

Turning to him, Camille smiled, leaning to kiss his cheek. “Thank you. You didn’t have to do that.” Wanting to move away from where she was being stared at, she began to limp around to the seating section, kicking her shoes off on the way, EZ following. “I appreciate you for doing so, though.”

He frowned slightly, taking a seat beside her. “You’re welcome. Women shouldn’t be grabbed at like they’re property.”

She shrugged, dropping her chin a little. “I’m used to it.”

Lowering his head, he caught her eye, frowning. “You shouldn’t have to be, Camille.”

Immediately, she sat up a little straighter. “How do you know my name?”

“I know a lot of things.” He paused for a second, studying her face, feeling himself pulled in by her all over again. “Including that you shouldn’t put up with that bullshit.”

Her eyebrows fluttered a little, Camille touching her tongue against her top lip momentarily. “But yours is okay, right?”

He felt a little affronted, not expecting her to be the type to call him out on it. Perhaps she wasn’t quite as meek as he’d thought. He recovered well, though. “I didn’t try to yank you off a stage.”

“No,” she began, cocking her head to the side, “but you did expect me to go home with you on Tuesday, and then came back here yesterday with the express purpose of ignoring me in favour of Raven because I refused. And then the same tonight, but with Kellie”

“Is that bullshit, really?”

“Some might say so.”

He snorted softly. “All I want to do is take you home and give you a damned good time. Is that really such an inconceivable idea, that two adults who find each other attractive actually admit to that and go and do something about it?”

Direct, to the point. No dancing around it, as it were. Before she could answer, though, they were joined by her boss.

“Camille, you okay, hon?” Martin asked, his eyes flitting between her and EZ a couple of times, a small frown denting his forehead.

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine, just sore and a little shaken,” she confessed with a small shrug, Martin nodding. As strip club bosses went, Martin was a pretty good guy. He wasn’t a pervert, he wasn’t unfair, and he absolutely did not tolerate any of his employees being disrespected. The guy who had grabbed her would never be allowed back within The Luna Lounge. It was a small consolation for the fact that if they reported the guy in question for assault, usually nothing was done about it. Martin had been in the game for long enough to know that girls working under the banner of sex worker were not offered much respect from the authorities, if any at all.

“Take the rest of the night off, go rest and I’ll see you Tuesday. Here, take your fee back, too.” Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out two fifties, handing them to her. Each girl had to pay a fee to the club of a hundred dollars a night to dance, and a percentage of what they earned from private dances. Stage earnings were not cut into. With that, he left them to it, EZ immediately turning back to face her.

“So, that admitting?”

She had to admire his tenacity, laughing softly, shaking her head. With the rest of the night off, and the tension between them doing nothing but mounting deliciously, she considered this the universe giving her the chance for a do over. She’d ended up regretting not going home with him before. Why do so twice?

He was right. They were adults, they were attracted to one another, so why not do something about it? The chivalrous nature of him coming to her rescue in the wake of her being mauled had, in her mind, cancelled out the bullshit, his need to make her jealous. Besides, him doing that in the first place, was it really bullshit? Or creatively trying to get her attention?

Either way, her mind was made up. “Do you want to come back to my place?”

The way his face lit up as the smile spread across it, oh! He was so hot. “Yeah, I do.”

“Give me five minutes to go collect my stuff, and I’ll meet you outside.” Getting up, she was a little easier on her feet, only a slight limp to her otherwise feline glide, EZ standing and heading towards the doors, pulling his cell out as he approached his bike, leaning back against it while making a necessary call.

“Hey Gus, you alright? Bouncer didn’t rough you up too much, did he?”

“Nah, just threw me on my ass, bro,” Gus grumbled, lighting a cigarette. “You nearly fucking choked me out when you grabbed my collar, though!”

EZ laughed. “Yeah, sorry about that. Thanks, though. See you around.”

Gus grinned as he ended the call. He had absolutely no idea why the president of the Santo Padre charter of the Mayans had wanted him to grab onto that specific girl, and he hadn’t asked either. He knew though, as a street hustler, if men in greater seats of power wanted a favour and were prepared to pay well, it was always better to take the cash and keep them happy.

True, EZ likely could have simply used his own charm to get Camille into bed with him, but he sensed it would take considerably longer than he would have liked, so he cut a few corners. Also, he wasn’t prepared to bend to her either. His ego didn’t allow for it.

What little good was left within him did feel a tiny slither of regret that she’d ended up hurt, but bruises were minor. And he’d make sure he gave her such a good time, she’d forget all about it. Most, if not all women forgot their troubles when they had him between their legs.

His attention was diverted away from reading a message from his father when Camille exited the club, looking considerably more casual than he’d expected. Blue skinny jeans, a pair of tan Ugg boots, and a grey t shirt that sloped off of one shoulder. Even dressed down, she was still exquisite, though.

“My place is fifteen minutes away; the red Mustang is mine. Try to keep up.” Her little eyebrow raise made him snort laughing despite his resolve, turning to look at the car she’d just clicked her key fob in the direction of.

“Nice ride,” he commented.

“Oh yes. I am.” She was funny, he liked that, once again laughing. “What’s your name, by the way? I feel like I should know that already.”

“EZ. Short for Ezekiel.”

She nodded, hitching her bag up onto her shoulder a little higher. “I’ll see you back at my place then, EZ.” She leaned in, making like she was going to kiss him, only to move away again, her fingernail trailing his neck. It was an action that had anticipation fizzing through him. Camille knew exactly what she was doing, even though she had no idea the extent of the games he was playing against her in engineering all of this.

Throwing her bag in the trunk, she got into her car, grumbling a little when her butt stung in pain. Damn that fucking guy, but at least she’d landed on something fleshy, rather than her hip or side. “Oh well. You’re about to have your mind taken off it nicely.” she muttered to herself as she started the engine, four hundred and fifty horses ready and primed to charge beneath the hood, the V8 engine roaring as she pulled out from her place and shot across the parking lot.

She’d always said that once she earned a decent living, she’d buy herself the car to reflect such. Between her day job, stripping and her Onlyfans modelling page, she earned decently enough to afford something nice, as well as a house in one of the better areas of Santo Padre. She wasn’t made of money, the nature of her work not always reliable and meaning some months were a scrape to make the mortgage and car repayments, but she was comfortable enough.

Camille had only ever seen stripping as a way to see herself through college, until she’d qualified as a beautician, but having gotten used to the money, she had now set herself another goal which the meagre salary of a beauty therapist wasn’t enough to accomplish. She was saving to be able to open her own salon, hopefully followed by a chain.

At twenty five, she had hoped to be there already, but previous debts on a home she’d shared with her ex, a home he’d absconded from and left her with a tonne on rent arrears around her neck had somewhat cut into her finances over the past five years, hence even more reason to continue stripping as well as working at a salon during the day. She was often tired, but she had what she needed, financial independence.

Camille Smith would never again rely on a man for anything, even his share of the rent, hence why as soon as she was financially able, she’d bought the simple, modest home she pulled up to exactly seventeen minutes after leaving The Luna Lounge, a large Harley pulling onto the drive behind her car seconds later.

She thought she was free of the bad men of her past, but as she walked up the drive, she had no idea how truly dark to the core the one walking behind her was. When his lips began to press kisses against the bare flesh of her shoulder as she opened her front door, darkness was the furthest thing she felt from him.

When he turned her around and brought his mouth to hers, all Camille experienced was fire, kicking the door shut before bouncing up into his strong arms, the inferno between them raging, as they knew it would as soon as they gave in.

#ez reyes #ez reyes fanfiction #ez reyes smut #ez reyes imagine #ez reyes x ofc #ez reyes fanfic #ez reyes fic #mayans mc #mayans mc fanfiction #mayans mc imagine #mayans mc smut #mayans mc fanfic #mayans mc fic

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i-cant-stop-fandoming-help · 5 months

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Autophobia (Fear of being alone)

Written completely on mobile.

Vent fic. Ive lost so much this year.

Projecting onto rei goes brrr.

Tw for suicidal thoughts, talks of medicine, and death of friends

Rei hated everyone, and everything.

Thats all that she could even think of describing. There were so many feelings in her mind, and she just couldnt quite name them no matter how hard she tried.

She had always hated being alone, so the killing game had given her one gift--- companions. Rei was able to sleep each night, knowing there would still be someone there when she awoke. She knew there was others in the building.

But it was a game of death, and her classmates were dropping like flies. Despite her attempts to try and get rid of the care she had, she cpuldnt. Each death hurt more than she thought they would.

Her pillow case wad constantly changed, it was disgusting from the tears and snot that ended up coating it every morning and every night. Rei was familliar with loss, she had been since she was but a girl. She recognized it from miles away, so why did she react the same every damn time?

It made her feel pathetic, it made her feel like nothing. Rei masked her emotions with a confident grin, or with an aura of surperiority, but each time it was forced down, a crack formed in her shield.

When she, Teruya, and Tsurugi escaped, Rei contemplated being honest. Letting out the fact that, deep down, she was scared of making friends. Scared because she knew that someday, they would abandon her.

When the control of the old kisaragi foundation buildings was restored, and Tsurugi took the reigns, Rei was overjoyed. A place where she could send people to see if her parents were still alive, still out there.

While others were too busy to notice, she made herself right at home, bringing in an air mattress and blankets and teddy bears. Making the workplace the same as the sleep-place may be a bad idea, but Rei didnt want to rest anywhere that she could wake up and find herself alone.

Teruya was dead. His corpse lay there, skin cold and eyes glazed and empty. His chest no longer rose and fell, and his heartbest wad gone. Tsurugi didn't care, but Rei certainly did. She and the former merchant had bonded over their time at the foundation.

She was able to tell him her thoughts and fears, and he sat there and listened. Teruya was her closest friend and confidant.

And now he was gone. Without a proper goodbye. If she hadnt chickened out, he would have lived. He would have been able to live a happy life.

It was her fault.

Tsurugi was gone. He didn't even leave a goodbye. Rei had lost everything. The ginger thought he cared about her, he said he'd tell her if something was wrong. He hadn't, he had up and left.

She had lost so much. Friends, family, everything. She was alone, but there was a thought in the back of her head. She didn't have to be, she could use her remaining medicine and meet with teruya, meet with everyone once again.

But Rei didn't want to. Or, rather, Rei couldn't. Teruya wanted her to live a happy and long life, he didn't want her to rush it. He was always a caring man, and he alwayd thought life was a precious thing.

And, if it wad truly his final wish for her to live a long life, she should respect it. No matter how much she may not want to.

#dra/sdra2 #danganronpa another #rei mekaru #vent fic #tw suicidal thoughts #tw talks of medicine #tw death

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ellorypurebloodculture · 1 year

Text

EVIL AUTHOR DAY!

So, for those who don't know, Evil Author Day is a yearly event that takes place on 15 February.

It's an opportunity for authors to be a little bit (or a lotta bit) evil by sharing snippets from WIPs, idea files, etc., with the understanding that there is NO GUARANTEE WHATSOEVER that these stories will ever be completed.

Seriously, read at your own risk!

😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈

1. Working Title: Probably a Line From a Poem, Not Poe, It's Too Angsy

Pairing: Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy

Harry Potter shifted into his Animagus form with a smirk on his face. It became wily and menacing as he sprouted a muzzle with ebony fur and needle-like teeth. With a nudge of his snout against the emerald and platinum collar on the floor, it magically appeared around his neck.

His boyfriend, while a right prat and a total snob, was the best.

Of all the places his friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger in particular, would look for him when he was missing -- was it really too much to ask for a few hours to himself without being interrogated about his whereabouts?! -- they were never going to check to see if he was hanging out with the Slytherins.

To be fair, they didn't have all the information.

He hadn't told them that Sirius had taught him the Animagus Transformation. And, obviously, he hadn't told them he was dating Draco Malfoy either.

It didn't have a single thing to do with him being ashamed of dating a Slytherin. Harry wasn't ashamed. Harry was a Slytherin. He was just hiding out in the lion's tower, like a snake in lion hide.

What he wasn't okay with was the furor that would result if his relationship got out. Harry was sick and tired of being on the cover of every publication in the wizarding world.

Him being in a committed relationship with a pureblood heir, a Malfoy, the son of Voldemort's Right Hand? Yeah, no. He'd pass on that thanks.

Just imagining the headlines made him nauseous.

2. Working Title: Probably Shakespeare in the End

Pairing: Viktor Krum/Harry Potter

"Er, thanks," Harry said, baffled.

He wasn't used to people supporting him. Well, people that weren't Hermione or Ron Weasley. So he wasn't quite sure how to react to Krum saying that Harry belonged on his own merits.

"You're velcome," Viktor said.

At the exact same time, Barty Crouch's voice rose high enough to drown out everyone else. "There's nothing for it! The contract is magically binding. Potter must compete."

Harry didn't understand why his stomach sank to his toes at the words. He had known they wouldn't do anything. Adults never did, did they? They were rubbish. When had an adult ever stopped these hellacious nightmares adventures that kept appearing in his life one after the other?

Some days, Harry wished he had never gotten that first letter, which set everything into motion. Sometimes, he wished that Rubeus Hagrid had never found him on that tiny island in a storm, never placed yet another Hogwarts letter in his hands.

Some days, the words, "Yer a wizard, Harry," gave him waking nightmares.

As much as life with the Dursleys was awful, at least he had never killed anyone there, or nearly been killed, or nearly lost his soul.

3. Working Title: In Which We Make Harry and Blaise Love Each Other Because We Can

Pairing: Harry Potter/Female Blaise Zabini

"One would think that even you would have better taste than this," a voice Harry couldn't quite place said.

He spun around on the piano bench, wand brandished. The war ended only a few months ago; his instincts and reactions were still on a hair-trigger. For Merlin's sake, he pulled his wand on Neville a few days ago.

Neville learned how to walk quietly during the time he spent in a castle ruled by Death Eaters masquerading as professors. And Harry learned that quiet footsteps were usually someone attempting to sneak up on him during the year he was on the run.

Blaise Zabini rolled her dark eyes at Harry's wand as if Harry was being histrionic. The shadows in the room lent an even darker shade to her skin than normal.

But for all the disdain in Blaise's voice, there was none to see on her face. If anything, she looked bored.

"What are you doing here, Zabini?"

4. Working Title: Let's Be Real, It'll Probably Be Shakespeare or Poe

Pairing: Undecided

"Kriff," Anakin Skywalker hisses as he fights the controls of his shuttle. If he crashes again, it'll be the third time in the past two months and Obi-Wan Kenobi will never let him live it down.

R2-D2 beeps warningly behind him.

"I know, R2, I see it!" Anakin says, doing his best to keep the shuttle from crashing into the side of the mountain on ... whatever planet's gravitational field he got sucked into after the Separatists got in a lucky shot.

The trees are purple, the clouds are green, and it's only the sight of animals fleeing that gives him hope the atmosphere will be breathable for humans and near-humans.

"Gener--" Captain Rex's voice comes over the comm, staticky and broken. "--walker."

"You're breaking up, Rex!" Anakin says.

He hauls in the controls and breathes a sigh of relief when the shuttle scrapes against the mountain with a loud screeching sound. At least the hull hasn't been compromised. That would--

Something hits the right engine. The shuttle spins out of control.

He sees a massive lake of yellow water through the purple trees, wraps himself and R2-D2 in the Force to protect them as much as possible, and then slams into the ground.

He blacks out moments later.

5. Working Title: I Never Have a Clue Until It's Over

Pairing: None, Batfam genfic

"No comment," Dick replied, not even glancing up from his phone.

Ah, the conversation hadn't gone particularly well, it seemed. Either that, or Jason had asked Dick not to share whatever his response was. It was difficult to keep from pressing, but Bruce managed it. It might have taken years, but he had finally reached a good balance between knowing everything about his children and allowing them privacy at the same time.

"Is it over yet?" Tim asked, staring out the window.

"Not unless you have a time travel device in those trousers, Timmy," Dick teased.

Bruce frowned when Dick and Tim turned to face each other, a mischievous look in their eyes. "No, we're not using a time travel device to skip past the auction," Bruce admonished.

Tim huffed.

"Killjoy," Dick muttered.

6. Working Title: "Can We Just Agree That This Never Happened?"

Pairing: Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy

Harry Potter almost fell from his Firebolt to the Quidditch Pitch below, he was so stunned. Had that ... had that really just happened? It couldn't possibly be real, could it? Because if it was, that meant--

He wiped the sleeve of his Quidditch robes across his glasses, even though they were perfectly clear, no smudges of any kind. It wasn't raining or snowing or overcast. In fact, the sun was bright in the sky from where it had broken the horizon about half an hour past.

"Merlin," Draco Malfoy said, looking just as stunned as Harry felt. "Did I--?"

Harry stared at the Golden Snitch, which was in Malfoy's hand, from where he had grabbed it right before Harry could during their weekend Seeker's Match.

Malfoy had never beaten Harry to the Snitch before. Never. Not in the many, many official or unofficial matches where they had faced off against one another.

Harry blinked rapidly, licked his lower lip, and said, "Can we just agree that this never happened?"

7. Working Title: Feed the Spark, Save the World

Pairing: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski

”I swear if you tell me you don’t know what you want for dinner one more time, I will end this relationship right here and now!" Stiles Stilinski snarls as he stabs Derek Hale's irritatingly perfect pec with his breakable human finger.

He's grouchy and still sore from when the witch blasted him into a tree in the Preserve last week and he didn't sleep at all last night because he fell down the Wikipedia rabbit hole. He now knows how toilet paper is created and has learned how it can be used, in the right circumstances with certain ingredients, to make a cast, if absolutely necessary.

Derek frowns with the eyebrows of doom.

Stiles gasps. "Don't talk to me like that, Sourwolf!"

He's not in the mood for the drama of Beacon Hills. Can't they have one day of being teenagers without worrying they'll be murdered by the newest Big Bad?

That's all he wants. A day to relax and not have to worry or stress. A day to chill with his boyfriend and delude himself into believing that they don't live in a literal hellmouth.

Derek shrugs into his leather jacket, which emphasizes the breadth of his shoulders even more than the Henley does, and grabs his keys, head cocked to the side.

Stiles grins and chases after his Alpha with all the grace of Bambi when he first learned to walk.

"I knew you loved me!" Stiles sing-songs.

A milkshake and curly fries at the diner sound perfect.

8. Working Title: Frequent Kidnapping Promotion

Pairing: Megamind/Roxanne Ritchi

Roxanne Ritchi leaned closer to the mirror, double-checking her eyeliner. It had to be perfect, sharp and distinct and properly set so that it wouldn't smear when Minion pulled the bag off of her head. She really hoped it had been washed since her previous kidnapping. The smell was getting unbearable.

Satisfied, she used an extreme amount of hairspray on her short brown hair. The last thing she needed was for it to frizz and fluff everywhere when the bag came off. Especially since Megamind always broadcast his schemes across Metro City after taking over the news stations.

Roxanne was a reporter and she had an image to maintain. If that image involved primping and enough hairspray to make her a walking fire hazard, well ... that was beside the point.

"Oh! I almost forgot!" she said, rushing into her bedroom to snatch up her frequent kidnapping card. She couldn't forget that today. She was only one punch away from having an entirely full punch card, and the reward was something she always looked forward to: an entire day to explore in Megamind's Evil LairTM and play with his inventions.

Roxanne slid her frequent kidnapping card in her purse, which Minion always remembered to bring along when he kidnapped her, and took a last glance around her apartment.

"Keys. Purse. Cell phone," she muttered, double-checking. "I think that's everything."

She left her apartment with a swish of her lucky purple skirt. Other people might not have been able to figure out Megamind's pattern, claiming it was random and incomprehensible, but Roxanne always knew exactly when she would be kidnapped. It directly correlated to which stars and constellations were in the sky. It was almost embarrassing that no one else seemed to have figured it out.

Then again, she was an exceptional investigative journalist.

She stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the ground floor, grinning when the doors opened to reveal a small blue cube on the floor where the doorman should be. Any second now--

Blackness ate Roxanne's vision.

9. Working Title: Pitch Black, The Nightmare King

Pairing: None, RotG genfic.

CW: Violence, dark imagery.

They didn't hear him. They didn't see him. They walked right past him as if he didn't exist.

He was a king.

The Nightmare King.

“I am your king!” Pitch Black roared.

There would be no forgiveness for their trespass; it didn’t matter that they couldn’t see him. It didn’t matter if the adults believed in him or not. That didn’t affect his powers in the slightest. There would be retribution for their crime.

“I wonder,” Pitch said, manifesting his scythe of black sand and shadows in his hand, “what nightmares blossom in the hellish pits of your minds.”

Pitch didn’t need to see his own grin to know it was macabre and nightmare-inducing on its own. After witnessing all the flinching and fleeing and gluttonously feeding on mortals’ fear back in the Dark Ages, when he ruled from the poles to the equator in every direction, Pitch knew exactly the effect his gaunt gray skin and black lips and razor sharp teeth created.

It was only mildly irritating that he wouldn’t get to see their reaction to his appearance.

As if it were a guillotine in his hands, Pitch swung his scythe through all three necks in one swipe. Then he laughed, the sound of rabid dogs filling the night air, as the men turned on one another with horrific screams and carved each other open, their insides spilling out like a rotten pumpkin.

10. Working Title: The Taste of Mud and Worms

Pairing: None, Batfam genfic

CW: Character is buried alive.

"He's having a flashback. Hood, answer us!" Nightwing says, voice buzzing in his ear. "What's the status on his trackers, Red?"

"I'm working on it. He changed the encryption again," Red Robin answers, voice tight.

Jason presses his hands against the lid of the coffin, nausea rising as he watches the satin lining wrinkle beneath his grip through wet eyes. Wood is firm and solid behind it. The coffin lid doesn't shift no matter how much desperate strength he puts behind it, adrenaline burning through him.

"No. Not again," Jason sobs, the lights on his helmet the only thing keeping the darkness from swallowing him whole.

Batman's voice is tense when he orders, "Red Hood, repor--!"

"Dad! Get me out! I'm sorry, okay? I'll stop killing people. Please, B, don't make me crawl out of my grave a second time. Please!" Jason begs, shaking so hard his teeth chatter.

There's a stunned silence on the comms before everyone starts yelling at once.

Jason can't focus on what they're saying, though.

His mouth tastes like mud and worms.

#evil author day #ellory writes

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wreywrites · 6 months

Text

Tiger Shark

Part 3: The Crown

Chapter 19

The next morning is gray and rainy and windy, so I settle in on the couch with a soft blanket and a book. I turn the TV on to have some background noise, and soon lose myself in the story. A madman is plowing his field in circles when someone knocks on the door. It is Finnick.

“Nice… cloak,” he says, one eyebrow raised at the blanket wrapped around my shoulders. “May I?”

I nod, and he steps inside, shedding his jacket onto the coat rack and kicking his shoes off onto one of my earlier attempts at a shoe mat, a lumpy, misshapen thing that is functional but has little else going for it.

“Want some food or something to drink or anything?”

“No, I’m okay. Thanks though. Just thought I’d spend the day with you. What are you up to?”

We walk down the hallway and back into the living room. “Just reading about ten thousand men going to war for one man’s wife.”

“Haven’t read that one in a few years.” Finnick sits cross-legged on one end of the couch and wraps a blanket around his shoulders, childlike. I wonder what he looked like as a little kid. It occurs to me that I don’t know much about him at all, beyond the whole “youngest victor ever” thing. “Well, don’t let me stop you,” he says, gesturing at the book.

I return to reading.

“Um, this will sound weird…”

I look up at him, eyebrows raised.

“But, would you mind reading out loud?”

My eyebrows creep higher, but I like reading, so why not? “Sure. Do you want me to start over?”

“No, I’ve read it, just tell me where you’re at so I can assume the proper mindset.”

If my eyebrows rose any higher, they would disappear into my hairline. “He’s plowing and pretending to be crazy.”

“Got it. Carry on.” Finnick pulls the blanket up to his chin, resting in his palms, elbows on his knees. He watches me eagerly, still childlike.

I nod, clear my throat, and start from the top of the page, out loud.

I don’t know when he moves, or when he falls asleep, but I notice that he is asleep when I hear gentle snoring by my elbow. Finnick is sleeping soundly, curled up under the blanket, with his feet against the arm of the couch and the top of his head perhaps an inch from my feet, which I have curled up underneath me and to the side. I look at him, annoyed. This is rather rude—I expected better from him. But then I begin to wonder how, or even if, he sleeps at night. Every time I’ve seen him wake up, it is with a start. Who talks to Finnick to keep him grounded? Who tells him everything is alright, that he’s not in the arena anymore, that he did what he had to to survive? How does he stand living all alone? Who does he have, really?

I keep reading aloud. Even Finnick Odair deserves some peace.

At some point, he stretches out a little. I think he is going to wake up, but he doesn’t. He is just now using my feet as a pillow. And now I am stuck here. So I keep reading. Once in a while I pause, glance down at him, make sure he’s still breathing. He looks different asleep. Still Finnick, still handsome and confident, but something is missing. It takes me a long time to realize it is defiance. Asleep, he has no one to fight and no Capitol to appease.

I read of negotiations and battles, feasts and plagues. I lose myself in the tale again. And when Finnick wakes with a jolt, I jump, nearly dropping the book. I really do drop the book when he lurches to his feet and grabs a pencil off the coffee table, wielding it like a knife.

I jump up, putting a hand out defensively. “Finnick! Finnick, it’s me!”

He stares at me, then blinks several times. He puts down the pencil and slowly sits back down, pulling his knees against his chest. He stares at the opposite wall as if he can see through it.

It is my turn to be there for him. I slide over and put an arm around him.

Finnick doesn’t react, but says, slowly, “I don’t… I never have been able to sleep well, since the arena. I dream about them. All of them. Everyone I killed, finally getting their revenge.”

“Can I help?” It’s the least I can offer after everything that’s happened.

He shrugs.

I decide to press the issue. “Do you want to talk, or do you want me to talk, or do you just want to sit here quietly?”

For a long time he is silent. I have just accepted that he wants to sit in silence when he says, “What was your favorite thing to do when you were little?”

I smile. “My mom used to take me lobster diving. She could hold her breath for ten minutes. Ten. I wanted to be able to do that so badly. I could only ever manage three. But she taught me all the good places to look, and how to grab them without getting pinched, and then when we got home she’d let me take the first bath so I could get warmed up. Then after her bath, she’d brush my hair out and braid it, and then she let me do the same to hers, and once we were done, we’d cook the lobsters. Mom would do all the hot stuff and I got to chop vegetables and mix things and stuff like that. And then Dad would get home just in time for supper. And the best days were when he’d swing by the bakery on the way home and get chocolate rolls, and we’d have those for dessert. And then we’d clean up the kitchen together, and after that we’d play marbles, or cards, or they’d dance and try to teach me.” I glance at Finnick to see him smiling at me. “That was a long answer.”

He nods. “But it’s okay. You’re… it lights you up to talk about your parents.”

“What about your family?”

He sobers up. “My parents are dead. They…” He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “The thing about winning is… the Capitol owns you. They say dive, you say how deep. The Games never really end. And if you don’t play along, they find ways to make you.” He looks right at me. “I thought the rules didn’t apply to me, so the Capitol made sure I knew who was in charge.” He looks back at the wall. “They killed my parents, and it’s my fault.” He falls silent, and I have no response.

I lean my head against his shoulder. I want to say how horrible it all is, how I hate that it happens every year, how I am sure he’s not the only one this has happened to. But I can’t find the words. Maybe there aren’t words. Not to express what I am feeling. Certainly not to express what he is feeling. So we sit in silence, the book laying forgotten on the floor, and we are there still when Dad gets home from work and starts making supper.

The sounds from the kitchen seem to bring Finnick back to reality. He takes a deep breath. “I should get home.”

“No.”

“What?”

“No, you shouldn’t. It took me too long to realize this, and I know sometimes I don’t want them, but I have people. I have my best friends and I get to live with my dad, and you should not have to be alone. So I’m not letting you be alone. You took care of me all through the arena, and I’ll be damned if I’m not going to take care of you now, even if that just means making you eat supper here, with people who care about you!”

Finnick stares, taken aback. “So there’s the Tiger Shark. And I guess I will stay for supper willingly so you don’t knock me out and tie me to a chair and force-feed me.”

“Good,” I nod, then call into the kitchen, “Finnick’s staying for supper and marbles!”

“What if I don’t want to play marbles with him again? I think he cheats!” Dad calls back.

“I do not!”

“Whatever you say! But you’re welcome to stay for supper and as long as you like after!”

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

We play marbles for hours after supper. Eventually, Dad says he’s tired of losing and has to be up early for work tomorrow anyway, so he goes to bed. I dig out a couple of decks of cards and teach Finnick how to play double solitaire because privately I agree with Dad—I don’t know how, but Finnick must cheat at marbles, there’s no other way he could win as often as he does—and because marbles isn’t very exciting with just two people.

It is nearly three in the morning and we are both yawning when Finnick decides he really is going to leave. He opens the front door to a deluge of rain.

I’m quite sure he doesn’t mind getting rained on, but I decide to offer anyway. “We’ve got two spare rooms. You can have your pick.”

He nods and closes the door. “Your dad’s not gonna mind?”

I snort. “As long as you don’t pick my room.”

He takes the room across the hall.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Finnick is sitting in the upstairs study wrapped in a blanket and drinking coffee when I get up the next morning. I only notice because I have to walk by the study to get to the bathroom to brush my teeth, and the door is open, so I stick my head in. He is engrossed in something, but I can’t tell what until he takes a sip of coffee and turns the page, and I recognize one of my drawings. I lean against the doorway and open my mouth to ask if he has a favorite, but he is quicker than I.

“You’re pretty good at this.” He turns another page. “Do you do anything in color, or just black and white?”

“I tried color a few times. Couldn’t get it right. How long have you been up?”

He turns the page. “I told you I don’t sleep very well. And your dad isn’t exactly quiet when he’s getting ready for work.”

“He’s never had to be. I’m a really heavy sleeper.”

“Must be nice.” He holds up the sketchbook to show me a cat. “This is amazing.”

I smile. “He lives down by the pier. I see him all the time when I’m there with Mags. I’ve probably drawn him a dozen times, but his face is so… expressive.”

After a few more pages, he reaches the end of the sketchbook. “You don’t draw people, do you?”

I shake my head.

“Well I propose a drawing contest.”

“Can I eat breakfast first?”

Finnick sighs dramatically. “If you must. There are pancakes. There is no coffee.”

I raise an eyebrow. “You drink it all?”

“I’m not proud.”

We relocate to the kitchen, where I warm up a stack of pancakes in the oven and make myself a thermos full of hot chocolate. Then I take pity on Finnick and make another pot of coffee.

It is still raining. And not a pleasant rain, but one of those winter rains that is bitterly cold and seeps into your bones. “So what shall we do today?” I say through a mouthful of pancake.

“Drawing contest. We established this already.”

“That’s not going to take all day.”

“I will read to you dramatically.”

“As opposed to everything else, which you do with minimal levels of drama.”

“Your words wound me.”

I laugh. “See, drama.”

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

I set the timer for an hour. “Ready?”

Finnick nods, brow already furrowed in concentration.

“Go.” I push the button and start sketching.

We decided anything in the living room was fair game. This puts me at a disadvantage because there are no animals, or even pictures of animals. It puts Finnick at a disadvantage because he says he can’t draw at all. I suppose we’re evenly matched then.

Out of consideration for me, Finnick has agreed to allow talking. This was only after I pointed out that it would be unfair if I were to drift off during the allotted hour. We talk about school for a while, comparing teachers and discussing our favorite and least favorite subjects. I learn that after he won his Games, he didn’t go back to school. What is more surprising is that he tried to go back to school, but his classmates didn’t know how to treat him or interact with him, and it was too much. So his parents taught him all they could, and Mags and Beck, and some of the teachers, and between them all, he had essentially finished school, just not in school.

“I never even thought about that.” I erase a few lines that didn’t quite turn out. “I guess I was lucky to be done already, wasn’t I?”

“Yep. And lucky your friends wanted to stay friends with you. My friends and I were at that unfortunate age where any sudden change is world-altering, and me suddenly being not just a victor, but the youngest victor ever just made them want to be friends with me because of that. It, uh, didn’t last.”

“That’s so sad. Not to get too mushy and feely on you, but I am so sorry you’ve had to go through all of this, and alone on top of that.”

His reaction doesn’t surprise me. He laughs, “Oh I’ve never been alone. I had my gold-digging friends, and my parents for a while, and Mags has always been there for me, and Beck’s a good man.”

“Seriously, Finnick, you can’t just laugh everything off like that.”

“I can and I will. I’ve gotten by this long doing it, and I’m not going to stop now. Why do you think Cellin and Haymitch drink all day? Why do you think Manta’s so mean? Why do you think half the victors from Six are morphling addicts?” He actually stops drawing and looks up at me. There is genuine concern in his eyes, a need to communicate this, to make sure I absolutely understand what he is saying and take it to heart. “Annie, you can’t stop to feel and dwell on everything. You know what happens to a shark that stops swimming forward?”

“It drowns.”

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

The timer beeps. I am not unhappy with the results, but I have cemented my desire to never draw people ever.

“On three?”

I nod. “One.”

“Two.”

“Three,” we say together, flipping our sketchbooks around.

So we had the same idea. I am staring at me, except the me in the drawing is not staring back. She is concentrating, biting her lip, eyes narrowed, focused deeply on the paper in front of her.

“You didn’t tell me you were an artist,” I say awkwardly, unsure how else to react. Because it is good, but it is also the level of detail that only comes from someone who has spent an almost obsessive amount of time studying their subject, who knows the subject as well as they know themselves. He even has my ears right: the left earlobe is detached and the right is attached, something my science teachers always thought interesting when we did the earlobe experiment, but not something you would notice unless you spend a lot of time looking very closely at me. Again, concerning.

Before I can dwell on this too much more, Finnick says, “Should I be concerned that you didn’t draw my nose?”

I laugh. I could not have imagined a better way to ease the tension I was feeling. “I told you, I’m not good at people, so I did the stuff that translates well from animals!” There are, in fact, two lines where I should have drawn his nose. There is also a precursory mouth and some weird lopsided ovals for ears, which is ridiculous because I know his earlobes are attached. And suddenly, I am concerned about myself.

He leans forward to scrutinize the drawing. “Is that really what my eyes look like?”

Which one of us looks obsessed now? “Yeah.”

The ears are weird, the nose is two-thirds of a triangle, the hair is nothing to scoff at, but the eyes… The eyes could be a photograph.

****

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Tag List:

@avoxrising @snow-dragon-rider @anakins-ride-or-die

#wrey writes #the hunger games #thg: tiger shark #annie cresta #finnick odair #ptsd #this chapter's actually pretty warm and fuzzy overall #this *entire* fic was inspired by that line in arrow where they reference the russian proverb about the shark that doesn't swim #i was already floating around wanting to write annie but that line hit me like #oh. oh she's grieving but she has to keep going #and thus tiger shark was born

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emptycalories-splitlip · 1 year

Text

Second Heart - 40k

Her eyes widened as the large man went down, his hands reaching forward to catch himself in the mud. Her mind went first to how ugly the dirt looked as it caked onto his beautiful blue and gold armor and only second to the fact that A MARINE WENT DOWN. She sprinted to his side, partially using his much larger body to shield herself from whatever it was that may be attacking and partially to check on what had happened.

"Sir? Sir, what's going on?" She hissed, eyes darting between his face and the surrounding area. She froze when she saw sweat dripping off his forehead. "My Lord? Is something wrong?"

When he finally spoke, his voice was softer than usual.

"My heart is failing."

"It's... what?"

"I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be conscious."

"Wait, can't your second heart handle it? Isn't that its job?"

The marine breathed deeply and exhaled shakily before responding.

"It is my second heart that is failing."

The woman stared for a few moments, taking in the paleness of his face and the dark circles under his eyes. How hadn't she noticed that before?

"So, does that mean... your original heart has already stopped working?"

"It has. It ceased function about two hours ago." He took another breath and it caught in his throat raggedly. "During that last battle, I took a hit."

His hand lifted and pressed into the left side of his armor and her eyes followed the motion to the dented lower portion of his chest plate. It curved up into his torso in an sick messy twist. The woman bit down on a curse and, feeling that she wasn't in any immediate danger of being shot at, shifted herself so she could get a closer look at the ravaged metal.

"Is that cutting into you?"

"I don't think so."

"What caused your original heart to stop?"

"Impact, probably." His voice was losing strength and his eyes had slipped shut. He really wouldn't be conscious much longer.

"What can I do?"

"Leave. Keep on to the forward camp. Find an Apothecary." These words seemed to suck what was left of his energy and he slumped forward. The woman had enough presence of mind to try and catch him so he wouldn't end up face down in the mud, but he was so much bigger and heavier than her that all she could do in the end was hold his head. She tapped his face with her fingers, praying that touching a Marine like this wouldn't be considered heresy.

When he didn't react, she slipped two fingers down to his throat, pressing into the surprising heat of his skin. There was a pulse, much to her relief, but it was faint and uneven under her fingertips. She leaned down and held her ear over his mouth. She waited for way too long before she realized that he wasn't breathing. This time, she didn't bite back the curse that formed on her lips. Instead she spit it out and immediately asked the Emperor for forgiveness.

She pushed at the big man's shoulder, trying to turn him so he was laying on his back. After two entire wasted minutes, she managed to get him rolled and she felt for his pulse again. The sluggish beat still tapped again her fingers and the man seemed to wake briefly. His eyes, a deep brown, found hers and he frowned.

"I told you to leave."

"I'm sorry, sir, but I can't leave you like this."

"You cannot help me."

"I can't leave. I might not make it there and then what will happen to your gene-seed?" She hated how that sounded, like she cared more for the stupid implant than she did her commanding officer, but she knew that it would spark some sense in him.

"...You're a good woman, but foolish."

"And you need to tell me sooner when your heart is giving out so I can, you know, help you."

The Marine did not respond. His eyes had rolled back and he went limp once more. This time, the woman didn't wait to see if he was breathing. She sealed his nose and closed her mouth over his and exhaled as hard as she could into him. She couldn't tell if his chest rose with the breath, so she breathed into him again and again, hoping this was helping.

"Captain, please get up." She begged, slapping his face a little harder than she would have liked to.

There was a rumble in the distance, suddenly, and the possibility of Orks running up on them made her hair stand on end. She ripped her gun from its holster, pointing towards the sound. Her hands shook for a moment, but she steadied as a prayer found it's way to her lips. The ground trembled as whatever it was got closer, the air growing thick with apprehension. 'At least I'll die protecting the man I care about.' she thought.

"Gun down, soldier. We're here to help!"

The voice rang out clear as a bell and she nearly collapsed in relief. Two Marines, followed by an Apothecary and several guardsmen came into view. The woman sighed and her shoulders dropped.

The Apothecary moved quickly to the captain's side, getting to work immediately, and the poor woman was pulled out of the way. She protested at first, but when she saw the Narthecium slipping its claw-like tools into the captain's body, she went quiet.

"Let him work." The shorter of the two Marines, with short golden hair, smiled as he spoke to her and it was as if the dawn had broken after an endless cold night.

"Will he be okay?"

"He's strong. Emperor willing, he will pull through and be right as rain."

'Emperor willing.'

#resus #cardiophile #idk what this is but i like it #Warhammer #whump

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whump-town · 2 years

Text

Oh, Sinnerman

Chapter Two

Words: 5,500

Same Warnings as Chapter One

Oh, sinnerman, where you gonna run to?

Flames dance behind his eyelids. Hotch sees a burning bush. He hears a deep thunderous voice calling out Moses! Moses! He sees a bush on fire but did not burn up. Take your son to the top of Moriah and kill your son there as a sacrifice to me. This must be Issac, your only son, the one you love. Use him as an offering–

He wakes with a jolt, his body broken out in a cold sweat. He watches a tree pass above him. His tinnitus is horrid, making his temples pulse in a rigid band. He hears Abel, like a preacher on the radio coming in and out of service. Static, ringing. Then a decisive sermon. He’s reciting Exodus. Moses leading his people from slavery.

“Abel?” his voice is weaker than he’s expecting but the sun beats down between the treetops and he’s dehydrated. “Abel, you have to–” He tries to sit up but quickly gives that idea up. His arms can’t hold his weight and his head spins dangerously. His stomach hurts so bad he can’t think straight.

“Aaron,” Abel breathes wistfully, speaking to the trees. “The brother of Moses.”

Hotch thinks Abel should begin in Genesis; And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abraham his brother, and slew him. He’s stuck somewhere between compassion and loathing. His head aches fiercely, his stomach is tied into painful knots. His left shoe is gone and on some tarp, he’s being roughly pulled through the woods. Rocks hit his back. Sticks stab at him. And yet, he imagines the crime scene photos one more time. Imagines Abraham at the top of his mountain with his son and Abel lost in these woods. Both raise daggers to the throats of people they love. One Abraham is ready to kill his own son and another begs his brother to see reason.

Only one was saved.

He’s bleeding.

A bush leans down over him, leaves grazing skin. On its tilted edge, a drop of blood gathers and he watches it. He looks at the blood on that leaf until the colors blur together until that brush is lost amidst the others. Leaving a trail is good, even if blood isn’t.

He drops, suddenly. The tarp is released and no warning given. He can’t hold himself upright so he just falls down onto the ground. Left to stare hazily up at the tops of the trees.

“Are you faithful, Aaron?”

Aaron. All he hears is his name – his ears conducting an intensely painful concert of forever ringing bells. Just trying to look at Abel hurts. The sun is too bright, even dulled by it’s passage through the trees. His head hurts. Faithful? He frowns, faithful? He doesn’t understand. It doesn’t make sense. He reaches for his phone but… His pockets are empty. That’s probably good a good thing? No wallet or keys or… gun. No gun. Damn. But these things must be discarded somewhere, a pile of proof to document the direction they’re headed.

“Aaron.” Abel crouches down by his side and pushes his thumb against the weeping wound against Aaron’s forehead. “I apologize,” he says. “I’m afraid I hit you much harder than I originally anticipated.” He frowns, he seems to mean it which is more confusing than anything else. “I was afraid and I over-reacted.”

The tarp wrinkles as Aaron moves his hand, he nods. The mud is cold. The sticks damp from a recent rain. He finds a rock, cold and hard. A rock. He curls his fingers around it and feels its weight in his palm.

“I hope you can forgive me.”

Breathing in slowly through his nose, Aaron swings his arm. His fingers end up pinched between the rock and Abel’s skull, an instant bloodied nailbed, but he can’t get further. Abel crumples, goes right down. Time is off the essence – he knows this somewhere in the back of his mind, it drives Aaron into movement. But he gets one sore shoulder to move, one aching arm up underneath him and his vision blackout. He gets nowhere.

The sun is lower.

Hotch’s first thought is Jack. The sun is too low. Jack needs to go to bed. He needs to..

He can’t remember.

Beside him Abel groans, shifting but staying where he’s fallen. Move. Something in him screams. Anxiety lances up his stomach and painfully sits hot and heavy. Move. He pushes himself up slowly, taking a moment to gasp between waves of nausea.

His knees buckle and he leans into a tree, grunting at the pain of leaning his body weight into thistles growing all around. More blood, that’s helpful. He needs to move. Move. Get out of here.

He kicks up dirt in that first step, rocks and acorns and sticks. His fucking shoe. His left shoe is gone, missing. Abel moans again and Hotch knows he’s got no more time.

[x.]

“And he just… disappeared?”

Calling in what happened was uneventful. Only a few seconds had passed since Hotch tore off into the woods and she thought she knew he’d come back out – a few more scrapes and bruises and his clothes dirty but UNSUB in cuffs and his scowl in place. Only Hotch didn’t come back out. He just disappeared. And as JJ was realizing this the SUVs came into sight. Brown and black trooper cars coming in a swarm behind them.

And Hotch was nowhere to be found.

JJ swallows nervously, eyes darting between the others. They’re in various stages of fury, all zeroed in on her. She’s confused about how this always happens to her. First Reid and now Hotch – and both with weird religious things going on? The odds of that have to be… impossible.

“You have to understand,” Derek says, crossing his arms, “this doesn’t make any sense.”

JJ shrugs, “he – he just ran into the woods, Morgan. He called for–for, Uhm, Abel? The brother of the victim.” She holds her arms to her chest, glances at Emily pleads with her to say something. For anyone to say something and stop just staring at her. “I called you as soon as it happened. But–But the guy had a gun. I don’t think he hit Hotch but he shot at us.” She’s already explained this. Twice. Some guy comes out of the woods. She didn’t see him. Hotch did. The gun is what she heard but only after it was fired. She told Hotch to go. She stayed with the old woman. There’s nothing more to be said.

Emily and Derek went into the woods to look, staying where they could be seen shouting out into the nothing and hearing nothing but their own voices in return. They know as well as she does, he’s just gone.

“Derek,” Emily finally warns, stepping in before Derek can make a complete ass of himself in the middle of his hopeless fear. “Leave her alone.” There’s a rogue stare-off. Derek already knows he’s in charge. The decision of next in command is Hotch’s and just a few short months ago that was Derek, leading them while Hotch took a step back. Pretended to unravel to give Foyet a show, a very convincing show. And Derek might be in-charge but Emily still has sway. It’s her advice that could sway any of Hotch’s decisions. Derek might be political, on paper in charge but they’ll listen to Emily just as quickly. Neither will win the silent battle of wits.

Dave comes steadily back down the driveway to them, shaking his head. He’d gone to talk to the widow – she’d be more help anyway than standing down here getting mad at JJ for something stupid Hotch did. “Our UNSUB is Abel Boseman.” He nods in the direction of the woods, “his mother says he’s been living in an abandoned house on the other side of the woods.” He holds up a piece of paper, “I got the address. We gonna keep standing here talking nonsense or are we going to go do our jobs?”

They’re good kids, Dave knows, but some days he’d like to smack Emily Prentiss and Derek Morgan upside their big heads. What good are the two of them against one another? Aaron needs them. And he needs them to have clear, level heads. Not heads shoved up each other’s asses.

Derek calls Penelope as they head up the old dirt road, all crammed into one SUV with Dave driving. It’s been a long time since any of them had to drive up a road in the state as this one is in. “What have you got baby girl?” It’s really just making them tenser but Garcia is always a lovely addition to the worst conversations. She’ll help.

Garcia doesn’t answer right away, she’s not even sure she should.

“Baby girl?”

She pulls in a shaky breath, “he’s going to be…” Tears gather in her eyes, she feels like she’s betraying Hotch. And she can’t stand it. Angry is the word that comes to mind but Hotch is never angry at them. He’s angry with things. Even when he is angry with them, he doesn’t take it out on them. But this… This might… “So I was looking at that the, ugh, that address Agent Rossi sent?” There’s a pause, dramatic and full of Garcia having no idea what the hell to do now. He’s going to be so upset with her and she can’t stand that thought. But they need to find him alive. Emotions are a symptom of life and he has to be alive to be upset with her. So she has to tell them. “It was owned by a Robert… Hotchner.” She clears her throat, “coincidentally… the same Robert Hotchner who, uhm, signed our Hotch’s birth certificate?”

The SUV is painfully silent. Emily gives the only reaction, she turns right to Dave. “His dad?” Hotch’s dad has been dead for as long as she’s known him – at twenty-something, scrawny and weighed down by the gun on his hip playing security around her mother’s house. She doesn’t even know that man. “So we’re going to his house?”

“Oh,” Garcia says, “my sweet raven-haired beauty you’re going to his childhood home. Where he grew up, where our Hotch started.” There is only such a tiny, itty-bitty little piece of her that is jealous. The rest is as scared as they are.

JJ clears her throat but says nothing, just stares hard at her hands. “I grew up a few miles from here. On the other side of those woods.” Hotch hadn’t lied. Of course, he wouldn’t, she shakes the thought away. Hotch is an enigma, a thousand-piece puzzle missing pieces but never the same pieces. Each time you open the box it’s a different piece that’s missing. Making it impossible to complete the damn thing.

“Can I–” Reid gets to the front steps and feels like he’s going to throw up. “Can I stay out here?” He’s not cut out for this job, not entirely. He’s a genius, they need him, but this part he’s no good at. That’s why he stays in the rooms with the maps. He spends all day doing math and creating a geographical profile. He’d be more use, even now, to sit out here and mess with his maps. Not in there. Not when they all know… No one says anything, they wouldn’t dare, but they have a good idea about the severity of what happened to Hotch in that house.

Derek and Dave speak over one another – of course and no, we need you inside.

Derek wins. “You have your map on you?”

Reid nods, face flushed. He doesn’t want to go inside and he doesn’t want Dave and Derek fighting about it either. He reaches a trembling hand behind him and pulls it out. “Yeah.”

Derek nods, “figure those woods for me? We gotta see how far he could have gone.”

“Okay.”

It’s probably better Reid didn’t come in, anyway, but at least JJ would have had some more company. She steps back because she knows Hotch very well but not like Derek, Dave, or Emily. He’s trusted the three of them with much more than he’s ever given her. So she just stands there in the doorway, horror gripping her chest tight and painful, as a cold chill runs up her spine.

The worst part is that it almost looks like a normal house.

She can imagine Hotch kicking his shoes off at the door, a habit he’s carried into adulthood. Kicking a ball around the front yard and riding his bike in the driveway. Children have lived here and that’s… that’s horrifying.

“Can’t imagine anyone living here,” Dave mumbles, shaking his head as he steps to the foot of the stairs. The banister has been nearly ripped from the walls at the top and Dave moves his eyes away. The chill of this house, not just this room, makes the skin on his arms ache with shivers. No love has ever seen the inside of these walls.

Emily steps behind him and looks up the stairs. “I don’t want to go up there,” she confesses, shaking her head at the sight above. She can’t imagine what they’ll find. What would her childhood home reveal about the interworkings of her mind? It certainly wouldn’t be fair. She’s torn, gripped by relief that it’s Hotch and not her being psychoanalyzed and still horrified they have to do this at all. To find Abel. To save Hotch.

“God this is–” JJ covers her hand with her mouth, standing in shock in the doorway of the room Derek takes them to. He’d only been in the house once, the year their mother died. He was Sean’s friend but he came down with Aaron as a helping hand. The three of them trying to get as much crap out as possible. They never went inside Aaron’s room. He did, he stepped in there once. Came back out pale as a ghost, blamed it on the heat, and spent an hour outside on the porch with a cold rag and a bucket to throw up in. His grip was too weak after that, he was shaking too hard to stand strong. So he took over folding up his mother’s clothes for donation. Derek never bothered to ask what really spooked him that bad.

It’s… a normal room. Ramsaked by time and likely Abel but bland.

He’s always been a little boring, God love him.

Derek steps into the room, frowning at the heavy dust clinging to everything. There’s a plain blue rug on the middle of the floor, about the only color or decoration in the room. Sean’s room had posters, Aaron’s walls are flat, no tacks were ever poked in the walls.

“Guess he’s always liked blue,” Emily mumbles, hesitantly looking around. Together, Derek and Emily say, “same color as his comforter at home.” They both immediately turn to each other, frowning in tight disgust at the train of thought they both assume. Derek knows Emily spent a lot of time with Hotch while he was recovering. He’d seen them sleeping together in Hotch’s bed many times. Just as Emily knows Derek returned Hotch home many times sore and limping from “runs”. They had both assumed the other was fucking the boss. They weren’t going to say anything, to him or each other. It was keeping Hotch alive, that was all they wanted.

They’re both wrong but neither clarifies.

Emily touches the furthest wall from the door and runs her finger over raised marks scratched into the wall. Tally marks. Endless tally marks. He was keeping track of something, she wants to know what.

“I hate you,” Dave reads out, stepping back to allow the others to see what he’s found. The words aren’t scratched, they’re engraved. Each one is meant. “Who do you think that’s to?” It’s entirely rhetorical and Emily hates him just a little bit for asking.

Derek pulls out his flashlight, eager to turn his attention elsewhere. Something about being in this room, thinking about Hotch like this is making him nauseous. And it only gets worse as he looks into Hotch’s closet. There’s nearly nothing inside, one moth-eaten black t-shirt barely hanging onto its hanger and a blanket folded up in the upper corner. Which makes sense. Sean told him Hotch packed for college in one night, was gone without saying goodbye. But it’s what he finds in the dark corner that makes him feel even sicker. “Here,” he calls out, stepping aside so Dave can see where he’s aimed his flashlight.

There’s a rusted razor stuck to the ground, Derek can’t move his eyes from it. It’s stuck to the floor, by a hardened, immobile substance. It’s not hard to guess which substance. Blood, Derek clears his throat, swallowing around the way his body attempts to rebel and heave his meager breakfast up. There’s gauze, what once was, at least. A toppled-over first-aid kid tossed beside it. Clearly knocked over. Never picked back up.

Emily just stares at it. Not a thought in her head. Just blank.

Dave grunts and turns away from it. Is it really that surprising? Aaron is a complicated man. Poor attachment style and while self-harm might not be on the table in any traditional sense nowadays, he lived out of an unpacked boxed and slept on a couch for over a year after his divorce. He’s carried these tendencies with him. They reared their ugly heads not that long ago.

Something about the way Derek just keeps staring at it that enrages Emily. It’s not surprising. She wants him to stop treating it like it is. As if this is news to them, like any of this is going to change how they view Hotch. They know he was abused and maybe self-harm is a little predictable but it’s not startling. Hotch is dark. This is the man that strips his vest to go into hostage situations. And then she remembers, suddenly, how Derek treated Hotch during everything with Foyet. “You don’t think we’re going to find him,” she says. Derek just doesn’t think he’ll be alive.

He says as much, “he’s had a hard year.” His flashlight still aimed at the corner. In one year he’s hardly recovered from the damage Foyet did to him. He’s taken, what, one day off in all that time? He’s not stripping his vest off and running into dangerous places like he was but there hasn’t been that much of an improvement. He wouldn’t qualify the situation as resolved.

“He’ll come back,” Emily seethes. Their eyes meet, Derek’s dulled by sadness and Emily’s bright with new hot anger.

Derek shakes his head, “you don’t know that.” He shrugs, finally looking away from the rusty razor and stepping away. Jack almost wasn’t enough a few months ago. What about now? Who says this isn’t too much? Everyone has their breaking point. “You can’t know that.”

[x.]

Hotch doesn’t remember falling.

It was just starting to drizzle. The muffled sounds drew his attention to trace the sounds of the raindrops hitting the leaves of the trees around him. Small drops pitter and patter as fat drops of rain made their way through the maze of leaves above his head. The humidity had grown, thickening until it could be felt seemingly pressing against him. The air like the packed streets of New York, knocking him this way and that until it felt nearly claustrophobic just to breathe.

It hadn’t taken long for the clouds to consume the light, his ability to see slowly being taken. He could hear Abel following him, quick, angry footsteps. Aaron! Follows him around every turn. Agent Hotchner! Cracks through the woods.

The rain started falling harder, hitting the leaves loudly and drowning out the shouts. Until the drops tore holes through the leaves, hitting too quickly, too heavily to remain captured by the many overlapping branches.

Somewhere, he falls.

The rain hits his face, enough to encourage him to shut his aching eyes again. Sleep is much safer. And he’s slept so little lately, it’s hard to fight the impulse now. So he doesn’t.

His head hurts so bad, like someone’s palms are on his temples and they’re pressing their whole weight into his skull. Trying to push his head down into the dirt below him. It makes thinking impossible. His body feels disconnected from him, like a foggy extension he doesn’t know how to reach. He’s fairly certain all parts of him can still be accounted for. His left foot throbs – he stepped on something that felt like it snapped when he pressed his weight down. Whatever it is, it’s splintered up into his foot. It aches, and pulses with each pounding beat of his heart.

And then there’s this business with his side.

He can’t really remember why or where it would have happened. There are these little holes just torn right into his skin. They’re bleeding like crazy and that doesn’t make thinking or moving any easier. But that’s okay.

He turns his head, angles his cheek up towards the sky, and lets the rain pelt the side of his head.

He’s hungry.

[x.]

His food sits on the table.

Dave ordered him a sub out of reflex and it’s just sitting there. Mocking them. Insulting them.

Derek can’t stop staring at it.

They found Abel Boseman’s body. His skull was cracked by a rock, he was dead long before they got to him.

Which means going to that house was basically pointless. All they figured out anyway was that Abel planned to return and Hotch would end up somewhere but not here. It made no sense for him to go back to that house, even as it began to rain. Sean had told Derek once Aaron spent every day of his childhood out there, playing around in the woods. And now Abel is dead and still, no one knows where Hotch is.

“Do you really think…” Reid stays focused on the board. If he keeps re-angling, keeps crunching numbers then none of this is real. None of this is happening. “Do you really think he did it?” But Abel Boseman’s photo goes up and it’s hard to push what’s happening to the side. “That Hotch…”

They found blood and Abel Boseman’s body – enough was Hotch’s to not ease their concern about him but too much of it was Abel’s too. There was a struggle. It wasn’t much of a question, Hotch killed Abel. Maybe he didn’t mean to but he did. And that made two men dead by nothing more than Hotch’s hand in less than a year.

Derek rubs at his temples, unable to stifle his frustration. “Obviously, he did.” Reid immediately turns away from the heat in Derek’s gaze, the hatred in his voice.

They found Abel a mile away from where they found Hotch’s badge, gun, and phone dumped. Only ten yards from Hotch’s left shoe – hooked on a log. It was clear Abel had dragged Hotch through the woods on the tarp, the bottom shredded and the blue tarp stained by Hotch’s blood. An altercation occurred. Abel did not survive and Hotch… Well, it’s hard to tell. They have dogs out there, searching. That’s where Derek and Reid should be. Looking.

But Derek is benched for the time being.

The Sheriff made a comment as they zipped the body bag containing Abel Boseman. Derek hadn’t even heard the whole thing but he understood the message – Aaron Hotchner is a nobody and no badge could ever make him a somebody. And it made him snap. He’d just spent the day searching through that abandoned house. Thinking about that fucking razor. About Foyet. About Haley and Jack and that it was his badge that started everything. He couldn’t take it. He shouldn’t have been in the field anyway.

The Sheriff fucked off.

Derek was sent back to the station.

“The hounds picked up a scent,” Emily swings into the room, running in to grab more batteries for their flashlights and umbrellas. “They think they’re close. Dave wants everyone out there.”

[x.]

JJ hates the woods.

She hates the south.

The gravestones where people lay buried with names and dates of birth and death that no one ever seems to know. Once, someone will mumble, once the dates and name could be read. Dragging a finger across the uneven stone will allow that much to become obvious. No one ever knows the people who lay at rest here but standing near, stopping to stare will settle the most discomforting feeling in the pit of your stomach. Whatever the people do here you know, as the hairs on your neck raise and you shiver like there are cold fingers playing your spine like the keys of a piano, no one rests.

The woods are like that too. The eyes that follow you into the trees never blink, they are always watching.

Ahead of her, stomping through the underbrush with unsettled anger of a man having lost his temper multiple times today, Morgan pays JJ only as much attention as he has to. Enough to shout above the rain when he finds a particularly slick area of mud or to avoid thistles reaching out to snag against the skin.

Morgan isn’t taking it very well. He stomps and breaks the eerie calm of the woods with each foot he puts down – breaking twigs or rustling plants.

The people JJ had expected a riot out of took the news without blinking. Dave had nodded gravely with understanding, getting this glint in his eyes that read plainly he knew their likelihood of catching this unsub and finding Hotch alive seemed grim. Emily had taken a deep breath in and just shook her head, declared it bound to happen with a dismissive shrug. “It’s better that it’s him,” Emily promised her. “He knows the woods and… and he’s tough. He’ll come back.” But she was already considering how long it would take before their resources were cut. Before Strauss called and declared they would have to come home. Irrational but valid. What if Abel cracked his skull too? What if they never even find his body out there?

They’ve never left anyone behind before.

“Morgan?”

JJ comes up over a bit of a hill, mostly just rocks and roots twisted and covered in leaves. She’d been following Morgan, he’d slowed his place to allow her to get a little closer. But he was right here.

“Derek!”

Someone screams. The sound erupts from the ground, from through the trees or from under her feet. From behind her, she thinks but she can’t find a source. She can’t reason where it could have originated. Softer this time, her courage to scream into the darkness stolen from her throat. “Derek?” It’s raining, the water soaking through her hair and down into her eyes. She’s drenched. Lost. Laughter bursts out of her chest, tumbling up out of her chest in thick, tense bursts. Wherever Hotch is, chances are she’s going to end up in the same place. So at least there’s that, right? Maybe he’s alive but it’s unlikely he’ll be as happy to see her as she will be to see him.

“JJ?”

She turns around, whips around so fast the world is just a pitch of orange blur. Nothing. There’s no one. Just fire and mud.Her fingers stiffly curling over her radio but she’s not certain she’s actually turned the thing on. “This is – This is Jennifer J–” her radio isn’t working. The static doesn’t sound out. Depressing the button does nothing.

“Jennifer?”

She turns around, eyes searching along the trees to find absolutely nothing. Decaying leaves. Fallen tree branches. “Hotch.” He’s leaning against the trunk of one of the larger trees, holding himself up with the tight grip his fingers have on the dark bark. He’s soaked clean through, hair flat against his forehead, and clothes clinging to his skin. “You’re–” she steps towards him, eyes finally catching the smaller details of his stature. Rain isn’t what’s soaking his clothing through. “Oh my God.”

“Are you real?” he rasps.

There’s blood down the side of his face, coming from behind his ear somewhere. Or maybe out of his ear…

JJ nods, “Yeah. Yeah, of course.”

He squints, adamant. It’s hard to know what’s real and what’s not. “Can you…” he starts to tip forward and he hears the crunch of her footstep, the step she tries to make towards him. He stumbles back, hitting a tree hard. “No! No! Stop, stop, please.” He holds up a hand, holding her back. “Please,” he repeats. He holds his hand up as he breathes, focusing so hard on pulling air into his lungs. He has to think about it. Otherwise, he’ll forget to. “Can you…” he’s not even sure how to say what he means. “I don’t know what’s real.”

JJ just wanted to help him. He’d started to fall and he doesn’t look like he can really handle falling again. “Okay, okay, I can prove I’m real.” She smiles, “I know… Uhm, I know you like oatmeal raisin cookies? And – And blueberry muffins. You take your coffee black but only when someone else makes it for you. If you make it for yourself you like two creams and a sugar.” She’s not sure that’s enough but it’s what she thinks of first.

He nods, face pinching up as starts to cry. Tears fall down his face. “Yeah,” he whispers. “Yeah.” He tries to stay standing up, “thank, God. I'm gonna – I think I'm gonna–"

JJ watches his eyes roll back, his entire body going limp as he falls to the side. “Hotch!”

#criminal minds fanfiction #aaron hotchner #criminal minds #emily prentiss #derek morgan #spencer reid #david rossi #jennifer jareau #jack hotchner #penelope garcia #oh sinnerman

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