#she's so shallow she only cares that he has abs :(

[girl-archie]

i just know jughead rolls his eyes whenever veronica gives archie silly nicknames or talks about his abs and yet he will turn around and do exactly the same thing... typing it out on a shitty laptop does not make it any different gay jughead

#she's so shallow she only cares that he has abs :( #meanwhile i commissioned a bronze statue because i think he is like a folk hero (yes the statue is shirtless and has abs) #she calls him archiekins but I call him sweet prince.

[webxgal]

[Ⅱ] ab origine

from the beginning.

There is something beautiful about temporary things. The thought of immortalising something into the film of your camera, knowing you cannot snap a picture of them again both saddens you and fills you with pride. For that reason, butterflies have been your primary muse. Their withering lifespan of a month filled you with sentiment, and you always took care in sneaking a photo every time you saw one. Even if one with similar wings appears next time, it’s still not the same butterfly. It will never be reborn.

People are like butterflies too, you realise after your father’s death. You will walk around Iwatodai and sometimes pass by a middle-aged man with the same hair colour as your father, or a woman will have your mother’s eyes. The fact of the matter was—they were still not your parents, who purposefully chose to move on from the world and you.

Nowadays you take pictures of people too. Rarely, because you still feel so weightless and lost in Port Island. Yet, it was better than being in Sumaru City where ghosts you’d rather forget lay dormant. Even if you couldn’t be surrounded by the familiarity of your hometown, or your friends attending Seven Sisters High School, you rationalised it was better than meeting your ex-landlord as he griped about how the apartment would no longer sell after two people had committed suicide in it.

A year passed in Port Island, and your only friend was Yuko Nishiwaki who had also been isolated by her junior high friends (boy troubles, you recall). You both formed some kind of solidarity for being the two girls who were too absorbed in your own hobbies to give a rat’s ass about whatever else happened at school. Yuko would throw herself into sports, and you’d throw yourself into photography so you both don’t acknowledge how you have nothing in common, other than the need for having someone to talk to when the silence becomes too much.

The second year begins with cherry blossoms, a cliche but charming beginning to an otherwise repetitive school year. You stop at the entrance to take some photos and ignore the bitter grumbles of others about how you were blocking the way. Just as you lower your camera to gently tuck it back in your bag, your eyes land on a figure standing just a little ways away.

He is lean, with a droop to his shoulders. You couldn’t catch any of his features through his blue hair that curtains his face. It is the unfamiliarity around him that catches your attention. Your lunchtime habit of people-watching had helped you be accustomed to the appearances of students in your grade. You easily recognise Yukari Takeba walking next to him and you falter for a bit. If he is a new student, how did he already know Takeba? Are they friends from before? Or perhaps that is her boyfriend? You have never interacted with Takeba before, but you did know she is popular within the student body. To you, in your shallow worldview, it makes perfect sense that someone like her has a boyfriend. The passing classmates did too, seeing as they were practically spinning their heads around to take a second look at the couple with a silent promise that rumours will be spread. Nobody had anything better to do at Gekkoukon High, and you were part of the populace of perpetually bored students.

Your thumb, which had been mindlessly resting on the shutter button, clamps down suddenly when someone briskly bumps past you. The familiar, audible shutter rings through the ambience and you watch in horror as the boy turns in your direction, catching you in your hurried attempt to stuff your camera away. Your breath hitches in your throat when azure eyes meet yours. In between your frazzled panic and the widening of Takeba’s eyes, you can’t help but feel that the world has fallen into silence for that brief second. He is undeniably pretty, and despite his big eyes, he holds an air of neutrality around him, unbefitting the stereotype of someone innocent. His hands are shoved in his pockets and his lack of reaction to you only adds more mystery to him.

But that moment ends quickly and upon the couple’s staring, you knew there was no way you could justify yourself standing like a creep with your camera in hand. Again. So you make a lightening decision. Doing practically the most incriminating thing you can do in that situation—you make a run for it. You let your legs, practically unused over the spring break, take you inside the school building. You are met with strange looks, again which you ignore because it couldn’t even scale to the shame you felt for ogling at the new guy. The new, taken guy who is Takeba’s boyfriend. Your embarrassment does not let you think of the fact that you aren’t even certain of the nature of the two’s relationship, and just wander over to the corkboard in hopes you will be shielded by the bodies of students searching for their names and new homeroom.

2-F.

You read through section ‘N’ for Yuko and let your shoulders drop in disappointment when you notice she is not in your class. It had been comforting during your first year to have her desk propped beside yours, making you feel less alone in a room full of strangers. Thinking of the girl, you wonder if she has arrived at school yet but a quick survey in the corridor didn’t let you spy her familiar visage. You guess you will be seeing her during lunchtime then. The shrill of the first bell causes you and several other students to perk up, realising you have mere minutes to head to class before you are declared late. You haven’t even put your bag away. As you turn around to head back to the lockers, you miss the pair from across the room, who were similarly heading to their first lesson of the year.

(“Huh?” Yukari blinks as she watches you dash away as if the devil itself were nipping at your heels. “You’re asking about the girl with the camera?”

Minato nods patiently.

“Erm…” Yukari rakes her memory for any recollection of you and finds it to be extremely sparse. “Well, she’s in our grade? I haven’t talked to her before so I don’t know much. She into photography, I think.”

There was no particular reason for him to ask, other than the fact he recognises your camera to be a new model from a flyer he read recently. He quickly forgets about you as he and Yukari are distracted by much greater things. Your name isn’t brought up again for a long time.)

-

(Yuko has to hide her laugh by practically shoving a spoonful of ginger rice into her mouth once you finish recounting your humiliating morning and subsequent first impression on the new student. You are frowning, barely touching your iced coffee that is warming up under the spring heat.

“Welcome to the club,” She grins, poking sharply at your shoulder as she teases. “Where we both get accused of being homewreckers.”

Your eyebrows furrow together, your frown only deepening. Your bottom lip catches between your teeth as you contemplate, looking up at your friend with genuine worry flooding your expression.

“That’s terrible! I don’t want gum stuck to my locker just like you…”

She immediately claps you on the back of your head.)

#p3 protagonist x reader #persona 3 x reader #persona 3 #p3 x reader #p3 #persona 3 protagonist #minato arisato #minato arisato x reader #makoto yuki #makoto yuki x reader #p3 protagonist #x reader #reader insert #memento vivere #webxgal writes

[nadia-zahra]

a phone call vs a letter

So as we all know Mike didn’t call Will because of Joyce’s telemarketing job clogging up the line.

But he consistently wrote letters to El, and ended all of them with From, Mike.

With this info I asked myself “If Mike was so desperate to talk to Will, then why didn’t he write to him like he did with El?”. But then a better question formed: Why was he trying to communicate only through phone calls with Will and only through letters with El?

With a phone-call you can talk to the person on the other line with immediate responses, so your conversations can be super long and can get through many different topics that are still relevant to each other’s lives at the present time; this means that the conversation can branch off and venture into deeper topics. With a letter you’re having an indirect conversation with another person and have to wait a week or two for a response; this really only leaves room to briefly talk ab what each person has been up to in between letters.

Mike and El had been writing letters to each other for several months, and the latest one he received was only a recap on her and her family’s life. Mike is perfectly content with receiving every two weeks (takes a week for her to receive his letter, a week for him to receive hers) a brief recap ab her life, and has been content with type of conversation the entire time she’s been in Lenora. This type of conversation is pretty much the only type of communication this relationship is built on. This is not enough to build a strong relationship!!! You don’t get to learn ab someone’s interests, hobbies, opinions, or who they truly are if it’s only a recap on each others lives. Plus the recaps she was sending were lies, but I’m not even going there because either way Mike wasn’t trying to build a deeper connection with El. Not to mention, with a letter he could end the conversation with From, Mike and was still able to avoid saying ily— if it was a phone call El would end it with “love you, bye” and Mike would be expected to do the same.

Mike only choosing to use a phone as his main way of communicating to Will, even though he knows Joyce is always on the line, means he doesn’t want this super shallow communication with him. Sure he wants to know what’s happening with Will, but he also wants to be able to talk about other things and not just a constant recap of their lives. He wanted to hear Will’s voice, and if he wanted to make a joke he could actually hear Will laugh at it. Mike wanted to talk to Will whenever he felt like it and for as long as he pleased. Direct communication that can venture out to different topics is what makes a relationship stronger!! Mike not being able to directly talk to Will all the time because of Joyce’s job upset him enough to the point that Dustin was constantly listening to him complain about it. He complained about it for MONTHS. He didn’t complain about the wait time in between receiving letters for El, he complained about not being able to have direct conversations with Will.

Idk but to me this choice to call instead of write shows he cares more about his friendship with Will than his relationship with El, and is actually some pretty cute ass byler proof the more ya think ab it.

#byler #byler analysis #byler proof #byler brainrot #mike wheeler #will byers #st4 vol1 #st4 vol2

[cosmictapestry]

for the prompts: A5 or C12?

A5. morphussy oral

cute cute cute cute cute cute cute cute

prompt list here

"If I asked you to, could you make your corporeal form light enough for me to lift? Would you be comfortable with that?" Lucienne asks, early in the morning as they both prepare to go their separate ways for the day.

Her lord hums, standing behind her, arms up around her shoulders as he finishes the intricate knot of her silk necktie and smooths his fingers over it, admiring it against the crisp white linen of her undershirt, the smooth warm brown of her skin. He recommended the color, a vibrant sunset orange. "I don't see why not," he says. "Is there a reason, or is this just where your mind has decided to go?"

Lucienne snorts and swats at him, and he presses a smiling kiss to her neck. "You're always picking me up and bending me every which-way," she says. Last night he had been fucking her standing up, her arse hanging over the edge of the bed, when he suddenly scooped her up and lifted her chest to his, his elbows hooked under her knees and her feet kicking helplessly, her arms tight around his neck while he bounced her on his cock. "Perhaps I would like to show off, too. And play with your quim while I'm at it."

"I am not the show-off," Lord Morpheus mutters into her neck, feigning offense. His breath has quickened. "Would you like me smaller than you?"

"No," Lucienne murmurs. "I only want you to feel you are smaller than me."

A heated second passes before her lord sighs across her skin. "I must be doing something right, if you feel I need to be taught a lesson," he nuzzles up to her ear. "Have I truly tormented you so? You need to show me what it's like?"

Molten honey seems to suffuse her veins. So easy to provoke, her lord, so ready to bend to her, so eager to. "I think you're projecting," she teases, turning her face against his cheek. "You just like the idea of being punished."

He huffs, and his lips brush her skin, and she realizes how shaky his breath is, how shallow and rapid. "We do not need to be up and about yet," he says suddenly, urgently. "If you—we could—"

"You've convinced me," and she spins in his hold, raises her hands to his face to gather his jaw and pull him to her. He sighs against her lips and melts like chocolate and lets her undo all his work, whipping away her necktie and shirt and trousers and pushing him back, back, until she has him on the bed, has him sprawled before her with his robes all parted down to his navel.

She climbs on top of him, her breasts dragging over his chest, her hand sliding down his fluttering abs. He grins against her lips when she leans in to kiss him, and his hands slide up to cradle the back of her head. He's so cute it's going to make her crazy. She runs her fingers down the sharp cut of his hips, down under his robes to where he's soft and molten, and he gasps into her mouth.

"So excited," Lucienne whispers, alternating pressure on his clit with her pointer and then index finger, making him jerk into her hand. He's swollen already, puffy and hot, and when she slips further down he is slick, sopping, and he whimpers. "I don't leave you like this every morning, do I?"

"More often than I would like to admit," he says, apparently unaware of how devastating that it.

Lucienne groans, and she nips at his bottom lip, urgency singing in her blood. "Oh, you are sweet," she whispers. "Let me take care of it, love?" and she sinks one fingertip into him, feels him arch under her. "Let me use my mouth on you, tide you over until tonight?"

He shudders and he gasps, and when she pulls back his face is flushed, eyes teary. "You don't have to say anything," she whispers, the hand that isn't otherwise preoccupied stroking his jaw, running her thumb over his trembling bottom lip. "Let me do the thinking, alright?"

As expected, he grins. "You always do," he whispers, and he lets her pull away to straighten up on her haunches in front of him. She hooks her hands under his knees, props them up, urges him to plant his feet on the sheets. She runs her hands down between his thighs, spreads him open just to stare for a moment at slick blush-pink flesh. He makes a noise, tiny and embarrassed.

The thread of her self-control is rapidly fraying. Lucienne slips her hands under his hips, intending to pull him closer, and she finds him feather-light, easy to move as a slip of fabric. She lifts him, lifts him up until he has to support himself on his elbows, then his shoulders, arms spread out and back arched, legs around her neck.

If his body reacted to strain the way hers did, the position would become painful quickly. As it stands he stares at her, his eyes huge, his robes falling dark and liquid around the pale bow of his body. His thighs are petal-soft on her cheeks, his hips sharp in her hands, his cunt hot in front of her face. She likes this. He does, too, judging by the way his lashes brush his cheeks, the way his clit visibly throbs.

She buries her face between his thighs, sucks his clit into her mouth. He wails, and his hips jerk with what little leverage he has, and his hands clench in the sheets. His thighs trembles around her head as she licks him, firm and broad, lapping up his slickness and drawing more, stone-storm-salt and mainlined electricity. He bows and grinds and tips his chin up, every little sound from him zinging straight to her core.

Her lord is babbling, helplessly begging, clearly struggling not to grab the back of her head and grind her face into his cunt, and he whines with the idea as it flits through her mind's eye. Lucienne meets his eyes down the length of his body, and she winks.

With a gasp he raises his hands to the back of her head, pulls her close, gentle and sweet and desperate as he pushes against her tongue. Lucienne hums and she wriggles her tongue and he gasps and he comes, his thighs cinching tight and shaking around her ears, his face slack in ecstasy. When he can breathe he keens, and he twitches, and his cunt drools over her tongue like honey, and he goes limp.

Lucienne keeps licking until he twists his hips, trying to get away, and she laughs, and she lowers him down. She hadn't realized how tightly she'd been holding him—her handprints are red on his sharp hips. She raises her arm to wipe her mouth, and he watches the movement with hazy, gleaming eyes. "That's what you get," she says.

Lord Morpheus snorts, the sound all breathless and wrecked. "Not exactly a deterrent," he mutters.

#i wanted to use c12 too but the idea i had for this one was So Cute and i couldn't integrate eldritch stuff easily >:( #also it's best for this one to be light-hearted because the next one is going to grievously harm us all :) #the sandman #morphienne #morpheus #lucienne #minors dni #x

[quillsink]

concept for the community movie. it’s 2023 and the movie has finally been released and you sit down to watch it excited for what you’re about to see excited for new content about the characters. and then you realise something strange, you realise you’ve seen this situation before.

you recognise the troy you see on screen but it isn’t the troy you know and love. it’s troy fresh out of high school, troy with his hypermasculine demeanour, troy with his riverdale high letter jacket, troy with his class ring, troy with the cocky smile and faked overconfidence that never suited him. 

and you recognise the classroom—spanish 101, season 1 of community, you see britta lend abed a pencil, and hear her say she thinks she’s gonna flunk tomorrows test so she’s sorry if that makes her seem cold. and you see abed, a little less confident a little less grown up. you see him overhear a shallow, cocky statement from troy and watch him tilt his head to the side and look at troy curiously.

and soon, the movie the progresses, and you realise, this is the side of the show we never saw. this is troy and abed, their stories, their story, them meeting each other for the first time. their awkward first meeting at the fro-yo place unremembered as they get to know each other, as abed’s unashamed expression of himself confuses a hiding, pretending troy. 

and we see all the things we never get to see. we see their first meeting. we see the first time they held hands. we see the messy parts, we see the crying the messy gulping choking sobs the horrible ways in which both of them were hurt the wonderful ways in which they help each other heal. we see them decide to move in together, we see the part where they move in together. we see them living together, no annie yet, just the two of them, just a quiet smile at breakfast and a “hey, abed? i had a nightmare, can i…come down there?”

it’s a mix of things, an outsider’s view to a day from britta’s perspective as she fumbles with a stolen camera to segments from abed’s films where he and troy broke character to simply gaze at each other for a moment to outtakes from the dean’s commerical to security camera footage. threads woven together to tell a story we all knew was there from the start.

we see troy’s careful realisation, we see abed help him through it, we see the two come out to each other. we see what really went down in the 24-hour weird down in the dreamatorium before shirley’s wedding. we see the secret feelings underlying the pillows and blankets war, we see the hate concealing something much deeper they’re both trying to hide, we see a sequel that’s not just the friendship hats but a painful conversation that ends in forgiveness because it’s them, of course it will. 

and when the yam was killed. well. the tension had to be relieved somehow, didn’t it? and when abed and troy switched in good cop bad cop—well, that wasn’t the only thing they switched in.

we see the awkward, clunky relationship of obligatory heterosexuality between troy and britta, we see their attraction build and culminate in an unsatisfactory manner, we see abed observe jealously from the sidelines and try to be happy. we see a confession he makes quietly to the camera when troy’s not home.

we see a tearful conversation before troy left for ac repair school, without the rest of the study group, just them. we see the pain his leaving caused the both of them we see the blinding joy at his return and a conversation the two of them never tell anyone else about. 

we see a conversation following heroic origins where troy remembers everything, suddenly, and in an apology to abed vows to leave who he used to be behind forever, he’s himself now. everyone else can suck it, he’s not pretending one bit anymore.

we see troy leave. we see the pain in both of their eyes, we see geothermal escapism all over again, but we see another conversation between troy and abed, between the end of the game and the cloning and their final goodbyes. 

the years fly by, and we see see abed’s grief that tears him apart but he keeps going because he’s got his friends he’s still got himself and troy will come back. because eventually, it all will. and we see his disappointment and sorrow as more leave and soon, he can tell the shows coming to an end. because the cast is falling apart, the narrators lost interest, the narrative is repeating itself. 

we see abed check the tracker each day. we see his shaking hands as he drops the phone when he hears about troy’s kidnapping, see his choked sob of relief when he sees the good news troy’s alive and well. 

we see him go to LA, see him become known in the film industry, see his life flourish as he grows into himself, still in touch with the study group, builds a life for himself, amazing and happy, but there’s a hollow place in his soul.

as time moves forward, we cut between confessions to a camera, the audio terrible as both whisper, trying not to be heard by roommates or. well. levar burton. they miss each other, they’ve found a life for themselves but now they know what they tried so hard not to feel. they’re whole on their own, they can live apart, but. they don’t want to.

and then, we cut to another scene. a shaky, vertical camera, we see a video of the study group at a dock, see britta’s finger covering part of the camera. we see jeff condescendingly explain to her how to switch the camera and she does, swearing at him, and we see abed standing apart from the rest, staring at the sea.

annie squeals, and there’s the childish tycoon coming into sight, and soon, it’s docking, and we’ve switched mediums now, abed thinks, because he thought the show ended years ago but this can only be the ending of a movie—it can only be that, he thinks, as he and troy see each other in the flesh for the first time, and the music swells in the background, and the camera follows troy hurrying down the ladder and runs toward abed, who’s standing completely still, overwhelmed by troy right in front of him after years of blurry pixelated occasional calls and the odd text or letter. 

as the song reaches its climax, the two move towards each other and kiss, and then cut to a terrible quality recording of the kiss on britta’s phone with her cheering and annie squealing in the background, and jeff’s sarcastic comment on britta’s shitty phone ends the movie as the credits roll.

#okay im sorry for the sex joke i HAD to. but the rest of it. yes. #if you read this far thank u im giving u a cookie here u go 🍪 #wow i am way too obsessed w this show #and a movie #aryan talks

[thatfraudcassandra]

Over the news of And A Movie, i found myself waxing nostalgic and even contemplating rewatching Community, but there is nothing like revisiting an old Twitter hate thread I made that doused me sober. (I bite Annie's head off a little in a case of internalized misogyny but hopefully it's clear that Dan Harmon is the real evil)

My 2020 hate speech:

WHY I HATE COMMUNITY: A THREAD

In the last month, I started bingeing Community and loved it. It was fresh. Meta. Made recently and so hopefully it was progressive as FRIENDS was 2020-offensive. Also I had already finished B99 and The Good Place and it was the next best thing.

In episode 1 they established Britta as the cool girl: she wouldn't date the hot guy because she's not shallow and let's face it, Jeff doesnt get the redemption arc that Jake did in B99. He didn't get over his assholeness like Jake did. Season 6 ended and Jeff was still shit.

Anyway, Britta is my favorite character. Season 1 saw her protesting causes, being a hypocrite over most of it, but totally relatable because who isn't a hypocrite right? At least she CARES. She empathizes with people. She later shifts to psychology wanting to help people. She often psychoanalyzes her friends which they hate, but she is often dead-on. Jeff and Pierce's dad issue? She called it. Abed's inability to move on after Troy left? She helped him with it. Troy's paralysis over breaking up with her? She helped him come to terms with it.

And yet, over the seasons she has been written as the "worst" character, often regarded as a meme rather than a real person. She's the only one who doesnt get to redeem herself over the seasons. (Jeff didnt redeem himself in my eyes but most would think he didnt need saving). Even Pierce redeemed himself by dying of dehydration after giving his seed away--can be construed as a selfless act. Britta never stands up from it. She is constantly put down by the group, with Annie constantly kneeling down her neck. They make jokes about her, uses her name as a synonym for "wreck" or "make worse". She exists mainly as two things: an antagonist in the Jeff-Annie relationship and a subject for every anti-woke sketch Dan Harmon wants to incorporate in the script.

Britta helped people. Britta cared. She did not compete with others, not even Annie even though Annie never stopped being insecure about Britta. She was best friends with Shirley. And yes, she made stupid decisions--Subway Rick and Honda Rick, Jeff, and Vaughn. But she genuinely cared. Unlike the rest of the group who were manipulative and found ways for the rest to cater to their whims, Britta usually didnt force anyone to do anything for her. Yes, she was vocal about her causes, but they always shot her down and except for the Guatemala bit in S1 I don't remember they ever supported her. Meanwhile, they went through claymation in Abed's breakdown, that whole s4 ending where Jeff had his own, Shirley even got her to man her shop, and Annie, well, I could think of a lot of times where she coerced the group into something. Such a poorly written character with so much potential.

And then Annie. She starts out grating my nerves. She's childish, manipulative, she literally stomps her feet and cries out like a toddler when something doesnt go her way. Dressing her up in slacks didnt make her mature. Over the seasons I went from being slightly annoyed to hating her but by the middle of season6, I just pity this character. Clearly, Dan Harmon fucked her up the way he did Britta. The writers probably didn't know how to write a multidimensional woman. Britta was reduced to a stupid, impressionable woke millennial, and Annie was just the slutty child. She was so oversexualized it didn't matter to me that Jeff stayed away--he clearly wanted to get into Annie's panties anyway. And she liked being viewed as a sex object. In the episode where they film a sci-fi movie for Chang, she shows up in a tight one piece that shows her breasts and Jeff clearly gets mesmerized. Britta calls her out "thats what you chose?" And then when Annie reaches INSIDE HER CLEAVAGE for an improvised laser bomb that Abed didnt write, Britta says "youre making it more difficult for every woman out there". Because it's true. Her loving being reduced to a sex object means it's okay for everyone else to be oversexualized. Annie retorts that she's just improvising, to which Britta says "IMPROVISE POCKETS!" She never made more sense than that moment.

I also hate how self-serving Annie is; remember the bottle episode? How about the one where Chang is cast as Mr. Miyagi? Or the party in the apartment episode. Or the one where they tie Prof Cornwallis up. Or the attack ad episode. Ugh. I hate her so much, but she is still the most well-loved character because SHE HAS BOOBS and she's hot. Innocent and sexy. The fact that so many people like her means there are so many misogynists, so many Dan Harmons in the world. And Britta? No one likes her. She says uncomfortable things. She doesnt dress like she's gonna blurt out "spank me daddy" any second now.

These are two women victimized by a series creator who probably didnt have much luck with women. Dan Harmon consistently shat on his women characters because he didnt understand them outside of his own relationships. Here is a guy who got married probably as a publicity stunt. He divorced her a year later and is now involved with a woman 12 years her junior. 12 years. Now you know why he kept pushing that creepy Jeff-Annie angle. And he's racist and ageist, you already knew that. Chevy Chase left famously because of it. And while Yvette Nicole and Donald didn't say it was the reason, throughout the season Dan poked fun at their race "did you ever 9/11 anyone?", Pierce once asked Abed. It's cringey. The whole thing is.

#community #six seasons and a movie #and a movie #darkest timeline #britta perry #dan harmon #dan harmon hate speech #opinion #shows I've seen

[annikuh]

talking abt the animated high school show with the cloned historical figures but absolutely not tagging it bc I don’t need any randos to come argue with me abt it, so

‼️‼️for the folks who have the tag blacklisted (I don’t blame you LMAO) this is your sign to skip ahead‼️‼️

putting it under the cut bc it’s long, rambly, and has several significant spoilers for s2 and s3. it is mostly about Topher bc they did him so dirty LOL. I just gotta get it off my chest bc it’s all eating me alive to the point where it feels like grief😵‍💫

tonight I ended up yelling myself into hysteria about how devastated I am that they’re literally writing Topher out of the whole show (literally 6 minutes of screen time this entire season. like actually literally.) and how easily they could’ve incorporated him more but they refuse to respect him as a character. like they can’t even do the bare minimum of continuing ANY of his story from s2 at all & its honestly a disservice, like they’d rather force his whole character to being defined by a group of other strange losers who all feel the same way as he does and acts the same way as he does, rather than keep him as an individual and UTILIZE HIM. he was a total loner in s2 bc he literally did not fit in with anyone and that made him stand out. but now there are several other weird randos (one of which being the laziest clone I’ve ever seen in my life—like Jack the Ripper was not a sassy black lady, what are we even talking about anymore it doesn’t make any sense, even as a joke) who are ALSO total loners who don’t fit in with anyone.

they didn’t even try to do anything at all with him. the most basic example is that he literally said he had a crush on Joan in the prev season—to the degree that he would convince Abe to get molested and then blackmail him abt it to keep him from stealing Joan from him—& then nothing happened with that at all when there was SUCH A CLEAR IN for that storyline. another insane example: he spent the entire previous season only talking to Abe and said like one word directly to him directly the entire season and there was never any mention of them ever having any relationship. no conflict btwn him and Abe for the INSANITY that Topher put him thru, which is actually nuts. they just…don’t talk.

my honest theory atp is just that he was a character that was too funny of a concept not to include, and didn’t have much else in mind. they just kept giving him jokes that were silly and didn’t take a moment to realize that there was potential for a very interesting ongoing antagonist. his blackmailing storyline was the most interesting thing in s2 for me bc there were so many questions about his actual motivations (bc he surely did not seem to care abt Joan when she was in trouble in s2ep10). & also bc like that’s a character who’s genuinely interesting and dangerous. he’s a total ticking time bomb with no friends and a history of psychiatric hospitalizations that’s constantly overcompensating for who he inherently is as the clone of a genocidal colonizer yet still being disliked because he’s overcompensating so much, who is willing to actively victimize and traumatize the only person who tolerates him over a crush (whether it be him having a genuine interest in Joan or him not wanting to lose his only friend).

but now they have him like “man I hate the popular kids, ooh Joan go change a letter out from the cheerleaders signs lol it’ll make them look stupid” are you fr. “we’re gonna release venomous snakes to poison everyone” don’t even look at me. so shallow, nothing there. why did he give up on trying to seem like a good person? doesn’t matter apparently. I could easily make up a reason but it’s not worth it to talk abt in the show ig so whatever.

it’s just so insulting and kinda icky to see that these writers/showrunners/whatever actively dislike one of their characters this much that they completely ignore both his established character traits AND his mere presence. He isn’t even in the background in half these episodes. He’s just gone.

I would’ve rather the writers just be like “sorry he’s in the asylum forever goodbye” and keep him out of this season entirely bc to see him reduced into generic nothing was a personal tragedy.

I was screaming about this for at least 40 minutes like banging on my desk and trying not to angry cry lol.

ik it’s dramatic but honestly I’m kinda grieving the show as a whole ngl. like I’ve come to the conclusion that it just doesn’t have a place in this decade & in retrospect it shouldn’t have been brought back in the first place. it’s so different from what it started as and I just…I dunno man. this season didn’t have any original music, no musical episode, no celebrity guests as far as I remember, and its just like guys what are we DOIN. it’s just such a deviation from the core elements of the show and it makes how serious we’re meant to take the show even more obvious and strange imo.

AND ANOTHER THING‼️ on that same note of having to take the show and characters pretty seriously, it’s even more obvious that they’re writing Topher out bc he’s the only “main character” in the opening credits that doesn’t get PROFUSE amounts of in-depth exploration—he literally gets zero. whatever nonsense he said in that last episode abt enjoying that he’s a villain doesn’t hold a candle to what everyone else got and honestly means nothing to me bc like…how am I supposed to be even kind of impacted by that reveal when he hadn’t spent a SECOND of this season trying to get anyone to like him. all he did in s2 was try to seem like a good woke guy with his awful activism and he did NONE of that the entire season, so it’s like 1. ok why not like why didn’t he do that if it was his MAIN BIT (A: bc the writers do not care about him clearly) and also 2. so why am I supposed to care abt him embracing his lineage in the last ep? it drives me NUTS bc that could’ve been such an interesting development (ala “aren’t you tired of being nice? Don’t you wanna just go ape shit?”) if they fucking set it up at all but god forbid i guess.

they so easily could’ve just cut out the bleachur creachurs and forced Joan to ally herself with Topher alone bc now everyone knows he’s kind of a misogynist and Abe fuckin hates him for the obvious reasons, and we get to the same place. let him and Joan be seen together. that would absolutely add tension to Joan’s relationship with the rest of her friends, especially since all of the boys KNOW that Topher likes her. There we go, easy peasy set up; it keeps him in his role as an antagonistic force and allows him easier access to the rest of the fucking cast. there are endless fucking possibilities and I could draft up like five different ways they could’ve easily incorporated him in. it makes me so mad.

won’t even get into how they threw candide off to the side too. fucking crazy man.

this sounds so awful but if it doesn’t get renewed, I don’t think I’m gonna be too upset. & that honestly makes me want to cry my eyes out bc this has been my favorite show since I was 16 :(

im rewatching s3 now with my partner and im hoping ill change my mind and inhale some copium and force myself to like it, but at this moment this is how i feel and its exhausting. just bad. (honestly I have several other standout issues that i just don’t like with the season—e.g. fucking Mary is the stupidest character arc they could’ve used like this is so lame. we spent three episodes hyping her up so abe can get his dick wet and she just ended up being Bloody Mary trying to fuck him to death. we have time for this but not topher huh? no time for candide either huh? booo…hisss….stupid fuckin plot line and dumber reveal. some character issues with scuddy boy too…hrng)

anyway, I’m just gonna file the serial number off of Topher and keep him for myself, fuck this noise LMAO

(if you’ve read to this point you deserve a medal and I’m praying to Christ you don’t think less of me LMAO)

#annikuh’s speakin #the more I think abt this show the more upset I get LOL

[bringbackwendellvaughn]

If you were the director of the Raft and had the choice to pick out members for your own version of Thunderbolts, who would you pick?And why?

Any of my Marvel knowledge is about 12 years out of date now.

First, I'll acknowledge that the question posed is "who makes sense" as opposed to simply "who do I like", so I'll try and ignore my inane need to have Grizzly in every comic.

Songbird always screams as the obvious candidate to lead any team.

Team-wise, since my larder is Raft inmates I'll immediately remove the past members that were "heroes" the last time I really was invested in the universe (Atlas, Abe, Radioactive Man, Jolt) even though they pretty much all were made evil again in the comics. I'll also try and steer clear of too many repeated members - as much as Blizzard, Amazon or Boomerang have potential to be better... they didn't manage it the first time, so I'd be a wishful fool to make a team of people who showed some promise but then as much as gave up. With that said, I am keeping two from The Raft era because they plain work on this format of prison reform team and... well, we'll get to her.

I think Juggernaut always makes sense. Keeping him on the straight and narrow by way of Thunderbolts is only beneficial for everyone. As a member of the team, and previously the X-Men, it was shown quite clearly that offering him the chance to contribute and giving him clear focus effectively removes his inclination to waywardness. His temper and the ease to manipulate him need to be worked on or taken into account.

Next up, might as well keep it rolling with the X-Men's rejects so we have Mimic. Mimic is and has always been directionless but shows capacity to both recognise the right thing to do and even the desire to do so. Away from the X-Men and any feelings of inferiority or being a copy, he can find some inspiration from Songbird and his team-mates to be the hero he thought he could have been instead of hiding behind an attitude and apathy. Mimic's powers alone make him beyond useful in any situation, but they also present an opportunity to adapt and plan in advance. (I'm going with the Exiles set-up of him being a mutant allowed to copy 5 mutant powers at a time and they are only half as powerful as the original - because that made the most sense and didn't make him completely OP)

Ghost. Like Juggernaut, the team takes him out of the running to be a future potential enemy. He has a skillset and expertise that is valued and the team helps Ghost better himself allowing him to interact with others and come to develop human connections and feelings which he has otherwise denied himself. Manipulating Ghost or keeping stuff hidden from him will only make him a nuisance or a threat - instead allow him a mixture of respect (for his abilities and intelligence) and don't give him any reason to feel misled or paranoid.

Sylvie Lushton, the Enchantress from the Young Masters, is still young and could be set on the right path. She's not yet a broken toy, her moral compass is simply undeveloped with her attitude still being that of any spoilt high school girl - shallow, fickle and vapid. Her greatest asset is she already has some finesse with aspects of her magic (teleportation) and potential to tap into even greater spellcasting than she has so far displayed. Essential to accommodate her relationship with inmate Melter, no use in removing one of the few things that present possibility for her to feel or care for someone. (Melter isn't unsalvageable either but I think he would benefit from serving his time - for manslaughter, I think that was his only crime? Although come to think of it I'm not sure Sylvie even committed any crime?).

In what I already suspect is a bad decision, I think Tiger Shark too could be rounded into, at least, an agent. He has attempted to turn over a new leaf before and his erratic motivations and even physical appearance seem to be the result of an imbalance of oxygens similar to that which also affected Namor. With appropriate treatments, Tiger Shark may again be susceptible to the idea of reform. On the Thunderbolts, he offers two great advantages - a second tank to stand beside Juggernaut and then someone uniquely suited to any aquatic elements.

Continuing the trend of poor choices... let's finally get to the obvious - Moonstone is insubordinate, she can't be trusted and she is unlikely to really accept or even ideate the notion of personal redemption again. However, it is much easier to include her as a team-mate than ever have to count her as an enemy. Active involvement in the team mollifies and reduces her threat to others significantly - however, preparations and contingencies should be made for the possibility of flippant betrayal. Her manipulating any of the team to her own ends should also be anticipated, expected and combated as best as it can be.

Lastly, what the team is lacking is someone who doesn't rely on strength or big powers, so we round off the team with Crossfire. He is a highly trained combatant, an excellent marksman, a master of battle strategy and has intuitive technological proficiency. He has no interest in atonement or bettering himself, no desire to be a good person or wash the blood from his hands... but he is a professional. Simply allowing him the chance to use his abilities to work off his sentence or work towards gaining a clean slate for past crimes could provide incentive.

All I can say is, I hope Graviton doesn't murder them all.

#asks #Thunderbolts #Songbird #Juggernaut #Mimic #Ghost #Enchantress (Sylvie Lushton) #Tiger Shark #Moonstone #Crossfire

[snowmaniaph]

Abilities: Abe Ryohei

[Communication Ability]

I’m average. I’m not a communication monster, but I’m also not shy. I think I meet the minimum requirement to navigate the world. You know, being good at quizzes is closely linked to communication ability! Because you need wide and shallow knowledge in quizzes, even if I talk to someone who enjoys the Japanese tea ceremony then I would at least be able to lightly talk about the different schools (of the tea ceremonies), and even if I don’t play golf I would still be able to understand golf terms. Common ground is extremely important to communicate, so I feel like taking quizzes is such an amazing hobby~.

[Stamina]

My ability to pace myself and distribute my stamina has improved (laughs). I don’t like getting tired in the latter half of things like stage plays and live performances and can’t show my 100%, that’s why I think this is a skill I need! We use our whole body in this year’s Takizawa Kabuki, but there are a lot of performances that put a lot of strain on certain parts of the body like fukkin taiko that strain the abs and waist. That’s why only certain parts of the body hurt! I use a massage gun to focus care (on these areas)! 

[Charm]

Maybe what people call “intelligence”? Lately, a lot of people have kindly called me “azatoi (cunning, sly, or flirty)”. But to tell you the truth, I don’t know what “azatoi” is (laughs). I haven’t grasped its’ essence that’s why I feel troubled when people tell me to do something “azatoi”. But if people are calling me “azatoi” as a compliment, then I do feel really honored! A person I think is charming is Fujigaya (Taisuke)-kun. I’ve thought of this from when the time I was a backup dancer for Kis-My-Ft2, but like the unexpected playfulness that comes out when he is usually cool, it makes me think that he really is the ideal image of an idol!

[Boyfriend Ability]

I might be the type who wants to devote myself. I like listening to the radio while driving, that’s why I want to pick her up and drive her home on the days we go out on a date. I can only cook simple dishes, so is it ok if I only cook sometimes? But I should be capable enough to help her when she cooks for us, so I’ll work in the kitchen in such a way that I won’t become a problem for her (laughs).

[Lettering Ability]

I can design the Japanese characters in Mincho or Gothic font, and decorate kanji in a stylish way. It feels like the basics I learned in art class when I was in junior high school are still ingrained in me. It might be an unexpectedly special ability?

Source: Duet 07/2022

#snowman #snow man #abe ryohei #translations #ryohei abe

[papergirllife]

Lee Jeno

'You ease Jeno's frustrations during a late night recording session."

Warnings : unprotected sex, cockwarming, generally quite fluffy.

Word count : 1.8k

You were in your pajamas at 1 a.m. in the morning, still in the company because your boyfriend is trying to record the best version of his verse in the recording booth a few feet away, his black denim jacket draped across your chest to shield you from the cold.

You were going through your own lyrics, making a few changes here and there to make sure the flow of the song suits you, working in a low volume to avoid disturbing Jeno, who was already getting antsy from this certain verse.

When you were done, you placed the pencil on the desk and got up from your seat, walking to the booth where Jeno had his handsome face in a frown.

“You okay, Jeno? Aren’t you cold in here?” you asked as you took his jacket off of you, draping it back onto his broad shoulders.

“I'm feeling fine, you should use it,” Jeno said shortly before he takes it off, putting it onto you again.

“But you're just in a tank, and you have to perform on stages very soon, you can't catch a cold,” you argued before trying to take it off once more, only to be stopped by Jeno’s hands.

“I'm fine, you're the one who's sensitive to the cold, I don't want you to get sick because of me, I didn't ask for you to be here with me, and still you showered and came back here to be with me, I'm sorry for eating up our time, I know I promised to have a night in with you,” Jeno said with a sad tinge to his usually cheerful eyes before reaching out for you, embracing you into his warmth.

“I know how important this comeback is for you, I wanted to stay here with you because I'm stubborn and that's on me, not you,” you said before turning your body to tuck yourself closer into Jeno, giving his bicep a quick peck before burying your head into his neck, the familiar scent of cologne filling your lungs.

Jeno let's out a chuckle at this odd but familiar action, you started doing this since the day Jeno had started working out on his arms more, every little thing he does you’d always be proud of it, which is why you're so different from everyone else, Jeno feels safe with you, the fact that the both of you absolutely adore each other irks his members out, but he doesn’t care, not when he only has eyes for you.

“I love you,” Jeno said without hesitation, it's always been like this for the two of you, saying these three words whenever you felt like it, communication between the two of you has always been good, though it hasn't always been like this.

There was a time at the beginning of the relationship where Jeno only knew how to show his love through actions, fearing that it may seem too pushy if he constantly speaks up about his emotions, being a guy and all, but your reassurance of loving to hear everything he has to say, as well as those doe eyes of yours that always have a hundred percent focus on him, had given him a sense of comfort, and so he now speaks whatever that comes to mind when he's with you, most often 'I love yous', it could be in the morning when you wake up, or moments like this where there are uncertainties in his head, you’re his rock.

“I love you too, Jeno,” you said it back before pulling away slightly to kiss him, pulling him closer again by looping your hands around his nape, playing with the strands of hair there as you bit on his bottom lip gently before feeling a sudden grip on your hip, a gasp falling from your lips just to give Jeno the opportunity to dominate the kiss, getting you right where he wanted you to be, under his control.

Jeno tasted like the chocolate mint balls he was having just now, a mixture of sweet chocolate and invigorating mint clouding your senses, the taste so addictive that you licked at his tongue just to taste more, but soon Jeno pulled away, noticing that you were running out of breath, your forehead lolled against his, a sign that he was all too familiar with.

“Slow down, baby, what's got you so worked up?” Jeno asked as he peppers kisses down your neck sloppily, he knows he can't mark you without your manager lecturing you, so he'll just have to manoeuvre himself to the valley of your breasts, popping open the buttons of your pajamas to reveal that you've worn a set that had no padding, the tips of your nipples would've been obvious it weren't for how loose your shirt was.

“Remember the last time we fucked in here? You had a writer’s block for stronger and 119, I want to be your muse again, Jen,” you reminded him as you trailed your hand at the hem of his tank, palming his abs that you go crazy over, you must be the luckiest girl ever, to find a guy who’s as hot as he’s talented in his career, not to mention the sinful things he does with those dancer hips.

Jeno chuckled at that fond memory, recalling Jaemin’s horrid expression when he found the two of you in such a state.

“You do know that this is ANL right?” gesturing at the lyrics on the stand.

“Which is a highly suggestive yet quite a fluffy song, we have to set the mood in order for you to actually gain some inspiration, no?” you said before you pulled off his shirt, throwing it somewhere behind you.

“Greedy aren't you?” Jeno said as he tips your chin higher to get a good look at you in the dim lights, admiring your swollen lips and the lust in your eyes, all because of him.

“Well, you can't pen my name down for these songs, the least you can do is give me a good fuck to remember it by,” you said with those seductive eyes of yours looking into his hooded ones before reaching down his pants, a jolt from his cock at your freezing hands.

“Whatever my baby wants, whatever she gets am I right?” Jeno said before manoeuvring you to your back facing his, letting your ass feel his hard on.

You placed your hands on the stool that Jeno previously sat in, arching your back for him to easily access the situation.

Jeno pulls your sweats and panties down hanging them onto the stand, you purse your lips at the sight, hoping that none of your arousal gets onto the surface, but before you could make up your mind whether to tell Jeno to place your clothing somewhere else, Jeno had spread your folds with two fingers, a hand coming up to swipe at your slit teasingly before pinching your clit lightly in between his thumb and index finger, combing a moan out of you, legs jolting at the sudden pleasure, you were always sensitive there.

“Fuck, baby, I barely touched you and you’re dripping wet, didn't know you were this worked up,” Jeno said by your ear, his voice a few octaves lower.

Jeno enters two fingers in one go, making you buckle your knees at the sudden intrusion, not expecting it so soon, the feeling of his rough finger pads reaching deep into you, searching for that one spot, and when he found it, it felt like the first taste of heaven, a whimper falling from your lips as you held onto the stool harder, preparing for what's to come.

Jeno thrusted his fingers in a moderate pace before sliding in a third, making a scissoring motion to open you up for his large cock.

When he deemed that you were wet enough, Jeno shoved his pants and boxers down to his knees, impatient for the warmth in between your legs.

Jeno positioned himself at your entrance, pushing in an inch before slamming himself into you.

“Fuck, Jeno!” you could feel how full you were now, and how he fits perfectly inside you, his tip dangerously close to your sweet spot, you just need him to move.

“Jeno, you can move now, please,” you begged, breathless as your mind is still registering the feeling of this euphoria.

Jeno clenches his jaw in concentration before pulling out of your sweet pussy slightly, before thrusting back in, starting a quick and shallow pace, the way your warm walls were clenching onto him was making him lightheaded from the immense pleasure, but he knows he has to get his shit together if he wants to actually finish up recording tonight.

Jeno grips onto your hips as he builds up his pace, pistoning his dick inside of you hard and fast as he hears your screams of pleasure, the sound echoing in this small booth, encouraging him to go faster as he gets addicted to this sweet melody.

You held onto the stool for your dear life as you felt the knot in your abdomen slowly unwinding, a sign that you’re nearing your edge.

“I'm gonna cum, Jen, cum with me, please,” you said before purposely clenching onto his dick.

“Fuck, baby, I’m not gonna last any longer if you keep doing that,” Jeno said in one breath, before focusing back onto chasing both your highs, a hand moving to your breasts to pinch your nipples with the perfect amount of pain, he knows how much of a pain slut you are for him, and that was exactly what pushed you over the edge.

You felt your body convulsing as you orgasmed, the knot snapping free as the screams of Jeno’s name tumble from your lips as you let Jeno continue.

Jeno came only a few sloppy thrusts, after you, biting onto your shoulder as he came, giving a few hard thrusts to ride out both your highs, and just so he could bury his cum inside you, letting both your juices mix.

When both of you were done, Jeno moved your limp body expertly on top of his as he took a seat onto the stool, him still inside of you, your head tucked by his left shoulder, picking up where he had left off just now.

“You're right baby, you really are my muse,” Jeno said before humming a tune, then correcting some errors on the sheet.

“Well, good to know I was helpful, now if you'll excuse me, I need to clean up,” you said before trying to get up.

Jeno's left hand grips onto your hips, restricting you from leaving.

“Stay for a bit, I'm finishing up soon, then I'll clean you up, I'm sure you’re too tired to walk now, get some rest,” Jeno said as he pats your head gently, something he does that oddly lulls you to sleep.

“Okay, just don't overwork yourself,” you said before drifting off to sleep on your boyfriend’s shoulder, your very own human pillow.

#nct smut #nct fluff #nct #nct dream #jeno #jeno smut #jeno fluff #lee jeno #nct 127 #wayv #jaemin

[the-iceni-bitch]

How about 20 and 38 with Ransom? I love your blog btw, you are a fabulous writer!

20) “You’d better be quiet or everyone’s going to know what a naughty little slut you are.”

38) “I need you. Now!”

I started giggling evilly as soon as I got this ask nonnie, so thank you for that!

What a surprise, it’s our OTP again!! (Tagging my babes @stargazingfangirl18 @chrissquares @subtlebucky @egcdeath)

Send me smutty prompts!!!!

Guys, it’s smut so no minors please!

You chugged another mimosa to cover your eye roll as Jodi started talking about her damn lifestyle brand again.

This was the third time she’d brought it up during the Thrombeys’ monthly brunch. It was like she was shelling a fucking MLM.

You hated that you had been forced to sit with the other women while the boys were out back shooting skeet, but after your last interaction with the family you thought it would be best to avoid making waves as much as possible. And if that meant sitting through inane conversation with the other women, whatever.

It wasn’t the fact that it was girl talk that bothered you. It was as that all of these women were so fucking out of touch with reality that every single thing out of their mouths was like nails on a chalkboard to you. At least if Meg has been there you would’ve had someone relatively normal to engage with, but she was cramming for finals so no such luck.

“Do you really think you should have another drink, Y/N?” Linda tutted condescendingly as you moved to pour yourself another mimosa from the pitcher.

You bit back your comment about her downing six Bloody Marys and gave her a suffering grin. “They’re just so delicious, and it’s not like I have to drive any where.”

“That’s right, you have my son to chauffeur you around.” She muttered as she fidgeted with her blouse. “It must be so nice knowing he’s there to take care of everything for you.”

You practically slammed your glass down, totally ready to give up your resolution to not start a fight as you took a deep breath when suddenly Ransom burst into the sun room, his cheeks flushed from the chill outside.

“Hey babe.” He beamed at you before bending over the back of the sofa you were sitting on to press his lips to yours in an absolutely obscene kiss.

His fingers curled lightly around the base of your throat as he stroked your tongue with his own, tugging at your lips with his teeth until you were moaning wantonly into his mouth, your body trying to arch further towards him and your nipples pebbling under your blouse as a rush of arousal seeped out of you.

“I need you. Now!” He whispered once he broke away, low enough that only you could hear him as you struggled to catch your breath.

You turned back to the three older women to see them giving you very disapproving looks as you quickly downed the rest of your drink before slowly rising off the sofa and smoothing your hands over your pants.

“Ladies.” You said before giving Linda a wicked grin. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ve gotta help Ransom take care of something.”

You chuckled to yourself as you heard her splutter with rage behind you when you followed Ransom out into the hall. He dragged you into the bathroom and kicked the door closed behind you, pinning you to it before giving you another searing kiss.

“Was my mom being a bitch again?” He asked as he untucked your blouse and skimmed his hands up your sides before cupping your breasts.

“Yeah, pretty sure she thinks I’m only with you for your money.” You grinned against his lips as your started to undo his belt. “Shows how much she knows. I’m just using you for sex.”

He laughed into your mouth at that, bringing one hand down to grip your ass, pressing you into him as he ground his crotch against you.

“What about you? Why are you so hot and bothered?” You sighed as he moved his mouth down to trace your jaw.

“Just, fucking Walt.” He grumbled, his fingers undoing the buttons of your blouse as he continued to press his growing erection against the seam of your pants, rubbing it right over your clit. “It was either this or shoot him and that little nazi shit.”

“Mmm, good thing I was here then.” You murmured as you wrapped one leg around him. “Don’t stop moving.”

“Jesus, already?” He asked, bringing his face back up to inspect yours as you writhed against him. “We haven’t even gotten to second yet.”

“Yeah, well don’t fucking kiss me like that in front of your family unless you wanna turn me into a wet mess, Hugh.”

“That’s all it takes?” He grinned as he pressed even harder against you, making you bite your lip to swallow a moan. “I’m gonna have to remember that.”

He pressed his lips to yours and twisted his hips slightly and that was it. You felt a shockwave travel up your spine as a wave of bliss spread from your core, your muscles quivering as you fluttered around nothing and your release flooded your panties.

Your breath came in ragged gasps as you came down, sawing in your chest as you struggled to regulate it. You finally relaxed and met Ransom’s eyes, grinning at him.

“You treat me so good baby.” You muttered, giving him a quick peck to his lips as you unwound yourself from him. “Gonna take care of you now.”

You sank to your knees in front of him and rubbed your face into the front of his pants, nipping at the outline of his hard cock as you worked at undoing his fly.

“Shit, Y/N!” He hissed as you yanked his pants and boxer briefs down his thighs, freeing his cock to bounce back up against his abs.

You just gazed up at him through your lashes as you spat in your palm then wrapped your hand around his length, sucking his sack into your mouth as you started to stroke him.

“Fuck, oh my god.” Ransom groaned, his breath coming in shallow pants when you swirled your thumb through the precum collected at his tip at the same time you dragged your tongue over the vein that ran over the base of his cock.

“You’d better be quiet or everyone’s going to know what a naughty little slut you are.” You ordered before taking him in your mouth and sucking while you swirled your tongue around his sensitive head.

“Yes, ma’am.” He whispered, swallowing a cry as you took him deeper, hollowing your cheeks as you drew him further into your mouth.

His hands wrapped in your hair as you kept bobbing your head up and down his length, your hand coming up to fondle his balls as you worked him over. You felt his tip hi the back of your throat and you relaxed, taking him even deeper and swallowing around his cock.

He stopped caring that he was just fifteen feet away from his family and let out a feral growl, his hips and hand moving on their own accord as he started to fuck your throat. You gripped his thighs as you let him work, gazing up at him through your lashes as drool leaked from the corners of your mouth, doing your best to breathe through your nose.

“Fuck, I wanna come all over that pretty face.” He muttered as his cock twitched at the back of your throat, his hips starting to falter in their rhythm. “That ok with you honey?”

You hummed your approval around his cock and he pulled out of you, his hand in your hair tilting your head back as his other tugged at his dick harshly until his cum was shooting all over your cheeks and chin, smearing over your lips as he rubbed his tip against them. He groaned as he finished, slapping the head of his cock against your swollen mouth until he had nothing left to give you.

“Fuck, you look so pretty like this, honey.” He murmured as he smeared his thumbs through his spend on your lips before slipping it into your mouth, moaning as you swirled your tongue around it.

You grinned at him and started to stand up before there was a pounding on the bathroom door.

“Who is it?” You called, winking at Ransom and dragging your thumb slowly over your face to collect his cum as you watched him tuck himself back into his pants.

“It’s Linda.” Ransom’s mother called through the door as you sucked your thumb into your mouth, moaning as you tasted his spend. “If you two are quite finished behaving like teenagers, there’s a bit of a line forming.”

You rolled your eyes and moved to open the door, Ransom trying to move to stop you as you still had some of his cum smeared across you chin. You just shook your head at him as you wrenched it open, giving Linda a shit eating grin.

“So sorry Linda, it’s all yours.” You beamed at her, pointedly dragging your thumb over your chin and sucking the rest of her son’s spend into your mouth, moaning pornographically as you maintainted eye contact with her and stepped out into the hall.

Ransom followed after you, shrugging at his mother and laughing like an idiot as he wrapped one arm around your waist and nuzzled into your hair, his lips brushing against the hinge of your jaw.

“Pretty sure that solidified your mom’s hatred of me.” You said with a sly smile, turning to face Ransom as the two of you headed out to the beemer.

“Please, like that matters to me.” He didn’t know how he had ever survived family functions without you before, but he was bringing you to all of them from now on.

——————————————————————————

A/N: BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! I feel just the teensiest bit bad about what I did to Linda here but whatever!

#natalie answers #smut prompts #ransom drysdale x you #ransom drysdale x y/n #ransom drysdale smut #ransom drysdale x female reader #ransom drysdale x reader #ransom drysdale #ransom x you #ransom smut #chris evans smut #chris evans #chris evans characters

[fandomvariousness]

Finally

Pairing: Eren Jaeger x reader

Warnings: angst, mentions of violence & death, nsfw content

Summary: reader finally sees her lover Eren after the team retrieves him to the airship, yet he’s not the same. Will she bring him back?

Word count: 3.2k

A/N: Forgive me if some details are inaccurate, this is my rendering of the situation, so some things may not add up!

Finally.

Finally, the day you’re going to see Eren again.

You shivered with anticipation, thinking about the letters that were going sparse, until there were none. You’ve been inseparable, supporting each other every step of the way, but Eren had to deal with unthinkable, horrible things along the same steps too, and you couldn’t take all of it away – the burning hatred seeped into his brain, numbing his senses and compassion.

He offered no explanation in letters as to why he’d stopped writing so often, and you didn’t ask for one – he’s in enemy’s land, surely he has his reasons, but deep down you knew he was pushing you away.

What were you going to say to him? Will you hug him? Will he hug you? You had no idea, and it was killing you.

Your adrenaline was over the roof. Everything around you was destroyed, splintered, ground to pieces – Eren did that.

It seemed that you lost it when you realized that Eren had transformed without the care of hurting innocent civilians – his sense of revenge was stronger than anything else. You haven’t been able to approach him yet, to look into his mesmerizing jade eyes. You suspected Captain Levi has positioned you away from him on purpose – who knows how you and Eren would’ve reacted to each other’s presence after so long.

You felt the insides of your stomach turn as you hooked your cables on the airship and zipped-lined towards it. Just a minute ago you saw how Mikasa made it inside, dragging Eren along. You heard a commotion above you – Captain Levi was cussing Eren out. The casual.

You felt how everyone stopped whatever they were doing as you were climbing on board – secretly, they all wanted to know what will happen once you two meet again. That’s how powerful you two are. Were.

Out of breath, you stood up, regaining your posture, your rifle still in hands as you finally looked at him: if not for the emerald sheen of his eyes, you wouldn’t have recognized this ragged, miserable man with a chestnut resembling that of a lion.

You stared into each other, the unbearable grief that consumed you rendering you immobile. Quickly, your vision worsened, tears blurring your eyes as you realized there’s nothing behind those of Eren. He looks at you, yet doesn’t say anything, doesn’t feel anything.

“Move,” Captain Levi muttered and lightly pushed you aside.

You tore your gaze away from Eren, breathing shallow breaths as you stumbled towards the wall, leaning on it.

And then you heard the shot.

~

It was unbearable. One fleeting moment, one slightest miscalculation, and she’s gone. Sasha is gone.

You kneeled beside her tomb with your head hanging down, hot teardrops sinking into the pale stone. Everything was always shit, but now… now it’s pure hell. You sobbed and raised your head to look at the cloudy sky, cutting off the air flow, trying to pull yourself together.

“Hey,” Jean approached you, Connie not far behind. “Come here.”

He crouched down to your level and placed his palms on your shoulders reassuringly, helping you stand up.

Eren was nowhere to be seen. He kept to himself in his quarters, but Captain Levi forbid anyone to properly visit him anyway. He thought Eren’s unstable.

But you thought the opposite. Eren’s perfectly stable – the deadly precision, calculation and determination fueled his conscious, revenge-fueled decisions, and frankly, you were afraid. He wasn’t thrashing around like he would years ago, screaming and tearing everything apart, consumed by fury – he knew what he was doing now.

The last time you laid eyes on him was during Sasha’s funeral, but it seemed that he wasn’t even there. His body was, of course, but his mind was fleeting somewhere else, somewhere where he could continue plotting the utter extermination of every last one of his enemies.

It’s going to be hard, bringing him back. Hell, you didn’t even know if it’s possible – he truly looked like a goner. But you were going to try, because there isn’t any other living being in the world you love more than Eren Jaeger.

~

You sat on your bed, facing the one that belonged to Sasha. She would tell you to stand up and go straight to Eren and whoop his ass for ignoring you.

You sank your teeth in your lower lip as you stood up and made your way towards Captain Levi’s office.

“Come in,” his low voice muttered after you knocked. He rolled his eyes when he saw it’s you.

“What is it?” he asked, his desk already stuffed with a bunch of paperwork.

“I need to visit Eren.” you realized how selfish your request sounds in the midst of everything, but you couldn’t help it.

“No.” he answered after a few seconds of regarding you, without any care in the world. “You’ll just wind him up.”

Your heart skipped a beat – if Captain Levi thought that Eren still feels something for you, then maybe it’s true.

“Please, Captain, I –”

“Stop whining, brat.” he hissed, silencing you.

There was a wall of miscommunication between the two of you as you stared at each other, trying to convince one another silently.

He put down his pen after a few moments and leaned back in his chair as he sighed slowly. “You’re gonna do it anyway, aren’t you?”

You shrugged ever so slightly as you stared at nothing in particular.

Some more silence passed. “I’ve not yet decided on giving you week’s-worth punishment for insubordination, but go. Get out.”

“Thank you, Captain.” you bowed your head to him quickly, suppressing your smile as you basically ran away.

Levi rubbed his forehead. “Stupid brats.”

~

As you approached the door of Eren’s room, your heart pounded against your ribs so hard, you truly thought they’re going to crack. Yet here you were, standing within a step from the door, eyeing the little crack of light that emits from within – it’s not completely closed.

You lifted your trembling arm and knocked softly, then once again, harder this time, thinking he may not have heard it.

“Eren?” you whispered weakly after you got no reply once again.

You gulped and pushed the door further, stepping in – empty. He’s not here.

You released a breath you didn’t realize you were holding as you stepped further, looking around. The whole room looked almost untouched if not for the sack of a few items he brought from his old room. Your eyes flicked towards a stack of letters on the desk – your letters.

Your lower lip quivered as you approached them, picking one up – not even opened.

Pain and anger spun like a vortex inside you, bringing hot tears to your eyes. How important must’ve been the reason that he denied you the slightest explanation?

The letter dropped back to the desk as you flinched, hearing the door shut behind you.

Gasping quietly, you turned around, seeing him clearly for the first time since a couple of days ago. He stood there in all his cool, newfound glory: hair long enough to be messily gathered in a bun, naked torso adorned with chiseled abs, V line protruding from his waistline, and pants that hugged his muscular legs.

He had a toweled hanging over his shoulder – that’s where he’s been, in the showers.

You didn’t know what was the exact reason for the hot blush that crept to your face in a second – the fact that Eren is even more attractive than you remember, or that you stood there like a mute, with your jaw basically on the floor.

His own gaze was unreadable – he watched you like a hawk as he approached the chair and draped the towel over its back, stuffing his hands in his pockets afterwards.

You snapped awake, glancing at the letters behind you, and then back at him. “You never opened them.”

“You need to forget me,” he spoke, staring directly in your eyes. “I’ve only have a few years left anyway, if I’m lucky.”

It hurt you how assured of his words he was as you turned your body from him, desperately trying to calm down. He stood there just the same when you dared to look at him again.

“Why are you doing this?” you asked, failing to conceal the tremble that laced your voice. “I’ve told you countless times, I’m with you until the end, and even then.”

“That’s exactly why.” he raised his voice just a bit, reminding of the old Eren you used to know. “I can’t bear the fact that you’re okay with… all this.”

You covered your face with your palms momentarily before stepping a couple of steps closer to him. “Did you honestly think I’ll go down with this scheme of yours?”

“I’m determined to make it happen.”

“Eren, don’t be stupid!” you couldn’t control yourself anymore. “I’m not some… weak maiden in need of constant attention! I’m your partner!”

“You want to be partner of the monster that I am?” he asked, a faint hint of disappointment in his voice.

You sighed, closing your eyes. “Eren…”

“I’m a murderer.” he said as he lessened the space between you a little more, trying to impose his truth on you – you could almost feel his breath on your skin, what made another shiver run down your spine.

You opened your eyes abruptly, because you knew he expected that you won’t be able to even look at him after what he’s done. His jade eyes were the same as before as you drowned in them.

You couldn’t help as you placed your dainty palms on his ripped upper arms, the tips of your fingers jolting with electricity. Eren felt that too, for you heard him draw in a sharp breath.

You were going to say something, but right now you couldn’t focus on anything other than your skins touching again, after all this time. You gulped as you gathered courage to lightly stroke down to his forearms.

“You’re not a monster.” you spoke again. “You’re just a hurt boy who can’t help but hurt others.”

He stayed silent, because he knew it’s true. You always did this to him – always had one last argument that made him shut up. His eyes became glassy as he looked down in shame, gripping your own forearms in his calloused palms.

“Come here,” you mumbled as you wound your arms around his neck, cradling him, as his own arms snaked around your waist, head buried in the crook of your neck.

You were only hugging, but it felt ecstatic. You gripped him tightly, swearing to yourself never to let go again. You felt a few wet drops run down your shoulder, yet Eren didn’t release a sound – you knew he was holding back.

“I’m sorry for everything.” he whispered. “You don’t deserve this.”

“Eren, you’re never getting rid of me.” you whispered into his hair before planting a tender kiss on his head.

He released a breathy laugh, tickling your neck. You nuzzled into each other more, and then you felt his lips on your neck, pecking it lightly, immediately blazing flames in your lower region.

You arched your neck back, providing him with an easier access to your skin. You couldn’t suppress a small gasp as his hot breath trailed up to your jaw, along with his longing-filled kisses.

“I missed you.” he whispered against your jaw, before pecking just below the corner of your lips.

Your mind was already in shambles. “Believe me, I missed you more.”

Your lips finally collided: desperate, needy, hungry. His fingers dug into your hips, aligning your centers as your palms slid down to the either side of his neck. You moaned into his lips between the famished, open-mouthed kisses as he gripped your behind, trying to savor it all.

Your palms were running down his chest on their own, exploring every crevice and scar, some old and some new, still unexplored. You felt his hand slide under the hem of your shirt up to your ribs, leaving a scalding-hot trail in its wake.

You rutted your hips against his automatically, getting needier with every passing second, your hands hooked around his neck again, holding on for dear life.

Your jaw slacked as he sneaked his hand under your bra, his fingers coming in contact with your hardened nipple. He drew back a little so that he could see your flushed face and hazy eyes, a light sheen of saliva reflecting from your slightly lolled out tongue.

“More, you say? Just how much?” he teased, his eyes darting from your eyes to your lips repeatedly, the corners of his lips upturned ever so slightly.

“Really, really much,” you whimpered before he discarded you of your shirt and bra, his hands roaming down your sides as he sucked on your jugular, your hands buried in his hair, ruining his bun.

“Jump.” he said between the wet kisses as you felt his hands under your thighs.

He made his way towards the bed before gently dropping you down on it, feeling the tent in his pants become unbearable, almost painful. How could it not, when you lay sprawled out under him, hair messy around your head like a halo, all the while needy breaths escaping your lips?

You knew exactly what you were doing to him, but you wanted to drive him crazy, to make up for all the painful time you’ve spent apart. You started wriggling out of your leggings, your gaze never leaving his eyes. He unbuttoned his own pants before they slid to the ground, revealing a formed tent under his boxers.

Suddenly, he grabbed you by your calves and yanked you closer, forcing a yelp from you. Second after his lips crashed on yours again, making their way down, passing your neck, collarbones, stomach, until they reached their destination.

You found it hard to breathe as he kissed your inner tight, getting closer and closer to where you needed him most.

“Eren,” you whimpered, your eyes closed, hands gripping the sheets. “Please…”

You felt him smile against your thigh before his tongue flicked against your clothed clit lightly, coaxing another high-pitched moan from you.

You put the back of your hand against your mouth quickly, embarrassed at the sudden reaction. You felt the bed shift before you opened your eyes and saw him parallel with your own body again.

“Don’t,” he asked as he removed your arm from your face. “I want to hear every little sound you make.”

He kissed you once before making his way back, hooking his fingers on your panties and sliding them down painfully slowly. The cold air on your skin peppered it with goosebumps, yet when you felt Eren’s face lower to your center, your body ignited once again.

A moan got stuck in your throat as you felt Eren’s slick tongue go all the way from your entrance to your clit, circling it, literally driving you crazy.

“Eren,” you moaned, the back of your head buried into the mattress as you wound your hands through his hair, completely ruining the bun, his chestnut hair falling to the sides and framing his face.

His fingers dug into your thighs as he pleasured you with his tongue, awakening the passion in you that was dormant during his absence.

Eren loved the taste of you on his tongue as he sucked on you, holding down your squirming hips. He knew you were close; he remembers everything your body language tells him.

“E-Eren, I’m gonna—” you choked out, confirming his observations.

You felt cold air hit your slick folds as Eren drew back, quickly discarding himself of his last piece of clothing before he leaned down, planting a sloppy kiss on your lips.

“Ready?” he breathed into your lips, receiving a nod.

The burning sensation followed his dick breaching your entrance, stretching it out after so long.

“Fuck,” he groaned against your mouth, having forgotten just how good your pussy feels.

You choked out a groan as you wound your legs around his waist, urging him to plunge deeper, despite the slight pain that strains you.

“This good?” he asks between his heavy breathing as he makes his way deeper into you.

“Yeah, yeah,” you nod quickly, your voice out of tune.

He finally hits your cervix, staying like that for a few moments, allowing you to adjust, peppering your neck with kisses as your chest rises and falls heavily.

You kiss his lips as you place a hand against his buttocks, urging him to go on. He goes back to the point of pulling out before hitting you deep again, building up his pace as he does so.

Your mind is getting hazier with each thrust – it seemed that the room turned into a sauna as you could almost see the huffs of air that escaped both of your mouths.

“You’re doing so good, baby,” he groaned against your ear as he pinned your hand above to your head, intertwining his fingers with yours.

He was barely controlling himself as your pussy clenched around him – he probably never had to restrain himself with you as he does now, regarding the absence of your touch for such a long amount of time. You’ve never been apart that long, and he hoped you’ll never be again.

“Eren!” you screamed, sensing your release fast approaching as you wound your hands around his neck.

He pounded into you hard, bringing some steamy memories of your times before for a moment.

Finally, you fell, arching your back, your stomach gliding against his, as every nerve of your brain exploded. Eren continued thrusting into you until a few moments after you felt his own release spilling inside you.

He moaned against the crook of your neck, planting a few kisses. He rolled to your side and faced the ceiling with his eyes closed, until they snapped open again, hearing you sniffle.

Guilt washed over him like a tempest as he leaned on his side, gently gripping your waist as you covered your eyes with the back of your forearm. “Did I hurt you??”

“No!” you yelped and removed your arm from your face, placing your palm on his cheek instead. For a moment you were so frightened he would blame himself for something he didn’t even do.

“No,” you repeated, more softly. “I’m just really happy you’re here.”

He leaned his forehead to yours, worry leaving his body almost visibly. He sighed as he brought you closer.

You tucked a few of his locks behind his ear, making him look a couple years younger. “I love your hair.”

Eren chuckled, his eyes still closed in the afterglow bliss. “Captain hates it. He said –”

Then it dawned on him. “Wait, how did you get here?” he leaned on his forearm as he looked at you, genuinely interested, amusement threatening to widen his smile any moment.

“I simply asked Captain.”

Eren raised an eyebrow. “And he let you?? Just like that?”

“Well,” you trailed off. “He did mention something about a punishment for insubordination…”

“Unbelievable,” Eren whispered, as he sunk back into the mattress, quiet laughs emanating from his chest, as you drew shapes on it with a stupid smile on your face. “And you still came.”

“I’ll be fine if you visit me at least twice while I’m behind bars?”

You two laughed even harder, and this moment, this tiny moment in the vast space surrounding everything, was perfect.

#attack on titan eren jaeger x reader #eren jaeger #attack on titan eren jaeger imagine #attack on titan eren yeager x reader #attack on titan eren yeager imagine #attack on titan x reader #attack on titan imagine #attack on titan eren jaeger #attack on titan eren yeager #attack on titan #eren jaeger x reader #eren yeager x reader #eren jaeger imagine #eren yeager imagine #eren yeager #imagine #shingeki no kyojin eren jaeger x reader #shingeki no kyojin eren yeager x reader #shingeki no kyojin eren jaeger imagine #shingeki no kyojin eren yeager imagine #shingeki no kyojin x reader #shingeki no kyojin imagine #shingeki no kyojin eren jaeger #shingeki no kyojin eren yeager #shingeki no kyojin #eren #jaeger #yeager #attack titan

[starshine583]

New Girl on the Block (14)

(I’m finally baaaaaaaaaaack!!! So sorry this took so long guys, my life’s been CRAZY lately! Hope you all enjoy the update anyway thought! As usual, there’s this series and then a mini series connected to this called Journal Entries. Go check that out too if you prefer!)

Ch. 1 / Ch. 13 / Ch. 15 (ao3)

Chapter 14: Geronimo!

Felix dangled his leg over the pool’s edge, feeling the warm water brush against his skin as he slowly swung it back and forth. His reflection stared back at him, distorted by the ripples that formed from his movement. He didn’t swim in pools often, but when he did, it tended to be soothing for him. The waves rolling back and forth across his body helped remind him to breathe and gave him a sense of presence for where he was in that moment. He could allow himself to get lost in his thoughts while staying present on earth at the same time. It was nice. 

However, while he did enjoy looking at the water, he didn’t quite fancy it being thrown onto him. 

“Watch it!” Felix scowled at Allan and Claude as he scooted back on the pavement. If they continued to splash water like that, not only would Felix get soaked, but the cement around them would as well. Someone could get seriously injured by slipping if they weren’t careful or weren’t paying attention, specifically a certain ravenette that was going to be joining them in a few minutes.

“Aw, come on, Fe.” Claude laughed, swimming towards the blond. Felix moved back a bit more to be safe. “You have a swimsuit on for a reason. Join us! The water feels great!”

“I’ll get in when I’m good and ready.” Felix replied with narrowed eyes.

Claude tisked and swam back towards the deep part of the pool. “Figures. You’re probably waiting on Marinette to get here.”

Felix rolled his eyes. Why would he wait for anyone to go swimming? The girls were taking a tad longer than them, but this wasn’t a formal event. There was no need to-

“Speaking of Marinette,” The brunette continued, “what do you think of Luka? It sounded like they were pretty close.”

Felix held back a sigh, slowly growing more annoyed towards Claude’s strange, incessant questions and comments. For example, why would he think about Luka in any way? None of them had met the guitarist, and the only thing they knew about him was the flippant mention that Marinette had made earlier. A quick mention of dear friend, which was something that they’ve all done before. He’d noted the name, of course, but that was only because he’d fallen into the habit of noting a lot of things when it came to Marinette. Other than that, it was hardly an extraordinary occurrence, yet Claude was acting as though Luka had just joined their group alongside Marinette.

“I don’t have any thoughts on him.” He said. “You can’t have an opinion on someone you haven’t met.”

Claude scoffed. “Oh, please. You have an opinion on everything, Felix.”

“Everything I’ve read about and experience personally.” Felix replied curtly. Why would it even matter if he did have an opinion on Luka?

“Fine, I’ll change the question. What are your thoughts on Marinette’s thoughts about Luka?”

Felix raised a brow. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, what are your thoughts? She was blushing a lot earlier. Do you think she has a crush on him?”

Felix paused. When he first saw her blushing and stuttering in the music room, his mind did turn to that possibility, but blushing and stuttering were two traits that she exhibited quite often. Unless she has a crush on their entire group, along with this Luka person, her becoming flustered towards their teasing shouldn’t mean anything. That did bear a new kind of question, though: What type of person would Marinette like? He’s already established that she had a personal connection to Adrien Agreste- or at least he’s quite sure of it -so that was one basis they could use for reference. What traits did Adrien possess that could be considered attractive to Marinette?

His first guess would be money, fame, and power, except Marinette wouldn’t be that shallow. Plus, she initiated the break up. Most people who were after a certain status wouldn’t break off their chances of getting it. That meant there had to be something else that Adrien possessed that “wooed” her. It could be looks, with Adrien being a model again, or his personality. Considering who they were talking about, Felix guessed the latter, or at least a mix of the two. Maybe she had a thing for blonds and Adrien tended to give her a world of attention. Or perhaps she enjoyed a pair of emerald green eyes and someone that would bring a positive energy to the room, the same energy she often brought herself. Granted, Adrien’s positive energy was mostly fake, but that could be the reason why they broke up in the first place. (If they were together, that is.) Felix had learned over the last few weeks that Marinette deeply appreciates honesty from others as well, which would make sense when one thinks about her struggles with anxiety.

She most likely didn’t have a boyfriend currently, since it hasn’t been mentioned in the month that they’ve known her, but if she did, Felix would probably guess that that person had to be thoughtful, honest, and loving, someone who could calm her worries and give her the stability in life she needed. It was the least she deserved.

As for Luka, though..

“I think you should ask her yourself if you’re so interested.” Felix finally answered.

Claude pulled a pout and sighed. “You’re no fun.”

“Oh, leave him alone.” Allan said, jokingly splashing Claude. “Can’t you let him be a buzzkill in peace?”

Claude laughed and pounced on Allan, splashing more water everywhere. Felix tisked, but before he could chastise them for spreading more water onto the concrete, another voice interrupted them.

“We’re here~!”

The boys stopped fighting, and Felix glanced over his shoulder towards Allegra, who had just entered the pool room. She was wearing her casual, purple bikini and had her hair tied up in a bun, her usual look when swimming. Behind her, Marinette was shuffling in as well, and no sooner did his eyes land on the ravenette than he felt himself freeze to his spot on the cement. 

Her hair had been pulled up into a ponytail, and a frilly, pink bikini adorned her figure. Of course, neither of those things would have groundbreaking.. had she not also been completely ripped.

“Dang!” Claude remarked, taking the words out of their collective mouths. Her entire body appeared to be packed with muscle. It was like she’d decided to get up and complete a series of extreme exercises three times in a row daily! Felix already knew that Marinette was strong, but he didn’t expect her to look like she was chiseled out of rock itself. 

“Marinette, why didn’t you tell us that you were jacked?”

“Is that a six pack?” Allan asked, his jaw falling slack.

A blush bloomed across Marinette’s cheeks, and a bashful expression painted her features as she crossed her arms over her chest. “O-Oh, um-”

“It sure is!” Allegra grinned, wrapping an arm around the girl’s shoulders. “Apparently, Marinette has the same addiction to exercise that you guys do.”

Allan gained enough sense to let out a short laugh. “I wouldn’t exactly call it an addiction-”

“And you didn’t tell us?!” Claude interrupted, betrayal clear in his tone.

Marinette faltered. “I- uh -didn’t think you would be.. interested?”

“Are you kidding?” Claude lifted himself out of the pool to show his own set of abs. “I love exercising! We could have been working out together this whole time!”

“Where do you exercise?” Allan inquired. “I wanna know what you use to get your muscles so defined.”

“Oh! Uh- well -You know..” Marinette looked ready to squirm now. “Just.. random workouts at the house.. I guess.”

Felix furrowed his eyebrows. He didn’t know much about workouts, but from what he overhead from Allan and Claude, they could be time consuming. How did she manage to fit that into her schedule? She seemed busy enough with homework, designs, and helping her parents at the bakery. He supposed she could always rearrange her schedule to make time, but where was the equipment? Surely one couldn’t get muscles like that without using professional equipment, and yet he didn’t see anything remotely close to a weight last time they went to her house. 

“Felix?”

Felix’s gaze flicked to Claude, and he almost groaned when he saw the brunette grinning like a fool again. What ludicrous thing was he going to say now?

“Care to share your thoughts with the class?” He joked. “You were staring at Marinette pretty hard.”

Felix’s eyes widened, then snapped to Marinette. Her blush was a touch darker now, and Allegra was snickering next to her. He hadn’t been paying attention to where he was looking when he zoned out. How long was he staring? Where was he staring?

“I-” He stopped, unsure of what to say. Were his cheeks supposed to feel this warm? “I’m so sorry. I wasn’t-.. I just got lost in thought. I didn’t mean to.. stare.”

Claude snorted behind him. “‘Lost in thought’. Yeah, right.”

Felix whipped around and splashed Claude in the face. Now was not the time for his quips.

“I-It’s fine!” Marinette assured before the boys could fight further. “You didn’t make me uncomfortable or anything. Well, I mean- I just wanted sure that you were- you know -okay..”

Felix glanced back up at her, but for some reason, holding eye contact felt worse. So he shifted on the concrete, resting his elbow against his knee and his mouth in his palm. “Thank you, but I’m fine.”

“Good.” 

Felix barely had time to register Allegra’s comment or her steps as she ran towards him before he was abruptly shoved into the pool. A gasp escaped him as he flailed his arms around to gain stability, and he looked up to glare at Allegra. She was already jumping into the pool after him, though, yelling “Cannonball!”

She resurfaced a second later and threw him a subtle wink as she muttered, “I guess Marinette’s not the only one who needs to cool down, huh?” 

Felix didn’t have a chance to snap back- he wasn’t staring at her that way. It was an honest mistake! -because Marinette plunged into the pool a second later. 

A giggle fell from the ravenette’s lips when she resurfaced. “This water is so warm!”

“That’s because it’s a heated pool.” Claude informed as he swam over to her.

Marinette mouthed a “wow” before saying aloud, “I’ve never been in a heated pool before.”

“Well, now that you have, what do you think?”

“Hm.. I’d say it’s probably better for winter than it would be for summer.”

Allan chuckled. “I can confirm that it is definitely better in the winter.”

“Especially since there aren’t any other pools to swim in during that time.” Allegra smirked. She then splashed them all by making a wide wave with her arm.

“Race you guys to the water slide!”

Everyone began clambering to get to the other side of the pool, while Felix stood there squinting his eyes to avoid getting water in them. Why did he decide to be with such rowdy people?

“You good?” Allan, who had strangely stayed behind, inquired.

Felix nodded. “Allegra didn’t push me hard, so I didn’t scrape the floor.”

A hint of a smile passed Allan’s lips. “I was talking about your little fever earlier. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you blush that hard.”

Felix grit his teeth, feeling the heat rush back to his cheeks, and began swimming away to hide it. “It’s only because you all made it such a big deal.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Allan laughed, swimming after him. “Were we supposed to ignore the fact that you were just staring at Marinette’s abs without saying anything?”

Despite the annoying remark, Felix couldn’t help feeling a tad relieved. At least it was only the abs.

“No, but you didn’t have to make it weird.”

“You’re the only one who made it weird, dude.”

Felix scoffed. “Then, just forget the whole thing! It was an accident, and I got lost in thought, alright? For my sake and Marinette’s, just let it go.”

“Okay, okay.” Allan smiled, briefly pausing in his swim to hold up his hands. “This is me letting it go.. But I can’t promise anything for Claude or Allegra.”

Felix bit back a groan. Great. He could trust Allan to let this pass, and maybe Allegra, but if it was up to Claude?

He was never going to live this down.

~~~~~~

Marinette sat on Allegra’s bed with a smile as she ran her hands over the furry, soft comforter. Allegra sat behind her, carefully pulling on Marinette’s hair to tie it into a braid. Once everyone had had their fill of swimming, they’d decided to take showers and change into pajamas for the evening. The boys went off to their bedroom, while the girls retreated to theirs, and when Marinette finished her shower around fifteen minutes later, Allegra eagerly insisted that they exchange hair styles.

“I’ll wear your pigtails, and you can wear a braid!” She’d said. “It’ll be fun!”

The request was a strange one, but Marinette figured it wouldn’t hurt anything to accept it. So she’d grabbed her ribbons for Allegra and got settled on the bed. Now, they were here, simply doing each other’s hair and waiting for the boys to come back. The silence in the room was palpable, but it wasn’t born from awkwardness, at least. Allegra was merely focused on the task at hand, and Marinette didn’t mind enjoying the quiet while it lasted. Spending time with the group on a constant basis, while fun, could be overbearing sometimes. They were always moving, always talking and laughing together, especially Claude. So the softer moments like this were a nice reprieve.

Actually, Claude’s absence was probably the reason for this new found silence. If she listened hard enough, she’d bet that she could hear him chattering all the way across the mansion. Perhaps she might even catch Felix telling him to pipe down too.

“So,” Allegra began, breaking the comfortable silence between them, “You’ve been attending Rosemary for a good month now. Do you think you’ve got a good handle on it yet?”

Marinette smiled, careful not to turn her head as she replied, “I like to think so. I know where all of my classes are, and I’m pretty sure I’ve memorized the teacher’s names.”

“Oh, good.” She could hear the satisfied smile in Allegra’s voice. “What about our group? Have you gotten sick of us yet?”

A laugh tumbled from Marinette’s lips. “No, of course not. I could never get sick of you guys.”

“Aw~.” The blonde cooed. “Even Felix? He’s a bit of a grump.”

Marinette snorted. “Oh, I don’t think he’s that bad. He just likes to have order in his life, ya know?”

“I do.” Allegra agreed. “But I also think he’s mellowed out a lot since you came around.”

Marinette’s eyes widened slightly, and she glanced to the left in an attempt to look at Allegra without moving. “You think so?”

Allegra hummed. “He’s not nearly as impertinent as he used to be. We had to drag him around everywhere we went with him pouting the entire way, but ever since you joined, he’s been coming to our hangouts without a single complaint. He’s been smiling more too.”

“Don’t get me wrong, we love Felix. He’s just a stay-at-home-and-isolate-yourself-from-all-human-existence type of person. That’s why it surprised us when he took such a shining to you.”

Heat rose to Marinette’s cheeks, and her fingers dug into the fur and feathers of Allegra’s blanket as she began fiddling with it a bit more. Had Felix really been smiling more and doing more things since she came around? Claude did mention Felix being ‘lenient’ with her a few times, but she’d thought he was just kidding. Or at least that Felix was more spiteful towards Claude since Claude was often pushy. Why would he take a shining to her specifically? Marinette didn’t remember doing anything special. Why not open up to the people who had been sticking by his side for two years?

“If he fought so hard against your get-togethers, why did you keep inviting him?” She found herself asking. She loved hanging out with Felix too, but if someone continued to reject her invitations and argue with her on every subject- as Allegra had implied -she probably would stop trying to hang out with that person after a while. 

“Well, it’s like you said,” Allegra shrugged. Or at least, Marinette was pretty sure she shrugged. The bed definitely shook slightly from whatever the blonde was doing. “Felix isn’t really that bad. He may act all tough and annoyed, but he still shows up to our hangouts on time and pays for the lunches when it’s his turn and helps us out when we ask him. We know he enjoys being around us, even if he won’t admit it. We just like giving him a hard time.”

Marinette let out a soft hum. That made sense. She could see the way he made time for the planned visits and study dates and how he’d subtly help out the others in any way he could. 

In other words, Felix didn’t truly need to be dragged around everywhere. He just had a habit of putting up a fuss.

“Plus,” Allegra continued, “we kind of deliberately push his buttons all the time. So I don’t really blame him for snapping at us. Maybe that’s why he warmed up to you faster than he did us.”

Marinette chuckled. Maybe it was. They did tend to tease him a lot. 

She wasn’t sure if Felix was actually more comfortable around her or not- though if anyone were to know it would probably be Allegra -but the fact that he might be brought her a certain sense of pride. Felix’s stone-cold demeanor was strong, and he rarely dropped it for anything. Her being able to help him relax would be a remarkable accomplishment, in her opinion.

“Alright, my turn!”

Marinette jumped at Allegra’s voice and reached up to touch the back of her hair. The braid was indeed finished, trailing all the way down to the top part of her back. It might look strange due to it being short, but she would only have it in for one night. Besides, if it makes Allegra happy, then who cares if she looks a tad silly?

Marinette moved back on the bed to allow Allegra to move up in front of her, and once the blonde got situated, Marinette began gathering up Allegra’s hair to pull it into two ponytails. It wasn’t until she started trying to brush through the hair, however, that she realized how hard the task may be.

“My goodness, Allegra!” Marinette blurted out. “How do you even have this much hair? You’re like a Disney princess!”

Allegra’s hair was not only long, flowing well past her lower back, but also thick. Marinette had a feeling that she could stick her whole hand inside and barely make it past the surface. How was Allegra’s neck not constantly aching from holding it all? Was this why she braided it so often? It had to be. If Allegra allowed her hair to flow freely as it was now, it would get caught on everything and anything in its way. 

Allegra laughed in front of her. “I’ll take that as a compliment, but if anyone were to be a Disney princess here, it would be Claude.”

The comment pulled a laugh from Marinette as well. “Why does that make sense?”

“I know right! He’s even practiced that crying flop thing that all of the princesses do.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes! I still have a picture of it. I’ve decided that he’d either be Aurora or Merida.”

Marinette snorted. “Why’s that?”

“Well-”

A knock on the bedroom door interrupted their conversation, and the girls paused to listen for whoever was on the other side.

“Hey. Can we come in?”

It was Claude, coincidentally the same person they had been talking about.

“Yeah, you’re good.” Marinette called back. “We’re just doing each other’s hair now.”

“And talking about how you’re a Disney Princess.” Allegra added with a grin.

Claude let out an incredulous laugh as he opened the door, revealing Allan and Felix to be behind him as well. “I’m a Disney princess?”

“Oh, yeah. Either Aurora or Merida. You pick.”

Claude scoffed jokingly. “Please. If I were a Disney princess, I would totally be Kuzco, because I’m fabulous and I may not be a princess, but I deserve a crown.”

Marinette burst into a fit of giggles, along with Allegra and Allan, but Felix rolled his eyes.

“Claude, you would be Kuzco because you’re both spoiled and overly dramatic about everything.”

Claude shot him a look. “You know we’re both spoiled right? But it’s fine. I don’t blame you for being jealous of me.”

Felix scoffed. “Jealous-”

“Anyway!” Claude cut him off, prancing over to Marinette. “Are you ready, Mari?”

Marinette's smile faltered. Ready? “Ready for what?”

“You and I are gonna arm wrestle.”

Her eyes bulged. “What?”

“If it’s alright with you.” Allan joined in. “We wanna see how strong you are.”

“Wait, so you all want to arm wrestle with me?”

“Not all of us.” Claude corrected. “Felix is too scared to challenge you.”

“I’m not scared.” Felix said, irritation lacing his tone. “I simply see no point in starting something I know I can’t win.”

“You won’t even try!”

“Why should I? I don’t work out on a regular basis like you do, and I’ve seen the things she can do. You two are going to get thrown across the room as it is. I don’t want to add myself to that list.”

Marinette pursed her lips, feeling another blush coming on. Did he honestly think that she was that strong? (Being Ladybug, she probably was, but-)

“Where are we going to do it?” She asked.

Claude perked up. “You mean you’ll really arm wrestle with us?”

“Sure, I don’t see why not. I just need to finish Allegra’s hair-”

“Oh, no.” Allegra interrupted with a grin. “I can finish the hair. You go arm wrestle.”

Marinette hesitated. “Are you sure?”

“Positive. I wanna see the boys get creamed.”

“Allegra!” Claude shouted indignantly.

“You know you’re gonna~.” She sang in response.

The brunette huffed as he sat on the carpeted floor. “Does no one have faith in us?”

“Honestly?” Allan sat down next to him. “I don’t think I’ll win either. I just want to see how bad I’m gonna lose.”

“Wow.. at least you’re honest.”

Marinette giggled and moved to the floor where she assumed the arm wrestle would take place. Behind her, Felix claimed her abandoned spot on the bed next to Allegra, and she felt their gazes on her back as she laid down in front of Claude, who already had an arm up and an eager smirk on his lips. 

Tentatively, Marinette grabbed his hand. She hadn’t been worried about winning at first, but now that everyone had voiced their belief towards her certain victory, the pressure was starting to weigh on her mind. Losing was much less humiliating when no one believed you would win in the first place. 

“Alright, I’m sure everyone knows the rules.” Allan began, acting as referee. “Elbows have to be touching the ground no matter what, and you can only use one hand. The first hand to touch the ground loses. I’ll count down from three.”

Marinette nodded and situated herself a bit more on the ground. Claude did the same. 

“No hard feelings, right?” The brunette asked lightheartedly.

“3..”

Marinette smirked. 

“2..”

“None whatsoever.”

“1..”

“Especially since you’re going to be the one losing.”

An incredulous laugh burst from Claude’s lips. “Oh!”

“Go!”

They both pushed against each other at the same time, but Marinette managed to put in a burst of speed that slammed Claude’s hand right into the floor. The round was over in the blink of an eye.

“OOOOOOOOH!!!” 

Allegra and Allan both cheered, and Claude looked like he would have fallen backwards from shock had he not been lying down. But nothing made Marinette happier than the proud smirk she caught on Felix’s lips.

“I wanna go again!” Claude announced eagerly.

“No way! It’s my turn to try!” Allan replied, shoving the brunette aside.

Marinette laughed and got situated again, and although Claude was disappointed, he quickly assumed the role of referee for her and Allan. There was another countdown from three, and when the word “Go” was shouted, the two pushed as hard as they could. Allan held up a tad longer since he was more prepared and focused, but in the end, the results were the same. Marinette slammed his hand into the floor with no sense of mercy, just as she had done with Claude. 

“Dude!” Allan laughed, rubbing his wrist. “You’re good at this!”

“How often do you play?” Claude asked.

Marinette tilted her head back and forth. She may or may not play multiple nights a week with Chat Noir when patrols were slow, but that wasn’t something she could tell any of them. 

“Only every now and then.” She decided to reply.

“What! That’s crazy!” Claude exclaimed. “Let’s do it again. I wanna try one more time.”

Marinette gladly obliged, and soon, one more time turned into six more times. Then ten more. The boys just kept shoving each other aside, insisting on playing again, only for her to beat them within a few seconds or so. Each round got admittedly harder for Marinette, but after two years of constantly finding new ways to beat Chat noir, arm wrestling with civilians almost felt too easy.

“Agh!” Claude groaned after getting beat for the twelfth time in a row. “I was so close that time!”

“Yeah.. no.” Allegra said from the bed. “Not even.”

“Do you see now why I didn’t care to try?” Felix remarked.

“Hey, I’m still having fun losing.” Allan smiled. “Move over, Claude, it’s my turn again.”

“Oh, give her a break.” Allegra scolded. “You’re gonna tire her out until your win is guaranteed.”

Marinette silently agreed. She could definitely go longer, but her arm was starting to feel tired, and she didn’t want to end up over-exerting herself, especially when she already did that on a weekly basis as Ladybug.

“Aw, I guess you’re right.” Claude relented, scooting back on the carpet. Allan also backed off, to which Allegra gave a satisfied nod.

“Besides, we have to figure out what we’re doing for next week before we forget.”

Marinette twisted on the floor to give Allegra a questioning look. “What’s happening next week?”

“Valentine’s Day!” The blonde said, as though it were obvious.

“We host a party for the school every year to celebrate it.” Allan explained.

“And now we need to figure out where we’re going to host it for this year.” Allegra finished.

“Oh..” Marinette muttered, trying not to sound too despondent. Ever since Adrien, she’d sort of been actively avoiding things that symbolized love or relationships.. if only to keep the blond out of her mind. “That sounds like a lot of fun.”

“It is!” Claude grinned. “We get a bunch of decorations and snacks and drinks, and then we’ll put on music for people to dance to! Sometimes we even make up fun games to play.”

“And you do this every year?”

“For the past four years.” Allegra confirmed. “Speaking of which, do you want to help us decorate?”

Marinette knew she shouldn’t be surprised towards the request, since they’d invited her to everything else under the sun, but she still couldn’t help raising her eyebrows. “Really? You want me to help?”

“Of course!” Claude smiled. “We’d love to have your artistic touch.”

A soft chuckle passed her lips. The group’s attachment to her had been made clear from all of the get-togethers they invited her to join, but she’d fallen under the impression that they were all still newly made friends. Therefore, being invited to something that sounded extremely personal, such as decorating for a party that they alone hosted, made her realize how highly the group thought of her. Or perhaps they would invite anyone who returned their smiles.

Either way, She felt extremely honored. 

“That’s sweet, but I’m a fashion designer. Not a party designer. They’re a bit different.”

“Yeah, but you like doing crafts, right?” Allan pointed out. “We make a lot of our decorations by hand. It helps the parties seem more personal and gives us a good excuse to hang out over winter break.”

“Not that we really need one.” Allegra added.

Marinette mouthed a ‘wow’ before saying, “You guys really go all out.”

“Yeah, we do.” Claude smirked. “Otherwise, who’d wanna come?”

“That’s why we need to get a reservation somewhere by tomorrow. So we have time to prepare.”

“Did you guys have a place in mind?”

“I have a few, actually.” Allegra replied. “My main preference is the Mandarin Oriental, but there’s also a few other options like Ritz Paris, Bateaux Parisiens, or Les Pavillons de Bercy.”

Marinette nodded thoughtfully, though she’d really only heard of one of those places. Was it bad that she didn’t know about the other three? 

“Have we done the Mandarin Oriental yet?” Allan asked.

“Not that I remember.”

“I don’t want to do Bateaux Parisiens.” Felix spoke up. “Being on a boat with that many people would be dreadful.”

“Aw, what?” Claude said. “Boats are awesome!”

“Not when they are packed to the brim with people. You’d barely be able to move an inch without running into somebody, and there would be no escape once you’re out on the water.”

“Well, fine, if you’re going to put it that way..”

“I say we do Mandarin Oriental.” Allan remarked. “I trust Allegra’s judgement on the setting.”

Allegra smiled at that, and the other two boys shrugged.

“I’m fine with it as long as I can get some air at some point.” Felix said.

“I guess I’m okay with it too.. But we should try to do a boat next year.”

Allegra shot Claude an indulgent smile. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Who’s going to call and reserve the tables?”

“I can have Dad do it.” Allegra answered. “We want him to reserve it for two days so we have time to put the decorations in, right?”

“Yeah, like usual.”

“Alright. We can check out the room we’re reserving tomorrow to see which types of decorations we need.”

“Great!” Claude chirped. “Does that work for you, Mari?”

Marinette smiled. She may not be fond of love or romance at the moment, but if throwing a Valentine’s Day party meant spending more time with these wonderful people, she would absolutely do it. 

“Perfectly.”

“Awesome.” Allegra said, satisfied. “Now that that’s settled, we can go back to messing around. What do you guys want to do?”

“Besides arm wrestling?” Claude joked as he eyed Marinette.

“Besides arm wrestling.”

“Why don’t we play hide and seek?” Allan suggested. “We haven’t played that with Marinette yet.”

Marinette gasped. Playing hide and seek in a mansion as big as this one? How had she not considered that before! 

“Yeah, that’s a great idea!”

“Absolutely!”

“..I suppose.”

“What do you say, Mari?” Allegra smiled. “Wanna play?”

Marinette didn’t even have to think about her answer. “Yes, please!”

Allan chuckled and leaned back on his palms. “Great. Who’s going to be it?”

The group paused for a split second. Then, all at once, a chorus of ‘not it!’s rang out in the room.

“Claude, you were the last one!”

“What? No way! It was totally you!”

Allegra shot up from the bed. “Nope! It was you! Start counting to 150!”

“But let us turn off the lights first.” Allan added as he got up.

“Oh, no. I’m counting now.” Claude replied with a sinister grin. “So you better hurry to turn the lights off as you go.”

Felix was up now too, and Marinette, in her giddiness, shot up from the floor with a squeal to follow him.

“Claude Herolds, you better wait for us to-”

“One!” The brunette yelled over Allegra.

“Claude-”

“Two!”

When it was clear he didn’t intend on stopping, everyone scrambled to get out of the bedroom door. They got stuck for only a moment, pushing against each other to be the first one out, then they struggled free and scattered.

Marinette stopped at the top of the steps, her eyes darting around the parts of the mansion she could see. There were so many rooms, so many open spaces, and she still hadn’t memorized where everything was, let alone where good hiding places could be. Where should she even start?

A hand gently grabbed her arm.

“This way.” Felix said in a hushed tone, lightly tugging her down the stairs. “Downstairs is more open for when you need to move to a new hiding place.”

“That’s allowed?”

He nodded. “It’s why we turn the lights off. I’ll show you a good room to start.”

“That’s why it surprised us when he took such a shining to you.”

A smile tugged at the corner of Marinette’s lips. “Thanks.”

With the blond’s assured guidance, Marinette’s steps held a tad more confidence, and as Claude’s countdown lowered to 125, the two bolted for a room to hide.

tag list:  @artbyknigit @athena452 @nickristus-dreamer @throneoffirebreathingbitchqueen @arsaem @abrx2002 @neakco @pawsitivelymiraculous @too0bsessedformyowngood @nathleigh @lusicing @officiallydarkgeek @all-mights-asscheeks @tbehartoo @woe-is-me0 @raeuberprinzessin @lazuli-11 @miss-chaos27 @trippingovermyfeet @sadpotatoondrugs @ladybug-182 @jaggedheart11 @marinahrasauce @i-need-blog-ideas @thewheezingbubbledragon @crazylittlemunchkin @unabashedbookworm @moonystars14 @sunflowers-and-mooncakes @2confused-2doanything @magnificentcrapposts @moonnette @nickristus-dreamer @vixen-uchiha @casual-darkness @luxmorningstarr @jjmjjktth @kaithehero @itsme1598 @theymakeupfairies @xjaccyx @miraculous-ninja @miraculouspenta @swiftie-miraculer13 @justafanwarrior @all-mights-asscheeks @ira-sairain @lookatthestars1 @dahjokester @blissful-passing @solangelo252 @canivialemonsquints07

#felinette #New Girl on the Block #Felix Culpa #Marinette #Quantic Kids #Miraculous Ladybug #Rosemary AU

[irenespring]

District Two Victor Sims

@lorata​ I made some sims of your Victors! I don’t have a ton of CC clothes so there were limited options but I think they’re pretty good. I’m going to put them in order of most recent to oldest. I hope you like them!

Outfits order: everyday, formal, sports, sleep, party, swimsuit, hot weather, cold weather

Petra:

Traits: Hot-headed, active, perfectionist

Aspiration: Leader of the Pack

Notes: She doesn’t dress overly feminine but she thinks Lyme is overdoing a little (*cough* a lot *cough*). She hates that pink dress but what the Capitol wants, the Capitol gets. She’s not hot-headed, she just doesn’t take shit. What’s so difficult to understand about that? Whatever.

Claudius:

Traits: Gloomy, creative, music lover

Aspiration: Musical genius

Lyme gave him one of her suits (after she had it tailored to fit him). It was kind of the best day of his life. Misha is a liar, he did not cry for 12 hours straight... more like .5 hours. And that’s just fine, and if you want to say otherwise just give him a moment to go grab his sword.

Enobaria:

Traits: Mean, erratic, self-absorbed

Aspiration: Public enemy

When she’s at home, she wants to wear as close to a blanket nest as she’s allowed. When she’s not... well, she’s got abs and likes to inspire envy. Also the more Capitol guys ask her out, the more fun it is to shoot them down and/or threaten to kill them.

Devon:

Traits: Outgoing, romantic, goofball

Aspiration: Friend of the world

One of his favorite things about being a Victor that he didn’t expect was getting to experiment with different styles. But the swimsuit is pure strategy for when he doesn’t feel like talking but still wants to get laid.

Artemisia:

Traits: Mean, romantic, goofball

Aspiration: Chief of mischief

Only idiots rely on one style (except for Lyme, like is scary and masculine and awesome), because honestly it’s just *so* boring. She can do ball gowns, she can do bikinis, she can do casual “I will never leave this couch” sweaters. It’s not hard, but maybe she’s just special (she’s definitely special).

Lyme:

Traits: Good, self-assured, hates children

Aspiration: Neighborhood confidante

Dresses are ick and bright colors give her headaches. Besides, if someone is judging her for her style she doesn’t want to know them anyway. Shallow assholes. 

“Brutus stole my sponsor party outfit. It was mine, and he was so jealous of the pure masculine energy that he decided to steal it and lie about it like a little baby coward. The only thing stopping me from covering the village with fliers is that Ronan would be annoyed and Misha never cares about context.”

Emory:

Traits: Unflirty, good, loves the outdoors

Aspiration: Master chef

If something tears and it can’t be mended, it has to be replaced. And if you spill something on your shirt you can’t just show up to a nice event like a Twelve. Also, apparently you can’t wear tennis shoes to everything. Therefore, multiple outfits.

Brutus:

Traits: Self-assured, outgoing, loves the outdoors.

Aspiration: Bodybuilder (sorry for the copout I was stumped)

Fancy clothes are for Capitolites so he only wears them when he’s in the Capitol. Everything else just needs to suitable for sudden pushup competitions with Lyme whenever she gets any ideas.

Speaking of:

“I did not steal Lyme’s outfit. I bought it in the Capitol. Devon was there. Yes, you were, Devon. I don’t know if it’s the one with the ‘cute cashier’ because I was too busy buying MY outfit. Listen, Lyme, if you burn yours I’ll burn mine because we’ll never live it down if the paparazzi... or Snow forbid, Misha, finds out about this. No that is not an admission of guilt. One of us has to be an adult, and it’s obviously not going to be you.”

Callista:

Traits: Non-committal, animal enthusiast, romantic

Aspiration: Serial romantic

If it doesn’t make half the Capitol scared and the other half turned on, it’s not worth the money.

Nero:

Traits: Insider, maker, good

Aspiration: Neighborhood confidante

He’s just going to wear the first thing he sees that looks comfortable unless Snow orders him not to, and if you say anything Adessa and Callista will use your remains as rose fertilizer and cat food respectively.

Odin:

Traits: Self-assured, bookworm, perfectionist

Aspiration: Freelance Botanist

He could still be intimidating and terrifying if he wanted to, it’s just that these days he mostly wants to garden instead.

Hera:

Traits: Outgoing, creative, loves the outdoors

Aspiration: The curator (chosen by near random selection)

She let her hair go gray because none of your business. And she wears nicer clothes because she loves her Victor, she does, but dear Snow, Calli, some of us have to wear actual fabric on our bodies.

Adessa:

Traits: Loner, snob, perfectionist

Aspiration: Academic

“No, these suits are not all the same, some of them are clearly blue.”

Caius (pure guesswork 1)

Traits: Outgoing, goofball, cheerful

Aspiration: Angling ace (?)

He likes to be refined every now and then, but he hardly ever goes to the Capitol and it’s not like he’s going to be in a magazine if he wears the wrong glasses, so who cares?

Luna (pure guesswork 2)

Traits: Art lover, gloomy, creative

Aspiration: Painter extraordinaire

What is life without a little quirkiness and color? Just because you’re a Victor doesn’t mean you have to be self-righteous and drab.

Ronan:

Traits: Insider, outgoing, loves the outdoors

Aspiration: Successful Lineage

Notes: He’s retired. He’ll wear what is comfortable and what he can get dog hair out of.

#district 2 #victors #The Hunger Games #sims #character design #lorataverse #lyme #brutus

[south-park-meta]

controversial thoughts...ish pt 1

@roostertuftart said: Uhhh the ones I’ve seen that I can think of right off the bat: Whether or not kyle was wrong and abandoned stan in ygo/ab Whether Wendy is shitty to stan or not (this one is kinda dying but still) Whether Sheila is a horrible mother or not Anything relating to cartman in return of covid Whether it’s accurate or not to portray Kyle as a femboy Whether or not Stuart is abusive to Carol or if they’re both just shitty to each other Whether or not shipping kyman is problematic

1. Kyle wasn't wrong in not being friends with someone who was being miserable and saying everything he liked was shit. He was willing to give Stan a chance more than once and Stan was mean and dismissive each time. But at the same time, even adults aren't great at navigating being clinically depressed and appearing 'fine'. While he IS a bummer to be around, Stan also actively seeks help multiple times both in YGO and AB. And each time it is very explicitly made worse and he's told he's stuck like that, that he needs to get over it, and it culminates in him being actually held down and forced to become drunk (and being drunk is what leads to him being the most directly mean to Kyle). I think Kyle deserves not to be seen as a shitty friend for not wanting to be around someone who's being so negative. All being around Stan was doing was bringing Kyle down and making HIM feel bad. Not only because he's a kid, but especially because he's a kid and not equipped to handle that, it's healthier for Kyle not to be around Stan. He historically does have a rougher time dealing with Stan being upset vs other characters, but it's actually because he LOVES Stan and thinks so highly of him that Stan feeling crappy is harder to navigate. But I think Stan deserves some grace when it comes to being negative particularly when he's also actively trying basically every avenue available to not see things in a negative light. Like the options he has left are either suck it up and lie about being fine or find a more productive way to express being unhappy. In the end he actually does BOTH in subsequent episodes: he stops complaining to his parents as seen in the pandemic specials because trying to get help has made it worse, and he tries to find healthier outlets vs addictive ones by talking to Satan, taking up board games, having musical outlets, etc.

2. Wendy and Stan are about equally shitty to each other, by which I mean eh neither is really. I think it's mostly just that they don't have that many episodes dedicated to them as a couple. They both clearly care about each other, and they've both been selfish and dickish. But they've actually BOTH gotten a lot better about talking about their problems. More than one of the recent tiffs they've had have involved Stan actively seeking out Wendy to talk to her and have an actual discussion, sometimes where he's wrong and sometimes where he's not. This isn't something that would have happened in early seasons, where they broke up 1. Without Wendy talking to him directly and 2. With Stan wondering wtf was wrong when he thought they were doing fine since they hadn't talked in weeks. That they're having sit-down conversations now more often than not is a testament that they've BOTH grown. Both of them still have an issue with being shallow and caring about appearances, but they're also both more mature in handling it than they used to be...for the most part.

In both Stan and Kyle and Stan and Wendy's relationships if someone thinks it's massively out of whack how mean one is to the other, it's probably just that they like or relate to one character more than the other.

3. I like Sheila and don't think she's a horrible mother. She is overprotective and her kids are scared of her sometimes but it's "scared" in quotation marks. Kyle and Ike both seem to love their mom and have a good relationship with her for the most part--she fucks up sometimes, but even the best relationships in SP (and irl) involve fuckups.

4. I think Cartman in the Covid specials was just as manipulative and mean as show-Cartman. I think the Denny's manager looks more like the Cartman I have in my head than the Cartman they gave us (RIP Cartman having a nose).

5. I'm not personally a fan of a lot of things like fem!Kyle, goth!Stan, whatever. It usually comes down to picking one or two traits of a character and leaning into them hard instead of letting them be well-rounded people. That's something I'm not a fan of overall even in the vein of like...jock!Stan or slut!Kenny in that it's annoying when it's their entire personality instead of a single aspect of their personality. But the first two I listed fall into a subcategory that I find more annoying because with South Park being so MxM dominated it very frequently is obvious that it's being done to either fit stereotypes of homosexuality or make a gay relationship more heteronormative with one wearing makeup, being more overtly emotional, etc. which on its own is a stereotype of women. Is it possible to make a character more typically feminine than canon without being wildly out of character in general? Sure, I don't see why not. Is it possible with Kyle in particular? Yeah, sure. Kyle has attributes that are 'feminine', as do all the main boys. Do I think leaning into it to the degree of actually labeling him a femboy is as likely to be a well-rounded character as one that gets no character labels? Not really. I think all the labeling tends to be pretty reductive and gets in the way of characterization and feminizing characterization can become homophobic pretty quickly.

6. As it stands in the show, both, to the end I take it past just being shitty to each other. Stuart's abusive to Carol, Carol is abusive to Stuart, both abuse/neglect their kids. I'd probably have to go back and watch specifically for their interactions but I feel like they've both started fights separate from one another rather than one consistently reacting TO violence WITH violence (acting in self-defense).

7. The ship of Kyman is problematic with Cartman abusing Kyle. People shipping Kyman is not on its own problematic but it can bleed over into how they view real life situations which is if they romanticize abuse.

[rosiehunterwolf]

There's Sand Everywhere!

(quick shoutout to @fires-of-ninjago for the title idea and inspiration for this- you remember that ask game where people suggested titles for fics and you had to come up with a story to go along with it? Well, he sent in this title, and I came up with this, and liked it so much that I screenshotted it and- here we are!)

Prompts: Summer and Heist

Word Count: 7,922

Characters: The whole gang (including Pixal) :)

Timeline: Between seasons 12 and 13

Trigger Warnings: none (holy shit that's never happened before-)

Summary: It was just supposed to be a day off. A simple beach day. But when your family consists of six ninja and a samurai, including a nindroid convinced he’s a detective, his reluctant sidekick, an aquaphobe, a girl who can command the sea, an unassuming teen who seems to attract every animal he crosses paths with, and a bunch of argumentative idiots, nothing is ever that easy.

Read on FFN.net

Read on Ao3

Tumblr work under the cut

“We,” Kai proclaimed, surveying the room, “Need a day off.”

Lloyd shrieked at the fire ninja’s sudden outburst, falling out of his chair. Jay broke into snickers, and Lloyd shot him a glare.

“Kai,” Zane sighed, “get off the table.”

Kai stuck his tongue out at the nindroid, but hopped down, anyway. “Look at you guys!” Kai waved his hands at the group for emphasis. Papers fluttered to the ground where Lloyd had knocked them in his fall, Jay and Nya were sitting on the ground, surrounded by stacks of books tall enough to be mistaken for some kind of fort, Pixal was gathering some of the papers that had gone everywhere, while Cole and Zane had only just paused in their task of boxing up and carrying crates to the far side of the room. “Filing documents and organizing? Boooring.”

“Tasks which you’ve been a big help with, by the way,” Lloyd grumbled, as Cole offered him a hand and pulled him to his feet. He turned back to the desk, shuffling papers off of the keyboard of his laptop, the screen filled with lines of script and dozens of files that made Kai's brain hurt just to look at.

Nya pushed her reading glasses up her nose. “Jay and I technically aren’t working. We chose to do this of our own free will.”

Kai rolled his eyes at her. “What kind of psychopaths read for fun?”

Jay kicked his leg out, aiming for Kai’s ankle, but Cole quickly stepped between them, stopping the conflict before it could escalate into anything worse.

“We’re not reading them, we’re sorting them in order from most potentially useful to least so. They’re mechanics and engineering books. You never know when they might come in handy in a pinch.”

“Oh, because that’s so much more interesting. If you guys wanna spend all your free time geeking out, fine, what do I care. But what about the rest of you? C’mon, Lloydster. You don’t really wanna spend your entire day doing this,” he gestured at the laptop and paper-strewn desk- “do you?”

“It’s not about whether or not I want to. This stuff is important, Kai.”

“Lloyd’s right,” Zane agreed. “With all the crazy missions we’ve been on lately, we’ve neglected all our paperwork, and taking care of the Monastery.”

“It’s because we’ve been gone so long that we need a break!” Kai argued. “We just got done saving the entire city from an evil video game AI! If that’s not worth celebrating, I don’t know what is.”

“Technically,” Nya remarked, not even glancing up from the book she was skimming, “That was Jay who did that.”

Kai spluttered, ignoring the smug look on Jay’s face. “Okay, yeah, but we helped! And what about Aspheera? Or the Never Realm? That was all of us. And we didn’t have time to properly recuperate from that before we got launched right into Prime Empire!”

Pixal’s brow furrowed. “Y’know, he has a point…”

A frown flitted across Zane’s face. “I suppose we have been working for a long time…”

“That’s what I’ve been saying! Come on, let’s do something fun.”

“Not video games,” Cole groaned. “Jay and I spent the last three days playing a Lava Zombies tournament, and I’m all gamed-out.”

“No, let’s actually go somewhere. Like the-”

“The library!” Jay pitched.

“Or the museum!” Zane suggested.

“No!” Kai snapped. “Man, you guys are so lame. I meant somewhere fun. We should go to-”

“The beach!” Nya cried suddenly, standing up so quickly that she sent a pile of books toppling over. “Brilliant idea, Kai!”

“Wait, no,” he yelped. “That’s not what I was going to-”

But no one heard him. They were already scrambling to their feet, murmuring excitedly to one another.

“Guys, wait!” he cried. “Why would you want to go to the beach? It’s all sandy, and wet, and-”

“Don’t worry, Kai,” Nya giggled, “we won’t let the ocean hurt you.”

“That’s not-” he felt himself turning red as the others laughed. “That’s not what I meant! I just thought… wouldn’t laser tag or something be a lot more fun?”

The others glanced at each other, uncertain. Zane stepped forward. “Let’s take a vote. All in favor of laser tag, raise your hands.”

Kai lifted his hand, but no one else did. He scowled at them.

“And all in favor of the beach?”

Six hands went up.

“Seems like we have a clear winner. Let’s get going, shall we?”

---

“Do you have the towels?”

“All here!”

“What about the sunscreen?”

“Hold on- Jay, did you grab the sunscreen?”

“What?”

Lloyd cupped his hands around his mouth, yelling louder. “Did you grab the sunscreen?”

“Oh yeah, it’s here! Wait, do you have my-”

“Your what?” Lloyd called, walking over to him, passing Pixal and Zane as they came out of the kitchen. The female nindroid sighed.

“Can’t anything get done around here without everyone making such a racket?”

“Nope,” Nya elbowed her playfully. “When you’ve been with these idiots as long as I have, you get used to it.”

Pixal’s eyes widened. “I can’t imagine ever being used to all this.”

Nya smiled. “Did I mention I’m slightly deaf?”

“We finished making the picnic,” Zane told her, holding out the basket he was carrying. “Is everyone ready to go?”

Nya eyed the guys, who were running around the Monastery, barely avoiding tripping over one another. “‘Ready’ is an overstatement.”

“Hold your horses, we’re almost done,” Cole grunted, heaving the large beach bag over to them. “Have a little faith in us, Nya.”

Nya put her hand on her hip, waiting- and a second later, there was a crashing sound followed by an angry chorus of yells from Kai, Lloyd, and Jay.

Cole grimaced, rubbing the back of his head. “Okay, maybe you’re right to not have any faith in us.”

---

After an intense, fifteen-minute argument about what mode of transportation they would take, they ended up deciding on the city bus, and finally, finally got out the door. The bus ride went off without a hitch, for once, (except for a brief panic about not having the proper change for the bus fare, but luckily Zane had a few extra dollars on him), and before Nya knew it, they were staking out an area on Ninjago City beach. She was beginning to think this could actually work out.

Maybe.

“Check out my abs, dude.”

“They’re the same as last time.”

“Are not! I’m way more shredded than last time we went swimming.”

“Okay, that’s just a straight-up lie. I saw you sneak that extra piece of pie last night.”

“You better not be disrespecting my muscles, Flat Stanley.”

“Hey! I’m way more muscly than I used to be.”

“Are you kidding? We call you ‘green bean’ for a reason, and it’s not just because you’re the green ninja. You’re a twig!”

“I’m a twig? Have you seen Jay?”

“Hey, don’t rope me into this, green machine, and, for your information, I weigh a whole fifteen pounds more than you!”

“Yeah, well, you’re also two years older than me!”

“I think the lesson we need to learn here is that neither of you have abs anywhere near as pronounced as mine-”

Zane sighed, rolling his eyes. “Here, guys,” he held out a pouch to the group, “this is a waterproof pouch, you can store all your valuables in here.”

They quickly filled the pouch with phones, watches, and wallets. However, as Lloyd pulled back, he tripped over Jay’s foot, and half the guys collapsed into a pile, groaning.

“Jay! Get your foot out of my face!”

“Right after you get your elbow out of my ribs!”

Nya turned away from them, shaking her head. Glancing at Pixal, she asked, “Wanna help me get set up?”

The nindroid nodded, and they pulled the large picnic blanket out of the bag, unfolding it to lay it across the sand.

“Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon,” Kai cried, “You get back here right this instant!”

Nya looked up from the blanket to see Kai running through the sand after Lloyd, his feet sinking into the sand with each step, making it difficult for him to retain his balance. He waved a bottle of sunscreen at the green ninja. “It’s sunny out today! And you know how easily you burn!”

“No way!” Lloyd whined. “You always make me stay out of the water for at least twenty minutes to let it set, and it’s way too hot for me to wait that long! I wanna go swimming now.”

Kai lunged for him, and Lloyd yelped, barely dodging out of the way.

“Over here, Lloyd!” Jay cried, already wading into the shallows of the ocean. “He won’t follow you into the water!”

Lloyd hurried after him, splashing up water as he went, accidentally splattering Kai and causing the red ninja to flinch back with a yelp. Sure enough, he froze at the water’s edge, glaring at Jay and Lloyd, where they stood, only about ten feet away, laughing at him.

Zane rubbed a hand over his face, sighing. “They’re both going to get skin cancer, aren’t they?”

“At the very least, they’re going to be bright red tomatoes,” Cole laughed. “Oh, it’s going to be a blast when they take showers.”

Zane stared at him, horrified. “Please don’t let Jay do that again. He had the worst blisters, last time-”

Cole held up his hands. “It was a joke, Zane! A joke!”

Zane narrowed his eyes and didn’t reply.

Nya laughed, grabbing Pixal’s hand. “Come on. Wanna go bodyboarding with me?”

Pixal glanced at her. “I don’t know how.”

“That’s fine.” Nya stepped on the board, flipping it up into her hand and handing it to Pixal, before grabbing a second one for herself. “I can teach you!”

“Thanks, Nya.”

As they walked down towards the shore, they passed Kai and Cole, who had finally managed to get Jay and Lloyd out of the water. Cole had his arms locked around Jay, preventing him from running away as Kai slathered sunscreen across his face. Lloyd was sitting in the sand beside him, pouting, his face already smeared in white.

Nya grinned at him. “Can you guys handle yourselves for twenty minutes if Pix and I go out bodyboarding?”

Lloyd stuck his tongue out at her, and Kai rolled his eyes. “We’ll be fine, Nya. I think you’re forgetting we save the city on a regular basis? We’re perfectly capable.”

Nya put a hand near Pixal’s ear, whispering loudly into it. “Betcha anything the beach will be on fire by the time we get back.”

The two ran off, giggling at the sight of Kai’s smoldering glare, before he could set them on fire.

---

To Kai’s credit, he did not set the beach on fire, or anything, for that matter, but when Nya and Pixal returned, they found him and Cole shoveling sand onto Zane, who was chest-deep by this point.

“Zane!” Pixal exclaimed. “Are you alright?”

“When Kai told me he had something fun to show me, this wasn’t quite what I had imagined.”

“Aww, come on Zane!” Kai grinned. “I’m having a great time.”

Pixal shook her head, and stepped forward, grabbing Zane’s hand and pulling him up, sending sand cascading down everywhere. Cole and Kai groaned.

“Aww, come on, Pix, that took forever!” Cole muttered.

“Yeah, we were gonna shape it into a mermaid tail. Don’t you know how funny that would’ve been?”

“Humor is subjective.” Zane rubbed at his wrists. “Augh, now I’m going to have sand in my gears for weeks.” Shooting a glare at Kai, he added, “I’ll remember this the next time you ditch your swimming lessons.”

“Hey!” Kai yelped. “That’s totally different! Sand is warm, and solid, and most importantly, not dangerous!”

“You could suffocate,” Zane pointed out.

Kai scowled. “You’re a nindroid, you wouldn’t have suffocated.”

“You’re related to an elemental master of water. You won’t drown.”

“Being related to a master of water and being a master of water are two very different things! I control fire, not water, I can’t do anything to protect myself.”

Cole rolled his eyes. “You’re so lame. Remind me again why we brought our friend with aquaphobia to the beach?”

“Technically,” Zane said, raising a finger, “the word you’re looking for is thalassophobia. Kai doesn’t fear water in general, only large bodies, such as-”

“It was his idea,” Nya interrupted. “If it weren’t for him, we’d still be at the Monastery, filing papers.”

“I never suggested the beach!” Kai snapped. “That was your idea!”

“Yeah, well, your suggestions were lame. The beach was the obvious choice.”

“Hey,” Pixal interjected, suddenly realizing they were missing a couple of people. “Where are Jay and Lloyd?”

Cole sighed, pointing up towards their stuff, where Jay and Lloyd were struggling with a large, yellow duck inflatable that was very much not inflated at the moment. Jay had his lips around the mouthpiece, his face red.

“Blow harder, Jay,” Lloyd insisted, hovering by his side. “You’re hardly doing anything!”

Jay pulled his head back, breathing out heavily as the redness faded from his cheeks. “I’d like to see you do better! You’d probably pass out after a minute.”

“Would not!” Lloyd snatched the floaty away from him, blowing hard into the mouthpiece, putting even less air into the floaty than Jay had. His face reddened as he huffed desperately, although he still wasn’t making much progress. After a few moments, Jay pulled it away from him.

“Okay, that’s enough. I don’t want you to actually pass out.”

Lloyd glared at him, panting. “I wasn’t… going to… pass out.”

Jay sighed, grabbing the inflatable and staring at what looked to be the eyes and a very flat, crumpled-looking beak. “At this rate, we’re never going to get Mr. Quackington blown up.”

Lloyd’s nose wrinkled. “Mr. Quackington?”

Jay blinked at him. “Yeah, that’s his name.”

“No, it’s not! His name is Mr. Waddles!”

“Mr. Waddles? What kind of juvenile name is that?”

“Oh, like Mr. Quackington is any better!”

“It is! It’s loads better!”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Is so!”

“It’s not!” Lloyd snapped, green energy sparking between his fingers. Jay glanced down at them thoughtfully. “Hey, what if…”

Lloyd was evidently catching on to Jay’s train of thought, his eyes lighting up. “We can use my powers to inflate Mr. Waddles!”

Jay narrowed his eyes. “Quackington.”

Lloyd bared his teeth, the small fangs glinting. “Waddles.”

Jay sighed. “Okay, whatever. We can use your powers to inflate Mr. Waddles.”

Lloyd grinned widely, whether about the promise of getting his inflated duck or having won the name debate with Jay, Pixal couldn’t tell. He held up a hand and formed a basketball-sized sphere of green energy. Jay’s eyes widened, and he held the mouthpiece up to the energy. Lloyd channeled it inside, watching with glee as the duck puffed up, the yellow plastic slowly tinging green, making the duck look like he was about to be sick.

Zane took a step forward, holding his hand out. “Lloyd, wait-”

There was a sharp snapping noise as the floaty popped, and Lloyd and Jay cried out in horror as the yellow pieces of plastic fluttered to the ground. Lloyd fell to his knees, gripping the busted plastic and wailing, and Jay landed next to him, crying, “No! Mr. Waddles, you were so young!”

“I can’t believe he’s really gone,” Lloyd sniffed. “He was my best friend in the whole world.”

Kai threw up his hands. “Great. You spend the last several years of your life looking out for him only to get replaced by his inflatable plastic duck.”

“Oookay,” Nya said, walking over to Jay and Lloyd and ushering them towards the picnic blanket. “Someone’s obviously been out in the sun too long. Go sit under the umbrella and let’s have something to eat.”

“Good idea,” Zane agreed. “I’m sure we’re all getting hungry. Jay, could you grab the picnic basket? It’s right behind you.”

The lightning ninja grabbed the basket, peering inside briefly as he carried it towards them. “I hope you brought the Pringles. I could really go for some of those right now- augh!”

Before anyone could stop him, Jay was falling to the ground, the basket flying out of his hands and landing sideways in the sand.

“Jay!” Kai cried. “Look what you’ve done to our picnic!”

“Hey! That was totally your fault! Why did you leave your shoes right in the middle of the sand, perfectly positioned for someone to trip over?”

“Why were you clumsy enough to get in the way of my shoes?”

“Guys, guys, it’s okay,” Zane assured. Walking over, he carefully lifted the basket out of the sand. “I’m sure it’s still salvageable.”

“Yeah, but now all our food is going to taste like sand,” Lloyd moaned.

“Lloyd, the food barely touched the sand,” Nya pointed out.

“Doesn’t matter. Every time you go to the beach, if the food gets even remotely close to the sand, it always gets sand in it. Every time. It’s one of the great mysteries of the universe.”

“Well, I think you’ll survive,” she said, passing Lloyd a sandwich and a bag of pretzels. Lloyd took them, but narrowed his eyes.

“Brings a whole new meaning to the word ‘sandwich.’”

“Just eat your food, mister.”

Lloyd shot her a glare, but grudgingly obliged. As Pixal bit into her own sandwich, she realized Lloyd was right, she could feel granules of sand between her teeth as she chewed.

“Hey… at least it adds a little crunch, right?” Cole grinned.

Kai grimaced. “Next time, I elect we don’t let Jay anywhere near the picnic basket.”

Jay chucked a grape at him, but Kai turned at the last second, catching it in his mouth. “Ha!” His gleeful expression faded as he caught sight of something behind Jay. “Um, Lloyd, you have someone you wanna introduce us to?”

The group turned to see a seagull had approached them, tilting its head where it stood only a couple feet away from Lloyd. The green ninja was staring at the bird with wide eyes, an awed expression on his face.

“Lloyd,” Nya sighed, “please don’t tell me you fed it.”

“He’s not an it,” Lloyd snapped. “His name is Scully.”

“Great.” Nya rubbed her hands over her face. “We’re already into name territory.”

“Scully?” Kai’s nose wrinkled. “Isn’t that the name of the seagull from The Little Mermaid?”

“No, that’s Scuttle,” Lloyd sniffed. “They’re completely different.”

“Lloyd,” Pixal scolded, reaching for Lloyd’s wrist just as he tossed another chunk of his sandwich at the seagull, “Feeding wildlife is not a good idea, it can be dangerous-”

Lloyd shrieked suddenly as the bird launched itself at Lloyd’s face. He scrambled to his feet, screaming, and Kai lunged forward, pushing the others out of the way. “Move, move!”

“Get it off me, get it off me!” Lloyd shrieked as the bird’s wings flapped in his face, sending feathers everywhere.

“Blast it with your powers!” Kai called, looking worried but keeping a respectable distance.

“I can’t! He’s on my face!”

“Well, I can’t do it, I’ll set you on fire! Nya, you do it!”

“I’m trying, I’m trying,” the water ninja spat through gritted teeth, globes of water already forming in her hands. “I just need to get a clear shot! For the love of… Lloyd, stop moving so much!”

Lloyd hardly seemed to hear her. “He’s going to claw my eyes out,” he wailed, batting weakly at the creature.

“Nya!”

Nya quickly thrust her hands forward, sending a large ball of water at Lloyd’s head, drenching him and the seagull. The bird squawked angrily, falling to the ground.

“Oh my gosh, are you okay?” Nya and Kai darted over to him, Nya taking his face in her hands as Kai peered over her shoulder. A small red scratch stretched across his left cheek, but apart from that, he appeared unharmed, just frazzled.

“Dude!” Kai cried. “You just got attacked. By a seagull!”

“It owned you!”

Lloyd shot Jay a glare. “Did not.”

“You should have seen your face!” Jay laughed. “Oh wait, you couldn’t- there was a bird in the way!”

Lloyd crossed his arms. “I’d like to remind you how you reacted that time when my uncle set that berserk chicken on us.”

“The chicken had lightning powers. Hardly comparable to a simple seafowl, bud.”

“Ugh, I hope this doesn’t get infected,” Nya muttered, running her finger along the scratch. “We should probably get you checked for rabies when we get home.”

“Nya, I’m fine,” Lloyd groaned, pushing her off. “A seagull isn’t going to give me rabies.”

Nya shrugged. “With your luck, I can never be sure.”

“This is why you don’t give food to wild animals, Lloyd, it makes them bolder-”

“Watch out, Lloyd!” Jay shrieked suddenly, and they whipped around to see the seagull had caught its second wind, squawking as it charged at Lloyd.

Lloyd shrieked, taking off down the beach with the seagull in pursuit. Nya sighed, putting a hand on her head. Kai grinned, walking over to her and putting a hand on her shoulder. “Do you think he’ll learn his lesson?”

“No,” Nya said without hesitation. “Absolutely not. That’s the sad part.”

“Hey,” Cole said, pointing a finger down the beach. “The volleyball court’s just opened up. You guys wanna play?”

“Sure. Tell Lloyd he can join us when he gets that seagull taken care of.”

Nya glanced towards the green ninja, who was currently lobbing balls of energy at the bird and missing by an embarrassingly wide berth. “Looks like it could be a while.”

---

“Great job, team!” Nya cheered, high-fiving Pixal and shooting a grin at Cole. “Although, if I’m being honest, the rest of you didn’t put up much of a competition.”

“Hey, don’t look at me!” Kai snapped. “I was carrying the team! Jay, Lloyd, were you planning on helping me anytime soon?”

“I was trying!” Jay insisted. “But you kept getting in my way!”

“Because every time I let you get the ball, you dropped it!”

“Hey! I never said I was good at volleyball, okay? Why are you attacking me, Lloyd sucked too!”

“It’s not like I ever had time to fit in volleyball practice between all my green ninja training! It wasn’t exactly a top priority!” “Are you telling me you’ve never played before?” Kai spluttered.

“I’ve played!” Lloyd insisted. “Uh… once or twice.”

Kai facepalmed. “Why did I let you come on my team?”

Lloyd grinned widely. “‘Cause you love me.”

Cole elbowed him. “It’s because he lost the coin toss and Nya got to pick first.”

“Hey!” Jay yelped. “Are you telling me you would have picked me last?”

“After I saw you play, yeah,” Cole snorted.

“I’m still not convinced on some of those calls, Zane,” Kai said, walking over to the nindriod. “I don’t think that one play near the third point was a foul.”

“Hey, the ref’s call is law,” Nya smirked. “Stop trying to cheat your way to victory, Kai.”

“I’m not cheating! Zane’s girlfriend is on your team! He’s obviously biased!”

“I’m a nindriod, Kai. I cannot be biased.”

“Stop being a sore loser, Kai.” Behind her, a wave swelled up. She raised her hand- then pointed it forward at Kai.

Her brother shrieked as the seawater drenched him.

“Nya! What’d you do that for?”

“You deserved it, with all the whining you were doing. Besides, you looked hot. I was just doing you a favor.”

“It’s alright,” Lloyd laughed. “You can share my towel, don’t worry.” As he handed Kai the towel, the fire ninja eyed it shrewdly.

“It’s got ducks on it. Of course it does.”

“Hey, you want the towel or not?”

“No, I’m taking the towel.” Kai wrapped the towel around himself, shivering, unfurling the ducks for all to see. Cole snickered, and Kai shot him a glare.

“Should we pack up, then?”

Zane nodded. “If we want to be back in time for dinner, probably.”

The team trudged back to their blanket, wet and sandy, but chatting amiably. They had nearly packed up all their things when Lloyd cried out suddenly.

“Where’s my wallet?”

Zane frowned. “Didn’t you put it in the valuables pouch?”

“I thought I did, but…” he paused. “Oh, wait. I tripped over Jay. I must’ve forgotten to put it in after that.”

“Well, then, it’s gotta be around here somewhere. What color is it, Lloyd?”

“What do you think? Green.”

They spent a good ten minutes searching through their entire bag and the surrounding sand, to no avail. It quickly became clear that if Lloyd’s wallet had ever fallen around here in the first place, it wasn’t here now.

Kai shrugged. “Oh well. It’s not that big of a deal. You don’t have any cards, and I don’t think you were carrying any of the cash. We can get you a new one.”

“No, but I had the things in there!”

Cole frowned. “The things?”

“You know.” Lloyd lowered his voice. “The things. That the mayor gave us?”

“What?!” Jay yelped. “Those were in there?” “You lost them?” Kai cried. “Lloyd, how could you?”

“It’s not like I did it on purpose!” Kai groaned, rubbing his face. “We should’ve never trusted you with them. Or at least split them up, so they weren’t all together.”

“I still do not understand.” Pixal frowned. “What are these things that are so important?”

“They’re a top-secret gift from the mayor,” Jay whispered. “We’re not supposed to tell anyone we have them. Not that telling anyone now would matter anyway, because we don’t have them anymore.”

“It’s not my fault!” Lloyd insisted. “It’s that stupid seagull’s, he’s the one who distracted me-” Lloyd paused, his eyes widening. “That’s it! The seagull must’ve swiped my wallet when it was chasing me!”

“Looks like we have a lead,” Kai growled.

“Wait a minute, does anyone else hear that mysterious music-”

“Oh no,” Pixal muttered, putting a hand on her forehead. “Zane, please don’t tell me you’re going to do this again.”

“It seemed that, after only a few weeks, it was time for me to crack yet another case.” The odd, deep voice rang out, and they turned to see Zane slipping on a fedora.

“Where did that even come from,” Pixal despaired. “I’m positive you didn’t bring that with you. Positive.”

“Again, I was to be accompanied by my trusty assistant, but this time, my highly trained ninja associates would also be coming along, all determined to reclaim what someone had stolen in the heist.”

Jay glanced between Pixal and Zane. “What is happening right now? Am I supposed to know what’s happening?”

Pixal shook her head. “It’s a long story. Just go with it.”

Zane tipped his hat down. “Already, we were off with a very promising lead. I suspected the culprit to be the feathered fiend that had been spotted lurking around at the scene of the crime only an hour prior.”

Kai snorted, placing a hand on Jay’s shoulder. “Oh, this is gold! Did you mess with his voice again, Jay?”

“No, I didn’t touch him! Pixal, you didn’t…”

She shook her head. “Believe me, I wouldn’t do this if you paid me. It was all him.”

Jay grinned. “What do we do next… detective Zane?” He and Kai simultaneously burst into laughter, leaning against each other for support.

Zane side-eyed them. “The primary suspect was as clear as a black bear in a snowstorm, yet the whereabouts of the creature were still unknown. It had vanished into thin air, without leaving so much as a trace in its stead.”

“Hey,” Lloyd said suddenly, leaning down to pick something up off of the sand, “What about this?”

“It appeared to be part of the plumage of a species of avian native to these shores. Could it belong to the specimen we were looking for?”

Kai plucked the feather from Lloyd’s fingers, examining it. “The feather was white with a dark tip, definitely having originated from a seagull- although the spiked, disturbed edges implied that this was from no ordinary gull- it was from one who had recently been in a fight.”

Jay grinned. “It seemed like we had hit the jackpot. Already, we were one step closer to tracking down this culprit.”

Pixal groaned. “Don’t you two start, too. It was bad enough with just Zane.”

Nya grimaced. “Yeah, this is already getting annoying.”

“How is a feather going to tell us where the seagull is now?” Cole asked.

“I could sense the wind was blowing in from the northwest,” Zane narrated. “If we wanted to find the culprit of the caper, we would have to walk upwind, hopefully leading us to the source of the feather.”

“Alright,” Pixal sighed, “let’s get this over with.”

“And so,” Zane grinned, “The Great Gull Caper began.”

The team trudged up the beach for about twenty minutes, to no avail. They passed many other beachgoers, pointing and staring as the ninja passed, but no seagulls were in sight.

“Are you sure about this, Zane?” Pixal asked.

“The feathered suspect had gained an hour’s head start in its escape from the scene, meaning we would have to hasten our pace if we ever hoped to catch up.”

“Oh, I am not walking an hour just to find this thing. Are we sure it’s that important?”

“Yes!” the guys yelped in unison.

“It’s a very important gift from the mayor! It would be rude to lose it,” Jay said. “We have to get it back!”

“Couldn’t you just ask for another… whatever they are?”

“No! They’re one of a kind!” “Well, can we at least hurry this up? Frankly, I’m getting quite tired of Zane’s shenanigans.”

Zane grinned at her. “Although she voiced her disapproval, my assistant knew the efficiency of my methods, as they had gotten us out of a pinch the last time things had been amok.”

“First of all, I was the one who successfully found Dyer last time. You just ended up getting caught.”

“Perhaps, but you used my techniques.”

Pixal huffed. “Second, I don’t appreciate that you keep calling me your assistant. If anything, we’re partners!”

Zane adjusted his fedora. “So it was a promotion she was after, eh? Well, if my assistant could prove her worth by properly complying with my techniques in this case, she may find herself with a loftier position in the future.”

Pixal sighed. “Whatever. Let’s just find the stupid bird, and go.”

The group trekked after Zane again, and Pixal wondered how long they would be here, when Zane suddenly stopped, causing half of the gang to crash into him.

“What?” Jay yelped. “What’s wrong? Why’d we stop?”

Zane pointed near his feet. “It seemed like the culprit had been careless enough to leave behind tracks in the sand.”

Pixal peered over his shoulder. Sure enough, the tracks of some avian species left a trail in the sand- and after consulting her database, it appeared to match the foot of a seagull.

“We’re getting closer!” Cole said. “It has to be around here somewhere.”

Nya’s eyes went wide, and she pointed towards something in the distance. “Look!”

Down the beach, a large group of seagulls was flocking around a half-eaten pretzel, flapping their wings and squawking as they tried to push past each other.

“It could be any of them,” Lloyd despaired. “How are we going to know which one was the one who stole my wallet?”

Jay smirked. “There’s only one way to find out.”

Lloyd eyed him nervously. “How?”

“One seagull, in particular, has come to associate you with food. One seagull has been known to chase you down.”

“Oh,” Lloyd paled, taking a step back and waving his hands. “Oh, no, I do not like where this is heading…”

“Come on, Lloyd, do it for the team,” Cole pleaded.

“You are the one who lost them in the first place,” Kai agreed. “It’s only fair.”

Lloyd groaned. “Why do I let you bully me into these things?”

“Go on,” Nya gave him a gentle shove. “We don’t have all day!”

Sticking his tongue out at her, Lloyd stepped forward, towards the seagulls. Several of them looked his way, a few flapping their wings anxiously and squawking in warning. Lloyd stopped, swallowing.

“Um. Hey. I don’t suppose any of you have seen a green wallet around here?”

Jay rolled his eyes. “They can’t understand you. Get closer!”

“Okay! I’m going, jeez-” he broke off with a yelp as a seagull darted in front of him, nearly tripping him as he stepped on its tail.

The seagull shrieked, and, in a flurry of feathers, the flock broke into a frenzied panic. Lloyd’s eyes widened, and he cried out, running away and frantically ducking swooping seagulls.

He darted behind Kai as a last nervy seagull hopped after him. Kai held up a fist, which burst into flame, scaring the bird off. Kai glanced back at Lloyd, amusement sparkling in his dark eyes. “You okay, bud?”

Lloyd glared. “Don’t look at me like that. These birds are vicious!”

“Look!” Pixal pointed at a gull that had remained behind. With the others out of the way, she could see the small, green wallet between its beak.

“That’s the one!” Cole cried. “After it!”

For ninja, the group was embarrassingly unstealthy as they clamored after the bird, shooting elemental powers at it and screaming as they narrowly avoided each other’s blasts, so that by the time the seagull reached the water, the beach was a mess of crystalized sand, crevices in the ground, and various burn marks from fire, lightning, and energy.

“It’s a seagull!” Nya cried. “We’ve faced giant snakes, lords of darkness, elemental masters, Oni, more criminals and gangsters than I can count, and an evil video game AI, yet we can’t catch one measly seagull? It shouldn’t be this hard, you guys!”

“It’s getting away,” Jay cried, pointing at the bird, who had finally taken flight and was heading out over the ocean.

“No!” Lloyd moaned. “Now we’re never going to get it back!”

“Not on my watch,” Nya growled, racing past them towards the docks. “Come on!” “Oh no,” Kai groaned. “Nya Smith, whatever you are thinking, stop it right now, because I’m not doing it.” “Come on, Kai,” Lloyd insisted, grabbing his wrist and yanking him along. “We have to hurry!”

They raced after Nya, who was running down the dock towards a man who was examining the boats. Kai followed them more slowly, taking careful steps.

“Sir, we need to use a boat, right away! We’ll pay for it, we promise!”

The man shook his head. “Sorry, ma’am, but these are all private boats. The only one we have is that one,” he pointed to a small, worn-looking fishing boat, “and the motor’s broken, so it’s of no use to anyone.”

“It doesn’t matter, I can take care of that. Everyone, get in!”

“W-wait,” the man stuttered, looking flustered.

“We’ll bring it right back, I promise! Now, come on, we don’t have much time!”

“No!” Kai insisted, as everyone else piled in. “Nuh-uh. No way. Not in a million years. You are not bringing me out into the middle of the ocean in a tiny, crowded boat with a busted engine!”

“You don’t need an engine when you’ve got me!” Nya raised her hand, and the water swirled under the boat, rocking it slightly. “Now, come on, we don’t have time for this!” “Y’know what.” Kai took a couple of steps back from the boat. “I’m good. I’ll stay here. You guys have fun finding the wallet. I’ll cheer you on from the beach. The dry, dry beach.”

“Nope.” Cole reached forward, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him in. “This is your gift we’re saving, too. If you want to get part of it, you’re coming with.”

“Finally!” Nya huffed. The water rippled beneath them, and suddenly, it was propelling their boat, and they were off.

“Where’s the bird?” Nya asked. “Does anyone see it?” “Over there!” Cole pointed slightly towards their left, where the seagull was gliding away with surprising speed. Getting into the boat had slowed them down, and it had gotten a large head start.

Nya gritted her teeth. “Hold on.”

“Don’t go faster!” Kai yelped from where he huddled near the middle of the boat, protectively sandwiched between Lloyd and Cole. “If you tip this boat, I will never forgive you.”

“I know what I’m doing,” Nya growled, although the boat slowed slightly as they continued.

“Our team continued to chase the thief, determined to put an end to the Great Gull Caper and put the culprit to justice. Even when our path took us across the raging waters of the ocean, with nothing but a rusty, broken old boat, and deep, swirling waters around us, filled with the dark abyss and the creatures that lurked there…”

“You mean like sharks?” Lloyd perked, peering over the edge. “Did you see any? I wanna see one!”

“Nope,” Kai yelped, pulling himself into a ball as he sat down on the floor of the boat. “Nopety nope nope nope. I’m done. I’m outta here.”

“The prospect of sharks was a dire one, but one we were willing to take. We would get that wallet back, no matter the cost- even if it meant competition from this fierce predator of the sea.”

Kai screamed into his hands. “Just end me now!”

“What Zane means to say,” Pixal said, elbowing Zane sharply, “is that sharks are actually very off-put by the taste of human flesh, and do not go after humans on purpose.”

Kai stared at her. “Oh joy, now a shark can devour my flesh by accident, what a relief.”

“Do not worry, Kai,” she told him. “There is only one estimated death by shark per year in the greater Ninjago City area.”

“Knowing my luck,” Kai grumbled, “I’ll be that one.”

“Did anyone bring their phone with?” Lloyd asked. “I wanna get a good picture when the sharks come for Kai.”

“I call dibs on his katana,” Jay exclaimed. “Y’know, the super flashy one with the flaming dragon carved into the handle?”

Lloyd wrinkled his nose at him. “Why would you want a fire dragon on your katana? You’re the lightning ninja!”

“Hey, just because my element is lightning, doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a super dope fire design when I see one-”

“Guys,” Cole sighed, pushing his way between the two arguing boys. “No one is getting eaten. We’re perfectly safe here, on this boat.”

“Cole’s right,” Pixal agreed. “The sharks around this area are smaller, reef dwellers, and won’t come after us. They may, however, come after our seagull friend if he gets too close to the water.”

Kai made a noise in the back of his throat, and Cole scowled at her. “Thanks for the help, Pix.”

“Nya,” Jay whined, “the seagull’s getting further away! We have to go faster!”

“Don’t!” Pixal cried. “This boat has not been manufactured to withstand a lot of weight. With seven people, especially when two of them are titanium, going too fast would be sure to capsize us.”

“I told you I should’ve stayed behind on the shore,” Kai wailed.

Lloyd leaned further over the edge, raising a hand to his forehead to keep the glare off of his face as he peered intently into the water. “Is… is that a shark?”

Kai stared at him. “Shut up. You’re just baiting.”

Lloyd shook his head, his eyes lighting up in a way that was not reassuring in the slightest. “I’m not! It’s a shark! It’s a real, live shark! I’ve never seen one this close before! Except at like, an aquarium!”

Kai closed his eyes, rocking himself gently. “You’re lying. You stupid liar, I hate you.”

Cole peered over, following Lloyd’s gaze, and promptly bit his lip. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“This is a dumb prank, you guys!” Kai was half-yelling by this point.

“Stop being so loud,” Lloyd hissed. “You’ll scare it!”

Kai blinked at him. “I’ll scare it?”

Lloyd crossed his arms. “A scared shark is an aggressive shark.”

Kai’s mouth snapped shut.

“I can’t believe this,” Cole muttered. “Did we really not bring any weapons?”

“No!” Lloyd yelped. “Cole, you wouldn’t!”

“I would if it kept us from being eaten.”

“For the last time, sharks don’t eat humans!”

Cole ignored him. “Well? Did we?”

Nya snorted. “Why would we bring weapons to the beach?”

“Hey, with how often this city gets attacked, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Nya rolled her eyes. “It was supposed to be our day off.”

“It’s fine,” Pixal reported, keeping a careful eye on the shark. “It’s swimming away now. As long as we leave it alone, we’re safe.”

Kai frowned. “Looks like the gull isn’t so convinced, though.”

Pixal glanced up. Sure enough, the seagull was eyeing the shark nervously, pumping its wings as it flew higher and higher above the surface of the water.

“Do something!” Jay shrieked. “If we don’t stop it now, it’s going to get away for good!”

“Lloyd!” Nya cried. “Is your wallet waterproof?”

“What?”

“Just answer the question!” “Yes! Yes, it is!”

Nya gritted her teeth. “Hold on, everyone!”

Suddenly, a vast wave rose out of the water, looming over the seagull.

Kai’s eyes widened. “Nya, be careful, you’ll hit us too-”

But it was already too late, the wave crashing down, downing the seagull, and soaking them in saltwater. The team cried out, and Kai screamed, throwing his arms over his head in a futile attempt to protect himself. As they all tried to lurch away from the spray, the boat rocked precariously, and, for a horrifying moment, they were suspended there, on the point between balance and capsize.

And then that moment was over, and they were all falling into the ocean.

Pixal’s world immediately dimmed as she plunged into the water, quietness enveloping her like a blanket. For a moment, she was too shocked to do anything, until a foot thrashed past her face, snapping her out of her trance as she swam towards the surface.

A couple of feet before she reached it, a metal hand snatched her wrist and pulled her the rest of the way up.

“Pixal!” Zane cried, his detective voice dropped. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. What about everyone else? Are we all here?”

Zane nodded his head behind her, and she turned to see the others all within a couple of feet. Cole had his hands on the now upside-down boat, trying to use his strength to push it over, but it was hard for him to get a good grip and stay afloat at the same time. Just behind him, Jay was spitting out a mouthful of seawater, sending ripples across the surface of the ocean as he treaded water. Lloyd was doing the same a couple of feet away, only the green ninja was struggling a lot more because of the arms wrapped tightly around his neck.

“Don’t let me go, Lloyd!” Kai yelped, although the feat would’ve been impossible even if Lloyd had wanted to- the fire ninja was clinging to him like a barnacle. “I can’t swim!”

Lloyd sighed. “I know that, Kai. It’s the only reason I’m letting you hold on to me like this.”

“I can’t believe this happened,” Kai cried. “We’re going to die out here. This is the worst day off ever.”

“Hey!” Lloyd snapped. “It’s not my fault this happened!”

Nya shot them all a sharp glare from where she was drifting alongside the boat. She didn’t even bother to tread water like the rest of them, instead using her powers to keep herself afloat. “It was going to work until you guys made such a big fuss about getting a little wet and tipped the boat.”

Cole sighed. “We’re not going to die. As soon as I get this right side up again, we’ll climb up and get out of here. Can you give me a hand, Zane?”

As the nindriod moved to help him, Kai suddenly went rigid.

“Lloyd,” he whispered.

“What, Kai?”

“Something just bumped my foot.”

“It’s probably just seaweed, Kai,” Lloyd sighed, looking down- and promptly froze.

“No one. Move.”

Jay squeezed his eyes shut. “Oh no, oh gosh, don’t tell me that’s what I think it is, this is not happening-”

“Jay, shut up,” Nya whispered, her face pale as she watched the dark shape lurking below them in the water.

“Everyone, stay calm,” Pixal murmured. “Don’t make any sudden movements and try to look it in the eyes.”

“Please, the last thing I’m gonna do is look at it,” Kai breathed, burying his face in Lloyd’s hair.

After a moment, the shark slowly swam past, losing interest.

“It doesn’t care about us,” Zane realized. “It wants the seagull.”

Several yards away, the gull was floating on the water, still trying to shake off the moisture from Nya’s wave. Suddenly realizing the danger it was in, the bird raised its wings- and launched itself into the air, just as fierce jaws snapped against empty air where the seagull had been less than a second ago.

Kai’s fingers dug tighter into Lloyd’s shoulders, and Pixal caught Jay biting his lip as he swallowed back a scream, but, its prey lost, the shark was already swimming away.

“Gotcha,” Nya murmured, reaching a hand out and snatching up the wallet, which the seagull had dropped in all the commotion, before it could sink to the bottom of the ocean.

“Okay. That’s great. We got it. Now can we get out of here?” Kai pleaded.

After a minute, they finally got the boat flipped over, and Cole hauled himself aboard before helping to lift the others. Ten minutes later, they were all safely out of the water and on their way back to the dock, and Pixal had never felt more relieved by the fact.

“So,” Jay asked, as the boat glided through the water, leaning closer to Nya. “Did they survive all that?”

“Let’s see,” Nya murmured, opening up Lloyd’s wallet. Pixal leaned forward, anxious to see what all the fuss had been about.

“Yes!” Jay cried, pulling out seven slips of paper. “They’re all here!”

“Wait.” Pixal snatched one from his hand, quickly scanning it. “A summer pass for free all-you-can-eat ice cream from the Dairy Dragon?”

“Yup,” Jay smiled, passing them out to the others. “The mayor gave them to us as a gift after we saved the city from Prime Empire. That’s what we were going to do today, after the beach, actually.”

“You’re telling me,” Pixal deadpanned. “That we just risked our lives. For free ice cream.”

“Free ice cream is free ice cream, Pix.”

“You’ll understand once you’ve tried their butter pecan,” Nya told her. “It’s to die for.”

“Butter pecan?” Jay spluttered. “No way, the Ninjapolitan is best.”

“You heathen, chocolate fudge is obviously the best flavor-”

“What are you guys talking about, mint chocolate chip is superior!”

“You just like it because it’s green.”

“Do not!”

“Do so!” Nya sighed, putting her head in her hands. “Here we go again.”

“Calm down, all of you,” Pixal said. “You can get whatever flavor of ice cream you want. Just do me a favor and try not to end up capsizing us in the middle of the ocean this time.”

Jay hummed. “No promises.”

#ninjago #ninbingo #my fic #rosie writes #ninjago kai #ninjago pixal #ninjago nya #ninjago zane #ninjago lloyd #ninjago jay #ninjago cole #i cant believe i actually wrote something that is 100% fluff #that's never happened before #it feels... weird #but it was a lot of fun #and yes Lloyd loves sharks and I will die on that hill #thanks for reading! #reblogs and comments greatly appreciated!