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soulmate-game · 3 years

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Harley's Plea for Help ch. 6

Ch1 Ch2 Ch3 Ch4 Ch5 Ch6-- you are here

Yet another night of barely any sleep, but this time Marinette didn’t have the coffee-angel Red Robin at her rescue. No, instead she had to go completely uncaffeinated until she and her class got to Wayne Enterprises. Madame Mendelieve could only sigh as she watched Marinette scamper off to the café as soon as they made it past the initial security of the building. A couple of her classmates chuckled or snorted at her familiar behavior.

It was the same barista at the register as before, but this time Marinette felt too tired to properly order or be adventurous in looking for new flavors.

“I feel like death. I don’t care if it tastes like pure bean oil today. Flavors will take away from the amount of coffee you can shove in one cup, right?”

The poor barista blinked, eyeing the deep bags forming under the poor girl’s eyes. She sighed. “I had hope yesterday that you were just a normal caffeine addict. Now I see we actually have a second Mister Drake,” she said it as if she was mourning at Marinette’s grave before poking a few buttons on her touchscreen order station and turning her head. “One Insomniac CEO, but not for the boss!” She called out. The barista making the drinks paused for a second with wide eyes.

“We have another one?!” He asked, shocked. “Piece of advice?” He turned to Marinette. “Get some sleep.”

“Sleep is for the dead,” Marinette deadpanned back. “I got stuff I need to do today.”

The guy just shook his head and sighed, making the drink as Marinette paid and left a good tip. The drink came out fairly quickly, and everyone behind the counter stopped for a moment to stare as she gulped down the hot drink with no concern for her tongue or throat. A satisfied sound left her as she finally pulled away from the cup.

“This is really good!” She complimented, turning to the Baristas with a still-tired smile. It would take a minute or two for the coffee to have full effect, but she already felt better. “A little too bitter for my usual tastes, but perfect for days like today. Thanks!” She waved at them before turning around and seeing that her class was already gone again. Before she could fully process that though, a hand slapped down onto her head and ruffled her hair.

Surprised (really, not a lot of people could sneak up on her anymore. Just how tired was she?) she let out a high pitched squeal.

“You’re a good kid,” the soft, slightly scratchy voice that said that made Marinette’s shoulders drop and eyes widen. Tilting her head back she was greeted with the widely-grinning face of Jason Todd. He was once again in the uniform of a security guard.

“Wha— Uh,” Marinette couldn’t quite find the right words right away. She was too stunned. Jason just chuckled, jerking his head to indicate the same door her class had gone through the day before and leading the way over there. Marinette scrambled to catch up.

Once they were far away enough from prying eyes and ears, Marinette cleared her throat.

“Um,” she started. “Did… I mean, do you..?”

“Yeah, our mutual friends had a chat with me last night,” he confirmed casually. He sent her a meaningful look even though his grin never left his face. “Like I said; you’re a good kid. And I’m not goin’ anywhere. You’re not responsible for the things your parents have done, you know.”

The girl at his side hummed noncommittally, not fully convinced but also not wanting to argue.

“You’re not,” he repeated firmly, stopping in the middle of the side-hallway. They could see her class at the other end getting checked in, but didn’t make a move to join them yet. “I mean it. The stuff that happened to me, none of that was you. Hell, you were a little kid back then. And there’s nothing you could have done to stop it, either. I’m not gonna hold anything against you just because you’re his child. You didn’t ask to be,” he shrugged. “Besides, I get it. Biological relation doesn’t equal family. Trust me,” his grin was gone and a tired one replaced it. “I know that better than most people.”

The pigtailed girl could only gulp, taking a deep breath as she forced down the tears that wanted to bubble up. She had had this conversation with Adrien a few times, but even then she had been convinced that he just didn’t understand. He was just being nice. But this— Jason’s words were more valuable than gold to her. He had no reason to be nice, so it had to be at least partially sincere.

“Thanks,” she whispered once she was positive she wasn’t going to break. She lifted her cup up and took a long sip of her coffee. The slight burn against her tongue helped ground her. “That means more than you know.”

Jason chuckled. “Nah. The fact that you stood up for me to the Bat,” his grin returned to his face full blast, making dimples appear on his cheeks. “Now that, you have no idea how much that means to me. You must have some serious guts to lecture that guy, too. Is it too late to adopt you for myself?”

That tore a quick laugh out of her, making her classmate’s head whip over to the opposite end of the hallway where she and Jason were. She quickly quieted herself, but her eyes danced with amusement as she looked up at Jason. “You’re too young to be my parent anyway, but I wouldn’t say no to a brother,” she joked. Jason’s eyes sparkled.

“Good, exactly what I was aiming for!” He slipped a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to her. “That’s my number. Call me if you ever need anything, got it?” He turned to resume leading her back to her class and she quickly slipped the paper into her pocket before anyone saw and got the wrong idea. “And I mean anything.”

Marinette just smiled and nodded. By then, they were close enough for Alya to smirk and ask; “What took ya so long, girl?”

“Oh,” Marinette shuffled a little on her feet before an observation gave her a last minute idea and she straightened up with a wide smile. “We just got distracted talking about motorcycles!”

Jason’s eyebrows raised for a quick second before he settled his expression again and played along. He had figured that not many people knew about her biological family. That part made sense. But she had been a total mess just the day before when she had tried to lie about Paris’ little villain problem in front of Bruce. How was she able to actually come up with a good lie this time around, when she had been just as much put on the spot? He wondered to himself about what was different about this situation to allow her to lie more easily. Maybe Bruce not being there was part of it— she seemed easily flustered by famous people.

Think of the devil, because no sooner had that thought finished developing in Jason’s mind before Bruce Wayne walked into the hallway with a paparazzi-ready smile. Jason rolled his eyes and sunk to the back of the group silently, sinking back into his job and keeping an eye on their surroundings. He listened as Alya laughed softly and elbowed Marinette even as the group turned their attention to Bruce.

“You and your bikes,” Alya teased. “If someone knew enough about motorcycles, I bet you’d marry them on the spot.”

“Nah,” Marinette whispered back. “If they gave me a really nice one though? That’s marriage potential for sure.”

The two girls laughed for a second before focusing back on the tour. Adrien wasted no time making his way to Marinette’s side, silent questions in his eyes. Jason watched with interest as the two seemed to silently communicate with one another. It was obvious that Adrien was calling her lie, and Marinette was essentially silently telling him that she would explain later. It was so seamless and subtle that if Jason hadn’t been extremely familiar with that kind of communication already, he wouldn’t have noticed it. Once again his eyebrows rose a tick on his forehead, and he made a mental note of the interaction. That kind of silent conversation wasn’t an easy thing to do with people. It was most commonly seen in married or otherwise long-term couples, childhood friends, family, or hero partners. The childhood friends and family sections were already ruled out from their background check on her and Harley herself had mentioned that even though Marinette had once crushed on Adrien, she had unofficially adopted the boy as her brother since then. Though, their time as close friends was only documented as having lasted about a year. That wasn’t quite enough time for that sort of effortless silent communication to be possible.

Of course, Jason had his suspicions already. But there was no rush, either. The Clown was on the move and more important to focus on for now. He could focus on the puzzle that was Marinette and Adrien later.

Bruce took over the tour as he had the day before, and the class was instantly riveted once again. If the fact that they were being led through the building by the very man who owned it wasn’t awesome enough to get everyone’s full attention, the man’s personality was. He came off a little carefree and very kind, but there was an obvious undercurrent of just how much he loved his company that showed that he did take it and his job seriously. Just, not too seriously either. And he interjected everywhere he could with personal stories and anecdotes and little bits of his family history that the normal tour guides might not have known. It was not long after he announced that he was going to take them to a lower lab set aside specifically for their class’ tour, so that they could do their first interactive activity, that jason found the opportunity to sidle up next to Marinette on the opposite side from where Adrien walked alongside her.

“So,” he said casually. “How’d you know I ride a motorcycle?” he smirked to show he wasn’t upset as he looked down at her curiously. Marinette blinked, taking her attention away from Bruce to look over at Jason. Once his words registered, she smiled widely and pointed to one of his pockets. The corners of his bike gloves flopped over the edge.

“I noticed those. I figured you’d have a negative reaction that might give us away if my lie was too off the mark, and I do have a habit of saying stupid things if I don’t have a clue or something to play off of. I also had to make it believable for the class, and they all know that my Nonna has played a huge part in my love for motorcycles. I plan on getting a license to drive one when I turn sixteen later this year,” she told him softly. “I tend to gush whenever I see a cool bike, so I knew they wouldn’t question it.”

Jason huffed a little bit of laughter under his breath. It was like the trope of a character looking at random items in the room to come up with a fake name, but somehow it had actually worked for her. She was quick-witted and clever, he had to admit. And observant.

“I was running late, so I must have left them in my pocket when I was changing,” he admitted, unbothered. “Ah, here we are,” he nodded to return the two teen’s (he had noticed Adrien paying close attention as he and Marinette had their conversation) attention back to the tour. Bruce opened the door for the class with a flourish, gesturing for everyone to go in.

“Since these first few days are going to be tours and lessons about working in general, your first activity of your trip is to solve various problems we’ve given you based on real situations that WE employees have been in before. Split up into groups, and choose a table. Each table has a different problem covering a different industry. Reporting, Science— specifically research and development, business management, and entertainment…”

—*—*—*—*—*

“It’s straight,” Adrien assured her, trying to keep himself from laughing as Marinette straightened his tie for the millionth time. “I promise. And you look fantastic.”

Marinette stepped back, nodding at Adrien’s appearance in approval. “I know. We both look great, but…” she fidgeted and then stepped forward to go right back to over-straightening his tie. Adrien snorted, grabbing her hands before she could touch the poor thing again and lowering her arms to her sides.

“Calm down. Like you said, we both look great. You don’t have a single hair out of place, the outfits you made us look amazing, and my tie is at a perfect ninety degree angle to my collar. Take the model’s word for it,” he teased with a lopsided grin. “We look ready for the front cover of a magazine. So just take a deep breath, because we should get down to the lobby soon to wait for the ride he’s sending for us.”

“Right,” Marinette nodded. She followed his advice and took a deep breath. Once she was suitably calmed, she opened her eyes and nodded at him. Adrien smiled and held out his arm, making Marinette snort as she took hold of it gently and let him lead her to the elevator.

Bruce had not specified whether the dinner was going to be casual or formal, but with the fact that his kids were going to be present and it was at his own house, Marinette had a feeling it was going to be more of a casual thing than if they had went out to a fancy restaurant with a black tie dress code. At the same time, this was the Wayne manor they were talking about. She didn’t want to be underdressed, either. Not to mention that it was her design skills that had played a huge part in her winning the contest in the first place, so she felt like she had to show her work again to prove that they had chosen the right person.

A playful wolf whistle greeted the two of them when they got down to the lobby. Alya was, to no one’s surprise, the perpetrator. She stood in the lobby with Alix, Nino, and Max, who all had known about the dinner and agreed to be there to see the two of them off and put Marinette’s worries to rest. The four of them jogged over, Alix smiling and adding her own soft whistle of appreciation.

“You guys look great,” the short skater assured them, taking the time to skate slow circles around them to make sure that nothing was wrong with their outfits. “I think you’ve outdone yourself, Mari! Very cool.”

Alya nodded eagerly, bouncing in place with a wide, beaming smile on her face. “Ah! The both of you look ready to kick ass and woo rich people!” she added. Max pushed his glasses up on his nose with a small grin.

“There is a ninety-five percent chance of your work impressing all of the Waynes,” he said in his own version of encouragement.

“You guys got this!” Nino shot them a thumbs up. “They beat me to all the stuff I wanted to say.”

Marinette beamed, laughing along with her friends as she allowed herself to relax a little. Adrien’s outfit was of her own making, a subtle way for him to rebel since his father had sent him with his own Gabriel brand suit should an appropriate opportunity to wear it come up. Adrien had no plans of ever putting his father’s suit on his body. In an effort to spice up formal men’s wear a bit without making the whole thing white and silver like Gabriel wanted, Marinette had made him a classic silk shirt in black, with short sleeves that fell at that perfect halfway point between his elbow and shoulder. The sleeves had thick cuffs in a dark forest green, with decorative straight stitches on the seams in a bright magenta pink thread. On top of that was a corset-style sleeveless vest with a deep V. The majority of the vest was the same black as the shirt, but with dark green hand-stitched swirls that were just barely bright enough to be contrasted against the black. It created a very subtle pattern that would be hard to see in the wrong lighting, but would make it look that much more expensive and elaborate in the right lighting. The lapel of the vest was in the same dark forest green as the cuffs of his shirt, with a few decorative swirls embroidered on the very corners. The piping of the corset-vest made three curved lines on either side of his waist, curling from mid-rib cage to his waist. It gave him a slightly more feminine twist to his outfit, making his waist look smaller even though it wasn’t actually pulled very tight on him— it was mostly the illusion made by the piping rather than the actual tightness of the garment. The two outside piping lines were done in a magenta pink, while the middle piping line was once again in dark forest green. Unlike most corset-style vests, this one had no buttons or zipper on the front at all. Instead, it was closed only by corset lacing in the back, the laces done in such a dark shade of green that it was almost black, while the eyelets that the laces were threaded through were that same magenta pink as the piping and decorative stitches elsewhere on the outfit. The tie that Marinette had spent so long making sure was straight was almost entirely soft lace, but it was layered in such a way with layers of sheer green and pink lace that it looked like it was a constant swirl of the two colors. If someone got close enough to see the pattern of the lace tie, they would notice that it was a pattern of cats chasing a butterfly.

Underneath the artistic top of the outfit were black dress pants, once again with thick forest-green cuffs on the bottoms. But instead of the decorative stitching, the pant legs flared a bit at the ankles for just a little extra drama. Magenta-pink Oxfords peeked out of the wide cuffs. The green detailing made Adrien’s eyes pop, while the pink accents gave his boyish charm a little more of a feminine touch that almost seemed to highlight his naturally sensitive and charming nature.

In contrast, Marinette wore a sleeveless pink pantsuit. It was the same shade as the pink accents in Adrien’s outfit, and had a built-in corset as well that went only around her natural waist. The corset boning on Marinette was a solid black, while the rest was just the same base pink as the majority of the suit. The black of the boning seemed to flow downwards, changing from boning into thick hand-embroidery in thread of the exact same black. The embroidery flowed down the sides of both legs, in the shape of tree branches and apple blossoms. Pale green accents in the form of swirls at her high neckline and a pale green lace capelet that was the only thing covering her shoulders helped tie her outfit in with Adrien’s. She also wore pale green low kitten heels and her black hair up in a braided bun. With how her pant legs were form-hugging until they flared out slightly at the heel, and the lack of sleeves exposed her toned arms and shoulders and emphasized her strength there without making her look unbalanced or too masculine for the rest of the outfit’s style, she looked ready to rock the business world. Her bright blue eyes clashed with the green details of the outfit just enough to bring attention to them, assuring that people who met her eyes would not be able to easily look away.

The quick snap of a phone’s flash went off, drawing everyone’s attention to Madame Bustier. She was beaming at all of them, and had just taken a picture of her two students all dressed up. She waved her phone happily. “I’m sending this picture to the both of you. I’m so proud of you guys!” she gushed.

Marinette and Adrien both blushed deep red, shifting in their spots. They were confident in their looks, and Adrien was just as proud of his pseudo-sister, but neither of them was very good at handling so much positive attention aimed only at them. Especially not from their extremely sincere friends and teacher.

“Miss Dupain-Cheng?” An older gentleman with a British accent turned everyone’s attention to him. The first thing Marinette thought was that he had kind eyes. He also had soft wisps of white hair on his head, carefully trimmed and slicked back. Of course, Marinette and Adrien also couldn’t miss the high quality and perfect press of his carefully maintained suit. Once he had shown all the proper credentials to Madame Bustier, he introduced himself to the two well-dressed teens with a shallow bow. “I am Alfred Pennyworth, the butler for Wayne Manor. I am to escort the both of you there for supper tonight.”

“Oh! Thank you so much, Monsieur Pennyworth,” Marinette said, walking up and shaking his hand. Adrien was right by her side the whole time, matching her smile watt for watt and shaking Alfred’s hand with just as much enthusiasm.

“Yeah, thank you for having us over. I know it was technically Bruce who invited Marinette, but you’re probably the one that has to do all the work. So, thank you. We really appreciate it,” he told the man sincerely. Alfred’s answering smile was soft, almost fond.

“Yes, I admit I am in charge of most of the work for tonight. But you shouldn’t worry, it’s no different from any other day at the manor,” he said lightheartedly, a little bit of good natured snark shining through his otherwise proper behavior— “Every last one of the Waynes would die in less than a week without me to keep everything in order,” he joked. “Allow me to lead you to the car.”

Marinette and Adrien followed behind Alfred. She didn’t know if it was the calming aura he put off, or if it was the gentle way his eyes sparkled that made her want to look after him. But whatever it was, she found herself wanting to protect this kind old man already. Which is why her eyebrows slightly pinched together. Before climbing inside the luxurious town car he had brought for them, she couldn’t help but turn to Alfred and ask;

“I hope you aren’t overworked. I don’t want to overstep, Monsieur, but isn’t the Wayne family rather large for one person to look after on their own?”

Alfred laughed gently at that, his eyes once again softening. “Do not worry about me, Miss Dupain-Cheng. They are family to me. And though, yes, you are correct in assuming they are a handful, they are also wonderful people. They help me where they can, but taking care of themselves is not their forte. Being able to do that for them is my greatest joy.”

The wrinkles in Marinette’s brow smoothed out and she smiled. “That’s so sweet. You’re making me want to meet them all even more.”

Something about that twinkle in Alfred’s eye made her feel like he was laughing at some joke she didn’t hear. “I’m sure all of you will get along swimmingly.”

—*—*—*—*—*

“I FOUND HER FIRST!”

Alfred had barely opened the manor’s doors to let Marinette and Adrien inside before the chaos started. Or rather, before they were let in on it— it seemed as if the chaos had already been going on for a while.

Jason skidded across the floor in a mad dash, having to grasp the doorframe he was running out of so that he could turn the corner sharply and veer towards them.

“Tell them, Marinette! I found you first, you’re my sister now, don’t fall for any of their Jedi mind tricks!”

Marinette just blinked, a little caught off guard. It hadn’t exactly sunk into her head until right that moment that ‘Wayne Family dinner’ would include Jason. Her mind was still catching up to the fact that she was seeing him out of his security guard uniform for the first time. He wasn’t dressed up at all, in a well-loved brown leather jacket over a white shirt and dark wash jeans. He still had his motorcycle gloves on. Marinette looked down at first herself, then Adrien.

“Are we overdressed?” She asked with a grimace. Jason huffed.

“Of course not, you guys look amazing! But seriously, tell them that I claimed you as my sister first and none of them are half as cool as me.”

Marinette and Adrien traded glances before laughing together.

“If we’re being technical here,” Adrien drawled mischievously as he straightened out his vest. “I met Marinette first, and she adopted me as her brother long before we met any of you,” he pointed out with a sharp grin.

“Ha!” a younger man laughed pointedly, following after Jason. The newcomer was dressed more formally, in a dress shirt under a very luxurious looking burgundy designer sweater. Under that, he wore black perfectly-pressed slacks and nondescript oxfords. His collar showed signs of housing a tie earlier, but he had clearly taken it off sometime earlier. His hair hung slightly long, framing his face with two long locks while the back of his hair slightly stuck up in all directions in natural tufted curls. Like Jason, his hair was jet black and he had bright blue eyes. He was also about half Jason’s size, much shorter and leaner than his adoptive brother. “He’s got you there, idiot,” he snarked smugly at Jason before turning to the two guests. “Miss Dupain-Cheng, Mister Agreste. I’m Tim Drake-Wayne, it’s nice to finally meet both of you,” he introduced himself as he walked over to shake their hands. “And your outfits are amazing! Did you make them, Miss Dupain-Cheng?”

“Marinette,” she corrected with a lopsided grin. “My last name is a mouthful, and I prefer to just go by Marinette anyway. And yes, I made both of these outfits before we left Paris,” she admitted, trying her best to seem professional. She had already ruined her chances of that with Bruce and Jason, but this time she was prepared!

“They are just as impressive as the rest of your work that I’ve seen. And call me Tim, it’s only fair,” and then he smiled.

Damn his boyish grin. He wasn’t someone Marinette had a crush on— he wasn’t her type— but damn he was unfairly charismatic and charming. His smile temporarily short circuited her brain. That was exactly the kind of boyish smile that had started her crush on Adrien, and that she was unfairly weak for. Now she felt a deep-seated urge to protect this boy and his smile or so help her, someone would be sent to the ER if he was hurt and it wasn’t gonna be her. And she didn’t try to dissuade herself from that strong protective urge, her mother had already assured her that all the Waynes were trustworthy and that Tim in particular shared a lot of her bad habits. She could allow this little bit of vulnerability. Hopefully.

“... I’ve only known you for two minutes, but if anything happened to you I would kill everyone in this room and then myself,” she breathed. Adrien elbowed her hard, making her yelp.

“You said that out loud Mari,” he deadpanned. A deep flush immediately came over her face, and she covered her mouth with both hands.

“Oh shit. I’m so sorry— but you— just forget I said anything. Please!”

Tim was visibly shocked, his eyes wide and mouth agape. Jason snorted, overcoming his own brief moment of shock pretty easily.

“Careful there,” Jason chided good-heartedly. His gaze met Marinette’s with a slight weight in it though. “You barely know the guy. He’ll annoy you out of your mind soon enough.”

Marinette caught the hint, wincing and changing the subject. Jason could see that she had done exactly as her mother had warned— she had gotten attached to Tim almost immediately. And while he wanted to believe Marinette when she said that the same wouldn’t happen with Joker, that she was not going to repeat her mother’s mistakes…

He couldn’t help but worry. Joker was a slippery bastard, and good at getting past people’s defenses.

Tim eventually led them all to the dining room, where several people were already sat waiting for them.

“We decided it would be best if we didn’t all swarm you at the door,” Tim explained, grinning at her kindly. “Take a seat wherever you want, Alfred is probably going to be done with dinner soon.”

Marinette and Adrien both nodded, going to sit by each other’s side. Adrien put his hand on her knee when they sat down, and traded a meaningful look with her.

“Calm down,” he whispered. “We’re not in Paris. And if you slip, I’ll catch you. Promise.”

Marinette’s shoulders relaxed a little. Yeah, she could trust Adrien to make sure she didn’t slip up too much. Get too careless. He’d watch her back like she did for him. She’d be okay. They’d both be okay.

“Thanks, Adrien. I needed that.”

—*—*—*—*—*

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hungarianbee · 4 years

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Way of the Witcher: bits of lore

Disclaimer: Post contains spoilers to the Witcher games These things may be canon-typical, but the following trigger warnings apply if you want to check out the cards: gore, monster dismemberment, needles, body horror, insects and spiders

“In a world plagued by horrors and monstrosities humanity desperately needed a new type of weapon to turn back the tide. Created by ingenious Alzur, witchers — professional monster slayers of exceptional strength, speed, and agility were tasked to end the threat once and for all. Organized into different schools they honed their craft and passed their knowledge onto novices in training. Some of them were destined to become the legendary heroes and protectors of humanity. Others — the very thing they were supposed to fight…”

Since the gwent expansion was anounced I followed it with rapt attention; every bit of lore is a gem in my eyes. I decided to write down my thoughts of the cards and lore pieces revealed in a post. Share that knowledge around, amirite?

The post references Gwent cards which were leaked (2020 november-december). The theme is mutation and everything that comes with it; namely sweet-sweet lore of the lesser known witcher schools: the Bears, Cats, Vipers and Griffins.

Tucker in, under the cut there is 4.5k analysis of each card that came out.

We’re starting with a theme, then work our way throught the 4 schools (each contain the following: a leader, a mentor, an adept, a general witcher, a specific job, an item, a school relevant monster, 2 known witchers and a location), then go through a Witcher 1 throwback, Salamandra, and round it with a few new monsters and neutral cards.

While I describe most of the cards concisely and all the known witchers and locations are on my blog, you might want to look the cards in their (small) glory: [DO IT HERE]

Sounds good? Here we go!

Edit: [this source is better]

The theme is mutation - be it monsters created by transmutation, witchers or salamadra

If that is true, there are monster cards that seemingly stand out: the Succubus and the Phooca

If we are to believe that they do connect to the mutation theme, then

(1) we can conclude that Phoocas (a rare, and more dangerous form of Nekkers; they can pull your head off by sheer force, watch out) are a natural mutation of the original species,

(2) but we’re still left with the Succubi (an inherently demonic creature). They might have chosen it because of its appearance: succubi have horns and goat-like legs. (Note: in the graphic novel “House of Glass” the succubus character has wings, but lacks hooves. In that sense, she could be mutated.)

Breaking it down into factions/schools (some of the cards can be paired up; these cards are interpreted together):

School of the Viper: starting with the vipers, because they are my favourite

Viper Witcher Mentor & Viper Witcher Adept: the flavour text says that the Viper mentors are exceptionally cold and ruthless, and that’s underlined by the story the art tells: the mentor busies himself with sharpening a blade, and in the background we can see the adept attempting to kill his best friend goat, as was ordered. The mentor watches this from the corner of his eye. Young Vipers are to kill their pets (which they nurtured for years) before becoming a fully-fledged witcher. The latter could mean that the boy depicted on the card hasn’t even gone through the Trial of Grasses.

Viper Witcher: On the card we see an unknown Viper crouching over a royalty he killed. I feel like this type of card is meant to represent what we think a general Witcher of said school would be like. Apparently Vipers just like to slay the nobility *shrug*. The flavour text informs us, that Vipers call their two swords “fangs”, and that their style consists of fast and furious attack aimed to overwhelm the enemy.

Viper Witcher Alchemist: Every school has a specialty; Vipers are proficient in potion or poison making. The right side of the alchemist’s face seems to have healed burn marks; a blown up concoction might have caused it.

Ivar Evil-Eye: So far there’s little to know about Ivar. He was either the Master of the Viper Keep, or the founder himself (gwent suggests the latter). He’s described as heavily scarred (facial scars suggests burns and slash marks too), and each of them has a terrible story to tell.

Warritt the All-Seeing: Warritt is a (newly introduced) Viper with heavy disfiguration to the upper part of his face: his eyes are sealed shut (possibly by burn marks, though his hair remains intact). The art shows Warritt drawing a modified version of the Supirre sign in the air to help with his loss of sight. As the wiki says: “Supirre is a Sign used for eavesdropping. Drawn on a solid surface, it allows the people near this surface to listen nearby conversations which would be normally inaudible due to the distance or background noise.” It was only used in Sapkowsky’s second volume of the Hussite trilogy (not yet translated to English), which is entirely separate from the Witcher novels.

Kolgrim: Fate laughed at this Viper. As a kid he was swapped by a weeper, saved by a witcher, than rejected by his own mother who believed that the fake child was the real one. Later, as a grown witcher Ivar instructed him to find a lost weapon diagram. On his journey he was accused - ironically - in White Orchard of kidnapping a child. Invoking a Temerian law, Kolgrim was told to cleanse their crypt (as seen on the card) then he can go. The truth is revealed in Witcher 3 - Kolgrim was beheaded by the villagers before he could even step into the crypt. To add insult to injury: the child was eaten by a drowner. The gwent card therefore shows the optimistic outcome: that Kolgrim reached the crypt and passed in battle. And what’s up with a crypt full of wraiths anyway? White Orchard is shady, guys. (Lil’ trivia: Kolgrim’s eyes are yellow-green.)

Vypper: Basically an overgrown snake that likes damp marshes (they even fight the local kikimores for territory). They only relate to the mutation theme by their nature - they resemble the “school’s animal”.

Gorthur Gvaed: The Bloodgate Keep is located in the chasms of the Tir Tochair mountains. It’s built so high were you to look down from the bridge leading into the keep, you would only see fog (one could wonder how the vipers trained in these conditions). The bridge is made so that you’d have to cross the lookout tower - it might have served as a check in spot. The post itself is circled by the stone coils of a snake; the top is open and has a huge lit bonfire in the middle for warmth-keeping and possibly signaling. Unluckily, it didn’t stop the Usurper’s army from destroying the keep.

Coated Weapons: They leaned heavily into the alchemy and assassin side of the school. Vipers coat their blades with an acidic liquid, so they can kill a man with a nick of it.

School of the Cat:

Cat Witcher Mentor & Cat Witcher Adept: On the adept card we can see a young Cat walking the tightrope blindfolded (they start with close to the ground and slowly increase the distance with time); the mentor is looking up at him. Like the Vipers, Cat mentors are nonchalant about risking the kids as seen from the flavour text: “If you fall, it’s over. Your nine lives are up, kid.” Furthermore, the background of the Cat Witcher Adept card shows the not yet destroyed Stygga Citadel. The Cat Witcher Mentor is in the same scene and we can see lots of potatoes and cabbages; cats definitely eat their veggies.

Cat Witcher: The card shows a Cat in the heat of battle mid-jump; his hood is up, blood is flying everywhere. The flavour text emphasizes that cats are known for their mad bloodlust, not stopping killing even after the enemy capitulated.

Cat Witcher Saboteur: A Cat perches next to the window, a smoking bomb in hand, eavesdropping on nobles. A rope is hung from somewhere out of the pic, possibly for a quick exit. Vesemir comments that these are many-a deeds the cats did that taint the reputation of witchers.

Gezras of Leyda: Gezras is a not yet known redheaded Cat witcher. Following the pattern he seems to be the founder of the Cat School. His flavour text shows that even back then (when the mutagens made Cats emotionless) they were inclined to dislike humans: “Take a contract from Aen Seidhe over a dh’oine any day, as you’re far less likely to receive a knife between the ribs in place of coin.”

Brehen: Now this cat embodies the Cat madness. He’s known as the Cat of Iello because he massacred everyone there. He was consequently shunned by all the schools, and he was even convinced that Vesemir put a kill order on his head. He met Geralt later in the 1240s on his way to claim the bounty for the princess. Thinking that Geralt was there to rob him of his chance of the bounty, Brehen took a priestess as hostage (this is what we see on the gwent card). Geralt managed to convince him to put away the blade, and they parted without crossing blades. When meeting with the striga he scoffed into her face that “she won’t be his first royal”. But his luck ran out. The Temerians buried him and fabricated the story of a cowardly witcher stealing their coin. I’m halfway convinced we see Brehen in the netflix series.

Gaetan: This boy broke into the fandom like a bulldozer. After the folks in Honorton cheated him of his pay and tried to kill him, Gaetan flew into rage and killed everyone there except Millie, a girl who reminded him of his sister. That’s the scene we see on the card. And then Geralt robs/kills him.

Saber-Tooth Tiger (Stealth): Another huge animal/monster related to the school. It’s story is this: “The prized possession of royal menagerie, until a commando of Scoia’tael assaulted the exhibition, released the beast, and set it upon its cruel masters. Since that day, it has acquired a selective taste for human flesh.” Another cat turning against humans.

Stygga Castle: An outside view of what we already saw on the Cat Witcher Adept card. It’s located on a cliff, and the sun shines into it just right (so that the Cats can bask in the light). The walls form a circle where they shelter the inner grounds, and a bigger tower emerges in the middle. The Castle could be reached by the thin bridge connecting it to the mainland, or by the cliffs (if one is brave enough).

Making a Bomb: Cats seem to have a specialty in bombs. Guess where Lambert got his interest from *winkwink*

School of the Griffin: lots of pairs in this one

Griffin Witcher Mentor & Griffin Witcher Adept: Compared to the other schools, this pairing is tame - the adept is climbing a tree to retrieve a crossbow bolt. We can see the mentor in the background. On the mentor card the adept waves down with the retrieved crossbow bolt in hand. It shows a kind of comradeship that’s not present in the other 3 schools. The flavour text emphasizes the importance of knowledge. Students are afforded to choose their final Trial: recite the entire Liber Tenebrum (Book of Shadows; one of Keldar’s favourite books) or steal a griffin’s egg. Noone’s chosen the former.

Griffin Witcher: The witcher is shown shooting down a griffin. According to the flavour text they prefer hunting with silver-tipped arrowheads instead of swords.

Archgriffin & Griffin Witcher Ranger: On the Griffin Ranger card we see the witcher crouching over track marks. On the archgriffin card he found the albino (or very old) monster, who’s already killed someone (probably a lumberjack, judging by the axe). According to the flavour text, Griffin Witchers are trained to be professional trackers; nothing can stop them to reach their prey. Even though archgriffins are considered the embodiment of courage, loyalty and fighting spirit, the gwent card corrects the notion that the Griffin Witcher were named after the monster. In truth, they got the name in honour of their founder’s mentor, a knight named Gryphon.

Erland of Larvik: Continuing the trend, Erland is the founder of the Griffin School (one of the two that are confirmed 100%). He’s from the first generation of witcher, mutated by Alzur himself. After the Order began fracturing he had a confrontation with Arnaghan (who’ll be the founder of the bear school). Arnaghad almost killed one of his brothers, slashed Erland across the face then parted ways with the Order and left Morgraig Castle with his own group. Seeing that the the remaining witchers couldn’t go on like that, he grabbed his 13 best friend and left to Kaer Seren, where (after purging it from spectres) he founded the Griffin School which focused on magic, preparedness and flexibility. His teaching emphasized knightly values (mimicking his long-dead mentor, a knight named Gryphon) in hopes that it would make future witchers’ life easier. It didn’t.

Coen & Keldar: The cards are mainly connected by background. Coen is finished killing what appears to be an albino arachas (but it’s definitely an insectoid), while Keldar’s taking notes. We can rightly assume that he’s updating their bestiary, since he’s one of the teachers/mentors who focus on gathering and sharing knowledge. Coen’s flexibility shows in the flavour text: “There is no such thing as a fair fight. Every advantage and every opportunity that arises is used in combat.” Not very knightly, is it?

Kaer Seren: The “Star Keep” Erland and his friends fled to. It was used by the Order’s mages to mutate witchers (that’s why it was haunted by spectres). It’s located at the edge of the Dragon mountains by the sea between Poviss and Kovir. It’s said to possess the great library, which later mages tried to get for themselves. They messed up: by bringing down an avalanche on the Keep, that knowledge was destroyed. The keep was badly damaged and many witchers died.

Target Practice: The Griffin School’s specialty is their precise aim - they “can split an apple in two from a hundred paces”.

School of the Bear:

Bear Witcher Mentor & Bear Witcher Adept: The adept card shows that young witcher are taught to catch fish by hand (just like their school relevant animal). On the mentor card the elder witcher leads a group of younglings in the mountains; possibly out to teach tracking. The cards are connected by flavour text. The young Bear witcher-would-be’s need to complete the Trial of the Mountain, which consists of them climbing Mount Gorgon (also known as the Devil Mountain; it is the highest peak of the Amell range) to retrieve a runestone. The Trial often ends with the kids frozen to death. The Bear Mentor card’s flavour confirms it: “If you’re unsure of the way, just keep a lookout for markers - the frozen corpses of would-be witchers.” This sounds ominous - don’t they collect their fallen?

Bear Witcher: Bears are solitary hunters as seen in the flavour text: “life alone can be tough”. The witcher in the pic just dismembered what looks like a ghoul (with a tail?).

Bear Witcher Quartermaster: This one I like. The Quartermaster is an amputee (missing one of his arms, which was taken by a bear; must have won that fight one-handed), yet they still found a job for him where he can be useful. His flavour text suggest he likes Mahakam mead.

Arnaghad: The founder of the Bear School, he never felt kinship with his fellow witchers. After attacking a witcher named Rhys over a contract, wounding him deeply from shoulder to waist, he returned to Morgraig, attacked Erland then left with his possé to found the Bear School - Haern Caduch - in the Amell Mountains. Later he almost died in a betrayal, which resulted in another schism and the foundation of the Viper School.

Gerd: Gerd’s a legendary witcher who fled to Skellige after allying with a Usurper instead of his daughter, who later issued a warrant for his arrest. He has a busy time in Skellige: first slaying a dragon, befriending the Jarl Torgeir, killing a bunch of sirens, losing so many weapon diagrams you wouldn’t believe, losing half his pay and silver sword on gwent, escaping Nilfgaard and managing to slay a striga, killing some of his pursuers, only to be caught up in the siege of Torgeir’s castle, where he died in the ruins. On the card he’s showing Bear-typical strength: he’s tearing apart a siren with his bear hands.

Junod of Belhaven: Junod had a dubious background, but was thought to be the child of a brave dwarf and a giantess. He’s a huge man, with a big bushy beard and bald head. His sobriquet is false; he took it after Ivo, because he liked the ring of it. He was known as a strict haggler and a bit of a gambler. In 1243 he took a contract in hopes of cash (he wanted to forge the Grandmaster Ursine Armour). The subterranean monster was said to live in the caverns. Junod drew bear signs and wrote a warning on the wall (this is the scene we see on the card). He was however ill-prepared; the beast turned out to be a shaelmaar (a type of relic Gaetan slew once) that killed him in that very cavern.

Dire Bear: Once again related to the school in question, the Dire Bear is stuck with so much weaponry that it looks like a walking armory. Lots of witchers must have tried to slay it, yet it still kicks - just like Bear Witchers, it’s resilient till the very end.

Haern Caduch: Built into the side of the Amell Mountains, it’s the coldest environment of all the schools. As with the other schools, the Bears were forced out of it due to folk riots. It was left in disrepair to be buried under snow and ice (as seen on the card). It’s name could be translated as “Piercing Whiskers”.

Armor Up: As Bear’s are more likely to stand in the way of attack than dodge, they need to wear a heavy armour at all times.

Salamandra:

Roland Bleinheim & Gellert Bleinheim: Witcher 1 characters. They are thought to be brothers, leading the Salamandra organization. As drug lords one heads the fisstech operation in Vizima’s sewers (Roland), the other in the swamps (Gellert). The flavour text pretty much matches: both of them wondering what the other one is doing.

Salamandra Mage: The art itself was already leaked in China around 2 years back, and there were a few theories. One of them was that the man depicted is Zerrikanian, and I think that’s correct. Both the facial tattoo, darker skin, thinly braided hair and fire magic points in that direction. Azar Javed (a known Salamandra fire mage) happens to be a Zerrikanian escapee too.

Salamandra Lackey: A girl with the Salamandra-stapled mask runs from a city guard. The flavour text says the following: “Lackeys are expected to perform their first five jobs for no pay, demonstrating their passion for the gig.” The organization monitors from the beginning that only those remain who are extremely loyal to their cause.

Fallen Rayla: A little background for those who are unfamiliar with her: Rayla of Lyria was a veteran of the Nilgaardian Wars. She harbours anti-nonhuman sentiments after she was captured by Scoia’taels and severely maimed. The Rayla we see on the card is a mutant - in Witcher 1 she was supposedly shot down by Scoia’tael, and Salamandra found her close to death, subjected her to mutation. She was killed by Geralt.

Salamander: The card shows a bright blue spotted salamander. It has two tails and heads (possibly grown together?). The Salamander is a symbol of the organization. Metaphorically speaking it could mean, that Salamandra thought of itself as something untouchable: “best to avoid petting them, as the salamander, when threatened, secretes a deadly toxin”.

Failed Experiment: The card - ironically - thrives when it’s poisoned. The “experiment” only resembles a human in shape. It’s clutching the table ends, as if trying to escape still. It’s fair to assume that they later dissected it: “even failed experiments can serve a purpose”.

Salamandra Abomination: A step further from the failed experiment - we see the results of pushing science’s boundaries. Only the skull is left intact, everything else of the body is covered with insectoid-like growths.

Stolen Mutagens: Gruesome organ harvesting. The witcher heart (?) glows, which is either an artistic decision (probable) or the mages sent magic into the body, and the mutagens light up (like angiographia). Three types of mutagens can be harvested: red (strength), blue (magic) or green (resilience). I headcanon that the amount they inject of the three types can vary - that’s how you get strength inclined witchers like the wolves (red), or big ass mothers like the bears (green).

Salamandra Hideout: There are multiple hideouts in Witcher 1 (outskirt of Visima, crypt in sewers and one in the trade quarters). The one depicted here is the fisstech lab in the sewers. It shows a dimly lit, cobwebbed room. There’s an elevation where a body lays on the table. The elevation’s floor is gridded, so the blood and other fluids can freely flow down into the sewer water, where many bodies are already discarded recklessly.

Neutral:

Alzur & Viy & Koshchey: Alzur was a charismatic mage and spell inventor, who created many horrible monsters, like the koshchey (with the spell: Alzur’s Double Cross) and the Viy (a huge centipede-like insectoid). He was also the one who did the lion’s share of work with the witcher’s mutation.

Cosimo Malaspina: Cosimo was the teacher of Alzur. He was known for his knowledge in hybridization and genetic modification. Him and Alzur were the true creators of the witchers sect. On the gwent card, three man are shown prodding at a mutated body. Cosimo (the old dude) is in the middle, Alzur might be the one on the left and that leaves Idarran on the right. His flavour text paints him as cold and clinical, someone without empathy: “Children keep asking him for gifts. He doesn’t know why, but it really helps with finding subjects for his experiments.”

Idarran of Ulivo & Idr & Wererat: Idarran was one of the contributers of the witcher experiments. He’s an expert in hybridization and genetic modification, whose teacher was Alzur. He was a pale kid who lived in the canals of Vizima and experimented on rats at the age of 5. He found beauty in gruesome creations, like the Wererat (a human-sized rat on roids) and the Idr (a big centipede-like insectoid). He’s disdained by Geralt for his many monsters.

Triangle within a Triangle: It’s a magic spell used to introduce a series of mutations and to greatly increase the mass of a given body. That way they can create huge monstrosities, like the koshchey. Adepts often confuse it with a pentagram which can lead to infernal disasters.

Selective mutation: The card shows a close up of a young man’s eyes - one mutated (catlike) one human. His skin shows his high toxicity level, ashen with prominent veins. He’s held down as alchemists prepare to inject a yellow concoction into the human eye. It’s possible that after the success of witchers the mages tried to recreate the changes in smaller scale, then unmake it in turn, unsuccessfully.

Witcher Student: This is not really a card, but I included it anyway. The card’s ability is - ironically - doomed, and to add insult to injury, its flavour text is the following well-known fact: “Four out of ten boys survive… at most.” It’s also a point for black humour that the gwent commentators added: the Trial of Grasses card boosts this unit significantly.

Berengar: He’s a Wolf School Witcher who blamed his school for denying him a normal life and consequently abandoned them. In Witcher 1 Geralt can decide to kill or spare him. In a letter he admits that he was a coward because he betrayed Kaer Morhen and worked with Salamadra in hope that they can undo his mutation. His card references a questline in Witcher 1, where he tried to reason with the vodyanoi (~lovecraftian fish people) to spare the village’s prize-winning cow, named Strawberry. This is non-canon; in the game Geralt takes over the quest to do this instead.

Leo: Another Witcher 1 character. He was an orphan taken in by Vesemir. He was a kind-hearted but hot-headed man, who had all the training but not the mutations and the experience - he never killed a man. The flavour text of his gwent card kind of mocks his death: “He would have caught the arrow if he only had some heads-up.” He’s burned on a pyre and his cenotaph can be found south of Kaer Morhen.

Geralt: Quen: The last classical sign that wasn’t yet a card. In the art, Geralt is wearing the Manticore armour

Snowdrop: She’s a not yet seen character; impish looking female bard with light blond hair (flowers braided on the side) who plays a medieval version of the fiddle to a rooster. There’s a horseshoe hanging from the hem of his pants. She’s also seen in the gwent: journey #3 launch trailer. She’s narrating that she was saved by Alzur. Alzur told her about his plans of creating witchers to fight the beasts of the Continent, and she admired him so much she spread his story (”let me tell you about the greatest sorceress to ever lived”). Their story will unveil in the next week, I’ll probably update accordingly. It’s also interesting that Alzur says in the gwent intro (regarding witchers): “Bards will toil to do justice to their feats.” As if his own successes and experiences will be mirrored in his creations. Projecting much?

Monsters:

Viy & Idr: both of them are centipede-like insectoids conjured by infamous mages (see: Alzur and Idarran)

Wererat: same can be said about this one. Idarran experimented on Vizima’s sewer rats since the age of 5. This human sized abomination was the end result.

Succubus: We already discussed how the “Succubus” doesn’t fit the theme. Other interesting thing is the surrounding of her - in the background we can see a skull full of some kinda of dark liquid; she’s also holding a goblet. I’m not saying she’s drinking blood, but if she does, it would shed some questions as succubi don’t need to drink blood at all.

Phooca: As nekkers’ rare big brother, phoocas are ogroids that have the strength to rip a man’s head off with their bear hands. According to the wiki, in Celtic folklore they are regarded as shapeshifting fairies.

Koshchey: A witcher 1 boss, koshcheys are spider-like abominations summoned by mages. The woman standing her ground in the picture is Visenna (Geralt’s druid mom). In the story she’s the one to kill the first koshchey ever created.

Spontaneous Evolution: Under the Red Moon the wolf mutated into an amalgamation of eyes and teeth. Malaspina possibly added something to the mix that proved unstable. The card’s name is kind of ironic - this change is not spontaneous (it was induced) but could be related to evolution (it would imply that this form is somehow advantageous to the current environment and helps adaptation). (Note: in my opinion spontaneous generation would be a better term: it’s the thought that living creatures could arise from nonliving matter.)

Hybrid: the card shows a two-headed wolf or dog. Pretty straight-forward.

Chimera: A creature created my Cosimo Malaspina. He combines the genes of a fiend and griffin, then added a trace of insectoid and wyvern. It kind of looks like a furred wyvern with antlers. Interestingly the frightener (an insectoid; a rare result of magical experiment) is also called a chimera.

Dol Dhu Lokke: a new monster lair location. The depending on how you translate “lokke” the Elder can be read as “black valley place” or “alluring black valley”. It’s so dangerous - housing many-a horrors - that even a witcher thinks twice before going near it.

Interesting tidbits

Coen has hair, which is weird because so far he was described in all sources as bald.

There used to be a card that was also called Viper Witcher, which is now referred to as “Kingslayer”

The Bear Witcher’s face was drawn after one of CDPR’s employee.

The Koshchey’s card title has a typo: “Koschchey”.

Easter eggs (mainly in flavour text)

The Spontaneous Evolution card references The Powerpuff Girls intro: “Professor Malaspina accidentally added an extra ingredient to the concoction - compound X.”

The Bear Witcher card might reference a song of Baloo from the Jungle Book (The Bare Necessities): “Life alone on the road can be tough - be sure to bring all the bare necessities.”

#my shit #the witcher #gwent #witcher meta #witcher lore #i worked really hard on this #i hope it shows lol #if y'all have any thoughts i'd be happy to hear about them #cross my heart i don't bite

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lacktastrophe · 3 years

Text

Daisy MegaPost Pt1

Update: 3/7/2021

This one’s been in the shop for a couple of years now. I think I started this way back in 2019 but I just became just far too busy to work on huge posts again. I had anticipated to have all of Daisy written up during the break that BCB had, but I became in need of a break myself too. Part two was written up, but I never went further.

I had come back to this recently and made some changes. I wasn’t too happy with the way I used to write and I’ve been editing this over and over, until I noticed it wasn’t keeping them. I’ve published it now since there wasn’t any point just keeping it in drafts and it’s more or less done, just not in this state I’m perfectly happy with, but it seems to be keeping my changes now it’s in this state. I anticipate I’ll still be making some edits. Before I continue on with Part 2. As for part 3 and onwards, I can’t give a time frame.

With the webtoons version way ahead of the chapters here, I’ll probably make progressive updates and start using those over the old Volume 1 art, I’d anticipate the webtoons version is a retelling of the story and thus there might be some retcons, like how Kizuna was replaced with Stacy. I’d anticipate some changes might make different meanings for the future.

I still enjoy examining the story and characters. I still plan to do some introspections to the other characters I haven’t come to, but it’ll be far fewer and in-between than years ago. I have other projects and those need priority.

But I’m happy that people still enjoy reading these.

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We’re onto the main characters now, things are going to need to change with the way mega-posts are going to be published from this point forward. My previous mega-posts are usually just one long post, hence the name. Though they’re starting to become uncontrollable, and Tumblr is clamping down, or at least not really working with excessive word counts.

Uh oh. . .

Well, the old mega-posts can still be accessed but you’ll need a direct link, they won’t show up on the mainroll and I’d be surprised if they still show up these days, and I’d have to guess this has something to do with the anti-spam detection on Tumblr.

If you were interested in the previous mega-posts, they can be accessed on their own page from my blog’s front page. I just wouldn’t try reading some of the earlier ones on an app, it’ll struggle.

The other problem was with the word count, even without the characters being the prime focus, they’re starting to get long. Abbey’s alone was a 16000 behemoth. This surprised me, as despite him being a secondary character there was an awful lot to discover and talk about. Augustus, despite being a character who appeared much more in-between chapters but much fewer than Abbey, was nearly 21000 words. If there was that much to talk about with the secondary characters, the same method of just dumping as much as I can into one post is clearly not going to work when we start approaching the main characters. I had to split both of them up for my own convenience.

The main change is to make these smaller so they’re friendlier on the app and the website; maybe aim for 2000-5000 words without focusing too heavily on trying to get through on as many chapters as possible and see how far we go.

The plan from this point forward is to do a large collection of write ups but then deploy them progressively. That’ll also give anyone who’s keen a chance to give feedback or who wants to talk further about something.

Sound good?

Me too! So without further ado, let’s get a move on and have a look at Daisy.

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So, our first protagonist, where do we start with Daisy?

How you’re first introduced to Daisy really depends on whether you read the book or followed the comic through the site. The book’s opening chapter, ‘Like a Bittersweet Candy Bowl’ introduces you to Daisy as a massive bookworm who does well in school. She’s pretty smart!

Book in hand, we’d pretty much believe that right off the bat. She appears like the most studious in this group of friends. And we’d be right! She even puts the ever-perfect Mike to shame. She’s nothing less than a perfect student.

‘Perfect’ could be an understatement, Daisy is a literal freak of nature when it comes to her academics; as when Daisy and the kids transition to Roseville high, we find her already in classes well advanced than her peers.

Daisy is just that incredible!

Through the website, ‘Simple Pleasures’ aims to introduce the kids in much the same way, but there is far less in the way of monologuing and we’re introduced as the characters interact. In much the same way as the introduction chapter in volume 1, we learn that Daisy is quite the bookworm and school-obsessed student, even during weekends. But that’s not the only thing dominating her thoughts, as when Lucy goes out on her walk, the first person she runs into is Daisy who is looking for someone else in particular!

You guessed it!

Oh GOD, does Daisy like boys! Can you guess who she’s got her eye on?

Of course it’s Mike. Are you surprised she’s got a deep crush on the boy who seems very perfect himself? Everywhere that Mike goes, you can be sure that there’s a shadow in the shape of Daisy not too far behind. . .

Wherever he goes. . .

Daisy doesn’t shy from showing her interest in him when the convenience calls for it. Ah, young love.

Eventually, Daisy would find love, though it wouldn’t be with Mike. It would however be the second longest running relationship in the comic if you consider Mike and Sandy, with an admirer of hers.

Still, suffice to say, even after every attempt gets shot down in the most spectacular way, Daisy bounces back -- Like a daisy. Her shining ray of positivity follows her everywhere. It’s all in the name, after all. Daisy still manages to rise up with her sunny disposition.

But not every time.

As the story progresses, little by little, we start seeing that there’s more to Daisy. We start to see that not everything is bright and happy like her name-sake despite appearances. Things would be far from perfect, and underneath that smiling face is a character suffering with low self-esteem in that very same area; her appearance; believing their Ragamuffin/Selkirk-Rex heritage is letting them down and putting them in misery. This tends to be particularly true on rainy days, when all the hours she spends of a morning brushing down her fur become undone when the droplets causes it to fluff up and the curls start showing. Daisy attributes these traits to the reason she isn’t quite as easily noticed by the boys as the other girls, setting up for a number of stories involving her in Volume1, and opening her to be taken advantage of in the pursuit of attention and affection.

Not all the characters gain admirers or attention and for most of these characters, this is fine. But Daisy is not one of those and this above all things has an enormous impact on her. She wants to be noticed and receive affection, particularly from Mike, and others to a degree.

It’s when faced with multiple rejections from her dream boyfriend we also progressively discover a side of her shown to be more envious if not resentful of a few others who have it so easy, particularly with one such character inside her friend circle.

As you can imagine, these weaknesses will eventually put Daisy in danger as she tries her best to come up with ways to cope and make changes in order to improve her life, especially if the means are at the cost of logical reasoning like taking advice from the seediest boy in the school to attain her goals. She isn’t infallible; Intelligence doesn’t necessarily mean smarts. Even with someone who does as well in school as Daisy does, there’s always room to grow.

But until that happens, Daisy often finds herself in trouble when her personal feelings, ambitions and dreams do the talking for them on pursuit of happiness, for herself and others.

And oh boy, doesn’t Daisy make more than her own fair share of mistakes.

Let’s move onto the story, it starts with Simple pleasures, the first chapter.

This chapter serves to introduce us to the main group of characters central to the story and so features the aloof and prickly Lucy, the playboy Paulo, the ever-perfect Mike and the bookworm Daisy. It starts with Lucy on a morning walk and progressively running into each of them. With Daisy specifically, it starts with Daisy coming across her first and greeting her by shouting ‘Hey’ behind her.

Except...Lucy ignores her, and we don’t know why -- Is Lucy doing this intentionally? She’s in a world of her own at the moment with her singing. Are they friends? Is she just so aloof she doesn’t realise she’s there?

Well, Daisy isn’t going to let herself be ignored so easily and she really needs Lucy for something. So she goes to get her attention by impulsively grabbing onto Lucy’s tail. This would turn out to be a very critical mistake that one of the other protagonists just can’t stop helping himself from doing, and because of that we notice that Lucy isn’t as aloof as she seems, and reciprocates by twisting around and kicking her in the face.

Only to find that the person she was expecting was actually Daisy, much to her surprise. There’s a reason she never noticed her.

The first chapter has a number of objectives, it serves to set up the tone of the comic by showing the dynamic between the main group of friends, but also displays their characteristics. We already learn a couple of things from Daisy and Lucy’s interaction here. We learn that Lucy has a short fuse when it comes to unwanted contact. She appears aloof, but the main reason for Lucy not acknowledging Daisy initially is through the understanding that she’s partially deaf, unable to hear out of her left ear in similar in characteristic with her breed, the Khao Manee. Many of the other characters will make this mistake too and often at times Lucy doesn’t make it obvious she can’t hear what’s going on around them and needs to ask about what transpired much later. Lucy’s aloofness will be questioned in time as we start seeing more of her.

Daisy had forgotten about Lucy’s disability because something else was more important. And naturally, we learn that Daisy has, no less; a bit of a crush on the forefront of her mind. And we learn here that crush is on Mike, one of their friends at school, and her reasoning for bothering Lucy is that she’s only looking for him. What we come to learn later is it’s a little known fact that wherever Lucy is, Mike is often not too far away. In fact Lucy is never off on her own by herself.

Sadly for Daisy, Lucy doesn’t know where he is, so Daisy runs off in the opposite direction. That’s about as much of Daisy as we see until the next chapter.

Before we move on, let’s talk more about their interaction. As brief as it was, the interaction gives off more in the subtext into the status of the relationships between these characters and the others. I anticipate as new readers many of the details of this interaction just fly over heads, accepting these two are friends and this is just how they are. But being as late into the comic as we are, I feel we’re already seeing some of the signs of what’s to come in the story through this short interaction. Not everything is as it seems.

Most of this payload of information is laid in the question that Daisy poses after Lucy asks her what she’s after. When Lucy states she hasn’t seen Mike, Daisy asks ‘Oh no, did you upset him?’

Immediately we’re given some insight into the triangle that exists between these characters and their relationship between one another, and insight into the state of these relationships.

Starting with Mike and Lucy’s relationship as the question is directed about the two of them, we learn that the friendship isn’t without it’s issues, and we’d be quick to pass this off initially as something that happens from time to time. Fight’s happen, it’s a fact of life, and it happens more so when you’re a kid and figuring things out, yourself and life. Reading through the story, we would find the two inseparable in the later chapters and we never look at Daisy’s question again. But reading through BCB again from as late in the comic as we are, we have to wonder why this question specifically.

What we learn much later in the comic as we progress through is that Mike and Lucy’s relationship is much more complicated than what it appears to be. Much later, we see that the two do argue from time to time, until we get to the point where the plaster and apologies aren’t mending the cracks. The friendship isn’t quite as clean cut as it was made out to be and we start seeing some back stories into the characters. What appears to be a competitive rivalry through volume 1 between two friends is really something more sinister. By the time we reach Volume 4, we learn these two are really anything but friends.

For the moment, Daisy’s casual interaction gives off a sense of normality in their environment and understanding the answer to the question would actually help plan out her next move if we were to consider that maybe there was some intent behind the question. But we’ll get to the nature of it soon.

Without knowing too much about the kids as early in the story. I’d feel we’d put our trust in the kids to tell the story for us, and Daisy does come off as being quite perceptive and trustworthy immediately being the positive bookkeeper she is, she would be the expert for us until such a time as we become the experts.

One thing we’d discover much later on our own is that the Mike and Lucy are inseparable. In one way or another, they will find each other and act like close friends again. And Daisy knows this too without specifically pointing it out. Already suggesting that they’ve fought, it would only be a matter of time before they made up again, whether that takes minutes or hours. No matter how big the town is again, so long as they’ve got each other in their thoughts, they’ll stumble upon each other in no time, almost like a six sense.

It could be said that this is for the sake of convenience in the story in getting them to interact faster in the comic and resolve disputes, and that would be right. But BCB takes this and turns it into a running gag between just these two characters. There are more than a few jokes that exist in Volume 1 to make this seem like these two are made for each other in the way that they will eventually run into each other no matter how big the town is. One such joke is seen in Volume 1 through Mike’s inability to surprise Lucy on her Birthday. It’s so powerful, even Lucy’s auditory disability doesn’t stop her from catching him just before he can do it, even if the hiding spot isn’t obvious.

We’ve only seen this fail once, and that was in ‘Its all in the mind’ when Mike does sneak up on her, but Lucy has very much moved on from Mike at this point, so we’d have to wonder if this is something to do with them both being in Sync, we might not know.

The question Daisy asks doesn’t just pertain to Mike and Lucy’s relationship however, it also begs the question to Lucy and Daisy’s relationship at the same time. In fact, if it wasn’t for Daisy’s sunny disposition and Lucy’s stone-faced responses, the entire interaction would appear quite rude; Daisy’s question isn’t whether or not she’s seen him, only if she’s upset him, shedding some poor light on Lucy’s personality.

It’s important to remember that while these two are friends at our current point in the comic, they did not start out as friends, especially when you consider Confrontation, as we’re coming up to. Daisy, while she was amicable around Lucy and quite hospitable to her in the friend group, has to contend with her as being this roadblock to getting to Mike. Lucy seemed more aloof around her, but there’s more than enough to suggest that Lucy had other mutual feelings.

Understanding now that there is a rivalry between the two (or a one-sided rivalry, take your pick), we can understand why that particular question had been asked. Its tent though is to give more reason to Daisy’s next move: If Lucy did divulge she had fought with him; then it would only be a matter of time before Mike showed up, as Mike would feel the need to apologise and through their innate ability, would find each other, it would just be a matter of time. If she hadn’t; then Mike could be just about anywhere.

It turns out to be the later. And too infatuated with Mike (or not interested in hanging out with Lucy, take your pick), Daisy does not simply stay with her to wait and runs off in the opposite direction, hoping to find him first.

It’s when Daisy is no longer in the focus, we can see that Lucy isn’t exactly as stonewalled as she initially appeared to be, blushing from the interaction.

As possible that Lucy is only reacting because of her stupid head-over-heels attitude for that other idiot, as Lucy is yet to realise her feelings for Mike, we could wonder if it might not also be because Daisy has rudely pointed at the elephant in the room in Lucy and Mike’s relationship. Who’s to say?

(2021 edit -- The webtoon has this piece of dialogue changed. This time Daisy asks ‘Awww, are you both fighting still?’, which makes this even more pronounced that things aren’t all quite sunshine already. )

Finally, Daisy and Mike. Now that Lucy’s interaction with Daisy is done, Daisy is running around town looking for Mike, for whatever reason it just can’t wait until school.

Ah love. I’m sure it won’t be a problem in the future, right?

Mike is a real nice guy; lending Daisy his math workbook to Daisy.

We really need to look a bit deeper into this. We know much later in the story we that Daisy is well in advance of her peers in her studies. When she starts Roseville high, we find her in no more than two ahead of the others in her grade, with the juniors, and Tess.

And in the first few chapters of volume 1, we learn that Daisy often tutors Mike, so there’s no way Daisy even needs that book.

Unless...

O---Oh. It wasn’t for Math after all.

We’d come to learn that boy troubles are generally the source for all of Daisy’s grief. We’ll find that Daisy’s crazed obsession over Mike is used to justify a lot of the actions she’ll take in the future and we don’t know how bad this is until the much later volumes. Volume one step over this lightly as just a girl wanting her crush’ affection. But it becomes more pronounced in the much later volumes, especially when Abbey makes a point out of it when Daisy is less inhibited to keep her real feelings secret after getting drunk off Alcohol at Rachel’s party in a very late chapter.

Getting back to the current chapter, Lucy will notice that Mike eventually did find Mike, but she’s not with him. So maybe that was all she really wanted.

We’d be saps for thinking that.

But without anything concrete, we can only presume that was it. So thanks for returning Mike’s book, Daisy.

Daisy appears again in Merry Snow Day, the following chapter. This is a very short chapter where the kids are going to school after Lucy (begrudgingly) accepts schools not out, and walks with Mike to school. Daisy appears not long after and the first order of the day is to talk about homework, including offering to tutor him. She’d do anything if it meant helping her fellow students.

It’s at this part we’re introduced to the subtle idea of the rivalry for Mike’s affection between Daisy and Lucy. It’s subtle since it’s very one-sided and Lucy and Daisy don’t directly interact with one another or show that they’re fighting. Their interactions for most of the early chapters happen through Mike like you can see above when Lucy adds herself into the conversation. We’d have reason despite Lucy’s aloofness that such a rivalry does exist subconsciously and there are some reasons to believe this we’ll touch on. But for the moment, we can be sure that Lucy doesn’t consider Daisy a threat for one main reason: Mike will come back, so there’s no problem.

Daisy wouldn’t make a point of the rivalry either but Daisy would take advantage of the convenience of Lucy being out of the picture to seek attention from Mike, as she does when Lucy continues to school, and Daisy directly copies what happened just seconds ago when Lucy was about to fall on the ice, and Mike catches her.

Nice.

This chapter also introduces Yashy, Lucy’s pet Lizard and her surrogate daughter into the story line. The earlier chapters of Bittersweet Candy Bowl are ripe with slap-stick humour, and Yashy is the general source of this with her outspokenness and wise-ass personality. She’s there to rile up the others and break all the ice with her innocent demeanour. This will be the case up until the kids go to Highschool when the comedy starts being turned down in place of focusing on the rifts coming between the kids.

Unlike the other pets, Yashy is integral to the plot involving Lucy and Mike’s relationship, as she’s partly the reason for the friendship going on as long as it has. Having known Yashy for as long as Lucy, Mike takes on the role of the surrogate dad in Yashy’s life and this ends up having Yashy taking on the belief that Mike and Lucy are an established couple. But this isn’t true, and it plagues Mike as this is anything further than the truth. But with Yashy’s innocence, he can’t find the means to break this to her.

Yashy’s insistence of Mike and Lucy’s eventual destiny of being husband and wife comes at Daisy’s expense, as despite Lucy not necessarily seeing reason to stop Daisy’s attempts at trying for seek Mike’s affection, it’s Yashy who perceives her as a real threat and will shout obscenities at her when she doesn’t get her way, with a particular choice of word in mind. Though it doesn’t stop Daisy. But we can’t help but wonder much later if those words Yashy chooses to throw don’t have some kind of an effect on her much later.

That completes this chapter. Daisy doesn’t have much of an impact in Unfit for Education, appearing more to just be a participant in Sue’s obsessive thoughts game. But she gets a larger role to play in the following chapter; Burden of Parenthood.

This chapter has the kids going through sex ed. and being given the responsibility of raising a robotic baby, which they will be graded on based on their performance. This chapter starts off quite unexpectedly, as when the teacher begins pairing off the students, Yashy’s expectations that Michael and Lucy will be paired together, doesn’t actually happen for a change.

This time, Daisy is paired up with Mike, and Lucy is paired up with Paulo.

As you could guess, Yashy isn’t thrilled in the least bit. But neither is Lucy particularly when she spots Paulo pleased at the results himself.

Again I still don’t think Yashy’s abuse is really doing much for Daisy, I can’t help but wonder what that will do for her self-esteem?

Oh, I bet she’ll be fine, she’s like a Daisy, remember?

It’s during lunch we find Daisy is positively happy with the result when she confronts Mike with their baby. Although there’s just one problem. The baby is a glaring defect, a very...interesting feature about it that has Mike freaking out.

And he’s not playing ball because of it. Even Lucy is having a hard time with the baby’s smile.

But Daisy, Daisy couldn’t care; it’s Mike’s child.

The Daisy x Mike compatibility really doesn’t take off as Mike wants absolutely nothing to do with the newly-named Alegria, which Daisy is quick to point out after keenly watching a maternally-skilled Lucy teach a very clumsy Paulo how to properly hold a child, something she learned when raising Yashy. Daisy is by all means entranced by the romantic exchange.

But where’s hers?

Trying to get Mike jealous by thrusting her baby in Paulo’s arms, and Paulo taking to the baby. Mike sees his chance and gets Lucy to ditch the two and work as a team again.

There is a momentary issue when the teacher discovers the pairs do not have their correctly assigned baby, and through a quick suggestion they were giving a realistic portrayal of divorce and custody, get extra marks on their assignments.

You’d think Daisy would be quite depressed with her chance to work with Mike not going the way she planned and the opportunity going out the window. But to receive additional credit on their work, she’s actually more than ecstatic at the results!

It’s fine, there’ll be more chances. There’s still 4 more years of school!

And in the meantime, Daisy x Paulo was born. One would have to wonder if it would bear fruits.

...Nah.

Daisy has a role to play in the next chapter; Prom Preparation. She’s tasked with organising the 8th grade prom.

The first order of the day is to survey the music selection for the evening, starting with genres. Daisy gets ideas from a number of the students, almost forgetting she hadn’t asked Mike yet.

Apparently Mike doesn’t have a favourite genre of music that comes to mind. Not being a fan of new music, Daisy fills the gap and suggests he’s into much older stuff which she tries to bond over, infuriating Yashy.

When Daisy asks Lucy for her favourite music genre. Lucy wonders why she should bother since she’s not planning on going. . .

Leaving Mikie easy pickings for the evening. Daisy sees her chance for a bit of romance that evening, and Yashy is not at all pleased about this.

It’s worth talking about Yashy at this point, as even though we’re technically focusing on Daisy, there’s something we might be able to gain from both Yashy and Lucy that might give more insight into Daisy and Lucy’s relationship. You might notice, (2021 -- Especially in the Webtoons version), during each outburst by Yashy we can see Lucy blushing as her child unleashes hell upon Daisy, and we’d have to wonder why that is, because Lucy doesn’t seem to be initially the kind of person to care too much about anything going on around them, right?

But what if Yashy was this mouthpiece of Lucy’s impulsive thoughts that she doesn’t act on, and that’s why Lucy appears to blush from embarrassment? Yashy’s impulses are not something she’s able to control, only her own through her own inhibitions. Later in the story we start seeing hints that Lucy’s stonewall-straight faced demeanour is very much a facade and she’s actually quite sensitive, but when she’s fighting her emotions inside and she doesn’t have the answer, a blank expression is all you get so she can’t be hurt in one way or another.

But having been raised by Lucy, we could assume that Yashy is very much Lucy’s child and we can expect that having been raised by Lucy, much like every other kid out there, sometimes kids pick up traits from their parents.

(2021 -- The problem of Yashy’s language was also bought up in the more recent chapter, Dinner time, when Lucy’s mum points this out as Lucy and Jordan are fighting. While the person who was called out for this was Jordan. Can’t help but think that despite Jordan pointing out something embarrassing about why Mike might not be over more, Lucy is instead more blushing over the problem with Yashy, as Yashy is still embarrassed at being called out over it too. It’s hard to imagine the problem is just Jordan as Lucy has quite opinionated language as well, and lastly, because Yashy spends more of her time with her. There’s just an awful lot of body language going on in that scene and it’s hard to tell.)

Yashy is quite innocent in the story as she is one of the fewer characters who meets with rejection and doesn’t undergo the same hardships that Lucy underwent in her youth, so where this language and outspokenness has come from, you’d have to wonder if it’s just a quirk, or something deeper at this stage. Like as if Yashy is actually Lucy without the inhibitions.

Daisy doesn’t back down from Yashy when the golden opportunity arises even despite the name-calling. It’s when Mike believes both girls are fighting over him for Lucy to set the record straight -- she isn’t; Yashy and Daisy were and makes a point out of it. This causes Mike to walk off embarrassed since Lucy doesn’t reciprocate the same feelings. It’s only a little later towards the end when Daisy is turned down along with several other girls who learn of Mike’s availability. That ends that chapter. No romance for Daisy.

The next chapter is Helping hands, this chapter stars Daisy and Paulo who appear to have become closer friends since their pairing together in Burden of Parenthood. The chapter begins with Daisy and Paulo walking through the street, with Daisy talking about how Katie had a sleep-over the previous weekend but wasn’t invited, she was sure she must have misplaced it.

Though why missing out on Katie’s sleepover is the highlight of Daisy’s weekend is anyone’s best guess, right?

Daisy screams out suddenly as she points out an injured bird on the road, appearing heartbroken at the events. Paulo points out an arriving car that is about to put it out of its misery causing Daisy to become further distraught by this. At the very last minute, Paulo saves the bird, almost putting his own life in danger.

Expecting her to be elated, Daisy is not at all pleased in Paulo’s recklessness and scolds him, before being otherwise thankful he did it to save the bird.

But the next question is, now what?

With a hospital being too far away, Daisy suggests instead to take it to Lucy’s house as a last resort. Bringing up Paulo’s crush however, garners a reaction from Paulo that, well. . . Daisy’s not to pleased at seeing.

Oh, we’re going to see more of that.

Daisy thinks about whether or not Lucy would end up adopting the bird as she has quite a number of pets herself. Daisy would herself although her mother wouldn’t allow it.

Suggesting Paulo could with how well Paulo did at looking after Alegria, Paulo finds the talk far too embarrassing for his ever-masculine personality. Daisy tries to persuade him that girls are into boys who can be shown to have a caring attitude. Sadly, Paulo thinks he’s already at this level.

Oh, how Paulo x Daisy is teased so.

The weather starts to take a turn for the worst and threatens to rain down much to Daisy’s horror, as we learn something interesting about how her fur reacts to the rain. Paulo tries not not to give this away but Daisy then realises and starts showing how self conscious she is about her fur, a fact we learn more of in an intermission, where Daisy spends quite a number of hours brushing it down. When Daisy asks whether he’s grossed out by her curls, he avoids the question by telling them they have to hurry, or the bird won’t make it!

Unfortunately for Daisy, Paulo isn’t the last person when they arrive at Lucy’s house. Leaving the bird in her care, Daisy immediately runs into the bathroom only to run into Mike, it’s an absolute nightmare scenario.

Feeling devastated, Paulo comes in with some saving words and tells her if Mike was really worth her time, he’d wouldn’t care no matter how she looked. Which does wonders for her esteem.

Lucy arrives down shortly thereafter and lets the two know the bird will make it, having only been attacked by another creature and not so much struck by a car. Lucy will nurse it until its better, much to the joy of Daisy and Paulo.

At that point, the conversation switches as that matter is taken care of. Noticing that Mike is at Lucy’s house studying with her. Daisy tries to invite herself to stay over and help out too.

It turns out, simply asking means you’re outstaying your hospitality.

Yeah, they’re not really tight friends are they?

On the Monday, Daisy and Paulo ask Lucy about the bird, first mistaking what Lucy says meaning that the bird passed away, it healed over the weekend and left the following day.

But not before giving them a gift.

After all, they’d need it for their baby. The bird seems to think they’d make a good couple. Ah, PauloxDaisy again. If only they both felt that way about each other.

Daisy appears in show and tell, in this chapter we are introduced to the specific breeds the characters are.

Naturally, Yashy is not at all pleased about Daisy when she arrives.

When it comes to Daisy’s turn, we find she’s Selkirk Rex cross Ragamuffin.

Which would explain a lot of Daisy’s features, Selkirk and Ragamuffins are both very people-oriented and akin to Teddy Bears. Both breeds can get along with nearly everybody.

And, well that’s true for Daisy.

Daisy appears in Pep Rally, a chapter focusing on the sports carnival. Daisy appears as one of the school’s cheerleaders next to Amaya, Stacy, and her rival, Katie, who is not at all happy that she’s not the captain. Daisy is not about to give up being the center of attention.

This chapter has more to do with Mike’s super sensitive hearing than anything else. Even so, Daisy is more than capable of being able to amp up the crowd, especially when Mike lands a win.

Daisy appears in the next chapter ‘Off to the Movies’, when Mike invites Lucy to the movies, only for Paulo, David and Daisy to show up at the same time and suggest they all go see a movie together (Lucy reluctantly agreeing). When it comes to selecting their preferences for movies, Daisy goes for the mushiest movie that’s available. Paulo and David wanting horror, Mike wanting comedy and Lucy. . .well, she wants to see a love story. It seems like they all can’t decide, but Lucy chooses the jack of all trades movie as a compromise; the ‘epic suspensful, romance thriller with lots of jokes’.

Win-win, right?

Daisy’s in heaven when the seating arrangements are chosen, right next to her crush, she couldn’t be more optimistic.

A number of things happen during the movie, but nothing got by Daisy when the movie ends as she notices Paulo on the brink of tears following its conclusion. Daisy offers to forget that she ever saw it, on the condition he explains his phobia to barking, something else that happened earlier when Paulo tried to steal David’s popcorn.

Predictably, Paulo is far too masculine to talk about his feelings.

Eventually Paulo balks to the peer pressure (from Daisy) and explains what happened. When the others make fun of Paulo over it, Daisy leaps to his defense and tells them off. There’s a lovely moment between the two as Daisy reassures Paulo that she appreciates his forwardness and openness to the things that bothers him. And Paulo decides to talk about everything.

The PauloxDaisy content just keeps coming.

But it’ll never work. I--I swear it won’t.

By the very end, the kids all say their farewells to each other and go their separate ways.

Daisy appears in the next chapter ‘Puppy Love’. Mike finds a love letter in his locker from a secret admirer (It’s Stacy). Mike chastises Lucy who finds the whole thing hilarious and reads the poem aloud. Mike wants to find the person responsible. Suddenly, and out from nowhere, Daisy appears suggesting they do some detective work, all in the name of romance. But Mike reveals he just simply wants to reject them.

With much similarity to Prom Night, this chapter is more to point out with how much of the school has an interest in dating Mike. It’s not just Daisy, but also Sue, Amaya, Katie, those three random girls. The only exception is dear old Lucy.

The next chapter is Confrontation. This chapter opens with Mike and Lucy doing what they do best when something unfortunate happens; they argue, with Lucy blaming Mike for having them miss their stop. Daisy begs Paulo to get them to stop, and they do, albiet, for a short few seconds before they start arguing again.

With no sign of it ending, Daisy and Paulo day-dream of a better alternate reality where they both get their desires. Mike and Lucy are just awful for each other. Things would work out better if it was just Mike and Daisy, and Paulo and Lucy, Just think of the romance. What could go wrong?

The kids get off at the next station which unfortunately for them turns out to be a bad idea as they end up in the roughest neighbourhood a few towns over from Roseville. With Lucy suggesting they find a phone to call their parents, they go out in search of an open store. With Mike and Lucy still at each other’s throats, Daisy tries to take advantage of the situtation by suggesting that Mike could in fact stay over at her place seeing as how late it was, especially if his house is a bit too far. hoping that Lucy having been quite bitter to him will cause him to think about coming around to her advances. But Mike rejects her advance. When Daisy becomes fed up enough to suggest he’d go to Lucy’s house despite their fighting, he agrees it likely would happen, frustrating her even more.

She loses her temper, exploding about Mike and Lucy’s friendship being just horrible and suggests any investment would never be returns. Prompting a reaction from Mike for a short moment, until Mike twists that around and tells her to stop chasing the same stupid feelings, walking ahead and leaving Daisy to sulk to herself.

She’s joined shortly after when Paulo’s escapade in trying to woo Lucy goes as well as anyone would expect. Daisy, frustrated in how Mike always seems to show some compromise with Lucy, argues with him over his bad taste in women too.

Daisy’s thorns are on full display here as she starts to openly show her resentment towards Lucy who has it all so easy with both Paulo and Mike due to her looks. Daisy’s frustrated that despite her best efforts to be more appealing in every other way; Lucy has the looks, and that’s all that matters.

With Daisy being too frustrated from being inhibited from displaying this side of her, it’s clear neither she nor Lucy are good friends at all. Daisy has shown such a low opinion of her because of her attitude, knowing full well that often times Mike gets beaten up by her. Lucy’s aloofness could be confused with disinterest and both of them suggest that Lucy wouldn’t really care if either of them suddenly caught alight.

But Mike overhears this thanks to his superhearing and tells them there’s more to her than what they know. But neither of them take the comment seriously.

Lucy also overhears, and is a little distraught at how the others think of her.

The kids find a bar and Sue manages to call ther mother to come pick them up. Problems arise when Mike takes on a dare to eat as many liqueur chocolates from a stranger, and is quite positively drunk out of his mind. Lucy comments on this having watched on and Daisy chastises her for letting him do it.

She might have wished she had done something about it, as Mike is all over her, uninhibited from telling her how he feels about her looks.

And that does nothing for Daisy who sucks at all the attention Lucy’s getting. The world’s just unfair.

Though, Mike notices Daisy’s state, and goes over to give her attention too. What would be a dream for Daisy is sadly shortlived, as Mike’s attention switches to ice-cream truck music, and suddenly takes off towards it.

The kids are find themselves backed into an alley, as the stranger who Mike took the bet from comes to get his money back.

The ordeal is quite terrifying to Daisy. Paulo tries to defend her. But he gets a little too in over his head, not realising these two were the people who created his phobia of barking .

When Paulo is kicked aside, Daisy goes to him and asks if he knows the two. But Paulo doesn’t recognise them.

Not considering herself a fighter, Daisy is only able to come to her friends’ comfort as each one is assaulted one by one. Paulo first, then Sue when she cops an arm to the nose.

She can only watch when Mike tries to defend them, actually having some martial arts experience, but being too drunk to be effective.

And finally Lucy, as capable as she was finds herself unable to fend off Alejandro. Daisy calls out, but Lucy tells her to be quiet, or to hide as Lucy bears the brunt of the assault.

Mike regains consciousness at the very last moment and saves her before both team up in a last stand against Alejandro. Alejandro realises he’s bitten off more than he can chew and runs away. Daisy watches on as Lucy breaks down having realised how close they all were to having someone lose their life.

Sue’s mother arrives and all the kids are on their way back to Roseville. Paulo can’t help but notice that Daisy is really in the dumps over the night. Lucy did something completely unexpected in coming to their aid at the last minute — the ever uncaring Lucy put herself on the line so no one else would get hurt. And she feels awful knowing she was wrong — about Lucy and what she said about her to Mike.

Paulo tries to reassure her that Mike probably doesn’t remember what she said, and that turns out to be true as Mike is willing to accept her apology the next day.

Things are back to normal it seems, luckily for Daisy.

Or are they?

I figure we’ll stop here and resume next week. Look at that! We covered 12 chapters of 127! There’s a lot more of Daisy to come!

#bittersweet candy bowl #bcb #megathread #daisy

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lesserfandomappreciation · 4 years

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Hello! It's been a while, hope you're doing well! I have returned for some more sweet sweet headcanons! Can you do date headcanons for Arthur, Jack and the tripplets?

Hello hello! I’m doing well! How are you?

I can absolutely do some for the sweet boys, they’re wonderful!

Date (RSaT7D)

Arthur

Canon-wise he’s the only character we have any clue about when it comes to dates. Golden Goose Avenue has been his go-to for quite some time! When Merlin ‘I have the dating experience of a chipmunk’ the Wizard teases somebody about date locations, you know that Arthur has probably gone their for every single date in the past two years.

Having said that, that’s all before the events of the movie. His character grows a lot during the movie and likely, his date location preferences and activities have changed accordingly.

In the past, it was all about getting to show off himself. Going to Excalibur to boast, Golden Goose Avenue to show off how much of a good time he can show them, go in for a smooch. Rather unoriginal but consistent if nothing else. Nowadays though, his dating style is less about showing off about himself and more about tailoring it to the person he is with.

It’s sweet! But he’s not super good at it yet. It takes time spent with another person for him to really get how to do that. At the start instead of doing one or two things the person likes, he tries to fit everything he knows they enjoy into a single day. That’s a lot. His date wouldn’t be an evening, it’d be a whole-day event, one that only his date would have the power to stop. Well, assuming they know how to without being destroyed by Arthur’s sad puppy face.

Practice makes perfect and the more dates he goes with his crush and/or s/o, the better he gets at it.

It should be noted that he will still find some minor way to show off, but it would be in context to what his partner likes. Ex: He can carry all their library books, climb whatever needs climbing to get something from a high spot, etc.

Jack

Smooth. Loaded with common sense. Charming, even. Jack has got it all. The emotional intelligence alone should make him an easy winner when it comes to dating. He’s even got the connections to some of the best spots in town - he’ll strut into the best restaurant like it’s nothing.

If only oh only it wasn’t for that ridiculous ego of his. The reasoning is unknown but it appears that every single member of the F7 have an inherent habit - nay, need - to show off as much as possible in front of someone they’re interested in.

The mad lad thought that a good first gift to a woman he just met was a giant diamond ring the size of his fist. That’s not tame. That’s completely going wild with cash, somehow guesstimating a stranger’s ring size and going right off the deep end.

Dates with Jack are (before and after the movie, he’s still got some learning in him) chances to flex hard. He’s not going shopping on the first date; the prince is a self-made prince, he recognizes that there are those who would take advantage of that. He gets to know them in a restaurant. The best one in town. The 5 star one you need an appointment for. And fancy wear.

Subsequent dates are no better. The more he trusts and genuinely cares for someone, the more he wants to provide for them. It’s his love language, he can’t help it. S/o is going to have to be the one to pump the brakes and get him to slow down - especially if they’re not 100% comfortable with that.

Pino

A date? Like, as in the fruit? No? Then he’s got no idea what anyone is talking about. Pino may be the eldest of three and the most mature of them, but he’s never really had time to pursue a love life. A lot of his time has been spent on inventions and his family, both his brothers and the F7, so dating is out of his circle of experience.

Dating is about getting to know one another right? So... maybe he should invite them to somewhere that really shows who he is. That’s brilliant! Let’s go with that! Pino’s logic is sound enough leading him to inviting s/o on a date to place that shows who he really is - his area in the workshop!

This only works because he was able to get Noki and Kio out for the day. It didn’t take much persuading either - once they knew it was for a date they stepped out of the way willingly. He needs all the help he can get.

His invitation isn’t to see what he’s working on. That’s no fun! He invites them to help him work on it. Pino takes the lead on the project but the two of them work together to fix each part. The project takes time. Not that either really notice. A project needing completion is the time where Pino is most comfortable talking to another person; conversation flows naturally without him worrying about tripping over his words or making an ass out of himself.

The date ends with a wooden creation fully functional and ready to go. He congratulates them on completing the design though he does say the project is in the experimental phase and requires more work. Work that would definitely go by faster if they were inclined to give their aid once more. If they felt like it. Up to them, really, no pressure.

S/o had better say yes before he blabs himself into a corner.

Noki

Noki is not only experienced in romance but he’s also ridiculously excited. Picking a place for a date? There’s so many options, how’s a man to choose just the one?! His notebook is chock-full of scribbles of possible date locations, some with checks, some with x’s. The possibilities are endless here!

Unless s/o is the one to select a location, Pino and Kio are in for a long night. Noki does not rest until he’s gotten a place in mind, and his brothers know better to let him do this on his own. Staying up throughout the entire night is no way to survive anything.

An energetic ball of energy is going to want to do something that let’s him get his energy out and hang out with his s/o. What better place for that than the market square in the middle of a festival? People are everywhere with all sorts of sights and sounds to explore. It’s the perfect date spot!

The couple sets off into the festival center intent on seeing every corner of it. Ever-flexible, Noki will be down for any festival activity his s/o is interested in. Festival food is delicious, rides are a blast.

Trying out the game booths is always fun but comes with a double-warning. Noki is no better than Arthur about showing off and as a marksmen, he’s got a mean aim with a crossbow. Should s/o’s eyes wander to a prize he’s going to compete for it. If the game is rigged, which given this is a festival booth it undoubtedly is, the nerd part of him is going to be indignant and he will take time to calculate on how to beat it anyway.

Overall, his dates are light-hearted and fun. Getting to know each other will open up the door to other energetic fun dates.

Kio

What Kio needs is an occasional break from his brothers. Dates absolutely count as breaks. That’s why he doesn’t tell them where he’s going for a date. Actually he doesn’t tell them he’s going on a date - it’s assumed/well-known that as the youngest, they get protective and he’s just not in the mood to deal with that when going on a date.

Any date that is quieter is Kio’s preference. He’d rather leave it up to s/o’s preference, but any location with less people is his choice. The F7 are noisy enough as is - a nice break from that would be greatly appreciated. Nature walks are a good one. Nature both inspires future creations and is inherently more peaceful than any overcrowded town square.

A walk over to a wonder of nature would be a good date for him. They would head off in the cooler part of the day, wandering down the trail with sunlight spattering the forest floor on the occasional breeze. The entire walk conversation flows naturally, with quiet moments to really enjoy the sights and sounds.

That fact that he chose the woods specifically because of Noki’s intense pollen allergy and Pino’s inherent need to mother his brothers when one of them gets ill is a factor he need not mention. If it throws them off from watching his dad, it works.

By the time they do reach their destination - be it the side of a mountain or a simple meadow - Kio is whipping out the picnic basket and sharing a good meal with them. It’s impossible to not enjoy the afternoon with this sensitive soul as they enjoy the day away. It truly is a nice break for them.

#rsat7d #rsat7d imagine #arthur #jack #pinoy #nokia 5.3 #kio #imagine

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pvremichigan · 3 years

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You’ll Always Be My Son. [Hell Arc Drabble 6]

The shrieking of demons behind her grew louder the more she ran. Damn it all to hell - ironically - that she was still unable to see them. All she could hear was the rumbling, the clawing and smacking on the pavement behind her. Some even seemed to hop onto the chain fences that lined the sides of people’s yards here and there. The rattling and chaotic noises echoing behind her, the whispers barely human and the screeching only growing closer and closer, as if teasing her demise before retracting and watching her continue to run for her life without pause. The exhaustion was growing, she had been running for far too long. Sometimes the calls would draw her towards certain streets, but she’d have to find a back road knowing damn well these things would be able to cut her off if she had made specific turns. The chase felt like it had lasted a lifetime, which has been a trait Mich has noticed here. Every moment of fear, agony, misery, despair... The time seemed to drag on, turning seconds into minutes. Far more than that phenomenon in real life, it was far slower than the brain could realistically perceive during moments of panic like that. As if this hell was taunting her views on time, such as nothing lasting forever and her having all the time in the world. Hell was truly tearing down her ideals... Not in a humbling way either.

The streets that she had passed were unfamiliar. Despite this resembling her neighborhood vaguely, nothing she saw was connecting. It all seemed the same and different at the same time. As if this was a hallucination, or she was in a state of delirium. Nothing made sense, nothing was recognizable. However, she was at the point where she had to make a choice.

The redhead took a risk, turning one of the corners that she knew would cause her to get cut off by the blood thirsty beasts taunting her every step. The fact that they weren’t visible made things far worse than she thought it would, but her strength in her senses proved to be more helpful in the end. She heard the crash of the wire fence to the side of her. From the impact, it seemed like the demon hopped towards it to propel itself off as it lunged at her. Using this prediction, she lunged the crowbar upwards, hoping to get it right this time.

This exact situation, exact route and running had happened nearly 8 times in a row. Each time resulting in her getting caught and mauled, torn apart piece by piece. Then... She’d have to restart and try all over again. Never once in those attempts did she get her timing and aim right with the crowbar... So this was truly just her hoping at this point. She didn’t know how many more reruns she could go through before she had to give up.

With the resistance of the impalement and the blood dripping onto the pavement, the plan seemed to work. How odd... As soon as the demon started to bleed as it fell to the ground, the other beasts stopped and surrounded it. Mich glanced back to see what was going on, slowing down ignorantly to observe. The beasts, from what it sounded like, were tearing the injured demon apart and feasting. The screams and wails of the wounded one were nearly deafening. When she assumed they were blood thirsty, she was never prepared to realize that it could be any blood.

Pausing, now thinking on it, was a terrible idea. Once they were done with that one, of course they’d be after her again. Only this time, she wouldn’t have the crowbar. And there was no way she was going through it ALL over again.

And yet...

They were finished too early. The beasts cried out, never once did they keep their eyes off of her it seemed, as they caught her off guard and lunged. Sparing the details, every nerve in her body seemed to seer and scream until she appeared... Right on that sidewalk with her crowbar.

And did it all over again, running for her life.

Having impaled the one yet again, Mich didn’t stop to look this time. She kept running down that street, no stopping even for a moment to check. Looking around, it seemed that breaking that loop caused a break in the uncanny aura to the street. The houses grew more and more familiar, discoloration still apparent but less so now than before as she could mentally note exactly whose houses were whose. The call of the soul grew louder the more she ran down the street, practically screaming once she got to the most familiar house of them all.

Her own.

The only moment she paused was to take one good look at the front of it, both figuring if it was a trap or not and also to bask in the moment that she hadn’t recognized her house for a long time... And seeing it for the first time in a while and being able to click in her mind that this was her house, recalling all the details... The warmth of home was there. She could really feel the safety she yearned for there, even if she still was in hell.

No time to spare, the woman stepped up on the very small concrete slab-like porch she spent a lot of time smoking out on, and reached towards the door handle. Opening the front door and stepping in, it really did feel like home, however there was a heavy sadness and emptiness in the air that weighed down the moment she walked in. The couch to her right right underneath the window with the loveseat to the right of that, pressed up against the wall. The staircase immediately to her left as soon as you walk in, with the tv atop the wooden bookshelf right in front of her. The door that leads to the garage and cellar... Right to the right of that. Dining room table to the right of the loveseat. The small kitchen to the right of that. Everything was in order, everything was there. Every little detail recognizable and observed for years. God... This was home. So why was the atmosphere so dreadful? Was this what she’s been feeling for years? What the house had been filling with for so long..? This is what she felt, what she had to endure... The weight was nearly crippling. How was she able to handle this for so long? Looking back, she still lacked an answer that could make sense to her. At least, a good enough answer that wasn’t simply an excuse. Looking out the window, it was pitch black outside. A drastic difference from just moments ago where it was a dreary yet light gray everywhere. Pitch black... And the beasts that had chased her were nowhere to be heard. As if she entered a different dimensional plane simply by entering a door.

After paying mind to the aura of the room, the bright glow of her soul lay right in the middle of the living room. The moment she approached, it disappeared. The frustration grew immensely, the feeling of defeat growing more than before. What was she doing wrong?! Was this a trick!? Why was she not able to reach what she’s needed to for so long now!?!

Her fists clenched as she turned around, frozen at the sight before her.

Her adopted son, Lance... Grown up... With his bags in hand and backpack over his shoulder, hand on the front door. She remembers now... Those same tears, more guilt fueled than anything, began to build. Though her heart didn’t sink, it throbbed. Painfully... But there was no dread.

The day he left... She had already been sinking to her lowest. She barely said a thing other than ‘Take care.’

To her own son... She can’t even give a proper goodbye.

Seeing what happened prior to this with Ryan, she had a feeling she knew what she had to do.

“... You did always wonder if I was mad you wanted to be human. I acted poorly, Lance... I was barely there for you, I was there even less after Ryan had vanished. Your energy gave me so much joy, despite I never showed it. Oh honey... I was never mad. I just... Didn’t express my sadness and acceptance well enough. You always loved hanging out with the other kids, you always wanted to go to school. You wanted to live. I was teaching you how to survive.”

The boy that stood in front of the door barely moved, but she could tell that - despite it not being him unsurprisingly - he was listening. These obstacles that she had to face... It was never physical because she held very little physical burdens. These problems were always mental and emotional. Facing them like she is now... It was the only way to heal at this point. Unresolved business, problems she avoided facing from the start... It was killing her just as quick as not having a soul.

“I want you to know, I was never mad at you. I supported you then even if it didn’t seem like it. I love you dearly, even if this is the last time I remember you. You were my pride and joy, Lance. My capital. You were what I had when I had nothing. I’m sorry I wasn’t always there. I’m sorry I missed out on so much... I feel like I barely got to see you grow as a person. I’ve missed so much in your life and I want you to know that you’ve grown up to be a wonderful man. You’ve grown up... I see it now. I see you now. I... Know there’s distance in every single way between us. I’m sorry you never had a father figure, I’m...”

And just as predicted, the tears fell. The guilt that fueled them was accompanied by the love she has for this boy, the love a mother has for her child. These tears... Were far less painful. They were a comfort she’s felt before. Just recently... She’s felt this type of love with another. Jack... Someone she can be better to, someone she can be there for when she never was for Lance.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t a better mother. You had so much potential and it hurt to let you go, but I want to tell you that I’m.... So... So proud of you. So very proud. You’ve done so much... You’ve accomplished your BIGGEST dream. Lance, I know you’ll never hear this, but feel it in your heart if you ever can that I love you and I’m proud of you. You’ll ALWAYS be my son, even if we don’t know each other. You’ll always be my son...”

Mich walks forward, the warmth of home and the tenderness of having her son there with her, despite him never facing her... Only facing the door... She felt far safer in here than she ever had. Even in hell... She still had the compassion in her heart to weep with joy and guilt for her son. Hell can’t be her downfall, she has too much within her to drag her down to the pits. There’s always a fight in her heart, she’s always ready to fight for her life and then some.

The proud woman reaches a hand out, resting it gently upon her ‘sons’ shoulder.

“Guess this is our last goodbye too. I never got to say goodbye to you... I never got to say any of this to you. So here I am. Not because I have to... But because I’ve had it in my heart this entire time and only now am I able to relay the message. I love you, Lance. I hope your new family loves you just as much if not more than I did. I hope your dreams never die out. I hope the world someday knows your name. If I can’t remember it... The world has to. I will let no one let your name die out with history. Go make a difference... Go change the world if you need to. Go have fun and please... Please enjoy your life. I’m so proud of you...”

“You’ll always be my son.”

The figure took a moment after she stopped, the silence lingering a moment too long as the heartbreak began to crack in again. After the extended silence, he hung his head not in disappointment, but it seemed to be in preparation for the world. Turning the door handle, there was a nearly blinding light that flooded the room the more it opened. Without looking back, the boy walked forward into the light and didn’t stop, shutting the door behind him. The light that had flooded the room was dragged out, leaving Mich in an uncomfortably dull and dim lit living room. The weight... Still remained. What a suffocating atmosphere... She could feel old habits itch at her, her feet heavy as she dragged herself over to the couch. The soul had disappeared yet again, Ryan was gone, and now Lance was gone for good. Hunched over, she put her hands against her face and wept silently to herself. This... Really did last hours this time. After all of this pain and fear and those obstacle ridden streets... She took a moment of apparent safety and calm to weep. Really let it out as if it were like taking a breather after a long run. She needed this...

She needed this.

Hours passed, there was only a brief period during the end where she was able to sit in silence and breathe. The silence was abruptly interrupted by a knock at the door. She didn’t trust it. It froze her in fear and anticipation, eyes locked on the door as her breathing slowed, barely blinking. The knock came again, but softer this time. There was no way she could trust this... But after a soft yet firmer third time, she realized that if she opened the door and got mauled, when she woke up she just... Wouldn’t answer the door again. Mich was exhausted, she was now resorting to reckless experiment.

Standing up, though hesitation slowing her down, the woman made her way to the door. Gripping the handle tightly, there was yet another instance of hesitation before she finally worked up the courage and let the door slowly open. Before her... Was a glowing essence.

Her soul...

She didn’t trust it this time, looking around to see if there was yet another emotional or mental obstacle. There was nothing in sight... Which caused her to grow skeptical of this situation. This could easily be fake, a trap... But those thoughts washed away like dirt once she felt and heard the call. The weight of the atmosphere in the room had blocked it out. But now... Her tear stained eyes had no more tears left to give.

Kneeling down, she very slowly reached her hand out to the essence. She was... Able to feel it. It felt so familiar, more recognizable and familiar than anything she had pieced together in hell. The thing she could recognize the most...

Herself.

Within a moment of feeling her soul, the light wrapped around her arm, sinking into her body with an intense wave of energy that had felt very overwhelming internally.

Mich’s eyes widen at the realization. There was no weight... This felt so... Different but as if nothing changed all at once. She felt like herself. For the first time in three years, she felt like herself. She felt everything she lost, there was so much going on that she couldn’t explain or pinpoint or anything. It was just... Her.

She was back.

A genuine smile grew on her lips, a shaky exhale before that smile was wiped away quickly. The tears fell yet again, but these tears differed from all the rest she had shed in this realm. Relief... Relief, accomplishment, success, joy, victory... Her hands began to shake as the overwhelming energy really took over.

This joy only lasted for moments as she stood on her porch, as she now glanced around at her surroundings. Things were all too familiar, but even worse... What she saw was something she wished she was still unable to see.

They were visible.

Well...

“It’s time to leave.”

All the energy she had thought she lost pushed itself into her nerves as she dashed off her porch and began her run. She ran for her life as these discolored fleshy beasts, all different shapes and sizes and forms, chased after her in animalistic ways. Time felt like it ran in slow motion though this time... It really didn’t. She was running now, but this time she was running for the exit. Where it was? Well... That’s the hard part. However... Her soul gave another calling. Perhaps this was towards the end... And hopefully it was tracking what Carter had set up. She just prays it’s ready.

For now... She’s running like she’s NEVER run before.

#tw mauling #tw mutilation #tw time loop #[[Pull the Trigger]];; ic #[[gun powder]];; Mich #[[Trail of Smoke]];; Drabble

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d6official · 4 years

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DAY6: ‘We’ve Always Wanted to Go to India’

The South Korean rock band open about their songwriting process, their aspirations for future records, the definition of authenticity in a world that often dismisses artistry in K-pop and India

I caught up with DAY6 a few months ago via Skype–I’m told the quintet are in the middle of shooting new content for their fans and are dressed in their looks for a video, so it has to be an audio call. I can’t see them and they can’t see me, so of course there’s a lot of giggling, whispering, and moments of ominous silence that then have us all breaking into laughter together. It’s awkward, hilarious and everything you’d imagine a call with DAY6 to be.

It’s towards the end of the year so there’s a lot going on in the band’s schedule, but they’re an unstoppable force, flying across the globe to complete performances in the U.S. and in Australia. It’s a pretty rare thing to have all five members be able to join in on a single call, so I’m happy to hear all their voices greet me. “We’ve just been on tour and we’re having a good tour so far,” says vocalist and guitarist Jae. “Everyone’s been really welcoming in their countries and really just turning up for us, so we’re happy.”

DAY6 debuted in September 2015 with leader and guitarist Sungjin, bassist Young K, guitarist Jae, keyboardist Wonpil and drummer Dowoon. All members are trained vocalists, with Young K also doubling as main rapper, and every member contributes to songwriting and production. (The group did have a sixth member, a keyboardist named Junhyeok, but he left in 2016.) Young K also leads the songwriting process, with lyrical contribution in every single track on most of DAY6’s albums.

The beauty of DAY6’s artistry lies in how versatile they are able to make each track within a single album–in one moment you’re listening to a stadium anthem that’s reminiscent of a young U2, and in the next there’s a segue into Killers-esque post-punk revival. If you’ve been a long-time fan, you probably already know this thanks to their genius ‘Every DAY6’ project through 2017, which saw the band release two songs on the sixth day of almost every month. The result? An expansive, experimentative discography which built two powerful albums– Sunrise and Moonrise–with B-sides that shine just as much as a lead single. Jae explains that there usually isn’t a set idea when they begin an album–a lot of the music is born through songwriting sessions with various producers, where each member gets to go explore any genre they want on their own. It’s a power they’re exercising more and more, especially all through the Book of Us series. “We didn’t really discuss a direction when we started,” Jae says. “Everyone just kind of did what we wanted, which is why the album is a jumble of this and that from everywhere.” In fact songs have a tendency to switch genres in between verses–a great example of this is DAY6’s 2017 single “I Wait.”

The group also credit the genius of JYP Entertainment producer Hong Jisang as a key factor in their creative process. “I think definitely one of our main influences is probably gonna be one of our main producers and that’s Hong Jisang,” says Jae when I ask the band about their musical influences. “He’s a writer that works with us very frequently. For most of our title tracks–actually all of them I think so far. But yeah, he’s definitely one of the main influences because he’s always been kind of our mentor since the beginning of our debut dates… even before that. So he’s been teaching us about songwriting, you know, tracking or melody writing. We have a little bit of a flow just because we’ve grown so close to him as a group.”

“Just one of the reasons why we try any kind of genre or any music is because people do have different tastes in music,” explains Young K. “So if they like at least one of them, then it’s a success for us. Another reason is because we do get to play almost all of them, almost all [their songs] at the concert. So, we do have a chance to show it to the MyDays and the crowd and you get a chance to have fun with it. And I guess it’s just what we aim for as a group.” They’ve stood strong and stuck to their guns when it comes to this process of songwriting and it’s the fuel that expands their creative process, ensuring they don’t stick to one particular sound or vibe.

I remember back in 2016 when DAY6 began to get more popular, a lot of the attention around them was built of curiosity. As the first band under JYP Entertainment and the one of the first in the third generation of K-pop, both fans and industry professionals were curious to see where the Hallyu Wave would take them. The idea of an ‘idol rock band’ was new to the thousands of fans who had discovered K-pop after the 2016 boom of the genre, and DAY6 didn’t fit any existing stereotype–idol or band. They still don’t, and it’s a powerful statement.

This particular artistic evolution that we’ve seen with DAY6 isn’t easy to achieve in the K-pop idol-sphere of it all; our discussion about artistry in the glittering world of idol culture brings us to the topic of what it’s like to exist as what people believe to be a ‘traditional’ band in the middle of the ‘boy band narrative.’ I ask because it’s something I see often even in India–there’s this idea of authenticity always being tied to the more ‘conventional’ format of a band: artists with their instruments are deemed more ‘legit’ than pop acts. There is an unfortunate tendency among the general public to dismiss artistry created by pop stars and K-pop idols. DAY6 walk the line between the two worlds, and their path to finding that balance often demands a seesaw from one side to another. Have they ever faced a dismissal of their artistry because they’re idols who are also a band?

“That’s a very deep question,” says Sungjin. There’s a long pause as he gathers his words and then continues, “I personally haven’t seen that big of a difference. We, as a team that emphasizes on writing songs and writing music to appeal to other people, feel that everyone who writes songs or does music has the same objective and goal, therefore [artistry] is the same thing [for every musician.] So we’re not trying to focus on those kinds of factors but just try to focus instead on our music and our creation process so that we could become more authentic artists that appeal to more people.”

And what is DAY6’s definition of authenticity?

“When the person who’s creating the music legitimately feels like it’s good music,” says Sungjin firmly.

Right now the authenticity in their songwriting comes from the ordinary. Lead lyricist Young K explains the members draw from everyday experiences and conversations to write songs that are relatable, raw and honest. “Lyrics wise, I could say, we got very cleaned up and very neat. During the times of Every DAY6 project, we were out of time all the time throughout the year,” he says with a laugh. “So, it gave me the lesson of like, always being prepared to write lyrics so that I could pick out a way to find motivation or inspiration. I don’t wait for that inspiration, I gotta always go look for it. For example during everyday conversation, if there’s something or if there’s a word if there’s a phrase that I like, I write it down on my phone.” He pauses for a moment and then sheepishly admits, “To be really honest, I haven’t been doing that for months now. I need to get back on it.” He also says rather than listening to new music, skimming through lyrics is always his go-to move when it comes to evolving his style of storytelling. “So I guess it’s just continuous experiences that helped me to grow and, like you said, evolve.”

I ask the band which of their songs they would recommend to a new listener to help them understand DAY6’s artistry, and there’s a collective hum as they contemplate. “That’s a really difficult question,” says Wonpil. “Maybe ‘You Were Beautiful?’” The rest of the band agree wholeheartedly, and feel the 2017 rock ballad does a great job of summing up who DAY6 are. It’s certainly a fantastic example of the band’s powerful songwriting and their uncanny ability to to delve into topics that are at times a little too real, a little too familiar.

DAY6’s complex Book of Us series of albums have dealt mainly with the various levels of human interactions, emotions and relationships, each volume diving deeper into the complexities of what makes us who we are. The ‘Us’ in the titles can refer to DAY6 themselves, the relationship between them and their fandom MyDay as well as various other relationships the members might have in their lives. It’s also a general reference to the relationships we as human beings cultivate in our lives. The first album in the series The Book of Us: Gravity was one of their brightest releases, exploring youth and young love. The Book of Us: Entropy was a little heavier, a little more mature, exploring the beginning and end of relationships and how it changes a person.

The band’s upcoming release of The Book of Us: The Demon is perhaps their most anticipated release yet. Set to drop tomorrow, May 11th, the eight-track EP already hints at a slightly darker route than its predecessors with its title, promising a deeper look into the core meaning of the series. The teaser for the lead single “Zombie” which dropped on May 8th shows the band wandering dazed through crowds while the track itself seems to build on angsty alt rock. DAY6 also dropped an album sampler that hints The Demon cruises through pop rock (“Day and Night”), blues (“Tick Tock”), post-punk revival (“Stop”), acoustic pop (“Afraid”) and more.

In true DAY6 style however, the tracks can change direction in-between, crossing genres from one verse to another. It’s all a surprise right up until we hear the record, which is one of the best things about listening to a new release from this band. While I’m not told any specifics, I’m assured that DAY6 plan to go bigger than ever before when it comes to future releases. “We want to go to space!” exclaims Dowoon and the band agree enthusiastically. How does space translate sonically? “We want to go for a larger scale of music,” he explains. It’s about dreaming bigger and looking at ways to elevate DAY6’s musicianship. Jae adds, “Yeah, maybe going from just one acoustic guitar to like a full brass band or something.” We discuss possibilities of DAY6 working with an orchestra someday and it’s a pretty fantastic vision.

Speaking of future plans, I decide to put them on the spot and ask about when we’re getting an India tour. “Whenever you guys call us, we are definitely there!” Jae assures me immediately. Young K and Wonpil explain they are familiar with Bollywood and eager to learn more about it. “I am aware it’s huge there. And recently Katy Perry did something with Bollywood?” asks Young K. We realize he’s referring to the pop diva’s massive November concert in Mumbai with Dua Lipa and he shares that it’s one of the reasons DAY6 are more eager to check out India’s concert scene. “Yeah, I actually heard it from my friend. They were telling me, ‘Yo, you should go to India’ and like wherever it is, we always want to go. If there are people who are willing to listen to us and enjoy with us at the concert, we want to go.” Jae adds, “You guys have a lot of people and for us it’s a new culture and we are always interested in going to different places and seeing new things, trying different foods… naturally the food! So yes, we’ve always wanted to go to India, so call us!”

We spend the rest of our allotted time together talking planning a show in India for 2020 and although COVID-19 has postponed these plans for now, it’s something the band believe needs to happen. “We definitely wanna see you guys,” says Young K. “It’s always great to go to new places. Until the time that we meet, we want you guys to stay healthy and happy.”

By Riddhi Chakraborty

©️Rolling Stone India

#day6 #t: article #t: interview #200510 #rolling stone india

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isayamasideblog · 4 years

Text

In My Dreams

This is a Soulmate AU. Inspired by Your Name. Specifically when they grow up. This will most likely have a part 2.

Words: 2k

Warnings: Some swearing, none

Eren’s POV

Ever since I can remember, I’ve always felt that something was missing from my life. However, I can never figure out what it is. Everything I do, everywhere I go feels incomplete, like there’s an ever growing void that grows as I become older. My friends like to joke, telling me that maybe I need a girlfriend, but for the life of me, no matter how many girls show their likeness for me, no one sparks my interest. I can find the girl cute and she can be telling me the best stories, but there seems to be a wall in my heart preventing me from developing any feelings towards her.

I sigh as I make my way into my small apartment, another day of job interviews filled with the same boring questions. I don’t know how long I can take telling someone what my strengths and weaknesses are, and if I work well with others. Of course I lie about that one. I’m not going to run my mouth telling them about the many fights I get myself into. I just hope to find a job soon, maybe that’ll kickstart whatever it is that’s holding me back.

As I take off my shoes, I realize how empty it feels here and how quiet it is. Maybe my friends are right. Maybe I do want someone to greet me and assure me that a better day awaits me. They can offer me some comfort, and they can tell me about their day, and I would gladly listen as they entertain me about their day. But will anyone do? Will I be able to do that with just any woman or does it have to be “the one.”

I lightly chuckle to myself as I think of such a cheesy thing. Is there really such a thing as a perfect match out there… a soulmate, how some like to call it, especially for someone as ordinary as me?

After putting on my comfortable clothes and ridding my body of that stuffy suit, I take out the ingredients for this evening’s dinner, and get cooking. I admit, I’m not the best, but atleast I’m not going hungry. Yet, no matter how many times I try to recreate my mother’s recipe I always come short.

I finish my dinner, wash my dishes, and head to bed, where I spend my last wakeful hours scrolling aimlessly through my phone, until I pass out from boredom.

I wake up with a sudden gasp, and tears falling from my face. Why? Who knows? I sit there on my bed trying to recall a dream, or nightmare that got me in this state, but nothing comes to mind. And nothing will come to mind as I glance at the clock and realize I have half an hour for my interview to start! Shit! It’s a 20 minute commute and I’m not even dressed!

I jump out of bed and rush to put on the same suit from yesterday. I brush my teeth, and splash water on my hair and face. Hopefully that’ll make me look refreshed. Breakfast is obviously not on the list, as I grab my bag. But, before I head out the door, I remember something from my dream. Black shiny shoulder length hair. I am frozen by the vivid image. This again. Who’s hair did I dream about? Do I know anyone with that type of hair? I keep dreaming of the same person, but to this day I don’t know who they might be, their face always comes up a blur.

I run into the first metro car I see, and pray that I make it to my interview on time. Damn it, I’ve got to stop making my interviews too early if I’m going to struggle making it there on time. How many do I have today? Three? And I still have to meet Armin for dinner. He lucked out being so smart and being recruited, rather than running around the city begging for a job.

I make it to my stop and run to the building. Okay, I can make it right on time, but as I’m about to enter, many people decide to exit. I struggle to squeeze myself in between the opposing people. Shit! there’s at least twenty people coming out. Come on, I’ve got to make it on time! Move! I push myself towards the building’s doors and try to gently shove the people out my way.

Suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I spot something familiar. Black hair! Like in my dream! My heart beat speeds up, and I feel a tug in the depths of my chest. Rather than making my way into the building’s awaiting doors, I find myself trying to get closer to the woman with the black hair. I can’t see her face, but I can’t explain it, I must get close to her. People keep bumping into me, several explicits aimed at me from them, but I could care less. I need to know if I know this lady.

I’m only a handful of people away from her, and that’s when it rains. Umbrellas go up in tandem and it’s now hard to know who’s who as they all disperse out of the building. And just like that I’m left wondering about who she is. Feeling strangely dejected I make my way inside the building.

Shit, the secretary is already calling my name. “Eren? Going once, going tw-” she says as I interrupt her. “I’m here! Sorry, for the tardiness,” I apologize. And she grimaces as she looks at the clock behind her, “Tardiness is not a good first impression,” she sighs, “Take a seat, they’ll call you soon.” I wince and take a seat and wait, trying to shake the thought of the raven haired mystery away.

❈— ⍣— ⍣ ❈— ⍣— ⍣ ❈— ⍣— ⍣ ❈— ⍣— ⍣ ❈— ⍣— ⍣ ❈— ⍣— ⍣ ❈— ⍣— ⍣ ❈— ⍣

“How’d it go?” Armin asks across the table. “Let’s see, I was late for the first interview, I couldn’t answer the questions they asked me for the second interview, and I mispronounced the interviewee’s name in the third,” I say. Armin purses his lips as he takes a slow sip of his black coffee, “It might be the suit,” he says nonchalantly. I look down at my plain suit, “What’s wrong with my suit?” I gasp. “I don’t know, the color maybe?” he says. “What? The color?”

“It could also be your hair, you should cut it.” My hand instantly reaches for my bun. How could Armin say that when it took me forever to grow it out? “No, it can’t be my hair,” I say defensively. “It could be, it kind of gives you this bad boy image,” Armin says as he stares at my bruised knuckle. “First, of all,” I say, while pointing at my knuckle, “I got this defending you from those muggers!” “I told you to let it go and call the cops,” he retorts. I tsk in annoyance, and before I can say anything, Armin’s phone suddenly rings. When he sees who’s calling, he almost spits his coffee out.

He shakes as he quickly answers the phone, “H-hello, Annie! Yes, I’m Armin! No I haven’t eaten dinner!” he says nervously. I stare at his half eaten sandwich as he says this. “Of course I can do dinner, yeah tell me where,” I chuckle when he says the name of the restaurant we’re currently eating at. Armin hangs up and looks around the place nervously. “I have to leave and come back in ten minutes as if I just got here!” he freaks out. “Armin what’s this about?” I ask curiously.

“My coworker Annie wants to eat dinner with me! Me! Eren, I have to go!” he says and jumps out of his seat. Ahh, Armin, I see he found someone he’s interested in. I sit there and watch as Armin walks in ten minutes later, a petite blonde greets him, Annie, I presume. I would love to stay and watch his little date, but I am getting glances from the servers for spending too much time at the table. So, I decide to pay, and leave, but not before making eye contact with Armin and shoot him a thumbs up.

When I step out, I am met with pesky rain in this dark cloudy evening, and I groan as I remember that I don’t have an umbrella or a coat with me! I let out an annoyed tsk, and shove my frigid hands into the depths of my pant’s pockets to protect them from the awful cold and make my way home.

I am lost in thought when I feel the familiar, yet strange tug like when I saw the black haired woman when I was about to enter the building earlier. That’s when someone passes me. I turn to see who it is, but their umbrella covers them. Call me crazy, but the person falters too in this fleeting moment. I wait to see if something happens, but we both move on without another pause. And just like that I head to the empty apartment that awaits me. Why did I keep moving? What’s stopping me?

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That night I dream again. And she appears again-the one with the black hair. I don’t see her face, but it feels familiar, to my heart at least. “Eren!” she says in this soft, yet strong voice. I reach for her hand and ask for her name, and she grabs my hand, as her face becomes clear. “Wow,” I gasp, she’s beautiful. She’s got kind gray eyes, and a scar above her cheek. But before she can tell me her name, my alarm blares. “Argh!” I groan as I pound my alarm to shut up. “Who are you?” I ask and rub my eyes as I wake up for another uneventful day.

Again, I ride the train, my thoughts filled with ways I can answer the interview questions. Reminding myself to look approachable and smile a little, at least that’s what my father keeps telling me. I stare at nothing in particular, as the trains rides through the city. The same buildings, same streets, same me, on the same never changing route. I am distracted by my thoughts as the opposing train makes its way. I absentmindedly stare at the people in the train.

I see people of all ages. School kids heading to school, office workers dreading another day at work, mom’s with their babies holding them tightly against them. But then, I see her… black shoulder length hair, and like a lightning bolt striking my brain, I remember that I’ve seen her face before-where?

My dreams! She’s the one from my dreams! And she sees me too. Eyes wide open, mouth slightly falling agape, she presses her hands against the train’s window, and she’s gone.

I see the caboose of the train disappear and I uselessly press my forehead against the window as if I could go through it. I look around desperately and look at the map up ahead, I must get off at the next station. I don't know how, but I will find her!

I push my way through the people and jump off the wagon. I look at the signs above me, and just run towards a direction I’m not sure is correct.

I make my way through the unfamiliar street and I can’t explain this feeling, I just can’t. I don’t think about how foolish it sounds that I’m looking for someone from my dreams. And I don’t think about how this could all be in my head. I mean, why am I so sure she’s also looking for me!?

I spot a staircase and as I’m about to make my way down, I see her. She’s actually here and she’s so beautiful… We make eye contact, but she looks away as a light blush creeps to her cheeks. The awkwardness of the situation settles on me too, and I also feel shy.

What if this is a coincidence? This is stupid. She begins to make her way up the stairs, avoiding eye contact and I jerk my legs forward to go down stairs. Say something to her, Eren! Please! I make it to the last step, and I suddenly think about my life, and the growing void. I want to fill it up! “Excuse me!” I nearly shout, “Do I know you?” Are you kidding me? Am I really crying? I think about making a run for it, but then I see her tears, and her smile. I swear I could get drunk with that smile. “I thought so, too” she says with a cute smile on her face.

My heart is throwing a million somersaults at once when she says this. Her name, dumbass! Ask for her name, her hand even! No, reel it in, ask her for her name only. I take a breath and speak, but she also speaks, “What’s your name?” we both ask.

#Eremika #Eren x Mikasa #ErenxMikasa #aot fanfic #aot fanfiction #mikasa x eren #eremika au #I threw some armin and annie in there #enjoy!

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ariadneah · 3 years

Text

self para / the old brag of my heart: I am, I am, I am.

Suddenly, nothing made with her hands could be good enough. The smell of metal, the smirk off Dexter’s face as he left the room, the very fact that she was wearing shoes that would have given her blisters three years ago -- it all made raindrops of sweat form, cold, at the bottom of her back. They had seen her brother -- and she hadn’t grown much over the bones of who Orpheus was three years ago.

She had gone over it, with a pencil in her hand instead of a knife, a million times, doodles everywhere. She could never speak a word of it to anybody, however. It was her own intimate demon to fight. What she chose, instead of dozens of romanticized elaborate plans, was a personal wound more than anything.

She stopped, in front of the doors, knowing she was on borrowed time. A nervous Career is not a Career, and she was shaking. There was no way she would open those doors before her hands calmed down. As the plan reshuffled in her mind, stronger than ever, her heart changed beats. There was nothing to fear. It was the moment she has always dreamed of. After a lifetime of knowing the Hunger Games by heart, the Hunger Games were going to meet her back. Holding her breath, she entered, disheveled and ghostly pale. Never before had a Career been more lost in her own jungle.

But she survived. Despite her heartbeat, she managed to pull a smile, determined to not waste a moment. Her feet were quick to take her to the simulation, where she entered all information as she spoke. “Ariadne Beaurevoir. I’m happy to be here. I’ve always wanted to be here. I’m actually a few years late, but I had to give you time to get bored of one Beaurevoir before getting another.” Her nervous tongue was filling in the gaps as she prepared the field, practical manner of speech as she pushed different buttons with unintentional nonchalance and chose the highest difficulty. Specifically ready to kill.

Ariadne waited in front of the generator for him to show up, made of orange pixels. The single silhouette of a boy of her height and size mirrored her own. He was all pixels, but she knew him by heart, even then. To her, there would never be a bigger threat. He? Dragging a mace. Her? Bare handed. Without warning, she took off, as fast as she could, long legs moving with cheetah ease towards the piles of weapons. He? Already after her, matching speed. How could he not? They were about the same person at this point.

It almost felt like hide-and-seek in a way, except she had been the one constantly bringing up blades in every game they would play in their childhood. It was about time he fought back. She bent too quickly to pick up three knives, left hand clenched on two of them and the right hand throwing the other in his direction, missing and slipping between his knees, despite the hologram constantly moving. She didn’t want to hurt a pixel yet. One of the remaining knives moved hands in an instant. She was careful to push the shelf of weapons all in his way and sprint away.

The hologram didn’t trip, but it did slow him down.

At this point, he was in front of her, swinging the mace with no brotherly mercy. Good. She had never asked for any. The dance was almost ridiculous. She dodged the mace for a minute straight, eyes following every move of the hologram and mirroring it as quickly as reflex. There was no striking back. As if she couldn’t. Instead, she showed her best, most graceful defense, almost choreographic.

After a cat and mouse game where Ariadne simply bent over, moved away, stepped back and jerked her head away from every mace hit, she started running in the other way. As if when he wasn’t expecting an escape. When facing a wall, he was too close to orientate towards a new direction, so she simply plunged the first knife high on the wall, not letting go of it. Then the second. Turning around, she ducked and left the knives there to fight back barehanded. Her two palms grasped the handle of the mace too, fearlessly, surprised to feel it to begin with, and pushed in his direction as a force pushed in hers.

She was nowhere stronger than this version of her brother. But there it was, her special talent. She never fought fair. Ariadne’s foot aimed cruelly for the space between the hologram’s legs. It reacted (though not the way Everett had last year), caught off guard for a moment. That was when she smacked the mace off his hands. It did hurt like metal would have, like a shock, but there was no time for injury.

She turned back to face the wall and jumped, grabbing both knives by the handles and supporting her body as her feet left the sole. Straining her arms to keep hanging, she knew the first pluck out would be the heaviest for her elbow, but she took a knife out, holding only onto the other. It cut her breath away. She stabbed the wall again, higher, trying to climb. It was going to take too long. The hologram tried to drag her down, but her sneakers fought back, hitting the head with a concealed force, not to lose balance. There was nothing to push against for a propulsion, but she continued to climb up, rushing more and more until she reached a fair distance to the sole. She was up and untouchable, but her arms felt like breaking in two. Her palms were sweaty, threatening to let go, already numb.

And besides, this wasn’t a climbing demonstration in the slightest. With strength only made up by adrenaline, she tossed one of the knives down, arrow-like, and struck the hologram’s foot, not strongly enough to pin it to the ground. The other knife she left where it was stuck. When she jumped, it was in a frog position, landing well enough in a squat. Without standing up properly, she dodged the hologram and ran back to the weapons, almost moving with both her legs and arms, like a cat.

She picked up the first sword on sight and glued it against his hologram mace in no time, as defense. Tilting right, she wanted to make the hologram lose its grip, but it seemed close to impossible. She had never fought against steadier hands. When she realized she was never going to beat a hologram of this level in skill, Ariadne sidestepped and struck the ends where the hologram’s hands were supposed to be mercilessly, causing it to drop the weapon, once again. Then, she tossed away her own sword, no longer in need of it.

Instead, she tackled the hologram, throwing her whole body against it as if diving into a lake. The first thing she could feel, from above him, was the sharpest leg in the stomach. Now she was just starting to get mad. Though her ears were flaming red by now, it was time for anger to color them, instead of just effort. She leaned in and bit his face, the portion that should have been his nose. She bit it until her teeth clinked together with a metallic noise. That was the cue for blood, if her opponent were human.

Then she spit on him and jumped to change position, now pressing her sneaker heels against his thighs and pressing hard. Despite the continuous straining, he pushed her back. Her back hit against the cold, hard ground and, in no time, the damned hologram was choking her. Despite the moment, Ariadne laughed out loud. Satisfied, almost. She could hardly breathe, but she moved and shook her body continuously, pushing and hitting with her legs. It was like being possessed.

There was no way out. She was going to die by the unreal hands of a simulation in a pretense fight. She raised her arms in the air and shot up her heaviest elbows in its head, however. Again and again and again as if wanting to squeeze the nonexistent cranium between sharp hits. She did have pointy bones. The release came like a fresh yet hoarse breath of air. Ariadne didn’t waste a second. She didn’t need an oxygenated brain to fight. It was all reflex. She pushed the hologram off of her and reached out for another of the weapons scattered around the floor. A mace. Fitting.

Maces have never been her favorite, but she could work with one. Ariadne swung one over her head for soar and struck as hard as possible. The simulation seemed fresher than ever, having gained his mace back. He blocked it, but she pushed him back. Maces weren’t dueling weapons. They were only a moment away from ending things. She knew that now.

The realization came in late. It’s been her all along. That’s when she stuck the mace in the forehead, full force, going halfway through the skull. The simulation dissipated in seconds, fading sparks in the air. At that point, she could no longer breathe.

“I can make my own mutts,” she spoke through gritted teeth, trying to make herself as audible as possible, despite the position she was in, on her knees. “And I’m not afraid to kill any version of my brother you decide to send my way.” She stood up and straightened her back, placing down the weapon gently by her feet. “I’m here for it. For all of it. Thank you.” With a small bow, she turned on her heels.

#i never posted her skill pres on her blog and i feel like it has to be there #self para #124 #ruleandtask #bits #;a force of fury #the old brag of my heart: i am i am i am #backdated

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deanwinchestermydaddy · 4 years

Text

TO SEE YOU AGAIN (DEAN WINCHESTER STORY) PART. 1

Your POV:

Since I was pretty young I knew about the Supernatural things, while other kids thought those were just tails and I knew that they weren't.

Now I was in a small town looking over a case that seems to be just some 'salt and burn', something easy. I arrived at the crime scene and showed my fake batch to the officers so they will let me go around to confirm my suspicions of being a revengeful ghost. I started to look around until one of the officers called me, "Agent Wilson" he said and I turn around to see two guys dressed on some suits one was taller than the other. The one with shorter hair smiled at me like if he was in trance or something while his partner pushed him slightly, "I'm Agent Signer and this is my partner Agent Wanek" the tall one said extending his hand which I shook and smile, "Agent Wilson" I said as I went to shake the other guy hand I felt a little shock wave hit me as our fingers touched. It was a weird feeling and I noticed that the guy felt it too, but I had to continue and finish this case to go to another town to continue with another hunt.

Later I needed to rest and go later to the house to get rid off the ghost. I arrived to a local Motel on your black 1964 Pontiac GTO. It was still early for me to go to the house and I decided to go to the local bar, " what can I get you beautiful?" the bartender said and I smiled, "just a beer please" I said and just in a couple of minutes he handed me the beer. Suddenly the door open revealing two men entering the bar I didn't pay that much attention cause I was focused on my papers. With the corner of my eyes, I saw them sat on one of the booths.

Dean's POV:

On the booths Sammy and I sat down, when we arrived to the bar I saw a beautiful black 1964 Pontiac Gto and I started to wonder who was the driver of it. "I'm telling you the driver of that car has really good taste on them, and probably if is a girl is really sexy" I said after the waitress left to get our beers, "yeah, Dean. Don't you think that the Agent that as there at the scene was suspicious?" Sam asked and I had my thought somewhere else specifically with the other Agent that touched my hand, "not suspicious but very sexy" I said just remembering her.

"can I get you something else?" the waitress said and I looked at her, "I will let you know sweetheart," I said with a wink, she stayed a little more until someone called her, "excuse me can I get another beer" the person said and I look up to see who it was and by my surprise I meet those beautiful hazel eyes that I got lost in the morning. I guess I was staring at her for too long as she smiled at me and them Sam moved me so I could stop looking at her, "you're looking like creep" Sam said, "what?" I said looking at him, "I think I'm heading back to the motel to do more research before we go to the house" he said announcing and I just nodded still looking at that girl that caused a weird sensation on me.

Sammy was gone and I saw that she continue to look over some papers so I decided to join her by sitting next to her on the stool, as I was walking towards the bar some guy approached and grabbed her ass which made my blood boil and I started to walk faster but before I could react she grabbed the guy by the collar and pointed her gun to his junk, " I dare you to that again asshole and I'ma make sure you cannot have any children anymore" she said and pushed him to the floor, I swear that was so fucking hot.

" Is this seat taken?" I asked and she nodded, "so we see each other again Agent Wanek"she said as she turn to me with a smile and I felt like I turned into jelly, "well I guess I’m lucky tonight," I said with a wink and she laugh, "so what’s your name Agent?" she said turning completely to me and resting her elbow on the counter, "Dean and yours sweetheart?" i said and she took a gulp from her beer before speaking, "Y/n" she said and I whisper her name so see how it felt, "beautiful name for a beautiful girl" I said trying my best to be smooth. There was something about her that caused me to get nervous. We spent quite a time there just talking, she was really easy going and funny and she laugh at my stupid jokes and it was a genuine laugh that I was loving more each second I listen to it.

Both walked out of the bar, "so do you think I can get your number?" I said and she smiled, "only if we see each other again Dean"she said walking to the parking but not before giving me a kiss on the cheek, "deal" I said and I started to walk to wards baby with a smile that no one could take from me.

I arrived at the motel and went to find Sam doing research, "it took you long" he said and I just chuckle, "we are leaving on an hour Sammy, so get ready"I said as I plopped down on the bed smiling at the ceiling.

Your POV:

I changed from my FBI outfit to my normal clothing that consisted of some boots, jeans, a shirt and a leather jacket. Arriving at the house I saw her a beautiful Impala from 1967. 'The guy that drives that car most be really sexy' I thought. I gather my stuff from the trunk of my baby boy, I enter from the back which I left open so when I enter would be easy for me. I was in the kitchen when I heard noises so I instantly grabbed my shotgun with salt, I walked into the living room with my gun aiming everywhere in case the ghost appear or some else. I saw a tall figure walking on the living room but giving me his back, I saw that he had headphones so I knew i had advantage over him.

He turn at the moment when I was going to tackle him so when I did I ended up straddling his legs and used my shotgun to immobilize him, "who are you and what do you want in here?" you said and he looked shock, "y/n?" he said and I recognized him, "Dean, what are you doing here?" I asked as I took my gun away from him, but I was still on top of him, "I have the same question for you... wait are you a hunter?" he said and you nodded, "yes I am and I supposed you are one and that your "partner" too"you said and some cleared his throat and both you and Dean look up to see the tall man. I look down and saw that I was still on top of him, "Umm... sorry"I said getting up, "no problem sweetheart" he said and the other guy rolled his eyes, "I'm Sam" the tallest one said and you smiled at him and shook his hand, "y/n" I said.

Suddenly something started to make a lot of noise and Dean looked his hands where he had a walk-man, "is that a Walkman?"Sam asked and both looked at Dean, "It's an EMF meter. It reads electromagnetic frequencies" Dean explained, "Yeah, I know what an EMF meter is, but why does that one look like a busted up old walk-man?"Sam said and you look back at Dean waiting fro his answer, "'Cause that's what I made it out of"he answer proudly, "i like it, that is really creative"I said with a smile.

It was later and I and the 2 brothers were coming back to the motel after we finished the job. Me and Dean stayed out with our baby's, "great car you got there"he said, "thanks I take a lot of care of my baby boy. She's really great too I can tell you take care of her" I said patting my baby boy and sitting on the hood and then and got closer to me and I felt my heartbeat go faster, "yeah I do, so Umm... do you... i mean of course you do.... Umm have someone to go home to?" he said, "nope, not even a dog or fish, is just me and my baby boy" I said and he smiled.

"I gotta go and rest I'm kind of tired from the hunt" I said and he kind of frowned, "oh okay. Goodnight y/n"he said and I got off my car and both walked together to the rooms that ended up being next to each other, "goodnight Dean" I said with a smile as he started to walk to him room, "Dean?" I said and he turn and looked at me, who was now behind him biting my bottom lip, "yes y/n"he said so sweetly and I grabbed his face and kissed him deeply, it was like his lips were molded to fit perfectly on mine. He kissed me back with even more passion and I felt like I was melting each second that we continue kissing, I run my hands through his short hair and he pulled e closer to him. We finally broke the kiss and both were panting cause of the lack of breath, I slipped on his hands some paper and he looked at me weirdly, "remember what I told you if I see you again?"I said and he opened and smile seeing my phone number.

" I keep my promises Winchester" I said as I walked to my room and he stayed there just smiling.

Dean's POV:

I started to fist pump the air I got her number and a kiss from her, "I’m a lucky bastard" I said as I walked in and Sam looked at me, "I got her number Sammy! I got it!" I said and jumped onto the bed, "that was all the fuzz about"Sam said trying to not laugh at my excitement, "just let me be happy for a moment okay" I said closing my eyes and picture y/n, "jerk"Sam said and I didn't even look at him, "bitch" I said and went back to picturing Y/n.

#dean winchester x reader #dean x reader #dean winchester #spn #reader #dean winchester fic #dean winchester fanfiction #dean winchester story

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marithlizard · 4 years

Text

Ace Attorney: Rise From the Ashes (part 1)

A couple of people expressed interest in a writeup as I play through the game, so I thought I’d give quasi-liveblogging a try. It might have come out to be too detailed - let me know if the result is amusing enough to go through the next part.

(I knew this already, but wow liveblogging is a lot of work. And it must take twice as much effort to do this for a show and to include screencaps.)

(I’ve tried three times now to put proper line breaks/spacing in, and they’re just not displaying, at least on desktop. I’m sorry.)

A brief, stylized opening designed not to give away much, except that a creepy-looking doll is involved.

Two months? Phoenix, you haven't taken a single client since Maya left? a) are you depressed, and b) how are you paying rent on the office?

Ookay, you're not going to tell us why you've been moping around. I don't think it's that you have a crush on Maya. Are you just not able to function without a partner? That's not great for your ability to survive, but I can sympathize.

New perky assistant, right on cue. (A partner who isn't a young girl would be a nice change now and then. (But not Larry. Anyone but Larry. In fact, I take it back, this girl with the pink sunglasses will do just fine.))

Oof, Phoenix still not being able to say out loud that Mia's dead.

In the first two minutes pink-glasses girl has asserted that he's his female boss, the coffee boy, and 'better than nothing'. Aha! The problem with all the clients he turned down was that they didn't insult him enough.

Kid, you can't be more than sixteen, and you have silly face buttons on your lab coat. You are about as much a scientific investigator as Photography Girl last episode was a journalist. ...But apparently you have a future job lined up in forensics, so you're more organized than she was. And this world certainly could use more competent crime scene analysis.

"I promised her I'd bring Mia Fey". Huh. Is Mia's murder not well-known to the public, then, even though the Edgeworth case apparently got famous enough to earn Phoenix a bit of a reputation?

A murder charge with an eyewitness, and an assistant who "kind of hates" her sister the defendant. Sounds hopeless, let's do it! Off to the Detention Center.

...Did we just overhear the defendant threatening their terrified guard with a pay freeze? Is she their boss? And if she's someone that high up, why doesn't she already have a better defense attorney?

I like Lana Skye's character design. She looks as though she should be starring in a Takurazuka revue show, swearing eternal star-crossed love to a princess.

She insists she did it. By genre convention we know that can't be the case; my first assumption is that she's being forced to cover for someone, blackmailed or coerced by someone higher up in the system. But it would certainly be interesting if it turned out she was covering for Ema.

Must....resist...plotbunnies...

Oookay. A prosecutor should certainly know ways to commit murder without getting caught, and this sounds like the opposite of those ways. WHY does she claim she did this? You're not even going to ask her, are you? *headdesk*

Ema: "Please ignore that totally gay statement by my sister, because I certainly plan to!"

Lana: "No don't help me, go away go away go away go away go awa-oh fine."

Hmmm. From Ema's description of the behavior change, Lana has been being blackmailed or coerced for a long time now.

Time to go investigate the underground parking garage.

Attorneys aren't supposed to examine crime scenes, and defense attorneys aren't entitled to a copy of the police investigation reports. What does a "normal" defense attorney in this world do for their clients then? Always assume a loss and try to negotiate a plea bargain? I wonder if we'll ever get to see one in action.

It's...a cop with a cowboy fetish? Do police not have dress codes here? Maybe they're waived above a certain level, and some people take pride in cultivating a unique style to show off that they can. It would explain Edgeworth.

You are dramatically pretending to shave in front of us. Also you just called Ema a baby cow. Although you know her and seem sympathetic - I guess Lana brought her little sister to the office sometimes? Not sure what I think of you, Jake Marshall.

I am revising my stance. Being Phoenix's partner on a case requires precise and narrow qualifications. Specifically, just enough sense to stop him from doing something breathtakingly stupid, but not enough sense to take the badge firmly away from him and do the job themselves. Ema fits the bill perfectly.

Ooh, new mechanic! And an ID card number for a Bruce Goodman who dresses like a white-hat agent in Spy vs Spy. (I was trained on games that would require you to write that number down and remember it later, but AA will certainly be more forgiving.)

Using the new mechanic on Phoenix's attorney badge, I deduce that at some point this game it will be stolen.

It doesn't explain Lana's supposed actions, but that red sports car does kind of scream "My owner is a jerk, stuff a body in my trunk." Instead of a chalk outline, they seem to have outlined the hanging body with string? Is that actually a technique, and how do they get the rope to stay put in precise outline?

And the cowboy gives them a hint. So he's on their side but constrained by rules?

Lady put the boobs away. Why are you selling sushi in a negligee under a fur coat, at a crime scene? And why would anyone trust food from someone whose nickname is "the Cough-Up Queen"?

Angel Starr, dominatrix lunch lady. It says something that this is not the weirdest witness in an AA game so far.

She hates prosecutors, and therefore especially Lana. Not a trustworthy witness. But it's probably no fun to cater for a group of (relatively) wealthy and powerful people you despise. Especially if they're smugly giving awards to each other as they eat lunches. (Eeeevil lunches. She probably coughs on them.)

"The rhythmic beat of Lana Skye's knife"... very poetic, but didn't Lana say the victim was stabbed only once?

We can't get back to the car, phooey, so up to the prosecutor's office we go.

Pink...everywhere...no question whose office this is, even if one of his outfits wasn't framed on the wall. (why do you frame an outfit?) I see a very ugly trophy on the sofa, so he's the one who won the award.

Ema: "this is the kind of room that just screams 'I can do the job'. Actually it screams 'I don't need to pretend to be heterosexual', but the two aren't unconnected.

Is it just me or is that trophy broken off at the top?

Edgeworth did you just roll with being insulted and make a joke about it? I'm so proud of you, you've clearly relaxed since your murder trial!

BWAHAHA of course it was Edgeworth's car.

Wendy the security guard from the Steel Samurai case is sending Edgeworth expensive presents?? a) that's both funny and a little sad, b) how can she afford it, and c) he keeps and displays them which is very courteous.

WAIT did you - did this game just heavily suggest Gumshoe hangs out in the office a lot? Twice, once when you look at the shelves and again when you look at the desk? I don't ship it, but this is the point where I start to see why people do.

Awwww he's embarrassed about the trophy, that's cute. So he's the one who "devours the evillest lunches of all", hmm? I wouldn't have thought the Cough-Up Queen's weird not-even-fresh lunches would appeal to Edgeworth's refined tastes.

Ema actually has a bit of a crush, from the way she's rhapsodizing about Edgeworth sleeping on the sofa. d'awww. And I definitely want to know the story behind the outfit. Made by his mom and too precious to wear?

Edgeworth, no one thinks you did it. Sheesh. He certainly doesn't sound happy about having to prosecute Lana, even though he believes she's guilty. His car, his knife... it almost seems like this is a plot aimed at him, or perhaps a plot against Lana with a healthy dose of fuck-you-too-Edgeworth to it.

Huh. Maybe it *is* aimed at him. I've been assuming all this time from his behavior on the stand that Edgeworth has indeed been messing with evidence to convict obviously innocent people, and also assuming that it's common practice in this corrupt justice system. (Much as it is in Japan and in the US). But the way he's talking about rumors right now, it sounds more like he's being slandered. And he thinks the award he was given was out of mockery. Ouch.

So yes, the trophy is broken. (In RWBY, you assume everything is a gun; in AA, you assume everything is a murder weapon. It probably broke when it was used to hit someone over the head.)

Evidence transferal day, huh? Was the murder timed to draw attention away from a case being closed? And Edgeworth parked his car only three minutes before Goodman was stabbed and thrown into its trunk? No way. He was there for the murder, or more likely that's not when the murder happened. (Is he being coerced like Lana? I don't think so, but it's possible.)

Enter an idiot mailman with a bandaged hand. And exit, with sniveling. What was that about?

And a hint to go investigate at the police station. Is Edgeworth being friendly, attempting to signal something, or merely aware that the most efficient way to get rid of Phoenix is to give him a clue to chase?

The police department entrance, with some sort of plywood jester figure in front of it. We're offhandedly informed that it took 30 minutes to get there from Edgeworth's office, which means that will be important later.

This is the creepy doll from the intro! It's clearly meant to be a mascot. Was it made by the sniveling mailman? There's a certain resemblance...

No, I should've guessed that Gumshoe made it. I mean ... mechanically it's pretty clever for someone who's not a craftsman or engineer? Moving articulated limbs and all. It's just the aesthetics and design he shouldn't have been allowed anywhere near.

Yes, yes it is odd that only the top-ranked people are being allowed to work on the case. Are they all in on it? A patrolman in charge of the crime scene instead of a detective - that suggests Marshall is part of the conspiracy. I'm thinking the dominatrix lunch lady is too.

Gumshoe is so happy about the prosecutor's award - Edgeworth probably didn't have the heart to say that for him it's a mockery. Daww. (Also there's something endearingly cheerful about his hopping-caterpillar eyebrows.) He's also being much more helpful than his superiors would want, probably just because he thinks of Phoenix as an ally in general now.

Back to the parking lot, with a letter of introduction in hand this time.

I genuinely can't tell if the lunch lady is a sex worker, if she actually has multiple boyfriends, or if that's code for her professional contacts in whatever she's really doing here. (And that's an interesting cultural bit, isn't it - any of those options seem possible, and I'm not expecting any of the characters to question her competence or morality because of it, not even in court. If this was a US-made game my expectations would be...different.)

"Good men always die young"...I see what you did there, Marshall.

Autopsy report confirms one stab wound. Lana and the victim worked together on "a case a few years back", ding ding ding. Someone didn't want the evidence for that case transferred. Or looked at.

Marshall used to be a detective but got demoted? And he's lying about why he was assigned to the crime scene, and telling us Gumshoe is off the case because he's friends with Edgeworth. The police chief, whoever he is, is now at the top of my suspect list.

Happily, the game will let me do dumbass things like show off Goodman's ID card without consequences. Marshall seems very uninterested in it and why it was found so far from the spot of the murder, which I take to mean "we have our official narrative, don't go messing it up with facts or evidence."

Finally we can examine the car! First up, Lana's cellphone. The whole business about hitting redial and somehow not knowing that Ema's phone rang was weird. Phoenix’s lie couldn't possibly have fooled Marshall, who is bizarrely claiming there's no way to know who the last call was made to. It's an odd thing to conceal, even given the “no facts please we have our narrative” stance. Maybe he's trying to protect Ema somehow?)

Marshall said the rumors about Edgeworth came from Lana. And we have a note found in the trunk: 6-7S 12/2, on a piece of Goodman's stationery.

Er, yeah, Ema, why didn't you mention your sister called you 3 minutes after the claimed murder time? If Lana hung up right away that's hardly incriminating for either of you.

End of Day One! We are, as usual, completely unprepared for tomorrow morning's trial.

#ace attorney #rise from the ashes #ace attorney spoilers

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angelofthequeers · 5 years

Text

Ladybug and Reine Nuit: Chapter 17

Dark Cupid I

Disclaimer: I don’t own ML.

I’m still salty that Kagami’s canon outfit is a literal school uniform because…she’s Japanese?

And Chloé seems pretty stagnant now but that’s because there’s not much pushing her to change. She’s still under the delusion that Adrien will eventually come back to her and she hasn’t hit rock bottom…yet.

@miraculousl4dybug @livinthebilife tagged as requested :)

Check out my Ko-fi for writing commissions!

Chapter 16 | Chapter 18

“In most fairy tales, the prince breaks the spell by kissing the princess,” Ms Bustier says. “Can anyone tell us why?”

“Because only love can conquer hate!” Rose sighs. Although Adrien’s only half-listening to the lesson, his brain demonstrates its useful skill from years of home-schooling by still absorbing what’s being said while his focus remains on the terrifying project in front of him: a love letter. More specifically, a love poem. For Marinette.

Wait, what is he even thinking? This is a terrible idea! He’s going to utterly fail, and Marinette’s going to hate it, and their friendship will be over with a capital O, and they’ll never run away to an island far away from everything and live off nothing but fruit and get married and have two kids – or maybe three, depending on what Marinette wants – and a little pet hamster –

“Adrien, I hope what you’re writing has to do with my lesson.” Ms Bustier’s voice jolts him out of his panicked daze. “Can you tell me what I just said?”

“That's why in most fairy tales, the prince breaks the spell by kissing the princess because only love conquers hate,” Adrien rattles off automatically.

“Very good!” Ms Bustier says just as the bell rings. The students immediately start packing up, so she calls out their homework for the night before they can start swarming to leave. “And Happy Valentine’s Day, everybody!”

Adrien fumbles to pull a small box out of his pocket with trembling fingers as he, Marinette, Nino, and Alya emerge into the crowded courtyard. This is it. Even if he can’t go through with the poem, he can do this, right? This doesn’t require words –

“You got this for moi, Adrikins?” Chloé snatches the box from him and gives an exaggerated gasp when she opens it to reveal a small golden ring with a ruby set in the centre. “Oh, you shouldn’t have! I love you too!”

“I didn’t –”

“I’m flattered!” Chloé slides the ring onto her finger and holds it up to show everyone who’s stopped to investigate the noise. “I’ll be expecting you to pick me up tonight, Adrikins! Mwah!” She gives him a wet kiss on the cheek and saunters off, while girls everywhere rush after her, some of them even crying.

“But that’s not…for you…” Adrien sighs and looks down.

“Uh, is that thievery?” Nino said. “Dude, I’m pretty sure she robbed you.”

“Oooh, who was it for?” Alya says, nudging Adrien. “Who’s the lucky lady who’s caught Adrien’s eye?” The smirk on her face strikes fear into Adrien’s very soul. There’s no way Alya doesn’t know who he’s crushing on. No way at all.

“Alya, leave him alone,” Marinette chastises half-heartedly.

“Hey, my dad got akumatised two days ago because Kim thought he could run faster than a panther,” Alya says. “It’s either this or I sulk and ruin everyone’s day.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Adrien mumbles. “She wouldn’t be my Valentine anyway.”

“That’s a load of rubbish, Adrien Agreste!” Marinette snaps with her hands on her hips. “You’re a total dork, and you’re cute, and you’re really sweet, and anyone would be lucky to have you!”

Blood rushes to Adrien’s cheeks at Marinette’s vehement defence of him, especially with her beautiful face set in a scowl like an avenging angel from above. “Um – manks, Thari – I mean…thanks, Marinette.”

“She’s right, you know,” says a voice from behind her. Marinette steps aside to let Kagami walk next to her as they descend the school steps. “You need to be surer in yourself, Adrien. If you’re uncertain in yourself, how do you expect anyone else to be certain in you?”

Adrien sighs. “Thanks, Kagami. But she’s way out of my league.”

“Of course she is, if you let brats like that steal right from the palm of your hand.” Kagami jabs her thumb over at Chloé, who’s showing off “her” ring to a crowd of envious girls. Sabrina, who’s passing by with Alix and Nathaniel, blinks at Chloé and jumps away on autopilot. Alix and Nathaniel immediately sling their arms around her comfortingly and escort her away.

Poor Sabrina. Untangling herself from Chloé is a daily struggle for her, especially since she can’t even look at Chloé without starting to panic, no doubt triggered by her ordeal with Antibug. Her new style, divorced from her old one while still retaining her nerdy nature, is just one way she’s working on that, such as the white blouse and lilac cardigan she’s wearing with her royal blue plaid skirt today. The only reason she hasn’t moved to another class is because Alix and Nathaniel are the only people who seem to be willing to befriend Chloé’s Best Friend; even the other classes are well aware of Chloé Bourgeois and her reign of terror.

Adrien shakes himself out of his thoughts for the second time that day as they draw level with his car, where his bodyguard holds the back door open for him.

“Bye, dude,” Nino says, holding his hand out for a fist bump. Adrien bumps it and gets into his car, then rolls down his window to wave at his friends until his bodyguard drives off.

“So, Mari, who’s your friend?” Alya says with a nod at Kagami, trying to act like she’s never seen the girl before in her life. Even though she technically has. But no one’s supposed to know that she’s Reine Nuit. And Kagami’s wearing a different outfit to the fencing uniform she’d worn the first time Alya had seen her: a red sweater over a white collared button-up, both elbow-length, tucked into a black skirt, with black tights and red sneakers.

“Oh!” Marinette facepalms. “Alya, Nino, this is Kagami. We met her when she showed up to the fencing tryouts.”

“And got akumatised,” Kagami mutters.

“No sweat, dude,” Nino says. “I got akumatised too ‘cause Adrien’s dad wouldn’t let me throw him a party. It’s that dick Hawkmoth’s fault, not yours.”

Kagami frowns at Nino, as though she’s studying him in a new light.

“This is my best friend Alya,” Marinette says, gesturing to Alya. “And this is Adrien’s best friend Nino. Not that he’s not our friend, of course!”

“Operation Valentine’s Day is commencing!” Max announces from nearby. Alya, Marinette, Nino, and Kagami slow their pace to listen in. “According to my extensive research and cross-referencing of online shopping sites, this particular jewel –” He produces a heart-shaped box from behind his back and offers it to Kim, who opens it, “– was ranked highest in popularity.”

“That's perfect, Max!” Kim says. “I better hit a home run with this one. Love is like baseball, right? You gotta have a strategy or you'll strike out. But if you aim right, you'll hit it out of the ball park. Score!”

Alya lights up at this major crush scoop, and she drags Marinette over to the boys. Nino and Kagami exchange glances and follow them.

“Oh, yes, Kim, lovely metaphor,” Max says absently.

“Meta-who?” Kim says, looking inside the box again.

“Ooh, sparkly!” Alya pulls Kim’s hands down to see what’s inside the box, and she catches a glimpse of a golden heart-shaped brooch inlaid with sapphires. “Is that for moi? You know, to make up for getting my dad akumatised?”

“Negative, Alya,” Max says. “The recipient of this gem has already been determined. It’s –”

Kim grabs Max around the neck and slaps a palm over his mouth. “Shh!” the jock hisses. “Keep it on the down-low!”

“Omg! Kim’s got a major crush!” Alya giggles, giddy with Valentine’s-Day-by-proxy fever. Well, at least she seems to have moved past the Animan incident, if she’s not wanting to strangle Kim now. “Who’s the lucky lady?”

“I don’t think that’s exactly appropriate to ask if he’s said he doesn’t want to disclose that information,” Kagami says. Kim shoots her a grateful look.

“Fine, fine,” Alya says. “I won’t pry.”

“It’s awesome, dude!” Nino says. “She’s gonna love it.”

“Technically, she's still gotta accept it,” Kim says, scratching the back of his head. His eyes widen. “What if she says no?”

“She won’t, Kim!” Marinette says, pumping her fist. “Don’t hold back! Go for it! No regrets!”

Kim grins and high-fives Max. “Operation Valentine’s Day is underway!” He starts jogging on the spot, while Max pulls out a map of the area.

“Her route is highlighted here in yellow, yours in red,” Max recites. “If you run at ten miles per hour, you're going to gain a four-and-a-half-minute advance on her. Halt and wait here facing northwest – the third most romantic spot in Paris.”

Alya and Marinette grin and shoot Kim encouraging thumbs-up.

“Go on, dude!” Nino says. “Knock her over!”

“Thanks, guys!” Kim says before sprinting away.

“Come on!” Alya says to Kagami and Nino. “I bet we can get Marinette’s papa to sneak us some of their Valentine’s Day treats!”

“I don’t know…” Kagami says. “I should have called my driver minutes ago.”

“Dude, Adrien’s getting pushed around by his schedule enough,” Nino says. “Fight the system!”

Alya and Marinette raise their eyebrows at him. Kagami takes a deep breath, then types a message on her phone.

“I told my driver to wait an hour before picking me up, so that I can spend time with Adrien and develop our friendship. My mother will be displeased, but I’ll offer her extra training to compensate for this. I just hope she doesn’t realise that I’m lying.”

“Hey, rich kids gotta stick together, right?” Alya teases. Kagami, who looks a little pale, just raises an eyebrow at her.

“Yay!” Marinette hugs Kagami. “Come on! If we hurry, we’ll make it before Papa sells all the treats!”

As they’re sprinting down a street and weaving between shoppers, Marinette crashes into someone and shrieks as they both lose their balance. Acting on superhero reflexes, Alya grabs Marinette and keeps her on her feet, while Kagami catches the other person.

“Adrien?” she says as the person groans. “What are you doing? Shouldn’t you be at home?”

“I –” Adrien stuffs something into his bag and grins sheepishly. “Nothing! I just…wanted to get out of the car…”

“You’re a horrible liar, Agreste,” Kagami says. “Although at least I’m technically not lying now.”

Just then, everyone’s phones except for Kagami’s buzz, and Alya gasps when she’s fished hers out and sees what Chloé’s sent them.

“That witch!” she hisses, angling her phone so that Kagami can see the picture of Kim kneeling and covered in trash.

“Nothing I say is even doing anything!” Adrien’s shoulders slump. “I thought she really valued our friendship enough to want to become a better person. Maybe if I give a little and talk to her to nudge her –”

“Nope,” Alya says immediately. “That’s what she wants. You give her an inch, she’ll take a mile.”

“It’s not your responsibility to make her change, dude,” Nino agrees.

“Some people just won’t change,” Kagami says. “You just need to –” Her eyes widen. “Look out!”

Alya has just enough time to register the winged red and black figure behind Adrien before they’re nocking an arrow to their bow and shooting straight at Marinette. Before a wide-eyed Marinette can so much as blink in reaction, Adrien’s throwing himself in front of her with his arms out, taking the arrow straight to his chest.

“Adrien!” Marinette gasps as he doubles over, while the arrow dissolves. “Oh my gosh, are you okay? What did he do to you?”

“I – I –” Adrien straightens up and rips himself free of Marinette’s grasp. His lips, curved in a snarl, are now pitch black. “I loathe you, Marinette! Everyone thinks you’re such a perfect princess!” He grins cruelly at Kagami. “We both know I won that point, Kagami. Marinette’s just too sickeningly soft to stand by her judgement. Always afraid to hurt other people like the disgusting angel she is!”

“Come on, dude!” Nino grabs Marinette’s arm and drags her out of the way of another arrow. “We gotta get out of here!”

“But what about Adrien?” Marinette protests. Kagami and Alya grab her other arm.

“Nothing we can do for him right now,” Alya says. “We just gotta wait for Ladybug and Reine Nuit to show up!”

Her words seem to pierce through Marinette’s daze like one of the akuma’s arrows, because Marinette shakes her head and flees the scene with her friends, ducking and darting around the screaming passers-by. A good distance away, Alya ‘accidentally’ loses her grip on Marinette and lets herself get sucked into the crowd, pretending she doesn’t hear her friends’ cries. Once she’s able to extract herself from the panicking people, she darts down an alleyway and cries, “Plagg, claws out!”

As Reine Nuit, she leaps out and elbows her way through the crowd back to where the akuma had been, but he’s nowhere in sight. Thankfully, an angel of an entirely different kind lands next to her and says, “It’s Kim! Hawkmoth must have gotten him after Chloé did that.”

“I wish I could slap her and get away with it,” Reine Nuit huffs, crossing her arms.

“Ladybug! Reine Nuit!” Nino skids to a halt, with Kagami following at a more dignified pace. “Marinette and Alya! We lost ‘em – they could be –”

“Marinette’s safe,” Ladybug says quickly. “I got her out of here. She told me that it’s Kim and the akuma has to be in the pin she saw – the one he wanted to give to Chloé.”

Of course! “Alya’s safe too,” Reine Nuit says. “Pulled her out of the way just in time. You guys need to get somewhere safe. Angel bug and I have to…” She shudders. “Protect Chloé.”

“That’s the spirit!” Ladybug says cheerfully with a wide, plastic smile. “Let’s go!”

They bound towards Le Grand Paris, praying that they won’t be too late – although in Reine Nuit’s case at least, it’s more because it’ll be a pain to predict where he’s going once he’s got his revenge on Chloé. They arrive just in time; Chloé’s about to enter the hotel, and Kim is nearby with an arrow ready. Just as he’s about to shoot, Ladybug catches his wrist with her yo-yo and yanks his aim off.

“Ladybug!” he snarls, whirling to face them on their rooftop. Chloé screams and runs away down the street.

“Stop it, Kim!” Ladybug says.

“I’m not Kim! I’m Dark Cupid, and I’ll never stop! If I can’t have love, then no one can!”

“Okay, Dark Cupid, I get it.” Ladybug holds her hands up placatingly. “Chloé totally burned you. But that doesn't mean you have to take it out on all of Paris!”

“Oh, yes I do! I won't stop until everyone's heart is crushed. Say adios to your loved ones. From now on, you'll hate them!”

Dark Cupid shoots arrow after arrow at Ladybug and Reine Nuit, who use their yo-yo and staff to deflect them. But they can’t win like this; they’re on the defensive, and they can’t stay like this forever. All it’ll take is one arrow to slip through their guard.

It happens almost in slow motion. Just as Dark Cupid fires another arrow, Ladybug slips and loses her footing, throwing her yo-yo at a chimney to stop herself from falling off the roof. But this lets the arrow strike her directly in the centre of her back.

“Ladybug!” Reine Nuit dodges another arrow and throws herself down next to Ladybug, whose entire body is tense and trembling. “Are you okay?”

“Reine Nuit,” Ladybug gasps. She looks up, her lips now jet-black, and all the tension melts out of her body. “I hate you!”

“Hey, snap out of it!” Reine Nuit tries to shake her partner’s shoulders, but Ladybug slaps her across the face and then straddles her to keep her pinned. Reine Nuit struggles to stop her body from tingling and flushing. Okay, so she’s had fantasies of being pinned by Ladybug, but not like this.

“You’re the worst partner I could’ve asked for, ditzy kitty!” Ladybug snarls. “What good are you? What, you can pop a Cataclysm or two? I could’ve gotten by perfectly well without your little power!” She smirks. “But you can’t do a thing without my powers, can you? You’re useless!”

Sorry about this, Reine Nuit thinks. She forces her baton under Ladybug’s stomach, then extends it to send Ladybug flying along the rooftop. Before the brainwashed hero can recover, Reine Nuit leaps off the roof and takes off down the street, ducking for cover to try and throw Ladybug and Dark Cupid off her trail if they follow her. It’s not until she’s a few blocks away that she finally allows herself to sag against a brick wall, panting and trying to resist the urge to thump the back of her head on the wall repeatedly.

Great. Ladybug’s gone. And she’s the only one who can purify the akuma. What is Reine Nuit going to do? Ladybug had been right when she’d said that Reine Nuit is useless without her.

Snap out of it! Reine Nuit shakes her head. Save Ladybug now, mope later. She’s a hero. So, she has to act like one.

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talblack · 4 years

Text

accetta confrontation | discord

summary: talia, lydia, stiles, and kole go to the accetta house to attempt to put an end to their control over faye, but things take an unexpected turn.

tagging: @lydisms @call-me-stiles @kole-richards

trigger warnings: violence?? I guess??

“We’re all aware of this plan, right?” Lydia stated once the entire group had arrived outside the Accetta’s house. Truthfully there was a lot that could go wrong but everyone seemed willing to try and she had faith in those that were brought along. It was Kole’s sister so Lydia had to let him in on what they were going to do as soon as her and Talia thought of the idea. And then Lydia told Stiles because, well, it was Stiles and she told him everything. She knew they would both want to come. “They should be coming out soon to go for their nightly hunt.” She visibly rolled her eyes at the words. “We approach them and let them know that if they don’t leave town, they’re going to end up in jail for murder and kidnapping.” Lydia was going over the basics just in case. “I think it’s best if I talk first. Just talking, no fighting unless they start to attack us. We’re not here to kill anyone.” Lydia looked directly at Talia for that statement, knowing she was the one most likely to use her fists instead of her words. And Lydia had no problem leading the group for this mission. In fact she preferred it.

Stiles did not like this, at least he didn’t like that there were not more of them involved. He was acutely aware that Talia and Lydia could take care of themselves (mostly) and he had a gun along with a taser (high voltage) if needed. But he didn’t know Kole well and he barely knew Faye. Still, if Lydia was involved then he wanted to be. Making sure she was safe was the most important. “Yes. I have my badge and everything,” he said, a smirk on his lips. He didn’t know if that would work - he was only human, after all - and he was probably the weakest target. Still, the hunters were not after him. And that’s what scared him the most. “I think I’m voting you new pack leader. Or like...pack adjacent leader. You know?” Stiles was still making jokes even though this was all going on. “Everyone ready?”

Talia peeked out from behind the bush that they were all standing behind, trying her best to use her heightened senses to see if she could hear when they were going to leave. She still listened to Lydia, though, and visibly rolled her eyes at the no fighting comment. Obviously Lydia was directing that at her, which was fine. She'd try to listen, mostly because she really didn't want any of them to get hurt. She didn't care so much about herself. But after her interaction with the clan of hunters when she was with Faye, she knew they were gonna have to be very careful. "I think me and Kole should stand on the outside of you guys, just in case." She glanced at the other boy as she said that before looking back at the house and chuckling softly at Stiles' words. "Agreed, and no killing anyone. Unless they try to kill me first." She teased as she smirked softly at Lydia, but then she heard a door open and perked up as she looked at the house again and a group of about four of them walked out. She recognized one of them from when she and Faye came, Angelo she remembered. "Ready."

"Yeah, we can do that," Kole told her, nodding his head. He was nervous. He didn't think that was unreasonable considering what was happening. It wasn't like he had any experience when it came to this sort of thing. But this was for Faye - she was number one to him and always would be - and that was why he had to do this. It was good that he was with people who were also just as concerned as him. That way he knew that they wouldn't give up when things got hard. He wasn't sure how hard they would be but...he would face it with bravery. Because he wanted Faye to know that he was brave now - and it was due to her. "Yeah, I don't think I'll have a problem with the no killing thing..." Kole would so not be on board a murder train. He liked to try and work things out as peacefully as possible. "Yup. Ready as I'll ever be."

Lydia rolled her eyes playfully at the leader comment. She had no problem being that for everyone considering how tangible nerves seemed to be. She was also nervous but more so for Stiles and the others than herself. Especially because Kole also had never done this sort of thing. She had faith in him but knew it could be overwhelming for sure. “We’ve got this.” Lydia encouraged when she heard voices coming from the front of the house. Sure enough a group of them had come outside- definitely their leader, which is all they needed to talk to anyway. Lydia looked at everyone and nodded her head before walking straight up to Angelo. She showed no signs of fear or uncertainty, her head held high and her arms crossed over her chest. Immediately weapons were drawn and aimed at them but Lydia did not waver. “It’s the banshee, boss. The one you want us to kill. Faye’s brother and another werewolf too. I don’t know what that one is.” One of them nodded towards Stiles and another spoke up. “Human.” He answered. Lydia was slightly surprised at how much they already knew about them but her face showed no sign of that. She especially didn’t show fear over the fact that they mentioned being told to kill her. “We just want to talk.” Lydia said calmly. “Perhaps encourage you to leave town. I assume none of you want to go to jail for murder and kidnapping, right? Because we can very easily make that happen if you stay here.” She nodded in the direction of Stiles, knowing it was time to show the badge to prove they weren’t just talk.

Stiles rolled his eyes at the human comment. Couldn’t they just let him pretend he wasn’t the most vulnerable of the bunch. He wanted to make some sarcastic remark but he held it in to slow Lydia to talk. He was doing his best not to say something to make them even angrier. Even though he didn’t appreciate all the weapons pulled on them. Talia and Kole could heal. Unfortunately, Lydia and he did not come with those abilities. “Hello...Officer Stilinski with Beacon Hills Sheriff’s Department,” he said, taking his badge out to show them. “I haven’t filed for a formal investigation but all I have to do is call my boss. Pretty sure some big guys will be very interested in solving a nine year old cold case.” It dawned on Stiles that sooner rather than later he would be one of those said big guys who would be working specifically with supernaturals.

Talia resisted the urge to hold her hands at at the sight of crossbows and guns aimed directly at the four of them. She made sure to stand fairly close to Stiles and Lydia though, since she wanted to be able to throw herself in front of them if the Accetta's decided to start shooting. She'd heal from an arrow, but she knew that the other two wouldn't. She glanced at Stiles as he pulled out his badge, hoping that this would go smoothly and that the group of hunters would budge, but it was clear on the look on their faces that they weren't that phased. "With what proof?" Angelo scoffed as he raised his eyebrows at them and glanced over to Kole, then smirked. "I doubt that your little sister would ever speak against us. There isn't even any proof of her existence anymore. We have her birth certificate, and we can easily destroy it." At his words, Talia could feel her temper flaring but forced herself not to visibly get angry as she glanced at Kole, hoping he was able to do the same. She knew he wasn't the best with his control and the last thing they needed was for him to lose it on this guy. As much as Talia wanted to rip Angelo's throat out herself. "Although, we might be willing to work something out with you all. But not without a price." Angelo smirked, and Talia rolled her eyes, not able to help herself from snapping back at him. "Like what? Polishing your guns?"

This made Kole uneasy. He looked between the other three and followed in Talia's lead. He got closer to Lydia and Stiles, making sure to keep his eyes out in case something was to happen. All the weapons pointed at him was causing his wolf to be irritated and he was doing his very best to keep it all under control. He felt trapped - something he had felt before, but never to this level. He watched as Stiles held his badge out and stifled a growl at the leader of the Accetta's. Kole wanted to tell them that she was his twin, not his little sister. He wanted to tell them that he had her social security card. He wanted to tell them that he had other types of proof still but he didn't. He kept his mouth shut because if he didn't, he knew that he would probably let his temper get out of control. He looked between the others once more, wondering what the price was and trying hard not to shout out that he would do whatever it took. He wanted them gone and he wanted his sister back.

Lydia visibly rolled her eyes when they mentioned working out some sort of deal. She just couldn’t stop herself from expressing annoyance. Lydia also wasn’t going to back down and cave so easily. “I don’t negotiate with murderers. Specifically poorly dressed ones.” She retorted back. Her obvious attitude only seemed to make them angrier but Lydia couldn’t care less. She would not show any sign of weakness. “Besides, do we even need solid proof? We have the whole police station on our side here. I promise you can we easily make this happen. Not to mention it’s only a matter of time before you hunt again and I’ll make damn sure we catch you in the middle of it. You’re cornered. Everywhere you go you’ll have a cop on you. So either you leave now, without Faye, never to return to Beacon Hills again. Or you can take your chances. But I wouldn’t bet against me, or us. I don’t like to lose.” Lydia shrugged her shoulders. She was being tough but they clearly weren’t convinced either which infuriated Lydia. She wasn’t lying when she said she didn’t like to lose. “You supernaturals disgust me. I don’t know how you stand them. Your life would be so much better without them.” Angelo said directly to Stiles and Lydia had to bite her tongue. “Clearly you’ve all managed to manipulate him into thinking you’re good people. So we’ll leave, but all we’re asking for first is for you to show him the monsters you really are before we go. It’s simple. You just have to kill someone. Each of you, in front of the human. And maybe in front of Faye too so she can decide for herself. I guarantee she’d get the hell out of here with us too after seeing the beasts you can be, and perhaps we can convince the human as well.” Lydia watched as Angelo smirked like this was some sort of game that he was enjoying.

Stiles was visibly proud of his girlfriend. She looked like a total badass - and he knew she was one. He immediately thought of working with her when he was in the FBI and damn was that the best thought. But he had to focus. This was too important to mess up. If he could bring down this group - or even just run them out of town - it would make for one hell of a report when he went in for training. The very fact that he would get to be involved in the new supernatural task force was game changing. One thing he got from all of this was that he was going to be taken more seriously very soon. "Honestly, my life is none of your concern. Thanks for worrying about me, though. It's just so touching," he told the leader, disgust rolling off his tongue. Stiles glared at the man when he told them what they had to do. Hilarious - honestly - to think that them killing someone would disgust him. Sure, it was frowned upon, and killing an innocent was definitely off the table. But, the thing was, Stiles had killed someone. None of them were innocent. He didn't know too much about Kole but he was a wolf and sometimes accidents happened. "Sorry, but that's not happening. Guess we're just going to have to do it our way. Bummer."

Talia was trying to reign in her anger and bite her tongue the entire conversation, since she knew that she was the type to say something that would result in them shooting either Stiles or Lydia, but as they continued she could barely hold herself back. She was trying her best to breathe and stay quiet, but hearing Angelo talk about them like they were animals was honestly infuriating, and it exactly was why she hated hunters and their oh so mighty ideals. They didn't even care that she had a life, and family, like any other human would. And she was sure that her blue eyes definitely didn't add to them wanting to see the good in her. She was really hoping that Lydia would be able to make a deal with them, but then Angelo was talking about them going to kill someone and she rolled her eyes and clenched her fists to her side. "Faye is never going back with any of you. We'll make sure of that." She said lowly, and then Stiles as retorting back and before she knew it Angelo laughed to himself as he aimed his gun right at Stiles' head, and Talia didn't waste any time in shoving in front of him to grab it, and she broke Angelo's wrist in the process. He yelled in pain and dropped the gun onto the ground, then turned around and glared at the others. "I guess you'll just have to learn the hard way, then." He directed at Stiles and Lydia as one of the other hunters moved towards Kole.

Kole knew better than to let his wolf out yet due to the fact that he didn't want to be seen as a monster. Sure, he was a born wolf, but that didn't mean he was a beast. These hunters - they were the real beasts - and he couldn't imagine his poor sister having to be raised by them. They kidnapped her and brainwashed her. He wanted to laugh at Stiles comment - there was no way anyone was going to turn that guy on supernaturals considering he was part of the pack. The fact was, though, both Stiles and Talia's comments pissed off the hunters. Before he knew it, Stiles had a gun to his head, and Kole was about to jump in the way but Talia was already on it. She was so good at this and he vowed to get just as good as her. No matter how many training sessions he had to go to, he would be prepared to go in and fight. Hunters were heading his way and Kole growled at them. He didn't let his wolf out yet but he went into fight or flight mode - and fight mode was winning. He easily dodged one hunter and then grabbed the others hand before he could fire his weapon. Kole's years of being a star athlete had given him the agility to outmaneuver these guys. And he was putting up a decent fight as well.

It was a good thing Talia had stopped Angelo when he put the gun in front of Stiles because Lydia’s first instinct was to do the same, completely disregarding the fact that she didn’t heal. And it looked like a fight was about to go down so her instinct was still to make sure they didn’t hurt Stiles. While Lydia didn’t want to have to fight, that didn’t mean she couldn’t. As one of the hunters moved towards both her and Stiles, Lydia went to scream to keep him away but another one grabbed her by the throat so she couldn’t. Lydia struggled to breathe but eventually kneed him in the groin, causing the hunter to fall to the floor. Her throat was sore enough though to the point where she couldn’t scream and she’d have to rely on combat- which Lydia wasn’t bad at but she was without a doubt the smallest person there. She punched another hunter who was coming towards her and Stiles square in the jaw and he fell to the ground as well. But the other hunters must have heard the commotion and soon enough the rest of the Accetta’s were rushing out and there were just too many of them. Lydia made another attempt to scream but the one who grabbed her throat earlier had been far too rough and she still couldn’t do it. She did everything in her power to keep fighting them off and was doing a decent job holding her ground but they were outnumbered and eventually Lydia didn’t see one coming up behind her, who ended up hitting her in the head as she knocked out and fell to the ground.

Stiles had training from his brief stint at the FBI and he was using it to the best of his abilities. He was moving to pull the guy off of Lydia but she managed to knee him so he focused on another, one who was trying to take him out. Stiles punched him and then reached for his gun but another guy caught him off guard. He looked back at Lydia to make sure she was okay before turning back to the other hunters who were coming his way. Stiles kicked one guy before reaching for his gun once again. He took it out and aimed it at a guy who was rushing his way. Stiles fired it and shot the guy in the leg. The guy fell to the ground but tried getting back up. Stiles turned and watched as Lydia was hit in the head and fell to the ground. His instinct was to rush to her - and he did but with his gun still out. "Don't fucking touch her!" he yelled as more hunters headed their way.

Talia was focussing her attention on Angelo, since it was the easiest to take her anger out on him after what he'd done to her and Faye. She tried to put him in a headlock and throw him onto a ground, but she got distracted as she turned to see one of them knocking Lydia out. It wasn't like Talia to freeze up in a fight like this, but she couldn't help it as her mind tried to race with what to do. Stiles seemed to be out of commission with making sure that Lydia was okay, and she wasn't sure if Kole would be able to hold himself if more of the hunters came out. While she was trying to come up with a solution, she felt a knife go into her side and gasped as she let go of Angelo, realizing he'd just stabbed her. Then he pulled something out of his pocket and she barely had any time to try and throw a punch before suddenly he was blowing powder into her face, and her eyes rolled back as she fell onto the ground and tried to stay awake. Out of the corner of her eye she watched Angelo walk towards Kole with more of the powder, but she couldn't stop him as she passed out.

Kole was trying to do the best that he could. It wasn't easy, of course, but with his agility and ability to get out of situations, he made it work. Kole turned to look when he heard Stiles screaming. He had to get them out of here. He needed to fight harder so he could somehow get Lydia and Stiles out of this situation. It was the only thing that made sense right now. He pushed one guy off - getting even angrier than before - and knocked another one down. He never noticed the leader coming towards him with the wolfsbane - hell, he didn't really understand the stuff, never encountering it before except when his dad told him it was bad - and when the guy blew the powder in his face, he was down. His brain barely registered Talia before his eyelids slid shut.

Now that the hunters were able to have leverage over Stiles, they knew the rest would be easy. It was very clear that the redhead was most important to him, so Angelo smirked as he stood over Lydia. “Come inside with us or she dies.” He kicked Lydia so that her unconscious body just rolled over. “They all die.” He added, nodding to the two werewolves on the ground as well. They all had guns at this point as they forced Stiles inside with the bodies of the other three. Angelo led him to the basement and the other hunters didn’t even bother going down the full steps as they went halfway and then tossed Lydia, Talia, and Kole down like they were garbage. They set up the basement with mountain ash and laughed. “When the werewolves wake up they’re going to kill you and your pretty little redhead. You can leave but she can’t. We won’t stop you if you want to go and break the seal, but you leave the redhead here. And if the werewolves don’t destroy her, they’ll go out and find someone else to kill in town. It’s what they do.”

Stiles swallowed as the guy kicked Lydia. He wanted to destroy them all but he couldn't. He was outnumbered and with Talia and Kole down, he didn't stand a chance. He was forced inside and he had to go down to the basement. Bile rose in his throat upon hearing the three bodies hit the ground. That was his girlfriend - the love of his life - and they had tossed her like she meant nothing. Sure, he felt bad for Talia and Kole but they could heal. Lydia couldn't. "You think they are all monsters but you are the real monster. You kill senselessly. I know a werewolf whose eyes have never turned blue. And they won't. These two will wake up and they won't harm me. But they'll come for you. They'll come." Angelo just smirked before shutting the basement door. Stiles was now in a room with three people who were unconscious. He moved to Lydia and put her head on his lap. "Babe...wake up. Come on..." he pleaded, his hand checking her pulse. He was so concerned with Lydia that he didn't notice movement.

Talia groaned softly as she felt herself hit the floor hard, and her head was pounding from it as she blinked and slowly opened her eyes. As she lifted herself up, she immediately could tell something was wrong when she realized her claws were out, and suddenly she recognized the feeling. This was the same wolfsbane they'd given her when she was with Faye. The same one that made her lose control of herself. It was a terrifying feeling, especially since she had full control of her wolf normally. When she looked up and noticed Stiles was sitting there, with an unconscious Lydia on his lap. Her eyes widened as she tried to focus on slowing her heartbeat down, but she knew she wouldn't have long before she fully lost herself. "Stiles, y-you need to get her out of here. Both of you need to get out of here." She tried to plead with him, before glancing at Kole and realizing they also probably threw the same wolfsbane in his face. Her eyes lit up bright blue and she closed them tightly and took a shaky breath. This somehow felt ten times stronger than the last time, and all she could think about was giving in to it and tearing the both of them to shreds.

Kole moaned. He felt like he had gotten hit with an 18 wheeler. His head was throbbing and he could definitely use his healing powers about now. Something felt weird. He felt so unusual and he didn't know how to deal with it. Suddenly it was as if he had drank an energy drink. His heart was beating so fast. His eyes opened and he saw Talia. "What's wrong with me?" he asked her. He wanted to change. He wanted to kill? No. No, he's never wanted to before. Why now? "Why?" he asked, his body suddenly humming. He couldn't change. Not here. He looked over and saw Stiles and Lydia - the former still unconscious - and he panicked. He didn't have good control on a normal day but right now he was feeling a bit out of control. "I can't....how do I stop...."

Lydia’s eyes opened slowly and she felt an overwhelming pain throughout her entire body. She groaned, suddenly realizing her head was in Stiles’ lap. Thank God he didn’t seem to be seriously injured. It was the first thing Lydia thought- and cared- about. It took her another few seconds to become aware of her surroundings. She noticed the mountain ash on the floor, then Kole and Talia looking like they were struggling with control. Lydia was smart enough to be able to piece together exactly what the Accetta’s had done to them. She wanted to tell Stiles to just leave but knew it would be a waste since he never would. The strawberry blonde tried to get up but every part of her hurt as she let out a yelp at the sudden shooting pain. She was breathing heavier, trying not to panic about how she could hardly move and the situation in general. Lydia knew she had to at least sit upright so she could look at her friends and do something to help. It took every ounce of strength she had in her to get herself sitting up again, doing her very best not to show any sign of the pure agony of pain her body was in while she moved. But she managed eventually, slightly leaning on Stiles for support. “Tal.. Kole..” Lydia mumbled. “Look at me, you guys are not going to hurt us. I know you would never. You’re stronger than this.” Lydia had to concentrate but it was increasingly difficult due to her current state. “Think about Faye, alright?” Lydia was talking to Kole at first but then realized it might work for Talia too. “Just focus on her and try to calm yourself down..” Eventually Lydia just could hardly speak anymore as she leaned her head on Stiles’ shoulder for a moment, having faith he could take over.

"I can't, Talia....Mountain Ash. She can't cross and I'm not leaving her," Stiles told her, knowing Talia would not ask him to. No one would. They would be completely stupid to ever think that Stiles would leave her. He looked down at his lap when he heard Lydia. He tried to help Lydia because even though he didn't want her to get up she would still try. He wrapped his arm around her to better support her. Stiles listened and when he heard the words (not even bothering to look at the other two before, Lydia was his main concern) he realized the exact situation. When Lydia stopped talking and leaned her head on him, he knew it was his turn to take over. "Umm...yeah, Kole...think about your sister. She's going to need you. You can't lose control, okay?" He had no idea that Talia had a crush on that girl but if Lydia was doing it to both of them, he figured Talia had another friend in her. "T...it's me. Stiles. I'm not mad at you anymore, okay? So you need to control yourself...you don't want to hurt Lydia. Both of you need to think about calming yourselves down...okay? Think about...floating...." Stiles tried to think about what he did to calm himself down when he had a panic attack. "Count to ten with me...and breathe...one..." Stiles hoped this was going to work because he needed to keep Lydia safe and he didn't think he would be able to use his taser on the wolves. His gun would be even less help.

Talia glanced to Kole and frowned softly, wishing she was able to help him somehow. But unfortunately she was battling the same issue, and she could tell that she wasn't going to be able to control this. And for her, if she fully shifted right now she wasn't really sure if she'd be able to get herself to shift back anytime soon. A bone in her arm snapped from trying to resist the full shift and she yelped as she took quick breaths and desperately fought to calm herself down. But she could feel herself getting angry at every little thing, and the stress of the situation was not helping. Her eyes continued to glow as she glared at Stiles and glared at the mountain ash barrier. She assumed he didn't want to break it because then Talia and Kole would get out and potentially hurt someone else, but in that moment she didn't care. The most important thing was that she wasn't locked in there with her friends, because she could tell she had absolutely no control over whether or not she got herself to calm down. "Then break the stupid barrier and let us out!" She shouted, letting out a low growl as she dug her claws into her palms and winced loudly. She heard him call her T and that grounded her for a couple of seconds as she panted and shook her head. It was rare for her to be scared, but in that moment she was terrified. "Stiles, I can't control it. I can't stop it, and it's going to happen. So you need to let me out." Honestly she just wanted to go upstairs and kill every single one of the Accetta's, but she was just mostly focused on getting out. Her shoulder snapped and she yelled as she forced herself to resist it for just a little longer. "Think about it. You let me out, I take them all out and you guys can leave." Sure that plan didn't involve them making sure that Talia ended up being okay, or didn't go out and kill someone else, but to her it was better than her killing all of her friends. "T-Then you can take out Kole and you guys will be okay. Please."

Kole still did not know what was going on. He tired to listen to Lydia and then to Stiles. He tried focusing on his sister - he tired to think about getting to her - but then his mind would just move to something else. And that something else was what these hunters had done to his sister for so long. He was breaking bones right along with Talia but his hold wasn't as good as the other wolf's. "Please.... I don't want to hurt you. I don't want to hurt anyone....but I can't. I'm not good with control." He was better than he was in the past but right now was not the time to test just how much better. His eyes flashed gold and he tried to control the transformation but it was getting to be too much. If they waited much longer then he would completely turn. "Please...Stiles....Lydia, tell Stiles to break it. Please...." He didn't even know what it was that needed to be broken but if Talia said it needed to be done, then he was going to listen to her.

Lydia was struggling to stay awake the entire time her head was on Stiles’ shoulder. She was floating in and out of consciousness, desperately trying to stay up and alert. But the more Lydia heard the more she was starting to realize they weren’t going to snap out of it. Lydia knew her scream could do help- she’d done it before- but her throat could barely open and she was already in so much pain. This would cause a lot more but Lydia couldn’t stand to hear her friends pleading much longer. It needed to be done no matter what the cost. “Stiles..” Lydia mumbled, picking her head up to look at him. “It should work. Break the mountain ash after and make sure Kole and Tal are okay before anything else.” Lydia instructed. She knew she really wasn’t making much sense but it would in a moment. Taking a deep breath, Lydia forced herself up off the ground. Every part of her was aching but she found some sort of strength deep within her, enough to get her to push past all of the pain and scream in their directions. Lydia couldn’t do both names at the same time so she settled for a general screaming, careful not to hurt Stiles in the process. She moved the sound waves in the direction of Kole and Talia to snap them out of it, and also for good measure threw some in the direction of one of the hunters to knock him into a wall. She screamed until she had literally nothing left from her voice, and just prayed it was enough to work because eventually the pain Lydia had pushed through overcame her. She quickly passed back out afterwards from the pain, hitting the ground once again.

Stiles didn't know what to do. He wanted to get break the barrier because he needed to get Lydia safe. He also needed the wolves to get away from them so they could be safe. She could tell him to make sure the other two were safe first but that wasn't going to happen. They could heal. Lydia couldn't. She had already died so many times and he couldn't handle it if she died again. He would lose his freaking mind - literally - and there would be hell to pay. If she died he wouldn't care what happened to him. Nothing would matter. When she started to get up, Stiles moved across the room. He watched as she screamed - knowing it was going to take everything out of her - but used the distraction to break the barrier. Now he could get her out safely. As she hit the floor, Stiles ran to her and picked her up bridal style. It felt so similar to the time he got her away from the Dread Doctors. He would always come for her. He would always protect her. If she thought he would leave her behind then she had another thing coming. He was known for being selfish and this was him living up to that image. "Talia...Kole...run!"

Talia's eyebrows furrowed when she realized what Lydia was about to do, but she knew ultimately that she needed to let it happen. So she simply braced herself as she closed her eyes tightly and let the sound waves hit her. It was enough to make her stumble back, and for a moment the feeling of losing control stopped. The distraction was enough time for Stiles to scoop Lydia up and break the barrier, but within a few seconds Talia ultimately knew that she needed to shift still. Her mind went back to what Lydia said to them, and she honestly just wanted to go to the preserve. She didn't know when she'd be able to shift back, but she knew it'd be okay. But now the barrier was broken, so she just took a deep breath as she glanced at Kole, her claws shifting out again as her eyes lit up. "Just stay in the woods. If you keep running, there's a broken down house there that you can hide out in until this wears off." Hopefully he'd be able to find the Hale House on his own, since she wasn't sure she'd be eager to let him follow her once she let her wolf take over. Once she was sure Stiles made it out with Lydia, she let herself fully shift and ran out of the house on all fours and towards the preserve.

Suddenly Kole was overwhelmed by the yelling. He wanted to close his ears, he wanted to cry, but he followed what Talia did. It was insane how she wasn't much older than he was but he looked up to her like an older sibling. He braced himself but the sound was intense and he did fall back for a second. He was calmed for a moment but he knew it would pass quickly. "Okay," he told her, not sure if he could do it but trying to put all his faith into himself. He had to do this for Faye. He had to be brave for her and get out so that she wouldn't have to go back to the hunters. He waited like Talia did for Sitles to get Lydia out. Then he shifted into a full wolf and ran up the stairs of the basement and straight towards where he knew the woods were. He had to find the house and that's all that was on his mind as he tried to not let his wolf take over his thoughts.

#discord #lydia #stiles #kole

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dolansmith · 5 years

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Thoughts on the “Trisha Drama”

I’m going to preface this with my previous thoughts of both sides. I didn’t know who Trisha was until after I found out about the vlog squad about a year ago. I didn’t mind her, i thought she brought out an interesting perspective to the group. Then I thought she was literally off her rocker.

I loved the vlog squad bc I found them in a really difficult time in my life and they kept me from getting too deep into a depression. While I saw some of their mistakes, I saw the best in them all and hoped for change or at least some kind of accountability.

This is gonna be really long and idk if anyone is even gonna read this/care lol but Im just so frustrated with a lot of the people that are into the vs. Like after really looking into everything that happened, I felt kind of ashamed to be backing the vs bc they’re doing some fucked up stuff tbh.

So lets do a basic rundown of mistakes made.

Mistakes in their public relationship: -Trisha: made sexual jokes about jason’s friends, started arguments about her insecurities instead of starting a conversation. -Jason: made sexual jokes about girl’s a decade younger than trisha (and 2 and a half decades younger than him), would complain about having to go do things trisha liked doing and would pout the whole time (i.e. disneyland and a couple of the hamilton viewings), would egg on trishas insecurities, literally dumped her on a daily basis and call her crazy when she voiced said insecurities and then would basically get back together within an hour and practically give everyone whiplash, also talked about her weight and eating habits CONSTANTLY (fucking dick) -David: inputted himself in their relationship, recorded their fights and encouraged their toxic behavior to both his friends and his audience

Mistakes in the “official” breakup: -Trisha: talking about jason’s ex and kids, comparing david to ted bundy (a lil wild but tbh not that big of a deal bc no one actually believed thats what she meant but anyway), the brandon thing (we’ll come back to this) -Jason: continuing to make jokes about fucking a 19/20 year old despite his gf saying she didn’t like it, not putting an end to David “pressuring him” to making said jokes, the brandon thing -David: ignoring his “friend” when she said not to put something in his vlog, putting his image and career first

Mistakes after: -Trisha: constantly going on rants about david and Jason. -Jason: staying in contact with trisha secretly. (ill get back to this too) -David: putting his image above all else.

Now we’re going to get into some uncomfortable hot takes. I’m gonna get a whole lotta hate from stans but tbh idc anymore

The Brandon Thing (I’ve done some digging since her video exploding at Jeff):

-Brandon began a relationship with a high schooler. She was underage the first time they had sex. There’s receipts and timelines set up. I’d recommend Petty Paige’s Youtube video on it for specifics. -Lot’s of vs fans say she only brought it up when her and Jason ended so that meant she didn’t really care, but I’d like to point out that she has stated (on more than one occasion) that she voiced her thoughts on this multiple times to the group in Private and no one cared. Y’all are always going on about how she should say whatever she has to say in private but when she does and is ignored, what then? Just a thought. -Let’s also bring the rest of the vs up in this. How come none of them ever said anything? They’re the ones still out here tolerating him. Pretty hypocritical. I’m not gonna aim anything at the girls bc none of them have Brandon in their videos but the guys? Jeff, Jason, David, Todd and I think Scott too, have all had Brandon in at least one video. They’re out here talking shit about Trisha amongst each other but are friends with a predator? Lmao Okay, cool.

Jason Keeping in Contact for months:

-This was dumb. -As someone who has suffered from mental health issues and has been in a mental hospital and suffered from attachment AND abandonment issues, Trisha would’ve been better off had Jason ended things and kept them that way. Instead, he ended their public relationship and friendship. He kept her a secret from even his “friends” and then dragged on their “friendship” for months. For what? He should’ve just given her her things and closure and kept it pushing. -On that, why did he keep her belongings for so long and refuse to give it back until she said something public about it? He ignored her calls and texts about her very expensive things for weeks. Then she made a video calling him out on it, and she got her stuff back. -I’m seeing a pattern here, aren’t you?

The Jeff Thing (did some digging on him too...by digging i mean google):

-This one makes my blood boil for several reasons. ESPECIALLY AFTER TODAYS VIDEO. It rlly put everything into perspective omg. -The starbucks story that Trisha told was the same everywhere: ‘I saw Jeff at Starbucks and said hey. He ignored me and was such a pussy he left his order at the counter after having paid.’ His masculinity is SO FRAGILE that he twisted it into ‘I’m not gonna be fake with someone who fucked over my friend. Can’t fuck them up either tho lol’ and ‘i’m not gonna make shit easy on you, i’m gonna make them feel weird’. What a baby lmfao -His assault joke rubbed me the wrong way. I know Jeff’s schtick is the whole “I was in jail for a few months and I was a drug dealer I’m big and scary” blah blah blah. Listen, I’ve met men that have been in jail longer (he was in for only 4 months he once said I think) and had worse upbringings than he did and HAD to do some of the shit Jeff was doing (which lemme remind yall, was on his own accord). The men that I know that have lived similar and worse lifestyles than Jeff, would never and I REPEAT NEVER, make a joke about assaulting a Woman over “fucking my friend over”, when the situation was what it was. Which was: an exposé, basically. That’s some petty shit, it’s for the birds. (Also, Todd and Jay’s jokes about the assault joke? Ain’t it. They were just as bad as Jeff’s original joke.) -Do y’all know what Jeff’s been to jail for? He tried to assault someone that worked at a 7-Eleven after he and his dumbass friends were fucking around in the store and got yelled at and ended up assaulting a woman walking by. -He also talked about her mental health issues. Maybe he wasn’t talking about her specifically, but it was REAL specific. He said that it was crazy that a “psychopath” that’s been in a mental hospital still had a platform on youtube. That they shouldn’t have one. Trisha made a really good point of, “some could say the same about your time in jail.” Because they could. And mental health can be managed. So can your outrageous anger issues, Jeff. This was really ignorant on his part. -I also want to remind everyone about the time he said he didn’t understand how men could be sexually harassed. That all you had to do was say no. -He says he likes to “make things awkward” and make everything a joke when really he’s just being ignorant and doesn’t want to get real hate when he gets inevitably called out

Trisha’s “Dirt”:

-Trisha doesn’t know anything that the rest of us don’t. We’re just all IGNORING it. Why? Bc David’s charming and Todd and Jeff are pretty? Ridiculous. This is the last vlog squad post i’m going to make because I’m done. So the following is going to be a rundown on the “dirt” on them that made me come to the decision that I wouldn’t be supporting them anymore. I’ll also put my own thoughts and comments underneath in case y’all are curious. Staying silent about these situations is the same as complacency. -Brandon Calvillo: Covered this but to reiterate, he dated a high schooler and slept with her/dated her knowing her age. He then lied about it in a video to cover his tracks. *I am well aware that she was months from being 18. This doesn’t make it okay. What does a 26 year old have in common with a 17 year old? And just because this is the first girl we know about, doesn’t mean she’s the first at all or even the last. -Durte Dom: He was accused of assault at vidcon. *This hasn’t been confirmed. But it also hasn’t even been discussed. This girl is getting hate from vs stans and the vs have stayed silent. I can understand not wanting to show attention to people who make accusations for clout, but assault is serious and should at the Very Least be acknowledged privately or legally bc it could be considered slander. Don’t let your fans (or your friend’s fans) do your dirty work. -Jeff Wittek: He has major anger issues. Makes jokes about assaulting women after actually having assaulted one in the past (accidentally but doesnt take away from what he did) and has made jokes about sexual harassment against men not being viable *tbh he has a “pretty white boy complex”. Meaning he knows that he can say and do what he wants and most people will let it slide bc he’s a pretty white boy. No education needed. -Jason Nash: Is friend’s with a predator, is quite possibly setting an awful example to his kids, namely his daughter. *Listen. I’m a feminist, a woman should be able to decide what to do with her body after she turns 18. But being groomed and hit on by grown ass men when you’re barely legal, ain’t it. If you want to and feel ready, there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it BUT 9.9 times out of 10, that fucks a woman up in the future. One day, she is going to see her dad hitting on a 19/20 year old Tana and see that her dad’s 26 year old best friend dated a 17/18 year old and lied about specifics and might think that’s normal and how men should treat her. I won’t support that shit.

And as for all the other member’s of the vs, they either don’t care enough about what their friends or friends’ friends are doing, or they’re not bothering to even consider it’s happening and that isn’t cool either.

Be better.

As for Trisha, she’s had her own faults and fuckups, no doubt about it. I’m not a big fan of her content but i FELT for her. Her name has been dragged through the mud because of this more than anything else and it doesn’t sit right with me when her only real fuckup in THIS situation was bringing the ex and kids into it the way she did. Everything else either could have been avoided or she had a right to say to the public since they put everything about the relationship out in the open as much as she did. If Jason and David had reached out and admitted their own mistakes and asked her to stop talking about them online the way she was, she probably would’ve chilled out. What happened, what they and their fans (us) have done has been nothing short of traumatizing, no doubt. The way these 30 year old boys (Jeff, Todd, Scott and Jay) are reacting to her? They’re the real joke if we’re being honest.

Note: I’d also like to say that if you do still support them and have differing views than I do, I’ll respect you and your views no matter what. Everyones entitled to their opinion and thoughts. These are just mine.

#trisha paytas #vlog squad #jeff wittek #david dobrik #jason nash #durte dom #brandon calvillo #scott sire #most of these men are manipulative af #as much as i love zane matt and heath #they dont speak up either #neither do any of the women which is borderline heartbreaking #rant #I did my best to make everything clear but if theres any confusions or questions or if you just wanna have a discussion about it lmk #Discontinuing Speak Now.

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2020recommendanime · 4 years

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Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun and the Power of Visuals

Unique animation and background art can be selling points when it pertains to whether an individual decides to watch a new series. Although great story writing and characters can create an amazing series, it is difficult to know these two qualities without first watching the anime itself (as well as reading the light novel or manga). The easiest way to impress a person into watching a show without any prior knowledge is to have an interesting art style. This sort of technique is used in more than just Japanese animation, but also in other countries such as The United States with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Loving Vincent. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse brings a comic book to life by using frames and onomatopoeia words, while Loving Vincent was hand-painted using stop-motion. With these concepts, movies that would have been a simple crossover and a documentary would be dull and not cause more people to watch and marvel at what is to come. The anime and manga of Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun do just that; the animation and background art draws people in to enjoy what is to come.

Figure 1 Persichetti, Ramsey, Rothman, “Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse”

Figure 2 Kobiela, Welchman, "Loving Vincent"

The Impact of Visuals

As with other art forms, anime has its general groups where you can expect a certain art style to go along with the concept; seinen (mature themes) are often done with more darker schemes and muted styles, shounen (aimed at boys) is brighter and smoother, hentai (animated porn) focuses on exposure and shojo (aimed at girls) is bubbly and sparkly. While there are these general groups, there are subgroups that contain their own styles, and even then, there are always exceptions. As mentioned before, Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun is one of these exceptions.

As stated on Mangakalot, Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun is a shounen that includes comedy, supernatural, and school life themes. With these themes, the first thought would be to compare this to shows such as Noragami and Natsume's Book of Friends. Both Noragami and Natsume's Book of Friends are stereotypical looking anime with thin lines, dry colors, and standard scenery. While these shows are impressive with their storytelling and inclusive to supernatural myths, the amount of uniqueness and creatively put into the art style does not instantly draw the viewers in.

Figure 3 Tamura, "Noragami"

Figure 4 Miyake, "Natsume's Book of Friends"

Although I can go on and describe Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun’s animation and background, James Beckett from AnimeNewsNetwork summaries it perfectly: “The environments feel hand-crafted, like they were plucked out of an especially evocative picture-book, and the way the show uses overlays of comic panels to break up some of the gags and establishing shots makes everything even more painterly.” This kind of exceptional work is common with the producers and directors of the show. As reported from AnimeNewsNetwork, Studio Lerche employed director Masaomi Andō, writer Yasuhiro Nakanishi, character designer Mayuka Itou, and animation producer Yūji Higa. Both Masaomi Andō and Yūji Higa have previously collaborated for a child-like show, Hakumei and Mikochi. With this team, they would go forward to produce another amazing series.

Figure 5 Andou, "Hakumei and Mikochi"

There are three important factors that go into making Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun series’ art special: manga frames, vibrant colors, and creative lighting.

Manga Frames

When discussing this subject, it is important to remember its origins. When reading manga, the frames and panels are outlined boxes stacked against each other that contain drawings and words. This concept is common across manga and comics alike but employing this type of style of boxes containing drawings is not common in anime. As referenced at the beginning, the American movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse uses the same notion with it being a parody towards superhero comic books. Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun does this in a similar fashion with its manga-inspired animation.

(Below will be images for this example) Episode 6 of Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun features many examples of manga frames, but for this example, we are focusing on a screencap from time 3:42. The screencap has two visual planes, in the background is an open book with a red page reading “Future” while in the foreground is Yashiro Nene’s, the main character, face being shown within white manga-panel borders. This image shows an interesting way to convey Yashiro talking while still being able to see what she was talking about on-screen. This scene is comparative to the one drawn in the manga. In the manga, the panel that has the book and “Future” is read first, then the next frame has Yashiro talking about what she is looking at. The way the producers decided to adapt to this scene is interesting; they were able to see the original concept and impact, but also integrated the feeling of being able to still see the first image while also continuing to read/watch on.

Figure 6 Andou, "Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun" Ep 6

Figure 7 Aida, "Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun" Chp 11

Vibrant Colors

Different anime may use color schemes to enhance themes, specific events, or symbolism. Color is everywhere in anime, and it is important for the animators to place certain colors in places to bring meaning or impact to the watchers. A popular example of this is in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure where the color scheme inverts at random yet important times during the episodes, which brings about the weird and unique flare that this series holds. A series does not need wild color changes to be recognizable.

The very first noticeable feature of Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun is how bright and lively the art looks. James Beckett’s description that this show looks like a picture book is accurate in this sense. Children’s books often have bold and contrasting colors to allow for easy viewing and longer attention spans. Rachel Pancare wrote a Sciencing article title, “How Do Bright Colors Appeal to Kids?” which states, “Bright colors catch young children's eyes because they help kids to distinguish objects from one another in their field of vision. Children spend more time looking at bright colors as opposed to looking at muted shades or pastels.” While this is true, some of the tones and circumstances within the show are not child-friendly, and even then, the coloration and art style are still able to bring the fear that is needed.

Figure 8 Andou, "Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun" Ep 1

Figure 9 Andou, "Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun" Ep 1

Creative Lighting

Lighting can be used in many different forms; it is used to brighten a landscape, a special character or object, or to create a certain atmosphere. In the average anime, lighting may not be diverse but may be only used to brighten the landscape so that the viewers can watch. There would be no major variation or casting that would change the mood of the scene. At times, there is seemingly no direct light source, but just everything is filled with brightness by either the sun, indoor lights, or for no reason. If the setting is at night, a streetlight may light up a character but that is seemingly the only option. Incredible anime typically takes a dive into using light sources and shadows dynamically, especially when there is a dramatic scene or an object that needs to be emphasized.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun possesses the traits of having various light sources and accurately placed shadows, but there is another layer that is added. An integral part of the art style is that light can take a variety of shapes, but usually hexagonal. The pictures below demonstrate this; a light that emanates from the lamps and the lenses flare are hexagons, providing a creative change other than the usual faded circle of light surrounding an object. The other light sources are the light blue, glowing gems and the sunlight from the window. These two light sources provide the rest of the scene to be lit but within proportion to how bright the source is. Shadows are used accurately as well, causing darkness on the two character’s backs as well as slopping downward on the stall doors. These small additions can contribute greatly to the finished product and can transform how a scene is seen and the feelings that are derived from it.

Figure 10 Andou, "Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun" Ep 6

Figure 11 Andou, "Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun" Ep 1

Conclusion

The three essential components to Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun are creative lighting, vibrant colors, and manga frames. Analyzing and discovering what goes into a series can improve your experience and create a deeper devotion to the content. With this being said, not all shows that have the typical animation style and dull background are bad, but that they need to be analyzed in other areas and be appreciated in those. Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun deserves praise and attention for its art style, and studios should look after this show and put forth the effort to make more series like this.

When considering what new series, you may watch or if you would want to stop watching a series, stop and think for a moment, “Does this art style impress me? Was the effort of the animators shown?” If the answers to the questions is “yes,” then I recommend that you follow through and continue watching that series. While storytelling and character development are important aspects to a show, there is more to the story than that. So, take a minute, turn the volume off on your favorite anime and watch—does the art tell a story? Does it make you laugh, scared, sad, or any emotion? Looking out for these feelings is important, and so is analyzing why this show may look so wonderful, because the smallest details matter the most, and it shows the dedication and love the creators have for the series.

#hanako-kun #toilet bound hanako kun #WINTER 2020 #anime #mini essay #manga

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batfamily-trash · 5 years

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Don’t Need Them To Save You

Summary: Jason and Reader go out on date (Movie, dinner, romantic stuff) when the Riddler decides to kidnap the reader because why not. Instead of going to the Batfam for help he goes solo

Warning: Language I think, blood, being buried alive

Part 1 of 2

Date nights with Jason were the best nights. All the stress of being a vigilante goes down the drain while you two were together. But particularly tonight, you weren’t in the mood for a date. Bruce had assigned you a case and you were determined to solve it.

Jason tried every single way he knew to bribe you so you could leave whatever you were working on for another night. Tonight he wanted to spend the rest of the day with you. Whether you liked it or not; you needed a break. The case could wait. Jason… not so much.

Eventually, you agreed to go on the date with him. It took a lot of bribing but you finally accepted. As long as it wasn’t something to fancy or public; cause recently you’ve been getting a lot of attention from the paparazzi. A con of being friends with the Wayne family.

After you had gotten ready, Jason took you to the movie theater to see a movie you have been wanting to watch since it was announced. And you had an amazing time!

Once the movie finished you thought the date was over but Jason had something else planned for you.

By the time you and Jason left the movie theater, it was 8 pm. The moon was already up and shining brightly in the night sky. In all your years of living in Gotham, you didn’t take the time to admire it. Gotham could be a beautiful city most of the time.

You took a deep breath of air before putting on your motorcycle helmet and climbing on behind Jason.

“Are you ready princess/prince?” He asked you.

“Yeah,” You said wrapping your arms around him. Jason then revved the motorcycle engine and took down the street.

You enjoyed motorcycle rides with Jason. They were calm and peaceful. Occasionally. Sometimes they were filled with adrenaline and danger. It just depended on the occasion and if you and Jay were late for something. Which was almost always. Distractions were everywhere.

Just as you felt your worries go away you saw a white van with a bright green question mark pulling up next to you guys.

“Shit,” you cursed. Apparently, someone didn’t like you. Jason quickly glanced over his shoulder and sped up once he saw the van. Whoever was driving the van was not going to give up easily.

Everytime you and Jay seemed to be safe the van would just appear out of nowhere. Eventually, Jason lead them off the main streets to lose them quicker. Little did he know that that’s what your pursuers wanted. Just as Jason was taking a turn towards an alley, multiple cars showed up and surrounded you.

Jason pulled out a gun he always kept on him, but before he could unlock the safety someone shot it out of his hand. You turned to look behind you and saw the Riddler himself.

“Well if it isn’t y/n l/n and her boy toy,” Ed said walking towards you. You glared at Ed while Jason somehow pulled you closer to him. He was tense and nervous. So were you. “Loverboy why don’t you let y/n go and go away.”

“Why don’t you and you’re posse go piss off someone else?” Jason retorted. Riddler smirked and signaled for his men. Some guys pulled out guns and aimed them at you and Jason while some tried, keyword tried, to pull you away from him.

“Either you stop struggling and cooperate or we kill you. Your choice,” Riddler said twirling his cane around. You stopped struggling in fear of them shooting Jason and gave him a pleading look when you saw that he wasn’t going to stop. At this point, Ed’s henchmen had taken your helmet off and threw it somewhere.

“Jason! Just stop! Leave him alone!” you shouted. Jason stopped for a second and caught your gaze. You were crying, you were scared. Scared for him; you didn’t want to lose him. And that second was long enough for someone to take a shot at him.

You screamed as they carried you to a van. Jason fell onto the ground. He tried to get up as the van took off but the rest of the henchmen that stayed behind began to beat him up. A minute later someone dropped down on two guys knocking them out while another person approached Jason just as he started to lose consciousness.

“Hey, Jason. Jason stay awak….”

After Riddler had Jason shot, he and his henchmen knocked you out. So you had absolutely no clue where you were. But you kinda got an idea when you woke up in an unclosed wooden box with Edward Nygma looking down at you.

“What the hell?”

“Ah, good afternoon y/n! Now before I finish my magnificent plan answer me this,” Riddler started. “A vivid reality, a naked morality, a place where wishes come true. What am I?”

Seriously? You thought. You sighed and answered, “Is it a dream?”

“So you’re not as stupid as I thought,” he said. You scoffed and propped yourself onto your elbows.

“No shit Sherlock,” you said glaring at him. Ed grinned and shoved you back into the box. “Now-now-now, we can’t have you escaping yet, so do me a favor and stay still for a minute.”

Before you could protest, someone handed Ed his cane which he used to knock you out. Ed took a step back and pulled a video camera out of his pocket and handed it to one of his men. “Put this in there. Make sure it’s on and that it’s facing them. After that put the top on and finish the job,” he said sternly.

“Yes sir,” the henchman said taking the camera. Ed smiled and walked back to his car. This was going to be fun! Now all he had to do was to get ready for the show.

Jason woke up with a start. He frantically scanned the room for your presence, silently praying that the events from earlier that day were just a nightmare. When he saw Duke he calmed down a bit.

“What… where’s y/n?” Jason asked worriedly.

“We’re trying to find them,” Duke answered.

“We?”

“Cass, and Barbara….”

“Wait, where am I?” He asked. He tried to get up but the pain on his side stopped him.

“You’re in my apartment. I figured you wouldn’t want to go to the Batcave,” Barbara said walking into the room. “And don’t get up, you’re going to pull your stitches.”

Jason grumbled something before attempting to get up again. This time he managed to through the pain. “I’m not going to rest until I find y/n.”

Barbara sighed and walked out of the room, Duke following behind her. Jason hissed as he walked out after them. He blamed himself for letting them take you.

Once he got to the living room, Duke told him everything they had figured out while he was knocked out. Which wasn’t much. Riddler had it out for you, but no one knew why. Well, not yet.

“Do you guys have a location for Riddler?” Jason asked.

“No, but I have a program going through every security footage in the city looking for the van they escaped in,” Babs said, barely looking up from her laptop. Jason sighed and sat down next to Duke who was currently looking for any signs of you and the Riddler on social media.

“Guys turn on the tv,” Duke said. Jason looked at him confused but obliged. The first thing that showed up when he turned the tv on was Edward Nygma himself.

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen! Today’s occasion is the funeralof y/n l/n! That’s right Bruce Wayne’s lovely friend.”

The screen changed from Ed to you panicking in your makeshift coffin. Immediately it changed back to a smiling Riddler.

Jason got up and walked backed to the bedroom in anger. “Jason, what are you doing?” Duke asked.

“I’m going for y/n,” Jason answered retrieving his clothes.

“Jason you are in no condition to go out there!” Barbara exclaimed. Jason knew she was right, but right now nothing mattered but getting you.

“Don’t care.”

“At least let us help,” Duke said.

“No offense Duke but I’d rather do this myself besides isn’t it past your bedtime?” Jason said making his way out of the apartment through the window. Duke and Barbara tried to convince him to stay put but failed.

“What do we do?” Duke asked.

“We inform Bruce and everyone else, and stay out of his way for now,” Barbara answered going back for her computer, “He’ll need our help at some point.”

Jason repeated the riddle multiple times. Until he had it memorized. What has branches and leaves and no bark?

He thought about the answer for a bit before taking off to the Gotham Library. It was a simple riddle really, not hard enough. As a teen, you would go to the library almost every day. That’s where you met Jason, so of course, the Riddler was going to choose the library for a riddle.

Once in the library, Jason began looking for the next riddle. It didn’t take him long to find something that didn’t belong. He crept towards the lonely phone on one of the tables and turned it on.

“Congratulations Mr. Wayne! You’ve completed my first riddle! Now for the second riddle, What won’t run long without winding?” the prerecorded video said, “You only have twenty minutes.

When the video finished Jason shattered the phone and cursed. The riddle was easy considering the Riddler was using riddles that have been used before. The problem was which one? Couldn’t Riddler be more specific considering there are about 7 different rivers in Gotham?

All Jason knew was that the riddles were meant for Bruce and the riddles had something to do with you. The only connection you had with a river was the time you and Jay went Channel Park and Damian had “accidentally” pushed into the East River. That’s where the next riddle would be.

Riddler had given “Bruce” twenty minutes to find the next riddle and Jason had spent five minutes figuring out which river. Now all he had to do was get there in time.

#jason todd #red hood #jason todd x reader #red hood x reader #batfamily #the riddler x reader #the riddler #edward nygma #dont need them to save you

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