#who gave the peacock a pen

[star-ocean-peahen]

I don't remember if I've posted this before but whatever

The Champions killed great beasts and vanquished mighty foes. Their weapons were extensions of their wills, as part of them as their peoples. They were never still.

.

The Scimitar of the Seven was never still. It slashed in deadly arcs and danced with lightning. It was only ever still on her back and even then it moved, for Urbosa was never still.

It lies umoving on the wall. The blade gleams, but it does not spark with electricity nor do the gems on the hilt catch your eye.

.

Daybreaker was never still. It guarded, bashed, shielded. It saved her life many times over and dazzled eyes with its deadly cobra jewels. It was only ever still on her back and even then it moved, for Urbosa was never still.

It lies unmoving on the wall. It does not leap to take blows, nor does it snatch attention with its patterns. A decoration, no more.

.

The Boulder Breaker was never still. It smashed with simple, deadly blows and punched through impassable barriers. It was only ever still on his back and even then it moved, for Daruk was never still.

It lies unmoving on the wall. Brilliant blue, wiped clean of the dust. Slate grey, free of the dirt. Worn handle, cold from the living stone that once held it.

.

The Great Eagle Bow was never still, except when targeted in focus. The proud tips nodded ever above the fray, the blue sash fluttered through every battle unscathed. Sheathed, unsheathed, sheathed again, for its archer ever needed the use of his wings. It was only ever still on his back and even then it moved, for Revali was never still.

It lies unmoving on the wall. The worn wood holds no mocking words. The blue ribbon hangs still. The bowstring, though taut, will never launch an arrow again.

.

The Lightscale Trident was never still. It danced in graceful arcs and spun in elegant twirls. It was only ever still on her back and even then it moved, for Mipha was never still.

It lies unmoving on the wall. Green and pink paint shine as bright as the day it was forged, cared for by a grieving people. Shining baubles hang limp from the curves, jingling no more.

.

The Champions' last foes, defeated by their comrade. Their weapons gently hung by grieving hands, ever hang still in memory of those who wielded them.

————

I wrote this when playing Breath of the Wild immediately after Age of Calamity. The weapons of the Champions were displayed in my house, so I didn't see them all that much, but while playing Age of Calamity I saw them a lot. And seeing them in Botw made me realize how still they were, hanging on the wall, because their owners were dead. It made me sad. So I wrote this.

#botw #breath of the wild #botw champions #loz #legend of zelda #poetry? #who gave the peacock a pen #my writing

[hunnieknight]

"The Birds and The Feathers"(+Art)

Just a pretty swan in its nest by the lake living its best life....until these avians decided you are their target of affection.

Broken grammar, Swan!Reader x Avian Constellation characters {Kaeya, Diluc, Xiao, Ayaka, Layla, Al Haitham, Kaveh, Fischl}, GN!Reader, Modern AU(?), the reader is oblivious(?), non-establish relationship, you are "that one neighbour" type of thing feral-like behaviour, everyone acting similar to their representation bird, hints of yandere, possessive and obsessive behaviour, a bit of suggestive if you squint.

------

Note : Human with bird wings! Nest refers to everyone's own house, You are a swimming trainer at your local pool.

Note (13 May) : this was drafted before Mika appearance and during Kaveh first appearance (so no Mehrak)! So thats why he isnt here,and im already drained to add him

Kaeya {Pavo Ocellus//Peacock}

My my, a pretty bird isn't he? Your charismatic neighbour who would greet you with that bright smile of his.

He is that one neighbour who is always curious about your activity but won't pester you much if you refuse to answer, respecting your boundaries.

Checking up on you seems to be his favourite thing, he will briefly visit your humble hut near the lake and offers you some fruits or veggies he brought on his way home. Whenever you decline he somehow always gets an urgent call and can't bring all the groceries he had bought. Well, since he is already at your house, why don't you just accept these fresh fruits he so dearly brought to you?

If he is stopping by your nest, he often lazes around your house whilst chatting about his daily life and you just listened to him while munching on snacks he brought to you. If you are swimming, he will sit by the dock under a shade, leaving you to enjoy what you like the most. Beside, he is also enjoying seeing what he likes the most

One of the things he often gives you is little trinkets...well...the only kind of trinket he gave you is a peacock feather in a resin. It could be a bookmark, a keychain, or a small wall decoration. Since the rarely have time to hang out with you, he needs to make sure part of him will always be with you.

Peacock does value their beauty to attract their female counterpart, but for you? He would gladly be featherless with no second thoughts.

Diluc {Noctua/Great Horned Owl}

A magnificent fancy owl, isn't he? An admirable owl in its prime age running such a huge wine tycoon. Compared to the other houses in the neighbourhood, his is the biggest.

You often see him around but never interact until you bring your swimming class to collaborate with Dawn Winery. There, you saw him personally bring the crates of grape juices for your students. You both start a small conversation, and after that day you often see him on your way to work. He will pull over by your side and insist on driving you there.

His wings span is HUGE. When the sun's heat stings your skin, he will use his wings as your umbrella. What a gentleman indeed.

For some odd reason, he is active during the day and awake at night. How did he get enough proper sleep? You are not sure yourself. Another owl trait of his is his quiet steps or walk, you are always startled whenever he greets you at the swimming centre to bring grape juices for your students, and your wings spread to smack him in the face. After that incident, he always makes sure to approach you from the front.

Other than acts of service, his language is also gift-giving. At first, it was some raw meat to cook or a perfectly cooked steak you can eat, but after learning about the swan's diet, Diluc changed it into grapes and grape juices from his winery. Let's just say sometimes your nest smells like his wine.....like part of him.

Somehow this owl makes sour expressions whenever he sees peacock trinkets around your house after you confirmed Diluc where are those gifts from, he started giving you a quill pen with a feather interestingly similar to his.

Xiao {Alatus Nemeseos/Black-Tail Jade Finch}

Hm? Are you worried about your nest's safety at night? Afraid to go home by yourself when it is late? Suddenly crave eating in the middle of the night? No need to be worried about that anymore! This finch right here, Xiao, is ready to be your bodyguard.

You rarely chat with him, considering he is an introverted bird and prefers to stay in his nest. Other than seeing him dropping off and picking up his little sister, Qiqi at the swimming centre, you guys only meet in public places like parks or convenience stores, where it always started with a curt nod from him and an acknowledgement smile from you. Other than that, you guys don't talk much. However, if you guys do meet in public coincidentally at night, he often 'offers' you to walk back to your nest.

If you count 'waiting for you in front of the convenience store and walking side-by-side with you with no talking' as an offer.

Although his wings and bird's form looks small and cute, he is the most resilient and intimidating among your avian neighbour. Once you saw him decked a man thrice his size because -according to Xiao- 'He looked at you funny'.

He will not hesitate to guard you to your nest, no matter how often you tell him you don't want to bother him, he will just quip back "-and you prefer to get hunted by those bad birds?". As much as your interaction with him is awkward, you always offer tea whenever both of you arrive at the door. But he just refuses politely and 'scurry away'.

Although, he doesn't underestimate you. Once he saw you, the delicate swan became a vicious eagle to protect your swimming students.

Well, now he ought to see you protecting their child together- huh? No that's too far, he is thinking too far. He can just settle with protecting your nest and accompanying you on walks.

Ayaka {Grus Nivis/Snow Crane}

(Note : Ayaka's ability to walk on water refers to her Alt Sprint and how cranes mostly spend their time in shallow water)

Oh my! Look at her beautiful snow-like wings. Such a delicate bird and a classy one too. As a Kamisato, her giant nest (estate) where she lives with her brother is standing proudly on top of a man-made island above the lake with lilypads and lotus blooming here and there. The estate is so beautiful, you are drawn to the magnificent estate to take photos, especially the lotus lake, your swan instinct just brought your feet there.

You purposely approach the lake behind the estate. Avoided the guards so you can have a peaceful time. There, you saw her. The famous snow crane lady Kamisato Ayaka..she seems like dancing? You were mesmerized for a bit by her delicate moves, her flowy hair spinning around her like snow ribbon, and her blue ey- wait what?! She saw you, her wide blue eyes can tell she didn't expect an audience. You awkwardly make a thumbs-up and clap a little. Your wings cover your body whilst you run away from the spot.

You were just swimming around the lake near your nest, the swan blood in you just loves water so much. When you raise up above the water, you find yourself surrounded by beautiful lotus and lilypads floating around your lake, you turned around to see the snow crane above the water, smiling softly at you.

After that lilypad meeting, you both often meet behind your house -something about her feeling more comfortable to become a regular snow crane. She never hated the life of royal birds but living freely without rules to follow seems fascinating to her. So, you showed her your humble nest and how you teach little birds to swim. In return, she integrated you into her life; introducing you to her charming brother -Ayato- and the nice housekeeper Thoma, serving dishes that fit to swan's diet whenever you visit, and often a bundle of Otogi sticks or some fragrant oil from Otogi given to you before you leave-as decoration for your house she suggests and to make your nest smells more like hers.

Layla {Luscinia/Nightingale}

Poor little one, this small bird often crashes by your nest to nap or rest. Her eye bags get darker every time you see her. The least you can do is offer her warm milk to drink before she naps.

Well, you two have been close since you both were still little chicks. At this point, your nest is hers and hers is yours. Her wings feather is everywhere at your nest, from how often she is having a 'sleepover'-which is mostly you pushing her to get enough rest. She even has her own little corner in your nest, where her work drafts and papers are scattered around.

Speaking of sleeping, Layla, you know has an alternate personality that manifests from her when she is in deep sleep. This persona is energetic and determined, if Layla forgot to drink the milk you gave her before sleeping the nighttime Layla will drink it before she does her work. This Layla is very bold and affectionate to you, talkative too! Often she asks your opinion about her paper, and although you don't much about her study, you gave her the encouragement she needed.

Nightime Layla often asks for your blessing every time she is about to sleepwalk go outside. You often give her hugs and cheek kisses as a blessing. Once you gave her a mini dreamcatcher keychain with your feather on it, saying she could always ask for a new feather if the old one snapped, was dirty, or was missing...and she does. She keeps asking for another of your feather because somehow she lost it.

However, what you don't know is, she always keeps the keychain in pristine condition, she just likes to collect parts of you as a good luck charm!

Well....this often leads to Daytime Layla waking up to swan feathers in her closet and her desk drawer. She was confused but not thinking much of it. Instead, she uses the feathers to fill up her pillow fillings or quill.

Ah, somehow she always dreamt of you with this special pillow of hers. Hmm..can't have that..she misses you, welp! Time for another sleepover at your nest!

Al Haitham {Vulture Volans/White Backed Vulture}

So apparently, vultures often spread their wings wide to dry up their wings..and you learnt how wide vultures' wings are. How do you know? Well, this neighbour of yours, whose backyard is coincidentally facing the lake of your nest, often sunbathes his wings there near the lake whilst reading a book.

So, imagine your fear when a buff tall man of a carnivore bird with a stoic face just spreads his wings for an hour, sitting by the lake. You both just nod to each other in acknowledgement while you shake in fear, deciding not to swim that day.

You can tell he has a roommate, judging by the bickering noises and how there are extra shed feathers that aren't his. It is too soft and delicate to be Vultures. You wanted to bring it up to him as a worried neighbour, but you decided it will only make you a nosy one so you keep quiet, and keep greeting with nodding when you both meet by the lake.

Well, either he has sharp eyes or you are too obvious. One day he gave you some fruits and veggies along with small fish. You could tell he searched swan's diet, considering vulture's diet are all meat. "I apologize for any disturbance we may cause, my roommate and I are not on good terms as you can hear." his eyes glanced towards his nest. You waved your hand dismissively clearly not wanting to make things awkward, so you offered him to eat the stuff he gave to you together on your dock.

Well, his logical and rationality views on everything aside, his company is enjoyable. He is open to any perspective, even yours who isn't a scholar. He never belittles you if you awkwardly ask about some terms he had mentioned, you can see his eyes light up a bit as he enlightens you in detail to you, yet he also makes sure it isn't overwhelming.

Apparently, he prefers a quiet environment and so do you as a mute swan. You both often spend quality time together as neighbours with him reading books and sunbathing at your dock whilst you swim or float around on the lake.

Well, isn't this the domestic life he dreamt of?

Kaveh {Paradisaea/Paradise Bird}

Well, this is the bird that the vulture keeps talking about, though you didn't expect it is a bird known for its artistic side.

Paradise birds are known to be delicate and magnificent birds, the male all dance and sing and are pretty. Well, this one...surely a unique one. You first saw him when he stumped out Al-Haitham's nest all pent-up and angry, even his wings are all puffed out. You both had eye contact, his red orbs widen to see you so as to not make anything worse you swam away.

The next day, while you relax by the dock eating some fruits, you saw him carrying some wood and building materials into the nest. Whilst he is putting down the materials his eyes caught on your form, sitting by your dock with your cheeks puffed full of food. He smiled and waved then make a small jog towards you.

He introduced himself and apologize in advance if any of his model-building activity bothered you. You waved him off saying you spend your time teaching swimming to kids anyway. After giving him some of the fruits you eat, he excused himself and walks back towards Al Haitham's house //creak// well..until he stepped on a board on your dock that is loose. His architect side just crouches down and examines your dock, then offers you a free repair of your dock, oh he doesn't take no for his service alright.

Well, now there he is, on your dock doing a repairman job. Every time you want to help, he just told you to sit down all pretty. Just a feast for his eyes.

It is not just the dock he fixed. Even the decoration of your nest-exterior or interior- he gives suggestions and recommendations. Hell, he goes as far as making some bookshelves for you. In return, you listened to his rants about his roommate and offered him food since both of you has similar diet. Sometimes Al Haitham or Layla join in with the two of you.

Isn't he a creative man? he is able to turn the shed feathers into a dreamcatcher, keychain, and even earrings. Your white feathers and his brown-to-goldish one really give an elegant aesthetic. The thing you didn't know is that he has another pair of earrings from your feathers. He doesn't want to wear it since he will not hear the end of it from Al Haitham, plus it may make you uncomfortable although you have shown appreciation to all his crafts, even the small little things he made to your nests.

Well, for now, Kaveh can only help you with decorating your nest, next time, he will make sure to build a nest fit for you both together.

Fischl {Corvus/Raven}

(Note: I wrote this with platonic implications in my head, I am 22 and writing romantic stuff for her feels illegal to me// Oz and Fischl is like apes to human (totally different but has similarity))

Quite the eccentric one, isn't she? Mysterious, all-dark, and how she talks are all out of your dictionary, no worries, her loyal friend, Oz, is your saviour in communicating with her.

You knew her from your fellow swimming teacher, Mona, which Fischl often picks up after work. Whilst waiting for Mona packing up, you hit a conversation with her..which was...unique you can say. She spoke so politely and formally that you didn't know how to respond. Oz was there to translate her words (or simplify) and even then with him, you can //barely// hold onto a conversation with her.

Although she likes speaking in another' language' when you talk to her, her quirky personality and roleplaying with Oz always brighten up your day. Even if Mona can't clock in for the day, Fischl still go there to visit you. You often stay behind to make sure all kids got picked up by their parents and then enjoy the pool all by yourself, usually Fischl would take off her shoes and dangles her feet in the water whilst chatting with Oz and you.

Do you know how ravens remember the faces of people who feed them? Yeah, Fischl often payback your good deed 10 times bigger than what you have done. Like how you offered her some of your fist-sized bread whilst waiting for Mona and the next time you guys meet she gave you a whole-ass pie in return.

Her raven traits also showed up in her collecting shiny trinkets. The urge to hoard shiny things seems to override everything in her brain. She would stop and impulsively walk towards any shiny stuff she see and buy it, sometimes she and Oz would chatter about the trinkets collection with you-from delighted caw to sad croak from not being able to own any valuable stuff she saw.

You once asked her 'what's the best thing you have ever lied your eyes on?". Her light green eyes widened at your question, her hand went up to her chin and she thinks-even Oz made the same gesture, eye closed and humming. Fischl then answered, "Too precious that if I tell you, I'm afraid I will lose them." You giggled, amazed at her mystic answer. You express your curiosity to one day be able to see the thing she is talking about.

Must be so valuable and precious that she won't show it to you, huh? Well, it's not like she won't...But how does she show you to yourself?

#genshin x reader #imaginedraw #diluc x reader #kaeya x reader #gender neutral reader #ayaka x reader #xiao x reader #layla x reader #kaveh x reader #alhaitham x reader #fischl genshin impact #fischl x reader #genshin x gender neutral reader #genshin impact

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

IOTA Reviews: Representation

Oh, so NOW child abuse is bad. Could have fooled me last episode!

Let's get into the twenty-fifth episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fifth season: Representation

We start off with an English news report recapping the ending of “Revolution”, stating that Ms. Bustier is going to run for mayor, conveniently ignoring her attempted coup in “Collusion”. We also see that Gabriel and Tomoe are still uncomfortably focused on making Adrien and Kagami appear to be a couple in public, much to their dismay. While Kagami is visited by Argos (who once again sneaks up on her, like he usually does), Adrien realizes he can transform into his space form and see Marinette whenever he wants and transforms into Cat Noir, planning to reveal his identity to Marinette. Hey, did he even tell Ladybug about his sudden departure? Because it didn't go well the last time he left Paris without telling her (New York Special).

We then cut to Marinette right after the events of “Revolution”, going to the end of the year dance... even though when we saw Adrien and Kagami in London, the sun was still setting, and France's time zone is only about an hour later, meaning Adrien and Kagami must have flown there at ludicrous speed.

Meanwile, Argos and Kagami somehow got from London to Paris offscreen, and watch Marinette from afar, with Kagami revealing she knows she's Ladybug. They decide to tell Marinette that Felix knows who Monarch is in order to ensure his downfall. Nah, I'm just kidding. Here's the real reason they're coming to Marinette for help.

Kagami: My mother and Gabriel Agreste will never allow us to love each other freely. Only Ladybug can help us.

Yep, rather than prioritize the fact that Gabriel is endangering the citizens of Paris on a daily basis, Kagami is seriously more concerned about her relationship with her boyfriend being tampered with. This is like saying Lex Luthor is evil because he cheats on his taxes. Argos transforms back into Felix, and... oh, for the love of God... he disguises himself as Adrien in order to get closer to Marinette. You can't keep portraying Felix as this master of disguise if he only has ONE disguise!

Marinette sees “Adrien” and assumes he came back from London from her, assuming her boyfriend is much more active that the writers actually believe he is, so she tries to follow him while avoiding the guests at the party. Meanwhile, Gabriel and Tomoe learn their children are gone, so he goes to talk with Nathalie and—why the hell is she like that?

Seriously, this has never been established as something that happens when someone uses the broken Peacock Miraculous. Why didn't this happen to Emilie? She looks pretty healthy in her little coffin, and I doubt Gabriel is an embalmer.

Anyway, after Nathalie once again reminds us that she hates Gabriel, but not enough to call the cops on him, Gabriel transforms into Monarch and immediately detransforms back in order to akumatize himself into Nightormentor.

Nightormentor is a pretty average recolor of the Collector's design, which kind of makes sense, considering that Gabriel himself intended the Akuma for himself. The star pattern is okay, but there's not much I can really say. As for his powers, he's just another Sandboy, being able to force people to hallucinate their worse nightmares, only instead of a pillow, his weapon is a staff created from a pen containing the Akuma, with the Horse Miraculous' Voyage to boot. Why he didn't just give himself the same powers he gave Truth when he's trying to find Adrien is anyone's guess.

Cat Noir arrives at the Eiffel Tower to talk with Marinette, just as Nightormentor appears. The two fight, and after a few civilians get caught in the crossfire, Nightormentor escapes through Voyage. As Cat Noir heads to the Dupain-Cheng bakery at the advising of Max, Alya and Nino decide that the totally not useless Resistance should get involved.

While Marinette gives chase, Felix leads her into the school's art classroom, where he transforms into Argos and creates a Sentimonster using Kagami's ring. Felix and Kagami use the Sentimonster's power to do... uh... whatever the hell this is.

Yeah, this is basically a flashback, but the animators probably blew their budget needed for the new models on Ms. Bustier's baby bump, so we're getting this instead, thanks to the Sentimonster Argos created. There are several scenes of Cat Noir and Nightormentor interspersed, but like what I did with Marinette's flashback in “Derision”, I'll give you the summary before I talk about my problems with this.

When Adrien's mother and aunt, Emilie and Amelie, were born, Emilie (who was born seven seconds early) was trusted with the family heirlooms, the two rings we first saw all the way back in “Felix”. Even though this meant she would inherit the family name, Emilie didn't really like doing... whatever the Graham de Vanily family wanted her to do, but Amelie did. Eventually, while studying abroad, Emilie met Gabriel, and the two fell in love. Before marrying Gabriel, Emilie gave up her role as the sole inheritor of the Graham de Vanily family's vague legacy, while Amelie married a man named Colt to please her parents. Both couples wanted children, but it's heavily implied that Emilie and Amelie were infertile, so their wishes weren't able to come true. Emilie finally managed to get a bun in the oven thanks to the Peacock Miraculous, but this made Colt jealous that he couldn't have a child. Out of the goodness of her heart, Emilie asked Gabriel to give the Peacock Miraculous to Colt, in exchange for letting the Gorilla guard Adrien in the future. Using his own jealousy as a source of power, Colt got Amelie pregnant, though at the cost of his health. Colt figured this was the price he had to pay for using “sorcery”, and used this as an excuse to treat Felix like a monster and ordered him around using the ring containing his Amok. Felix himself was unaware that he wasn't human until Colt accidentally broke the ring (which wasn't one of the two wedding rings used to control Adrien and was an entirely different ring containing Felix's Amok), which he stole as soon as Colt died. This is meant to explain why Felix decided to steal back the Peacock Miraculous, in order to save his life. Felix later met Kagami, and the two explain that they need “Someone like Ladybug” to help them.

Now if your only information about this episode is through my summary, it seems simple enough. For everyone else who actually saw this sequence in the episode itself, I'm guessing your thoughts were about the same as mine.

Let's go over every problem I have with this scene, starting with...

#1: The Way Kagami and Felix Explain This

Let me just ask something: Why can't Felix just talk to Marinette about what he knows since he now knows she's Ladybug instead of telling her everything through this weird play? You can still tell Marinette all of this without your two-man show. In fact, why did Felix have to wait until he knew Marinette was Ladybug instead of just talking to her the next time he saw her? Yeah, you could argue it's easier this way, but like I've been saying since Season 4, Felix has had no excuse to wait this long to tell Ladybug about the fact that he knows who her greatest enemy is.

And why the hell is it presented this way? Why does Felix have to recontextualize the story of his family's history in the form of a play? Why turn it into a stereotypical fairy tale that leaves out the names of all the important people, like Emilie, Amelie, Colt (whose name I only learned through the transcript of this episode), and Gabriel? If it was like a hidden message Felix and Kagami wanted to convey to Marinette, that would make sense, but why do they have to be so cryptic when they're only putting this show on for one person? You could easily avoid a good chunk of the questions this raises if this was a show Felix and Kagami put on for the public that Marinette was able to learn the information from. Yeah, it still wouldn't explain why Felix can't just tell Marinette about who Gabriel really is, but at least it's something.

The way it all happens kind of reminds me of this scene from this old Halloween special I saw a lot as a kid, Scary Godmother: Halloween Spooktacular. In that scene, some of the kids act out a scene of this little girl's parents entrusting her with a flashlight to explain why she carries it around, in order to scare off any monsters she runs into, using the graveyard they were in as a makeshift set. This scene works a lot more because it's done in more of a tongue-in-cheek way, with some of the kids breaking character to boost their own egos (for example, the kid playing the mom comments about how responsible she is), and how one kid in particular gradually gets fed up with the whole thing. The scene does its job at delivering exposition in a way that isn't meant to be taken too seriously, and it's clear this is being done by some kids goofing around in-universe.

With this episode, it's clear that the writers want the audience to take this whole backstory seriously in spite of how absurd it all is. Seriously look at this.

We are seriously expected to take this backstory seriously when it looks like some theater major's midterm project. The animators want it to look artsy and unique for the sake of making it look artsy and unique. Why does it look like a play these two put together themselves if they're supposedly using a Sentimonster's power to do it? If the unnamed Sentimonster's powers is how Marinette is seeing all this, why can't it actually be seen as a flashback? Was it always intended to be a handmade play that was changed to the product of a Sentimonster at the last minute?

I get that the animators probably wanted kids to pick up on the visuals of the play, but even then, it makes it hard to really stomach the serious themes this backstory brings up, like infertility and child abuse, with the way they're presented. Not only do Felix and Kagami all play the characters using these white jumpsuits and masks, they also do all the voices, meaning that the only “dialogue” we hear from Colt is delivered by Kagami putting on a deeper voice. Let me repeat that: the only times we hear Colt, the abusive parent and all around garbage human being, talk, it's done by a teenage girl trying to make her voice sound deeper.

But hey, maybe the goofy voice will be overshadowed by the nuanced depiction of child abuse, right? Right?

#2: The Portrayal of Colt and the Double Standards Regarding His Treatment of Felix

I have never seen a single show struggle this much to convey a lesson as simple as “Child abuse is bad”.

When it comes to the parents in this show, terrible parents like Gabriel, Audrey, and Tomoe are almost never held accountable for the way they treated their children. If the writers aren't claiming they really love their children deep down, they're either downplaying how cruel they are at best or playing their behavior for laughs at worst. But here we are, the penultimate episode of the fifth season, and we finally have a parent who is unambiguously treated as a terrible human being with no redeeming qualities... and I still have problems with this.

This flashback really goes out of its way to let the audience that Colt was a real piece of scum in life. He only wanted a child out of jealousy, used his Amok to force Felix to do whatever he wanted, was heavily implied to have physically beat him at times, and blamed him for his poor health on his deathbed when he was the one who wanted to use the Peacock in the first place. Now that I think about it, why did Colt even use the Peacock to create Felix instead of Emelie? Was the episode so determined to paint Colt as a bastard that he wanted to be the one to create Felix himself?

The point I'm trying to make is that the show doesn't really explain why Colt was like this. Why was he such an angry man who treated his only child like crap? I don't know, because all the show's telling me is that he was just a dick. He honestly feels more like a caricature than anything else. He's only as terrible of a person he is in order to make the audience sympathize with Felix. I'm not saying that what Felix went through was okay, but it has the same energy as scenes of Gabriel talking to Emilie's body. It's mostly there to make the audience sympathize with an antagonistic character in spite of all the things they've done.

What's really weird is that even though the whole point of this play is so Felix can tell Marinette Gabriel is Monarch, so what does Colt have to do with this? I'm not saying he's not worth mentioning, but it makes no sense for Felix to tell Marinette about his abusive father before he tells her about Gabriel. It feels more like Felix wants to find a way to excuse his actions before telling Marinette about Gabriel being Monarch. And remember when “Derision” made a big deal about Chloe's terrible parents not excusing her actions? Funny how that conveniently doesn't apply to Felix in this episode.

In fact, let's talk about the elephant in the room: The fact that this episode aired right after “Revolution”, an episode that literally said a character living under an abusive and controlling parent was a fitting punishment for her. HOW THE HELL IS THIS ANY DIFFERENT FROM THAT? If anything, this episode really shows the double standards this show has about child abuse, how the only way your situation can be taken seriously is if you're a “good victim”. Chloe's a “bad victim”, so she doesn't get any sympathy when her mother outright says she's going to take control of her life, yet when Colt actually takes control of Felix's life, we're supposed to sympathize with him now. Why am I supposed to feel bad for Felix now when you just told me I shouldn't feel bad for someone in a similar situation last episode?

In fact, one theory I have about this backstory is that it was intended to kill two birds with one stone, no pun intended. I believe that this episode wasn't just written to give us more insight into who Felix is as a character, but also to show the audience what “real” child abuse is like. As far as the show is concerned with Gabriel, Audrey, and Tomoe? They're not actually abusive parents, Colt is, so you should condemn his actions, and not those three. It's blatant double standards, which is nothing new for this show.

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

In my “Derision” review, I discussed how strange it was that so many people in Marinette's life did nothing to help her against Chloe, and the same thing applies here with Amelie.

This episode never really explains where Amelie was when Colt was abusing Felix, much less if she was even aware of it. At least with Marinette's parents, they didn't know because most of Marinette's suffering was at school. Amelie lives with Felix and Colt, so what's her excuse? She seriously didn't overhear Colt yelling at Felix or notice the orders Colt gave Felix? Was she just that ignorant to her child's suffering? Remember, this is supposed to be Felix's good parent.

In fact, does Amelie even know Felix is a Sentimonster? Yeah, “Emotion” established that Amelie knows Felix is Argos, but this episode doesn't really make it clear if she knows Felix is a Sentimonster or not. If it was clear Amelie knew nothing about what Felix really was, it would arguably make things easier to stomach, as she wouldn't know the power Colt had over him.

Instead, even though she's Felix's mother, the show doesn't really explain what she actually did when Colt was making Felix's life a living hell, especially since the flashback says that Amelie was forced to marry Colt, so you can't even say she was blinded by love here. Hell, I'm not even sure if Amelie knew the cause of Colt's untimely passing.

#4:This Doesn’t Really Do Much to Explain Felix’s Actions

Now before you say I'm being insensitive, let me make one thing clear: My issue isn't with the fact that this was done to get the audience to sympathize with Felix. The problem I have is that the backstory doesn't do enough to explain why Felix did the things he did.

Okay, Felix wants the Peacock Miraculous. Understandable, he doesn't want to die, so he has to do morally questionable things to preserve his life like betraying the only person capable of stopping the man who can kill him. What's less understandable is his plan to get the Peacock Miraculous from Gabriel. You'll notice that the backstory didn't mention Felix's first appearance, where he only stole the rings belonging to Amelie's family, and he didn't even think to look for the Peacock. Instead, it cuts from Felix realizing he's a Sentimonster to him striking a deal with Gabriel, not even mentioning that he gave Gabriel back one of the rings as part of the deal, which still makes no sense.

If Felix's goal from the start was to get the Peacock Miraculous, why did he bother stealing all of Marinette's Miraculous as a bargaining chip for the deal instead of the family ring? In fact, why did Felix even steal the ring and wait an entire season to trade it back to Gabriel for the Peacock a season later? And for someone who claims to care about Adrien, he really didn't see anything wrong with giving Gabriel one of the two rings capable of overriding his free will.

As a matter of fact, why the hell is Felix even so hostile towards Adrien? Why did he go out of his way to smear his reputation in his debut episode if all he wanted to do was make a bargain with Hawkmoth? In “Risk”, he mocked Adrien for how he talked, while Adrien himself was aware of how he made him look bad in front of his friends, and that's not even getting into how he made himself look like Adrien as part of his plan to betray Ladybug, which would have screwed him even more if Adrien wasn't already Cat Noir. For someone who claims he wants to protect him from Gabriel, Felix really doesn't care about his cousin all that much.

In fact, why does Felix even hate Gabriel at all? The show hinted that the two had a history, yet during the backstory, which I need to remind you, was told from Felix's perspective on the events, has a surprisingly generous portrayal of Gabriel. Did Felix know Gabriel was Hawkmoth/Shadowmoth/Monarch during his first appearance? Does Felix blame Gabriel for how Colt treated him growing up? Does Felix hate Gabriel for how he treats Adrien? Did Gabriel intend to get Colt sick in the first place? Seriously, what is Felix's deal with Gabriel?!

How does a flashback organized by Felix himself do nothing to really explain why he did the things he did?

#5: The Fact That There Are STILL Several Unanswered Questions Here

For something meant to fill the audience in on several important topics, there are still so many questions about the history of the Agreste and Graham de Vanily families.

Other than the vague backstory about them being rich, we still know nothing about Emilie and Amelie other than them being rich and possibly infertile. We don't know if Amelie ever loved Colt, if she knew he was abusing Felix, or if she even knew if he used the Peacock to play god.

On a related note, why did Emilie and Gabriel decide to use the Peacock Miraculous to create a son instead of adopting? Scratch that, why did she specifically create a Sentimonster to give birth to like a normal baby? Was there some kind of Macbeth-esque guideline that Emilie had to give birth to a child in order for said child to get the inheritance? Did she use the ring to control Adrien like Gabriel does now? Seriously, this is the character the show's conflict is all based around, and we still know nothing about her other than the fact that she was nice.

This flashback just makes no sense, and is such a stupid and confusing way to deliver exposition.

Anyway, during all this, Cat Noir and Nightormentor are fighting, and for the third time this season, Cat Noir attempts to Cataclysm him someone, even when he had Nightormentor pinned down. Nightormentor breaks free and hits Cat Noir with his magic dust, causing him to hallucinate... Cat Blanc?

Yeah, the script calls this form “Anticat”, but given how it looks like a reused Cat Blanc model coupled with the petrified people of Paris, this is clearly meant to bring Cat Blanc to mind. The problem is that NEITHER CAT NOIR OR NIGHTORMENTOR KNOW ABOUT THAT. Why would you remind audiences about an Akuma that technically never existed?

Better yet, is this what Cat Noir trying to his Cataclysm on people this past season (Destruction, Jubilation, Derision) has been building up to? The fear that he'll lose control? You could have fooled me, as he never really showed that much remorse for almost hurting people other than Monarch. Yeah, you could argue that because Nightormentor based his hallucinations off his victims' worst fears, but again, this fear had little to no buildup this season because Cat Noir never felt any guilt for Cataclysming Monarch after “Destruction”, and whenever tried to use his Cataclysm on other people, Cat Noir never really realized the weight of his actions. If you want to make a character arc about Cat Noir worrying about hurting people with his powers, go more into the guilt he feels for hurting Monarch and using that guilt to affect his actions. Don't just use some “Cat Blanc” nostalgia bait to convince the audience that there's been a character arc.

Nightormentor takes advantage of Cat Noir's emotional state to get his Miraculous, only for the Resistance to save Cat Noir by... throwing stuff at him. And this is how they defeat him. While Nino, Alya, Ivan, and Zoe distract Nightormentor, Kim and Max help Cat Noir focus, Cat Noir Cataclysms Nightormentor's baton.

Zoe traps the Akuma in a jar, Cat Noir doesn't take it, he heads off to detransform and confess to Marinette, only for the hallucination to still affect him since Ladybug didn't use Miraculous Ladybug to fix the damage, and even though he knows it's just a hallucination, he still uses it as a reason to not reveal his identity to Marinette, even after Ladybug de-evilizes the Akuma herself.

The episode ends with Gabriel and Tomoe locking Adrien and Kagami in these white rooms while under heavy surveillance to ensure they won't escape, vowing to start “Operation: Perfect Alliance”. Because these two like using the word “perfect” more than they like subjecting their children to what one of my anons referred to as “white torture”.

Because that's a good way to keep your children under control: psychological torment.

Other than the stuff with Felix and Kagami, this episode was pretty dull.

There's just not much I can really say here. The plot was barebones, all Marinette did was listen to Felix and Kagami's story so the writers didn't have to involve any of them in the main conflict, and even Cat Noir confronting his akumatized father doesn't have a lot of weight to it because towards the end, it focuses more on Adrien's nightmare instead of his relationship with his father.

This episode is nothing more than a prologue for the final battle. It's only here to establish Adrien and Kagami's presence in London, Marinette learning Gabriel is Monarch, and even more setup for Gabriel and Tomoe's final plan. And trust me, the buildup will be far from worth it.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS... FELIX

It's amazing. The only time this season Felix goes out of his way to actually help Ladybug, and he still screws it up. He abducted Kagami from her hotel in London without thinking of Tomoe hunting him down again when that was the entire plot of “Pretension”, only decided to tell Marinette he knows who Monarch is because he's getting in the way of his relationship with his girlfriend, did so in an unnecessarily convoluted way, and even though he made a big deal about not wanting to use Sentimonsters in his last appearance, he still used one to tell Marinette his life story instead of just saying “My uncle is Monarch”.

And if you think Felix will get a chance to truly redeem himself in the finale, think again, bucko. Other than a brief cameo, this is the last thing he'll do this season. Aren't you glad the writers made this character prominent for seven episodes over three seasons and did nothing else with him?

#immaturity of thomas astruc #iota #miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug salt #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug #adrien agreste #cat noir #felix graham de vanily #argos #gabriel agreste #hawkmoth #hawk moth #monarch #nightormentor #kagami tsurugi #nathalie sancoeur #tomoe tsurugi #emilie agreste #amelie graham de vanily #colt fathom #Youtube

[kedreeva]

On one side of me is an elderly couple I never see, and to the other side down the road is a little 4-spot apartment complex we call The 4plex. It's very small- I've only been in one of them, but it was basically a 1-bedroom apartment. I have only met a couple of the tenants, ever, since I mind my own business and they mind theirs. A long while back, there was a couple there that used to have screaming matches in the middle of the night (11pm-1am usually). They disappeared shortly after I stormed the castle at 4am because someone was blasting her horn trying to get the tenant to come fight her. at 4am on a workday.

I have also never met the person who actually owns the 4plex. Today I heard a bunch of commotion over there, construction sounds or at least lots of sawing, and big machinery, so I took Bug out to go see what we could see. We found a bunch of trucks trimming and cutting down trees. Not bad, the pines over there cause me problems if a bird gets out. So I turn and go to get the mail before heading back in.

I'm about halfway across my property when I hear someone calling me. not by name, so I turn to see Some Guy bolting across my orchard to catch up to me. I stop, and he comes up slower and introduces himself as the owner of the 4plex, and explains that he's cleaning up the property, the trees and removing the old sheds no one uses, and getting ready to sell it. I introduced myself, and as if we are in a grocery store checkout line, he begins to tell me a bunch of information while I nod along, and when I notice Bug is under his feet, I ask him to hold still, and point her out. He had not noticed her at all.

I scooped her up and introduced her, and let him hold her. He took a few pictures and I said, she's a baby peacock. That's when something clicked and he went from kind of tired and polite to excited and happy. He took more pictures. I offered to let him come see the other birds, so he came back and pet Stan, and fed Indie some peanuts out of his hand. I gave him the peafowl eggs I found in the pens we visited, and a dozen quail eggs from the quail, and sent him on his way, assuming I would likely never see him again.

just now I was out in Indie's pen, lying in the grass with Bug, watching the puffy white clouds inch across the clear blue sky, and listening to a little finch sing his heart out on a mulberry branch above me. Indie was preening nearby. Absolute peace.

Someone starts shouting my name from my driveway. It's Some Guy 4plex owner. He has returned. I call that I'm out in the pens, without getting up at all. He comes out and he's got a bag with him and he tells me I had got him an eggcellent breakfast, and really made his day (his week, his month), so he'd brought me a steak for dinner, and some corn. He sets down the bag and crouches to say hello to Bug again, and then tells me he showed his pictures to his sister in Texas and she didn't know what baby peafowl look like, either. Then said he's off to pay the tree removal folks, and disappeared again.

This is like the third interaction with neighbors I've had this month, after not talking to them for 10 years. I don't know what is going on.

#stories about ked's life #there's zero chance I cook this steak without Bug throwing a fit #also it's a NICE steak too from our local butcher #I assume the corn is too #it was very sweet of him to come back #he told me several times that I lead a strange life out here #and on the one hand I feel you buddy #and on the other you do not know the half of it

[jarviscockerssecrethusband]

Steve had heard a lot about Billy before he ever met him.

The Hargrove’s had arrived during Shabbat so Steve was busy trying to wrangle his dyslexia into actually reading Hebrew for once while Hargrove was making his unforgettable impression on everyone. Still, Jonathan Byers and Dustin Henderson went to his Shul so Steve felt like he already knew the guy by the time Monday came knocking.

The way Henderson described him was like a cartoon monster, probably because he’d already developed a crush on his kid sister. The way Byers described him was almost with a quiet admiration. A guy flagging in small town Indiana had a lot of balls.

Hargrove was hot. Naturally. Almost scarily blonde, kind of like Jason Carver. Definitely Catholic. Could definitely ruin Steve’s life if he put his mind to it.

They didn’t officially talk until Halloween. Steve wasn’t drunk but he was one of the few. Tommy had been trying to get him to eat pork for a solid hour. Because it was so funny that Steve had religious dietary restrictions when they were all hammered.

Hargrove rolled his eyes and told Tommy to knock him off. He was about three inches shorter than Steve but he felt taller. Judging by the tightness of his leather pants, he’d been blessed by God in more than just his angelic good looks. That is, if the Christian God made angels who swayed slightly on their feet and were at the point of the night where everything smelled kind of old boots.

They ended up just talking. Nancy had gone god knows where after dumping his ass for Byers, Steve was pretty bummed after the sudden collapse of a year long relationship, even if he was slowly realising that he was gay, and Hargrove was happy to just have a chat. They debated the merits of Indiana Jones vs James Bond, then Steve drove him home.

The Hargrove house was absolutely fucking terrifying. Externally, it was just a fairly average place for a working class family of four but the confederate flag on Neil Hargrove’s pickup truck gave Steve pause. As did the old belt hanging out the back. Spikes attached.

Billy crashed at Steve’s instead. He said several lewd things about a mixture of girls and boys from Hawkins High, attempted to write a poem about Steve’s ass then promptly passed out and started snoring.

So. Billy Hargrove liked guys. Steve also liked guys. It wasn’t weird. Not unless Steve made it as such. They’d be fine.

It was not fine.

Billy had vanished by the time Steve woke up the following morning. He’d penned a short thank you note in very fancy handwriting, telling Steve that if anyone found out what had happened, he was dead. Eh. Steve had threatened worse.

He didn’t see Billy for about a week after that. Not until the blue Camaro parked outside the Byers. While there was a demodog just lying on the floor of the kitchen and Max was under Steve’s care.

Shit.

Steve sensed that flirting would not get him out of this one.

So he tried to act macho. Puffing out his chest. Peacocking just like Hargrove. Until Max’s ginger hair peeled out the window and he had to change tactics again.

Steve was not going to let his new crush get eaten by an alien. So he told him the truth.

Billy smoked five cigarettes right down to the filter while staring in horror at the creature on the kitchen floor. Ash got all over Joyce’s nice wooden floors. Nobody brought him up on it.

Then Billy’s face steeled and he fished a red bandana out of one of his pockets (Steve would pay attention to which side it had been on when he didn’t fear for his life) and grabbed his lighter.

“Let’s send these assholes to Hell.”

Steve couldn’t agree more.

Billy was not happy about having to sign a contract afterwards. Grumbling about how government was authoritarian bullshit. Still, he wrote his name with a flourish and asked to pull one of the scary government people to the side.

He did something unexpected when he finally emerged from the room afterwards. He kissed Steve. Apparently Steve hadn’t been making up a mutual crush in his head after all.

They had their first date a little before Christmas. Billy took him to Makeout Point. Fun was had. Then Billy drove Steve back to the Harringtons and made him watch Star Trek. Fucking nerd.

Six months went by and Steve never met Neil. He’d heard a lot about him, his opinion of African-Americans and Mexicans and Jews were dark and ugly and made Steve want to smash his teeth in. What cemented that opinion was that Billy was still coming to Steve’s with bruises patterning his torso, a split lip, broken toes.

It was the day when Neil had cracked Billy’s ribs that Steve decided to take matters into his own hands. Billy wasn’t well enough to come but Steve decided to have a little trip to the Hargrove’s, bat in hand. To have a talk.

Neil called Steve a kike and both of them faggots. There wasn’t a lot of talking after that.

Nobody knew quite where Neil had ran off to after that evening. Not even Steve. Not that he minded, as long as he stayed far away from Max and Billy.

He had Billy now, wearing his stupid leather pants as a joke, forcing him to watch more Star Trek. That was all that really mattered.

#billy hargrove #steve harrington #harringrove #harringrove ficlet #jewish steve harrington #tw antisemitism #tw racism #Neil sucks obviously #surprise Billy is bi and Steve is gay #tw alcohol use #just in case #tw abuse #tw f slur #tw k slur

[somereaderinblue]

Gotham's New Stray

Gotham Menagerie Menace AU: 1 | 2

-Lila swore off the ‘sausage tails’ hairstyle but by god she’s breaking that vow if only so she could use them to strangle Marinette.

-The past month has been an absolute shitshow circus.  Somehow, LB managed to defeat Hawkmoth who turned out to be Gabriel (jfc, just when she thought the asshat couldn’t sink lower) but *gasp* CN has betrayed her! Worse, Adrien is gone!

-So far, no one, not even LB herself, specified what ‘gone’ meant. Was he missing? Was he dead?? Nobody knows and it’s killing them.

-Poor Marinette is naturally heartbroken & worried sick and oh, it’s so romantic how she’s holding onto hope. Just look at the shrine she made for Adrien!

-(Lila will bet her entire Venetian Mask collection that she isn’t the only one who wants to burn the embodiment of a stalker’s delusions & entitlement to the ground.)

-Chloe was throwing money at PIs but with the Hawkmoth revelation, Andre wanted nothing to do with Gabriel, much less his son.

-Felix doesn’t believe he’s dead. Call it stubbornness, call it desperation, call it faith: Adrien was tenacious long before he got the miraculous with an animal said to have 9 lives.

-More importantly, Adrien would Cataclysm himself before betraying Paris (yes, he & the others know bcz secret IDs are bloody overrated).

-Lila, Chloe, Zoe, Nino, Nath, Marc, Felix & Luka are determined to get to the bottom of this but where do they start?

-Their first lead comes in the form of Nathalie.

-Nathalie, who tells them the instructions she gave Adrien; who also shows them the peacock & butterfly miraculous.

-When Adrien Cataclysmed his sperm donor (damn it, all of them would’ve paid to see that), Nooroo barely hid inside his miraculous in time to avoid damage. Luckily, his dormant state made it easier for Nathalie to snatch him & Duusu before LB could.

-Although very suspicious, they begrudgingly accept her help. An adult would make a better scapegoat cover anyway.

-While the others prepare to leave, Felix reaches out to his Gotham pen pal.

F: I’m coming to Gotham. D: And others say my humor is lackluster. F: I’m not kidding. D: And I’m not laughing. D: You’re also not the type to do something without reason. F: Damn right I’m not. I need your help.

-Before leaving, Nathalie tells them one last thing: she’ll hold onto the peacock (she’ll be damned if she lets another kid suffer for her mistakes), but someone has to wield the butterfly. It’s not combat-orientated but being able to empower someone in a place like Gotham? A boon they can’t waste.

Nathalie: Which one of you will accept this responsibility? Chloe: .....just to clarify, Hawkbitch was wearing that like, 24/7? Nathalie: Yes. Chloe: I love Adrien but ew, no, not it. Others: Not it! Nathaniel: Not- damn it! Lila: Twas fate.

-They could’ve sworn they saw Nathalie smile.

Meanwhile in Gotham.......

-Adrien was adapting.

-He’s found a decent building to stay in (Gotham was full of abandoned buildings), got a job at a hole-in-the-wall café & even better, the city was a fresh start for his alter ego!

-Rather than mope around, he’s more determined than ever to continue being a hero. His dad being a villain means he has more to atone for & Gotham may be a slaughterhouse but she never dictated who could play savior.

-He’s established a routine. Whenever he doesn’t have to work at the café/ run errands, he’s prowling around as Stray. He wanders around, helping wherever & whenever needed; saving a stray cat from cruel assholes with nothing better to do, stopping a mugger, befriending other kids who have it rough, he goes where there's trouble which happens to be everywhere.

-(Lots of crime means lots of work that requires lots of focus! Lots of focus means lots of time & less to be spent lingering on many repressed issues/traumas waiting to bite his ass.)

-He becomes a bit of an urban legend. Slowly but surely, he’s welcomed into the community. It’s imperfect & dirty but the slot he’s carving for himself fits him so much better than Paris’s ever did.

-Back home (...? Dare he call it that?), he’s trying his best to take care of all the kwamis. Each were unique & there was never a moment’s peace but Adrien loved them. These tiny gods gave him companionship & guidance despite what his father’s done to one of their kin. 

-They try to teach him everything Fu didn’t & he’s lenient with them. His territory has more paraphernalia for their interests than his. When Adrien’s gone, they use fractions of their powers to chase away any would-be-robbers, giving Adrien’s building the ‘haunted’ status.

-Whenever someone he saves offers compensation, Stray usually asks for some food to feed himself & the kwamis.

-(They probably don’t mind giving food bcz there’s the saying abt feeding strays. But hey, him hanging around means extra protection. It’s a fair price to pay.)

-One night, while feeding a bunch of strays, he gets a visitor.

-Catwoman (he's totally not fanboying, he is.)

-Stray is surprised & a bit scared bcz shit, what if he’s done something wrong? Was he trespassing? Was he unintentionally mistreating the strays?!?!

-Catwoman was simply curious. She heard rumors of a ‘Stray’ lingering around the Narrows. She half-expected the mini menace to be some hotshot punk in over his head but-

-She knows.

-She knows how to spot the signs of abuse with a certainty as familiar as it is painful. She’s seen them all: abused animals, abused women, abused children, abused partners.

-The kit covered it with puns, cockiness & charisma but he wasn’t fooling her.

-It wasn’t just the matching theme. They clicked & before he knew it, they were sitting together on rooftops every night to feed & pamper the strays. Some nights, they sat in companionable silence; others they gossiped & bantered each other into a friendly spar.

-Maybe it was the loneliness & lack of human companionship but Stray found himself looking forward to their nightly hang outs.

-Selina knew it wasn’t her place to take him in like Batman would've; but she tried to teach him some tips before the city’s cruelty could. The first time he appears with a cut on his cheek & a split lip, she doesn’t hesitate to treat his wounds.

-Stray wouldn’t call her a maternal figure (she's neither Emilie nor Nathalie), but he comes to view her as a reliable cool older sister/aunt figure. She was nothing like LB. They were parallel lines: heading in the same direction but never intersecting.

-He’s glad that he’s made a friend.

.

.

.

-But some nights, when he thinks the kwamis are asleep, all of them can hear him cry for the friends & lover he never got to bid goodbye to.

To be continued

#adribat #gmm au #miraculous ladybug #adrien agreste #nathalie redemption #marinette salt #WE NEED MORE ADRIEN & SELINA CONTENT #LET THESE TWO MEET #they can have a deep meaningful relationship without it being full on mother-child from the get go #that's what development is for #they look out for each other but never look AFTER each other bcz both sides have faith in the others abilities #if that makes sense #au of an au #selina kyle

[cyborg-franky]

Trade - Blue

After screaming at one another for such a short time we have become chaos haha.

This is my part of our trade @friedbluechicken

Marco x OC SFW

– How It Started..-

The sea was calm, the gentle breeze carrying the scent of the ocean through the window of the doctor's office, ruffling the papers stacked high on the desk. Marco sat on his chair listening to Ace talking about his last trip out on the striker. Ace leaned on the desk, idly rolling a pen around the desk as he chatted animatedly at Marco.

Marco frowned as he glanced around his desk, opening and closing the drawers the scrutinizing look on his face as he moved around the stacks of papers and medical books. He couldn’t find his favorite pen, the one that Thatch bought him for his last birthday, the golden pen with the peacock feather quill.

“And I was tellin’ Deuce about this one girl at the bar an- Marco, hey Marco, you distracted buddy?” Ace said with a frown, drumming his fingers on the desk, irritated that Marco’s attention seemed far away from their conversation.

“Huh? Oh, sorry Ace, I wanted to work while you talked but I can’t find my pen anywhere yoi.” Marco sighed in reluctant defeat, itching his head as his eyes did another sweep across his workspace.

“Why don’t you just use this one?” Ace suggested as he handed Marco the boring regular pen he’d been messing around with. “Not the same I don’t like the grip.” 

Ace gave him a look and Marco shrugged in response. “Is the pen your looking for gold? Big ass feather?” He nodded and Ace clicked his tongue, a grin spreading across his face, chuckling to himself as Marco sat there with his arms folded giving Ace a look. “Why?”

“Yeah, I saw Tori with it like an hour ago,”

Marco took his glasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose, that girl was going to be the death of him he swore it. Ace leaned back in his seat, the grin twisted into a smirk as Marco slipped his glasses back on and mumbled. “She likes you, birdbrain, she’s got it baaaad.” Ace teased lacing his hands behind his head, basking in Marco’s annoyance. “And how did you work that out yoi.” 

“No way in hell she messes with you this much to not have a crush on you. Don’t you remember when you were younger? To get someone's attention you tease them? Like pull hair, push them in puddles, take their stuff?” Ace could tell from the look on Marco’s face he had never done such a thing nor engaged in such behavior. “Man, I forget your like a thousand… anyway, it’s something that happens with normal people who can’t process their feelings…”

“Is that so?” “Yep”

Marco looked out the window, at the bright blue sky and mulled over Ace’s words, it would suit Tori’s personality, that sort of behavior. She was always playing these little tricks on him, nothing that was mean or harmful, just enough to get his attention. So, Tori had feelings for him? That was a lot to process. He couldn’t say they were one-sided, not at all. He rubbed the stubble on his chin as he put pieces together. Feeling Ace still staring at him with that smug look on his face.

“I think I also got a very clear look into what you were like growing up too, yoi.” Marco teased Ace, seeing the pink hue light up his freckled cheeks.

—---

— Feathers and Claws—

Flying through the night sky always made his heart sing, the feeling of cool air running through feathers and flame. Marco was blessed with the joys of both the sea and the sky as his endless domain, his eternal freedom. It did his soul good to dance among the stars, weave in and out of clouds. 

Marco was always tasked with scouting ahead, to make sure the sea was clear of trouble, not that anyone would be dumb enough to try and take on the Whitebeard Pirates but the less hassle the better. He flapped his mighty wings, slowly beginning his descent as he saw the giant ship he called home in the distance. 

He dipped down in the sky like a shooting star, flaring his wings out like a parachute of feathers, landing gracefully on the deck, those on watch greeting him with cheers and waves. He tucked his wings on either side of him, his beak picking at the loose feathers on his chest, completely unaware he was being stalked.

Tori could never help the feral instincts that flared up within her, still unused to the urges her devil fruit would pump through her. Zoans always had a mind of their own after all. The griffin stalked its prey, watching the golden chains of light that were the tail of the phoenix with great interest, her talons flexed, sharp points digging into the wooden planks as her wings folded neatly, the lions tail swished behind her as she resisted the urge to growl, not wanting to alert her prey to her whereabouts.

The phoenix lifted a wing, preening the flaming blue plumage, feeling safe and at ease, unsuspecting. And that was perhaps Marco's fault, being too relaxed when he knew there was another zoan onboard with certain urges.

Tori flew across the deck, talons outstretched and leaping through the air she pounced on Marco who let out the least dignified squawk, loud into the night causing other crew members to stop and stare as he was pinned on his back, paws pinning his wings as he gawked up at the creature, at Tori.

She grinned, proud of herself for knocking the great Marco the Phoenix on his back. His legs were useless as they stuck up in the air. She leaned down and nuzzled her face against his. The phoenix gave an annoyed grumble, a trill of bird song when Tori’s beak nuzzled his.

“Alright, you got me yoi.” Marco said and wiggled his wings. 

“Yeah I did, you aren’t so tough are you?” She said with a chuckle, turning into a human at the same time as Marco, she straddled him, her hands pinning his arms down still. He gave her a lazy smile in return and didn’t make an effort to move, just allowing himself to be at her mercy, enjoying watching her hair frame her face, lightly jostled by the evening sea breeze.

“I guess not,” He shrugged his shoulders and felt her let go of his arms, placing her hands on his chest, gazing down at him with affection shining in her eyes. Marco reached up and stroked her face. 

“Guys come on, we just had dinner,” Thatch called, causing them both to look over where he was leaning on the railings, smoking a cigarette, a sly smirk on his face and brows quirked at the display.

“Jealous?” She shot at the chef before getting up, offering Marco her hand, he allowed her to pull him into a sitting position, the smile never leaving his face as she went to playfully bicker with Thatch.

—-

–Games–

Tori hadn’t seen Marco in a few hours, he wasn’t hunched over his desk working like she had expected and he wasn’t in the kitchen sneaking leftovers with Ace. She sighed and flapped her wings behind her back, letting them take her out of the kitchen and out onto the deck.

That was when she heard Ace’s voice and she turned the corner to see Thatch, Marco, and Ace huddled around one of the tables, beers at their sides and a stack of playing cards as Thatch started to shuffle the deck.

“Alright fellas, I’m tired of taking firecracker’s cash, wanna put something else on the line?” Thatch asked, a wicked grin spreading across his face. Ace rolled his eyes and slouched in his seat, sipping his beer and sulking.

Marco raised an eyebrow and looked over at Thatch. “What did you have in mind?” He asked as Thatch started to deal the cards. “Loser has to take one of the nurse's outfits and wear it for a night!” Thatch chuckled and Marco rolled his eyes but chuckled along with his friend.

“I’m not wearing a dress,” Ace mumbled and sat up. “Then suck less boy, come one Fire Fist, wheres your sense of adventure?” Thatch teased.

The competitive streak that ran a mile wide in Tori completely peeked and her wings stopped, letting her drop to the floor the sound of her feet hitting the deck caused Marco to look up, smiling and waving his hand. “Tori!” He called as she stepped over.

“That bet sounds fun, I think Ace’s legs would look great in leopard print, though I think I wanna take down the big bird himself.” She said, smirking as she sauntered over, sitting next to Marco at the table.

“How about it? Wanna deal me in Thatch?” Tori reached over and grabbed Marco’s mug, taking a swig of the booze, eyes meeting Marco’s, a challenge as she finished off his mug of drink with a happy sigh.

“Alright then, let's do this!” Thatch cheered and dealt the newest player her hand.

The game wasn’t hard per say but Thatch and Marco were sneaky, even Ace was pulling out all the stops, not wanting to be the one stuck in the nurse's outfit. Marco peered over his cards, the same sly smile on his lips as always, an amazing poker face. He could tell Ace and Tori were both sweating it.

He could be a good boyfriend and take down Ace, saving Tori from the fate of a tight pink dress and thigh highs but he also very much wanted to see that. He played a card and Tori puffed her chest out, she was determined to win, or at least not lose at this point. Long had given up on trying to put Marco at the bottom now she was doing her best not to be the loser.

Cards slapped on the table, beers brought over here and there. Curses and mumbles, laughs and playful jabs around he table as it came down to the wire. Ace was sweating, shuffling the cards in his hands in some vain attempt to change the outcome, to change the numbers.

“Alright then, how’s this…” Tori proclaimed with a grin staring at Marco as she slapped down her hand. Ace cried out, laughing loudly as he slapped his down. “I beat your ass birdbrain!” He pointed at her and she stared at the cards… stared at Thatch… Marco, the cards.

“Awww fuuuuuck..”

–

“You look very good in this though yoi.” Marco hummed and tilted his head when Tori came out of the bathroom in the outfit, feeling ridiculous, a blush across her cheeks as Marco watched how she moved in the outfit, trying to pull down the hem of the dress.

“It should be you in this not me… “ She huffed as he walked over, placing hands on her hips. “If you don’t like it that much, we can get you out of them” Marco’s smirk grew as he gave her a hungry half-lidded gaze which caused her cheeks to go brighter pink than the dress.

“S-shut up..”

—---

#sfw #marco the phoenix #marco the phoenix x oc #one piece own character #one piece OC

[theloud]

At noon today (eastern time) Sam Gabriel, voice actor extraordinaire, will record chapter 4 of In the Bleak Midwinter, one of my fanfics, to turn it into a podfic. Anyone who enjoys amusing flubs can tune in to my Discord server. He’ll edit it into a polished podfic later.

This chapter has a lot of fun dialogue, so I’m looking forward to hearing Sam’s interpretations. I’m copying and pasting a bit here:

Cecilia was seated at her writing-desk by the window, with her back to him. She did not immediately turn around, but continued writing. Her blonde hair was even shorter than when he’d last seen her, revealing her graceful neck. Finally, she put down her pen and turned to him. Her blue eyes took him in. She crossed her ivory-stocking-clad legs, slender ankles and shapely calves, and Tom completely forgot what he’d planned to say. “I used to have a cat,” she said.

“Whenever he killed a mouse he would bring it into my sitting room and offer it to me as a gift. He thought highly of his mouse and it was beyond him to realize that anyone might have a different opinion of it.”

Tom looked at his bouquet in horror, for he certainly could not meet Cecilia’s cold gaze.

“I gave that cat away,” she added, salting the wound.

“For what it’s worth,” he tried, “I’m not particularly fond of purple hyacinths either, but the shopgirl assured me that they’re just the thing to convey deep regret and a request for forgiveness. If they don’t work, I’ll return them, as they’re clearly defective. That flower shop lacks the standardization and quality control that today’s customers expect from a modern business.”

He anxiously observed the effect of his words. Cecilia tried to suppress a smile, then gave up and tried to suppress a laugh, then gave up even that and let out a sound that was half laugh, half sob. “Oh Tom!” she cried. “How can you come here with two legs and two arms and a head as if you were a human being, when you’ve already proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are instead a catastrophe? You’re a train derailment, Tom. An earthquake. The Black Plague. An iceberg in search of an ocean liner. You’re probably responsible for erupting all over Pompeii. It would take more than a bunch of flowers to fix your reputation.”

“So what will it take?” asked Tom eagerly.

Cecilia sighed. “Do you have some list of caddish behaviors that you’re running through? Does your wife know you’re bringing flowers to your ex girlfriend?”

“That’s a metaphysical question I’m not qualified to answer. You see she’s dead. Hence my somber attire.”

“Oh, that’s rich. You’re still flashier than a peacock, Tom.”

“You used to appreciate—”

“I was a singularly stupid girl taken in by your deceptive charms. Well, not singularly, I was just one of the stupid girls. I mean, there was me, and Merope, and how many others?”

“What?! No, there was no one else.”

“Why would I believe anything you say? Now you’re saying your wife is dead? Is that some bizarre attempt to gain my sympathy? You just killed your wife in the hopes I’d feel sorry for you, didn’t you?”

“No! That’s a slanderous accusation.”

“So what did you kill her for, then?”

“I did not kill her! Well. I mean. Not directly.”

“Oh my god.”

“She died in childbirth, all right? So in a way it was my fault, but these things happen. I have the death certificate and everything. And a son, now. Suddenly everything’s different. So I thought, as long as everything in my life is changing so radically and unexpectedly, well, I might as well see if I can get you back in the mix somehow. I know that getting you to trust me again seems impossible, but a lot of impossible things have been happening to me as of late, so why not try for one more?”

#harry potter fanfiction #tom riddle sr #podfic

[indiacafe24]

9 Interesting Yet Lesser-Known Facts About Lord Ganesha

Lord Ganesha is among the most loved Hindu deities. People worship Ganesha, not only in India but in other countries like Indonesia and Nepal.Lord Ganesha is popular for his elephant head and gets worshiped as the God of wisdom and intellect.He is the God of good fortune. Lord Ganesha also blesses his devotees with prosperity and success.He is also known as the remover of evils and obstacles. Hence is also referred to as Vignharta. He is the first deity to get worshipped before beginning anything.There are several myths and anecdotes associated with Lord Ganesha. Many of them are well-known among their devotees. Yet, there are still many interesting facts about this elephant-headed God. Most people are unaware of it. Given below are nine such interesting facts about God.It is a well-known fact that Lord Ganesha is the son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. But, most people are unaware of the fact, that Goddess Parvati created Lord Ganesha.She did it at the behest of her friends Jaya and Vijaya. They told Goddess Parvati about Nandi and other Ganas.The Ganas followed the instructions of Lord Shiva only. Her friends said she should have someone who would do the same. So, Goddess Parvati created Lord Ganesha as her loyal Gana from the dirt of her body.There are several stories surrounding the broken tusk of Lord Ganesha. An interesting fact about the same is that he broke it himself. Rishi Ved Vyasa approached Lord Ganesha to write the epic Mahabharta. He wanted him to write at high speed to match his recital speed.Lord Ganesha accepted his request. But, he could not find a pen that would withstand the required speed. He tried different types of materials. But, Ganesha finally broke his tusk and used it to write the text.Most people in South India believe that Lord Ganesha remained unmarried. They believe he followed brahmacharya. But, in North India, people worship him as the husband of Goddesses Riddi and Siddi, the twin sisters.They are the goddesses of prosperity and intellect. The North Indians also believe that Lord Ganesha has two sons. They are Shubh and Labh, the gods of auspiciousness and profit.Based on Bengali mythological tales, once Lord Ganesha saw Goddess Durga devouring food. He asked her the reason for the same. So, Goddess Durga replied, “What if your wife does not give me enough food after you get married ?”.Hearing this, Lord Ganesha went outside and cut down a banana tree. He presented it to his mother and said that it was her daughter-in-law. This legend gave birth to the tradition of a banana tree presence during Durga Puja. It gets wrapped in a saree and adorned with vermilion. Then it gets placed on the right side of Lord Ganesha as his wife during the Durga Puja celebrations. Once, when Lord Ganesha was out for a ride at night on his mouse, he fell off his mount due to his weight. Chandra dev, the moon god, saw this incident and started laughing at the fat belly of Lord Ganesha.Lord Ganesha heard his laugh, and it turned him angry. He then cursed Chandra dev. He said whoever looks towards him will get incriminated with the false acquisition. Upon hearing the curse, Chandradev realized his mistake and begged Ganesha for forgiveness.Ganesha told him that he could not take back the curse. But he reduced its duration and made it effective only on Ganesh Chaturthi. It is the reason why people still avoid looking at the moon on Ganesh Chaturthi.One day Goddess Parvati got a divine fruit that both Lord Ganesha and Lord Kartikeya wanted to eat. The Goddess remained unable to take the call to decide who deserved the fruit more. So, she sought Lord Shiva’s help.Lord Shiva organized a competition between Lord Ganesha and Lord Kartikeya. He said, that whoever makes three rounds of the universe and returns first will get the fruit as the prize.Lord Kartikeya rushed off to complete the journey on his mount, the peacock. But Lord Ganesha stayed back and started circling his parents. Lord Ganesha completed his three rounds. Then Lord Shiva asked him what he was doing.Lord Ganesha replied by saying that for him, his parents were his universe. He had just completed three rounds of the universe. This impressed Lord Shiva enough to present the divine fruit to Lord Ganesha as the prize.As per Brahmavart Puran, one day Lord Ganesha was meditating on the banks of River Ganga. Devi Tulsi happened to be passing by that time. She got immediately attracted by the grace and glow of Lord Ganesha. Devi Tulsi put a proposal for marriage in front of him.But, Lord Ganesha denied her request, and this angered Devi Tulsi. To avenge her insult, she cursed Lord Ganesha. She said he will get married to someone soon against his own will. It, in turn, angered Lord Ganesha.He cursed Devi Tulsi and said that she would get married to a demon and will turn into a plant.It made Devi Tulsi realize her mistake, and she sought the forgiveness of Lord Ganesha.Although Lord Ganesha could not take back his curse but blessed Devi Tulsi. He said that she would get worshipped as an auspicious plant for generations to come.Once Lord Kubera, the god of wealth, became very egoistic about the fact that he was the wealthiest of all Gods. So he decided to organize a grand feast to show off his wealth and make them feel envious. He first visited Kailash to extend an invitation to Lord Shiva.But the supreme deity sensing his wrong intent asked him to invite Ganesha instead. He warned him about the latter’s insatiable appetite.But, Kubera, laughed off at the warning. He thought that it would not be difficult for him to feed the small child. On the appointed day Lord Ganesha went to his host’s home, where Kubera had prepared a lavish meal. But, Ganesha finished all the dishes in an instant and asked Kuber to give him more food.Kubera got new dishes prepared in even larger quantities. Ganesha ate them all and asked for even more. The process continued until Kubera seen left with nothing to feed Lord Ganesha. Realizing his mistake, Kubera went to Kailash. He sought Lord Shiva’s forgiveness and help.Lord Shiva gave him a bowl of kheer prepared by Goddess Parvati to feed to Lord Ganesha. When Lord Ganesha ate the kheer, his hunger got satiated, and Kuber’s ego got demolished.

To read more on Indian Culture, and Indian Lifestyle, do visit us at our website Indiacafe24.com.This Content has been taken from:https://www.indiacafe24.com/festivals/9-interesting-yet-lesser-known-facts-about-lord-ganesha

#indian culture #Indian lifestyle

[harvardfineartslib]

Wendy Red Star is a contemporary photographer and a multimedia artist who is a member of the Apsaálooke (Crow) tribe, raised in the Apsaálooke Reservation in Montana. Her work speaks to the complex interconnectedness of the present with colonial history in this country. From 2000 to 2004, Red Star studied art and Native American Studies as an undergraduate at Montana State University. She learned that the Crow Tribe’s traditional lands once stretched across most of present-day Wyoming and Montana (ca. 38.5 million acres), but it was reduced to less than 2.3 million acres between 1851 and 1905.

Red Star’s practice involves extensive archival research on the history and lands of the Crow Reservation. In her “1873 Crow Peace Delegation” project, she employs portrait photographs of the delegation members, using red pen to fill in the negative space with the individuals’ back stories and embellish certain details. For example, she highlights the peacock feather duster that Perits-Har-Sts (Old Crow) holds in this photograph, calling our attention to it. The rumor is that while visiting Washington D.C., the Crow Delegation attended a performance by a burlesque dancer, who gave each one a feather duster. Upon returning to the reservation, sub-chiefs and young Crow men wanted one of their own, thus creating a new fashion trend.

Red Star’s critical observations and extensive research on each historical image call for close looking and careful reading on the history of colonialism. The anecdotal story about feather dusters may be humorous, but it is also “a material reminder of the blatant disregard that government officials showed the Crow Delegation, and how far they would go to distract the delegation members from their crucial agenda of preserving Crow territories.” (p.50)

“It is critical to preserve and pass along culture, heritage, and shared values while also providing future generations with a sense of identity, solidarity, and empowerment.” – Wendy Red Star

Wendy Red Star’s work is currently on view at MassMoCA through May 2022.

Image 1: Front cover: Showing detail from “Apsaálooke Feminist #4,” 2016, Archival pigment print on photo paper, 35” x 42”

Image description: A woman and a child in Native American clothes posing for the camera

Image 2: Detail from “Portrait of Perits-Har-Sts (Old Crow) with His Wife, Ish-Ip-Chi-Wak-Pa-I-Chis (Good or Pretty Medicine Pipe),” 2017

Image description: Close-up of a young Native American woman gazing at the camera with texts written in red pen with arrows pointing to different parts of her. One arrow points to her head and the text reads 14 years old in 1873.

Image 3: Left page: “Portrait of Perits-Har-Sts (Old Crow) with His Wife, Ish-Ip-Chi-Wak-Pa-I-Chis (Good or Pretty Medicine Pipe),” 2017, Archival pigment print on photo paper, 25”x 17”

Right page: “Portrait of Crow Man, Se-Ta-Pit-Se (Packs the Bear or Bear Wolf) and His Wife, “Stays with the Horses,” 2017.

Image description: Page spreads showing two portrait photographs with texts written in red. Each portrait shows a man and woman in Native American clothes with a man holding a red feather duster.

#nativeamericanheritagemonth #nativeamericanheritage #wendyredstar #nativeamericanartist #womenartist #colonial history #apsaálooke #colonialism #photography #Oldcrow #crowtribe #fineartslibrary #harvardfineartslibrary #Harvard #harvard library #harvardlibrary #massmoca

[geminidentitycrisis]

The Scent of Leather and Hairspray

Present Mic/Hizashi Yamada x F!reader ONESHOT

(WARNINGS! - swearing)

---------

Sooooooo, I have a new favorite Pro, I guess haha

I hope you enjoy, and if you're underage, pretend you're older because I get it, I'd be Hot For Teacher too, but he's not a pedo sorry......

----------

You sighed as, upon exiting the store where you just purchased a frozen drink, the men you passed to enter that store started catcalling you. Just what you needed at the end of a rough day...

"Hey Honey, you'd be cuter if you smiled...!"

"Don't listen to that shit, babygirl, you're sexy as hell, c'mere and hang out a while...?"

Ignoring them the best you could, you kept walking, but they didn't take that very well. "You think you're too good for us, that it, stuck up bitch? Where you think you're goin'?"

You could hear their footsteps approaching behind you and turned to face them after sipping from your drink.

"Guys, please, I've had a hell of a day today and my quirk would probably scar you both for life and what do you say we just don't do this, huh?"

They exchanged glances before fixing you with threatening glares. "You think you're tough, babygirl? We'll see how tough you are when we get through teaching you some respect..." the first one said.

"HEY!"

A voice called from behind you and suddenly an arm was draped gently around your neck. You froze, being caught off guard tended to prompt a panic response when you were so tired.

You smelled leather and an overwhelming scent of hairspray.

"What's the trouble, my homies? Pretty sure ya heard the lady, she ain't jammin' to the vibe ya layin' down, ya dig? Beat it."

Heart skipping a beat or two, your eyes grew wide and a blush flooded your cheeks. "That voice...?!"

You whipped your head up to see the one and only Present Mic.

"Ah! I knew it! I knew I recognized your voice, I catch your radio show every day! You're the Sound Hero, Present Mic!" he flashed a grin down at you, winking.

"Oooh, you've got good ears, Listener! Thanks for Hypin' me up like that! Always great ta meet a FAAAN!" he responded in his commentator voice.

One of your would be tormentors interrupted angrily. "Hey, peacock head, why don't you mind your business?"

"PEACOCK...?! You boys best get ta steppin', aight?! Don't make me beat you up in fronta this pretty girl!" he replied in annoyance after his attention was so aggressively stolen from you.

The blush came back in full force and you couldn't contain a dreamy sigh as your lashes fluttered, eyes lidding contentedly now that you felt safe again.

*he said I was pretty~!* you thought.

"You believe this banana hair lookin' motherfucker? You're about to get your ass whooped, fruity!" the other threatened.

"Hey bro, watch your language! There's a lady here!" with the arm around your shoulders, Mic carefully raised it and guided you behind himself as the two started walking towards you both.

"Enough..."

Another voice came suddenly from the other side of the parking lot and everyone, with the exception of the blonde who was guarding you, turned to see Eraserhead.

Suddenly these jerks weren't so confident.

"Get lost, both of you, and go straight home or I'll bring the two of you in right now for loitering and harassment." he said calmly but with deep authority.

Mic crossed his arms, glaring at the duo as they ran off after a mere moment of hesitation, his cheeks puffed out slightly. "What a couple creepozoids! You okay, Pussy Cat...?" he quickly spun around to check you out, striking a dramatic pose while pointing at you, the trademark grin already back in place.

You smiled up at him with admiration sparkling in your eyes, clasping the cup you held in both hands and tight to your chest, stepping closer to him.

"Yes, thanks to you! You're my Hero~!"

Mic felt his own chest swell with pride a bit, the grin on his face getting bigger as he relaxed his stance and shoved his hands in his jacket pockets.

Usually by now the damsel has already flung herself on Aizawa, but not only were you praising him, you recognized him from just his voice and he was impressed at that.

"I can't believe I was just rescued by my favorite Pro, I am your #1 fan! Please, are you patrolling the city tonight? Please let me buy you a coffee or tea or something?? Just as a thank you...?"

Hizashi laughed rather loudly, one hand emerging from his pocket to be placed over his chest.

"HAHA! Aaaww, how can I say NO when you ask so sweetly?! Coffee sounds like a rockin' idea right about now!"

"Ugh, we don't have time for this, Mic..." Eraserhead complained tiredly.

Eyes rolling in exasperation, the blonde groaned twice as loud. "ugGHHH!! Don't be such a buzzkill, yo! I'll get you one, too, just chill!" with that, he trailed after you back into the store.

You watched as he doctored up the coffee you poured for him, blushing again when he threw a hint of a smirk your way, using the tip of his finger to lift the gold tinted shades he wore and showing you his emerald green eyes. "Don't worry, I'll pay for my boring friend..."

Smiling, you bounced on your heels. "Damn right you will, I'm not HIS fangirl, after all..."

This promoted a slight blush to his face, but he maintained that knockout grin. "Ha! Well, good thing his best friend is here at least, lucky for him I tagged along tonight, huh??"

"Lucky for both of us..." came your soft reply from over your shoulder as you turned to walk away, your hips swaying temptingly had definitely not escaped his notice.

He followed you to the checkout counter and placed some money beside yours, his ungloved fingertips brushing against your own when he does. Leaning down closer to you, he cocked his head, pushing his shades down his nose this time and raising a brow.

"Does my #1 fan have a name...?"

Your smile bloomed again, blushing up at him. "It's  _______...but I might prefer you calling me Pussy Cat...~"

Saying that last bit, you applied a sensual undertone which he picked up on instantly, making his blush spread over his face and grow darker as he chuckled in amusement.

When you guys walked out the door, you noticed Eraserhead seemed really annoyed but tried to ignore him, looking up at the Voice Hero hopefully.

"Listen, I know you're both busy, but if you have just one more second to spare, I can't tell you how much it would mean to me if I could get your autograph..."

Looking away awkwardly, he made a pained expression. "Aw, man, I dunno, we are kinda in a hurry here and stuff..."

You felt your heart sinking when he startled you with another loud laugh. "Hahaha, gotcha! JK! Of course I will, I ain't gonna leave ya hangin' like that, no way, that ain't my STYYYYYYYYLLLE!"

Giddy with excitement, you let out a tiny squeal, quickly fishing out a small notebook and pen from your purse as he set the cups down. When you handed it to him, his fingers brushed yours again, making you bite tenderly at your bottom lip.

They were so warm and soft...

He had started to whistle a cheerful little tune as he spun the pen between his fingers before starting to write in your book, it took longer than you expected, clearly longer than Eraser expected, too.

"Say goodbye to the girl, Mic, it's time to keep moving!" he didn't yell, exactly, too lazy, but he had raised his voice since last.

"YEAH, YEAH, I HEARD YA!!! Gimme a sec, ALRIGHT?!" the volume of the blonde's reply actually made your eardrums flinch and quiver this time, but you smiled anyway as he defended you again.

"There ya go! And hey, just to spite my buddy over there, I wouldn't mind walkin' ya home ta make sure ya get there safe."

The blush came right back, clutching the book to your heart, you gave a weak smile. "No, no, it's okay, really...I took up too much of your time already, and I only live around the corner from here..."

Eyes closing momentarily while you gathered yourself, you took a deep breath before confessing. "...I cannot express how grateful I am for you...not just for saving me tonight, but also for your talk show, hearing your voice over the radio gives me strength and motivation every week...it means the world to me...thank you..."

Beckoning him by flexing a finger, you stood on your tiptoes and pressed a sweet kiss against his cheek when he leaned in curiously.

Eyes widening, his whole face became scarlet red and his grin stretched from ear to ear. "AW, YEAH!"

He jumped, pumping his fists in the air and then proceeded to shoot you with his finger guns while  winking again. "Listen, I dropped my digits on that piece'a paper ya got there, Shawty...hit me up sometime if ya wanna chill! I'm down for whatever!"

You were caught off guard by that and checked the page he signed for you, finally reading what he wrote down as he rambled on as background noise about how he wasn't a creep like those other guys and you could say no without worrying about him making a scene, he just had to shoot his shot, I mean you DID kiss ME first ya know...

"For my #1 fan, _______...Thanks for the coffee and stay outta trouble! ...and maybe call or shoot a txt, if your feelin' this funky vibe, too? Live loud, Pussy Cat ;) don't ever let anyone try an put the mute on ya! XOXOX PRESENT MIC!!!"

Followed by his phone number, and there were little hearts drawn around the page.

You were already blushing when he surprised you again by returning your gesture and swooping in to plant a kiss on your cheek this time.

Reaching up to touch the spot, you smiled up at him shyly. "I can't wait...please be safe out there..."

"You got it! SEE YA SOON!" The Pro nodded vigorously, giving an enthusiastic wave of goodbye before grabbing his and Eraserhead's drinks, practically bouncing with every step.

It made you giggle, but you were trying not to get your hopes up too much. For all you knew, he gave his number out to every girl that asked him for a signature.

"Are you happy now...?" Shouta grumbled, taking the cup being offered as he turned to resume patrolling. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! HECK YEAH I AM! I'M ON CLOUD NINE RIGHT NOW, I JUST MET MY FUTURE WIFE!!!!!!!!"

You heard him very clearly, the blush traveling all the way down your neck this time, and you couldn't help another small giggle, your heart fluttering with happiness like the wings of the butterflies in your belly.

He just had that effect on you.

Glancing down at the notebook in your hand as you sipped your quickly melting frosty, you noticed in the bottom right corner was a little arrow, below which was written the word "flip".

You looked up again but the two Pro Heroes were already gone.

Curiously, you flipped over the page.

MARRY ME?!?!!

a. YES!!!!!

b. a

c. b

That smooth sonuvabitch had you blushing and giggling all night.

#hizashi yamada #present mic #my hero acadamy #my hero academia #mha present mic #boku no hero academia #bnha present mic #mha hizashi #bnha hizashi #hizashi yamada x reader #present mic x reader #hizashi x reader #hizashi yamada x you #present mic x you #aizawa shouta #eraserhead #mha x you #bnha x you #mha x reader #bnha x reader

[star-ocean-peahen]

ALBW/LA Link (Legend) makes up people in his dreams to love but loses them every time he wakes up

He started seeing them after his first adventure, when his thoughts had dimmed to shades of gray.

The first one was an elfin dryad, slipping through the stream of colors that was his dream and playfully sweeping him close. She held his shoulders and tilted her head, smiling, before pulling him in for a gentle kiss. Everything was warm and quiet, and Link felt like he could stay there forever, but then he was blinking awake in tangled bedclothes, cheeks and ears cold.

He always thought of this as his first kiss.

The next one was a knightly brother, who held a shield over his head to shelter him from the arrows raining down, and offered him his hand with a grin that made Link feel warm from the inside out. His embrace was as warm as his smile, and surrounded by his protective hold, Link let himself fall apart.

He woke curled up against a tree, tips of nose and ears bitterly cold, with tears dripping down his face.

The one who found him next was a monstrous warrior, set to hunt him down and plunge a knife into his back. Like so many of the times in the waking world, he faced her down, yet unlike them, when he pleaded her to stop, she listened. He faced the oncoming horde with the burning flame of courage in his chest: that he had saved a foe and made it his friend.

When he woke, it was like he had failed, and her cooling body lay dead at his feet.

Again and again and again, he dreamed and he dreamed and he dreamed.

Held captive in a hellish house, he led a young girl past blazing eyes and brandished sticks, entreating her not to give up hope. They could see the boundary line from where they crouched, hidden, but a gnarled hand clenched his shoulder, and Link awoke to a thundering sky and mournfully dripping ceiling.

Her shoulder had been warm, but the thatch and bucket and sheets of rain were cold.

The sun was warm and her voice was sweet. She would smile at him, eyes winking closed and brilliant red curls spinning with her movements. Her skin was warmly brown and her hands firm yet limber, like the wings of a seagull soaring in the blue. He loved her and he held her and he would drive his sword through a thousand monsters to keep her safe and with him, because her smile gave him the warmth and color he could find nowhere else. He held her as tenderly as he would hold the part of himself that was joy, because that's what she was.

And then he wakes. Every sleeper must wake, every dream must fade.

There is so little to hold on to now, but the happiness of his dreams is still more reachable than the happiness of his waking life, if only in memory.

In his mind, he grasps the feeling of courage, of warmth, of joy, and tries to remember that these things are not exclusive to the dreaming world.

#loz #legend of zelda #albw link #la link #link's awakening #ahahahahahahahaha no i did NOT just figure out why i dreamed i was kissing shadow link four nights ago (/s) #whaaaaa this isnt based on personal experience at alllllll (/s) #im so fucking tired i know the ending sucks ass but it was the best i could do i ran out of steam ok #my writing #who gave the peacock a pen

[zaffrenotes]

[TRR] Kairos

Kairos - Part 14

Pairing: Liam x OC Series Rating/Warnings: 18+; language; series will include ns*w 🍋 scenes Chapter Rating/Warnings: G Author’s Note: * All main characters belong to Pixelberry, I’m just borrowing them * Kairos (καιρός) is a word in Greek that translates to “the right time” or “the right moment to act” * Liam’s wife asks about “the one that got away” one night over dinner, and Liam recounts a relationship from his past * This is my submission for @wackydrabbles Prompt 101: Were you ever going to tell me? * Author’s Note 2: * a very late, hastily proofread update thanks to early neighborhood fireworks and turning myself into an emotional support human to my dog (who hates loud noises) * Word Count: 1377 (5 minutes reading time)

Catch up with previous chapters here

“London?!” Max exclaimed. “We were there for Fashion Week! Is that why you switched your assignment to go with me?”

“Yes,” Benigno replied. “I could have used personal leave to travel there on my own, but the timing worked out in my favor and accompanying you was less conspicuous.”

“Were you ever going to tell me?” Tears had begun to form in Max’s eyes, upon realizing she’d been in the same city as her sister.

“With respect to you Miss, no.” Benigno looked over to see Max’s chin quiver as she fought the urge to break down in front of Liam. “First I needed to see with my own eyes if it was really her, and when I saw her…she asked me to keep her whereabouts a secret, Miss Max.” He glanced over to Liam before turning to face Max again, frowning at his confession. “I’m only telling you now because you’ve put pieces together, and it’s clear King Liam cares about Miss Elia, or he wouldn’t have asked about her after all this time.”

“How were you able to track her down?” Liam inquired.

Benigno gave him a small shrug before answering. “It’s better not to know the details, but I called in a few favors.” He reached into the breast pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small silver case, opening it to pull free a blank ivory card, before slipping the case back into his pocket. “May I?” he asked, reaching forward for one of the pens on the table. Liam nodded and Benigno wrote something on the back of the card; he leaned forward when he was done and returned the pen to the table, then stretched his hand forward, presenting the card to Liam. “If she’s still in London, this was her last known address from when I saw her.”

Liam glanced down at the address before tucking it into his pants pocket, nodding with solemn appreciation. “Thank you, Mr. Santos.” He looked over to see the eager expression on Max’s face. “I know by all accounts this ought to be handled by family, but it would raise suspicions if you weren’t present with the other suitors for all of the events.” The corners of Max’s lips turned down in a pout, though she nodded in agreement. “I’ll have to look at the schedule of events to see when I could slip away unnoticed, but I thank you both for your help tonight. You have no idea how much this means to me, to even have this small bit of information.”

-

A muted beam of sunlight filtered through the wispy curtains, and Liam stretched his arms above his head before rolling on his side to shut off the chirping melody from the alarm on his phone. After a cursory glance at the notifications that rolled in overnight, he placed a call to room service to order breakfast and took a shower. Once he’d eaten and dressed, he left the hotel and took to the streets of London, in search of the first woman who captured his heart.

Nearly an hour later, Liam stood across the street from a row of houses. He checked the pinned location on the map on his phone, breathing deeply to calm his nerves. With only a few feet separating him from his past and possible future, he slipped the phone into his pocket and crossed the street, making his way to the front door. His heart fluttered at the sight of the knocker on the door, in the shape of a brass peacock. Taking the ring in hand, he knocked it against the plate secured to the door and waited for someone inside to answer.

He wasn’t sure what to expect when the door opened, but seeing an older woman with greying hair and tortoiseshell spectacles was not on his list. She cracked the door open just wide enough to block the entry, wary of the unscheduled visitor standing on the doorstep. “May I help you?” she asked, eyeing Liam cautiously.

“Forgive the intrusion,” Liam replied. “My name is Liam Rys, and I’m looking for Miss Young. I was told she lives here.”

“She does…I’m Mrs. George, the caretaker. Do you have an appointment?”

“No ma’am. I’m a rather old friend of hers and I’m only in town for a day between business meetings. I was hoping to say hello, possibly catch up over lunch if she’s free.”

Mrs. George set her lips in a tense, dubious line. “I’m afraid the lady of the house isn’t here at the moment, and unscheduled visitors aren’t allowed in.” She craned her neck out towards Liam. “And if you’re truly a friend of Miss Young, you’d know how much she dislikes surprise guests.”

Liam sighed, his shoulders slumping in tandem as he exhaled. “Mrs. George, this may be the only opportunity I have to speak with her for the foreseeable future. I’m not certain when I’ll be able to travel to London again, or whether she’ll be here when that time comes.”

Mrs. George scrutinized Liam’s face, then let out the tiniest gasp as she straightened her posture in the doorway. “When did you see her last?”

“It’s been three, nearly four years, give or take a few weeks.”

Mrs. George continued to study Liam’s face for a moment, then nodded to herself. “I’m not at liberty to disclose her precise location, but Miss Young spends most mornings walking through Holland Park. You’ll likely find her there at this time of day.”

Liam’s face lit up with renewed hope, and he stepped forward, shaking hands with the kind woman. “Thank you, ma’am.” He turned and walked down the short path to the gate, waving to Mrs. George as she watched him from the front window. He wondered what could have prompted her to disclose even such a general location for Elia, perhaps unaware that she’d been living under the fake name Benigno had used on the passport given to her all those years ago.

It didn’t take Liam very long to reach one edge of Holland Park, though he had no idea where to start looking for Elia. With another deep breath to calm his nerves, he decided to begin his search by walking the perimeter and slowly working his way inwards, in hopes of crossing paths with Elia.

Forty minutes and countless steps later, the only thing Liam found was a thin sheen or perspiration across his brow as he balanced walking with purpose and blending in with others meandering through the park. He was strolling along one of the paths past a playground, when he heard the familiar screeching birdcall of a peacock; he laughed to himself, recalling the reserve on Kos and the trips he’d taken there with Elia.

Liam thought he might’ve been foolish to think he could find Elia in less than a day, when she’d spent nearly two years completely under the radar. She’d taken a risk in sending money to Benigno, and she’d trusted him more than anyone to keep her secret. She’d never bothered to reach out to Liam, even before he’d gotten married; he began to doubt whether she’d even want to see him now.

He was so lost in thought that he nearly collided with a small child pointing at a peacock a few yards away. “Mama, mama! Pfau! Pfau!” Liam dodged the little boy speaking German that stopped in the middle of the path to point. He smiled as he looked down to see the boy’s excited face, then froze in shock.

“Billy! Slow down, sweetheart!”

Liam’s heart seemed to stop, hearing Billy’s mother call out behind him. He knew that voice. Throat suddenly dry, he forced a cough and dared to turn around, eyes trained on the ground, too nervous to look the mother in the eye right away. She had on a pair of nondescript black leather ballet flats, black dress pants, and a cranberry cashmere sweater set. Her obsidian hair was swept up in a purposefully messy updo. She was just as beautiful as he remembered. When he caught her eye, he grinned softly at her, and her jaw slackened enough to let her mouth fall into a perfect O.

“Liam? Is that you?”

#the royal romance fanfic #trr fanfic #choices trr fanfic #choices trr au #the royal romance au #the royal romance fanfiction #trr fanfiction #trr au #trr liam x oc #trr king liam x oc #wacky drabbles #wacky drabbles prompt #zaffrenotes writes

[hpdabbles]

Drarry prompt: Harry showing Draco muggle stuff in first year

Draco Malfoy stares at the strange object in Harry Potter's hand, try to wrap his mind around a quill that wasn't charm, wasn't warded, hell didn't even have runes carved into it, but was still able to self ink itself.

Potter called it a "fountain pen", one he had stolen from his uncle and cherished just for the victory against the man. He refuses to write with anything else since he got it, and besides Snape, none of the professors had any problems with it.

It bothered the Malfoy a great deal that his boyfriend's strange pen and other muggle contraptions grab his attention so much but they were new, shiny, and he needed them for his rapidly growing collection of things he didn't understand but wanted.

His favorite was the light-up objects Potter brought like the glow in the dark pencil and the shining ball of light with a glowing jewel.

The only reason he was dating Potter in the first place, was because Potter picked up on the fact Draco liked things that light up and had cut him a deal. The Boy-who-Lived would bring him muggle things and Draco made sure all his crazy female fans stayed away.

It was a deal that the two have been keeping since the first year.

It had all started when he had come to introduce himself to the boy on the train, hoping to establish a mutual partnership for Hogwarts.

His father always said "the first owl to nab the envelope is the owl with the information" and in this case, that meant being the first one to befriend Potter.

And why not? Potter was the most famous person in their generation while Draco was the richest. It only made sense that the elites like them grouped together. So he spent the first ten minutes of the Hogwarts train ride walking door to door looking for the Boy-Who-Lived.

He had an entire speech ready for when he would eventually find Potter but upon opening the door, that plan came to a screeching halt as he watched Potter place a grey crup on the seat cushions. The redhead boy that was sharing the room with him was leaning in close and all wizards-minus Potter- jerk back in surprise with the miniature crup did a flip.

"That was brilliant!" The redhead cheered "Can it do anything else?"

"Oh no, it only comes with one command." Potter reply taking the strange animal and twisting its legs in circles.

"What are you doing to that poor crup!?" Draco screeched. He never liked hurting animals, not after being raised surrounded by the ones at the manor. The white peacocks being his favorite.

Potter turns to him looks surprise. "Crup?... Oh, you mean my Robo-dog?"

"I don't know what breed of crup that is but how dare you, abuse it like so- augh you took off its head!" Draco screamed pressing himself into Vincent and Gregory who was behind him attempting to distance himself from this psychopath. The messy hair child only laughs at them, making the three visitors pale before the redhead interrupted.

"It's a charmed object! Not a real crup!" Weasley screamed. "Trust me I reacted the same way, but look it's made of metal, not flesh."

Potter held out the crup head and after a moment Draco took it. His stomach twisted over itself as he stared at the poor small thing, a cruppy he thought sick until he realizes that yes it was in fact metal.

Potter turns the body to show off strange cylinders inside the creature's body. "See? Just a battery-run toy you get at any store."

He then pushed his hair out of his face showing off the most dazzling green eyes Draco has ever seen to offer a smile at him. "Want to see it jump again?"

And that had been that, Draco spent the whole ride with Potter pulling rubbish after rubbish from his truck showing off muggle innovation and Draco was hanging off his every word. He had notebooks with white and blue striped parchment that was soft to the touch, heating patches for his hands, bright-colored blankets with still images, and the most impressive thing of all. A Lumos inside a glob he called a "night light" that his cousin put into his trunk as a prank.

Apparently, it was an object for babies since it played a lullaby while it was active. Potter was very put off by the note that came attached to it.

Draco begs Potter to let him buy it because the night light had stars on it, it was his mother's family namesakes all right there! Potter the sweetheart gave it to him for free, closing the blinds so the room was filled with darkness and they could see how the night light worked. It was also battery run but it shot out lights of the sky's constellations all over the room. Ever pureblood was amazed especially when they realize Harry didn't even have to use magic to turn it on.

He hadn't realized he placed his head on Potter's shoulder falling asleep to the soothing light until Vincent tease him over it on the boat ride and unfortunately Potter had been riding in the other boat close enough to hear. He had gotten the idea to pretend to date right then.

Before he was sorted Draco was Harry Potter's boyfriend who showered him in new shiny objects daily.

"Pssshhh Draco" Potter calls bringing him back to the present. In his hands is a strange black ball. "Want to see your future?"

Draco sighs leaning in to press a kiss to Potter's check because a pair of Ravenclaws were glancing over too much. At once Potter's face turns an endearing shade of pink "Absolutely I do. "

"Okay so this is called a magic eight ball and it works by..."

Draco may sign up for divination next year. With his new muggle object, he will pass with flying colors since this gave a direct answer.

#Hpdabbles #Harry Potter #Drarry #Fake dating #Au boyfriends since first year #Draco is a bird collecting shinny objects for his nest #In which Harry makes a Arthur Weasley out of Draco

[syndianites]

A Queen Serve and Protects

Chapter Six

First Chapter –> Last Chapter –> Current –> Next Chapter TBA! Summary:

Post-Style Queen, Pre-Queen Wasp.

Chloe finds the Bee Miraculous, but instead of finding an obliging, subservient Kwami, she finds the Kwami of Order and Subjugation, and Pollen is not about to let herself be used like Nooroo was.

Granted, the only danger in a teenage girl is the damage she poses to herself. Can Pollen shape Chloe into a hero? Or will she stubbornly refuse to change and remain the bitter, harsh person the city has long since known?

[My take on how Chloe’s character could have developed] ——————————————————————————————

Pollen tapped the tablet pen on the table. School had ended and the duo was officially home.

“Chloe,” Pollen began. “It has come to my attention that you don’t do your own work.”

“So?” Chloe nonchalantly replied, crossing one leg over the other from where she sat on the chaise in front of Pollen.

Pollen tried not to roll her eyes. “So, I want you to learn how to be self-sufficient.”

Chloe scoffed. “I am plenty self-sufficient.”

“Really?” Pollen had a sweet smile on her face. “Then prove it.”

:readmore:

Before Chloe could make any remark, Polle flew over to her school bag. It looked more like a purse, honestly, with how much makeup and accessories she had stashed away inside. Seriously, what did you need an extra pair of heels for?

Pollen shook off the thought and grabbed the binder Chloe used for class, as well as her homework folder. Brining both items back to the table, she flipped the folder open. She pulled out the first sheet of homework she saw- something math related- and waved a paw at it.

Chloe gave her a dumbfounded look. “You want me to do that? Sabrina normally does.”

Pollen raised an eyebrow.

“Ugh, fine, I get it.” Chloe grumbled. “What does doing my own work have to do with being self-sufficient anyway?”

“When was the last time you did your own school work.”

“Ughhhh!”

Letting out a little giggle, Pollen decided to make a compromise, “For every question you get correct, I’ll let you ask a question about the Bee miraculous and its powers. However!” Pollen held a paw up before Chloe could get too excited, “For each you get wrong, you have to listen to some history and background on the miraculous.”

“Ooo-kay? How is that a loss for me? I still get to know what I want to know,” Chloe replied.

If only the poor girl knew.

Pollen beamed. “I’m glad you asked! You know how much you love our ‘Bee Nice’ Sessions?”

Chloe groaned.

“Anything I tell you will come along with lessons. I will tell you tales that are important for a number of reasons. And you have to sit through all of them!”

Chloe’s eye twitched. That sounded excruciating. Buuuut, she did want to know more about what powers the Bee miraculous could give her. It was just a simple math worksheet. Surely, it couldn’t be that hard. So Chloe took out a blank sheet of paper and began working.

She was wrong. So, so wrong. Chloe was by no means a bad student. She got solid B’s and pleased her daddy enough with her grades to get by. Did she need to have a study session with Sabrina before each test or quiz to get the contents down? Yes.

But that was all pish-posh. She figured if she could pick up enough for a test or quiz a day before it, she could do homework with no problem. Apparently, she hadn’t been giving Sabrina enough credit. That girl made it so much easier than this.

It didn’t help that her notes were a total disaster. Half-finished sentences, unclear instructions, and a clear lack of interest in each page. For a moment Chloe cursed her own apathy. She wanted to know more, damnit! 

By the time she finished she felt exhausted. Pollen, ever chipper, hummed as she looked through each question. She procured a pen and started making marks. That was a lot of red. Oh GOD, there was so much red.

Pollen tapped the pen to her chin in thought. Giving a nod, she wrote a score at the top of her sheet.

6/15. 

That was just under half! And that meant she would have failed had it been a test. Chloe resisted the urge to hit her head on the table. She could not afford to be forced into tutoring. Again.

Despite Chloe’s despair, Pollen was excited. This was better than she was expecting! Sure, she had been hoping for closer to a 75% or 80%, but Chloe at least had the idea down.

Plus this meant she could drill some more lessons into her charge.

Rubbing her paws together, she addressed Chloe. “Alright. Since it is almost an even split, let’s go back and forth with questions and history. I’ll start with a history lesson first, since you missed more than you got correct. But since I’m feeling nice, I’ll give you a choice here: Would you rather hear some history about my previous holders first, or about all the miraculous as a whole?”

“Your past wielders, of course! I need to know who would be so lucky to use the same miraculous as moi.” Chloe flipped her hair back to accentuate her point.

Pollen huffed. Nonetheless, she thought back to her past holders, humming all the while. Who would be the best to start with to help Chloe learn? 

She smiled as someone came to mind. “Now, before we start, I should say that we aren’t always deployed to battle some great evil. Sometimes, we are let out into the world to help inspire something. For me, I either inspire Order and Control. Or, when that gets to be too much, I inspire freedom from Order and Control.”

“Wait,” Chloe interrupted. “Why would you go against your whole Order thing?”

“I thought you wanted to talk about past wielders first,” Pollen brought a paw up to her lips to hide a smile. “To get into that would mean I would have to talk about all the miraculous.”

“Ugh, fine, whatever. Tell me the basics about all the miraculous first. But! You better tell me about your past users after!” Chloe conceded, pouting at the little god.

Pollen started again. “Like I said, we don’t always need a great evil to fight. At their core, each miraculous is meant to balance out their respective aspects. Tikki- Ladybug’s kwami- is the kwami of Light and Creation, for example. She is largely put out into the world to inspire new ideas and innovation.”

Chloe scrunched her nose in confusion. “Didn’t you say you also get put out to stop Order and Control? Why would you ever want to stop Light and Creation?”

“Well,” Pollen looked off to the side. “You can’t endlessly create. Tikki works on a more individual scale. She inspires Light and Creation in people as individuals. I, however, inspire Order and Subj- Control in a much larger scheme. After all, a bee’s focus is on the hive, isn’t it?”

“In any case, sometimes people burn themselves out when creating too much or spreading too much light. If you give and give and give, what is left for you? Nothing. And those left with nothing often crumble and fall apart- or worse. Tikki, when she is needed to, can either help her holder ease off themselves or help their holder teach others to let go of such demanding responsibility.”

Chloe nodded slowly. That… sort of made sense. “So it’s like when Adr- a friend of mine kept being happy and smiling even after his mother died to help others stop being sad. Because he wanted others to feel ‘lighter’” She made finger quotes, “Despite the tragedy that happened?”

“Yes, that could be a good example,” Pollen agreed. “If your friend gave away all his light and such to others, it could burn him out and leave him feeling empty and cold. Though, in this case I would lean more into the Peacock- he worked to give good emotion to others to cover their grief. But we’ll get there in a moment.”

“Plagg, Chat Noir’s kwami, is Tikki’s counterpart. He is the kwami of Dark and Destruction.” Pollen stopped as Chloe seemed to ponder that.

“If he is all about dark and destruction, wouldn’t that make him more likely to be evil?” Chloe mused.

Pollen, for her part, wasn’t bothered by the question. “If I am all about order and control, wouldn’t I be more likely to use and abuse people?”

Chloe bit her lip, but shook her head no.

“Exactly. Just because that is what we represent it does not mean we are prone to be good or evil. In the balance of all things, there IS no good and evil. Really, it just comes down to what a certain group likes or dislikes, or how a person’s morals are aligned.”

“Okay, no, Hawkmoth is totally evil. There is no doubt about that. How could taking control of others and using their emotions to turn them into monsters be seen as a good thing?” Chloe didn’t like the idea of Hawkmoth being in the ‘right’ at all. It went against everything he had done to Paris.

“Well,” Polled offered, “Does Hawkmoth see himself as evil?”

Chloe sat back in her seat. If movies were anything to go by, he probably didn’t. She sighed and motioned Pollen to continue

Pollen pushed on. “In any case, Plagg is often put into the world to ruin things. Surprising, isn’t it? But sometimes the best things are made in the ashes of destruction. Growing from losing things is important for many people. Like how your friend lost his mom- he likely felt sad and lost. But if he grew from that? He could learn to see that others will have his back and he can lean on them. Even in the hard times.”

Chloe looked away from Pollen. She was right, sort of. When Adrien’s mom died, Chloe had been there trying her best to cheer him up. Did it really work? No. But she helped him escape the house and run around the city with her, and watch stupid cartoons and shows, and sometimes, just sometimes, get him to smile.

“But losing your mom isn’t a good thing!” Chloe snapped back. “That devastated my friend and his family.”

“I know, and I’m sorry I painted it as such. Loss is a horrible thing to endure. But I wanted to make a connection to something you mentioned.” Pollen bowed her head. “Destruction is rarely a happy thing. But, a more positive example would be something more metaphorical- the destruction of insecurities, or breaking a bad relationship, or- or bashing down a wall so you can open up a room to have more space!”

Sighing, Pollen shook her head. “It is far too easy to see Dark and Destruction as a bad thing. Darkness can be used to hide when you don’t feel safe. Or it can be used to tone down how bright something is when you feel blinded. It can also be used as a complement and give things more depth.”

“Of course, Plagg has also been put out to tame destruction. Have you ever heard the phrase ‘fighting fire with fire’? It’s the idea that you fight destruction with destruction. But he can also help people see their bad habits, or the things that hurt them, and get them to reign them in and stop themselves before it’s too late.”

“Okay, sure, that makes sense. But didn’t you just describe Tikki and Plagg as opposites anyway? Light and Dark, Creation and Destruction? Why do they need to get people to go against their aspect when the other IS the opposite?” Chloe butt in.

Pollen brightened. “That’s technically later in this lesson, but I can touch on it now. You’ve likely noticed that Ladybug and Chat Noir came together as a pair, correct?” At Chloe’s nod, she continued. “That is because they are like Yin and Yang- opposites that complete each other. While other kwamis do have opposites, none quite work the same as Tikki and Plagg. They were once a single being- one that was the kwami of Balance.”

“Well,” Pollen rubbed her cheek, “They weren’t a kwami, per se. But that is too much to explain for right now. You recall how Hawkmoth’s goal is to get the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculous?”

“Of course, that’s all he ever talks about when he akumatizes someone!”

“Well, that’s because when you combine the two into one you can have any wish granted.”

“What!” Chloe slammed her hands down on the coffee table, startling Pollen. “That’s horrible! I mean, the power is cool, but if Hawkmoth got his grubby hands on that wish who knows what he would wish for!” 

“Exactly! But there’s a catch with that- whatever you wish for will have an equal and opposite consequence. If you wished for someone to come back to life? Someone else must die. If you want to have all the power in the world? Everyone else must become powerless. These may sound simple, but the gravity is just as dire as the wish would be grand.”

Chloe fell back. “So, if I- well, if I wished for my mom to love me..?”

“It depends,” Pollen shrugged. “Maybe everyone else around you would hate you. Maybe your father would stop loving you. Or, in a more subtle fashion, she wouldn’t love the real you, just a facsimile of you. Whoever she thinks you are. Sure, there are ways to make a wish that has a mostly positive outcome- for the one making the wish- but the consequence will always hurt someone. Even if it has to be a lot of someones.”

The two fell into silence after that declaration. It was a heavy thought. What could drive someone to want to change something so badly they would be willing to suffer or let others suffer for it? How cold hearted must you be? 

The whole thing baffled Chloe. She could just ring her father and have what she wanted with no consequence. Could she imagine doing something so drastic as to ruin someone’s life to make hers better?

Instead of voicing any of this, Chloe leaned forward. “So tell me about the other miraculous…”

#chloe bourgeois #chloe bourgois redemption #miraculous ladybug #miraculous tales of ladybug and chat noir #ml fanfic #ml fanfiction #pollen (ladybug) #pollen #pollen the kwami #Kwami of the Bee miraculous #Bee miraculous #every time i get lazier and lazier with these tags #anyway if you reblog this i would kill for you uwu

[twistedsin]

Professor Peacock in the Kitchen with...

Twisted Halloween Event: Vil Schoenheit 

Costume: Peacock 

Rather than making it a literal bird costume, I went in a Clue direction where each character is based on a color. You are Inspector Indigo. 

I also totally feel like Vil would throw a murder mystery party.  

Vil stood over the dead sleeping body of Silver lying on the floor at his feet. He was dressed in a suit, the pants and jacket were a peacock blue. The lapel was layered with peacock feathers, and there were also a few on the wrists and the cuffs of his pants. His shirt was a light brown, with a deep green vest and a teal blue color shift scarf that had a golden peacock pin that resembled the look of the bird on his throne. His usual purple hair dye was a darker blue, and his eye shadow an expert blend of all the cool shades on his costume with lips tinted violet. 

“Does everyone understand the instructions?" A brief pause. Deuce in the back started to raise his hand but Vil simply continued on. "Good.” Vil wasn’t keen on repeating himself anyway.  “Now it’s time to investigate. I suggest you pair off. Inspector Indigo is already my partner.” There was a disappointed sigh amongst most of the other guests who had been hoping to have you as a partner and spend some time alone with you in the dark hallways of Pomefiore. 

It caught you off guard that Vil would pick you. Maybe it was because you had been showing good detective work with helping out the overblot incidents and having to figure out your way through and entirely different world? It didn't totally matter, you were thrilled regardless knowing it meant you got to have some alone time with Vil. Also being paired with the host of a murder mystery party probably had some benefits. Or would make you the next victim. 

“Well then, Inspector Indigo, where would you like to investigate first.” Vil asked, moving to your side as most of the others started heading off on their own. 

“Oh well hm…” You opened your notebook and began thumbing through the pages. “Let’s go to the kitchen” 

Vil looked unimpressed with your choice. 

“Well it’s just that, it’s probably the room with the most knives and th-those are good weapons so it seems like the most obvious place to check."

"Very well." With a sigh Vil turned and began leading you to the kitchen. 

🦚

When they two of your arrived, everything seemed normal. Pots hung from the ceiling, all knives were in the block, everything clean and in its place. "Everything looks normal..." You ponder, entering and beginning to count the items and inspecting them. 

"Just because it looks normal doesn't mean nothing has been tampered with. Plenty of the guests are quite diligent and would be sure to have left little to no trace." Vil began looking around himself, making notes with his Peacock tailfeather pen that matched his outfit.

You began going through the drawers, all of them. "Potato." You felt Vil pressing against you from behind, his hands resting on either side of you trapping you against the counter beneath him. "Are you really going to go through everything piece by piece?" 

You shivered slightly from the feeling of his breath on the back of your neck. "W-well,"  You had thought it was a good plan, but maybe he had another idea. Suddenly you were getting nervous, he was so close and well rather intimidating usually. You gulped and slowly turned yourself around to face him.

"It will take to long for too little result, Inspector." His face was so close to yours, his breath smelled nice too. "There are more pressing things that need to be investigated. Wouldn't you agree?" The end of his pen caressed your cheek and rested over your mouth as you opened it to answer. "For example, I want to know why you haven't complimented my look yet. Do you not like my costume"

You shook your head frantically, "N-no.. It's just.. I..." 

"Use your words, quit sputtering."

You took a deep breath, "You were busy when I arrived, I didn't want to bother you with yet another compliment. I'm sure you had already gotten a lot. I really do like your outfit Vil. You look beautiful, as usual." Oh wait that could be misconstrued. Maybe that wasn't what he wanted to hear. It wasn't quite what you felt. "I-I just mean.. you're always beautiful! And you're e-even more beautiful with the dif-ferent colors. It suits you, I-I'm sure that anything would lo- hm!" 

You find yourself unable to talk as Vil's lips press onto yours. He holds a moment, tongue grazing over your bottom lip before pulling away with a soft breath. "You started stuttering again. It seems your tongue needs to be exercised more." 

Did he just, kiss you. You were in shock. The Vil Schoenheit just kissed you. You felt like you could faint. The counter was doing a lot of work to keep you up right.  And what was this about your mouth, tongue. What now were you supposed to answer him? Honestly if you attempted words right now they would only be a stutter. 

Vil had just been admiring your face, the confusion in your eyes and blush on your cheeks. It was like he could hear you screaming internally. He hoped to soon have you screaming out loud for him, but before that he needed you at least share what you thought, "Did you enjoy that?"

"Y-yes!" You pipped up quickly nodding extensively until his hand rested on your cheek to still your head. 

"Good. Would you like me to do it again?"

"Like now?" You do not know why those were the next words out of your mouth instead of screaming yes. You wanted to smack your head on something. His expression flattened at your question, so dense. "Ahaha.. that was a stupid question..." You continued awkwardly, "Yes. Please kiss me again."

Rather than answer Vil just pushed his lips to yours once again. It still felt surreal, but each time he pulled away for a quick breath before returning the contact made you a bit more relaxed. Finally you pressed back into his kisses. You weren't the most knowledgeable about this activity but he was setting a very good example. Soon he had lifted you onto the counter, his hands resting on your thighs with your arms wrapped around his neck. Pressed against each other as his tongue slipped between your lips and ran along your own.

You let out a small squeak as his teeth grazed your tongue. You could feel Vil's lips curving into a smirk at that. So, you tried to be bold back and gave a light nip to his bottom lip. His had squeezed your thigh and a grunt escaped his lips, which was much more of a reaction than you expected. 

After that, Vil's kisses got a lot more hungry. He wasn't afraid to use his teeth or stick his tongue in your mouth and using it every way he could. Your fingers remained around his neck, running through his hair. It was so soft and silky, as much as you wanted your fingers tangled in it they always slid out smooth as can be. His hands slid up your thighs and gripped your hips tugging you closer. With him pressed between your legs you could feel his growing erection, especially when he started grinding his hips against you. Your breath hitched at the feeling, your grip in his hair tightened leading to Vil gasp.

"I wish I could be inside you right now." He grunted, long elegant fingers fiddled with the edge of your clothing. "But this isn't the best time or place. I still have a party going on after all." You had forgotten about that, even as he was talking you just wanted to keep kissing him. He gave you a few more before smacking his hips against yours.

"A-ah! Vil~"

He smirked at your little cry, "I can't carry on like this though, it's very distracting and quite uncomfortable."

"I'll help, I can help..." Your lust-hazed eyes drifted down to the bulge in his peacock colored pants, staring until his hand gripped your chin turning it up to look back at him. His thumb grazed over your bottom lip. Your eyes meet his letting him know exactly what you were wanting to do as you took his thumb into your mouth sucking softly. "Good answer, darling. Now get on your knees."  

You both moved quickly. You slid off the counter and set yourself up on your knees before him. Vil dropped his pants and pulled out his cock. He moaned softly stroking it a few times, leaving you practically drooling at the sight.  "Tap my leg, twice if you need to stop. Try not to make a mess." His free hand gripped the counter for stability as he lead his cock to your mouth. 

You didn't even think to tease him, just instantly wanting to taste him you engulfed the head in your mouth. Sucking lightly and swirling your tongue around to get a good taste. It wasn't a good taste but not quite bad either. You eased yourself into it, taking the time before taking more in. You were sure to breath through your nose, sucking quickly. Vil's breathing quickly grew ragged, his hips moving ever so slightly just to keep up friction. 

The occasional noises that escaped him were music to your ears, and spurred you on to delve deeper, to please him more. You made sure to pay attention to your actions along with his reaction. "Use your hands too." His hand left the counter and took your hand leading it to the base of his cock where your mouth wouldn't be reaching. "Mmm, there. Very good." His hand rested back now on your head. You began to move your hand, twisting it around the shaft and squeezing. Your head continuing to bob up and down on his dick. It was an almost hypnotizing action with how rhymic the motions were and Vil's sweet moans. You let out a moan yourself starting to enjoy the taste and feel and just the thought of you pleasing him. Wondering what his cum would taste like.

Either you were getting better or he was getting closer as his noises seemed to be getting louder. More moans between his gasps, his hand dragging into your hair. You let out another moan at his touch. 

"You're doing well, hah~ You better swallow it all." His head rolled back along his shoulders, "No mess remember." His grip tightened in your hair. You groaned against his cock as the easiest form of agreement and the sensation of him tugging your hair. Your moans became more frequent as your movements increased. You wanted to make him happy, you wanted to know you pleased him and you wanted his cum down your throat. 

You could feel his dick start to pulse just before he let out a loud scream as he unloaded into you. There wasn't much room to move with his grip on your hair and did your best to keep swallowing down his cum until his grip slacked and he pulled himself out of you. 

"I heard a scream." "I think it came from this way."  "Let's go check it out!" 

You heard some voices in the distance, then footsteps. Were others coming? They couldn't see you like this, or Vil. What would people think? But what could you do? You were still recovering trying to catch your breath. Thankfully Vil was a bit more oriented. He tugged up his pants and grabbed you by the arm and pulled you beneath the floor boards into a secret passage. He closed the trap door just before the other entered, gazing at an empty room.

Now that you were safe, Vil properly adjusted himself, making sure his look was at its usual state of perfection. "Are you alright?" He asked, wrapping an arm around you so your could lean on him. "You did wonderfully. Didn't spill at all either." 

You smiled, "Really? I'm glad... I didn't get a good taste of your cum though" 

"Maybe next time." His lips pressed against your forehead. Your heart fluttered at the idea of being able to do something like this with Vil again. 

Vil fluffed his peacock jacket and straightened the pin on his scarf. "Now I believe there is still a murder that needs investigating."

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