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drops-of-moonlights · 2 years

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WINX REDUX AU SUMMARIZED: SEASON 7 (The Huntress of the Wild Source)

Or, in which I give the basics of what I’ve changed about the story for the AU. It was originally way more descriptive but if I kept it in that style I would have finished in 2039 and I ain’t got time for that. AFTER LIKE A YEAR AND A HALF THE S7 SUMMARY IS FINALLY FUCKING DONE PRAISE THE LORD, ENJOY

WINX REDUX AU SUMMARIZED - SEASON 7: The Huntress of the Wild Source

After the last adventure, everyone but Roxy was able to enjoy some proper vacations for once, no further issues appearing beyond celebrating Stella’s birthday. Now, the Winx start their 5th and final year at Alfea, and after all their adventures, they still can’t believe they haven’t graduated yet.

It’s still a week before classes officially start however, and while the girls start to settle in their dorm, Roxy comes in alongside Dia, wanting them all to come with her to a special place.

Everyone follows the younger Fairy, who keeps suspiciously quiet during the way, before stopping at a door leading to the back garden of campus.

They find a new path having been built, and as they go over it, Roxy starts to explain that this took the work of a lot of the Animal-source fairies in the school, even having to call in a recent graduate (Katy) to further help this project.

It’s then that Roxy, alongside Faragonda, Palladium, Wizgiz and a couple more students, showcase the Alfea Natural Preserve, a large expanse of nature, seeing a variety of the local fauna and magifauna species coexisting.

Faragonda then elaborates that this is actually a special section of the Magica Natural Preserve, which occupies part of the giant forest around Lake Roccaluce, dedicated to the study of the environment and the local flora and fauna for school purposes.

As everyone does a tour of the place, they don’t notice a large bird entering the area, at least, not until it suddenly swoops down, taking one of the rodent-like creatures.

As Roxy and Katy explain that it was a digmole, Faragonda also mentions that the bird was not native to Magix, and that it was also certainly not a bird, but a magi.

Everyone then transforms, and after witnessing an impressive amount of fairies following them, the bird decides to drop the digmole and escape, not having expected such retaliation.

Once back, Faragonda pulls the Winx and Roxy aside - it’s been 5 years of knowing them, she knows how this plays out.

She then tells them that the bird was Kalshara - a former classmate of Faragonda’s, who was kicked out in her last year due to her experiments on Magic Animals. She had gone incognito for the last century and a half after having been chased for close to 700 years, and last she knew, she had roped her younger brother Brafilius into the whole mess, who was once one of the auxiliary professors in all three schools. (Info on them here!)

Her plans with said Magic Animals was never completely clear to Faragonda, outside of wanting to manipulate Wild Magic beyond the level Silvestrix magi could. Faragonda herself suggests for the Winx and Roxy to obtain Silvestrix, as if Kalshara’s active again, it’ll be effective to fight her with her own powers.

With this info, everyone revisits the Grimoire of Source Transformations, looking for ways to obtain Silvestrix. They discover Butterflix, a somewhat ignored nature-themed transformation that can also deal with Wild Magic, in the process. The book offers a couple options (which surprises them as they didn’t expect the form to have so many ways to obtain it), but before they can make a decision on how to get it, the school is attacked.

The Winx plus Roxy go outside and see a giant creature made of rocks trying to break the barrier, and can also see an elderly fairy and relatively-young sorcerer nearby - Kalshara and her brother Brafilius. Kalshara was in Silvestrix, while Brafilius was in a form they couldn’t recognize quite well. Brafilius then gives some sort of command to the creature, and after a quick spell covering it in noxious-looking moss, they both disappear

Most of the freshman fairies go hide, while the rest start to attack it, the Winx plus Roxy and Dia soon joining them. Diaspro is taken out of the fight quite quickly however, and resorts to acting as defense for the freshmen.

As the Winx try a convergence, and most things seeming to fail, Roxy comes up with a strategy - instead of direct magic, they should concentrate their powers on different factors to better take down the creature, as direct attacks seem to increase the moss on its back and everytime it falls off it affects some of the inexperienced fairies.

The plan is successful, and as everyone goes back to the ground, they feel a rush of power covering them, having earned Butterflix without meaning to.

A few days later, Flora gets a call from Miele, urging her to come back home - because Amarok is sick.

After an incredibly fast Teleportia forced by Flora with Stella’s help, they arrive at Flora’s house - where most of her family were taking care of many of the magiwolves in the sanctuary. Flora zeroes in on a younger-looking wolf, lying on a makeshift stretcher and with a seemingly-high fever - Amarok, her childhood friend and pet.

As she uses whatever healing magic she has to alleviate his symptoms, Flora’s dad explains that this was a result of a sudden sprout of wild magic-infused fungi that overtook a good chunk of the neighboring woods.

Upon hearing this, and with determination in her eyes, Flora immediately starts walking into the woods, wanting to erase the fungi by any means necessary. Miele comes with them.

After a while they find a giant mushroom overtaking an incredible amount of space, even more spreading around. Tecna casts a protective bubble around them all so they don’t get affected by the spores, and concludes that they have to find the source of the Wild Magic to eradicate the fungi and help the magiwolves.

Amarok appears to help them even when sick after the Winx fail a couple times, and this just fuels Flora’s anger against the fungi, making her attack it further even when it doesn’t work.

After a couple more tries, they resolve to attack it via using their powers to manipulate the environment around them, destroying the giant fungi.

After this, Flora manages to heal the tree that it was covering, diminishing the wild magic and metabolizing it, removing the effects in the entire area and healing Amarok instantaneously.

This act earns her her Silvestrix, surprising everyone yet not really, knowing of the love Flora had for him.

Once they get back, they find most of the magiwolves are healing, and after some careful consideration of a total of 5 seconds, Flora decides to take Amarok with her to Alfea for the remaining time - both because having a Magic Animal will help them in their fight and in everyone else’s quest for Silvestrix, and because she does not want to risk something bad happening to him when she’s away again due to paranoia. The girls also agree to still use Butterflix as a group until everyone has achieved Silvestrix, as a way to throw off Kalshara and Brafilius.

Amarok settles down fairly well in the dorm, and gets along with Kiko decently as well, even if the rabbit is not that happy about having to share space.

After a few days later, Aisha is called back to Andros as a similar issue is happening on Mount Ondina, the mountain closest to Andros’s capital - strong Wild Magic was detected, and sightings of people matching Kalshara and Brafilius worry everyone.

Once there, Aisha finds an injured gryphon, affected by the sudden changes - a giant, seemingly endless rock slide is going on in the affected area. Roxy does a quick spell on him to let him talk and give them more info, revealing his name is Squonk and that he saw a fairy and a sorcerer extracting some sort of energy out of the slide.

After a bit of searching they find Kalshara and Brafilius, and they can now tell he’s in Cinabrix.

Brafilius makes another construct and leaves it to fight the Winx, as he and Kalshara teleport away again. During said fight, the baby gryphon tries its hardest to help everyone else and protect Aisha, which endears the princess to him.

After a short fight, Aisha uses the nearby water to neutralize, diminish and metabolize all the wild magic in the area, which seems to render the construct powerless, letting Musa and Tecna destroy it in one blast. This also helps heal the gryphon.

Once this is done, the girls try to find Squonk’s family, but after no luck, Aisha decides to then take him to Alfea, wanting to help him further, charmed by his shyness and apparent bravery. This bond is enough to earn Aisha Silvestrix.

Squonk and Amarok live in the dorm, and while they didn’t seem to get along at first, they quickly became good friends. Kiko on his part is a bit fed up with acting as Squonk’s babysitter, and complains about it often, but still does it for some reason.

A couple days later, Musa is called by Jian, her brother, and asks her if she could come by Melodeus for a day or two - their dad is a bit sick, and while his job lets him take care of him, a sudden emergency means he has to be away all day and wants him to be properly cared for.

Musa agrees, and with the Winx plus Roxy tailing behind her in case Kalshara and Brafilius appear. They start to set up to take care of Huan when everyone hears a hurt meowing followed by a couple of pained hisses.

They all go to the backyard and find a quillcat, with a hurt leg limping towards the door, before falling and passing out. Musa recognizes the cat as a stray that comes and goes through the neighborhood, and has been doing so for the past year or so.

Everyone rushes the cat in, and start to divide their attention between Huan and the cat. Musa finds herself the most attuned to taking care of the cat, and surprises everyone by how much she knows about the Quillcat species, more than even Roxy.

Huan then tells the story of Musa’s childhood cat, Lollie. She was actually Marina’s quillcat, and while she could be moody, she loved the family a lot. She passed away shortly after Marina did, seemingly out of sadness. The hurt quillcat reminds Musa a lot of Lollie, and after finishing the story, it starts to wake up.

Roxy puts a speech spell on it so it can tell them its story. She introduces herself as Critty, and that she was hurt by a duo of magi that seemed interested in her species, wanting to take some of her quills by force. It’s at this point that they can hear a loud explosion in the backyard, and fearing the worst, they all rush out - all but Stella and Tecna, who stay behind to look after Huan.

Once outside, transformed, they see that it’s Kalshara and Brafilius, going after Critty. Musa leads the attack against them, and while it’s relatively easy at the start (Kalshara is old and is not as agile as she once was when not transformed into an animal, and Brafilius is suspiciously disinterested), it gets harder when Kalshara forces Brafilius to make a construct out of the trees around the house, leaving immediately.

The construct is not a hard fight, as with Bloom, Flora and Musa using their natural powers it’s relatively easy to take it down. It does try to get up again, but Critty, still hurt, comes out of nowhere and bashes its head in with her tail, like a flail. Musa attempts to heal Critty after the fact, and this earns her Silvestrix.

A few hours later, and with Jian coming back, everyone leaves back to Alfea, taking Critty with them - not only so she’ll be safe from Kalshara and Brafilius, but because Musa got attached to her, and Critty to Musa.

The same can’t be said for everyone else though, as back in the dorms Critty is a bit territorial, being fed up with Squonk’s shyness and being territorial with Amarok, only Kiko managing to balance her out with his own arrogance.

After a couple more random fights with the sibling duo, Stella is called to Solaria, to help a bit with the wedding preparations.

The wedding will be in a couple months, and Radius needs his daughter’s eye to coordinate a couple of the decorations, as well as craft him his wedding outfit. Stella’s ecstatic at the prospect, and immediately starts to take measurements.

As she finishes the measurements and starts sketching, Radius tells her that the other reason he called her was because of the aviary - a new bird has appeared suddenly and pretty injured - it’s fine now (Radius isn’t a fairy for nothing), but given the animal-based shenanigans Stella’s involved in, it felt too coincidental.

After finishing some sketches, Stella and the rest go into the aviary, and find Chimera caring for a very bright-colored bird.

Roxy uses her talking spell and the bird introduces himself - he’s Shiny, a lumibird, who was recently being hunted by two weird people who tried to steal his tail feathers.

Stella realizes what might happen, and decides to take Shiny back to Alfea, to ensure Kalshara and Brafilius do not disturb the castle, especially in such stressful times.

Shiny does not get along with anyone, clashing very often with both Critty and Kiko due to its penchant to flaunt himself and bother people with his presence. Amarok keeps him in line thanks to using his size as an intimidation tactic, but Shiny does get along with Squonk and tries to guide him regarding his more bird-like attributes.

The gang fights with Kalshara and Brafilius a couple more times, Dia joining in this time, worried about Bloom and the rest. During one fight taking place outside Alfea after Kalshara and Brafilius left another construct and escaped, Kiko intervenes, and after being hurt by an attack protecting Bloom, her love-fueled rage at his harm earns her Silvestrix.

However, Kalshara had managed to kidnap Shiny. Everyone traces their magic to their hideout, and after a long fight and rescuing some other Magic Animals they had captured for experiments and research, Stella and Shiny manage to bond and earn Silvestrix after Kalshara and Brafilius leave another construct to fight for them.

After a few days of random encounters, Tecna is called back to Zenith to oversee the reformation of the Core of Energy, taking the rest of the girls with her.

As they arrive, they are brought to the Core of Energy, Tecna explaining that it’s the main power source of most of the country, powered with a mix of solar energy and magic. Once there however, Tecna is surprised by the presence of a variety of magic animals.

The chief of reformation explains that Electrobats and Storm Foxes, the species present, generate a lot of electricity in their fur collars, and so they’ve decided to see if that could be added as part of the source.

Before Roxy starts to get heated, they also elaborate that they don’t plan to kill or hurt the animals, it would be shearing their excess fur for that purpose, like with sheep.

As everyone checks out the process, a malfunction occurs, and one of the Storm Foxes is swallowed by the Core. Everything is immediately powered down and just in case, the Winx transform.

As they approach the Core they’re hit with a blast of darkness, and Kalshara and Brafilius make their presence known - stealing energy from the various animals and leaving again, taking the chance of everyone being stunned. Brafilius leaves behind an electrical construct to entertain the Winx as they escape.

Most of the girls focus on fighting the construct, while Roxy and Tecna manage to get inside the Core to rescue the Storm Fox. It’s badly hurt, but still alive, and while Tecna never was one for healing magic, thanks to her and Roxy’s convergence they manage to heal the creature completely. Once they get out of the Core, the construct has been defeated, and Tecna has earned Silvestrix.

Whatever Tecna did on the Core also managed to fix the damage caused by Kalshara and Brafilius, and it’s able to be properly powered back on.

As they’re leaving, the Storm Fox comes up to Tecna again, and after a quick spell from Roxy, the animal introduces herself as Flitter, who wants to go with them as thanks for saving her, especially since she has bonded with Tecna. They all agree, and with one more animal, they go back to Alfea.

However, trying to get a Storm Fox into the dorm is the last straw for Griselda, and decides to relocate most of the animals to the sanctuary, too big for the girls' rooms. The exceptions are Kiko and Amarok - the first one because he’s been here for 5 years and he’s not leaving now, the second one because Flora’s pleading look managed to win her over.

After a few more days, Roxy is called by the Black Circle, telling her of the discovery of a new Magic Animal on Earth and they want her to take a look at it.

Once on Earth, Ogron explains that the newly discovered species seems to take after ferrets or polecats, and that the place it was discovered is also filled with Wild Magic. As they know the Winx have earned Butterflix and Silvestrix, they’re hoping they can stabilize and disrupt the source, as it has apparently also affected other beings in negative ways.

The place in question is a waterfall in southern France, and after a short look they find a specimen, noticing its golden hue and two tails.

A quick spell by Roxy introduces the animal as Galila, and she’s escaping from monsters. The Winx are baffled until they are attacked by reptilian creatures.

A fight ensues, and both Roxy and Stella manage to heal them, removing the Wild Magic from them as Aisha does the same for the waterfall. A bonding moment between Galila and Roxy as they each try to protect the other earns the latter her Silvestrix.

The monsters turn out to be poachers that were trying to hunt Galila as a rare specimen before being turned by the waterfall. The Winx hold Roxy to stop her from murdering them and send them to prison, and with no other place to go, Galila goes with Roxy back to Alfea.

She remains in Roxy’s dorm, as she only has to deal with Artu, and both animals seem to get along. She’s later introduced to the other Magic Animals, and seems to get along well with Amarok and Flitter while the rest intimidate her.

It’s a few days later during a date held by Bloom and Diaspro that they manage to run into a wild qilin-unicorn, causing mayhem in the forest with its fire powers.

Both girls transform and, after calling Roxy, manage to subdue the beast, finding it hurt and under the influence of Wild Magic.

Bloom leaves to find the source, and since Diaspro doesn’t have Butterflix and as such does not have a way to purify it, she’s left to take care of the animal (and with a small bubble protecting her from the Wild Magic), noticing that it was hurt.

After an hour or so of attempts to pacify and heal the qilin-unicorn, Dia manages to bond a little bit with it, and even though the Wild Magic was starting to break through her protection she manages to hold on and keep the creature calm.

It’s then that Kalshara and Brafilius arrive, and even though she was outnumbered, and even risking her bubble breaking, Dia stands her ground and protects the qilin-unicorn, itself even managing to get rid of the Wild Magic affecting him a bit and attacking with her, sending the siblings running.

Bloom and Roxy arrive, having found the source in a nearby tree and already neutralized it, and with the origin point gone both Roxy and Bloom manage to get rid of the excess Wild Magic on the qilin-unicorn. Roxy uses her magic and lets the unicorn speak, introducing himself as Elas and wanting to stick with Diaspro after caring and protecting him at her own risk, and with that, he also comes to the Alfea Natural Preserve.

This manages to unlock Silvestrix for Diaspro, surprising her.

Elas proves very soon to be annoying, only getting along with Shiny and taking a lot of enjoyment out of bullying Kiko, who loses a bit of his authority over the rest.

After this, Kalshara and Brafilius start to drain part of the energy in powerful natural fonts of magic around the realms. First they steal part of Pyros’s Fire and Earth font in the volcanic area, being restored by Bloom and Kiko alongside Diaspro and Elas; next they drain the Water and Wind font in Paradise Bay on Earth, restored by Aisha and Squonk.

After that they mess with the Sound and Fauna font of Graynor, also endangering the Manticore of the Rainbow Mantle, being restored by Musa and Critty alongside Roxy and Dalila; soon after draining the Electricity and Ice fonts of Ethiopia, restored by Tecna and Flitter.

Soon after, Brafilius calls it quits, tired of having to help his deranged sister in her weird schemes and leaves her alone. However, Kalshara is faster, and soon ends up casting a spell and turns him into a dog in revenge, using part of the font energy she stole.

She uses the same magic to power herself up and manages to attack Alfea single handedly, draining the Flora and Light fonts that helped power up its defenses, being restored in a joint effort from Flora, Amarok, Stella and Shiny.

Soon after, they find the transformed Brafilius, who, seeking his humanity back, informs them of Kalshara’s true plan: once she finds “the Source of Wild Magic”, a theoretical corrupted Fauna and Healing font, she can artificially create Magic Animals at will to use and aid in different experiments, projects and construction, ignoring the lasting damage that could cause both the environment and the animals forced to gain magic.

He also informs them of her current hiding spot in the cave system under Magix, also populated by the digmoles, which seem to be her final target in an attempt to find the font, also in those caves.

Everyone rallies to the cave system (requesting assistance from Amentia and her people for better coverage), and after a couple days of searching they manage to find Kalshara. A battle ensues, Kalshara using corrupted and mutated digmoles to aid in her fighting. The digmoles are soon overpowered by the Winx’s Magic Animals, and Kalshara is pinned down by Roxy herself, who defeats her and gives her up to the authorities, who also confiscate her research notes.

Kalshara is sent to prison, and everyone considers this a final victory, now dedicating their attention solely to Radius and Alessandro’s wedding, coming up in a few days.

Unbeknown to them, however, Kalshara managed to escape, and fueled by rage and the residual wild magic inside her, she sets off to Solaria, not before kidnapping Brafilius once more, still in his dog form.

The wedding preparations seem to go fine, Chimera and Stella charged with presenting the rings to their respective parents. However, right before the start of the ceremony, Kalshara strikes, aided by a variety of corrupted magic animals, mutated to a point beyond recognition.

While most of the people present run to hide, the Winx, the guys, and most other magi and warriors transform or don their armor, starting a counterattack. The Winx, led by Stella, chase after Kalshara directly, beyond pissed at her father’s ceremony being interrupted.

A final battle starts, with the Winx using Silvestrix to its full potential and soon overpowering Kalshara. However, she uses Brafilius for a deal - either they give her her research back and let her be free, or she kills him. Everyone is unsure of what to do, and briefly consider letting her get away scot-free.

However, Daphne decides for them, soon hitting Kalshara in the back and letting Luna and Radius rescue Brafilius. With the man now dog safe, the fight continues, and in one last ditch effort, Kalshara uses all of her Wild Magic to generate an explosion, just looking to kill everyone at this point.

It takes the effort of every magi present to create a forcefield to contain the explosion, and while some of the structure around them breaks, the force of it is only dealt to Kalshara, forced out of her transformation before dying.

A couple days pass. Brafilius is successfully a human again, and while slightly mourning his sister, he knew this was the only outcome that could have come out of the whole situation, and leaves not before striking a deal with Alfea to help maintain the Natural Preserve as a way to atone for what he did while helping Kalshara, after his short stay in prison is over, of course.

All of the Magic Animals that Kalshara had used in her final attack are quickly contained and start the process of removing the extra energy placed on them, though it will take a while and there’s no ensuring it will be a fully beneficial process to the poor animals. Roxy joins on this effort, vowing to help them all.

The wedding is picked back up a couple days after, and soon enough, Radius and Alessandro are properly married, a big celebration encompassing all of Solaria. During the reception, Daphne and Thoren take the chance to formally announce their own relationship to their parents and fellow royals.

Everything seems to be going well, and Bloom soon enough starts to make plans to once again take the chance of the winter break to go back home to Earth, wanting to tell her parents of everything that transpired, and once again bringing Dia with her.

However, Dia is soon called by her mother, who wants her back in Quarzis as soon as possible to discuss a certain event transcurring in their kingdom…

#Winx Club #Winx Redux AU #Winx Redux AU: Summarized #Winx AU Detailing #Y'ALL THIS TOOK SO FUCKING LONG SIMPLY BECAUSE I COULD NOT FIND A GOOD WAY TO WATCH S7 #(in Latin Spanish to clarify because I refuse to touch the English dubs)#it wasn't until somewhat recently that I got a way to do so #and honestly I forgot how much of an acid trip this season is #It's still obviously second-worst to me after S3 but I can kinda appreciate it a bit more after re-experiencing it #also fun fact I was TEMPTED to make Banana Day happen but since I axed the time-travelling aspect it just couldn't happen and it saddens me #because that episode is terrible but iconic lmao

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sarah-dipitous · 6 months

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Hellsite Nostalgia Tour 2023 Day 293

Various & Sundry Villains

“Various & Sundry Villains”

Plot Description: as the brothers square off with two spellbinding sisters who are after the Black Grimoire, a notable figure reemerges, seeking the book for herself

(IT HAS TO BE MY GIRL ROWENAAAAAA!!! MOMMY RORO IS BACK, RIGHT?!)

Would I Survive the First Five Minutes??: I also would be no match for this witch. Yeah, no. I’d be dead. She charmed him and then hit him over the head with a huge sledgehammer

Ah shit. I forgot Azmodeus had Cas and is impersonated him on the phone to the boys.

There’s a demon named Dipper?? What, did Bill Cipher possess him and they jumped channels?

Omg these witches are so cliche in their seduction techniques, and yet because magic, it works. Poor Dean didn’t stand a chance either (I do wonder if attraction has anything to do with how the charms work…maybe I would be ok)

Sam is me. Though Sam has even more reason to be skeptical of his brother’s new relationship and how fast it’s moving

Omg Dean, you don’t have to try to set Sam up with her sister. She only wants you for your grimoire

Mommy Roro’s grand reentrance to the narrative in those red high heeled leather boots though

I don’t like the sound of the big plans Azmodeus has got Castiel

Damn, Cas, really twisting the knife into your big brother re: Jack

Rowena’s the fakest bitch around and I love that about her. Like, everything she’s saying is laced with fake sweetness and concern, and the boys know that. But she keeps up the charade anyway and it’s delightful. I do not believe that she’s changed. I do believe it’ll be easier to find the grimoire with her

🥺 she actually seems truly sad to know Crowley sacrificed himself for the Winchesters and to keep lucifer in the apocalypse world

I don’t know if she’s just playing with Dean by asking him if the witches he encountered got to fifth base…Dean doesn’t seem to know either. Because neither of us know what that is (honestly the only thing my brain is coming up with is pegging. I might be too ace for this)

ARE THEY DOING A NECROMANCY?!?! I think I kind of want a show about them. I almost forgot they were murderers with no morals whatsoever for a second

Fucking hell, Cas. “Face it, you are useless and impotent and unnecessary, and you will die alone, unmourned.” Now, am I almost certain they’ve worked out some plan to free themselves? Yes, but that’s so harsh to say to Luci

Lucifer’s rage bringing back enough power 🥰 I do love these two together

This might be the most real Rowena’s ever been, talking to Sam about how scared of Lucifer she is

And yet she still played them 💖

Oh shit. She turned the sisters on each other

Sam gave her the spell to protect herself!!!!

It’s actually interesting that Sam had faith when they (or really HE) had a plan, and now Dean has faith now that they don’t

Oh god oh god oh god Rowena at her full power is so hot

#hellsite nostalgia tour 2023

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babygirlkiki1016 · 2 years

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Home Sweet Home

Masterlist

Y/n's Pov-

"You haven't been yourself lately." Marcel confronted, sitting on the black leather sofa, staring at me like I was acting this way with no purpose.

"Normally your all chatty and bubbly, now your..." He waved his hand, gesturing to my curled figure by the ledge of the balcony. I sat there leaning on the cold metal bars watching as people walked the streets looking for something to buy while touring the town. The star lights lit up the city, it was like magic, I would always look up at the sky and it was just...amazing. Like a huge artwork but always moving. It was the only sight worth seeing these days, and the only thing I looked forward to.

I looked over at him with a hateful look, which didn't make him happy.

"What do you expect me to do? After what you have decided Marcel, I can no longer feel joy towards you or in this place we call home." Segregating the witches, punishing them for their nature was unacceptable. It hurt my heart knowing I couldn't save them and wasn't as powerful as I used to be. I was always being watched, except at night, that is the only time I have privacy anymore.

"This again?" He sighed, leaning forward with a frown on his face. Jane-Anne was caught doing ma- "

"She's a witch Marcel!" I abruptly sped over, making him go silent as I stood in front of him with rage flowing through my body. "Witches do magic! She lost her daughter because of you, if you had let the ceremony continue, they would all be alive but now you have screwed us all! This is why vampires shouldn't meddle with witch business, you undead bastards understand nothing!" I turned away shaking my head, tears springing to my eyes, I couldn't save her...Marcel had the upper hand, after he stopped the harvest, he demanded all witches stop using their magic, and that included me considering I didn't agree with the new rule. He stole my grimoire, which is tethered to my magic and if he eradicates it, my magic and every descendant's charm of my tribe will be gone.

"Then tell me, what would have happened if the harvest continued?"

"I have told you! The girls would be sacrificed and brought back with more magic than they had before. Now Davina is stuck with all 4 elements, and the ancestors despise her for disobeying her coven. "

"I get it the end will come but you're not an ancestral witch, you don't know how to use their magic. So, until you can give me evidence instead of words that this will happen, the witches and you will still be under my command understand?" He walked over, getting a little too close for my liking, and whispered. "And the next time you yell at me, I will make sure to burn that book."

"I used to think of you as my son Marcellus, but you've turned into him. I am very disappointed in you, little warrior." He stopped for a second, upset that I felt this way, but continued to walk out without another word. He didn't care about me anymore, or he did but didn't want to seem weak in front of his men. Soon he was out of sight, and when I knew he couldn't hear me I jumped off the balcony, I needed to find Sophie, maybe she will know what her sister was up to with the new spell she decided to sacrifice herself for. Unfortunately, Jane was publicly executed earlier today, before I could ask her anything. Was she trying to find Davina and finish the ritual? It's the only thing that makes sense as to why she would use magic. I sped down multiple dark alleys towards the cemetery when I heard a whoosh behind me, probably one of Marcel's guards trying to follow me. I stopped and quickly slipped into the shadows above, watching as the vampire searched the area for me.

"Y/n!!" I gasped at the man, Klaus...No it couldn't be him, it's not him, he wouldn't come back after all this time. We never went to another place twice, unless...Mikael was dead. "Where are you..." He silently sobbed running up to the other balconies across from my position trying to get a better view of where I was, he could find me if he tried hard enough. That's how I knew, he would know that I was hiding in the shadows. I was a witch as well as a vampire and shifter, I was called a tribrid though I wasn't born under the moon like Klaus was. I could shift into any animal as I pleased, but with Davina having the ability to see who does magic my abilities are limited. However, my disappearing skills came in handy when I wished to hide.

"Niklaus," Elijah called, appearing from out of nowhere, with a sudden look of care as he saw his brother's state. "What is it?"

"I saw her brother; I saw her running down the alley." Klaus pointed to the road below, "She was right here...and then she was gone." He looked above, in all dark places that would be a perfect pocket to slip into, but he didn't find me.

"Who?" Elijah began to search the street with his eyes, looking for any signs or sounds but yet could find none.

"Y/n." When Elijah heard my name he sighed and placed his hand on Klaus's shoulder. He didn't believe his brother, mostly because they thought I was dead.

"She's been gone for 300 years; I believe this town is making you see things. We never truly got to say goodbye-" Klaus pulled away shaking his head, denying Elijah's statement.

"I saw her, it was her Elijah, she was running somewhere. She was wearing modern clothes, her hair still white but all her clothing black. She sensed me; she's hiding watching us this very second-" Elijah grabbed Klaus by his shoulders shaking him to get him to understand.

"Brother enough! Listen..." They both stopped, using their hearing they listened for my breathing or a heartbeat. Elijah was trying to prove I was no longer alive but his eyes widened as they heard it. They looked in my direction but I moved as they zipped over to my original spot. Could it be them? There was only one way to find out if it was Klaus, the song we made together on our wedding day, an ancient song.

"I'll swim and sail on savage seas..." I sang, zipping to another area as both of their heads shot up looking at the place I had originally been. "...with never the fear of drowning..." I moved again, and yet they followed my voice once more.

"If you would marry me..." Klaus finished the tune that we had made, we wanted to create a song yet neither of us could write songs that well, he quickly turned to his brother. "Believe me now?" I smiled and whistled moving again, they looked to my original spot and realized I wanted them to follow me. Every so often I would let out a whistle as the brothers ran after me, trying to find my exact location but I wouldn't let them get me so easily. Soon we arrived at the cemetery, and I hid behind a tomb, watching them as they entered but Klaus stopped. Why was Elijah allowed to enter but Klaus was not?

"Come in," I said and disappeared before Klaus could catch me, he sighed tired of my little game of hide and seek.

"Why do you hide in the shadows?" He asked waiting for me to appear but I did not, I stayed in my exact spot. Watching, waiting to see what they would do next. I whistled again and followed the sound of Sophie's breathing; she was nearby probably putting her sister to rest. When I entered the tomb, I spotted Sophie pacing the room, she stopped when she saw me.

"You were never going to tell me, were you?" I asked as Klaus and Elijah slowly walked towards me. They saw my white hair and knew it was me instantly. "Your sister brought them back to town, why?"

"We needed help Kiley, with your grimoire stolen we had no choice. "

"Your grimoire was stolen? "Elijah questioned, both of them knew how important it was. "By who?" He growled.

"Marcel," I whispered, turning to face them and for the first time, my eyes met his, my beloveds. He reached out for me, caressing my cheek lightly, then suddenly he pulled me closer. Taking in my scent he cried, he missed me so much just as I missed him. I let my guard down and wrapped my arms around him taking him in.

Elijah watched us in silence like his heart was broken; I held out my hand for him, he took it with a smile but he still looked upset.

"Good your both here, I need your help." Sophie cuts in trying to get our attention, hesitantly we both pulled away but he kept his arm tightly around me. He looked deep into my eyes, memorizing my face after all these years. I could tell he had so many questions about how I was still alive and where I have been.

"Y/n perhaps you should leave..." Elijah tugged on my arm but my focus went to the brunette woman who was brought in, she was born under the moon.

"Y/n come." I looked to Eli who was desperately trying to get me to leave but Klaus pushed him away.

"I just got her back and you're already trying to take her away?" Klaus snarled standing in front of me protectively.

"Niklaus, you will see her in a little while. What is going to be said next is a...sensitive topic."

"Hayley is pregnant with Klaus's child." Sophie blurted trying to get things moving, I looked to Hayley, so this was his new lover...And she is with child? Elijah sighed but kept his eyes on me, and I was angry beyond words. I looked to my supposed husband who loved me, who still cared for me and promised to never lay with another even if he lost me.

"So, after all these years of me begging and pleading to you for a child, you impregnate someone else...not only that you...slept with another?" I pulled away from him, and the look on his face broke me, he didn't seem to care, he just...he said nothing. "I knew it...you denied it so many times but I knew it! You despised me! That's why you didn't want a child!" I cried out, he tried to explain saying he knew nothing, and grabbed my arm but I swung my right arm. Punching him right in the jaw, his head went to the side. Elijah tried to calm me but I shrugged off his hand and walked out crying all the way home.

~~~

"Im sorry this happened." Elijah appeared, looking at my small sniffling self on the balcony. "He didn't do it on purpose, nor does he despise you. As the witches explained it, his wolf side is still human, and Hayley being a wolf-"

"I know how it works," I whispered, sighing he sat down next to me, thinking of what to say.

"I know you're beyond angry, after so many years of wanting one and he refused...he still doesn't want one. And I know you'll hate me for this, but I need you to convince him to help. He will help you, but he wants the baby dead and Hayley he won't save them from the witches."

"She is not my problem Elijah, convince him yourself."

"He won't listen to me; he believes that if the baby dies you will forgive him for betraying you...If you do this for me, I will convince him to give you a child of your own-"

"Enough about it! He will never say yes! He will say no and I will never have the children I want that belongs to me. Instead, I'll be the stepmother to a child I despise..." I cried, he pulled me into his chest, rubbing my shoulder to make me feel better. He knew I was right, Klaus never wanted children, a sign of weakness he told me, a waste of time.

"Then I will give you a child of your own..." He replied, but once he realized what he said he desperately tried to change the topic. "You don't have to be a stepmother, no one asked you to take up that responsibility. All I ask is that you save this girl and her child, the witches will kill her if Klaus does not agree." I wanted to refuse, I wanted to say no and let the bitch die but it's not her fault that this happened. She probably didn't even know about me and the history I have with the original hybrid.

"I will talk to him, but after I save her and get my grimoire back...I am heading home." His eyes teared up, he knew what that meant, that I would never be coming back. I had frozen my world and left them all behind to marry a man I loved. Though I should have never turned my back on my tribe, nor should I have stolen their power. I was tired of this family, always being the one left behind, the number one plan. I was just a pawn to them, especially to Klaus.

"Of course, just don't tell Niklaus. He will be devastated and may go back on his word."

"...I promise." Hesitantly after the little chat with Elijah, I headed to the witches' quarter to find Klaus sitting on a bench leaned forward with his hands tangled together. His nose was bloody, I guess I had hit him harder than I thought. "Klaus." He shot up and walked towards me hoping that I came back to cave in like I normally did but I backed away this time.

"I didn't mean for this to happen..." He sniffled while stopping in his tracks, "I swear it, I didn't mean to get her pregnant! "

"Well, you did..." He looked down ashamed of what he had done. "And now you have to keep it, you have a responsibility."

"...You want me to keep it?" He wasn't surprised by my request; I've always wanted a small child of our own though he always denied me it. A weakness to the family with a thousand enemies, he was right of course but everyone was a weakness, a baby made no difference. "It'll be a liability to this family; would this child guarantee me power? Can it protect our family?"

"Family is power, haven't you learned that already? After a thousand years of us constantly saving our family, we have always won. Everyone is a weakness in the family; a baby may be more fragile but there is not much difference. You are the original hybrid; we are the original family! We have all the power in the world, you have no excuse to not take this baby."

"People will come for us-" I sighed and with a fit of rage I slapped him across the face, making him go silent. He slowly looked back at me, surprised I had struck him again.

"No! They'll come for you! It's always been about you! Your always so worried about what will happen to you! So shut up get your head out of your ass and go protect the child that you made during your affair!" He was not happy, finally, I had the strength to stand up to him, I wasn't so innocent anymore. Ever since my grimoire had been stolen, I realized I had to become stronger and take a stand instead of being silent like I used to.

"Stop hitting me-"

"What? You'll shove me in a box? Put me away like the rest of your siblings, I'd like to see you try." I turned away, I was going to let him stand there and think about what I said but he grabbed my arm pulling me into his embrace.

"I would never hurt you...ever." I accepted it, and to be honest I didn't want to let go.

"I understand you're angry and feel betrayed, but as do I. How do I think I felt when I learned you were still alive- "

"And? That was one heartbreak, I've dealt with a thousand by you." He took a step back and shook his head. "I had to run for a thousand years because you begged me to marry you, I left my family behind for one I barely knew! I became this monster because of your mother! And then I asked for a child, a sign of weakness for the thousand enemies we have well who's fault is that Klaus!" Tears slipped down my skin, and never have I ever seen him so broken, so...speechless. "I didn't ask for this, I married you, but I didn't sign up for this nightmare of a life. Neither did that child, but I hope you give it a better life than I did, and maybe you'll keep your promise this time."

#klaus mikaelson #klaus mikaelson x oc #klaus mikaelson smut #klaus mikaelson imagines #elijah mikealson x reader #elijah mikaelson #the originals #y/n imagines #rebekah mikaelson #marcel gerard

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allsoulstriogymusings · 2 years

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SATU JÄRVINEN: A dark “weaving” with threads of light

GERBERT: There are two powerful witches here. One light... The other dark. MERIDIANA: Beware of the witch with the blood of the lion and the wolf. GERBERT: Tell me... Which one is it?

-- ADOW Episode 106

Satu Järvinen is a more complex and developed character in the show than she is in the books. Like Diana, she is a weaver -- but one without Diana’s moral compass.

So Satu is the “dark” weaver to Diana’s “light.”

Yet, woven into the “fabric” of Satu there are glimpses of “light” -- glimpses of the woman that Satu might have been, if she hadn’t been so power hungry.

In fact, in ADOW episode 302, Satu’s dress seems to symbolize this in that some lighter cloth peeks out from behind the woven pattern of the darker ribbons that crisscross the dress. Sequins sewn into the dress also catch the light (as seen in the lightened gif below).

The dress as shown in the above gif is the most we see of it from the front and it is interesting that it was at that point in episode 302 that Knox spoke about an old grimoire that contained spells that worked in the past “when witches had real power.” Little did Knox realize that now that Satu had learned to weave, she had increased her power considerably (to perhaps equal the witches of the past).

For those who are aware of what happens to Satu in the book, I also think that the dress’s crisscross “weave” might be a foreshadowing of what is to come.

[See more under the cut.]

Before we go further, it might be helpful to recall that back in episode 104, Knox used his magic stone ball to subdue and torture Satu -- and to let her know he was the more powerful witch.

This will be important to remember when we discuss Satu and Knox’s encounter in episode 302.

Although Satu does some despicable things in the show, especially in season 1 (killing a man and kidnapping and torturing Diana), we do glimpse some elements of “light” woven into her character. For instance, in episode 106, Satu says to Diana:

My mummo taught me how to fly when I was a girl. She was the one who helped me understand my magic and embrace my power… Let me be the one to help you… Show me the power inside you... And I can teach you how to control it. You don't need to go through this alone.

Yes, Satu is trying to manipulate Diana, but it also seems like there is a part of her that would like to be Diana’s mentor.

In episode 108, we also see compassion in Satu regarding the poor tortured ancient witch Meridiana kept for centuries as a head in a box by Gerbert:

GERBERT: What did you do with Meridiana? SATU: I let her go. She'd been in thrall to you for long enough. No-one should have to suffer centuries of slavery.

Given that Satu is Diana’s dark counterpart, it is not surprising that Satu’s life path parallels Diana’s.

In episode 202, Satu returns home to ask her mummo (grandmother) why she never told her she was a weaver:

SATU: Mummo. MUMMO: You returned at last. MUMMO: You have suffered, Satu. Your ancestors didn’t survive amongst others either. SATU: You taught me everything… but not who I am. Why? MUMMO: To protect you. That’s why I raised you here. SATU: I don’t want protection. I want to learn. I want to understand. MUMMO: Then stay. Become the weaver you were born to be.

Like Diana’s parents, Satu’s mummo hid the truth from Satu that she was a weaver in order to protect her.

In addition, like Diana, it is presumed that during season 2 Satu received training in how to be a weaver. And like Diana, she grows in self-confidence now after she embraces her weaving power and finally knows who she really is.

We see that self-confidence expressed by Satu in episode 210.

SATU: If you go into Sept-Tours, I’d be a powerful ally. KNOX: This is a job for a spell caster. I won’t be needing your pyrotechnics. SATU: Your confidence will be your downfall.

Unfortunately, the arrogant Knox doesn’t realize that Satu has changed.

Ironically, in her last comment to Knox above, Satu may be predicting her own demise as well as Knox’s.

From that point on, Satu will have none of Knox’s arrogance. She votes to expel him from the Congregation in episode 301

PETER: What do you think you are doing? SATU: Peter, you killed a witch. Justice must be served.

Then in episode 302, Satu breaks completely from Knox.

Let’s consider some of the symbolism of Satu and Knox’s split-up in that episode.

There is a stained glass window behind Knox. It contains esoteric symbols, including those of the zodiac and images of magical beasts. The design centers around a fortress in the middle.

It seems to me that the window symbolizes all of Knox’s hopes for witches (and himself) -- IF Knox finds and deciphers the Book of Life. Knox sees himself perhaps seated on a thrown in the central fortress. That would be his place in the witch hierarchy if he succeeds in restoring the full strength of the witches’ powers -- and if he succeeds in vanquishing the vampires (using the witch mentioned in Meridiana’s prophecy to do so).

Although Satu believes Meridiana’s prophecy refers to her and not Diana (and during this scene, Knox also comes to believe that), Satu refuses to go along with Knox’s scheme to empower himself at her expense.

By learning how to weave, Satu is now more powerful than Knox. Using Knox’s magic stone ball against him, she literally puts a hole in the stained glass window -- one that lets the “light” in.

For a brief shining moment, all that Satu might have been i(f she had let more “light” into her “self-weaving”) was apparent in her rebuff of Knox’s proposition that she help him with his scheme.

In further demonstration of her power, Satu hurls Knox across the room and exits in feminist triumph.

Unfortunately, a darker fabric makes up most of Satu’s “self-weave,” so she will never become the woman she might have been had she woven more “light” into herself.

[edited]

_________________

Episode transcripts: Forever Dreaming

#adow #episode 302 #satu jarvinen #peter knox #meridiana #prophesy #weaver #a discovery of witches #my gifs #my edits

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lady-literature · 4 years

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Accidental Crime Boss Marinette

Okay so,, I have this AU in my head, right? (not surprised) and I’m lacking any real direction for it (still not surprised) but it basically goes like this:

Marinette moves to Gotham.

She’s drawn there for whatever reason and the kwami are saying something about balance and being a Guardian and her sacred duty and something but Marinette isn’t really listening. She’s too busy trying to find a shop front where she can open a bakery without having to worry about getting mugged every time she steps outside.

Chloé comes with her, obviously, because they’re friends and Chloé has a business degree she puts to good use actually running Mari’s bakery and online boutique while Mari gets to bake and fuck around basically. Adrien, Luka and Kagami are not there, but that’s mostly because they travel too much to settle down and keeping an empty apartment in Gotham is just asking for trouble.

Kagami is a world-renowned fencer and Luka travels the world for his music company. Not touring, but soaking up cultures and ways of life so he can make soundtracks to movies and tv shows. Providing the background and life to a film is more his style than touring the world ala his father, Jagged Stone.

Adrien is having the time of his life being Kagami’s trophy husband. He has no pressing responsibilities he doesn’t take on for himself and he gets to fuck with the world’s elite with little to no consequences. He spends most of his days donating far too much money to charities and orphanages and then causing minor scandals that land him on the cover of magazines.

He has much the same kind of ‘dumbass with a heart of gold’ persona to the media as Bruce Wayne does, only without the playboy bits.

(There is a wall in the back of the bakery, where Chloé and Mari carefully cut out and frame every headline and ridiculous picture Adrien has. He is very much delighted when he learns about his ‘wall of fame’.)

Anyway, Marinette finds herself with a bakery not overly far from crime alley, much to Chloé’s chagrin.

(“What do you mean it ‘just felt right’?! I swear to kwami, DC, you’re going to get us robbed and sold into slavery.”)

They do not get sold into salvery.

In fact, despite their less than stellar choice of locale, they do pretty well for themselves. The only problems they have (according to Chloé) is the army of children Marinette accidentally attracted.

When asked, Marinette tells everyone that it was an accident. Meanwhile, Chloé, standing behind her, will shake her head and insist there was literally never any other option for them the moment that first kid came in looking to nab some cash and a few pastries.

Mari lives by the phrases, ‘kindness breeds more kindness’ and ‘do unto others’ and all that other nice person shit. Chloé just lets Mari pseudo-adopt her strays and makes sure that they don’t steal anything too important in the time it takes her to gain their loyalty.

The kwami stay staunchly out of any arguments involving the kids (and eventually the homeless all along their street and every working girl in a five-block radius). They do so with a special brand of amusement that never means good things for either of them. (After all, the last time the kwami looked that amused, they moved to Gotham.)

The first kid is named Serrure, as Marinette comes to learn over the next month after he returns again and again, getting closer and closer like a feral cat. Other kids come during that time, all of them too small and too thin and too guarded for Mari's tastes. She wants to wrap them all up and tuck them into bed but she can’t. She has to be patient, has to be gentle. These kids are just as likely to bite her hand as they are to accept help.

Serrure becomes an almost permanent fixture at the bakery after that first month. Mari’s not quite sure what she did to get through to him, but she did, she supposes. He can’t be much older than eleven and looks nine, but after getting settled, she and Chloé discover this little slip of a boy is just as mischievous as Trixx and has all the dramatics of their favorite black cat.

The kwami, when talking about him, only refer to Serrure as Loki, even after Marinette scolds them for it. She eventually gives up trying to correct them, it’s not like Serrure talks to them anyway(yet)((that she knows of)).

There’s an apartment above the bakery, which is where Chloé and Mari and all her strays that grow to trust her enough live. It’s three bedrooms, and at first, Mari just buys as many bunk beds as she can fit into the spare room and calls it a day. The kids feel safe in her home, which isn’t too surprising. Everyone thinks the bakery feels safe, feels like home or comfort or whatever else eases their minds.

And Marinette should hopes so. She certainly put enough time and effort and magic and energy into the wards around this place for that to happen. To protect her and the children and all her strays that no one else will help.

But, she eventually amasses too many kids to fit into the one room. Chloé throws a fit about having to share with Mari again—“I had enough of that in university thank you very much”—but she relinquishes easily enough.

Mari buys more bunk beds, and Serrure has taken to sneaking into her room to curl up in her bed anyway, and sometimes the smaller kids who have nightmares will come in and pile on as well.

(There are only a few that Chloé will allow to do the same with her. It is considered a high honor and breeds a playful kind of jealousy that Chloé finds amusing. Mari scolds her for pitting the kids against each other.)

That only lasts them another two months.

“This is getting ridiculous,” Chloé tells her one day before the kids wake up. Mari is at the stove, cooking and baking for a small army while Chloé balances the books. “There’s not enough room for us all, DC, and the only reason someone hasn’t come barrelling down on us about the abundance of children is by the grace of your absurd amount of luck.”

“Well I can’t just kick them out, Queenie! What do you want from me?”

“Either we need to buy more real estate in this city—which I’d rather not do—or you open up the grimoire and start building pocket dimensions. I know you can. I’ve read the chapter.”

Marinette looks at her. “That is such a bad idea.”

They do the idea.

And then Mari adds about a thousand more wards to the bakery, carved into the wood and counter and anything that’s a permanent fixture. Doorways become particularly ward heavy, what with them being the entrances and exits to the hidden realms and children’s’ rooms.

The apartment above the bakery isn’t quite infinite but it gets pretty damn close some days.

This also means, of course, that all the kids definitely know about magic now. Some of them—Serrure—have known about it for a while she knows, but it’s different now. The kwami followed her around most of the time and she doesn’t keep them trapped in the Miracle Box like Fu did, but now that the kids know, they don’t bother staying hidden.

The children, at least, love them and the kwami adore them with all the ferocity a god can give. After Chloé gets over her ‘ew children’ phase, she throws herself into their education (on top of actually running the businesses Mari keeps, mind you). She has the help of the kwami, who act as personal tutors to the children, and it’s not long before the kids start to joke about her being the Principal.

(Some tried to call her Warden, but that joke didn’t last long.)

Marinette has also been telling the kids bedtime stories ever since this started. Old stories of the Guardian and Chosens who fought back the darkness, she shares all she knows of the Orders history with these kids and it’s not until Wayzz points it out to her does she realize what she’s doing.

“Ladybugs are known for renewal. It is no surprise that you are rebuilding what was lost.”

Rebuilding the Order using children was certainly not her intention but, well. She supposes there’s no place safer for her kids than what is shaping up to be the new Miracle Temple. It’s the only haven where they can learn to harness their Gifts and powers, it’s the only place where they can be surrounded by others like them without being thrust into superhero-dom.

Context: about a month into this whole circus, Marinette had realized there was a significant—almost all of them really—amount of metas and Gifted in her little hoard of strays. Which is… odd. Especially with how few metas there are in Gotham.

She had asked the kwami about it, and they have that amused look again. “You are their guardian.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re their guardian. True, you are the Guardian of us, of the ancient ways, but you are a guardian at your soul too. You protect what is yours, and they are yours whether you realise it or not. The children can sense that, so they flock to you.”

And, huh. She supposes that makes sense but that’s also really kind of strange and weird and she doesn't want to think about that anymore actually.

So things are… fine, Marinette supposes. The bakery is doing well, and she has about two dozen-plus helpers running around underfoot to help tend to the customers or run to the store or help in the back with the baking. And every kid of hers has new clothes, their street things thrown out for being too ragged and replaced with something fresh made by Marinette’s own hands.

She embroiders little fairy wings into the clothes normally, because that’s what her cloaked wards look like most times and the kids like it and its technically the logo for the bakery and there’s a million reasons she does it.

It is, perhaps, her first mistake.

(“It was certainly not your first,” Chloé will snark one dayin the future.)

Because now Marinette has an army of magical children learning to wield their powers and not fear them and they’re all wearing what can be considered her insignia and uh oh, it looks a lot like Mari is some sort of up and coming mob boss who uses kids and prostitutes and the homeless as runners. People on the street start calling her the Pixie, start referring to Chloé—her second in all things just as Chat had been her equal—as Wasp, as Yellowjacket, as the Unseelie.

(They cannot seem to pick a name for her, but Pixie is all but engraved in stone. Mari is not sure who coined it, and she doesn't think she wants to know.)

The first time the whole situation is brought to her attention, she punches the idiot who dared even imply such a thing so hard she knocks him out.

Because look. The kids are hers right? And she watches out for the people near her, makes sure the working girls are treated as well as they can be and offers the homeless extra food and a dry place to wait out the storm. She offers her hand and gives them all a place to rest, to eat, to exist without expectations or consequences.

She does that because she’s kind, because it hurts her to see people in need, to see them suffer, not because she’s hoping to gain something from it.

The fact that most of them repay her in gossip or information or bend her ear about the newest goings on in the corrupt elite or filthy underworld is strange, yes, but it’s nice to know what’s going on in the city, she supposes. And one time, Kathy, who works on the corner of Brookes and Gilmore, warned her of a drug raid that saved her an unnecessary trip to the police station so it’s not like it doesn't have it’s uses.

But mostly, Mari doesn't really think about all the information that’s unintentionally or otherwise passed onto her. She remembers it all, because it’s rude not to listen when people talk to her, but nothing comes of normally.

Not until Serrure—now twelve and well versed in the magic of illusions and glamors and knows almost as much about this city as her or the Bats—bursts into the bakery one day and grabs Mari away from the front counter right in the middle of a customer ordering. She should, perhaps, be a little angry at that but Tony, one of the older boys and just shy of sixteen, steps into her place almost immediately, so.

And then Serrure speaks and everything is pushed aside in favour of the next words to fall from his lips.

“Someone took Sophie,” he says and she nearly sees red.

After Serrure, Sophie has been here the longest. She is the youngest of them all, only seven, but oh so clever and kind and while she looks nothing like her, everyone calls her Mini-Mari. If Serrure is her beloved first son, Sophie is her treasured daughter.

She’s out the door in the next moment, storming her way to their base. She has Sophie and a handful of extra kids back by sunset, a little frightened, but no worse for wear. She doesn’t make a big deal out of it, besides making sure that the idiots who dared cross her never do so again, but word gets out.

Soon, her kids and teens and adults begin giving her more than just information, they begin giving her problems. Ones she’s meant to fix because she’s Pixie. She’s safety, she’s protection, she’s the one the people start to turn to for help.

And enter stage left, one Jason Todd who’s all snark and charm and smiles wrapped up in a nice leather bow and tall enough that Mari likely could climb him like a tree. If that was something she wanted, she guesses.

(She wants. She just won’t admit.)

He becomes a regular at the bakery and befriends most of her kids.

Mari’s wary when he first takes an interest in them. They’ve been hurt and a lot of them are still adjusting to being safe and it doesn't matter that this man is hot enough to burn, if he steps even a toe out of line with her kids she’ll make him wish he was never even born.

But, she stops worrying eventually. The kwami like him well enough, but seem to think something’s odd about him—but its Gotham, who isn’t strange?—and both Serrure and Sophie take to him like ducks to water and they’re both good judges of character.

There’s a certain intuition they both have that reminds Marinette just a bit too much about herself and pure magic. Not for the first time does she wonder if they got such strong magic from their parents or if it cropped up in them randomly, fostered by fortune and chance and the magic that’s so deeply seeped into the bones of her bakery it’ll be here long after she’s gone.

And, okay, so she was a little right to be wary because Jason was mostly there to investigate her. Far too many people respect her and are loyal to her and she has a veritable orphanage in her pocket and also Harley and Ivy like her and it just- it doesn’t look good right?

But Jason’s a good detective and it doesn't take him long at all to see that Mari is just as sweet and kind and loving as she appears to be. Not long after that, Red Hood declares Pixie and all of hers, under his protection. She, of course, is more than capable of taking care of her and hers, and the underworld knows this, has seen it, but he does it anyway.

The news, of course, gets back to Mari and she is… confused. Why would the Red Hood do something like that? She’s heard talk of him being sweet on kids, but to claim her? They’ve never even met.

Bonus points for Jason being there when she’s told about it. He kind of raises his eyebrow at her because, huh, that was fast, and then spends the next few minutes talking up the Red Hood to her much to her utter bafflement.

He actually keeps doing that too, talking up the Red Hood. Mari thinks he has a crush on the man for the longest time because of it. Until he reveals he is Red Hood, then she just wants to punch his stupidly handsome face for being such an idiot.

Shit happens from there and things go down and the two spend a couple of months dancing around each other and intentionally and unintentionally ruling the criminal underworld and at one point Marinette definitely punches Bruce and Batman in the face—separately, much to Jason’s unending joy—and she also definitely adopts Duke/Signal as well because that poor boy needs to know he’s not alone.

And it’s just them being domestic and badass and lowkey raising an army of children and falling in love while the kwami and the kids and Chloé are all in the background just yelling at them to get together already!

Which, they do. Eventually. After all the secrets come out and Jason knows about the magic and Order and meets Mari’s other friends, ie Kagami, Luka and Adrien who are all intimidating for wildly different reasons. And Mari finds out that Jason died and came back (which earns him the nickname firebird btw) and that he was a Robin once upon a time but is now Red Hood and oh my kwami it all makes sense now.

Jason confesses like three times via classic Victorian romance novel quotes because he’s a fucking literature nerd but it’s not until he basically spells it out for Mari does she really understand. it’s all very sweet and heartwarming and then the pair duck into one of the empty pocket dimensions they have lying around and aren’t seen for three days.

(No one really goes to look for them tbh)

Chloé definitely teases them about early honeymoons and things but besides the two being even more ridiculously lovey-dovey than usual, life goes back to normal. Or as normal as it gets for them.

And they all live happily ever after the end.

#maribat #jasonette #my typewriter #batfam #crime boss mari #miraculous ladybug #dc #mlb x dc #i was possessed by the need to write this all down #i have so many random ass moments from this au #just scenes taht barely fit together #zero coherency #let me know if yall want that ig #?

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diamaker-moon · 3 years

Text

Moving Forward - Chapter 2

Chapter Two

First steps!

—————

It was more than what she had bargained. But she was lucky. Really lucky!

'Looks like lady luck finally gave me a good amount of luck!'

— previous chapter... —

Boxes. Boxes were everywhere!

Marinette admits that she'll miss her room. Her very pink room, her roof balcony, her loft bed, everything! But she chose this. She wanted to be far from Dupont from now. She didn't want to be reminded every day about what she has gone through in that school.

She was heavily guarding her 'sewing equipment' which was the disguise for the new shape of the Chinese Miracle Box, and a backpack that has Grimoire and tablet.

After her application for a scholarship was accepted, they got to move, her parents rented a moving van for all the heavy stuff. They decided to get her settled in during the weekend. The only thing she isn't bringing to the dorm was her vanity, desk and loft bed. It was a miracle that her chaise was approved to be moved into the dorm.

"Ready to go?" Tom asked.

He was emotional since his daughter grew up in front of him, but after hearing what she had to suffer from those people, he was supportive of her moving away temporarily.

Marinette nodded. They both went down, where Sabine was waiting. Before Marinette entered the van, she glanced at her old school and smiled bitterly. All the memories she had created with the people she thought she trusted were being tarnished. All because of a lying vixen who has nothing else to do in her life and can't keep her mouth shut.

She missed the people she knew before. But that was before, this was now.

She entered the van, placed the pink carry-on and backpack. While Tom drives the van she was humming while thinking of the past.

Alya Césaire, the person Marinette thought that will always stay by her side. Her ex-best friend. Sure the girl has her faults, but Marinette treated her like a sister. They shared every secret (except her secret identity). When the liar came to Dupont, it felt like there was a spell casted in the school, Alya forgot the most basic rule in journalism. Fact-checking. It was a pity how the Ladyblog was now being slandered on how it became a tabloid. No one trusted it anymore. She felt a bit of guilt that when Alya finally finds out that the girl she claims as her 'new bff' is a liar, her credibility is already in the sewers.

Nino Lahiffe, Lê Chiến Kim, Max Kanté, Ivan Bruel, Mylène Haprèle, Alix Kubdel, Rose Lavillant, Juleka Couffaine and Nathaniel Kurtzberg, her classmates that knew her for years. The people she helped all the time. They knew her, but they also turned their backs against her. Marinette always went out of her way to help them, even when Ivan was the first Akuma victim she felt bad, so she wanted to help— and it got her to become the superheroine of Paris, France; Ladybug.

Lastly, Adrien Agreste, the person who said that was on her side, the only other person who knew about the liar but chose to be silent. Looking back, she was ashamed that she put the boy on a pedestal, but what irked her is his slight manipulation without even knowing. When they celebrated about Chloé leaving for New York, he unknowingly made Marinette guilty, even though he knew about Chloé's tormenting. And after finding out that he was Chat Noir, it angered her that the boy she trusted while in and out of the suit was the same boy who left her in the wolf's den.

"—ette? Marinette?"

That made Marinette snap out of her thoughts. She looked around then outside of the window and noticed that they were in a parking lot. Her father was nowhere to be found and her mother was calling her.

"Your father just went to get a luggage trolley for your boxes. Are you ready to meet your dormmates?"

Ah, yes. Apparently, she had dormmates, but she will still be getting a separate room inside the dorm. Marinette can only hope that the people here are not easily blinded by pretty words.

"Yes, Maman. I'm ready..."

This was part of her first step to a new beginning.

—————

The principal of Jeanne d'Arc l'Académie was a lovely woman.

She guided Marinette and her family towards the dorm building. She informed Marinette about her dormmates. There were a total of four other students in her dorm, she said they were friendly and hopes that they'll get along.

On the third floor of the second dorm building, she walked towards a door that has 'B315' on it, she knocked and we waited.

When the door opened, a tanned girl with blonde hair that was braided and had blue eyes opened it, she had a shocked look on her face when she saw the Principal, but when she looked around her mouth went 'oh'.

"Hi! Please come in, the other two went outside for a while, Fé is in his room reading." She said.

"This is Allegra Croix, the room representative. Here's a room card, keep it safe, but in case you lose it, file a report in the front desk."

The principal said before letting the other guy who had joined them at the school steps earlier help Tom to move her belongings, before leaving.

"Hi, I-I'm Marinette." She introduced herself while smiling, the girl smiled at her then waved.

"Come, I'll direct you to your bedroom."

They entered a room and Marinette felt herself freeze. It was almost identical to her bedroom at home. Keyword: almost.

The room had soft baby pink painted walls with gold designs, a twin loft bed (with a higher railing on one side), a huge L-shaped desk underneath, near it is a tall bookshelf, a vanity, a sliding door on the right with curtains, a bathroom on the left that is also connected to a small walk-in-closet.

Tom and a guy slowly moved Marinette's boxes and her chaise. While her mother was busy talking with Allegra, she made her way towards the sliding door and opened it, to see a small balcony. She was still carrying the disguised miracle box and wore the backpack on her back.

Tikki peaked out of the purse and was awed by the view. When she looked at her holder, she can see a small smile on her face.

"Guess this is it. A new beginning for Marinette Dupain-Cheng..." The girl said while looking at the scenery before looking at her kwami.

—————

After all the boxes, her parents bid a tearful goodbye for the temporary separation between them. Allegra also informed her about dorm curfews and toured her around the dorm. She also mentioned the soundproof feature inside the bedroom and the whole dorm, which shocked Marinette.

It was convenient for her. A balcony inside her room for sneaking in and out and soundproofed for the kwamis, was the best she could get.

She spent her time inside her room and organized everything, she already mentioned to Allegra that she might be stuck inside her bedroom for a while to get settled in. Closing the door and locking it, before turning the soundproofing feature on then letting the kwamis out of the box.

They helped her move stuff and get organized.

"Soundproof? What is that?" Kaalki asked.

"It's a feature that makes all noises inside this room stay here and will not be heard outside."

She looked around and smiled. Her computer has been set up, her sewing machine and other miscellaneous stuff were on top of the L-shaped desk underneath the loft bed.

The chaise was placed near the bookshelf and placed at an angle.

It felt home-y for her. As if she was back in her own room.

Meanwhile, outside Marinette's room, two boys entered the room.

"Hey, Al! Did the new student arrived yet?"

"Yeah, she did! She's been cooped up in her room, and getting settled in. Let's have dinner all together!"

The guy named Allan nodded and carried the grocery bags that were filled with both meal ingredients and snacks towards the kitchen.

When Marinette was done showering and changing to a comfortable but decent outfit, she heard a knock on her door. She opened it and saw Allegra.

"Hey, mind joining us for dinner?" Allegra asked to which Marinette nodded.

They went towards a small dining table next to the kitchen, where she saw three other guys. One was busy reading a book, while the other two were bantering. The girls sat down and that attracted the boys' attention.

"Hi...?"

"Hello! Nice to meet you! I'm Claude D'lleardo, at your service fair maiden!" The guy wearing a white and blue striped shirt said then playfully winking at Marinette, which made her giggle.

"I'm Allan Montgometry, Claude's functioning brain cell." A guy with dark skin and was wearing a green sweater, in Marinette's eyes, the guy reminded her of Nino Lahiffe.

"Félix Culpa, evening." The guy who was reading a book said that he had familiar blonde-coloured hair with blue-grey eyes.

"Nice to meet you all, I'm Marinette, hope we can all get along!" She said with a smile.

While eating she looked around the table and smiled.

Sure it was painful for her that the people she knew as 'friends' had abandoned her, she was also glad that there was an opportunity given to her to start a new page in her life.

She was leaning on the balcony railings feeling the cold night winds, not noticing a certain someone who went out on their own balcony.

Marinette smiled bitterly when she remembered the times when she and Alya spent the entire night on her home's balcony chatting through the night. All the slumber parties, either with the girls or only a few, she missed it.

It was an emotional day for her, moving away from her own home even when it was temporary still hurt her, to transfer out of Dupont due to incompetent educators, bullies and enablers, being abandoned and isolated by the people she used to trust.

She had her faults, especially when she became the Guardian, most of her schedule has been occupied but people in her class haven't been inviting her lately. Things will change, she didn't care anymore. She gave her all in the friendships she had built with that class only for it to be discarded like trash. If they don't want friendship with her anymore, then she doesn't need to give it to them.

She went inside for a brief moment only to come back with her diary in one hand, then a pen in the other. She sat down and started writing.

Dear Diary,

A lot has changed in a span of a week. Sorry if I haven't wrote in you lately, I... I've been quite busy lately, not only with that responsibility, but I recently transfered to a new school. Jeanne d'Arc l'Académie is a promising school! They prioritize the students talents and give them opportunities, I'm glad I had the chance to attend in this kind of school.

Part of my transfer, is me moving to a dorm. Since the school is quite far from the bakery, Maman and Papa asked me if I wanted to move into a dorm inside the school campus. They said it will be convenient for me and I'll be far from that class for a while. At first, I was hesitant, but now, looking back, I'm glad I did accept. My bedroom here in the dorm is amazing! Sure it's not an attic like the one I had back home, but it resembles my room, as if I never moved.

I also met new people today!

Allegra Croix, she was so kind! Allegra was the one who let me know all about the dorm, she toured me and mentioned the cool feature in this dorm and every bedroom, which is: soundproofing! Can you believe it, Diary?!

Claude D'lleardo, was a funny guy, he kind of reminds me of the old Chat Noir, who made me laugh. Then there was Allan Montgometry, he was also fun to be with! When he introduced himself, I giggled when he said he was Claude's brain cell! but he also reminds me of a certain someone from my old school...

And then there's Félix Culpa. At first, I thought I was hallucinating since he resembles him quite a lot, but when I looked at his eyes, I knew there that he wasn't him. He likes reading (I think? Since he kept reading during dinner).

I hope We all get along! Moving to a new environment is breathtaking for me. I can finally relax, without being on edge. I'm far away from that vixen.

You know, Diary... I kinda thank her... is that weird?

She may have threathend me about stealing my friends and ruining me, but she also showed me how people in that school see me. A tool. The vixen showed me how my old class used me to get free pastries from the bakery, I didn't even know that they were getting some and making excuses to my parents. They kept asking me to make things for them, without even paying me, even though they say "can I commision you?". And then all the babysitting duties from those two! I couldn't even say a word, next thing I know she was already running away! The vixen also showed me his pacified attitude in dealing bullies. I think he may be in a delusional state, that all things will resolve itself and it will all be back to normal.

They were all worst than Chloé!

I hope that me moving past that school will give me a new beginning, Diary! I promise to myself, I'll take care of myself this time, no more bending backwards just to appease people. I want to be accepted for who I am, not because of what I can give.

Oops! It's gotten so late, I didn't even notice!

Goodbye for now, Diary!

Marinette closed her diary and sighed, but she had a smile on her face.

She stood up and went inside her room, then locked the balcony. She looked around and saw Tikki eating a cookie on her desk. Marinette put her diary back in its box and claimed the loft.

"Goodnight, Tikki." Marinette said, her eyes beginning to get tired and get droopy.

Tikki stopped eating and zipped towards her chosen, then put a paw on her chosen's cheek.

"Goodnight, Marinette!"

—————

Félix Culpa was more of an introvert in the group. He liked to be alone most of the time. When Allegra, Claude and Allan, leeched onto him, he found it annoying especially with Claude, but soon he got used to it.

And now that they had a new dormmate, he observed her. She was reserved. It was as if she was holding herself back.

Standing outside on the balcony during the night was a leisure time for him. He enjoyed the quiet dark sky and the cold wind of the night. When he went out that night, he saw his new dormmate— Marinette was also outside. When he looked at her, she was staring blankly at the view. She then entered her room then went back out a few minutes after, with a pen and a notebook.

She sat down on the balcony floor since the railings are glass, he can see her writing down on her notebook.

Marinette was pretty, her black silky hair that had blue reflections, she had those attractive bluebell coloured eyes, he also noticed a few freckles on both sides and bridge of her nose during dinner and her rose coloured lipstick with gloss.

He didn't know how long he was staring at her, the next he knew was she was already going back inside her room. So he did the same. He went on his computer and tried to find any social media accounts of his new dormmate, only to find a lot of articles about her.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng, a young and budding designer that had made commisions for various celebrities, including Jagged Stone, Clara Nightingale, XY, and etc."

"Fashion critique, Audrey Bourgeois, has been impressed by a certain Marinette Dupain-Cheng!"

"Adrien Agreste modeling a derby hat won by Marinette Dupain-Cheng in a Gabriel competition."

"Kitty Section's debut outfits made by Marinette Dupain-Cheng awed the crowed!"

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng, an aspring fashion designer is making waves in the world of fashion, can she overrule Paris' resident designer— Gabriel Agreste?"

Those are only a few articles he had seen and read.

'So Marinette was an aspiring designer?'

He thought. Félix was impressed that at such a young age, she has already been featured and had worked with famous celebrities. Looks like he had underestimated the young teenager.

The last thought that ran in his mind before he drifted to sleep was, why did she transfer? Was she unsatisfied with her progress in her old school? Or maybe something happened?

'Who really are you, Marinette Dupain-Cheng?'

Chapter 1 — Moving Forward: Masterlist — Chapter 3

#miraculousladybug #marinette dupain-cheng #félix culpa #movingforward #class salt #AO3

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soovermyself · 6 months

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You guys, this week episode of Work in Progress is the Hilarie book event in LA with Soph. The dream team. The dream episode! ❤️

#sophia bush #hilarie burton #hilarie burton morgan #work in progress #wip #grimoire girl book tour #grimoire girl #one tree hill #oth #brooke davis #peyton sawyer #breyton

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letterstoseven · 3 years

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Killer Queen [Ch. 2]

✏︎ pairing: klaus mikaelson x reader, elijah mikaelson x reader, kol mikaelson x reader

✏︎ summary: y/n Silvius –– daughter of the Alpha of the most respected and powerful pack of the first were-witches (werewolf + witch). She needs to find the remaining Crescent Wolf Pack members as the Elders are planning to reunite the seven packs, namely: Crescent Wolf Pack, Northern Wolves Pack, Moon Shine Pack, River Pack, Lycan Blood Pack, Midnight Stone Pack and the Malraux Pack. On her journey, she met the family whom the witches and werewolves warned her about, The Mikaelson Family.

✏︎ a/n: this is sooooo long but this is when y/n talks about her departure to their hometown and her arrival in New Orleans! thank you so much for taking your time to read chapter 1! here's the chapter 2 :)

✏︎ Chapters: one, two, three, four, five

After the meeting with the Elders, you and your family went back to your own homes. "I'm going to pack and then take a sleep. Good night, Mom. Good night, Dad." You hugged them both tightly. "Dear [y/n], come here. Your dad and I would like to talk to you before you start your journey in finding one of the Crescent Wolf Pack members."

You walked towards your fireplace and sat on the floor in front of them, "What's up?" Your dad, Adoff Silvius, sat near you and told you something about New Orleans, while your mom, Leah Silvius, got the book of the Ancient History of the Wolves.

"Back when I was on my way looking for the Moonstone, I befriended some of the folks in New Orleans. His name is Alaric Saltzman, a history professor. Of course, he never knew me. The people in Mystic Falls thought that the wolves are not real. However, when one of the Lockwoods, Tyler, I think, activated his curse by killing a person, one of them saw it and that's when they know that legends are real. Eventually, I was able to lure the young Lockwood and got the Moonstone before Aiden's dad." He smiled at you. However, that smile faltered when he started talking about New Orleans.

"Okay, Dad. Now, what does your story have to do with my journey to find the Crescent Wolf Packs?" You looked at them both. Your mom, opened the book of the Ancient Wolf Pack, and said, "You, my dear, will be the one who's going to unite the packs. One of my friends in the New Orleans, Vincent, has told me that it would be best if you try to not do any magic and even use your wolf side. The guy running the town, Marcel Gerard, is known for killing the wolves and the witches if they did not abide by his rules." You are saddened by this fact. You know that it's hard for the witches and werewolves to leave their territory as it is where their powers reside. "You have to find the brother of the Hybrid, Elijah Mikaelson. One of the Original Vampires. He can help you. My guy, Vincent, has told me that he can be reasoned out to." You are now starting to get curious about these Originals, the Mikaelsons.

"Back in the day, the wolves are powerful because they are united. The seven packs and us, being the leader of the seven packs, was able to maintain peace between packs. While the Crescent Wolf Packs needed to kill someone to activate their wolf side. While us, coming from the Sanguine Pack, the curse chooses us if we are deemed worthy. That's why there are some members of the family of the Sanguine Pack that until now, at their 30s, 40s and 50s, still not able to activate their werewolf side." Your dad explained that the reason why some of the packs left is because of a misunderstanding. Some packs thought that they don’t need the help of the other pack. Now, your mom is the one who's going to tell you about the situation in the New Orleans.

"If they are the Original Vampires, aren't I walking in a sacred place and might as well get killed in the process?!" You are in distress. All these ancient history talks are now spiraling in your head. "The Mikaelsons, as the Elders would tell us, are the dangerous, and well dysfunctional family in the world. Legend says that they will do anything for their family even if it means killing or sacrificing their loved ones." Now you are scared. "However, they are the only chance you have to find one of the Crescent Wolf Pack members as his brother is a Hybrid. The hybrid's name is Niklaus Mikaelson. He's got a witch sister too, Freya Mikaelson."

You thought to yourself, Thank God at least there's a witch in the family.

"Now, dear. Your father and I loves you so much. As much as we wanted to help you, this is part of the process. We believe in you. Our daughter, our heir. You are the most powerful were-witch of your generation. And in no doubt, you will be the first female Alpha of the pack." Your parents hugged and kissed you. Well, being an only child has its pros sometimes. You said your good night to them.

You started packing your grimoires, your weapons, a weapon that is made from the ancient white oak stake - legend says that this ancient white oak stake is the best wood to kill or to protect yourself from. That's why ever since you started learning how to create a weapon, you used them to create one.

The next day, you and Aiden trained in combat and learned protection spells as the next day, both of you will start your journey to become an Alpha. "How are you doing, [Y/N]?" He sat beside you. "You know, Aiden, when we were young we've always been competing side to side. Now that it has come to this, I now wish for us to stay alive in the process. Good lord, vampires out there? Crazy." He drank the water and said to you, "If I become the Alpha, you can still be an Alpha. The wife of the Alpha. Marry me, [Y/N]." You chuckled and said, "Aiden! You're like one of my closest friends in the pack! Never gonna happen!" Aiden smirked, "I know that's going to be your answer. Just stay safe and stay alive, okay? Either of us has only one goal: to protect the Sanguine Pack and unite the seven packs." Both of you hugged and went on your homes for the night. Tomorrow is the day when both of you are going to each of your tasks.

___________________

Today's the day. Before you and Aiden left the pack, the Elders gave you two a powerful protection spell to ensure your safety and whatever happens, the two of you will come back alive. And as for you, your mom made you drink vervain. She said that it’ll help you to not be compelled by the vampires. You bid your good-byes to your friends and family. Your parents told you that if it is an emergency, then you'll have to call them as soon as possible. Your pack's residing in the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia. You thought to yourself that this is going to be a long ride.

____________________

After almost 12 hours of driving, you now reached New Orleans. As soon as you stepped in the New Orleans, you can see that the city’s full of life. Different to the place you’ve grown up to. In the mountains, the life is chill. But in this city, it’s also chill but there’s always a buzz everywhere you go.

Before you go out of the car, you messaged your mom and told her that you just got in the city. After checking in the Palace Royal Hotel, as you were walking, you saw a voodoo shop called Jardin Gris. You went inside and asked for some herbs, and a girl named Sabine asked you, “Are you a witch?” You were shocked by the question, “Uh, no! I was just passing by. I’m a tourist! I’m [y/n]!” Sabine looked at you from head to toe, “Well, I thought you were a witch. You were wearing some kind of necklace that only a person who knows a powerful witch can have. And I can sense it too.” You are now literally breaking into sweats when a blonde girl walked in, “Hey, witch!” You heard the girl talk to Sabine. You tried not to pry but when Sabine asked the girl, “To what do I owe the displeasure, Mikaelson?” You asked yourself, a Mikaelson? The Original Vampire?

“I need a camphor. Now.” You saw the lady Mikaelson wait for the witch. She’s gorgeous, you thought to yourself. You realized that like you werewolves, they’re blending in the humans too. When she went out, you sneakily followed her but you when you went out, she’s gone.

You continued your tour around the place. The night time came and the city’s been livelier than ever. Parties and drinking everywhere. You went inside the bar called, Rousseau’s. A bartender girl named Tanya, greeted you, “Ohhh, new face. What’s up?” You seated at one of the stools in front of her, “[y/n]. Just a tourist from Virginia. Scotch please, thanks.”

After awhile, you feel yourself getting drunk. Someone sat beside you, the blonde girl from the shop and a guy wearing a tailored suit. The guy looked expensive, you thought to yourself.

You heard them talking about a girl named Sophie and about a bunch of witches are plotting against their brother. “We need a witch to do an unlinking spell, Rebekah. It is for the safety of our niece and Hayley.” The girl beside him replied, “We need a witch to do the spell. And after that, I’m leaving this bloody town, Elijah.” You thought to yourself, “Unlinking spell? That’s so basic.” You weren’t sure why but the two of them stared at you, and you asked them, “What?” The guy asked you, “Do we know you? It seems like you’re new in town.” They waited for your response, “What’s with this town and that they keep on asking me if I am new in town?” The blonde girl smirked, “I like her.” However, before they speak again, you left them.

While you were walking, the alcohol starts to leave your system. You sat in one of the bench at Jackson Square. The square is empty, however, there are three vampires who started hovering around you.

“What the hell? What do you want?” One of them started leaning towards you, it looks like they are trying to compel you. But you said to them, “Freaks!” You ran as much as you can but due to you not being on your werewolf form, you cannot ran as fast as you can. “Stop right there! How can you not be compelled? Damn it! Vervain’s in your system. I thought we’ll have a dinner for tonight.” You thought that they were walking away, however, you used magic and you snapped their heads. You ran back in your hotel, and you pray that no one knew that you just practiced magic.

After showering, you heard a knock on your door, you recognize him as the guy from the bar. “Hello, I believe this is yours.” He was holding your necklace, you checked your neck, and you realized that it’s gone. “Give that to me!” The man won’t give it to you. “You realize that you just used magic in New Orleans where a vampire, who runs the town, forbids the use of magic.” You stopped trying to get the necklace and told him, “I just did. I’ll be damned if I let those psycho blood suckers kill me.” The man in front of you gave your necklace, however, there’s a catch. “I’ll give this to you but you need to help me break a link between two persons.” You furrowed your eyebrows and said, “And who are you? Why would I help you then?”

“I’m Elijah Mikaelson, and I need your help.”

#klaus mikaelson #klaus mikaelson fanfic #klaus x reader #klaus mikaelson x reader #elijah mikaelson #klaus mikaelson imagine #elijah mikaelson x reader #elijah mikaelson fanfic #elijah mikaelson imagine #kol mikaelson x reader #kol mikaelson #kol mikaelson imagine #the originals fanfic #the originals imagine #the vampire diaries #the vampire diaries imagine #the vampire diaries fanfic

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elisha-mikealson · 3 years

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4. The Dinner Party

When I woke up the next day I get dressed before heading downstairs to see Elijah sitting on the couch still reading the same book, "So is this going to be an every morning thing?" I ask him as I sit down on the couch next to him.

"Probably, I find this intriguing." He hands me the book and I see that it is one of Esther's grimoires.

"Now how did you find this?" I ask flipping to the page that he was on.

"It was on the bookshelf in the room that I'm staying in."

I nod to this. "And you think you should just be reading it out in the open?" I stand up with it in my hands. "There is a reason that it's locked away in that room, not to mention you had to go searching specifically for it because I know that no one would be able to find it except for a Mikaelson or someone with magic. There is a reason I hid this," I say holding up the book. "It has the spell that can destroy us all. A which that can channel enough energy can kill an original with a spell in this book," I sigh dropping the book. "Your which friend, has the only other copy of this spell so if Bonnie wants you dead she can do it if she can find the book."

"She won't," he says standing up. "Jonas has everything under control with the witch."

"Okay," I say speeding up to the room putting the book back before coming back. "What is the game plan for today?"

"We'll Jenna is going to be showing me around the old property lines."

"I thought I was supposed to be showing you around," I say laughing a little bit.

"Well she has all the information and everything, and Mrs. Lockwood has requested her to show me around, I don't see why you couldn't join us though. Jenna did say about meeting us there in an hour."

"Okay," I say nodding. "Let's go then," I say grabbing my keys. Once we get there we say hello to Jenna and she starts showing us around and I slightly zone out until Jenna says something.

"Ah the Fells. One of the 'Founding Families,'" Elijah responds.

"Why do you say it like that?" Jenna questions.

"My research showed me that this area was actually settled almost two full centuries earlier." I had to hold in a laugh because I was the one that told him that on the way over. "It was a migration of townsfolk from the northeast, Salem to be precise."

"Massachusetts? As in the Salem witch trials?"

Elijah nods to this. "Which means the ever lauded founding families didn't actually found anything."

"Well, I bet it was the men who made a big deal about being founders back in 1860. Men are very territorial." We stop walking when she says this and I notice Alaric walking over to us.

"Yes, they are," I say as Jenna looks over and sees Alaric.

"Elijah, Elisha, this is my friend, Alaric Saltzman."

"Yeah, I got you message about walking Elijah and Elisha here through the old property lines. I figured I would tag along, you know being a history buff and all. Where to next?" Alaric says. I can tell that Elijah is not to pleased by Alaric's intrusion on this tour, but he keeps a level head.

"I'm pretty curious about the freed slave property owners. Some say, you know, the descendants of the slaves are the true keepers of the American history," Elijah says.

"Well I only brought the surveys, I got that list in the car, just give me a sec." With that she walks off to her car.

"Alaric Saltzman. Your one of those people on Elena's list of loved ones to protect."

"So is Jenna," Alaric says dead serious which makes me smirk.

"You don't have to be jealous. I don't really pursue younger women." Elijah almost sounds board saying this as he looks over at me. "It's a joke Ric, lighten up." He taps Alaric's shoulder before walking away.

"Right," Alaric says with a nod before looking at me. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Helping Elijah, Mrs. Lockwood did ask me to show him around before she got Jenna to. Like it or not, I'm driving him around because I know this town better than even the Salvatore's do, so please do play nice with Elijah, he won't bring you harm or anyone else on Elena's list." I walk away from him over to Elijah and Jenna as she finishes showing us around. Alaric leaves at some point which is okay with me because Elijah seems more relaxed without him there.

After everything I follow Jenna to the Grill where she said that she was meeting up with Alaric about something. Once we walk into the Grill I hear Damon saying, "Ah here's Jenna with her new boyfriend and his sidekick." I laugh quietly to myself. "Hi."

"Hey guys," Jenna says walking over to Alaric, Damon, and Damon's girl toy.

"So I hear you guys had quite a meeting of historical minds today."

"Yeah, you could say that," Jenna says with a smile as she looks at Elijah.

"Well as much as I would like to continue this, I've got papers to grade," Alaric states getting up.

"No, you know what we should continue this. Let's have a diner party," Damon's toy says.

"Ooh my girl, full of great ideas. I'll be happy to host," Damon says mock holding up his hand. I could see the look on Elijah's face and man he looked like he wanted to rip off his head. "Say tonight maybe?"

"Sounds good with me, Jenna?" Again, Damon's toy.

"I don't know if tonight works-" Alaric starts to say but Jenna cuts him off.

"Yeah, I'm free," she nods.

"It'll be a pleasure," Elijah says and I nod in agreement.

"Great," Damon says with a smile.

"Well, Elijah and I would love to stay but we have some important things to get to, before tonight," I say with a small smile. "Jenna it was lovely to spend the day with you, Elena has told me how nice you were, but you are beyond what she was saying," I say and she smiles.

"Anytime you need something, either of you, just give me a call," she says looking at Elijah.

"I will keep that in mind," Elijah says kissing her hand before he walks away.

"Damon please don't do anything stupid tonight," I say and he just smiles.

"I would never dream of it," he says and I walk away with that.

When I got to the car I drive us back to my place and we discuss about what all happened today while we were on the tour. Bash, Josh and Rosa got up and left while Elijah and I were talking to go train which I didn't have a problem with. Caun then ventured out of his room and over to Elijah and I. "I heard diner party, I'm going."

"Caun if you get within a hundred yards of the house I will personally snap your neck."

"Why can't I go?"

"One because there will be no alcohol, two the people there you can't kill, and three because I said so."

"You are absolutely no fun," he says walking away from us.

"I know." I smirk at this. "Why don't you head over to the lake house and help the others train?"

"I would rather drive a stake through my chest," he says looking at me and I just gave him a look and he sighs. "Fine, I'll head over to the lake house, but I'm not training anyone." He leaves and Elijah and I go back to talking. Before I knew it, it was time to go over to the Salvatore boarding house so we left.

When we got there I rang the doorbell and the door opened revealing Damon. "Good Evening," I say.

"Thank you for coming, please, come in," Damon says opening the door more.

"Just one moment. Can I just say that if you have anything less than honorable intentions about how this evening is going, I suggest you reconsider," I say walking in.

"No, nothing, nothing dishonorable. Just a, getting to know you."

"Hmm, well that's good because you know although Elena and I have this deal, if you so much as make a move to cross me I'll kill you and I'll kill everyone in this house. Are we clear?" Elijah says.

"Crystal," Damon says.

"Jenna, it's wonderful to see you again. How are you?" Elijah says walking into the house further towards Jenna, "you look incredible."

After about 15 minutes we were all sitting at the table eating. "I hate to break it to you Damon but according to Elijah, your family is so not a founder of this town," Jenna says trying to make conversation. She was sitting across from Elijah with Damon to her right and me to her left as Damon's toy is on the other side of me with Alaric across from her and John next to both of them.

"Hmm, do tell," Damon says looking at Elijah.

"Well, as I mentioned to Jenna earlier, a faction of settlers migrated from Salem after the witch trials in the 1690s. Over the next hundred years they developed the community where they could feel safe from persecution."

"Hmm. Because they were witches," Jenna says kinda leaning over to me.

"There is not tangible proof there were witches in Salem," the toy says.

"Andie's a journalist. Big on facts," Damon comments.

"Well, the lore says that there was this wave of anti-witch hysteria. It broke out in the neighboring settlement, so these witches were rounded up. They were tied to stakes in a field together and burned. Some say you could hear the screams from miles around us they were consumed by the fire," I say like it was common knowledge. "Could you pass the," I say say pointing to the butter on the table.

"I wouldn't repeat this to the historical society," Jenna says laughing along with Andie and I just kind of smirk.

"It's starting to sound a little like a ghost story to me," John says but everyone ignores it.

"So why do you want to know the location of these alleged massacres?" Damon questions.

"You know, a healthy historian's curiosity, of course," Elijah says with a ghost of a smile.

"Of course," Damon responds. We fall into a painful silence before Damon speaks up again. "Would anyone care for some Cognac? I have a bottle I've been saving for ages."

"None for me thanks. 9 bottles of wine is my limit," Alaric says as everyone stands up.

"The gentlemen should take their drinks in the study," Andie suggest and I give Elijah a look of warning and he catches on.

"I have to say the food was almost as wonderful as the company."

"I like you," Andie says point to Elijah which just smiles before walking out of the room. I follow behind him sneaking out only to be caught by Alaric's eyes which just brushes it off like nothing.

Once I get into the study I see Damon pouring glasses of what I presumed to be bourbon from the smell. "So let me guess. In addition to the moonstone, the doppelganger, the lion, the witch and the wardrobe you need to find this witch burial ground."

"Because I feel as though we've grown so close, Damon, I'll tell you, yes."

"Do you know where it is?" I question making my presence known before walking down to Elijah.

"Maybe. Tell me why it's so important."

"Even I know you're not that close, Damon."

"It's quite a collection you have here." Damon hums looking at me as he reaches for something and I take a whiff knowing it's a dagger with white oak on it. I give him a warning looks but he brushes it off. "It's a funny thing about books, before they existed people actually had memories." Damon was picking up the dagger but Alaric bushed the doors open saying about how we forgot about dessert.

"Elijah," Andie says putting out her hand basically begging Elijah to take it.

"Miss Star," he says walking up to her taking her hand and walking out of the room.

"What the hell Damon are you trying to get yourself killed?" I ask.

"No," Damon says looking at Alaric and hitting him. Alaric simply walked over to a paper and wrote 'The dagger will kill you if you use it' before handing it to him. I roll my eyes using my vampire speed to quickly move up by the dining room walking in behind Andie and Elijah.

"Sorry guys dessert is taking longer than I thought, I usually just unwrap food," Elijah sits down in his chair and I stand next to him. Andie started talking but I ignore her listing to see were Damon and Alaric are at, but they pop up and Andie gets Alaric to grab a notebook out of her bag and he disappears again so I sit down in his seat. They say a few things but what caught my attention was when John says about Klaus.

"Gentlemen, there's a few things we should probably get clear right now. I allow you to live solely to keep an eye on Elena. I allow Elena to remain in her house living her life with her friends as she does as a courtesy. If you become a liability, I'll take her away from you and you'll never see her again," he says calmly. I sense the white oak ash coming closer, but before I could do anything Elijah yelled in pain as I see the dagger come out of his chest and the veins start to grow on his face. I look to see Alaric standing behind him which pisses me off beyond belief.

"Relax it won't hurt as much," I whisper knowing he heard me. Within seconds his body goes limp in the chair and it takes all I have to not rip out Alaric's heart right now. He takes out the dagger through so that helps me calm down a bit knowing Elijah will be awake in a matter of minutes.

"Now get rid of him before Jenna comes back with desert," Alaric says walking away.

"I'll take care of it, just cover for me Damon," I say picking up Elijah's body and vamp speed down to the cellar. "I'm going to chill out down here while you guys finish up," I say knowing Damon hears me.

"Okay I'll be down then," he responds. After a minute Elijah gasps and I motion for him to be quite as possible. Once he is as 100% as he is going to get I sneak out of the house and I do a locator spell on Elena as Elijah requests. He also made a call to his witch to do something before we left to find Elena.

Once we got to the cabin Elijah grabbed some of the gravel throwing it at the door breaking it down without a problem. That's when Elena says to Stefan to leave and that she will be okay because Elijah and I can't get into the house.

"You know, we might not be able to enter this house but we are very patient people, and we will wait you out," I say seconds later Elena walks out from around the corner.

"They shouldn't have done what they did."

"The deal is off."

"I'm renegotiating."

"Let me think about that." I pause for a second. "No, simply because you have nothing left to negotiate with," when I finish this she pulls out a knife.

"I would like to see you lure Klaus into Mystic Falls after the doppelganger bleeds to death."

"Stefan won't let you die."

"No, he won't. He will feed his blood to heal me then I'll kill myself and become a vampire, just like Katherine. So unless you want that to happen again, promise me the same as before- promise me you won't harm anyone that I love even if they've harmed you."

"I'm sorry, Elena, I'm going to have to call your bluff." What the hell is he doing? She will do this, this is not a bluff, he doesn't know her. I can see it in his eye that he doesn't believe it until she stabs herself. "No!" He yells and vamp speed to the door.

"Yes. Yes, you can have your deal," I say. "Let me heal you," I tell her.

"Give me your word," she says in pain.

"You have my word," Elijah says and she stumbles out of the house right to Elijah and and yells in pain. She had the dagger.

"No!" I yell and grab Elijah before he just falls on the ground as Stefan speeds out feeding her his blood.

"Little tip, don't pull out the dagger," Damon says before looking at me, "why are you helping him?"

"You wouldn't understand," I say before speeding away leaving Elijah's body lay on the porch. I head to the Salvatore boarding house hiding to see where they would put him. When they do bring him around Damon takes the moonstone and I speed out of there without any of them noticing. I drive back to the lake house where I brake almost every single training item before I finally start to cool down a bit. "I will get you back father, I promise you. I'll kill every single one of them if I have to, I don't care."

#Elijah's daughter #elisha mikealson #elijah mikaelson x daughter!reader #elana gilbert #elijah mikaelson #damon salvatore #Stefan Salvatore

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ohblackdiamond · 4 years

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liner notes/unused joke summaries for kiss fics (part iv)

Despite what my general dislike of the shift key and my tendency to mock all that I love might imply, I actually overthink everything I write to a great extent. I make no claims to these explanations being in any way enjoyable, but if you wanted to know what I was thinking while writing KISS fic… now you do. Part one can be found here. Part two is here. Part three is here.

little t&a --If Paul had boobs, they would be big and Gene would want to grab them.

>>Title from a Rolling Stones song of the same name; most of the chapter titles are from another Stones song, “The Spider and the Fly.” I started it during quarantine as a means to occupy myself and destress, and didn’t initially plan on posting it at all. Once I’d written five chapters without having posted it or mentioned it to anyone, I figured, well, I guess this might as well go somewhere, so I put it up. I had the hope that it’d give me something to strive for during the stress of lockdown, and I’d assumed that I wouldn’t ever have that much time to devote to a story again.

There were a couple of things that really inspired me. I’ve always enjoyed sexswaps as a bit of a guilty pleasure, but wanted to do a different take on them-- there’s this tendency for sexswaps to either be wacky hijinks or an excuse to write particularly brutal noncon. There’s also a tendency for the sexswapped character to almost automatically start adopting stereotypically feminine traits he didn’t have prior, with no real reason for it. I wanted to try and avoid all that as much as possible.

... There’s also another tendency for the sexswapped character never getting back to normal, and I wanted to avoid that, too. I mean, c’mon, KISS is supposed to start the Love Gun tour a month after the fic. Paul can’t exactly pull the trigger of a love taco. (Maybe gently brush it a bit...)

I had Paul already cursed for five days at the start of the fic because I thought it would make things easier and allow the plot to advance more quickly. I also felt like it would give him more autonomy-- prior to Gene showing up, he has tried (albeit in small ways) to get a handle on what’s happened to him, and while he’s hermited it up, he hasn’t given up. Autonomy in general was pretty important for me re: Paul. (Incidentally, probably one of my favorite things about this fic is that Paul’s made that poor twelve-year-old kid on his bike buy him sanitary napkins.)

I wanted to explore a couple of other things, too, mostly rock and roll’s (and KISS’ in particular) pretty heinous treatment of women. Gene and Paul argue in the eighties that groupies know the score from the beginning, and even postulates that those relationships are more “honest” than just taking a girl out to dinner. They’re not alone in this (and, of course, as married men, these days they try not to discuss those times at all); almost every band/artist from around that time period will give you the same answer. “The girls know what they’re doing.” I think many of them did know. I also think many of them came into those hotel rooms expecting a lot more than they ever received, and I think plenty of girls ended up at the very least disappointed by their encounters, if not humiliated or worse.

I don’t know if this was successful, but I also wanted to at least try to poke a few holes in celebrity/idol worship as well. Carol’s scathing comments to Paul-- “they [fans] think there’s something you’ve got that they can get at, but there’s not” pretty heavily exemplify behavior I’ve seen at conventions, fan meet-ups, etc. At the end of the day, well, there’s no point in putting them on much of a pedestal. I dunno. I’ve seen some weird crap in the name of fan worship, in and outside of RPS. Keith Richards talks about it in his book-- girls urinating on themselves out of sheer nerves/excitement just at seeing the band, etc., which, while disturbing, had to have given them a sense of being something beyond ordinary (and act accordingly, of course).

I don’t know. I like them a lot, but I can’t hero-worship these guys; they don’t live in the real world. They’re not, ultimately, relatable or accessible despite the billions of photos, the twitter posts, the meet and greets-- any more than they were 40-odd years ago. I think there can be a real danger in thinking they are. I wanted to show that, too, but again, I don’t know if it came across properly.

One of the aspects I really struggled with was getting a good handle on Paul’s innately slippery sense of identity without it overtaking the story entirely. Gene’s very stable identity was a good foil, and it helped that most of “t&a” is from his point of view, rather than Paul’s.

Another place I faltered with was Paul’s outing alone at CBGB. The first draft had the guy in the club slip quaaludes into his drink, but I really didn’t like that at all and felt it took too much control away from Paul/punished him for going out on his own. I thought it’d be more interesting if Paul deliberately took what he knew was a dangerous combination (alcohol + quaaludes) in the hopes that would make him feel better about sleeping with someone he didn’t care about.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, having him do that (and the way the scene with the guy at the club ends) also meant that I couldn’t have him hop right into bed with Gene that night, either, so that accounts for some of the delaying. I was also really wanting to make sure in general that when Gene and Paul finally did go all the way, there wasn’t any feeling of being coerced or pressured. Not that Gene would do either of those things, but I didn’t want him or Paul to be doing it out of any feeling of obligation or hurry; I wanted it to be as natural as possible, under the circumstances. And I wanted, again, Paul’s dubious sense of self and Gene’s ambiguous feelings about Paul(’s boobs) to come into play-- yes, Paul, now you, too, can take Gene on the amazing technicolor dreamdate you’ve been fantasizing about for the last seven years! Or, you know, not. Overall, there are some pacing issues and the story slows down considerably after Gene takes Paul home from CBGB, but I like to hope that most of the scenes add something.

There were a couple of secondary plotlines that got scrapped because I couldn’t get them to fit well enough with the narrative. One of them was Paul’s very troubled relationship with his sister, Julia. There’s a fair amount of references to her scattered throughout, and Paul brings her up on several occasions, generally without much provocation, and generally at mildly odd moments (at Central Park and immediately after getting drawn by Gene being the standouts). There was an initial draft of the chapter in which Ace calls Paul, where Julia’s the one calling Paul instead (after having gotten his number from their parents). I wanted to at least get the start of a reconciliation going between them. Ultimately I scrapped it because I couldn’t get it to flow with the main plot and never felt like I’d ever explored it thoroughly enough for it to be worth a detour.

The comparison between Paul and Carol is pretty blatantly obvious, even in the narrative. Paul and Gene both recognize it (Gene, initially, when he notes that Carol doesn’t seem to belong at 54 any more than Paul does), and it makes them highly uncomfortable. (Mary-Anne, Carol’s friend, also notices it-- “she [Paul] reminds me of Carol. Just pitiful.”) They’re both very shy, insecure people that have thrust themselves into a world they’re not naturally suited for (show business) in order to achieve their own ends. They’ve both put great stock in a single person who helped them (inadvertently or not) during a dark time, and are driven by those feelings, despite knowing that person is out of reach.

Physically, they’re intentionally mostly opposite (Carol’s short, with a slight build, lighter hair, blue eyes, vs. Paul being, well, Paul-- tall, fuller build, black hair, brown eyes). But narratively speaking, neither of them are described as beautiful; “cute” and “kind of pretty,” sure, but nothing past that (except when Gene says it towards the end). That was important, too, for a couple of reasons. One, I wanted to further the comparison between them; two, I wanted to at least try and dispel the idea that all groupies were glamorous; many of them were rather ordinary-looking.

Paul not being “playboy material as a girl” was very deliberate. I feel like a lot of sexswaps tend to make the guy in question end up a ridiculously hot babe, which didn’t quite jive with what I was going for (not that I wanted Paul to end up awful-looking, but...). ... He’s probably hotter than he thinks he is though; at least, Gene didn’t mind at all, and Pete thought he was pretty. I wanted him to be recognizable if one knew where to look (face, body language). I didn’t want him to end up a tiny, frail-looking waif-- given what he looks like as a dude, that didn’t make sense to me. So this meant the less perfect attributes had to stay and carry over to a female body. He ended up with big boobs because... well, honestly because if he wasn’t going to end up with a great figure overall, he might as well have great boobs. And I mean, really, his chest’s already pretty all right as-is.

I didn’t want there to be a love triangle, but I did want it obvious, at least in an offhand way, that Peter and Paul had had sex (Ace mentions it in the car with Peter, with his “how long did it take you”). I wanted to incorporate Ace and Peter to as great an extent as possible in general.

Marbas is an actual demon from The Lesser Key of Solomon, although other than the few sentences Paul reads off from that grimoire, there’s not much more information on him to be found.

#kiss fanfiction #liner notes #gene simmons x paul stanley

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vulpinmusings · 3 years

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Letters from Buxcord #11: An Elemental Headache

In this Monster of the Week mystery, Ash confronts multiple personal frustrations.

Samantha,,

Either you’ve already read the letter I addressed to Noctus or I’m telling you these stories in person, so I won’t bother repeating my unexpected run-in with Meis N’cral a week ago. I’ve spent most of this week refitting N’Cral’s ship, to the best of my limited mechanical ability, into a serviceable fall-back shelter and secure storage for the materials I’ll need to perform the spell that will bring me home.

And to be quite frank, the sooner I can get out of Buxcord, the better.

I also finally got “Mr. Penn” to open up about his true nature. I’m still not sure if he’s the same entity as Nollthep or another “spawn,” but that’s not exactly a deal killer anymore. Penn describes himself as the spawn of a god-like being that’s holed up somewhere in Buxcord, unrelated to that demon sealed in the cottonwood tree but held in place by the same barriers, gathering power in an attempt to break out into the wider world and plunge it all into a state of mindless insanity. Penn has come to care for Buxcord and its populace as they are now, and so is now in open rebellion against his former boss/creator/Master/what-have-you.

A morag after my own heart, wouldn’t you say? And certainly an easier project than Noctus was (and you can tell her that if this letter doesn’t have to go through her to reach you). Don’t worry, I’m not planning to bring him home; I’ll just help him deal with his former master and then get him set on a nice self-discovery path. And at least one ethics lesson.

A couple days after scoring that confession, my dull daily routine was livened up by the uncommon sound of an ambulance siren from the east side of town. Considering the historic trends, I went immediately to Bayou Boating to see what was up. Penn, Lea, and Piper were already there, dealing in various ways with an agitated group of tourists. It appeared that one of their number had suffered a deep cut to their leg during the end of their boat tour, with no apparent cause except for an unusually large wave of water splashing into the boat.

It wasn’t much to go off of, but at this point that’s all it took to get Piper on board with supplying me and the usual suspects a boat to go investigate. And since Fitz apparently hasn’t come to work since before the N’Cral incident, there was nobody that Piper had to work around to get us that boat. (I think Penn’s first solo task should be accounting for everybody that he and his ilk have interfered with in some way or another…)

The attack had occurred not too far from shore, so it was a short trip to what turned out to be an even shorter search. Penn leaned out over the side of the boat, dunked his head underwater, and promptly resurfaced to say he’d seen a strange orb moving through the water. And the instant he finished explaining, the orb rose into view inside an animated tentacle of water. Figuring it to be some sort of elemental construct, I advised everyone to get onto the nearby island so we wouldn’t be quite as surrounded by deadly water. There were a few missed jumps and fumbles, but we all made it ashore without much harm, whereupon I tried to freeze the elemental solid. My spell came out as more of a blast of ice than the intended temperature manipulation, and the orb was knocked out of its tentacle. Piper flew up to grab the orb, but threw it away from herself almost immediately because of how cold it felt. Penn used his razor whip to slam the orb onto dry ground and I hit it with fire, expecting to neutralize the construct with its opposing element.

I severely misjudged. The orb absorbed the fire and formed a fire elemental body from it.

Lea called up a wave of dirt to try and smother the fire, which might or might not have actually put us up against an ersatz golem, but the orb floated itself over the dirt and fired back at Lea. As Lea dealt with that, Penn pulled out his combat umbrella and stabbed at the orb, knocking it back into the water.

I should have left well enough alone, but I hadn’t quite caught on to the thing’s nature, so I froze the area where the orb had gone underwater, and wound up just making it into a massive ice golem, with the orb safely hidden in its center of mass. It punched Lea out of the air, shrugged off a handful of Penn’s blast powder, and then clobbered me when I tried to pull its attention off Lea and also melt through its ice to expose the orb to fire again.

My intention was to carefully work the thing back around to water and then work out a plan to isolate the orb without giving it any other elemental properties, but Penn decided that it would best if the thing was just not near us anymore so we could all catch our breath. So, Penn cast a spell to teleport the elemental away without determining a destination. And it worked, so we were out of danger with no clue where the elemental was now.

Not ideal.

We returned to town, and I considered going to check Simone’s grimoire for any references to adaptive elementals. As we neared the sheriff’s office, however, we heard a commotion and ran over to see Sheriff Ragland and Officer Weaver trying to hold the ice elemental off with shotguns. And there was a crowd of civilians forming to see what was going no.

After we all gave Penn the stink-eye, I told Lea to fly to my apartment and grab Simone’s book while Penn and I went to assist the police. We opened with a combination of an umbrella stab and a Tangler while shouting, in vain, for everyone to clear the area. When the elemental broke free, I magically reinforced Penn’s umbrella as he opened it as a shield. Lea came back at this point, tossing me the book and then landing to summon a wall of earth between the fight and the bystanders as well as vines to restrain the elemental so I could consult the book in peace.

The book helpfully told me that the orb is known as an Arcane Core, an adaptive elemental construct that is drawn to active spells and considered to be a physical manifestation of magic. That made it the second big thing I require for my return trip spell, but it would only serve if unbroken and the only way to preserve its form while neutralizing its threat it to drain the elemental magic out of it.

I don’t think I have ever missed Carmilla and her ever-so-potent magebane gel more than at that precise moment.

When I explained the conundrum to my companions, Penn theorized that he might be able to drain the magic out of the orb and into himself, if he could get into physical contact with the orb for long enough.

At this point, the crowd was becoming very anxious. I… will save that particular rant for later, after I finish telling of the fight. Lea took it upon herself to try to calm everyone down while Penn and I engaged the elemental again. I blasted it with fire hot enough to expose the core but not cause it to shift, which was less than ideal but sufficient for Penn to get a solid grip on the orb. The ice beast punched us both before I could get it in a Tangler, and at that point it was just a matter of holding out until the ice melted away and the orb went dormant in Penn’s grip.

With the danger neutralized, I turned my attention to helping Lea with crowd control. And now it’s rant time.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if the majority of our world’s population were ignorant of the existence of magic and mythics? Well, pop on over to this universe if you want to see. Or better yet, don’t. I don’t know why those in the know have been so intent on keeping the masses ignorant of magic and whatnot, but the result is a population utterly unprepared to react rationally when an elemental starts rampaging in the streets and the local experts, such as they are, arrive to contain it. Perhaps Buxcord sees an unusually high number of monsters and magic incidents for this world, but that’s even less of an excuse to allow the Buxcord locals to remain ignorant of basilisks in their swamp, feral werewolves at their music festivals, and skvetchte demons and chaos beings locked up in local trees. People can die – have died – because next to nobody knows what to be on guard for or how to properly react when a faerie-spider possesses a guy and invades the local hotel.

There’s only so much that I, with the help of a drug-addicted and half-trained faerie girl and a chaos creature of still-dubious quality, can do if the bulk of the remainder in town just have a collective panic attack when trouble strikes. And I’m not sticking around this town, this skvetchte universe, any longer than I have to.

So, yeah, I’m probably not going to try too hard to help that certain raposinho to correct his experimental portal spell after I get home. Not unless we can figure out how to aim it at any other universe.

-Ash.

#MOTW #Vulpin plays

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dawnwave16 · 4 years

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Fashion Central

Takes place before the Magi Love Kingdom movie for UtaPri and after chapter 280 for Skip Beat.

It should have been an enjoyable three-week school trip to Japan. Three weeks of seeing the sights, learning a bit about the culture and soaking up new experiences in a new country. Except it hadn't been so far. Lila had taken credit for all the tours that had been booked. They’d had to fund-raise over €50 000 for it and thanks to Lila, Marinette had had to do most of the work herself. Chloe’s dad had donated a decent chunk of money for the trip but it still took multiple bake sales, car washes, raffles, auctions and even a go fund me page to reach their goal. She had even had to pay for certain tours out her own pocket as Mlle Bustier had insisted those tours be included in their trip. Once it had been met, however, Lila had swooped in and claimed all the credit for it. She had done this so often that Lila’s actions didn’t surprise Marinette anymore, though it still stung.

The flight had gone well and despite all her travels, Lila had made a fuss of how uncomfortable her seat was and had had the whole class in a rush to offer her their travel pillows. They had made snide remarks about the fact that Marinette hadn’t offered her pillow, even though Marinette was using hers and they hadn’t even thought to use theirs. Marinette had simply put her headphones on and played the set of four unreleased Jagged Stone songs as she designed his new album cover. She spent the first 3 hours of the 12.5-hour flight doing the album cover making sure she was happy with it before saving it and sitting back to relax. She changed her playlist to one she had made that included some of the songs from the idol groups Starish, Quartet Night and Heavens. She even included some of Fuwa Sho’s songs simply so that she could recognise them but they weren’t ones she truly enjoyed.

She knew that most of her class hadn’t taken the time to learn Japanese but as soon as she knew where they would be going she had gone to Kagami’s mother and requested her help. She had picked up the language quickly and while she knew she wasn’t fluent and had difficulty reading it she could speak enough of it to ask for directions if she needed them. She would also be able to understand their tour guides even if they didn’t speak French. She was at the point when she didn’t care if her classmates understand what was being said or not. In her opinion, they had chosen the destination, so it was their responsibility to ensure they could understand anything.

Three years ago she would have done just about anything for her class but she no longer cared. They only turned to her when it was convenient for them these days and that wasn’t something she was willing to deal with anymore. She was the new Guardian of the Miraculous and had been ever since Master Fu had been killed by Hawkmoth. Marianne had been with Fu at the time but she hadn’t been able to do anything to help. The only good thing was that Hawkmoth hadn’t been able to get the Miracle Box nor was he able to gain any of the Miraculous’ secrets as they had moved them a week earlier. Fu had even had the forethought to make sure that the real translations of the Grimoire were on a password-protected flash drive and that only fake versions were left on the tablet. As a result, she had been able to cast a spell that would stop Mayura and Hawkmoth being able to use their powers, although it wouldn't stop them from being able to transform. If they did transform though they would fall very ill for three days for each time they transformed while the spell was in effect.

She had the Miracle box in her luggage as she didn’t want her parents to find it if they ever went into her room. She didn’t think they would, but she didn’t want to risk it either, especially since Lila had spread enough of her poison that although her parents still loved her, they weren't as trusting as they used to be. It was currently disguised as a normal jewellery box, but if anyone went into her bag with the intent to steal from her or destroy her things, they would be unable to find it at all. She didn’t trust Lila not to try destroying her things after all.

The first couple of days in Japan had gone well enough. Marinette had managed to get the only individual capsule room as no one wanted to share with her so she had made sure that she locked all her things away whenever she left. She had made sure that any clothes that she had set aside for any special occasions were kept beneath the false bottom of her bag when she packed it. In truth anything she placed any value in or that could be easily destroyed was hidden in compartments within her bags, she had also made sure to include at least two days worth of everyday clothes in the sealed compartments, just in case. It had proven to be a good idea when she had seen a fine powder on the edge of her bag which had proven to be itching powder. So she had had to send all the clothes from the normal part of her bag to be washed. Alix and Kim had been very annoyed when they had seen that their 'prank' hadn't worked.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

On the fourth day, the class was in Japan, she woke up without her alarm. At first, she was happy about this only for Tikki to hold up her phone sadly. It had been hacked overnight and all her alarms had been deleted. As had all her pictures and numbers and any documents she had stored on it, even some of her games! Marinette sighed, grateful that she had taken to keeping everything important written down in a notebook, that was easily overlooked. She was also grateful that she had backed up all her phone data on a cloud server under an alias as she no longer trusted Max. Seeing that it was already 9 am and that her class left for their day trip at 8.30 Marinette decided that she wouldn’t bother to join them. They would soon find that she had made all the reservations in her name and not under the school’s name so they wouldn’t be granted access without her.

Instead, she decided that she would take her sketchbook and go to the park that she had seen on her map. Tikki flew into the messenger bag that Marinette had brought with her instead of a handbag and the two of them left the hotel. Marinette chose to stop at a coffee shop and get something to eat on the way to the park. She wasn’t sure what she wanted so she got a simple bento and a green tea to go and carried on. When she got to the park she noticed a large area of it was surrounded by cameras and decided to avoid it.

The universe had other ideas for her however as no sooner had she settled down and started drawing then there was a huge commotion. She packed everything away and walked over to the girl that was dressed in a blindingly pink overall with orange hair. The girl was sitting on the ground looking very upset about something. Perhaps it was her Ladybug side kicking in, or maybe she just couldn't help herself these days, but Marinette couldn't help but get up to see if she could help.

“Are you alright?” Marinette asked her, all the while trying to make sure she had the right words and pronunciation.

“I’m alright,” the girl replied sadly, “But the clothes that I was carrying probably aren’t.”

It was then that Marinette looked around and saw all the clothes strewn around them on the grass. She also saw that the girl was on the verge of having a panic attack and made a quick decision.

“Would you like some help?”

“Yes please!”

Marinette helped the girl pick up the clothes and made sure that there were no grass stains on them. She also checked for any that had rips or tears and made sure they went to one side so that they could be repaired, explaining to her companion why she was doing that and rushing to reassure her that she would help with any repairs needed. Finally, they had all the clothes in two piles and Marinette made sure to get the pile that needed repairs before letting her pink clothed companion lead the way.

“My name is Marinette by the way”

“I'm Mogami Kyoko,” the girl replied, “ You didn't give your surname are you really alright with me using your first name?” Marinette could have kicked herself for forgetting the custom of only using surnames until you were granted the persons permission to use their first name.

“My surname is Dupain-Cheng, so I think it might be easier to just use my first name. Feel free to shorten that to Mari if you like. My friend's mom said that it might be easier to pronounce than my full name.” Marinette babbled with a blush to cover for her mistake. “I'm from France so I tend to forget some things. Feel free to correct my pronunciation as well as I've only just learned how to speak Japanese and I know I still say things wrong on occasion.”

“If that's the case you speak well for a non-native speaker.”

Marinette jumped as a male voice spoke from somewhere on her right. She looked around and couldn't stop herself from blushing. She had been so focused on Kyoko that she hadn't noticed they had reached where they needed to be and that almost everybody was looking at them. She was mortified to realise that almost every single person around them was famous. The one that had spoken was Ren Tsuruga, no Tsuruga Ren she corrected herself mentally. The other men that were standing around her were the members of Starish, Quartet Night and Heavens.

“I'm sorry if I'm intruding, I saw Mogami-san slip and wanted to help her. I offered to help anything that might have been damaged...” Marinette didn't realise she slipped into French in her flustered state, however, it seemed that he still understood her as he held up a hand with a smile.

“It's quite alright Mlle. Dupain-Cheng,” he said in French a smile on his face. “These things happen. Thank you for helping Mogami-san. You said you could help fix anything that is damaged?”

Marinette looked at him in surprise,

she hadn't known that he would be able to speak French, though it made sense that he could as he is a model along with being an actor.

“I can,” she reassured everyone. “I design in my free time. I hadn't expected to be doing anything today as my class left me behind so I came to the park to relax and do some sketching. If I can help instead that would be great!” She had switched back to Japanese so that everyone could understand her, which everyone seemed to appreciate if she was to judge by the smiles they all wore.

The person in charge of all the outfits walked over at that moment. “If you could help that would be appreciated greatly as we are running short of time as we had a few people call in sick. I'd also like to see some of your designs if I could?”

Marinette handed over her latest sketchbook in answer before asking for some needle and thread and getting to work on all the repairs. She was so focused on what she was doing that she didn't notice the time flying by until someone tapped her on her shoulder.

“Lunchtime!” Kyoko chirped. “It's important not to miss meals. Judging by how focused you were I'd guess you're as bad as Tsuruga-san about remembering to eat though. Please don't tell me that you eat like a bird too?”

“Trust me, I eat way more than a bird ever would,” Marinette said with a laugh. “I've been known to eat enough that people wonder how I stay so small!” Kyoko nodded.

“People wonder the same thing about me. Did you know that your sketchbook has been passed around and almost everyone here has seen it? Even I stole a look and I must say, your designs are amazing!”

Marinette blushed, then thanked her lucky stars that she hadn't put Jagged's newer requests in that book. The downside though was that the was the sketchbook in question was the one she had been sketching in while listening to music from all three idol groups that were currently present and as a result, there were outfits for almost all of them in it. Each of the idols had a different outfit depending on how she pictured them in her mind's eye, yet if you looked at them, each group had a common theme running through it.

For Starish she had gone with a smart-casual vibe, the base colours were Black and gold, yet each idol had a colour as well as certain details that made the outfit unique to them. Quarter Night had an old school formal vibe with the base being a dove grey tone with robins egg blue as accents. This time instead of colour being used to make each outfit unique, she had made sure the cut of each outfit was as unique as the idol wearing it. Heavens had given her more of a challenge as she had wanted to make their outfits look like they had been made from the night sky itself, in an inky blue with silver accents. She had settled for a modern semi-formal look, that was meant to look messy enough to give the illusion of them falling yet still smart enough to be seen in public wearing.

“Thanks, I tend to draw any idea that crosses my mind when I get inspired. Sometimes it's by what I see, sometimes by what I hear and some of the weirder designs that I've drawn come from what I've smelt.” Marinette explained, looking slightly embarrassed.

“Do you always sing while you sew?” Otoya Ittoki asked suddenly.

Marinette froze in embarrassment, her cheeks a shade of red that put her suit to shame.

“I- I what?” She stammered.

“Yes, you were singing as you were fixing all the outfits. I think the song was Set it All Free from the movie Sing,” Ai Mikaze stated rather matter of factually.

“Ugh, I can't believe no one has ever pointed that out to me! Wait don't tell me...” Marinette trailed off as she dived for her bag, completely forgetting that she had an audience, all of whom were chuckling softly by this stage. She was extremely grateful that she had taken the time to re-enter some of the more important numbers under code names, back into her phone before leaving the hotel that morning. She was also grateful for the fact that the person she was about to call was currently in Japan for a working vacation.

“Got it! Now, where was it? There! Come on, please pick up... Penny! It's Marinette here, I've just had it pointed out to me that I sing while I sow. Please tell me Uncle J has never recorded me as I was repairing any of his things... He has! Oh no! Okay has he shown anyone or... Few! No, I just don't think I have a great voice and... Penny! I can't do that! His reputation would tank and then it would be my fault and... Yeah, I get that but still! That's only when there's no-one else around and it's not likely to make anyone worried for his sanity!... Thanks, Penny... Oh, the Album cover? It's almost done as are the next set of Sunglasses so I'll email the designs to you by Sunday at the latest! All the best Penny and don't let Fang boss you around any more than Uncle J does.”

Ranmaru Kurosaki's jaw dropped when he heard what the flustered girl was saying. He only knew of one person who had connections to the names Fang and Penny, and that was Jagged Stone the Rock and Roll artist who had inspired him to reach for his dream. That this girl had simply grabbed her phone and been able to call The Jagged Stone's manager stunned him. It was then that the rest of what she had said, thankful that it was still in Japanese, made its way into his mind and he froze.

“Are you Neti? Jagged Stone's designer and adopted niece? The one he always brags about in interviews?” He demanded.

“Yes?” Marinette replied hesitantly. “I don't normally spread that around though as I'm still in school and I don't want people to try to be my friends just because they know I'm a designer. It's bad enough one girl in our class does that already with other celebrities, I don't want to make it worse.”

She sighed fidgeting slightly before adding “To be honest I wanted to wait until after I finished the online courses I've been doing for ESMOD before I became too well known. I pushed myself to graduate from high school early but despite the school board recognising the fact that I've graduated, the headmaster still demands that I stay with my class as though I'm still a student. At least with sitting at the back, I don't have to worry about anyone seeing what I'm working on. The downside is due to my classes animosity towards me, I can't risk bringing anything that could be important to the school. I even have to be careful with what's on my digital devices.” She sighed again then shrugged. “Three more months and I'll be free,” she murmured more to herself than to them but several people still heard her.

“What do you mean? Is there a reason you were alone in the park today and thus that you were able to spend the day helping Mogami-san and the team with repairing all these outfits?” Tsuruga Ren asked?

Marinette flushed as she sighed yet again and felt very embarrassed but knew that she probably wouldn't be able to leave without telling them the whole story. She braced herself to do just that when she suddenly found herself looking up at the sky with a heavy object sitting on her and wiggling happily.

“Fang! Get off of Neti! You know better, what if she had been busy with something and you damaged it?” An amused yet angry voice yelled drawing nearer as each moment passed.

“Hi Fang, mind getting off of me? I need to greet your daddy and Penny, I was also talking to these nice people and that was rude of you to interrupt.” Marinette was fussing over the salt-water croc as she spoke, reassuring him that she wasn't hurt nor was she angry. In response, the croc rolled onto his back, and in the process off of Marinette, begging for belly scratches much as a dog would. She finally looked up and saw Jagged and Penny smiling down at her and the stunned look on everybody else's faces.

“Why does everybody look so surprised? I had already admitted to knowing Uncle J and Penny so it isn't anything new.” Marinette asked looking bewildered.

It was Camus who answered. “It's one thing to hear that someone knows someone famous and is famous in their own right. It is entirely something else to see for one's self that it's true. Even for Idols like ourselves.”

“Oh! Sorry,” Marinette replied with a soft blush.

Kyoko suddenly spoke up, “It's so cool to meet someone connected to the entertainment industry that won't be directly in the spotlight! What do you love most about fashion?”

That was all that was needed to draw Marinette out of her embarrassment, though it didn't hurt that Penny had pulled Jagged away by his ear with him protesting loudly the whole way. From the sounds of it he had run off as soon as Fangs mysterious ability to find her where ever she was kicked in and as Jagged had been in the middle of an interview at the time, Penny was less than impressed. Fang simply trotted along behind them happily, content at having received his scratches for the day.

For the rest of the afternoon, the two girls spoke whenever they had a free moment with topics ranging from school to fashion to their childhoods and even to the topic of cooking and baking. Eventually, Kyoko gave in and asked if Marinette would like to join her later that day to trade recipes, which Marinette agreed to.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

They met up that night after Marinette cleared it with Mlle Bustier. Marinette had been sneaky with her wording though and as she had it in writing there was nothing Mlle Bustier or the class could do about it. For the remainder of the trip, Marinette could pretty much do as she pleased, up to and including missing all the scheduled tours. The class would soon find she had booked some of the better ones in her name, not under the school's name and if she wasn't there when they went on them, the tour wouldn't happen.

Mlle Bustier had not been happy when Marinette had refused to let them use her name to get into the ones booked under it and had even tried

to punish Marinette when she found out that Marinette had emailed with her picture when she booked as a precaution against Lila claiming that she was Marinette. Marinette had looked at her teacher and tartly stated that the only reason she was still there was because of the incompetence of the school staff and the insistence of the headmaster. She had then shown Mlle Bustier the certified copies of her graduation certificates as well as the very agreement the Mlle Bustier had signed when Marinette had asked to be allowed to do her own thing for the rest of the trip. That had killed all arguments coming from her teacher although it hadn't killed the glares that were being sent her way whenever Marinette made an appearance at the hotel.

On the second day of hanging out with Kyoko, Marinette was introduced to the president of LME. Marinette took one look at him and pulled out her sketchbook. Within seconds she had redesigned his outfit and told him that if he was going to wear cos-play outfits as everyday wear he should at least try to make them a little more practical while still keeping his flamboyant style in mind. It took her a few moments before she remembered who she was talking to before she had a small panic attack but he just laughed and asked if he could commission a few outfits from her. She had also received a massive commission for all of the outfits for the Magi Love Kingdom concert. She wasn't too sure about one of the outfit sets but as it's what they had asked for something fun and off the wall so that's what she had designed.

That was how she found herself working in a design studio in the LME building less than a week later. Since she hadn't had access to her normal sewing supplies, Takarada Lory had given her permission to use one of the lesser-used design rooms. As it was already fitted out with dress forms, sewing machines and other much-needed sowing equipment all Marinette had had to supply was her time and the cloth along with any matching thread that she would be using. Currently, she was working on all the designs she had drawn up for Lory so that she could start working on the concert outfits ASAP. She was grateful that she wouldn't have to make the basic shirts for her screen-print set though.

Marinette had been working hard on the outfits until Kyoko had entered the room and dragged her down to a café area within the building to join her for lunch, LME Hearts. On a normal day, this wouldn't be an issue but today was not a normal day. Today her class was booked to do the tour of LME and it was one of the ones booked under the school's name instead of hers.

The two girls had just sat down to lunch chatting animatedly about different styles of clothes and how they influenced how each character was seen on screen depending on what the style was when a screech cut through the air.

“You! What are you doing here? It's bad enough that you've ruined the school trip by getting us banned from certain tours but now you show up without a shred of remorse for basically stealing the money needed for those tours on one of the few we could still go on.”

Marinette turned at the sound of Ayla's diatribe against her and listened in absolute boredom as Ayla laid out her complaints. Just as she took a breath to continue Marinette decided enough was enough.

“I recommend you get your facts straight before you start complaining Césaire.” Marinette's voice was sharp as she spoke. Out the corner of her eye, she saw Kyoko frantically texting someone but Marinette didn't dwell on that.

“The tours that you were unable to take were not paid for out of the money that the class but out of money I had earned from my commissions. The only reason I booked them in the first place was because I felt compelled to. Either way that money has since been refunded to me as I cancelled them due to your actions. You wouldn't have been able to take them as they were booked under my name for the very reason I have just given you aka I PAID FOR THEM! Had one of you not hacked my phone a week ago, you would still be able to take those tours.”

Marinette's tone as she spoke was fraught with anger and she had crossed her arms across her chest as she spoke. She knew she was probably being slightly cruel but she was past caring. Adrien was frantically trying to get her attention, probably to tell her to calm down and stick to the status quo but Marinette no longer cared. Why should she? The only times Adrien spoke to her these days was to tell her to calm down and to take the high ground. It was as her class started screaming at her again that Marinette noticed the ring on Adrien's finger. A ring she recognised as being Chat Noir's ring from when she had been Lady Noir.

Marinette cursed softly then muttered the spell that would cause Plagg to bring the ring to her when it was safe for him to do so. If Adrien couldn't support her as a civilian, how could she trust him to support her as Ladybug? Chat Noir hadn't been at three-quarters of the more recent battles anyway. She wished she could use the same spell to bring the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculi to her but the caster had to be able to see the Miraculous and be within a certain distance for it to be effective. She wished that she hadn't figured out that Adrien and Chat Noir were the same person but what's done was done and she had to accept that.

She knew that Adrien was a good person, just miss guided at times, who had too much faith in people due to his very sheltered upbringing. She also knew that the main reason that he refused to act against Lila was because he had grown up in an environment that had made clear to him that if you ignored the lies and rumours that were spread through magazines, they went away. If only real life was the same.

Marinette realised she was getting distracted so she quickly returned her attention to what was happening in front of her, only to have to stop herself from rolling her eyes. As usual, Lila was making herself out to be the victim saying that Marinette was jealous and that she was lying about having paid for the extra tours herself. Marinette shook her head and turned her attention back to Kyoko to apologise for what was happening, only for Kyoko to explain she had had to deal with something similar due to her childhood friend turned adversary slash pet peeve Fuwa Sho. Marinette was about to say more when she felt movement behind her and started to turn again.

Her movement was soon halted as she felt something warm and wet trickle down her back. She sighed and said a quick prayer of thanks for the fact that what she was wearing was something that was easy to clean and that she had an extra shirt in her bag.

“Seriously?” half moaned as she turned to face the perpetrator and came face to face with Alix. “How old are you again, five? That was just plain stupid and juvenile as well as being a waste of good coffee! Ugh!” Marinette took her jacket off to check how bad it was and shook her head. “Well, this will need a wash soon but at least it won't stain.”

“Pass it here,” Kyoko piped up. She couldn't understand most of what was being said as she had only just started to learn French but she from what she could see, she knew that the jacket would need to be cleaned as would the shirt. “We have a washing machine and dryer in the building for some of the costumes and in case of accidents. There are also spare clothes that might fit if you need them.”

Marinette gratefully handed her jacket over and was about to start talking to her class again when Jagged walked in, Penny running after him scolding him.

“Neti, I need a break! Sing with me?” He exclaimed then gave her puppy eyes as he asked her to sing with him.

Marinette nodded then reflexively caught the guitar that was carelessly chucked in her direction. She headed to the small stage in LME Hearts and smirked at him then played the opening riffs of Do What You Gotta Do (From "Descendants 3") by Dove Cameron and Cheyenne Jackson. He laughed and nodded, joining in on the keyboard, using it to add in the extra instruments that were needed for the song and started the duet with both of them goofing off completely and acting as though they were the characters in the song.

They were so busy teasing each other while singing that neither of them noticed her classes stunned looks nor the person that was streaming their little performance. By the end of the song, they had ended up being back to back in a way that practically screamed that they had done the routine before. Jagged then started a new song that was more bass-heavy and Marinette closed her eyes before singing in a clear voice. The song wasn't one anybody in the café recognised though. (Alright by Tadpole) The song seemed to have been written especially for the girl that was singing it as fit her a little too well for her classes comfort.

Lila, seeing that the attention was no longer on her, tried to make up another story only to find a rather intimidating man staring down at her.

“You are Lila Rossi, yes?” He asked in a slightly accented though very firm voice which caught the attention of most of the class as well as Mlle Bustier's attention.

“Yes, I am,” Lila replied in what she thought was a confident tone of voice.

“Good. I am Lory Takrarada. I own this building as well as the agency that is run within it. You have 10minutes to remove yourself before I lay charges against you for assault and deformation.”

“You can't do that!” Mlle Bustier exclaimed.

“Ah but I can” Lory stated with a soft smile. “You see, when I met Marinette a few days ago I thought her name sounded familiar, so I did a little digging. What I found shocked me. Multiple complaints of bullying placed by her against the very class she had travelled here with. Some of those can be traced back to before you joined her class but the majority were placed after you joined. I then found Mlle Césaire's tabloid-style blog and all the tripe that she has posted on it. Since that is a public blog, I sent the links to a number of the people mentioned on it. Each of those people has laid charges against both Mlle Césaire and Mlle Rossi.” Lory's stern expression hadn't changed despite the news he was delivering to them.

“Tabloid! I'll have you know I checked my facts before posting anything!” Alya spluttered indignantly.

“No you didn't, or you wouldn't be in the situation you are now in.”

“You can't lay any charges against us as we are not Japanese citizens,” Lila said confidently.

“I think you'll find he can, Mlle Rossi,” a stern-looking woman said as she walked over. “I am Mogami Saena. I will be representing Mlle Dupain-Cheng along with everyone else you are being charged by. Before you ask, yes, I am qualified to do so as I took the international exams.”

“But, but Maritrash isn't even a proper designer!” Alya chocked out.

Marinette had walked over soon after Lory had approached Lila. “Actually, Césaire, thanks to being left behind when my phone got hacked, I have been able to meet several people. One of those people was Takarada-sama here and when he saw my designs he contacted a good friend of his with copies I had given him. As soon as she saw them, she had a contract sent through to him. I am now a proud designer for Swan Designs under Julie Hizuri nee Swan herself. I'm returning to Paris to finish my education at Esmod but after that, I will be moving here to work with Takarada-sama on various projects.”

“ESMOD! You haven't graduated from my class yet!” Mlle Bustier said in shock.

“I'm only in your class because M. Damocles is too lazy to fill in the paperwork that says I've already graduated despite the board of governors and the Department of Education having processed my exams already.” Marinette's voice was dry as she spoke, telling the class exactly what she thought of what she had just said.

“I told you all that the other day, as well as showed you my certificates if you remember. Either way, I'm done. I'm over being treated like something I'm not. I'm tired of being your scapegoat and I'm tired of you telling me to be a good influence on your class when it's not my job."

Marinette then turned and walked over to where Kyoko was waiting for her. The two girls left together to get Marinette into a clean shirt so that her current one and her jacket could be washed.

Paris six months later:

Marinette looked around her room for the last time. She had finally finished sorting out the paperwork that had been needed to be completed for her to move her main study location from Paris to Tokyo. While the paperwork itself had been completed quickly, she had had to find and beat Hawkmoth before thinking about submitting her request. Finding out that Gabriel Agreste had been Hawkmoth had come as a very nasty surprise for Marinette but she hadn't let it affect her passion for fashion. It had just made her even happier that she had agreed to sign with Swan Designs.

Her class had been very subdued for the rest of the trip to Japan and had become prime bait for Hawkmoth after their return. While Marinette wasn't happy about using her classmates that way, she had done so anyway. She had set a trap to lure Hawkmoth out of his lair and once he was in view she had used the same spell for his Miraculous that she had used for Chat Noir’s. When Nooroo had shown up in her room later that night looking exhausted and on the verge of collapse she had been quick to give him a potion that removed the negative energy from him. By doing this she fixed the damage that Hawkmoth had done to the Miraculous as well as freed Nooroo to be able to reveal who Hawkmoth had been.

This let Marinette figure out who Mayura was and from there it had been simple for her to sneak into the Agreste mansion with Trixx's help. She had quickly stolen everything Miraculous related for the safe and set a virus into the computer network that whipped all of their saved data about the Miraculous. It was while she was doing a final check for anything she might have missed within the mansion that she had found Mrs Agreste. It turned out she was in a coma from using a Broken Miraculous too often. After some quick thinking, Marinette had been able to basically kidnap her and get her to a hospital. Since she hadn't used her powers, she was able to explain to the hospital what needed to be done to heal her. A quick trip home to brew the correct potions and Mrs Agreste was on the road to recovery without anyone being the wiser.

Marinette couldn't wait to get back to Japan and start attending their branch of ESMOD whilst still working for Swan Designs. She knew that the friends she had made during her trip there were true friends and she was eager to see them again. As for the video that had been streamed of Jagged and herself goofing around in LA Hearts, well it had gone viral in next to no time and Jagged's popularity had skyrocketed. Her own had too but she hadn't let it influence her. She still firmly believed that she was a normal girl, who lived a mostly normal life. She just had a touch more luck than most people!

The lawsuits that Lila and Alya were facing had made Lila's mother ship her back to Italy to start attending a reform school there to make up for all the school she had missed in France. Signora Rossi had not been happy when she had found out what Lila had done and had supported the people who were suing her daughter. Lila would spend her life paying all the fines that her lies had racked up.

Alya had been devastated when, upon arrival back home, her parents had made her take down her blog and leave a message on its old domain with an explanation of what had happened. They had proofread it to make sure that Alya hadn't lied or tried to shift the blame before allowing her to post it. Much like Lila, Alya would have to spend a long time working to pay off the fines she had.

As for Adrien and the rest of Marinette's old class, they had had to deal with numerous counselling sessions about toxic people and relationships. Adrien had eventually decided to become a scientist instead of following his father's career choice for him. He had been depressed when he had realised that his ring was gone but it was that loss that had made him see what was happening to himself and others around him.

#utapri #skip beat #mlb #Awesome Marinette #crazy uncle jagged #mild salt #designer marinette

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