Pride Fanwork Prompt Fest, June 2019
Jun. 2nd, 2019 10:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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queerly_beloved
What is the Pride Fanwork Prompt Fest?
This is a challenge for prompts about characters Who June Pride Is For, and for creating fanworks in response to those prompts.
—Who?
If the character cannot check all five boxes of allosexual, alloromantic, cisgender, heterosexual, and perisex, then the character is someone Who June Pride Is For. (People who are all five we're gonna call 'straight' for simplicity. People who are at most four, the usual umbrella term is 'queer'.)
The identity term in question can be explicitly canonical, as with Nancy Whitman of Seanan McGuire's Every Heart a Doorway, who's asexual, or Kade Bronson of the same canon, who's trans. Or it can be implicitly canonical: Rose Lavillant of Miraculous Ladybug is probably bi or pan, Juleka Couffaine of the same canon is probably lesbian, and—while nobody particularly expects this to be made explicit onscreen because this TV-Y7 show airs in less queer-friendly markets than the United States—Word of Creator is Rose and Juleka are dating. Or the character's identity can be entirely in headcanon territory: we don't know Miraculous Ladybug's Adrien Agreste is trans, but we don't know he's cis either, so we can happily assume he's trans if we want. We also don't know he isn't demisexual or biromantic or intersex, so we can happily assume any of those as well or instead, as we like.
Nobody is going to go googling your canons to make sure the characters you're prompting for are queer enough. If you're prompting for them here, everyone is going to either know the characters are canonically queer or assume they are, if not canonically queer, certainly being headcanoned queer. That said, if for any given prompt you are headcanoning a character to be of an identity that isn't stated in canon, you may want to specify that identity in the prompt.
What do I do first?
You post prompts! One prompt per comment, please. If the prompt itself is 18+ or needs one of the content warnings listed on the community tags page, section starting 'cw:', please note that in the subject line of the comment. The prompt itself goes in the body of the comment, formatted like this:
For example:
Miraculous Ladybug, trans boy!Adrien, catwalk
Miraculous Ladybug, Rose, your heart is the only place that I call home
Sailor Moon Crystal, any, sunrise
any, any, "I knew it had to be you"
What else?
You create fanworks to other people's prompts, and you post them in comments in reply to the prompts. If the fanwork is 18+ or needs one of the content warnings listed on the community tags page, section starting 'cw:', please post the fanwork itself elsewhere and link to it in the reply comment, appropriately labeled. Otherwise, feel free to post the fanwork directly in the reply comment. (Art may be easier posted to Tumblr or Instagram and linked here, mind.)
You can fill as many prompts as you want, and as many times as you want. Multiple fills to the same prompt are welcome and encouraged.
Please read the community rules before posting.
Does the fill need to be about how queer the character is?
No. My example prompt Miraculous Ladybug, trans boy!Adrien, catwalk? A fill could, of course, focus on how being trans impacts Adrien's modeling career. Or it could mention he puts a binder on while getting ready for a runway show, and that's it. Or it could be about any number of things that connect to 'catwalk' that have nothing to do with his being trans, without the fact being stated or implied at all—but we know the fic is being written and is being read from the understanding that he is trans, and that's enough. Fills for my other example prompts, which don't specify the characters' identity in any way, we know are similarly being written and read from the understanding that these people are queer in some way, and that's enough.
But I don't have a Dreamwidth account.
No problem! You can comment without being logged in, and you can choose to identify yourself in the comment or not. You can also log in with OpenID to comment. Or you can create a Dreamwidth account for free.
Who can play?
Anyone! Everyone! Spread the word! Bring your friends!
We particularly encourage prompts and fills from queer people, of course, but straight people are welcome to participate as well. Bear in mind, however, that every prompt and every fanwork for this fest is explicitly from the perspective that at least the central character is queer.
Here's a handy copy-paste text box with the HTML for a signal boost, Dreamwidth edition:
And anywhere-else edition:
Or if you're on Tumblr, just reblog this!
How long will it run?
The last day for new prompts will be 2019 June 30. Any prompts posted before the fest closes are open for new fills indefinitely.
Are there any rules about crossposting?
If the fill is 18+ or needs one of the content warnings listed on the community tags page, section starting 'cw:', then please post it elsewhere and only link to it here. Other than that, post it here, post it there, post it anywhere. Your Dreamwidth, your Tumblr, your AO3—wherever you like.
What about spoilers, content warnings, triggers, pairings, ratings, tags, and squicks?
See above about required content warnings and ratings. Anything beyond that is at the discretion of the commenters: you should assume spoilers are fair game and that both prompters and respondents are choosing not to warn or tag, but if you want to warn for spoilers or squicks or whatever, please do. It will often be true that the prompt alone will tell you whether you want to see the fanwork. Use your best judgment and be prepared to skip what you don't want to read.
Have fun, and happy Pride!
Credit to
rthstewart at the 2018–2019 3 Sentence Ficathon for all the rules I lifted wholesale, and to sylvaine for the banner and Flickr's Benson Kua for the source image.Filled prompts:
Sundae Musings by
silveradept, Miraculous Ladybug, Marinette/Alya, ice cream sundaeVictory in Small Forms by
silveradept, Miraculous Ladybug, panromantic polyamorous Sabrina, queerplatonic with Chloé & looking for romantic with othersuntitled by
eastofthemoon, Miraculous Ladybug, trans boy!Adrien, catwalkPost-Credits Scene by
silveradept, Miraculous Ladybug, Ondine and aromantic Lê Chiến Kim, talking things out post Syrencoming out balls by
gwenynnefydd, Poirot, bi!Poirot and bi!Hastings, coming out ballsDragon City Pride by
starandrea, 镇魂 | Guardian, Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, Coming Out ballsPride and Practicality by
ljwrites, Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Darcy/Charlotte Collins, stepping out
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Date: 2019-06-03 05:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-07 07:51 pm (UTC)Pink strawberry, cherry chocolate chunk, and blackberry on top. André has given it to her and told her to find her special someone. Not five seconds later, Marinette Dupain-Cheng walks up wearing pink capris, a "Ladybug saved me and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt" shirt she'd gotten from the Ladyblog's latest crowdfunding campaign, and her hair was looking particularly blue in the light.
"But I thought you and Nino—" Marinette started.
"We are," Alya said. "And I saw you trip over your tongue just yesterday about Adrien."
"Mm-hmm," Marinette nodded enthusiastically.
And yet.
André had given Marinette orange sherbert, vanilla, and black cherry, and topped it with a pair of wafers that could easily have been fox ears. Not that she was going to tell Marinette about that last part.
"So what does that mean, then?" Alya ventured.
"I don't know!" Marinette flailed. "I mean, I've never thought about you in any way more than friendship. Sure, I'm jealous that you've been hogging all the curves to yourself, but—"
"Excuse you?" Alya exclaimed. "I have not been 'hogging' anything, Miss 'Please bounce euro coins off my perfect ass' Dupain-Cheng!"
"Oh, right, like I'm supposed to believe that, coming from you. I've watched you slip that phone into your cleavage so you could keep filming hands-free, and it. never. moves." Marinette retorted.
"So?" Alya snapped. "You—wait, when have you been staring at my chest?"
"Really?" Marinette said darkly. "You're right next to me in class all day."
Marinette reached out and stole some of Alya's sundae, savoring the flavor combination for a moment before continuing.
"If I had your rack, I could make Chloé jealous," she said, pointing the spoon at Alya.
"That's not hard," Alya said, snagging some of Marinette's ice cream in revenge. "Girl, you've got nothing to be ashamed of! Tell you what: Next time we go to the pool, wear a tank and some boy shorts. I'll bet you another sundae at least one jaw will need closing after getting a look at you."
"Hah," Marinette laughed, stabbing another spoonful. "They'll be too busy looking at you in that orange and white two-piece you tried on yesterday."
"What?...I'm going to kill Nino," Alya muttered, realizing how Marinette had come into possession of that particular selfie.
"He wanted me to make something matching for him to surprise you," Marinette said hastily. "He wouldn't have shared it otherwise."
"Still dead," Alya said, eating another spoonful of Marinette's sundae.
"No fair," Marinette said in protest. "I just wanted a taste of yours."
Alya stuck her tongue out at Marinette and reached again. Marinette beat Alya's spoon to the table with an effortless flick of her wrist. Alya raised an eyebrow and reached again, with the same result.
"Oh, is that the game we're playing?" Alya said, grinning and trying again. When Marinette moved to slap her spoon, Alya grabbed her arm with her free hand.
Marinette threw the spoon into her other hand and slapped Alya's spoon to the table just before it could get any ice cream.
Alya tried to get her spoon back, but it wouldn't budge from underneath Marinette's.
"Damn, girl. When have you been hitting the weight room?" Alya said.
"Huh?" Marinette blinked, loosening her hold on the spoon long enough for Alya to take it back.
"Do you haul flour sacks for your parents or something?" Alya asked in between spoonfuls of her own ice cream.
"Yeah, s-something like that," Marinette said, blushing.
For a brief second, Alya wondered why she hadn't noticed until now how unfairly cute Marinette was when she blushed. There were more important matters to attend to, however. There wasn't a lot left in Marinette's bowl, even though Alya had been sure Marinette was talking at least as much as she was eating.
"An opening!" she cried, lunging for Marinette's sundae.
Marinette recovered quickly, though, and soon Alya found herself without a spoon at all, staring in open-mouthed shock at the ease with which Marinette had disarmed her.
"Now I can finish twice as fast," Marinette said, grinning evilly and digging in to her own sundae with both spoons.
"Oh no you don't," Alya said. "That last spoonful is mine."
Marinette shoved both spoons into her mouth and smirked as she pulled them out.
"Mmm, such good ice cream," she taunted.
"Fine, you win," Alya sighed. "Can I at least savor the last bite with you?" she said, adding a sultry note so that her meaning would come across clearly.
"What?" Marinette squeaked.
Alya thought it should be a crime to be that cute when startled.
"Marinette," she said, taking her glasses off and sighing. "I want to kiss you. I have since you put Alix in the fireman's carry trying to get her away from that akuma two months ago. And when I saw how good you looked in Adrien's tux at the last dance. And that time when you stood with Rose when she cussed Chloé out so hard I worried an akuma was going to find her."
Marinette was turning progressively more red with each sentence.
"I wanted to go see André to see if there was a chance you might be interested in me, too. And these"—she indicated the sundaes—"were the answer he gave."
"What about Nino? And Adrien?" Marinette said, still scarlet.
"I've talked to Nino about this already. And made sure he doesn't get any ideas in his head. Unless...?"
Marinette shook her head.
"Alya yours," she said quickly, managing to turn her stammer into a pun.
"I don't think you're going to stop tripping over yourself every time Adrien is around, either," Alya said. "There's no shame in that. He's a very good-looking boy."
Marinette made a small strangled noise. Alya worried about how much oxygen might be getting to her brain right now.
"Breathe, girl."
Marinette exhaled in a rush.
"It's a lot," Marinette said hesitatingly, "to have your best friend say she wants more."
"You don't have to say yes," Alya said. "You can think about it."
"I..." Marinette turned red again. "I...think I'd like that."
"To think about it?"
"To kiss you," Marinette said shyly. "You're fearless about everything. And, you, bikini, well, look at you. I can't be the only girl in the class that wants what you've got."
Alya smiled. "An overprotective big sister who can kick anyone's ass without thinking and two brats guaranteed to make life hell," she said. "Sounds like heaven to everybody."
Marinette looked like she was going to protest, and then just laughed.
"I'm ready," she said, tapping her lips with one of the spoons.
Alya leaned across the table, cradled Marinette's head in her hands, and pressed her lips to Marinette's.
Neither of them were sure how long they kissed, but both of them were sure they wanted to do it again soon.
"Hey, wanna go make out in front of Chloé and Sabrina?" Alya said when they stopped kissing, a mischievous grin on her face.
"Alya!" Marinette nearly shrieked, a look of sheer terror on her face.
"Hey, you said that if you had my rack, you could make Chloé jealous. Well, all you have to do is reach for it while she's looking, and she'll be jealous, all right."
"That's not fair," Marinette said. And then, almost as an afterthought, she added, "To Sabrina."
"C'mon, girl," Alya said, taking Marinette's hand in hers. "Let's get you a swimsuit that shows you off."
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Date: 2019-06-03 05:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-08 12:57 pm (UTC)“Adrien, stop wiggling! I can’t get the wrinkles out.”
Adrien rolled his eyes as he felt Marinette smoothed out the back of his jacket. “There aren’t any wrinkles. You checked three times, it’s fine.”
Marinette stuck out her tongue as she inspected his sleeve jacket. “Well, I need to at least check for cat hair.” Her eyes narrowed. “Plagg has a habit of leaving his fur on your clothes.”
Adrien opened and then shut his mouth as he sighed. “Yeah, you’re not wrong.”
It wasn’t as if Plagg did it on purpose, or at least he better not be doing it on purpose..but Adrien wouldn’t put it past the little kwami. “Hope he and the other kwami are enjoying the show from the rafters.”
“We certainly gave them enough snacks to keep them busy,” Marinette said with a sigh as she stepped back and began to fidget. “Although, what if one of them drops some popcorn and one of the models trips? What if an outfit gets torn? What if I trip and I’m a laughing stock?! I’ll be famously known as the dumb girl who ruined her first fashion show! What if-”
“Marinette,” Adrien said gently as he placed his hands on his friend’s shoulders. “It’s going to be fine. Deep breaths, remember?”
Marinette shut her eyes as she placed a hand over her chest. “Right, right. After fighting all of those Akuma, I can handle one fashion show, right?”
“Right,” Adrien said with an encouraging smile as he tugged on his loose tie. “On that note, would you please tie this for me?”
Marinette giggled as she shook a finger before tackling the tie. “Adrien Agreste, you are a model, the son of one of the world’s most famous fashion designers, 22 years old and you still don’t know how to tie a tie?”
Adrien gave a bitter laugh. “No, strangely enough I never learned to do it myself. Probably due to Father being too busy playing super villain to bother. He probably assumed someone else taught me.”
Marinette cringed as she gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Sorry, I didn’t mean-”
“It’s okay,” Adrien said with half smile.
Even though it had been a good number of years now, the reveal of his own father being one of the greatest enemies of Ladybug and Chat Noir still stung. That had been a dark time for him, he had just been lucky that he and Marinette had revealed their identities by then. He didn’t know how he would have gotten through it without her support. Heck, her parents had practically adopted Adrien by then too. Their bakery had felt far more like home than his large mansion had ever been.
Marinette gave one more comforting squeeze as she gestured to his chest. “On that note, how is your binder? Did I leave enough room in the jacket? Is it too tight?”
“It’s a bit tight, but I’ll manage,” Adrien replied as he patted it. “Don’t worry about it.”
He supposed that was one of the few things Adrien could give his father credit for. The man never had issue with Adrien informing him that he wished to change his name and how he felt he should dress. Granted, looking back, perhaps that had been part of the reason Gabriel had been so over protective of him in the first place.
As far as the media and the fashion world knew, he had always been nothing else than Adrien and no one had ever questioned it otherwise.
Adrien then glanced to the clock and took a deep breath. “Alright, time to start the show.”
Marinette sighed as she straightened her posture. “We better get a move on. Chloe will have my hide if we have a late start.” She frowned. “I still can’t believe Chloe wanted to sponsor this for me.”
Adrien shrugged. “Hey, give her some credit. She’s grown up since we were kids.” He gave a nervous laugh. “Although, will admit, after that fight she had with her mother I think the idea of making a new fashion designer more popular than her was too tempting to resist.”
“Spite is a powerful motivator,” Marinette mumbled.
“That is what Plagg keeps telling me,” Adrien said as he adjusted his hat. All the more reason to live his life well.
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Date: 2019-06-03 05:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-03 08:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-03 08:17 am (UTC)banner for promo if you want it
Date: 2019-06-03 11:18 am (UTC)original photo used by Benson Kua
Re: banner for promo if you want it
Date: 2019-06-03 05:54 pm (UTC)Re: banner for promo if you want it
From:no subject
Date: 2019-06-03 12:16 pm (UTC)CW abuse
Date: 2019-06-25 04:22 am (UTC)Pride and Practicality
Re: CW abuse
From:Incest mention
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Date: 2019-06-04 01:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-04 01:34 am (UTC)This could be Sabrina/Chloé, Sabrina/someone else, both with Sabrina as the midpoint of a poly V of some configuration, Sabrina/someone(s) else, or none of those. Take your pick, but Sabrina's happy.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-07 07:52 pm (UTC)That was a good sign, Sabrina thought. Nicknames happened when Chloé was in a good mood.
"Oh, not much," Sabrina said, finding a spot on the bed with a thump.
"Every part of your body language says you're lying," Chloé said, frowning and paying more attention to Sabrina. "We talked about this."
"I think I want to start dating," Sabrina said.
"We also talked about this," Chloé said, exasperated. "I'm not interested, and Dupain-Cheng is off the table. Unless you want to ruin our friendship."
Sabrina's eyes narrowed slightly, enough that Chloé noticed.
"There's more?" Chloé prompted.
"Yeah," Sabrina said, "there's more."
"Well, curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal, but get on with it," Chloé said.
"Ugh, I'm not betraying you, Chloé," Sabrina snapped. "I thought you would be happy for me."
"Why would I be happy? My friend is telling me that I'm not enough for her."
Sabrina sighed, removing her glasses and rubbing the bridge of her nose.
"Chloé, you've known longer than anyone else I was interested in girls, too. Like, kissing-interested. I spent a long time hoping that you would be, too, and that we could be a great couple together, but, like we've talked about, you don't see me that way."
"Is that why you always wanted to be Chat Noir?" Chloé said, as if the pieces had just fallen into place for her. "So that at the end of the adventure, you'd get to kiss the girl?"
"Yes," Sabrina said, managing not to roll her eyes at Chloé's cluelessness. "You and Ladybug are regrettably alike on how much you were going to allow that."
Chloé smiled for a moment, before realizing it hadn't been meant as a complimentary comparison.
"So," she said, deciding that moving on was the best course of action, "what does you dating mean for us?"
"Not much right now," Sabrina said. "I have to, y'know, ask and see if someone's interested. In the future, it might mean spending less time with you and more time with her, depending on how our relationship goes."
"So you are leaving me," Chloé said, turning her chair away on a huff.
"That's not true, Chloé. Do you think I would just start trusting anybody to see me as as intimately as you already have?"
Chloé's jaw snapped shut as confusion took over her features. She ran through many of the situations where she had seen Sabrina undress: Changing rooms, sleepovers, camps, the bathroom here and there. Had there been any time where she had—
"Locker rooms," Chloé said, as it came to her.
"Always late," Sabrina said, smiling. "Mme. Bustier knows and has been really accommodating."
"What about at the pool? Or the water park?" Chloé insisted.
"I wait until they're empty. Or it's just us. Sometimes I can be late there, too."
Chloé racked her brain, trying to think of some other situation or time where there had been more than just them present.
"But we're friends," Chloé said, noting defeat, "Isn't that what friendship does? I'm pretty sure that Dupain-Cheng and Césaire have gone swimsuit shopping together. And boys strip around each other all the time. Adrikins—"
"Is a model with no professional boundaries around his body, and thus an outlier, and should not be counted," Sabrina said firmly. "He is absolutely not any sort of model for a queerplatonic anything."
"What?" Chloé said. "Queerplatonic?"
Sabrina strangled the scream that threatened to escape. "You didn't read what I sent you, did you?" she said.
"Why?"
"As I suspected. I thought it might help you undestand better if you had some background reading. I should have edxpected this, based on how much as you copy my homework." Sabrina sighed. "So, something that's queerplatonic is where people aren't necessarily interested in sex with each other, or sometimes even romance and kissing, but they're doing things together that don't really fit inside the boundaries of friendship."
"Like what?"
"Like that when I can sleep over, we sleep together in the same bed, cuddled with each other," Sabrina said. "Or that we're both still only half-dressed from play time and nether of us is hurrying to cover up. And you don't seem to mind it all that much when I put my head in your lap and ask you to stroke my hair. Or when you're the one asking for petting."
"Okay, you've made your point," Chloé said. "But why do you want to change that, if this is so good for you?"
"It's good, Chloé, and for the longest time I wanted to believe that you could be enough for me, but it's not true. I need more."
"What more could you possibly need?"
"I want someone to kiss, and hold hands with, and possibly steal food from their plate, instead of having it constantly stolen from mine. I want to have romance for myself, Chloé."
"You're going to abandon me, your best friend, to go chase after some...floozy who bats her eyes at you?" Chloé grumbled.
"I'm not abandoning you, and I'm open to anyone batting their eyes at me, regardless of their pronouns." Sabrina retorted, feeling her cheeks flush with irritation. She took a deep breath and exhaled.
"I'm polyamorous, too, Chloé. The idea of having all my needs met by one person is—"
"Ridiculous," Chloé said at exactly the right spot, although Sabrina wasn't sure if that was what Chloé had intended.
"Right. I'm romantically attracted to more than one person, Chloé, and that's if you just look at our class."
"Well, if you want to date everyone in the class, that's fine with me!" Chloé said, turning away from Sabrina with a pout. "Just don't expect me to take you back when they're done with you."
"Chloé," Sabrina said gently, "I want to keep what we have together, even though I want to date other people. I'm not Audrey."
"How dare you mention that name!" Chloé shrieked. "I can't believe you would be so cold to talk about her around me!" Tears welled up in Chloé's eyes. "You want to spend time with all of those...other people, instead of me, you want to kiss them and hold hands with them, and soon enough, you'll be laughing in their bedrooms, spilling secrets from my most vulnerable tinmes with you, and talking about what a bitch Chloé Bourgeois was and how glad you were that you ditched her when you had the chance!
You're not going to stick around, Sabrina! Nobody ever does, once they have the opportunity to trade me for something "better"! They always blame me, and say that if I were nicer, or more polite, or that I didn't say the complete truth about everything, that I might keep a friend. I'm the best thing that's ever happened to any of them, and none of them appreciate me nearly as much as I deserve. Not even Ladybug! She doesn't want me to help her save Paris when Hawkmoth attacks. Everyone talks about how nice she is, but she's mean to me. She hates me, Sabrina. Everyone hates me. All I wanted was someone who will stick around and be my friend, instead of just tolerating me until they can find someone else.
I thought you were different. I thought you were special. I—hic—oh, great. Now I've—hic—got the hiccups from how—hic— upset you made—hic— me."
Sabrina rubbed Chloeé's back. "Feel better?" she asked.
Chloé looked up at Sabrina. "You're still here? You're not mad?" she said, trying to wipe away the tears in between hiccups.
Sabrina smiled as gently as she could. "I know you're scared, Chloé," she said. "The way your mom treated you wasn't okay, and this is potentially a big change for us. But we can't keep going on like this. I'll start to resent you, and then, maybe, I'll end up akumatized and I'll hurt you. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I did."
"And what if I say no?"
"I'm not asking for your permission, Chloé," Sabrina said as forcefully as she could muster. "I'm telling you what's going to happen. I want you to be okay with it, and I want you to be happy, and I want us to still have our relationship, but you can't stop me. It wouldn't be good for us if you tried."
Chloé crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Sabrina with a hurt look.
"If you want, maybe tomorrow we can both go to the counselor at school?" Sabrina ventured. "She's a really good listener. I'll hold your hand, like we used to when you had to go to the principal's office, and we can go together."
Chloé turned away from Sabrina again.
"Get dressed, Sabrina," she said, still sounding hurt. "Get out."
Sabrina hurriedly put on the rest of her civilian clothes and made her way to Chloeé's door.
"At lunch," Chloé said, still with her back to Sabrina. "Don't be late."
"I won't," Sabrina said, smiling at Chloé's back. "See you tomorrow."
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Date: 2019-06-04 01:45 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2019-06-05 03:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-09 03:20 am (UTC)"Yeah," Kim said, grinning. "There's something about the way it knows it's a ridiculous action movie, but it tries to be as serious about it as it can. Maybe it's the main actor. He probably got a lot of practice hamming it up as a professional wrestler in America."
Ondine nodded. "That makes sense." She looked at the skyline for a moment, trying to arrange her thoughts.
"Kim?" she asked.
"Yeah?" he said, looking at her.
"I...didn't tell you what my last secret was. The one I put in the ring before I...well, before what happened."
Kim nodded. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
"I do," Ondine persisted. "Because I'm not sure whether I should think of this as a date or not."
"A date?" Kim looked confused.
"Yes," Ondine said, gathering enough courage to look at him. "I think I'm falling in love with you. That was my last secret."
"Oh," Kim said, processing. "Oh," he said, as the generators warmed up and started turning on the lights in his brain. "Oh!" he said, realizing the full implications of everything as the extra illumination gave him a clear picture of the scene.
"I'm so sorry, Ondine!" he said immediately. "I didn't mean to lead you on."
"So you don't love me back," she said disappointedly.
"Noooo?" he said, drawing out the syllable slightly.
"Is there someone else, then? Am I too late?" she asked.
"No," Kim said more definitely, but now he sounded as confused as she felt. Kim looked like he was trying to remember something.
"Why not?" Ondine asked, hoping she didn't actually sound as demanding as she felt.
"Did I not tell you?" Kim asked.
"Tell me what?"
"I'm pretty sure I'm aromantic," he said.
"Huh?"
"I don't have any romantic interest in anybody. I know what the word means, and I can see people do things that others say are romantic, but I just...don't have any desire for that."
"Oh, thank God," Ondine said, and then clapped her hands over her mouth as she realized she had said it aloud. "I'm so sorry, Kim!"
He waved his hand dismissively. "Alix said the same thing."
"Alix did?"
"She was the first person to suggest it, after she tried everything she could in her flirting playbook and got nowhere. I'm glad she didn't call me 'broken'. Plenty of other people have."
"You're not broken," Ondine said, resisting the urge to hug Kim. "I was worried I was."
"What? No," Kim said, cocking his head at Ondine with a look of confusion. "You're smart. You swim and dive really well, and I've heard some people say you look really good in your swimsuit."
"Thanks." Ondine shook her head. "I got upset over nothing. I don't feel particularly smart."
"Nothing to worry about," Kim said. "I'm not hiding it, but neither am I going out of my way to shout it from the rooftops."
"So, what happens now?" Ondine asked. "I don't think I can just turn off what I feel for you, Kim."
"We can still be friends," Kim said, "and swim partners. Alix and I still compete with each other all the time. You probably could talk to Alix about this whole thing. She might appreciate having someone else to talk to about how terrible it is that one of the people she loves so much just doesn't understand."
Ondine chuckled. "I can't imagine Alix saying something so dramatic."
Kim shrugged. "I don't know what she would actually say. But you two should talk."
Ondine nodded.
"Are we okay?" Kim asked.
Ondine took a deep breath and let it out.
"We're okay," she said, smiling and looking at Kim. "Tell me if I'm making you uncomfortable."
"I will," he said, nodding. "You should do the same for me. Did you want to go back to the pool?"
"No," Ondine shook her head. "Do you have any more of those silly action movies, though? I want to watch another one."
"Do you mind if Alix tags along? There's one I've been saving for her. I think you both will enjoy screaming about how little sense it makes."
Ondine nodded. "And we can braid each other's hair and talk about how terrible it is that Kim isn't interested in us, right in front of you."
Kim laughed. "If that's what it takes for you to be okay, I can take some ribbing."
Ondine laughed. "You say that now, but I know that Alix is a wonder at snark. Your ears will burn by the time we're done."
"Challenge accepted," Kim said, grinning at her and pulling out his phone.
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Date: 2019-06-06 07:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-06 10:57 pm (UTC)FILL: Poirot, bi!Poirot and bi!Hastings, coming out balls
Date: 2019-06-09 07:29 pm (UTC)(also if they don't state any canon sexuality and expect you to just know, they're all automatically queer. it's the law.)
(also, this is less modern and more... modern-er than the original coming out balls)
This was all Pierre's fault. Of this, Poirot was certain.
It had been Pierre who had, over a quiet lunch one day, invited Poirot to a "debutante between friends", a new-fangled idea from the States that some of his queer friends had wanted to implement here in Belgium. Had Poirot been less curious, less in search of understanding company, he would've refused, and stayed home in his safe little flat above rue Sivela. Had he listened to the clergy at the la Cathédrale de Saint Paul, he perhaps would not be here. He would be doing whatever was expected of a good Catholic, finding a wife, or feeding the poor, or confessing. Poirot was a good Catholic, but the Bible never banned him from attending balls, and it certainly didn't bar him from being queer, no matter what Father Harpigny preached with fervour. But then again, Father Harpigny would not have been happy until every Catholic was a practicing asceticist.
Right now, Poirot couldn't care less about Father Harpigny and his sermons, nor even about the safety of his flat. The ballroom - a hidden, almost abandoned, building in the south end of Spa - was perhaps not the first place one thought of holding a debutante ball, and yet here was one, the presenting of queer men to their contemporaries, and the acceptance of new queer men into the fold. What he was interested in right now was the presentation of men to the community - and rather, one man in particular. Poirot had noticed him the moment he'd stepped into the line of men, guided by the presenter into a semblance of a line before they were introduced to the community. In ivory and blue finery, blonde hair and china blue eyes, he caught Poirot's eye immediately, even as he waited for his turn to be presented. And when he came to the front, into the light, and did a full debutante curtsy, Poirot knew he was smitten, and it was all Pierre's fault.
From his side, Pierre told him that this was an English army officer, a man called "Arthur", but that meant nothing to Poirot - he knew about five Englishmen called Arthur, and nearly all Englishmen that he met were in the army. But this man was beyond the mere boundaries of "English" and "Arthur" - he was sun and heat, all summer like a warm day on a south Peruvian beach, but glimmering like the iced rain of Norway or Sweden, untouchable like the glaciers of the far North. He smiled like he was fresh from the pictures in Hollywood, but blushed and stammered like a schoolboy from Eton. His name was Arthur, but what did that mean to a man who was tongue-tied every time his gaze swept the room? He could be called Jacob or Mark or Athelstan and it would mean nothing to Poirot, for the physical method of saying his name was far beyond him.
Poirot did not know who this man was, but he very much wanted to find out.
Re: FILL: Poirot, bi!Poirot and bi!Hastings, coming out balls
From:Re: FILL: Poirot, bi!Poirot and bi!Hastings, coming out balls
From:Fill: 镇魂 | Guardian, Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, Coming Out balls
From:no subject
Date: 2019-06-07 02:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-07 02:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-07 03:04 pm (UTC)a book fandom
Date: 2019-06-08 09:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-08 10:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-09 03:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-09 03:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-09 03:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-09 03:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-09 03:33 am (UTC)