anthy himemiya giggle from the dub episode 25 is maybe life-changing. scientists are still figuring out the impact of this
[Video ID: Wakaba, Anthy, Akio, and Utena from Revolutionary Girl Utena are in Akio's apartment, in a room with a galaxy-print wall. The transcript is: Wakaba says smiling, "Here Anthy, why don't I get you some more tea, okay?" She is holding a tea kettle, and Anthy is holding a teacup. Anthy says, "Thank you very much," and smiles. She continues watching what's going on with a happier smile than she has for most of the show. Utena is watching on, amused, and says "Oh brother," and Chuchu, Anthy's purple mouse squeaks when Wakaba turns to Utena. "What is it? Is there something wrong?" Utena responds, "Nothing", but sounds like she is laughing. Wakaba questions worriedly, "What? I'm not acting strange, am I? Am I?". During the second half of this exchange, the camera focuses on Anthy, and she looks happy during this, and giggles at their antics, at which point the camera cuts to Akio glaring at her. End ID.]
we havee to kill akio. he is so angry at anthy showing any sign of happiness or joy in her situation "i can't believe the world would make you suffer like this" shut upp
Jagged's hotel room was already chaotic, but it was the best kind whenever Marinette showed up. Penny didn't have to be on the phone for once, so she, Jagged, and Marinette were in a conversation so animated that they could've been mistaken for cartoon characters.
Luka, meanwhile, had sat himself on the couch, an elbow on the armrest as he held the neck of the guitar in his lap despite not playing anything. It wasn't his role to be involved with the topic, so he stayed out of it.
Rather, he was the topic.
"Luka isn't like you," Penny reminded Jagged. "He doesn't need some grand event just for this."
"Just for—" Jagged staggered back in true dramatic fashion, clutching his chest. "We're revealing my son to the world! How's that not the grandest?!"
Marinette looked at the two, then at Penny specifically. "He has a point."
Penny sighed. "Not you too—"
Gesturing to Fang, who was in the middle of chewing on a toy, Marinette argued, "Don't you remember how big it was when Jagged showed Fang off?"
Penny opened her mouth, but at Marinette's narrowed eyes, she sighed and pressed a finger to her temple. "It was a week long, and Jagged used every day to play a new song dedicated to Fang."
"Exactly." Crossing her arms, Marinette asked, "So what are they going to think if we just reveal Luka like he's no big deal?"
She gestured wildly at Luka and all of his apparent "big deal"-ness. He covered his mouth with his free hand to hide a chuckle.
"See? My frock star gets me," Jagged stated proudly, dropping his hand upon Marinette's shoulder. "She knows how rockin' this has to be."
She turned her head to Jagged next, squinting further. "But you don't know Luka. I've been in his life more than you have. It's just as important to make sure he's comfortable and everything is how he wants it, not how you want it."
Jagged pouted at that, but couldn't counter her good point.
Luka tried not to be obvious in admiring her. Marinette was one of the only two people who could treat Jagged Stone like a child and get away with it, while simultaneously being profoundly adorable.
"So!" Marinette shouted with a single clap, appointing herself as the Luka Expert for the purpose of the conversation. "First thing's first, I'm thinking snacks."
"Snacks..." Penny mumbled, not disagreeing but taking notes, both mentally and on her clipboard.
Jagged rubbed his chin, contemplative. "But they can't be just snacks."
"Obviously not," Marinette agreed. "We should do Luka-themed snacks, and I've already got ideas. See, I had a happy little accident the other day while I was baking and—"
She continued rambling and Luka's practiced, casual smile was serving him well. He wondered how difficult it must've been to be the cutest freaking thing in existence. Did she feel prettier than everyone else? Because she should—
The conversation was cut short by a sudden crunching sound, loud enough that Marinette, Jagged, and Penny all jumped. Initially, the trio looked towards Fang as the culprit, but the crocodile was resting obediently with his little toy unharmed besides its typical chew marks.
When they instead turned to the couch, they saw Luka sitting as he was before, yet the section of the guitar's neck he'd been gripping had been thoroughly crushed by his clenched fist. As he opened his hand, the crushed guitar pieces fell out like wooden confetti.
——-
Luka let out an exhausted breath as he stepped onto the Liberty. Juleka, either having heard or saw him, popped out from the greenhouse area to see him.
She also saw the busted guitar he was carrying.
"Again?" she asked in shock.
"Yeah." He supposed it'd be good practice to fix later, but for the time being, he let it rest on the deck. He had more anyway.
"Is it getting worse?" she wondered aloud, staring down at his poor victim.
"Not worse," he assured. "I just don't have a handle on it."
Of course, no one but him knew all the details. He'd gone to a doctor after putting a dent in what was supposed to be a heavy-duty instrument case, and was promptly diagnosed with cuteness aggression. He hadn't heard about it before, but the explanation made sense: a condition that caused a person to gain spontaneous, uncontrollable strength and durability for a brief period of time after seeing something adorable. It wasn't dangerous to one's life or anything, thankfully, and how inconvenient it was depended on the person's tolerance for cute things.
Luka was extremely tolerant. He could acknowledge when something was cute, like a kitten or a dessert shaped like a teddy bear, but he wasn't really affected by them.
That wasn't to say he didn't have his limits, or rather one limit: Marinette.
Who could blame him? He was shocked that no one else had a "problem" with her. He merely had the sense to acknowledge that she was absolutely, utterly cute, and if no one could figure it out then that was their fault for not seeing the obvious.
That went double for what happened in the hotel room, which he got out of with a bizarre amount of ease, barring a skeptical look from Penny. It was probably easy to assume that a guy who carried heavy cases and instruments around his houseboat had more muscle than one might expect.
He didn't like lying by omission to Marinette, but he couldn't imagine things going well if he told her that his condition was because of her. It was probably better that she—
"Luka!"
As if summoned by his own thoughts, Marinette came running up to the Liberty, out of breath and stumbling somewhat in her attempts to get across the gangplank.
"I—" She gasped for air. "I-I heard... you have... cuteness aggression?"
Luka stared, not moving an inch, then slowly turned his head to look at Juleka, who looked away in such a way as to obscure her whole face with her sideswept bangs. He hoped the betrayal he felt was conveyed even if she couldn't see it.
He met Marinette's gaze again, trying to smile reassuringly. Raising his hands, he began, "Marinette—"
"You should've told me!" she insisted, fists tight at her side. "How serious is it?"
He shook his head. "I'm fine, Marinette. That's why I didn't say anything. I didn't want to worry you over nothing."
"I'm going to worry no matter what. It's in my blood," she said flatly. "So just be honest next time."
"Alright. I'm sorry."
He meant it, mostly. He didn't like to distress her, so it was difficult to say that he would've ever told her had she not found out, but he also didn't like that she was distressed right then.
Marinette glanced at the guitar laying on the deck, then at the other little bits of damage that were likely caused by him. Tipping her head up to him, she pressed, "Not serious, huh?"
He nodded, firm in his stance. "I don't have that many things that trigger it."
Granted, he would've classified all the ways Marinette could be adorable as "many," but she was technically one "thing."
She frowned, considering that. "But it must've been boring listening to our conversation. That's why you were imagining something cute, right?"
"N...no, I—" He hesitated, evading eye contact as he tried to find a way out of the discussion. "I... don't know."
"You—don't know?" she questioned, baffled and shaking her head.
"I wasn't bored at all, and..." He trailed off.
He knew full well the contradiction of now trying to convince himself that it wasn't technically a lie because there were too many things about Marinette that were cute. He couldn't pinpoint just one that he was thinking about at the time.
Staring back at her, hoping she wouldn't press further, he caught something in her expression that he couldn't quite place.
——-
Another day meant another akuma. Luka was barely phased by it anymore, but still ran with the necessary urgency into the nearest alley to hide. It may have been smarter to duck into a shop or restaurant, but so many places were more likely to lock their doors and close up in order to give the impression of no one being there.
In other words, he had to make due with what was available to him at the time.
The light from his phone could've drawn attention, so he thought it best not to idle on it. He searched the duffle bag hanging off his shoulder, hoping to come up with a new tune or two while he waited for the akuma to be defeated, when—
"Luka!" came a whispered scolding, along with the sound of someone dropping down next to him.
He knew right away that it was Ladybug's (Marinette's) voice, especially since it sounded all too similar to how he was shouted at by her before, so he stopped what he was doing to look at her.
He immediately regretted it.
Marinette was cute no matter what, but he was never prepared whenever she was doing something new. "New" in this case appeared to be another miraculous - a gray and pink necklace - and whatever it did gave her double buns instead of her usual pigtails. It made them resemble mouse ears, and it was dangerously cute in a very literal way.
His fingers twitched.
"What are you doing here?" she huffed, gesturing at the alley around them. "I know there's no real safe place to be when there's an akuma, and sometimes you just don't have a choice in where you go, but there have to be cleaner places to hide at least!"
Luka couldn't remember when Marinette had started doting on him. They'd spent more and more time with each other ever since Marinette unintentionally brought father and son back together, and at some point he felt he'd become someone precious enough to dote on.
Normally, he wouldn't complain, but he couldn't afford the property damage he was about to cause if she kept being adorable.
Just then, he felt an ominous presence behind him, Ladybug's gaze darting over to it in alarm. He saw in the reflection of her eyes that it wasn't a civilian, and had never been more thankful to be interrupted during a conversation with her.
Turning swiftly, Luka didn't think, just drove his fist directly into the akuma's chest. In a showdown between magical abilities bestowed by ancient artifacts and a condition that made him stronger based only on how cute Marinette was, he was not the least bit surprised to see the latter win out.
The akuma went flying from the force, soaring across the street, through a car's windows, then into the wall where they promptly collapsed in a heap. Shadow Moth's symbol flickered on their face like a glitching laptop screen.
Considering the nature of the damage, Luka wasn't concerned that Miraculous Ladybug wouldn't fix things.
Sighing in relief, he rubbed the knuckles of the hand he'd punched with and straightened himself back up. On some level, he feared the potential power he could have if he'd been Viperion at the time.
Remembering Ladybug behind him, Luka looked over his shoulder to see her staring at him, mouth agape. She glanced at where the akuma had gone, then her eyes darted around in what he considered the "Lucky Vision" sign that she was thinking something over.
Slowly, the visible part of her cheeks turned as red as her mask.
——-
Luka could barely make it back to his room before his phone started ringing with the tune he'd set for Marinette. Naturally, he picked it up immediately.
"Hello?"
"Oh! Luka—"
He blinked, wondering if she'd called him by accident. "Marinette?"
"Sorry! I didn't think you'd pick up so quickly."
"Why wouldn't I?" he genuinely wondered, smiling to himself. "I saw your name on my phone."
She squeaked, sounding embarrassed. "R-right, right, of course. I just had no idea you—but it makes sense."
He tried not to give away any indication that he knew what this was probably about. Marinette had definitely figured out what - who - caused his condition to act up, but she couldn't say it since the realization happened when she was Ladybug and she didn't know that he knew her identity.
Not for lack of trying. He was worried about her getting into trouble with any "Miraculous higher-ups" if there were any, so he needed to ensure that she wouldn't be punished or negatively impacted first.
"So?" he prompted. "What do you want to talk about?"
"Talk, yeah. That's what I called to do, obviously. What else are phones for?" She cleared her throat. "I was just thinking..."
"Mhm?" he hummed, assuring her he was listening.
"Well, you have a problem with this... cute thing, but you don't know what is is, right?"
He paused, suddenly lost for where the conversation was going. She knew, yet she was asking if he didn't know almost like she hoped that he would confirm as much.
Deciding to play along. He confirmed, "Yeah, I don't know."
"Good—right." She faked a cough before continuing, "Anyway, I was looking up cuteness aggression, and apparently one of the things that can help is therapeutic exposure."
...Wait—
"And since you don't know what causes it, and two heads are better than one - especially our heads - what if I hung around while we figure out what it is? I'm not a quitter either, so we can hang out as much as we need to until we find the answer!"
Luka's mind spun, realizing what she was asking and why she'd be asking in such a way. He tried his best to relax his grip on his phone, maintaining a careful poker face.
"...Luka?"
"Yeah." He forced himself to take a breath. "If you're okay with that, we can."
"Yes!" There was a clatter on the other end, followed by some awkward fumbling. "Er—that's perfect! Now I've gotta go, my—um... my fish knocked over my art project in my excitement! I'll pick you up at 4 tomorrow, bye!"
He didn't even get to say "bye" himself from how fast she hung up, leaving Luka to stare at her contact image on the call ended screen. He was lucky that enough sense kicked in for him to toss it at his bed before anything happened.
Marinette knew he had cuteness aggression for her and, rather than feeling bad about it, she was using it to her advantage as an excuse to hang out with him. Those hang outs also sounded an awful lot like dates, as of yet unscheduled but no doubt there. She was even so happy about him accepting that she knocked over her art project, made up a fish that didn't exist to cover it up, and forgot to not give away that she was excited in the process.
Oh. Oh no.
Right on time, his mother happened to be passing by the lounge room and spotted him. Eyeing his current state up and down, she brightened and gestured at the wooden table in front of the couch.
"Have at this one," she suggested. "Adds character."
Luka obeyed, turning swiftly and walking over to her. Raising his arms and bringing them back down with inhuman force, he proceeded to smash half the table.
they should make it so you can only post about dr carmilla if you can answer 3 riddles and do open heart surgery. aand listen to exhumed and unplugged #truth
Why did no one tell me about the scene in Derek's Step 4 where things are about to get tense and, right after you ask him what's bothering him, it transitions from sunset to night like you just did something wrong and got a bad ending.
