#// where jin gains control - he has more of a human appearance

[demonsfate]

i was also thinking about dj's true form. and i was thinking about how the devils all seem to have a gemstone or armor/steel theme to them. and then i was thinking about how dj has soft feathers, and how that would look if he had something like kaz's second devil form. the feather wings seem like they'd be contrasting.

but then i thought. he'd still have feathers, but they're blades. really sharp, painful blades that can slice through skin with ease should he flap his wings at somebody.

[youarejesting]

Wash Out.21 (Sope Special)

[Master List]

Banners: @purpleskies1999 Pairings: Dolphintrainer!Taehyung x SharkDiver!Jin,  Mer!Jimin x Reader, Scientist!Namjoon x MerKing!Jungkook, Mer!Yoongi x Mer!Hoseok. Rating: 16+ Genre: Mystery, Romance, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, little bit of Action, Slice of life, Enemies2Lovers, Friends2lovers, Social media au, Fake Texts, Fake Subs.

Summary: Taehyung and his best friend Y/N are Dolphin trainers at Wash Out; Marine Wildlife and Theme Park. When the nerdy marine biologist and resident veterinarian Doctor Kim Namjoon goes missing; the two friends form a ragtag team with Taehyung’s rival Seokjin and a…. Fish?

[Prev] [Next]

Yoongi stood still, his legs shaking. It was not normal for him to be standing for this length of time. They were mermaids used to having tails their strength in the water. Swimming was like breathing. Of course their legs only appeared on their sacred land under the ocean.

They couldn’t walk on human land, could never compare to their leg strength. Most Mermaids spent their days in the water only entering the sacred land for celebrations. Yoongi being one of many guards would protect the royal family, albeit there was no longer a royal family. Jungkook was all that was left, a prince forced to be a king before he was ready. 

Guards were the most common of the merfolk to adorn legs. Jungkook was confined to the sacred land, his time in the water limited. Anything to keep him safe from the threat of other merclans. Each guard embellished in the silk of the clams. Byssus was woven finely like silk, the light material was surprisingly warm enough to protect the guards and King whilst in their more vulnerable form.

Yoongi looked across the crystal throne room, the love of his life standing just as tall, his stature stronger than Yoongi’s. A feat as Jungkook tore the room apart, bioluminescent vines and lanterns ripped from the walls. Food and wine splattered on the floor of their ancestors.

Hoseok’s mouth turned down, the sight unnatural for his usually cheerful disposition. The hardest part of their job was raising Jungkook, it seemed no matter how hard they tried to teach him right and wrong, politics and history they still came up short. He didn’t have a family, not anymore, he didn’t know how to share and never had to work for relationships. 

Everyone adored him, feared him, doted on his every whim. He was given the finest foods and all the newest technology Merfolk could offer. Anything to keep him content in his prison. It surprised Yoongi that Jungkook hadn’t questioned his confines, that he was complacent with their level of control over his freedom.

Jungkook no longer understanding, why his new found friend was so reluctant to stay. He extended all his riches and gifts to the human, something other merfolk would cherish. 

“Why does he still want to leave, with me he could be treated as a king,” Jungkook seethed, throwing a leg over the arm of his throne massaging his temples. “Leave me.”

Hoseok marched dutifully to Yoongi, supporting the older merman as they made their exit. Walking him to the entrance of the underwater cove, the air though damp enough to keep their lungs from feeling dry, they much preferred sinking into the cool water. Doing so allowed the power of the sacred land to slip away leaving only their natural form. 

The two transformed their black and blue tails wrapping around each other, a romantic gesture Yoongi enjoyed more than he wished to admit. They relaxed in eachothers arms peacefully, sinking further until they landed on the floor of the large network of caves. This is where most of the merfolk lived as they were still protected from the open ocean.

Under the cove was wide and besides a few stalagmite and stalactite the surface was predominantly flat. However the local life was anything but, everyone bustling around the settlement enjoying tending to the seaweed, crafting and protecting the sealife. 

“Jungkook, is struggling. He doesn’t understand how to handle rejection. He doesn’t understand that people value the same things,” Hoseok mumbled, massaging Yoongi’s lower back to help relieve tension from standing for such a long time.

“That human cannot survive long under the ocean, he grows weaker by the day, barely eating.” Yoongi huffed, “If Jungkook doesn’t let him go, the poor thing will die, Jungkook isn’t ready to experience something like that so close to him.”

“I think he has gotten too attached, losing this human might break him,” Hoseok bit his lip, “Dare I say he is in love with him, he could be his promised.”

Yoongi scoffed, the idea that Jungkook happened to find his promised one and he was a human, the first human he had ever met. Yoongi and Hoseok were unaware they were each other's promised until Yoongi had a week off from guard duty and started to get really sick. The two had met in the infirmary wasting away and only in one another's company did their condition improve. “Hoseok, that’s a bit much.”

A figure swam down the path quickly, heading straight to the sacred cove entrance, carrying something large. Was someone trying to attack their home? The two fell apart taking up offensive stances, each lurching forward when they spotted Jimin holding an unconscious human.

“Not another one,” Yoongi chastised, eyes sweeping over Jimin trying to be inconspicuous. Though he cared he showed it silently, not fond of open praise. The kind to listen and assist others out of sight.

“I have to make sure he is alright,” Jimin gave no further explanation, swimming up into the cove entrance dragging the human onto the sacred land. Jimin’s gold tail disappearing, leaving behind two bare legs. 

Wrapping himself in a cloth, the two followed. Yoongi strained to lift himself into an upright position. Hoseok brought out their usual transport, especially for Jungkook’s deliveries. In this case they threw the unconscious human across the shell of the crustacean and they headed to their king.

“Are all humans this big?” Yoongi asked, eyeing the figure draped beside Jimin. The two crab-pooling wasn’t the issue, the way Jimin looked genuinely concerned for the human was. It was no good for humans and Merfolk to fall in love, the dynamic wouldn’t end well. 

“No, they aren’t all this big, some of them are small, delicate and beautiful. They are magnificent, fascinating beings. Some are scary and mean and others are innocent and protective, just trying to do the right thing.” Jimin whispered, checking the humans breathing once more. 

“Is he your promised?” Hoseok asked softly, not knowing how to approach the topic sensitively. Jimin smiled, shaking his head. The thought appeared to have amused him.

“He is someone else’s promised,” Jimin said, “But I think I met her, she was beautiful and strong, never letting anyone stop her, never letting bad things keep her down. She would swim head first into enemy waters to save someone she barely knows.

The human groaned, “Where am I?” Jimin let out a sigh of relief, this human was waking up and didn’t seem to be physically hurt, at least there were no wounds they could see upon his flesh. “Am I dead?”

“No, you are not dead, you are in our settlement.” Jimin grinned at the disorientation present in Seokjin’s words. He was struggling to enunciate his words, each more like a whine drawn out.

Upon entering the crystal throne room the group tried their best to support the sluggish human inside. Gaining the attention of Jungkook, ceasing his brooding long enough to assist the three struggling mermen. As if hearing the commotion or perhaps Seokjin’s terrible jokes Namjoon emerged from where he had been staying.

“Jin! Are you okay?” Namjoon grabbed his friend, checking him over for injury, “What are you doing here?”

“Rescuing you and avoiding the police, I ran my car off the cliff and also may have destroyed the letter box outside your beach house.” He laughed, “Never really liked it anyway.”

“You did what?” Namjoon said, concerned, “Are you crazy?”

“Listen, we were being chased. It was all for you, and Jimin of course, returning Jimin and rescuing you.” Seokjin smiled at his friend. Yoongi thought these humans were weird, they were reckless and too odd for his liking. “I even teamed up with Taehyung and Y/n in order to save you. Do you know how hard that was?”

“Didn’t seem hard at all, you and Taehyung seemed to get along really well.” Jimin pushed the human with a smile, it was weird to see Jimin acting so comfortable with the humans. “We will return you so that the issue can be resolved, I am starting to grow worried about how we left.”

“What do you mean?” Seokjin asked confused

“Humans tackled Y/n and Taehyung dragged me into the water. Right before you and your car contraption fell into the water I killed the man who scared you all.” Jimin said proudly, this didn’t seem to go over well with the human’s. Yoongi hoped Jimin didn’t do something stupid turf war wasn’t on his to do list.

Yoongi didn’t understand the words coming from Seokjin’s face, if he had to liken it to anything, it sounded like vulgar slang, curse words. The human looked panicked.

“We have to go back, they are probably being sent to prison,” Seokjin said, trying to leave unsure which direction to go, “They are in big trouble.”

“Can’t you just talk to your king and explain and they will be removed from prison?” Jimin said

“Prison doesn’t work the same as it does here,” Namjoon explained, “Very Very bad people go to prison, Murderer’s, thieves and other despicable humans put in one place.”

“Yeah and if they go to prison, they may be beaten or worse,” Seokjin huffed. Jimin looked up at Jungkook who nodded, bringing out a small mirror and handing it to Jimin.

Looking over Jimin’s shoulder, Yoongi noticed a human different to the two infront of him, she was feminine delicate and leaking. “What is happening to her?”

“She is crying,” Jimin explained, “Humans do that when they are hurt or in despair, from what I have been told they do the same when they are happy too.”

“Confusing and a little stupid.” Hoseok laughed, “How do you know the difference?”

The charges have been dropped, Namjoon breathed listening to the interrogator, explaining that they couldn’t record the phenomenon that occurred on the beach. “They are being let go,” He smiled, a sight Yoongi hadn’t seen since he first laid eyes on their large domestic crustaceans.

“There is Taehyung,” Seokjin called out looking down, the two humans looked void of any emotion, they collected their things and climbed into the police car getting an escort to their homes. “They are safe and that’s all that matters.” 

Seokjin smiled, his eyes leaking much to Yoongi’s disgust. Namjoon smiled, he seemed a little amused by the older human. “I remember distinctly you saying you hated Taehyung with a passion and wanted him to choke on a sardine.” They two laughed for a moment, “When did things change?” 

“I guess when you are working as a team to save someone you develop an understanding.” Seokjin shrugged his large shoulders, “It also didn’t help that he was living in my house for almost a week.”

“You like him,” Namjoon poked him, “Admit it you have feelings for him.”

“We can head back when you are ready, we have returned Jimin home safely.” Seokjin smiled, looking around at the group and smiling, “I am Seokjin by the way, you can call me Jin.”

The man was goofy, reminding Yoongi of Jungkook himself, the two so alike in their childlike nature, letting themself play without hesitation. It was almost admirable that people could act so carefree, unaffected by how they could be perceived.

“I don’t know if I am allowed to leave?” Namjoon said, his smile falling, eyes fixed on the ground before him. 

Yoongi looked at his king, the spoiled young man reflecting on his actions, it had been many days since they saw the young man smile. Almost expecting him to refuse, Yoongi schools his expression when he doesn’t. 

“You should go, You don’t belong down here?” Jungkook took the mirror before walking away from the group to sit on the throne. He lowered his head looking at his reflection trying to distract himself from the pain. Letting your promised go was the hardest thing a merperson could do. Under normal circumstances, promises are only parted by death.

Namjoon walked over, placing a hand on the king's head and smiling at him, “If ever you want to visit, I would be happy to show you some great places, places you would love.” Jungkook’s broken heart warmed at the human’s dimples appearing softly in the flesh of his cheeks.

That was the last thing they needed, their king running off for a romance on the coast line. Seokjin swung his arm around Jimin playfully, the merman giggling whilst his legs almost buckled. “Yeah Jimin knows the private beach by Namjoon’s house, he can show you the way if you ever want to visit.”

Tags: @backinblack1967 @miriamxsworld @moccahobi @simplymemyself @a-gayish-unicorn @ella-mella @vjinfan23​

How can I save this to read later?

Follow and turn on notifications so you never miss an update

Add your name to a tag list [HERE]

Reblog this post with the hashtag #Washout

Or you can like this post (but good luck trying to find it a week later, we both know how many things you like a day, perhaps we will meet again in the future.)

[laryna6]

I’m not going to start posting Lichverse yet even though I finished the novel because there’s worldbuilding stuff that needs to be changed after the reveal that Igris’ species are born from fruits of the world tree instead of being creations of the Monarchs as per monsters (or maybe the creator made monsters to serve the monarchs but canon doesn’t say so I can have fun) and also while I HAVE figured out when to have Jin-Woo’s chest open so people can see he has two hearts I haven’t given up on working in the creepy cute aesthetic and other stuff I want to do earlier.

Also the reveal that in previous timelines Ashborn zombie apocalypse’d humanity (probably bc we were too squishy to survive being ground zero and he couldn’t protect us so he wanted to gather our souls before we got slaughtered more painfully by other monarchs’ armies and ceased to exist - also bc needed larger army to fight other monarchs and keep Antares from killing him and all his shadows with him) as soon as he took over his new host body. So it makes sense that the rulers would ask a human to find a human host and like Il-Hwan would agree - his family lives in a major city. In the case of shadow blitzkreig, they’re all gonna get turned into undead mind-controlled into adoring Ashborn, nothx. Also the Architect didn’t want to pick Jin-Woo, Ashborn insisted, in times where Jin-Woo wasn’t Like That the Architect would have gotten to pick and would have picked an asshole. So Il-Hwan goes looking for the stuff an asshole would have done to level up in a setting where what happens in a dungeon... and then the monster who has repeatedly slaughtered Il-Hwan’s species like cattle is using his son as a host body.

So yeah, Dad has been highkey Suffering.

But, anyway, here’s the current draft of the first chapter of lichverse. Warning for like, canon-typical stuff + also frottage.

Abandoned by everyone, about to be crushed like a bug…

It seemed as though the stone blade paused for a moment, but maybe it was his perception of time slowing down as his death approached.

It was finally over. His sister… mother! The pain would stop… but Mother would die, and Sister… Sister would have to scrabble like he had. A teenage girl?

He’d sold his body to keep his mother alive. Jin-ah…

As the blade crashed down he fell and was caught. Was cradled.

Darkness… a soothing, cool darkness. No more pain, no more fear. But still… warm. This darkness didn’t have a beating heart, but still…

Jin-woo knew the heart of someone who had lost too much, far too much, and would do anything to protect the precious little they had left. He saw someone like that in the mirror, when he couldn’t avoid it.

This person… would never hurt him. Never let him be hurt. He was safe.

“Return to me,” he heard a voice he knew calling for him, and he knew he would always answer.

A black-armored figure before him, flickering with black and purple light. Too large to be human. A monster. A monster and still when Jin-woo found himself on his feet he took a step towards him gladly, eagerly. A step and another. This feeling… like when his Mom or Dad came home and called his name and he ran to them, happy to see them.

He stopped when he had to crane his head back almost painfully far to meet those glowing eyes – an undead – he was an undead…? And saw the concern in them. For him, for a weakling, for nothing, and he knew he was safe. He’d been so scared, everyone had left him to die alone. But someone… someone came. Someone saved him. The relief sent him to his knees as the last of the stress that had kept him on his feet for so long left him.

Slumping even further forward, he bowed his head and pressed against those armored legs. He trembled, the pain and fear he’d had to suppress for so long escaping his body. Day after day, knowing he was already far, far past his estimated life expectancy. Knowing he was going to die and it was going to hurt, and even if he lived he was going to hurt but he had no choice. There had been no choices since Mom was taken from them too.

And that great figure knelt and put a hand on his head.

That mana… it was terrifyingly powerful, but he knew why it didn’t terrify him. Something he’d tried not to think about for years: the moment he’d awakened, feeling mana, power all around him. Power that dwarfed his, could crush him. But it had never even occurred to him to feel fear, because this was his father. Of course his father was the strongest! Of course he would save everyone!

Instead he’d been so happy, running to his dad and saying he could be a hunter now! Like him! They could beat the bad guys together! And his Dad had patted him on the head and said, “Sorry, but you have to wait until you’re a little older before you can fight anything, and by that time I’ll have already beaten the bad guys that are making the gates appear. So you’ll never have to fight.”

“I won’t get to fight?” he’d asked, disappointed.

“Sorry,” his dad said, patting his head apologetically, but not sorry at all.

His dad… they hadn’t invented the measuring technology until a year after he vanished, so Jin-woo didn’t know how strong he was. It wasn’t until Mother was spending long enough asleep that Jin-woo could go get measured after school that he found out why his dad had fought so hard to keep him from ever having to hunt. He’d been proud of his Dad, believed he would have been an s-class, but… would an s-class really have had such a worthless son? But the mana in his memory, it was so much stronger than the a-class he’d seen once.

His father… His dad really was… tears fell from his eyes, and that hand remained to steady him, that mana still cradled him, as pathetic as he was.

He didn’t know how long he cried there, with loss and pain and fear and gratitude. No one… no one since Mother would have held him as he cried. He couldn’t burden Jin-ah or a stranger like that. If someone reported he wasn’t able to provide for Jin-ah…

That made him open his eyes. “Jin-ah…” he said, a plea. Part of him knowing that this person – monster – would understand how precious she was, how he couldn’t bear to fail her.

“You can return to her,” a deep voice promised him. That… the monster language. Was he still speaking Korean?

“Monsters attack humans,” he said, looking down at his hands, how they flickered with darkness too.

“Because they’re controlled by the Ruler’s crystals… but even without them the subjects of most Monarchs would see your kind as resources to exploit.”

Food.

That hand withdrew and the glowing figure shrunk until he met his own eyes, heard his own voice – speaking Korean this time. “You don’t need to be afraid. You know you will never hurt your sister. Or any of those you love.”

“I won’t hurt her?” he asked again, craving reassurance like a child. Like a weakling (the weakest of the weak).

“Never,” he was promised again, without a trace of irritation at having to repeat himself in his voice.

“I shouldn’t believe you.” Shouldn’t take that risk, with Jin-ah.

“Believe yourself.” This time he was scolded a little. “You went out there to die for her, over and over. You would never hurt her.”

It meant nothing that he went to hunt because it really didn’t do anything… he’d fail her eventually, and then she’d… “I failed her.”

“That was…” the other him – monster – the one who cared for him sighed. “That was my fault. I watched you, and how hard you fought to protect them, the wounds you bore… There was someone I wanted to protect. I fought knowing I would fail them, and yet… but you haven’t failed those you love. I am here because of all your struggle, all your pain and sacrifice.” A bottle appeared, was pressed into his hands. “I watched, I saw you, earn this a thousand times over. With this, you can cure your mother.”

Jin-woo drew in a breath, looking up with startled hope. The other him nodded, and he felt the promise. “You won’t have to be afraid anymore. You’re one of mine now. A human would have to gradually adjust to higher mana levels, but as a shadow I can fill you with my power. That wasn’t…” he sighed. “I was going to possess you, but when the Architect began to cast the curse meant to bring about your death, I couldn’t let him. …but I didn’t have enough of a foothold in that dimension to keep the stone from crushing you.” He scowled at himself. “I should have waited until you were safe, then killed the Architect and undone his curse. I have not done right by you. I’m sorry. You deserve better than than what happened to you. The least I owe you is making sure you can return to your life and your loved ones.”

Jin-woo’s eyes widened. An apology? An admission of fault? A being even stronger than his father, lowering itself to apologize to him? A nothing? The weakest of the weak?

Why? Who could force him to do it? Even S-ranks were beyond the law. He didn’t gain anything from it: his power could crush Jin-woo so easily, and if he could shape-shift then he could take Jin-woo’s place as he’d said he’d planned or maybe send another undead?

His hands curled around the bottle, pulling it to his chest as he began to believe it was real. Because the only reason he could see for this monster to apologize was if, if he really did think that Jin-woo deserved better. And if he deserved anything, then his mother deserved to wake, to live.

“The dungeon will close with the Architect dead. You need to return there and escape, or it will take some time for me to get another foothold in the human world and transport you there. My br-the Rulers are doing their best to shield it.”

He had to hurry. His mother… if it took too long they would take her off life support, and for her to die now, because he didn’t bring her the cure in time…

His mirror image nodded. “Go.”

That mana curled around him, bore him elsewhere, and he heard stone groan and topple to the ground a moment before he opened his eyes to find himself on the altar. Oh no, his foot…

His leg was still there!

…Why was he so surprised by that, when his entire body had been crushed, and yet here he was, intact even if he flickered with black and purple. He started to push himself up so he could get off the altar only for the altar to crumble beneath his palm. He stared down at it.

“…Ah. Humans wield strength only through channeling mana, but as a shadow the strength I’ve given you is yours. Until you can learn to control it, there are artifacts that seal all but a fraction of someone’s power, for negotiations. If I give you a few of them… and I know the curse the Architect designed, perhaps I can modify it…”

A window, like on a computer screen? Appeared before Jin-woo, then changed to show equipment? He felt weight after weight settle on him, then become as light as a feather, as thought it had vanished entirely.”

“The closest I can come is still half again as strong as you were before.”

He was stronger than before and this person was apologizing for it? At any time that thought would have stunned him, but how people treated him didn’t matter, not next to what he held in his hands. “That’ll only make me faster,” JIn-woo said, desperate to go.

The window swung out of his way and he jumped down off the altar. Out of the corner of his eye he saw it change once, then again. A bunch of squares. Inventory, it said? Two rows of those squares filled up with a graphic of.. he looked down. The same bottle he held. And in the lower right corner of the image of that bottle? x999

Was that… a thousand of these bottles per square? A potion that could cure Eternal Slumber? They, they’d be rich! He’d never have to run a dungeon again!

“With your power sealed like this, you’re vulnerable. I’ll send you Igris.” He felt another flare of mana, and a red-armored figure kept pace with him easily. “He has been my right hand since long before I became the Shadow Monarch.”

That feeling… Like Jin-ah. ‘One of the few precious people I have left.’

“He will protect you as if you were me.” Jin-woo turned his head to see an image of his mirror image running beside him. The other nodded to Ignes, who nodded in return.

Next to the other Jin-woo saw the status window. His status window. “So I am an undead… You can bring back the dead?” he realized belatedly. “My, my father…”

“He’s not dead,” the other told him. “He was the vessel of one of the fragments of brilliant light, he wouldn’t have died within a space they control unless there was a monarch there, and I’m keeping track of all of them.”

Jin-woo froze, skidded to a halt. “He’s not…” He trembled. His mother, enough money to secure Jin-ah’s future, even… even his father…

“I will try to find him, but I can’t promise anything.”

Jin-woo shook his head quickly before the other could apologize. Even a chance his father could come home, that he, his mother could see him again! “Yours,” he swore. “I’m yours.” Anything, for this. He sold his life and death and pain over and over just to buy time. To have, to have his family… His soul wasn’t enough. He could never repay this.

Was this why a part of him had felt nothing but devotion towards the other as soon as he fell into has grasp? Had he sensed this in the mana? Or not even this, just… the kindness that made someone willing to give him so much, to give a nothing like him…

“You are not nothing,” the other him insisted as Jin-woo fell to his knees, his gratitude overwhelming him again. “Igris.”

Igris scooped him up easily as breathing, and practically flew to the dungeon exit, carefully placing him on his feet, steadying him the way the other and holding him up when Jin-woo tried to go to his knees again.

“You do not kneel before me,” the other told him. “You never have to kneel before me.”

“But…” but then what could he give? What could he offer? He looked at him with desperation.

“I need you,” he was promised. “I need for your will to protect your family. But I’ll explain later. You should be with your family now.” The other him – the one who felt the same desperate wish to protect – looked down at Jin-woo’s shadow and it filled with hundreds of eyes. “You and your sister should get to see your crea- Your mother again. That’s… You should get to have that.”

And Jin-woo knew that the other would never get to have that, never again.

“You won’t fail them,” his other promised him, forceful and desperate and yearning, and Jin-woo heard you won’t fail them the way I did. “We can talk later, there’s time. Take him home, Igris.”

And giant arms held Jin-woo tight until he found himself in front of his apartment door.

He scrambled for his keys, turned them, flung the door open – half again as strong – “Jin-ah!”

“Jin-woo?” he heard her throw herself out of bed, scramble for her bedroom door and through the living room. “JIn-woo? Are you okay?” she asked him.

That wasn’t important. “Mom,” he said, holding open his arms. “Igris, can you take us both?” Red darkness tried to rise from his shadow but the hall was too small and Igris was forced to appear outside. “I found something that can cure Mom.”

Jin-ah stared at him, mouth slipping open as if to ask him if he was serious but he would never say that unless he was. When she could move, she flung herself at him. As a hunter he could already lift her easily, but it wasn’t just his strength that made everything feel so light right now. “Igris… do you know where she is?”

The red-armored giant shook his head.

“I can give you directions.” He went out the door and Igris lifted them both as if they weighed nothing.

“is he a summon?” Jin-ah asked, breathless. “A healer’s summon? Are they going to cure Mom?”

“That way.” A blur, and when Igris was still again, Jin-woo said, “Sort of? I don’t know how to explain, I want to get to Mom. That way.”

Jin-ah didn’t interrupt again, vibrating with eagerness. She didn’t want to make this take any extra time either.

“That window, there,” JIn-woo said when they were outside of the hospital. Igris sat them down, swept his cloak over them and there they were, in the room.

Jin-woo lifted up the bottle to look at it and a window with a description and directions appeared next to it. She just had to drink the entire bottle? That easy? They were that close? He dodged around Jin-ah to get to the bed, then stopped, forced himself to go slow, to open her mouth carefully. He was stronger than before. He couldn’t hurt her, not like this. Not when they were this close.

A progress bar. Lists of ailments – muscular atrophy, eternal sleep… And everything finished counting down as Jin-ah shook him and asked, “Is it working? Is it working?”

And then she opened her eyes. “Jin-woo…” A moment more, an intake of breath, “Jin-ah?” he saw his mother realize how long it must have been. “Then…” He saw her look past them. He knew who she looked for, who she had watched for for so long.

“He’s alive,” he told her. “He’s alive and I’ll bring him home, I promise.” He could make a promise like that, as weak and pathetic as he was, because he had help.

He saw her look at him and frown, the way she’d frowned when she found out he was doing dungeons. The, ‘Are you kidding me? I’m an adult, we take care of things. Your job is to stay safe and study.’

Study… those potions, they had money, he wouldn’t have to do low-level dungeon runs.

His other self needed him for something and Jin-woo would make it happen no matter what, do anything for the person who gave him this. But… tomorrow wouldn’t be like today. Tomorrow his mother would be home.

A nurse finally arrived, her head downcast and shoulders slumped, and he saw her look up, then stare when she saw his Mother sitting up instead of lying there dead. “I found potions in a dungeon,” Jin-woo told her to forestall questions. “I’ll give you five of them if you let us leave, now.”

“My clothes…?” Mom asked the nurse.

The nurse blinked, “Ah, we returned your clothes to your family…” Because they’d known she was never leaving that bed.

And Jin-woo hadn’t brought anything. He went to the window, yanked it open, jumped out. “Igris?” he asked, then hesitated. He’d just ordered around something – someone – so powerful? Was that really okay? But Igris appeared and swept his cloak over Jin-woo again, and Jin-woo found himself in the entryway at home.

He’d forgotten to even close the door, let alone lock it. Clothes! Right, his mom’s clothes! He threw some of everything into a bag, then ran out and looked up at Igris hopefully. “Thank you,” he said as the cloak swept over him again, putting him in the hospital room.

The fact he’d screwed up by forgetting clothes for his Mom… That was, that was the kind of thing that happened in real life. This was, this was real. He dumped the bag out on Mom’s bed, throwing the clothes down hard enough to make the mattress bounce a little. “Sorry,” he said, but found himself grinning. He hadn’t… He hadn’t failed them

They were okay.

He…

Anything.

Anything.

He’d do anything for them. For this. Maybe he’d been turned into a monster, maybe he was going to be used to kill humans, but who cared as long as Jin-ah and Mom were okay?

He wanted the inventory screen open and it was. Reached and pulled five bottles out, one after another, as the nurse pulled over a curtain so Mom could get dressed.

“They just have to drink it all, every drop,” he told the nurse. “That’s it.”

“Potions are a thing now?” his Mom asked from behind the curtain.

Questions.

Oh shit.

Um.

He did not give a damn what was up with the other him or exactly how dead he was or anything like that, but he could not tell Mom that he died. He was not going to do that to her.

“I think Jin-woo reawakened and he’s a spatial mage now, Mom,” Jin-ah said helpfully. “Pulling those out of thin air is spatial magic, and he’s got a summon that can teleport us.”

She didn’t mention the flickering black and purple at all? Not that Jin-woo was going to bring up anything else he’d have to explain! It seemed ungrateful to claim that Igris was his summon, take credit for everything the other him had done, but it was better than making them worry.

The mana that was in Jin-woo now wasn’t his, but it felt like it could have been his, because the feelings in it… they were all feelings he knew. A lot of them too well. Someone so powerful wasn’t ‘another him,’ but… there were things that were the same. They were akin? Kind of like family.

So he said, “Igris can take us home.” They could be home, instead of having to wait torturous minutes on the subway. For him and Jin-ah it had been too long since Mom had been home. He needed to see her there, and then he’d be able to believe a little more that this was real.

But it helped, when she came out from behind the curtain. It helped so much when she wrapped her arms around him.

When they were home at last one of them wanted to go to sleep. Jin-woo desperately didn’t want his mom to go to sleep, but eventually she told them to get to bed and they went.

Shit. Did he have a bedtime again? He wouldn’t have to ride on public transit out to gates?

…when had he last gotten eight straight hours of sleep?

He’d been trying not to think about it. But he’d known. That he was wearing thinner and thinner. That it was only his youth letting him get away with how hard he was pushing himself. That he couldn’t keep this up forever.

…He lay down in bed and realized he didn’t feel tired at all.

…Did he need to sleep anymore? Mom had fed them, so he knew he could eat, but did he need to? He raised his hand to look at it. How energy flickered around it, but the hand itself didn’t flicker, as though he was solid or real or alive.

Thank goodness he still had body heat, or Mom and Jin-ah would have noticed when they hugged him.

…when had he last been hugged?

He wanted the menu thing open again. The status page. Sung Jin-woo the Enduring. General-class Shadow, Lvl. Max.

Shadow, was that what he was? Igris had appeared out of and vanished into his shadow sometimes, he recalled. ‘General…’ was… so he would need to fight. Something about protecting humans? If that wasn’t a lie.

He knew it wasn’t a lie. His hand went to his heart.

But he wasn’t an idiot, and things too good to be true… There had to be a catch somewhere. The fact he was so certain, the way he loved the other him the way he’d only loved Jin-ah, his mother and his father… He didn’t trust people like this. They knew he was worthless (he was worthless), so they treated him like that and he knew they were going to treat him that way.

But… someone who hadn’t wanted him to die… like his father had wanted to protect him, like his mother had wanted to take care of him, like Jin-ah had decided to be a doctor because she wanted to get better at patching him up… Someone who apologized to him like he was worth apologizing to.

The way his mom had apologized to him for being gone so long, for putting so much on his shoulders. She told him he was strong, was amazing, for bearing it, for doing so well.

In his status screen. ‘The Enduring,’ like he was worthy of a title, of anything.

The other him was something from the gates. That meant a monster. An enemy of humanity. But the more he thought about it, the more certain he became that he could trust him. Like family.

Jin-woo frowned.

…No, Dad would absolutely not have had a kid with a monster or something. He felt like he needed to say sorry even for thinking that.

“Igris?” he asked, and the knight appeared, sitting next to his bed in order to fit in his bedroom. “How do I talk to him again? Should I go inside a gate?”

Igris shook his head and raised his cloak again, tilting his head questioningly.

Jin-woo got into a sitting position and nodded. “Thanks, Igris.”

Instead of tensing up he relaxed when he found himself in the darkness, surrounded by the other him’s power. When he saw him. “Thank you,” he said. “I can’t ever thank you enough.”

The other him shook his head. “I’m glad you could have that. Your family, safe for now. I’m glad I was able to help bring it about. There’s still someone missing. I’m limited in what I can do without revealing I’m active. I’m sure the Rulers know since they’ve been using the blood they shed to time-travel, but the monarchs… The Architect was still willing to work with me, but the instant they realize I won’t help them loot your world they’ll go back to trying to make me stay dead.”

“Can they?” Sung Jin-woo asked, eyes widening. Could he lose this person? He couldn’t… to have a chance at having everyone home, and then lose the person who made it possible…

“No power is limitless. Even that of our creator.” The other him touched his replica of Jin-woo’s chest.

“…Do you have a name?” Jin-woo asked, to change the subject. Even if it sounded like he’d need to know about that eventually, he didn’t want the other him to have to try to explain it when there was so much Jin-woo didn’t know that an explanation wouldn’t help when he didn’t have the context for it.

“Ashborn, now. The Monarch of Shadows.”

“So I’m a shadow, and my class is General?”

“Not a class, but a rank.” Ashborn was silent a moment and then said, as though confessing. “Igris’ counterpart was trapped inside a barrier in the last battle. She couldn’t return to my shadow when her body was destroyed and her mana was torn apart. Unless you’re trapped in such a barrier, I’ll be able to bring you back no how many times your new bodies are destroyed. I sent Igris with you in case one of the humans hosting the power of the rulers finds you and realizes you’re mine. He can summon himself, but I must teach you how to quickly remove the limiters reducing your power and call your forces from your shadow.” He waved at the eyes gazing up at Jin-woo from his shadow. Or what pretended to be a normal shadow. “Once you know that much, it should be safe to let you return to the human world. For now. Once you have a serviceable knowledge of necromancy, Igris will teach you to dodge-tank, and after that you can choose your own combat training.”

“So I’ll be fighting?” Jin-woo asked.

“I’m sorry,” Ashborn said, as though that was anything to apologize for. “You will be attacked by all sides for being one of mine.”

And Jin-woo felt Ashborn’s pain in his mana, the pain of an old wound. How many of his had Ashborn lost…?

“But you’re good at surviving,” Ashborn told him, rallying. “I hope… Humans are so peaceful.”

There was soft longing in Ashborn’s voice, so Jin-woo didn’t say anything like, ‘what planet are you from?’ Jin-woo had attended that much school. Even before the gates, humans had huge wars and shit. But if idealizing humanity gave him something to hope for, then Jin-woo wasn’t going to burst his bubble.

“Compared to us,” Ashborn added, and Jin-woo realized that Ashborn’s mana was flowing through him and back into Ashborn. Right. So Ashborn would know his emotions too. “You hope that Jin-ah will never have to fight, not even to defend herself. The fact that you consider this a possibility… But I will show you how to assign her bodyguards.”

Trying to find out what exactly Ashborn wanted from him so he could deliver it on a silver platter could happen later. Protecting Jin-ah? He needed to know how to do that now.

“I will send an army with you, and show you how to summon them. If they are killed, they can be revived again and again, as long as you have mana. Let me give you this, to be sure you won’t be left unprotected.” A still beating black heart appeared in Ashborn’s hands, bleeding white flames.

He stepped forward. He’d had his ribs cut open before. For Mom, for Jin-Ah. Ashborn could do whatever he wanted to Jin-Woo, and he’d just be grateful he could be useful to the person who saved him. Who chose him.

But those hands and the heart just passed through his chest like a ghost’s, and there was no pain, just warmth in his body like drinking a hot cup of coffee on a cold night, and Ashborn’s mana flooding into him now that he could hold so much more of it. “Ah… Ah…” he gasped for breath, feeling that care melt him away, filling him so full it felt like he couldn’t take anymore and then something in him gave way – opened, and he jerked, head flung back, and panted even harder when there was more, the warmth in his chest and the butterflies in his stomach sparking heat that drove him to take a stumbling step forward. Seeking Ashborn, needing him. So amazed at arms around him, someone holding him up, helping him stand and he needed Ashborn. He’d needed someone, so desperate for so long, knowing no one cared but Jin-Ah and he’d die to keep her from having to bear this.

He craved Ashborn desperately, two hearts pounding in his chest loud enough to drown out all other sound.

For so long he’d felt so empty, so numb to everything but the pain of survival and dread of the inevitable, but now he was full, full of love and he wanted, wanted more, wanted to drink down more of what Ashborn gave him and drown in it, drown in him. He pressed against him, panting against his lips, moving his hips as he tried to bury himself inside the body that matched his – Ashborn thought he was pretty enough for it to be worth wearing that face himself, even if Jin-Woo didn’t have the money for plastic surgery and that was one more reason it was impossible to find a job that paid well enough to replace hunting.

Fire filled his veins and only Ashborn could quench it, and his liege held Jin-woo, warm arms around him, warm body against him, giving him everything he needed, letting him have everything he wanted, and more.

More and more, and then without warning white fire burned everything away.

When it receded, Ashborn was still holding him in his arms. “I could feel that you were alright, but you sounded like you were in pain.”

“It was good…” he moaned, hips jerking again, and then horror tried to penetrate through the warm lassitude. Had he just, just rubbed himself off against, against… the one he owed everything?! “I’m sorry!”

“There’s nothing to be sorry for. I’m the one who should apologize. I knew Baran conceived when his battle-lust reached its peak, I just didn’t realize that the pounding of his heart was connected.”

“Con- con-“

“The Monarchs and Rulers were made capable of bringing forth armies. I… After… I am no longer capable of that. All I can do is preserve what’s left of my children, and shelter the fallen children of others.”

“Am I….?!!” A terrified shriek escaped Jun-Woo.

“I thought your body wasn’t the type that created children?” Ashborn looked down at where their bodies were joined. “Your mother and Jin-Ah are the same type and you’re a different type, yes? Or was it your Dad who created the children and that’s why no more workers were produced to help support the hive after he left?”

“I’m an undead now, so, um…” He buried his head in his hands, feeling really stupid, and in front of Ashborn. He wanted to die. Again.

But Ashborn still held him, Ashborn’s affection and admiration for him still poured through him.

“I’m sorry,” he said though.

“I think it’s admirable, how dedicated you are to taking care of your family. Of course you would want to be sure you hadn’t created a child when you’re still learning to control your own strength and might not be able to protect them.”

Like when people assumed he was some kind of thrill-seeking idiot, Jin-Woo thought ‘I could explain, but I don’t want to have that conversation,” and kept his mouth shut.

[theuniversitychallengereview]

UC 51.03 - London Business School vs Hertford, Oxford

Since it was introduced at the 1988 Olympics, every single Gold Medal in the Women’s Team event in the Archery has gone to South Korea. Including yesterday’s win that’s nine straight victories, and their period of unparalleled dominance continues. The men’s team have also won six of the nine they have contested, and a mixed team won the first staging of that event in Tokyo too. Adding their success in the individual events, South Korea have won 26 gold medals, and 42 in total, in the 43 archery events which have been thus far staged at the Olympic Games. 

As Twitter’s own @tarequelaskar pointed out in the brilliant article which alerted me to this story, this is a perfect example of specialisation, an economic concept whereby countries or companies focus intensely on one particular aspect of a given industry and come to serve that niche in such a specialised fashion that they become the ultimate experts and nigh-on irreplaceable. This is done in government and business by providing companies with incentives to specialise, and supporting those who succeed at it. 

With respect to Korean archery, similar forces are at play. There are a bunch of professional teams and leagues in the country, giving archers financial stability while they focus on their training, something not as common across the world. Said training involves such things as practicing in live baseball stadiums and replicas of the Olympic venues, to mimic first the atmosphere and then the conditions that will be present on the day of the actual tournament. 

This philosophy of marginal gains - the same system used by Team Sky and Chris Froome to win multiple Tour De Frances on the trot - puts their preparation miles ahead of the competition, which goes some way to explaining their dominance. It is not the only reason. Before the fine-tuning of the elite shooters comes the discovery of the promising young ones, and the inspiring nature of past success (along with a historic national love of the sport) helps to create a virtuous cycle which give Korea a far larger number of archers to choose from than any other country. This greater choice means that there is a greater chance of finding the next Gold medallists.

Making the argument that professional footballers are at a higher level than other elite sportspeople, Michael Cox used this same argument in a recent article for The Athletic. To summarise, he stated that because there are a far higher number of people who wish to become professional footballers, that must mean that the ones who do make it are at a higher standard than those who make it in other sports. Initially, I was drawn in by the pure maths of this point, but having thought about it some more I’m no longer sure to what extent I agree. 

Now, the fact that hundreds of millions more people play football than rugby, or basketball, will certainly confer some level of “eliteness”, but only up to a certain point. Because football has been so popular for so long, the general standard of the play, relative to what it used to be, has had longer to improve. In the same way that if you transplanted a 100m runner from the Olympic final in the early 20th century to now they probably wouldn’t even qualify for the games, a footballer from the 80s would stand less of a chance of making it were they playing today. Many other sports don’t have that level of natural progression, afforded by decades of technical and tactical advancement - at least not globally. 

But the numbers argument only goes so far, as can be demonstrated by the Korean archers. Yes, there are more archers in Korea than anywhere else, relatively, giving them a higher chance of uncovering those with a natural aptitude, but the reason behind their bow and arrow dynasty is the specialisation. The hyper-detailed level of training and focus which allows them to be the best they can possible be. 

Now, archery is unique in that there is a theoretical maximum score (I understand that this is to some extent arbitrary, and related to the rules of the game as defined by some human being, semi-randomly, but it works in terms of this argument, because it gives a percentage score of how good the archers are based on the agreed-upon parameters of the sport), which, at the Olympics, is 720. The Olympic record is 700 (held by Korean Kim Woo-jin, giving an implied “eliteness level” of 97.2%. 

The best player in the history of football (don’t @ me) is Lionel Messi, and few would doubt that he operates at or above that level of perfection in his sport. But I also don’t think you could doubt that Novak Djokovic, or Serena Williams in her pomp, were similarly magnificent at tennis. Cyclists on the Tour De France put their bodies through more in three weeks than most people endure in a decade, and have every aspect of their training and diet strictly controlled so as to bring them as close to perfection as possible. There will certainly be a higher number of these elite performers in football, because there are a higher number of paying jobs for said elite performers, and because more people attempt to become elite performers, but I don’t think that it follows on from that that they are better at their sport than other elite athletes, all of whom have undergone years and years of specialised training to get them where they are.

Does any of this matter, in terms of how each sport should be enjoyed? Probably not, but its interesting to think about, and kind of awe-inspiring to try and appreciate just how good those at the top of their respective games are. And if there is some discrepancy in the level of eliteness between the different sports it doesn’t detract from the fact that they would handily dispatch any civilian challengers without breaking a sweat. The joy comes from watching people who are good at stuff doing that stuff - and, as evidenced by the crowds which gather for non-league football, it doesn’t matter whether or not they are at the absolute pinnacle of said stuff. They’re still going to be much better than the rest of us. 

Competitive quizzing is different from the activities previously mentioned in that any normal person can have a guess at pretty much any question, with a chance that they’ll get it right. What sets the contestants apart on shows like University Challenge is the speed of their recall under pressure - the quickness of their knowledge as well as the knowledge itself. But there are plenty of armchair quizzers who think they could wipe the floor on the show, so just how good are the actual contestants? (Compared to an elite footballer or archer on an imaginary scale that accounts for relative skill in all disciplines?). I don’t know (and in case you hadn’t noticed by now I’m just fascinated by people who are really good at anything, and wanted to share some of that fascination with you all), but I’ll try and have a go at answering it anyway. 

So, the World Quizzing Championships have been dominated by British and Irish quizzers since its inception in 2003, with 16 of the 18 winners coming from either Britain or the Republic of Ireland (who have four wins courtesy of The Egghead Pat Gibson). This, in my mind, makes this neck of the woods comparable to South Korean archery. It is a hotbed of talent, and the infrastructure is in place to encourage and aid talent maximalisation. Indeed, if you scroll down the list of highest ranking players at the WQC in any given year you can see a significant cohort of UC alums, so clearly there are a number of elite quizzers who have passed through the show. 

This specialisation can be seen in microcosm with the preponderance of top-level quizzers produced by Oxford and Cambridge, who both have a long-standing culture of competitive quizzing far beyond other Universities. The debate is there to be had on the fairness of each institution having so many teams, but clearly they produce enough elite players to compete with far bigger Unis when entering as (sometimes tiny) colleges. 

In conclusion, I think it is pretty obvious that UC is a breeding ground for world-class quizzers, and though no one has won a World title straight off the bat after appearing on the show, there are top-50 and top 100 finishes abound, which is still greatly impressive, and helps to give an idea of just how good these students really are. 

Hoping to justify the 1000 words I’ve just written about their exceptional talents are two teams from the London Business School and Hertford College, Oxford. The Oxford side have never made it beyond the second round, but LBS reached the semi-finals in 2006, their only previous appearance on the show. Anyway, there is quite literally no time for me to recite the rules; here’s your first starter for ten... 

Paxman mentions that LBS were in the show in 2006, but doesn’t mention that they reached the semi final, which is lazy imo. A bunch of them are studying for MBAs, which makes sense. He doesn’t mention Hertford’s previous appearances either, but that’s more understandable.

Hertford’s Hitchens takes the first starter with Kennedy, and the Oxonians added a full set of bonuses on words made up by authors - including a couple of educated guesses. LBS hit back with the next question, but can only manage one bonus on famous scientists. One of the two they miss is Rosalind Franklin, and Paxman teases them for not spotting an apparently obvious clue within the question.

The first picture round is on national emblems, and LBS are first to recognise that of Vietnam for the starter. They don’t know Laos or Belarus, but do know that Mozambique has a machine gun on its one. Butterworth then jumps the gun with argon on the next starter, giving his answer just as Paxman says it in the question. Butterworth makes up for it with the music starter, recognising Fat Boy Slim before anyone else, and LBS know Primal Scream and Wu Tang Clan too. They’re still fifty points behind though, and will need a big second half to turn things around.

This task gets more difficult for them, as Hitchens takes another starter. Lloyd adds a second in a row for Oxford and they are nearly one hundred points clear. LBS really need to get some points on the board, and Ruess duly obliges, knowing that there is a massive sculpture of a spider called Maman, which sounds needlessly scary, to the extent that I’m not even going to google it.

The comeback is ended before its even begun as Oswald takes a starter for Hertford, which gives them the picture bonuses - the starter having been dropped by both teams. Lloyd produces another excellent guess of Reuben, demonstrating how useful it is to have vague knowledge as well as specific knowledge. This is one of probably five questions he has answered in a throwaway manner, but which turned out to be correct. 

By this point LBS seem to have accepted defeat. Ruess takes another starter, but there is little to no urgency on the bonus questions. They’re right, granted, to have none, they have no chance of winning, but if they gave it a go they might scrape a high scoring loser spot. Ruess is the only one who seems bothered, and bags himself ten more points. They have an amusing discussion about methods of poisoning in Agatha Christie novels (’it was used as a curry ingredient?’, Ruess wondered aloud, trying to figure out which spices could be poisonous, before Butterworth pointed out that it wasn’t something commonly used as a curry ingredient, prompting respectful mirth from the audience) on the bonuses, but still languish miles behind. 

Lloyd grabs the last starter of the night for Hertford, who win by eighty at the gong.

Final Score: London Business School 100 - 180 Hertford, Oxford

At the end, Paxman mentions Hertford’s stellar guesswork, which means I wasn’t chatting nonsense (at least on that front, the jury is out on the rest of it), and says that they’ve done a really good job. Incredibly effusive praise for a score of 180. He really is going soft in his old age.

Phew, that was a long one. If you made it through the intro you deserve a prize. And that prize is that you get to come back next week for the next episode of this blog!! Woop woop! 

And if this wasn’t quite enough UC content for you then you can subscribe for extra blogs on my Patreon, which features Retro Reviews from the 2015/16 series of the show. Ta x

[cinnaminsvga]

body of mine preview | Seokjin (M)

→ summary: It’s the night before Seokjin’s birthday and you, his ever-reliable witch slash roommate, have accidentally forgotten to get him a gift. Good thing you know magic then, right? Ten wishes shouldn’t be too hard to handle...

{or alternatively: learning the importance of living a marie kondo lifestyle, but in hindsight}

→ genre: shifter!au, magic!au, humor/crack, smut → warnings: jin is your magical hamster familiar, jin is chaotic (ofc), aphrodisiac sex, penetrative sex, oral (f receiving), slightly rough sex, dom!jin if you squint, hair pulling, jin doesn’t wrap up his peepee (pls practice safe sex u guys), slight breeding kink?? → words: anticipated 15K → a/n: jfc... how the hell is it july already... this was supposed to be a bday gift for @jincherie​ but i suck balls and writing overheated my tiny chimp brain but i guess better late than never!! anyway... hope to get this out [insert date here] but uhhh til then... here is this!!

Due to your magical abilities, you had sensed that this little hamster had magic in his veins and you guessed that he must have either been a shifter or an intellectually augmented animal. You guessed that he’s the former, much like how Yoongi is a cat shifter as well. Ever since Namjoon had befriended Yoongi and the two became partners, you admit that you’ve always been a little jealous of their natural camaraderie. You had long since yearned for someone who could assist you in your magical apothecary, but more importantly, someone you could share your time with.

You were optimistic; perhaps when the little hamster learned to shift into its human form, then you could truly begin your journey towards friendship. You’re sure that the man behind the hamster must be just as cute and lovely.

Speaking of learning to shift–

“What? You mean me?” Yoongi asked, craning his head over Namjoon’s shoulder, his curiosity getting the better of him but still remaining a safe distance away from you and the hamster. “What about learning to shift?”

“Did you just learn one day? I want to get Mr. Hamster over here to turn into a human so I can speak to him,” you explained, but the cat shifter narrows his eyes distrustfully.

“I don’t want that vermin to gain the ability to speak. I can just tell no one is going to enjoy what he has to say,” he sniffed. He growled lowly, the sound so deep and feral that you are momentarily disarmed by his hostility. Namjoon had to rub the back of his ears for a second, forcing Yoongi to calm down until his growl softened into a purr.

“Well, Yoongi over here can’t control his shifting abilities quite yet. I have to… forcibly change him, if you will,” Namjoon explained, watching Yoongi with loving eyes as he gently nuzzled into the witch’s hand. He beckoned you closer and you took a tentative step forward, keeping the hamster behind your back just to be safe. “Watch,” he said simply, as his hand trails lower and lower until it reached the back of Yoongi’s neck and he–

Poof! Namjoon simply tickled the back of Yoongi’s neck and a puff of purple smoke revealed a munchkin cat in its wake. His soft gray and white fur bristled in surprise, his teeth bared at Namjoon as he meowed in contempt. Namjoon ignored all of this, gently picking up the tiny cat and cradling him in his arms like a baby. Immediately, the shifter relaxed, eyes closing contentedly as he nuzzles deeper into Namjoon’s chest.

“Woah,” you said, for lack of better words. You shook your head, gazing at the two in wonder. “I didn’t know Yoongi has a fucking eject button.”

“Yep. I sure hope you don’t abuse this knowledge, by the way,” Namjoon warned, but the mischievous gleam in his eyes told you that he probably wouldn’t mind if you did. Knowing you, there was no question that you’d take any and every opportunity to annoy the cat shifter. “If this hamster is the same, then surely it has a similar tick. Since it’s small too, I’m sure it’ll be easy to find its spot.”

“Speaking of,” you piped up, staring curiously at him. “How… did you find out where Yoongi’s spot was? Didn’t you meet him as a human?”

Namjoon shrugged, but there’s a soft pink tint coloring the tops of his ears. “Umm… Coincidence?”

You squinted at him. “Sure,” you agreed, not really wanting to know why he seemed so embarrassed. You turned back to the furry matter at hand, lips pursing as you gazed upon the hamster. Surely, there should be an easy way to figure this out…

You began to roll the small hamster in your hand like a pancake, twisting and pulling the lil guy until it was squeaking in protest. You made sure not to handle it too roughly, so you were a bit surprised at how dramatically the hamster was screaming. “Just another moment, baby…” you murmured. At the sound of the pet name, the hamster paused in its squirming, staring wide-eyed at you with its tiny mouth ridiculously agape. You arched a brow, amused at the aghast expression on its face.

“Well, that settles it. You’re definitely human, by the looks of it,” you commented, poking it lightly on the nose. The hamster scrunched up its face just as a soft pink smoke started to envelop its tiny body. You coughed harshly, your sinuses tickled by the strong scent of caramel and mint. “W-well, I think I found its spot,” you pointed out helplessly, eyes watering as you tried to keep them open.

The hamster’s body was growing ridiculously hot, forcing you to drop it on your kitchen counter. You hissed, sucking on your burned appendages as you wait for the smoke to subside. Beside you, Namjoon had Yoongi held tightly in his arms, his back turned away to keep the smoke away from their faces. “Y/N, get some clothes quickly. He’s going to be cold when he finishes transforming,” was all he said, his free hand covering his nose. “This is probably going to be its first shift!”

You’re still completely flabbergasted, frozen in place. “What?” you replied dumbly, standing stock still as you waited for the smoke to dissipate. As more and more of it cleared, you noticed two pairs of long legs where there originally had been none. You waved your hand a bit, fanning the remaining fumes away from your face, allowing you to gaze upon a very naked and very tall man sitting primly on your kitchen counter.

You and the man stared each other down, neither of you blinking or backing down. After a few moments, the man smiled brightly at you, his cheeks bunching up much like how he had appeared in his hamster form. “Hello, human,” he greeted, extending a hand towards you. You took it dazedly, still staring wide-eyed at him. “My name is Seokjin. I suppose this means I’m going to be your familiar from now on.”

Your gaze travelled downwards, your hands still clasped together with his. “You’re naked,” you said plainly.

He followed your gaze. “I suppose I am,” he mused, shrugging his shoulders. He was incredibly wide; it almost made no sense that he was a hamster just a few seconds ago. What did he do, bench press sunflower seeds all day? “I am also incredibly beautiful, but we can continue stating the obvious another day.” He released your hands, clasping them together with a beatific smile. “C’mon, human! Bring me your finest garments for my handsomely sculpted testicles are starting to shrivel up from the cold.”

Behind you, you could hear Yoongi hissing loudly in response.

And from that day forward, your adventures of living with the biggest nuisance in the world had begun.

[dabistits]

To talk about Twice and villainy is to talk about class and criminality (III)

Masterpost

Class in BNHA

Returning to my earlier point that BNHA should be read alongside the social concerns of real-world Japan, I want to note that these events almost surely affected and remained within Horikoshi’s awareness. Horikoshi was born in 1986, and thus lived through the economic downturns of the 90′s and 2000′s as a child and young adult. In 2010 when Sugimoto’s article was published—not in the least the first of its kind—Horikoshi was 24 years-old, more than old enough to remember the public discourses about Japan’s kakusa shakai. In 2008, only two years earlier, an award-winning film dealing with the financial struggles of a Tokyo family, Tokyo Sonata, was released, and 2012 saw an infamous starvation case involving a family that made international headlines. In 2014, BNHA began serialization. Without speculating on the political leanings of the author himself, it seems remiss not to posit the likelihood that these events and the atmosphere they engendered can be connected to Horikoshi’s writing and the kind of story he intends to tell. While BNHA isn’t what I’d necessarily call class-conscious, the ways it delves into class is noticeable even outside of Jin’s backstory and are worth a discussion.

If not exactly class-conscious, there nevertheless seems to be an awareness of class in BNHA. Not even our heroes are able to fully escape it, and in 1-A, there are small distinctions drawn between the experiences of more wealthy students and ones that are less well-off. For example, Yaoyorozu Momo wows classmates with her stately house, brings expensive furniture into the dorms, and exhibits naïve joy at shopping at an outlet store; Todoroki Shouto’s family home was shown to be a large, traditional residence, and a secondary house has since been built on the income of his formerly abusive, currently estranged father. Both students come from established hero families, and both were admitted to U.A. based on recommendation. On the other hand, Uraraka Ochako comes from a working-class family, and explains that a big part of her decision to become a hero is to support her parents’ business. She’s also been shown to be amazed at U.A.’s dorm facilities, and has frequent jokes made about her thriftiness in bonus material. When it comes to villains, these issues manifest with much more distinctiveness. Aside from Jin, a couple members of the Shie Hassaikai also bring up issues of class and exploitation when they explain their decision to join Overhaul: one was indebted, and the other had his Quirk exploited by an unethical boss. When Overhaul found them, they were “rotting away on the streets.”

On another level, BNHA is certainly hierarchy-conscious. As I’ve brought up before, many of the antagonist groups we see are strictly hierarchal, and more importantly, the lower-ranking members are often commanded to live and die according to their leader’s desires. From the members of the Shie Hassaikai to the Meta Liberation Army, we continuously see them lending their bodies and Quirks to the causes of their superiors, only to be discarded at the most opportune moments: Overhaul directly uses one of his followers as a meat shield, and the Meta Liberation Army decides to put their members in the path of danger, just to steal some glory from the LOV. Geten, from the MLA, has no qualms about enacting such wide-scale destruction that the members of his own organization get caught in the crossfire.

It seems relevant to mention that Yotsubashi Rikiya “Redestro,” the wealthy CEO of Detnerat and successor to the revolutionary Destro, makes his official appearance in the series through an advertisement, a medium tied to the capitalist drive for production and consumerism. Advertisements can also be understood as a medium for misrepresentation, an idealized image created to maximize sales, and sure enough, Redestro’s friendly façade gives way when he kills his assistant, Miyashita, for a mildly disparaging comment about Destro’s ideals. Before the murder, Redestro asks Miyashita whether he has a family or a significant other, making sure that his absence will not be missed, but the pointed question also seems to work as a stand-in for the invisibility of those who “serve” the rich, who can be discarded without hardly a blink of an eye. Miyashita, despite his proximity to wealth and to the wealthy, despite being on all counts a hardworking, model employee, remains expendable in the eyes of his boss. Furthermore, this act of violence occurs not in the supposedly crime-ridden streets—it happens in a swanky office building, where both killer and victim are supposedly working in civilian capacities. It suggests that hierarchies are not something that only belong in the villain world, but that these cycles of exploitation and expendability proliferate throughout society down to our offices and homes.

Quirks as determiners of worth.

In fact, home is where we bear witness to one of the greatest feats of exploitation: in the marriage between Rei and her abuser. Of course, the greatest foundation in this dynamic is patriarchy, wherein the woman is treated like the property of her husband, but there’s a subtle twist in this arrangement thanks to the introduction of Quirks. Rei’s marriage was not simply considered an “arranged marriage,” but specifically a “Quirk marriage” meant to strengthen the Quirks of the following generation by choosing a suitable partner. The Quirk marriage between Rei and her abuser was facilitated by his wealth and fame—acquired through his work in the line of pro heroes—therefore placing a price tag on her Quirk and on her person. I consider this to be an indication of the commodification of Quirks—“commodity” meaning roughly, in the Marxist sense, something that can be “bought or sold” or “exchanged in the market.”

Of course, the horrific thing about purchasing Quirks is they are attached to humans. Quirks are genetic mutations, and are stated in-text to specifically be biological attributes; without a human with the appropriate genetic mutation, a specific Quirk doesn’t exist. If the past serves as any lesson, it’s likely that as Quirks (and the humans who wield them) began to be seen as increasingly valuable, the ruling class soon caught on to the fact that Quirks needed to be controlled, regulated, and diverted to serve the interests of capital. Thus, Quirk regulations were born to prevent a potentially cataclysmic disruption to the means of production, as were pro heroes—a superpowered arm of law enforcement to deal with superpowered criminals. Contemporarily, heroes are largely those whose Quirks are considered the most valuable, and they’re paid for wielding said Quirks in defense of the rule of law; in other words, they sell their Quirk-wielding expertise. While Quirks themselves can’t yet be bought and sold (at least not on a wide scale), the humans attached to them can be. 

This leads to yet another societal dysfunction. Because some Quirks are considered more valuable than others, and because Quirks are attached to persons, some people are considered more valuable than others. This comes through even more clearly in the original Japanese word for Quirk: 個性 (kosei). Kosei can be translated as “individuality” but also as “personality” or “character,” e.g. she has a strong personality (kosei), [source] a meaning that inevitably implicates the human behind the personality. But in the world of BNHA, a strong kosei no longer simply means a strong personality—it can also mean a strong Quirk. In the linguistic realm, personality and Quirk have become indistinguishable, and this has two effects: one, Quirks are presumed to influence personality (as in the cases of Toga and Shinsou), and two, that which makes us individual, our personalities, has become entangled with Quirks-as-commodity. That is to say, one’s kosei determines one’s worth under capitalism.

Of course, people with “good” or “valuable” Quirks (and thus presumably “good” and “valuable” personalities) are funneled into law enforcement and encouraged to uphold the status quo—the very status quo which increases their chances of gaining wealth, fame, and prestige that they can then pass down to subsequent generations. However, the policing class must justify its existence—if there is no crime, then there’s no need for policing. In one respect, this “need” is manufactured by criminalizing poverty (as discussed above), and other harmless acts (such as drug possession), and by creating the adverse, alienated conditions in which violence is not considered only necessary, but normal for both the policing class and those who are policed. Under the classification of value, however, there’s another easy scapegoat: people with “bad” or “worthless” Quirks.

While no Quirk is explicitly criminalized, there are many Quirks that carry a stigma, including the likes of Transform and Brainwash (whose wielders are regarded with suspicion for fear of “bad” personalities); some Quirks walk the line between “criminalized” and “stigmatized” altogether. Consider the Quirk wielded by the indebted member of the Shie Hassaikai, which allows him to transfer any object on another’s person into his hands: the Quirk is called “Larceny.” The naming is telling; it draws a direct link between indebtedness/need, and theft as a crime and as a kosei. With some people presumed “destined” for crime, and those presumptions becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy as they’re shut off from opportunities for advancement, law enforcement is endowed with legitimacy. Heroes and villains become two sides of the same coin—one unable to exist without the other, both socially-constructed categories to perpetuate the ruling class.

[missn11]

For the Kiss Ship Ask! Ming Xiao/Nines, 38: because they're running out of time

@vampemoqueen oh thank you so much for this prompt and I’m sorry it took so long, the story got away from me! 😅 I hope it’s enjoyable regardless.

Nines looked over his shoulder for what felt like the fifteenth hundredth time to confirm that he was truly alone in the back alleys of Chinatown. He appeared to be so, but when Kindred or Kuei-jin disciplines were involved, he couldn’t be a hundred percent sure. However, Nines didn’t have a choice, aside from trusting his instincts that he wasn’t unintentionally leading one of his or Ming Xiao’s enemies right into the heart of the Kuei-jin Temple, he had to warn Ming Xiao about the chaotic shit-storm that was heading her way.

Upon reaching the dead end of the alley, Nines tugged the hood of his grey hoodie more over his face and scanned his surroundings once more before pressing a few bricks in a particular order, causing a passageway to be revealed. Nines quickly slipped inside and flipped the switch to reclose the opening, leaving him in near darkness. Not a problem, thanks to his recently learned ability to see in the dark.

The passageway itself was made of long winding caves that led to different rooms of Ming Xiao’s inner sanctum. A person could get easily lost or fall into the numerous traps hidden throughout if they didn’t know the proper way. Ming Xiao had showed Nines the path to take to her bedroom when their secret arrangement had turned into something more than either of them could have imagined.

It had started out as a means of necessity, both of them were in a bad state after the war, and the Camarilla and the Sabbat had rolled in to take advantage. Nines knew that he couldn’t trust either sect as far he could throw them, and he felt it was better to go with the devil that fought the hardest than the devil coming into town with collars, so he had ended up wearily accepting Ming Xiao’s invite to meet and had agreed to an alliance with her. It had proved useful, since it turned out that snake, LaCroix, had contacted Ming Xiao to make a pact. He had wanted her help in framing Nines for the murder of the Malkavian primogen, Grout, and Ming Xiao had been able to warn Nines ahead of time. They had managed to foil that little scheme by luring an old foe of LaCroix’s to Grout’s mansion and letting the hunter get to work. The plan had been to make sure that the Camarilla did most of the work in dealing with the Sabbat, while Ming Xiao investigated the Camarilla’s true strength and looked for what cracks Nines could exploit to pry the sect apart from the inside. It had worked out very well, Strauss and LaCroix had been quickly drawn at odds; if they were lucky, the Camarilla would collapse in on itself within a year, give or take.

However, Nines knew he had to keep this partnership a secret as most Anarchs would rather lick LaCroix’s shoes clean or cut off pieces of themselves for the Archbishop than team up with the Kuei-jin. Understandable, given their deeply bitter history, and Nines had felt the same way before understanding the Kuei-jin better. But now knowing that Kindred and Kuei-jin were not so unlike in the grand scheme of things despite their differences, he couldn’t demonise them in his mind anymore. Sure, he wasn’t able to forgive what the Kuei-jin had done to the Anarchs when they first arrived in LA but couldn’t entirely hate them either, though funny enough, love was somehow on the table.

If anyone were to know about the depths of Nines’ feelings for Ming Xiao, then they would say that she had seduced him and had him wrapped around her little finger, if they hadn’t first called him a traitor to everything Jeremy MacNeil had stood for. And they wouldn’t be entirely wrong, Nines knew that he was betraying everything the Anarch Movement and MacNeil had fought for by allying and falling in love with the enemy. But he also knew that MacNeil, Garcia and Fortier were hypocrites. MacNeil had run, and Garcia and Frontier had made deals with the Kuei-jin, leaving the Anarchs to the mercy of their enemies.

When Nines had first gotten to know Ming Xiao, he had had so much anger towards his former idols and self-hatred within himself that it had been suffocating, but Ming Xiao had helped him through it when he had eventually let her. And Nines had shown Ming Xiao how she was losing her way. She was meant to be punishing evil, and the supposed Sixth Age was the greatest evil of them all, but she had been hurting her own charges by empowering the weakened Tong and committing other cruelties in an effort to gain control over the city, telling herself that the ends justified the means.

There had been fierce arguments between them at first that had left Nines thinking that he had blown their alliance, but they had always found a way to make up by talking about it afterwards. In fact, Nines found that he enjoyed their many long discussions. They were messy and challenging, but he liked that about Ming Xiao, she didn’t make it easy for him, and he could tell that she was loving him for bringing new ideas to the table even if she resisted them at first.

And well, there were just times that he had sat there completely entranced by Ming Xiao’s cultured voice, smiling at the light blush that appeared on her cheeks when she noticed how intently he was listening to her. Then came the light touches. Ming Xiao’s hand had always seemed to find Nines’, or his shoulder or knee, her warmth terribly intoxicating, and soon his lips had begun to ache to be touched by hers. When they did eventually kiss and ended up in her bed, Nines knew that he had fallen for Ming Xiao hard and would never, ever want to let her go.

Which was why he was here. LaCroix’s and Strauss’s rivalry was reaching a breaking point over the sarcophagus and the discovery that the Kuei-jin had the key in their possession, and they were planning an attack on the temple tomorrow evening. Nines knew that there was no way he could speak out against this raid, the thirst for vengeance within every Anarch was too strong for them to be swayed by words. There was no choice but to warn Ming Xiao to get herself and the Kuei-jin out of the city tonight.

Finally, after carefully traversing the rocky passageway, Nines reached a lever and quickly tugged it, the wall in front of him opening up, revealing the beautifully decorated bedchamber on the other side. Everything was exactly as it had been when Nines had been here last, but the air was too still for comfort. Something was wrong.

At first, Nines thought that the bedroom was empty until he noticed the shape of a woman through the canopy’s nearly translucent drapes and quickly rushed over to part them. His heart sank at the sight of Ming Xiao laying on her back with her eyes staring lifelessly at the ceiling and a metal stake lodged in her chest. Nines scrambled onto the bed, immediately pulled the stake out and held her as she let out a sharp gasp, life returning to her limbs.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m here now,” Nines soothingly told Ming Xiao while stroking her hair and back and warming his blood as she trembled and clung onto his arms.

“Nines what are you doing here? Has the battle already started?” she asked wearily, in between breaths.

“What do you mean, what the hell is going on? Why were you staked?”

Ming Xiao let out a breath of relief, “Oh good, it hasn’t been that long since Tai staked me, your Anarchs have a chance then.” She took a moment to close up her chest wound before explaining further, “Tai, my second-in-command, has pulled off a coup. He’s managed to turn most of my court against me, citing that I have become too soft in trying to reach a peaceful truce with the Anarchs and that I was losing my drive to fight against the Sixth Age. And thus he has killed all my allies, staked me and taken over! He’s planning to battle every Cainite sect to the death! He’d rather face Yomi again than allow the Sixth Age to occur!” She looked into Nines’ eyes, her jade green own watery with unshed tears, “And If you’re here, then LaCroix knows about the key to the sarcophagus?” When Nines gave her a heavy nod, she swallowed, quickly wiping her eyes. “Then Tai has lit the fuse… Your Anarchs need to run, what Tai has planned isn’t a suicidal attack, he has a secret weapon that he will unleash upon you all!”

Nines felt himself become all cold again. “What weapon?”

“Lately there have been many who have been receiving the Second Breath, but they’ve all been Chih-mei, they are truly overtaken by their hunger and are unable to become true Kuei-jin. And instead of putting them out of their misery, Tai has been keeping them chained, feeding them Cainite flesh and blood, so they are much more likely to go after them rather than humans once he unleashes them on the Cainites!”

“That motherfucking bastard, he’s going to cause the very apocalypse he’s trying to prevent!” Nines shouted in horror, “Do you know where he’s keeping the Chih-mei?”

Ming Xiao quickly climbed off the bed. “I have an idea, but you need to get your Anarchs out of Los Angeles if I fail.”

Nines shook his head briskly and grasped Ming Xiao’s arm, “No way in hell I’m leaving you to take on the horde of Chih-mei on your own!”

She smiled gratefully at him, “It’s not the horde that I’m afraid of falling to, I also would have to potentially deal with Tai as well.”

“Again, I’m not leaving you, I’m with you until the end,” Nines reiterated as he pulled Ming Xiao into an embrace.

She rested her head on his chest and squeezed him tightly. “That’s what I’m afraid of, that you’ll meet your end at his hands, and I never want to lose you either. However, I do know how stubborn you are from budging from a final decision, but you should try to get your Anarchs out of the city in case.”

“I’ll make a call, but I know most of them ain’t going to let me talk them out of tomorrow’s raid, sadly.”

Ming Xiao’s eyes flickered downwards. “I see, I hope you can sway as many of your Anarchs away from the raid as possible. But you have to be quick about it, we don’t have much time.”

Nines brought his hand up to tenderly cup Ming Xiao’s cheek, bringing his lips closer to hers. “Do we have time for a kiss?”

“Always,” she replied with a chuckle and kissed Nines.

Kissing Ming Xiao lit up a fire within Nines, he grasped her hips and kissed her back with great passion, wanting to taste every inch of her. She squeezed his biceps, letting out a sigh as he kissed down her neck before capturing her lips again.

Ming Xiao was right on the money about where Tai was keeping the horde of Chih-mei, they were all packed in a gigantic pit deep under the temple. It was horrifying to see the hundreds of hungry dead howling and trying uselessly to grapple at Nines when they picked up his scent. Many of them were dressed in normal civilian clothing, reminding him that they had been normal people going about their lives before dying to come back as blood-and-flesh-hungry undead monsters, much like being wights. And like wights, they needed to be put out of their misery.

Lighting them all aflame wasn’t exactly the kindest method, but it was the quickest, even if Nines would be hearing the Chih-mei horde’s screams in his dreams for years to come. He was just glad he was able to keep his nerve despite the flames now blazing in the pit, but he couldn’t wait to get out with Ming Xiao, to where he didn’t know, since there wasn’t anywhere he could safely place her.

Eh, they’d figure something out. Maybe he could ask her if she had any ideas—? That was the plan until Nines felt the sharp pain pierce his heart deeply. His whole body suddenly became atrophied and completely unable to move.

“There, isn’t that better? Now we can have a real discussion without your annoying Brujah in the way…” Nines heard a snide and amused man’s voice speaking. He already wished he could move and punch the fucker.

“I doubt we have much to say to each other since you made it rather clear when you staked me, Tai!” Ming Xiao stated harshly, her heels clicking slowly towards Nines.

A flicking noise grabbed Nines’ attention. “I wouldn’t go near your Cainite pet, Ming, otherwise he’ll be lit up as brightly as those poor Chih-mei down there. Now, why don’t you come with me and discuss how you can make up for burning our secret weapon by leading the attack tonight? It seems you have forced us to go ahead on schedule…”

“I think I’d rather not, Tai, but you knew that already!” Ming Xiao replied dismissively.

“I cannot express how I’ve missed you calling me ‘Tai’.” The asshole had the audacity to sound touched about it. Nines couldn’t wait for Ming Xiao to cream this creep. At least, he hoped she could kill the bastard. He knew she was scary powerful, far beyond most Kindred he knew, even Jack, but so was Tai from what he had heard, and the son of a bitch had managed to stake her once before. But he also had to trust in Ming Xiao that she wasn’t let that happen again.

“Well, it is only reasonable to grant a dying man one last wish…” she remarked simply before beginning the gruesome transformation into her demon warform.

The awful bone-cracking noise had to be coming from Tai’s transformation into his own warform. There was a breath of stillness before Nines heard the sickening clash of tentacle, and from the sound of it, sharp bone. At first it didn’t sound like the fight was going in Ming Xiao’s favour, too many fleshy slices and cuts filled Nines’ ears and his heart ached at every one of her pained grunts.

However, after long moments, the clash of Ming Xiao’s and Tai’s conflict soon changed. No longer was Nines hearing the sounds of flesh being cut or stabbed but rather bone cracking or shattering. God, he wanted to cheer her on so badly, to encourage her to not let up, that she had him right where she wanted him. But Ming Xiao didn’t need him to cheerlead her, it seemed like she was capable of kicking that creep’s ass just fine.

The bone stopped breaking, and flesh was now being rendered, and Tai was screaming in terrible pain, the scent of his blood filling the air. In fact, his blood had trickled against the bottom of Nines’ boots by this time. He heard presumably Tai’s body get tossed hard to one side. Needless to say, it looked like Ming Xiao had won.

However, not so easily, given from how Ming Xiao limped over to Nines, all bloodied and bruised and nearly collapsing on her knees. She ripped the stake out of Nines’ chest, and he felt as though the air had been knocked right out of his lungs as his limbs came back to life. “Oh fuck, fuck, fuck, I thought I was going to lose you!” he cried out and pulled her into his arms, “I’m so sorry that I didn’t notice the stake he threw at me-- ”

Ming Xiao kissed Nines fiercely, wrapping her arms around his neck. He sighed contently, just so happy that she was alive and safe, for now at least. She broke off the kiss reluctantly and leaned her forehead against his in exhaustion. “We have to leave now! Surely by now, the rest of Tai’s court will have noticed their newly appointed and ex-Ancestor are largely absent. I cannot say for sure where we should go, but we cannot stay here.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice, I’ll figure something out, you concentrate on healing yourself and…” Nines lifted Ming Xiao bridal style and gave her one final chaste kiss, “…once we’ve gotten shelter, we’ll see where we go together from here.”

Before Nines used his Celerity to speed them out of this awful place, he noticed Ming Xiao smile contently at him and rest her head on his shoulder. He had never seen her look so comfortable and relaxed in all their time together, and he hoped that he could always see her looking like that for as long they had each other…

[barbika1508]

Hiwaga (Vampire! Jeongguk x Reader)

Part 2

Words: 11,2k

Genre: Soulmate AU, Reincarnation AU, Enemies to Lovers, Action, Romance, Smut, Flufffffff

Pairing: Vampire! Jeongguk x Reader

Warnings: More cursing, Nightmares

Summary: Life was good, playing out better than it has been ever before. My future was bright and full of promises and wishes coming to realization. All up until she showed up. She stormed though the front doors ruining everything along the way by her mere presence derailing my goals and purpose in life. A puny mortal, a child, a complete nuisance, and yet…The key to an unimaginable life, to the truth all along.

Author's note: Hiwaga – mystery; full of wonder Words in italics are dialogues or thoughts that Jeongguk reads from others. So I’ve done research with this fic, and used certain words that need explanation…given that there can be A LOT I’ve put a dictionary just below the fic if anyone is interested :3

Jeongguk’s POV:

‘’YOONGIIIIII-YAAAHHH!!!’’ comes the call not really disrupting others, but it does pull the gained momentum to a full stop, everyone now straightening up, eyes and heads turned towards the entrance. We all observe as the owner of that annoying voice comes in sight, dressed in none other than Yoongi hyungs favourite red hoodie that he mostly lounges around in.

‘’I’ve figure it out!’’ she continues on oblivious to the others stopping because of her. Our elder simply smiles and turns his attention completely onto her, as she offers up a thick book that at first glance leaves me wondering how she was able to pick it up. Frankly if you look at her you wouldn’t assume that she’d be able to lift much.

He simply hums in acknowledgement, eyes scanning the page his smile gradually fading. Namjoon appears at the doorframe a moment later, the girl not jumping or flinching at his sudden presence like most humans would normally react to. Wordlessly she accepts a notebook from him, her own eyes darting left and right a frown drawing itself across her features. Hmmm she’s kind of cute…

‘’What’s going on?’’ Taehyung asks frowning as he shifts the spear he’s using to train, between his hands. We’re all dressed the same, in black tank tops and grey sweatpants most of us barefoot too. We came to the fully equipped gym which we’ve transformed into an arena its purpose clear – practice martial arts and combat between another. Hyung had just started teaching us new techniques honestly surprising us all as he joined in from the beginning.

We don’t necessarily need the fitness or practice – nobody even broke a sweat in the last hour we’ve been training – but the impending tension that has settled after the ball two nights ago, doesn’t seem to loosen up so this is the best next thing to relieve some form of built up frustration. Even though neither Yoongi nor Jin hyung revealed anything yet, both of them are hiding their emotions back but everyone just knows that something is happening. Fighting is a temporary distraction.

Most vampires don’t actually need to fight or simply never learn how to because they rely solemnly on their powers or abilities. And half of us could lean onto using our powers, but Yoongi made sure we had a good solid base of self-defence before he had us train our abilities. For example, his power is scary and rare and doesn’t require of him to ever lift a finger whilst fighting. Others had to learn the hard way how to control their powers. That includes myself – mentality and people’s minds are tricky.

‘’Research.’’ Its Namjoon that replies handing over a regular pencil that he usually sticks behind his ear whenever he’s working on something in the library where he has been spending a lot of time lately again at. The human accepts it, and is quick to start and scribble something over a page. Being the only one left out of this round I approach them first, eyeing Yoongi for a moment further his eyes darting over to Namjoon.

‘’This is bothersome.’’ He comments offering the book to Namjoon who accepts it nodding silently. The girl curses out of the blue, the swear words that spill from her mouth unfamiliar to my ear, and judging by other hyung’s faces they are stumped too. Some curses don’t even sound like words, but once she shuts up and looks at the platinum blonde elder, she looks beyond annoyed while he burst into chuckles shaking his head ‘’Yah, Y/N-ah there are kids here.’’ He teases back the occurrence and light-heartedness that he shows to her still unfamiliar. He must be the only one who understood whatever came from her mouth.

I spare a glance at Seokjin who is shaking his head, two fingers pressed against the inner of his eyes. Okay he understood her to, but to what degree I’m not sure.

‘’Aish.’’ She intakes a breath ready to smack Yoongi with the notebook but refrains from doing so, her eyes darting over to us. Maybe it’s just my imagination but I get a feeling as if they linger on me for a moment longer ‘’Not funny. They called me a child.’’ She ends up pouting and showing her notebook over to Yoongi. Glancing at Namjoon he’s awkwardly smiling, eyes averted down onto the thick book ‘’And other things I don’t need to translate.’’ Grumbling she adds looking upset as she glares at him unamused. Everyone offers soft chuckles in return finally relaxing more as they step closer.

Hyung’s arm rises wrapping around her shoulders reassuringly ‘’Well that was the plan was it not?’’

My eyes dart over to Tae and Jimin, exchanging looks between both of them in question and sort of answer at the revelation ‘’Yeh.’’ Her reply is curt arms crossed over while she turns her eyes towards Namjoon ‘’We’re close to figuring it out. Its trickier than I thought. Haven’t practiced Gaya in so long…Kaya…aish even my pronunciation is completely off.’’ She signs looking exasperated.

‘’Wait…’’ Hoseok starts tensing up taking barely half a step towards her in the uneven circle we’ve created ‘’Kaya as in the language? Karak? Like 5th century, dead long and forgotten language?!’’ he looks at them in complete disbelief mouth hanging ajar. He’s almost on his toes. I immediately look at the human, that nods fingers tapping against the page of her notebook impatiently or out of nerves.

‘’That one yes. Why? Do you know it???’’ her eyes sparkle for a moment, but hyung is quick to turn his head away and raise his hands in defeat.

‘’That’s way before my time.’’ he mumbles pouting. I watch as Y/N enthusiasm diminishes instantly. She sighs heavily looking at Yoongi who’s already staring back at her.

‘’Aigo.’’ She complains pouting ‘’It’s all on us then buddy.’’ She adds on offering Namjoon a soft smile. I can see her disappointment clearly in the way her shoulders lower sag. I narrow my eyes as I watch her, not really comprehending that there’s a chance that she actually knows a dead language. The name of it or the know how about it. She barely speaks proper Korean!!!!! And to know of a pre-Korean language makes zero logic!!!

‘’Uh huh. I’m sure we can handle it. Easy.’’ Namjoon replies trying to sound positive but, we all know he’s putting up a front for her sake ‘’I’ll head into the city right away. Go to my usual places to snoop around for any fragments. There should be at least something somewhere.’’ And with that, and a silent confirmation from Jin and Yoongi, he bids us goodbye’s and heads out disappearing quickly as he appeared before.

‘’What are you even translating? Did that douche-ling make another cryptic speech?’’ Jimin asks looking annoyed, tapping both fingers against the handles of his dual swords which are resting against the ground. Y/N instead of quickly replying looks over at Yoongi, who takes her notebook and closes it. Is she waiting for permission or is she actually being respectful for once?!?

‘’In the beginning yeah, he bounced with Karak but then switched to Latin mid-way.’’ Yoongi snorts smirking but there’s no amusement to his words ‘’Y/N-ah already translated his official scripts and the other speech, and the propositions he gave us.’’

‘’Lots of politics involved.’’ Jin confirms looking lost in thought, holding his head propped up with one hand, the other remaining crossed across his chest.

‘’There’s something else isn’t there.’’ I pick up on the lack of explanation staring straight at the human. Her lips go into a tight line eyes averting looking anywhere else, while she shifts her feet in line with her shoulders, stance defensive with her centre balanced. That much I can read out once her shoulders square up, and her leg muscles clench and unclench. Why is she wearing a hoodie and shorts again?!? Her bare legs look very nicely defined, I never noticed it.

‘’I wrote down notes of the conversation that Wangseja had with his advisor.’’ Everyone takes a double take at her disclosure clearly none of us expecting something like this of her. Maybe she isn’t a clueless bimbo after all.

‘’That still wouldn’t fully explain the usage of Karak.’’ Hoseok speaks up thoughtful ‘’Do you think them speaking out loud was deliberate or simply a foolish error?’’

He has a point there. It could be a trap, but Yoongi is quick to shake his head in denial arm now having shifted around Y/N, his hand placed on her hip ‘’I don’t think it’s either of those. It’s safe to assume for certain than none of you assumed that Y/N-ah here spoke more than 3 languages, let alone Karak in the mix right?’’ the other hyungs nod along eyeing her suspiciously, except for Jin that offers a smirk and Taehyung that seems to be revaluating his stance over her again ‘’Point made then.’’

That boulder in my stomach reappears again, as with prideful eyes Yoongi turns to look at her with a wider smile, while she shakes her head instead twirling the pen, he hasn’t confiscated from her. She’s shifting from one foot to another lulling side to side impatiently making him retreat his arm away.

This girl never seems to be able to stand still even for a second ‘’Yeah, yeah I’m more than meets the eye, bla, bla.’’ She shows her tongue at her supposedly life-term friend ‘’Never heard that one before.’’ she mocks, and slides the pen smoothly behind Hyung’s ear who doesn’t blink twice at her antics. Even more so as she reaches for his Geom that is sheathed on his left hip ‘’So instead of wracking our brains uselessly with the lack of information that we are stuck with, I would like to lay of some steam as well.’’ she draws out the double-edged sword, with poise, letting the handle go while she maintains the balance of it, flipping the sword around a single digit, capturing it successfully once it does a 360 turn.

She looks pleased upon capturing it, perking up and giving of an almost goofy smile. Oh no. Don’t tell me this is something else that she isn’t going to take seriously?

‘’You wanna play with us little mortal?’’ Jimin pips up looking enthusiastic and livelier all of the sudden. But he doesn’t slide forward and move closer to her like I know he would prefer to. It brings a smile to my face, the thought of him being so afraid of hyung that he doesn’t dare approach her in his presence all that much.

Looking at the girl, she’s preoccupied with hyung’s sword, trying to find the balance of it as she holds it by the handle horizontally keeping it steady. At his comment, she lets the sword fall but catches it before the tip can hit the ground.

‘’Jagi?’’ the nickname has everyone in the room freeze on spot. There are two reaction that she grants herself. Chuckles of amusement, that aren’t as quiet as the hyungs wants them to be – nobody in their sane mind would want to experience Yoongi’s wrath. Tae ends up ducking behind Hoseok as he’s the loudest, hence why the elders glare is instantaneous as he turns to glare at both giggling men.

Jin hyung straight up turns around hand covering his mouth, but his shoulders are shaking badly. Hoseok ends up grinning wider and starts too coo instead, teasing in between but mostly telling Y/N how adorable she is for some reason. Jimin settles for kneeling on the ground hands still holding into his own dual swords grin present over his features, eyes having disappeared from how much he finds this whole situation amusing.

I on the other hand hold back the bile that gathers in my stomach. Ew. Just no. Why? Seriously why. I cringe and listen to the way Yoongi is quick to defend her and not himself! He’s advocating for her, coming up with excuses as to why he is allowing her to use this nickname on him. Looking at her, she’s grinning widely clearly amused by the situation she has created.

I seriously feel sick to my stomach. It’s wrong it’s all just wrong. I seriously don’t like her. Just as I was starting to, I don’t anymore I really don’t. She’s way to cocky right now, acting as if she has hyung wrapped around her finger. He storms after our so called ‘dance line’ with the exception of me, as they start teasing the two louder and bolder. Unbothered she remains put just watching blurs go around, her eyes not able to pick up much on what’s going on as the chase begins.

If she wasn’t here – hyung would be chasing me too with the others. I let a few good comebacks die on my tongue knowing first-hand what it’s like to get silly punishment from Yoongi after badmouthing him or anyone else. Her mere presence right now is to put it in simple words; extinguishes my will to live. And yeah, I’ve been a vampire for almost 200 years but fuck does she weight me down. Is it because I can’t read her thoughts? I shift on my feet, dropping my arms from the crossed-up position I’ve had them. While my left hand reasts against my hip, I let my right rest over the handle of my own Geom. I’ve decided to build upon my skills with it, even though it’s not commonly used anymore, it’s still gives the thrill like no other.

That familiar itch raises in my throat slowly, prickling at it mostly. I think this type I haven’t felt since I’ve been freshly turned. But that was another story as my hunger for blood then was insatiable. When all I could think about was blood, and the constant pain that held me in its clutches. It’s starting to appear somewhat, but not necessarily for blood alone which is puzzling as to what’s happening to me.

‘’You look like you’re having fun.’’ I raise an eyebrow as I look down at her in surprise ‘’The whole brooding thing you’ve got going on right now, is a good strategy. I commend you on that dude.’’

‘’Strategy?’’ I ask bemused eyeing her carefully as she steps right next to me and turns to watch the chaos that’s still unfolding across us. Her approach is like – if you were sitting on the very edge of a couch, she’s the person that would sit right next to you. Can she get even more annoying than this?!

‘’Well yeah.’’ She starts and looks at me slightly losing the edge of confidence she has ‘’To avoid this mess that’s happening. Wasn’t that…’’ she trails off clearly doubting herself ‘’Never mind then.’’ she’s quick to look away, left hand reaching up to scratch at her cheek, but she keeps it there avoiding to look at me.

I can’t help but to smile at her behaviour. Is she blushing?!

Odd. Humans are weird. Narrowing my eyes as I continue watching her, I can’t help but to relax a bit. Her hair is a mess as always, falling over her shoulders, clearly uncombed or unattended. Not that she’s dirty, she smells fresh and like she bathed fairly recently that strawberry hint present underneath the artificial flavour of honey scented shampoo.

The hoodie is too big on her body as it’s too big for hyung himself but on her it easily reaches her mid tights. Having said that the branded shorts with white stripes at the side of her legs peek just from beneath the red hoodie. Otherwise her legs are exposed, and following the curves from her meaty thighs, down to her calves I can see she’s back at being restless her left foot tapping against the ground the rubber of her sneakers making faint noise against the wood of the ground.

Shouts raising has me turning up, ready to defend myself from blatantly staring at her or crudely said ogling her. To my rare luck Yoongi has both Jimin and Taehyung pinned down, clearly having fun as he fake scolds them. Hoseok has given up and is sitting on the ground, hands propping himself up as he’s leant backwards. Jin hasn’t even participated in whatever they have going on, and is sitting in the corner of the room, kneeling against the wall with his new pink coloured Samsung Z in his hands, typing furiously on it with a small smirk on his face.

‘’Hey do you know why did the scarecrow win an award?’’ Jin starts getting everyone’s attention eyes rising after he asks the question. He even glances towards us. And we all know what’s coming it’s clear as a single cloud on a clear sunny day ‘’Because he was outstanding in his field.’’

I roll my eyes instantly, biting onto my lower lip because it’s ridiculous. Jimin burst into laughter first, Hoseok and Tae groaning but ending up laughing more so because of Jimin that rolls away from Yoongi who has let go of both vampires and is staring at hyung with a scrunched-up expression.

‘’Seriously hyung?’’ he breathes shaking his head. But a smile is present.

I’m genuinely startled when Y/N places her hand on my shoulder, body trembling as she tries to keep her own giggles down, but is not having much success with it. I stare at her confused but slightly fascinated by the rosiness that covers her cheeks, and face. Her eyes crinkle as they shut, mouth twisted into a grin. Her hold on my shoulder is surprisingly firm, again in the back of my mind making me revaluate the estimate I put on her about her strength.

‘’You’re laughing at that?’’ I ask trying to sound unimpressed but fail at it completely as I smile all due to her own amusement, the joke not being that drop-dead-funny.

She shakes her head instead and let’s go of me taking a step to the side hand readjusting the hold on hyung’s Geom once more ‘’The delivery was A+.’’ she points out as she starts to calm down.

‘’Thank you, Y/N-ah! You see brats? Someone appreciates my jokes! It’s why from now on Y/N-ah is my favourite creature ever!!!’’ he shouts out acting bratty himself. Jimin and Tae are both on their feet making their way over to Jin, probably with the intention of convincing him that they are his favourite whatever.

‘’Gee thanks.’’ Y/N chuckles bringing my attention back to her ‘’Never been called someone’s favourite ‘creature’ but I’ll take it.’’ she ends up grinning happily as she turns to me, warmth still lingering on her cheeks. As well as over my shoulder where her hand was ‘’Anyways you wanna practice Sour boy?’’ I immediately frown at that nickname as does she scrunching up her nose adorably for a moment ‘’Sour creature?’’ she tries ending up chuckling to herself as she shift left and right, the calmness leaving her while her jumpiness coming back ‘’Can’t use Sour wolf those right are reserved obviously…’’ I tilt my head not having a clue what’s she’s referring to ‘’…sour…ah never mind.’’ Again, she’s shaking her head but isn’t hiding away. She twists the sword again putting her left foot forward balancing her centre first, hands and sword following suit ‘’So you wanna try going against me?’’

It’s a dare.

I want to burst into laughter already imagining 3 moves alone to disarm her in a blink of her eye. But hyung’s words in my head stop me from over reacting at the preposterous challenge that’s right in front of me.

Humour her Jeongguk-ah. It will do good for your patience.

Taking a hold of my own blade, I spare a glance over towards Yoongi first noticing that everyone is watching us. They are going to be entertained I’ll make sure I will…

In a blink of an eye and my own, as my reflexes are enhanced mind you – I find myself dumbfounded, as her sword flashes due to the light and clashes against my own, knocking it sideways proving that my hold on it wasn’t as tight as it should have been.

As I look down at her burning but non-glowing human eyes, she’s glaring at me with some sort of fire in her irises. Her hand is back on me, firmly holding onto the inside of my forearm, while her blade is angled in a seemingly awkward position right arm positioned over her left body twisted to the side. But the most important part is; the tip of her sword is located right under my chin. The body of the Geom is strategically positioned in a way that would block any stronger and direct attack from myself.

The cheers burst out of the blue interrupting the silence that happened due to her unexpected actions.

My tongue darts to my cheek as I snort and tilt my head narrowing my eyes at her, as she ends up smiling but look serious doing so. She ends up pulling her hand and sword back, rising it up in triumph.

‘’Lesson number one; always be ready for the unexpected.’’ Jin speaks up oddly enough giving me a more serious look.

I don’t even bother looking towards others, and focus on the girl before me that’s literally skipping on her spot 2 steps away from me. She wiggles her eyebrows at me, sword getting placed to rest against her shoulder angled at an around 80 degree ‘’Lesson 1000-something-something never lose focus.’’ She imitates Yoongi’s pattern of speech clearly making fun of him making me know that he trained her as well. Her head turns to the right to give him a look.

I twirl my Geom keeping in mind that even though I’m about to surprise her as she surprised me, I a voice screaming at me to keep my movements slow. It would be an easy defeat – like taking candy from a baby – if I use my regular speed and agility on her. She wouldn’t stand a chance.

As I raise my blade, she instantly blocks it spinning with elegance at the perfect time. While I’m holding the leather wrapped handle with both hands, she only uses one and efficiently blocks me, her blade only briefly losing a hold twitching backwards and then coming to a still.

‘’To rough?’’ I tease, as she grabs for the long handle with her left hand the pressure against my blade turning prominent. Fuck. I didn’t expect in the slightest that she would be even able to push against me. But that’s maybe because I didn’t focus on taking a hold of my Geom in a proper way like I should have. I underestimated her.

She doesn’t reply initially, but offers a smirk jaw locked tight. To my astonishment she unpredictably steps back, and raises her Geom ready to strike down, which I block successfully intercepting her attacks from the get go. The fact remains that tips the balance contradictory to my own belief and those of my hyungs as with my brief lack of concentration, everything changes – words fill my mind – because she has managed from the get go to legitimately push me backwards. She has me moving, whole body getting in tune and reflexes to work as two close calls of the metal coming in contact with me have me focusing solemnly on her.

It isn’t until she’s out of breath that she jumps back like in the beginning, and simply breathes harshly through her nose. That’s the weakness of being a human. Getting tired. I know it’s not fair but I take my chance and charge forward, confident that I’ve got an easy win under my belt.

But as I move forward faster than I should I’ll admit her left hand reaches and gets in line with where my sword is pointed at. She’s reaching forward as if she is about to pick an apple, the action itself insane. That has me stopping right before the blade can touch, forcing my whole body to a halt. That’s when she strikes, finger wrapping onto the top of my blade against the blunt part of it.

It all happens so fast even for me, as she holds onto my weapon and just like the first time, she’s finds herself right up in my personal space, her blade finding a home under my chin it seems.

Her face is almost feral – that’s how I’d describe it the easiest. She’s showing her blunt teeth as she breathes fast heart absolutely pounding in her chest, as she glares at me the fire I saw before has turned into some sort of a blizzard, and hunger. The cheers that erupt of disbelief and glee get all muted - her blood is calling out to me. I can feel it vibrating in her veins, pumping steadily though her heart. It sounds like a forgotten lullaby her speeding but regulating steady heartbeat. It brings a taste of nostalgia forward.

The smile that stretches across her lips seems newly unique, only for my eyes – there’s of course that prominent sense of victory, happiness that’s prominent in her whole being still only inches away from me.

I’m left blinking in confusion, the hold of my blade being let go as someone pulls her backwards the cold blade that was located under my chin retreating as well as her warmth and now prominent smell of fruitiness, and something else that I can almost taste in the air – something that kind of remind me of the smell I remember that came from my own clothes when I was still a human.

‘’Ah our sweet Golden Maknae, it seems you have meet you’re match in at least one category!’’ Jin cheers throwing his arm over my shoulders, looking extremely gleeful as he starts poking my sides. I twist at his ministration but keep watching as Hoseok lifts Y/N up onto his shoulders, her hands free from weapons and desperate to hold onto something as she dangerously shifts and tries to balance herself on his shoulders. His oblivious jumping spree continues despite her cries of protests with Jimin standing behind the two ready to catch her as Taehyung dances along with the vampire that’s carrying her.

I can’t shake off the tingles that seem to entrap me in a sense, running over my skin prickling at my long stopped beating heart. I stare almost dumbly listening to the shouts and cheers from the human girl, that decided to act along with the boys’ antics easily following and mimicking them having the time of her life judging by the giant smile she has on, and adorable chuckles that raise. But the smile she gave me doesn’t resemble this one, one bit. The one I got was more – her.

‘’Good effort, Jeongguk-ah.’’ Yoongi speaks up appearing finally on my right, hand holding onto his Geom once more. Meeting his eyes, they seem soft the smirk he has not too promising for my dignity ‘’Of course you’ve managed to accomplish all the don’ts than do’s in what I’ve taught you, but it was a good lesson nonetheless.’’

Jin stars laughing immediately agreeing with Yoongi, the jokes and mockery following after.

I hate losing, I despise it with my whole being given that I’m not sure if I still have a soul. And even though irritation is brewing under my skin, I can’t find myself to feel real anger of any sorts. She threw me off too much to completely understand the feeling I’m experiencing, in regards of her.

Of course, I still don’t like her, why would I pfffff. This is only a reason more that I need to start and upstage her frankly speaking. I’m not jealous of her being in hyung’s good graces or anything childish like that but…I’m the golden maknae. I need to knock her down a peg or two.

I find myself watching her like a hawk, awaiting the anger and frustration to hit me…it doesn’t. And that’s concerning me slightly.

*A few days later*

I squint automatically at the spill and change of contrasting light that floods into the room. My eyes are quick to adapt but my brain forces me to react humanly. Rounding the corner, I’m met with a wide and open door that leads to the side of the mansion, into the gardens and towards the pathway that leads towards the garage. I sigh annoyed that someone is trying to start a prank war again. It’s a poor prank just leaving the doors open, but the sun that’s shinning inside is frankly bothersome enough to diminish my mood.

I was having a good match going on the whole night, winning every time of course setting new records. The peckish-ness appeared out of nowhere – I fed 2 days ago, there’s no reason why I’m feeling hungry again. I should be fine and yet, my throat itches uncomfortably enough so that I need to take plan B; Take a blood bag from the fridge to calm myself down.

I rarely do this, hating the cold and very artificial taste that the bag leaves on the blood. But the blood bags are there for this exact reason.

I stand at the entrance of the lavish kitchen and dining area on my right and place my hands onto my hips just contemplating my life choices as one does in the middle of the day – or night for some. Why does it have to be so sunny, why can’t it just keep raining. Of course, it has been a while since I’ve seen sunlight, but I sure as hell didn’t miss it that much. It’s absolutely glowing against the polished marble flooring, and reflecting all over the clean white kitchen.

There are bowls on the kitchen island, the presence of them making me listen in a focus for a moment if someone is close and trying to scare me. Silence. Strange. Approaching the kitchen island and avoiding the stray odd ray of sunlight that stretches across the room, thanks to a curtain being moved, I see pastry has been laid out on a wooden desk. Two banana’s lies on another chopping board still intact, while a gooey brown substance resides in a pot next to the pastry.

I’m so confused. What is this supposed to be?

Looking around for Jin hyung I’m left wondering if he’s back at experimenting with human food and trying to impress our annoying temporary human resident. Last time he baked 10 cakes, of different flavours, which the human did thank him over hundreds of times for, but barely made a dent in them. We had to throw them out after 4 days, with Jin hyung reasoning that it’s logical as they were going to go bad. Sounds like bullshit to me as in my time cakes were a delicacy to get often, but I feel as if they are more compact and longer lasting than 4 days but what do I know about human food. Eh.

Glancing towards outside keeping my eyes trained on the marble flooring I pick up on someone talking fast and thoughts of How lovely and kind, she is flooding my mind That girl has a knack for flowers, and it helps that she’s extra nice unlike most of Mr. Min’s friends I block out the gardeners thoughts as they continue wandering about Yoongi…yet again. Shaking my head to clear my mind, I take the chance squinting and frowning at the brightness even more prominent, my eyes trained to the outside watching as Y/N stumbles over her feet but recollects herself. She’s carrying a small bouquet of what seem like lavender coloured roses. I didn’t even know we grow those. The flowers don’t look that nice during the night I’ll admit that. But I know Jin hyung wanted multi coloured flowers, and I know there was a Boquete of blue roses placed on this very kitchen island some time ago.

I watch as the girl jumps exaggeratingly childish and cheerful onto the concrete ground of the mansions floor and short patio. Her bare feet make barely any noise, as she approaches.

‘’Oh, hey what are you doing up still?’’ she asks squinting but due to the contrast she must be experiencing. I’m surprise she spotted me outside. She kinda looks that sort of an adorable-ugly.

‘’You do know that we don’t sleep right?’’ I ask hesitant not sure if she knows this fact. I stare at her, ready to bolt to her aid as she stumbles again once she steps inside closing her eyes and taking 2 steps blindly ahead.

‘’I know that, I meant as in up now. Everyone is usually closed off at this time.’’ she’s quick to explain opening her eyes carefully, looking around still squinting the ugliness still there.

‘’I should be asking you why are you up instead. Aren’t you usually dead asleep by this time?’’ I turn the conversation around, watching as she reaches the counter and places the roses on it, turning back to the doors. I snort to myself at her choice of clothing being a white shirt with jean overalls that hang slightly lose on her.

‘’To be honest I drank one energy drink or two too much, so I’m wide awake.’’ She replies turning to look at me, expression relaxing into a normal one, eyes still blinking quickly a few more times glossiness present in them ‘’Do you mind the doors?’’ the question has my brows rising in question ‘’Is the light bothering you? I can close them, if it is.’’

Surprised I contemplate for a moment, preferring that she does close the door off but there’s something more to her unusual question ‘’I’m fine with them as they are.’’ I lie and sit myself on the second bar stool from the right corner of the kitchen island, making sure I’m keeping a safe distance from the pesky sun.

‘’Oh good.’’ she sighs in relief perking up ‘’To be honest I didn’t even know how much I’ve missed the sun.’’ the short explanation is happy as she practically skips over to the doors anyways.

‘’Hm I bet you do.’’ I mumble reaching out for one rose, seeing with the corner of my eye as she slips into a pair of slippers that she has left near the wall which I didn’t even notice were there.

‘’Do you?’’ looking up she doesn’t seem like she means anything ill with the question. I think she’s naïve enough to be genuinely curious.

I take a moment to think about it looking out at the brightness, while she goes to rummage around the cabinets ‘’I’m not sure.’’ I admit ‘’I miss sightseeing certain places in day-light. It’s just easier going at night, instead of putting a ton of cream to my skin, and having an umbrella along.’’ I ramble remembering the time when I visited Paris alone. I put a ton of sun cream on, and picked out a designer umbrella, but the curious looks and people randomly asking me to take pictures with them as they thought I was a model or something got tiresome really fast.

‘’Hmm, that would guarantee unwanted attention I’m sure.’’ Her comment has me turning to her again curious as it’s like she read right through my thoughts. She’s filling out a vase or just a tall ornate glass up with water, face portraying her concentration with the matter.

‘’So, whenever you aren’t hanging out with vampires are you usually acting as a regular human being then?’’ I ask interested in her answer and maybe to learn more about her. Even though hyungs have quickly grown to thrust her, I still have my reservations. She talks a lot like A LOT but she never really reveals to much exclusively about herself.

I get a snort in reply eyes meeting my own briefly with a slight glare and edge before she turns to the vase and flowers ‘’It differentiates.’’ She starts ‘’I used to have a job high up somewhat, so yeah, I’ve spent the last couple of years just working. Working, sleeping and eating.’’ I’m taken a back at the new information not having expected her to reply seriously ‘’Had to be on point and available 24/7. You know how greedy humans can get.’’ She sighs tiredly. I can’t argue with that statement so I simply offer a faint nod, watching as her fingers work delicately over the flower petals, rearranging them around neatly. She accepts the flower I was toying with, with a small smile ‘’So one day when I was going to a library to do some research for a project I was doing, I stumbled upon a revelation and just decided to quit.’’

Taking a step back she cheers up instantly ‘’Ta-da.’’ I observe her mirthfulness observing her as she steps over to the sink, letting the water on as she runs her hands under it ‘’So with that done, and wanting to avoid confrontation as any normal human being…’’ I roll my eyes at that knowing what lengths humans are willing to take to avoid confrontations ‘’…I hoped on a plane and, after 5 hours from landing I walked right through your front door.’’ She ends her explanation, whipping her hands with a kitchen cloth.

‘’Just like that huh? No attachments nothing?’’ she nods immediately as I tilt my head shifting after to rest it over my bent left arm ‘’Aren’t you humans known for unnecessarily attachments to people and objects?’’

She chuckles at my statement nodding and smirking amused, hands set in motion as she stirs the gooey substance in the small pot. Smells like chocolate but the melted kind ‘’You’re right about that for the most part and people. But I’ve been sort of a nomad my whole life. Never stayed in one place for too long.’’ She shrugs spreading the substance all over the pastry working meticulously and evening it all out ‘’Didn’t find a reason to settle down.’’

‘’Why thought? Did your parents move a lot so that’s why you can’t find a place you genuinely like?’’ having studied a bit of psychology I pick up on her not fully revealed and rounded answer. She’s generalizing herself a lot. Her movements don’t stop or pause in hesitation at my question.

‘’The second part is more correct in a sense. My parents eh they were what they were.’’ Again, she shrugs, placing the two bananas on the edge of the pastry ‘’I moved a lot with my partner actually. We went on adventures and whatnot, ready to marry and all that jazz.’’ I raise both eyebrows feeling perplexed not having expecting that from the likes of her. That sounds a lot harsher than I intended it to but…I would have never expected her to want to marry, or well be serious about it.

For some reason I can’t imagine her being paired up with any regular man or woman, specially not human for some reason. It feels wrong, feels like nobody ordinary like that can handle her.

‘’Tragedy?’’ I ask assuming the progression of her story.

‘’Yep!’’ she replies too cheerfully for the theme of the conversation, popping the ‘p’ childishly ‘’Wasn’t meant to be.’’ She offers a smile as she looks at me, not looking that particular sad. It must have taken her a long time to get over it thought, because her eyes aren’t matching the mask that she has put on. I can heart the almost pitter patter of her slightly speed up heart. And the shakiness to her hands isn’t missed.

‘’Most things aren’t.’’ I agree remembering my own human experience. I was meant to marry a girl from my village. Being a fisherman, third generation I was meant to uphold the family tradition, and have managed to snob the prettiest girl. But yeah. Not everything is destined to happen as you expect them to. Although looking back I know Na-yeon was wrong for me in all aspect. Even back then with my human set mind and precepting I was mostly doing it as it was expected of me, and not because I genuinely wanted it ‘’Also what are you even doing?’’ I find myself frowning as she starts to roll the whole thing together, bananas disappearing inside the roll.

She doesn’t even respond for a moment, and has stopped breathing. I’m about to stand up and help her out force her to breathe when she straightens up grinning widely again that triumphant expression I’ve seen before present.

‘’A HA!!!!’’ she cheers removing her hands away carefully looking extremely proud at the brown coloured roll that’s left on the tray ‘’I present to you, a perfectly made chocolate banana pudding roll!!’’ she presents’ hands pointing at it dramatically.

I glance at the severely unimpressed desert ‘’Judging by that crack right there, it isn’t as perfect as you claim it to be actually.’’

‘’What no!’’ she rushes leaning over it, bumping her hips into the stone counter. Curses raise, sounding way to rough for the image of a soft girl that she’s unintentionally portraying as of today. She preoccupies herself with inspecting the roll ending up frowning as she straightens up hands placed on the counter while she glares at the desert as if it has offended her.

‘’If it’s any consolation if I were still human, I’d eat it.’’ my words have her shoulders softening up as she shifts and eyes it some more. Her lower lips juts out slightly mouth forming into this sort of adorable hurt puppy pout.

But it only lasts a few seconds, lips quick to turn upwards onto a thankful smile ‘’Thanks.’’ Once her eyes meet my own, I get this odd warm sensation in my chest, seeing her brighten up thanks to my words and encouragement.

‘’Your welcome.’’

*A few days later, later*

‘’I don’t understand why I have to be the one to check on her.’’

A pause ‘’Probably because you’re the only one to dislike her the most. And the most probable to not make any advances.’’ At this I immediately fake throwing up, Taehyung chuckles following as on que ‘’See?’’ he points out smirking ‘’Namjoon hyung got almost punched when he accidentally told a pick-up line yesterday. She didn’t even register it, but Yoongi hyung just went off on him. Poor Namjoonie.’’ He tuts shaking his head finding hyungs predicament funny judging by the smirk he has on.

‘’As perceptive as she is, she can be so annoyingly dull.’’ I half snarl exasperated groaning to myself.

‘’That’s mean Jeonggukie.’’ He raises a complaint ‘’Don’t be so cocky. There’s always more than meets the eye. Even in regards of humans.’’

‘’Yeah, we’ve all seen that but…’’ looking at Taehyung that’s still walking besides me, arm brushing against my own mischievously now and then – he’s giving me this fond look as his eyes take me in. We start to slow our steps down, as we’ve reached the doors that led to the library.

‘’But?’’ he insists as I shrug stuffing my hands into the front pockets of the oversize black hoodie I have on.

‘’I just don’t like her.’’ I mumble, glancing towards the door lowering my tone.

‘’Yeah why is that?’’ glancing up I’m surprised at the way he narrows his eyes, and gets sort of serious, licking his lips quickly.

It’s easy to let the frustration rise up again, get a hold of me around my throat choking me up for a moment as I have to think what to tell him exactly. He’s smarter than he looks, always two steps in front of you, catching Yoongi and Jin hyung of guard even though the two of them have practically seen it all in all the years they’ve been alive. This isn’t said in vain when others warn against Taehyung. He’s as cunning as he is stunning.

‘’It’s the way she is! She just gets on my nerves you know.’’ I try lamely frowning gaze going to the doors ‘’The way she breathes is exaggerated, the way she talks, her voice is way to scratchy and of pitched, the lack of manners towards hyungs ugh…’’ If I was human, I’d shudder from anger but I simply close my eyes in frustration that part of her still irking me greatly ‘’…and the way she keeps on wearing hyungs clothes, and not sleeping enough. Does she even eat enough? What is that all about.’’

I end up glaring at Taehyung who nods once holding his serious demander but soon after ends up smirking widely eyes sparkling almost. He arches an eyebrow clearly having thought of something ‘’There’s also the fact that she almost beat your score in Overwatch.’’

‘’THAT TOO!!’’ I half exclaim throwing my hands in the air, then proceed to step up and don for a moment ‘’With my reflexes how is that possible?!’’ Taehyung just keeps nodding in understanding ‘’She’s a child that’s what she is! Doesn’t reach any level where we are, mentally and maturely.’’

‘’Pfff says the late bloomer himself.’’ I stop moving around and give hyung a challenging glare.

‘’I wasn’t that late. Just had extra on my plate in regards of my abilities.’’ I pout going into a similar pose as the beginning just standing closer to the doors.

‘’Aigo, Aigo, Golden maknae.’’ He tuts affectionately walking closer hand coming up to place it over my shoulder as he leans close to me ‘’You’ve got a fair point there yes, but don’t you think that we’ve had to accept you too in the beginning? That there weren’t any let’s say fractions of hesitance’s from our parts?’’

At this my nose scrunches up as I know it’s true, about their reservations when it came to me. My telepathy came at a disadvantage in the beginning, strength easily frightening even Hoseok hyung who is considered to be the best fighter in our clan.

‘’That’s it Jeonggukie. I see how your clogs are starting to turn. Do you see my point?’’

‘’She’s human hyung. There’s a difference.’’ At this he waves his hand straightening up.

‘’Meaning it’s in your favour if you really despise her that much. She’ll die judging by her bad lifestyle choices in a decade or two. Maybe three.’’ He shrugs attitude way to uncaring unlike our conversation a few days ago where he praised her and defended her loudly against Jimin who was upset at her yet another refusal. So, the switch has me second guessing him, and myself as…I didn’t even think about her dying.

It causes that boulder that hasn’t left my stomach to churn and twist, burning even at the thought of imagining seeing her lifeless body.

I don’t even notice that we’ve fallen silent until hyung speaks up again ‘’Anyways I’m gonna go find Jin hyung and maybe convince him to go to the city with me. I need new pair of shoes and a new collection is rumoured to be just on the verge of launching.’’ He wiggles his eyebrows patting my shoulder for a moment in consolation before he’s backing away, right hand stuck in the pocket of his pants whilst he gives me a finger gun with his left-hand winking a cold breeze of air whooshing past me, his eyes for a brief second turning icy blue ‘’Good luck, Bunny. And be nice to our human. They are fragile creatures after all.’’

I tilt my head in confusion staring at him ready to ask what he means by that but he disappears in a blink of an eye taking off leaving me alone. Even though I don’t exactly need air to breathe I do take it in and sigh, recollecting the confusion that are my emotions and have been for the past few days. Spinning on my heel I glance towards the double doors which are decorated with golden motifs, having been painted into white the wood barely peeking through unlike the inner side that displaying the many years the tree had before it was chopped down.

Pressing onto the handle of the left door I silently without making any sounds enter the big room from another perspective, the other entrance being in the ballroom whilst this one leads inside from a corridor that connects to the music room in the back of this huge house.

Nothing seems out of the usual as I take a look at the ground floor. Nothing moves either. I can hear her speed up heart and breathing, murmurs now and then cutting of the serenity. I walk over to the table that has been left since the “party” we’ve had. The name plates have been removed from its surface but it has been filled up by different books, and scrolls even. I glance over the few notebooks and stray papers here and there easily recognising Namjoon’s handwriting as well as Yoongi hyungs. The cracked screen of the iPad is mocking me as it lays unsafely on one corner of the table.

What has my immediate attention is a different looking notebook. I smirk in amusement as this handwriting is as of a child, words scribbled down in a fast pace, letters somewhere half formed or just distorted, even smudged. There’s an ink stain from a hand near the edge of the page, which I brush my own fingers over it. I can’t read through the text as it’s written in another language, and the choice of letters themselves are unusual. I don’t think I can even pronounce any word.

I’m not really here to offer my academic assistance as I barely speak any English myself, but it’s kind of nice to see that her character is clearly portrayed in the way she writes, and how she fills the page up irregularly. She’s as chaotic in real life and on paper.

Musing for a moment further spotting glasses and bottles of water on the other end of the lengthy table, I do glance upwards towards the second floor, hearing as a pen or something small as a pen clatters hitting the ground. By the lack of movement, I already figured she was asleep.

Silly human. Her life style is really un-well and extremely badly planned. Stepping around the table my intention on getting the girl and carrying her to her bedroom, gets postponed as my eyes shift onto a book, that for whatever reason has my feet stopping.

The gold of the cover is unusual between the rest of the books with used and dried up leather and yellowed pages. I pick it up, buried in between a stack of smaller scrolls and encyclopaedias actually. I frown at the title; it’s about mythology. Every kind actually.

What’s the most puzzling is that it’s written by hand. And the handwritings differentiate. Multiple people worked on this, and judging by the smell of the ink and paper things have been added or pulled out. Pictures are drawn here and there, and languages vary from all around the world from what I can judge by some symbols and added explanations in English.

There’s a myth about Thor, expanding at least 20 pages. Another myth about Pele a Hawaiian goddess covers well over 30 pages with many illustrations, and instructions from what I can assume for tattoos.

Shifting around I do recognize myths from the hand drawn images instead of their native titles. Nearing almost the end of the book, as I sniff at the pages and feeling like a complete idiot for a moment, I have to sit down as these are completely new pages added to this. Taking a look across the table, I find the A4 format pages placed near the corner just ahead of me, along with an old type-y looking pen with ink next to it.

Turning a page, I recognise the writing as being Jin hyungs which completely catches me of guard. Is this what they have been working on? Writing about myths?!

Don’t we have a coven war brewing?

Shuffling through the many written pages coming to the last one, I stare blankly for a moment the myth about Dangun which I know as it’s of Korean mythology. And as appropriate it is written in Korean.

What am I missing here? Why have they been working on this?! Why did other people work on this?! I pull the pages going slowly backwards, seeing stories actually unfolding. It’s not hard to connect the dots after a few pages, that these are from Yoongi hyung. But these are dating WAYYYY back in the millennia it feels like when hyung was as young as we are now it seems. But he was more mature definitely.

I frown at a half empty page where a sketch has been drawn into a half finished only the golden frame being finished. The sketch though - I can tell that linear lines are spears and, some even arrows that are sticking from what seems to be a pile of bodies on the floor? Only one figure is standing in the centre of the picture, with their back towards us armour robust and yet slim in a sense. I narrow my eyes at the handle of the soldier – the pommel is shaped like a pouncing lion.

Battle of Hwangsanbeol

That’s the title. I know about it from what hyung told me, but this is written much more in detail. The main explanation is from what humans are being told in schools, I remember it from college when I studied mechanics years ago. But the new ink underneath and Yoongi hyungs writing, is an indicator that this is where his story begins.

He didn’t take sides in particular, changing armours as he shifted from a Silla’s soldier into a soldier of the Tang army. The similarity is there with added commentary to make you know more about how life was then. What gets my attention is the comradery between hyung and another fellow that name is very generalized. They’ve struck a friendship and have covered for one another in battle, which had him switching sides and to remain with the Silla side out of curiosity and maybe even naivety he describes it. He didn’t have as much experience then as he does now to have judged everything smartly enough, even though the odds were clearly in Silla’s favour.

The praise towards the human soldier is tremendous, giving him full credit of saving his life more than once. And even though he was a turned by that point into an immortal, the praise has even me feeling grateful towards the man.

He did raise up in ranks, but he never left Yoongi behind. During the main battle after the slaughter, he describes his fellow soldier as being remorseful, as they stared across the field of many fallen soldiers and warriors and manslaughter that stretched miles away it had seemed at the time. It was brutal but necessary – I forget that hyung is from a completely different timeline sometimes. It’s easy to mistake him, and others for younger vampires.

The solider…tilting my head I spot a few notes written lightly over hyungs hand-writing. My frown deepens as the anger I felt before towards her starts to simmer - it’s not hard to see that this is Y/N’s handwriting. Her comments are absolutely ridiculous, playing hyung’s praise off – she’s dismissing it. How dare she? What does she know about wars, she was born in peaceful times, I bet to a good family! She hasn’t never experienced the horrors of wars, the stench, the travesty the fear the…

‘’No!’’ a shout has me glancing up stiffly. I notice how my fingers have curled into fists and how tight my jaw has locked together from anger ‘’…don’t…’’ she breathes out her heart beat now hammering. Confused I glance upwards thinking that she’s playing a joke on me. I’m ready to fucking snap at her – if she really is pulling a joke on me right now, I’m going to kick her out of the house myself.

‘’Ah no…’’ her words shift a cry following. What? Standing up I wait for amount further listening to her speed up breathing that’s sounds like hysteria ‘’NOOOO DON’T TAKE HIM NOOO!!!!!!’’ her cry is of terror and panic. It absolutely shocks me to my core but has me moving upwards, reaching the second floor and top of stairs in a second ‘’NO HE’S MY SOU…’’ she continues to shout switching to another language panic rising.

I’m completely disoriented by the mess that I find on the upper floor, books pulled and settled in piles on the ground, as posters of maps hang up over the book’s shelves. The 2 floor is sort of a balcony going half around the room above both entrances. After legit 2 spins around myself, I pick up on a mattress actually located in the very corner of the library. There’s a sheet stuck to the bent down ceiling, and a ton of blankets are thrown around the mattress.

I can see her finally, leg sticking up shoulder peeking over as she shifts onto her side ‘’Agápi mou, agápi mouuuuu…’’

‘’Shhhhh Y/N-ah.’’ I whisper as I run to her side, kneeling right next to her, my hands coming in contact with her overheated skin. She’s drenched in sweat, and twitching like crazy as if she’s fighting someone ‘’Wake up Y/N-ah it’s just a dream it’s not real, it’s not real!’’

‘’No…don’t go…’’ I pull her body into my lap without a second thought. As I brush her hair away from her face she flinches away probably because of my cooler hand. She’s overheating. What catches me of guard and has me whining is the tears that are running down her cheeks.

‘’Y/N-ah wake up, please wake up! It’s not real okay, it’s just a nightmare! You’re here with me in the library safe and sound! Come on you silly human wake up.’’ I urge her on rambling shaking her gently. She startles awake, eyes flying open hands in fists ready to fight. I half expect her to punch me but once her eyes find mine, she ends up smiling tiredly body immediately going lax in my hold.

‘’My love.’’ She says in Korean right hand reaching up, left palm pressed flat against my chest where my heart is.

‘’Don’t fall back asleep.’’ I try as her eyes fall close back again, her breathing having stabilized somewhat ‘’The one time I legit want to hang out with you, you suddenly want to sleep ah? The disrespect.’’ I laugh worried as I take her in. The bags under her eyes are prominent, and her cheeks which looks sort of more sunken aren’t reassuring me with her wellbeing at all.

I stare as her eyes blink open, taking me in clearly her hand that’s resting over my chest raises up shakily to cup my other cheek.

The blissful expression that settled before turns into a frown and a pout, as her eyes take my features in the change in mood confusing me with what to do. I readjust my hold gently, holding her steadily in my arms, making sure I’m not pressing to much of my skin against hers. I’ve heard from others that humans don’t like our colder skin in particular.

‘’Jeongguk-ah.’’ She states to which I offer a smile immediately as she seems to be coming back from wherever her mind took her.

‘’Yep. That’s my name.’’ I reply feeling her body tense up but not prominently. She’s waking up slowly at her own pace. She hums suddenly and pulls her hands back. I have to stop myself from wanting to tell her that it’s fine if she wants to touch me. That only conflicts my emotions all the more.

‘’Sorry am…was I making too much noise?’’ she asks gathering her thoughts, eyes darting around getting clearer as she notices the odd position we’ve fallen into.

‘’No, not at all.’’ I says wanting to immediately start reassuring her that everything is fine and she didn’t do anything wrong, but I have a hunch she’s not going to believe me either way ‘’Hyung wanted to see where you were exactly, and I was bored so. Two birds in one stone.’’

I help her up, as she starts to shift wanting to sit on her own. Silence begins after my brief explanation and after I’ve helped her sit back down onto the mattress. Without her permission I grab for a warm looking blanket and pull it over her shoulders, sitting down properly right next to her having this need to be as close as possible. Maybe I should offer a hug? Please say yes.

‘’What time is it even?’’ comes her question before I can ask her my own. She starts sifting more towards me, in the beginning of her sudden restlessness keeping the blanket around herself as she reaches with both hands upwards to rub her fingers across her eyes.

‘’Around 10AM.’’ I reply glancing towards the curtains, that are letting through sunlight from outside across the polished wooden floors only ‘’I think Jin hyung missed you at breakfast today.’’ I offer a smile while she pulls her hands away, running one through her messy hair quickly. She’s hunched forward into what seems like an awkward position – her gaze still seems far off like she’s not fully present yet.

‘’Oh yeah breakfast.’’ She mumbles glancing to the end of the mattress, to which I notice more pages and a silver notebook that has slid from the edge of the makeshift bed the papers all sprawled on the ground clearly by accident ‘’I didn’t mean to sleep.’’ She starts clearly her brain slowly starting up as she looks at me finally absently scratching the back of her head ‘’My back started to hurt, so I figured I should lay down or lean against the wall.’’ Ah so that’s why there are so many blankets piled up against the wall behind us.

‘’You should think more about getting proper sleep.’’ I comment ‘’I’m sure as great as this place is and cosy, I bet a proper bed would feel a lot nicer.’’

My heart and stomach flutter as she breaks into a small smile looking back to me amused ‘’Heard that before.’’

I shake my head immediately ‘’Uh huh. And if you’d listen, I think that would magically stop too.’’

She chuckles at my words, the gesture filling me with sort of pride that I actually made her smile and laugh. Oddly I want to comfort her properly. I want to make sure that she’s alright. Seeing her so distressed it…I can’t help but to still feel a bit freaked out myself. Her state is worrisome. Traces of her tears are still present over her puffy cheeks.

‘’So...’’ I start awkwardly ‘’Are you okay?’’

At this she looks away smile disappearing slowly ‘’I’m fine.’’ Another smile raises over her slightly dry lips this one clearly forced. She’s putting up a front – I just want to help her.

‘’You…’’

‘’I’m fine!’’ she’s quick to add not even looking at me swiftly pushing herself away, crawling over to the fallen notes, hands prompt with gathering her things ‘’Its fine. Totally fine.’’ She repeats it like a mantra, almost doubling over when she attempts to stand up ‘’I got it!’’ after the exclamation she’s up on her feet, proudly smiling goofiness making an appearance ‘’Totally A okay!!!’’

Frowning I’m quick to stand up following as she starts walking forward, feet slipping into her slippers before descending down the steps.

‘’You sure are saying that a lot for someone that just woke up screaming.’’ I don’t hold myself back this time. Even though I can’t see her face as she’s slowly descending down, the spring in her step isn’t present as much. She always walks with a bounce to her.

‘’This is the first time, it happened.’’ She huffs walking straight over to the table once her feet reach the ground. I grimace at her blatant lie, having heard her before in similar states that make much more sense now. But it’s always Yoongi that’s was at her side, specially whenever she went to sleep. It is different completely different to hear her from across the house, than from seeing her up close. It gives new meaning to her as a person.

‘’Yes, but it’s the first time that I’ve seen you sleep and wake up like that.’’ I point out as she places her notes on the desk, probably noticing the opened book I’ve left behind in my haste. Her head remains turned towards it, eyes going over the opened page ‘’You have nightmares every time you sleep, don’t you?’’

Taking the last two steps my feet touch the ground floor. I wait for her response as I make my way over to her left side, standing near her but putting enough distance to give her personal space. She flips the golden book to a close, placing a random one atop of it, shoulders shrugging in the meantime. Is she trying to hide it away from me? Or herself?

‘’A lot of people have nightmares, Jeongguk-ssi.’’ The serious look she gives me, irks me in a bad way. And not as in before where I felt agitated selfishly thinking of myself, but in a way that she’s treating me distantly - like I’ve been treating her more or less. The honorific is just the cheery on top. I think the phrase ‘give him some of his own medicine’ is appropriate to point out right now.

‘’Not like that.’’

She keeps staring at me upholding the glare she settles on. It’s so different from what I’ve seen her be and act around others. For the first time, I feel like I see another side of her which she clearly doesn’t like to reveal to anyone. Or anyone that’s not hyung. It’s starting to really bother me. Of course, I don’t really want her hurting or in pain, what just had occurred is something I’m ever going forget, but I’m sort of glad that I was here to snap her out of whatever nightmare she was in. I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone. She looked completely heartbroken, and lost.

Seeing that she has taken up a stubborn approach, it’s hard to miss the way her body trembles. Wearing a pair of grey sweatpants, and a simple t-shirt the difference in temperature has her obviously chilly maybe even cold.

Given that she doesn’t intend to lose whatever staring contest we have going on, I end up breaking it and reach for the end of my hoodie, tugging it over my head smoothly ‘’Here.’’ I say offering. She doesn’t reveal how surprised she is on the outside – only her heart jumping slightly does – but she does raise an eyebrow in question ‘’You look cold and neither of us need hyung to scold us if you’ll catch the flue.’’ If I was a human, I know my cheeks would be bright red as my reasoning is clearly lame.

She accepts the hoodie with a quiet ‘thank you’ and tugs in on quickly ‘’Okay so, where was I? You can help me move some stuff and get books I need…’’ I’m pleasantly surprised that she’s quick to fall into her work after what just happened. I do keep myself quiet as this is clearly a distraction. But the smile that raises over my lips I cannot stop. Even with her back turned towards me, she looks good in my clothes. My hoodie suits her. And I’m sure my scent will mix better with hers than hyung’s.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

Copyright 2020© by barbika1508. All rights reserved.

Dictionary: Dangun - was the legendary founder and god-king of Gojoseon, the first Korean kingdom Gaya also rendered Kaya or Karak - is the presumed language of the Gaya confederacy in southern Korea Geom - is the generic term for "sword", but more specifically also refers to a shorter straight-blade, double-edged sword with a somewhat blunted tip Lavender roses - is often a sign of enchantment and love at first sight. Those who have been enraptured by feelings of love and adoration have used lavender roses to express their romantic feelings and intentions. Agápi mou /Greek/ - My love

[anotherkpopvictim]

Into a New World (Through the Gate) BTS OT7 Fantasy Story Chapter 2

(Picture source)

A/N: Hello...I’m back sooner than I thought. I decided that Hoseok will meet the others a bit more slowly than I originally had planned. I think it will be more enjoyable this way, though.

Anyways, since it’s Yoongi’s birthday, I decided that we’ll be meeting him next...and perhaps someone else as well ;)

Enjoy! And Happy Birthday Yoongi!

Relationship: BTS X BTS

Rating: T (for now)

Words: 3424

Hurt/comfort, fluff, fantasy

PLEASE NOTE: I made an update to the worldbuilding notes about fairies in the last chapter, as well as a few small details changed in the story, so you might want to go back and reread that if you want all the information. Sorry for the confusion.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Chapter 2: Cabin in the Woods

Worldbuilding Note on Immortality and Aging: In this story, every supernatural creature is immortal, though some more than others. No supernatural creature will die from old age, but they can be killed. For example, vampires and witches are the hardest to kill. Vampires can only be killed if they are cut into pieces, and while witches are technically humans, they can gain the magic ability to create many protection spells and reverse their age. Any other supernatural creature holds enhanced healing. There are a few kinds of creature-specific sicknesses that can also kill, but it is very rare. Low magic energy levels are the only other thing that can affect a supernatural creature’s health, though it rarely kills.

As for the ages that creatures appear, vampires will always be the age that they were when they were turned. Witches will often use magic to keep themselves looking young. Most other supernatural creatures have an ageless-looking appearance once they reach adulthood.

Worldbuilding Note on Vampires: Vampires are created from humans. Vampires are not able to have children, so the only way they can come to be is if a human is bitten by a vampire and has venom purposely injected into their bloodstream and then dies with that venom still inside their body. When they are turned, the person that turned them becomes their sire and is lawfully responsible for keeping the fledgling under control until they’ve learned the tools to curb the bloodlust.

Behind witches, vampires are some of the oldest supernatural creatures. While most other immortal creatures are usually killed off before they reach one thousand years old, quite a few vampires have exceeded the age.

Random Worldbuilding Note: Earth has different countries and traditions similar to our world. However, everyone speaks the same language (I guess we’ll say it’s English). Different honorifics still exist depending on the country (hence why they still use terms such as “hyung” and “noona” in this South Korea). Some supernatural species have a special language unique to them, but they still speak English as well.

(A/N: So sorry if this is super confusing, I’m new to worldbuilding lol)

---------------

“-And this is where Jin-hyungie yelled at Namjoon-hyungie for breaking his vase. I think he said it was like thousands of years old or something...”

The little vamp’s commentary was cute, but Hoseok found himself a bit distracted by the beautiful mansion he’d been led to.

Jungkook had shown him the few miles back to the residence he apparently shared with five others. It was situated at the edge of the large forest Hoseok had been dropped into, an extravagant, nature-inspired mansion just before the tree line. Largely constructed of large logs of wood, Hoseok couldn’t help but admire the details in the craftsmanship. Fairies had an appreciation for nature, so he saw many houses just like this one back in Aurora.

Hoseok followed Jungkook through the front door and into a big entry room where the younger was currently rambling about random memories and his ‘hyungies’.

After switching their dirty shoes for slippers, they made their way up a grand staircase just beyond the foyer and ended up in a lounge room where Hoseok couldn’t help but freeze in his steps at the sight of another person.

A small man with pale skin and a dark, sharp gaze stood only a few feet in front of them with curious eyes. He was dressed in blue velvet pajamas and had matching sliders on his feet. He’d obviously just come through the door on the left side of the room that leads even further into the house. He looked at Hoseok with analyzing eyes. “Jungkook, is this a friend of yours?” the man asked, tone neutral.

“Oh, Yoongi-hyung!” Jungkook exclaimed, an excited smile on his face. “This is Hoseok-ssi, he’s a fairy! I just found him in the woods and told him he could stay here-”

“You what?” The man, Yoongi, hissed, eyes suddenly narrowing in on the young vampire. (Yoongi’s look)

Jungkook became wide-eyed at his hyung’s outburst and repeated unsurely, “I-I found him in the woods...”

Yoongi pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. “Jeon Jungkook, what the actual fuck were you thinking?” Despite the angry worry in the words, Hoseok could hear the underlying fondness as well. Yoongi dropped his hand and looked at Jungkook seriously. “How many times have hyungs told you that you can’t just bring strangers into our house, especially a random fairy you found in the woods -,” his feline-like eyes cut to Hoseok, “- No offense.”

Hoseok waved him off, understanding. “None taken. It was a little strange that he seemed to trust me so quickly, but I thought it was perhaps just a custom on Earth.”

Jungkook pouted, slouched over next to him. He obviously took the gentle reprimand from his hyung to heart.

Yoongi was still regarding Hoseok with a calculating gaze but remained amicable. “Jungkook is still young, he doesn’t see new people very often.”

The fairy hummed in agreement. If Jungkook had been turned only seven years ago, that meant that he probably still needed to be close to his sire most of the time. Carrying on that train of thought, “Are you his sire?”

“I am,” the older vampire replied, before cutting to the chase. “Do you have any intentions of harming me or any of my pack?”

Hoseok could tell that Yoongi was quite a bit older than him by his aura alone, but the impact the vampire’s demanding words had on him left no room for doubt. His tone was laced with dominance, letting the other know that he really didn’t want to know the consequences that came with lying. Not that a fairy could straight out lie anyways.

Thankfully, the fairy just had to be honest. “I wish no harm to you or your pack,” he replied, hoping his genuine tone got across to him. “I apologize if I’m intruding.”

Yoongi sighed, “Well, Jungkook already invited you in and it would be rude to throw you back out.” The vampire took a moment to think before he said, “Follow me. I think we should probably talk about a few things.”

---------------------

“I’m sure you understand that I need to know more about you before you can stay with us as a guest,” Yoongi said. He’d led them to another lounge room, one that apparently the pack used most often.

Hoseok agreed with a nod as he settled down onto the comfortable, plush sofa, the other two taking the pair of empty recliners across from him. “Of course I understand. We are strangers. I suppose I should be wearier of you as well but I honestly don’t think I have the strength at the moment.”

He’d been slowly feeling the energy drain out of him since he came through the Gate, but now that he was seated, he realized that his earlier tiredness was becoming increasingly greater.

“Are you okay?” Jungkook immediately asked, worry in his gaze. “Did your journey through the Gate take a big toll on you?”

“Gate?” Yoongi asked, eyebrow raised.

“Yes, hyung,” Jungkook replied. “Hoseok-ssi came through the forest Gate.”

“The gate in the Mysterious Forest? Our Mysterious Forest?” At the younger vampire’s confirming nod, Yoongi hummed thoughtfully. “That’s never a good sign.”

Hoseok frowned, “What do you mean?”

Yoongi shifted his gaze back over to him, “Do you think that anyone really wants to go to a place with a name such as the Mysterious Forest?”

Well, he certainly had a point there.

“I didn’t know where I was going when I went through the Gate,” Hoseok admitted. “Unfortunately, it was without my consent.”

The older vampire furrowed his brows in confusion. “If that’s all, why didn’t you simply go back through?”

The fairy sighed. “It’s a bit hard to...”

As he was trying to find his words, a new figure walked through the door to the lounge room. Hoseok watched as a short man with what could only be a dancer’s body walked in. He wore jeans and a black knit-sweater interwoven with bright colors to form random words. He was a sight for sore eyes with his bubblegum pink hair and matching plump, pink lips.

It was the color that first made him realize who the man before him was, then the familiar aura about him confirmed Hoseok’s suspicions.

This was Jungkook’s fairy hyung. What had the young vamp said his name was again?

The man’s eyes were also undoubtedly flashing the same shade as his hair as he took in Hoseok, his expression melting from surprise into an angelic smile. (Jimin’s look) “And just who do we have here?”

“Jimin-ah,” Yoongi greeted, a small but fond smile on his face. The same kind of fondness that he’d expressed towards Jungkook not too long ago. “You’re home early.”

The man, Jimin, replied to the older vampire but didn’t let his eyes stray from Hoseok. “Jin-hyung told me to go home because he says I’ve been working too hard lately.”

Before that conversation could continue, Jimin strutted across the floor with a light confidence about him and held his hand out towards Hoseok.

Blinking in surprise, Hoseok lifted his hand shakily, thankful when Jimin took the initiative to press their palms flat together in a traditional fairy greeting. Hoseok felt a rush of kind and loving flow through him - Jimin’s unmistakable aura. He knew that Jimin was probably feeling his own orange positivity and warmth. As fairies, they could sense each other’s intentions easily.

“It’s nice to meet you,” the pink fairy greeted, relaxed. “I’m Park Jimin.”

“Jung Hoseok,” the orange fairy breathed, relieved to find the reassurance of a kind soul.

Jimin’s eyes widened slightly, “You don’t happen to be one of the Jungs, would you? Aurora’s royal family?”

Yoongi’s eyes cut to Hoseok with that same sharp gaze while Jungkook looked at him with a bewildered expression. If they weren’t so unfamiliar with each other, Hoseok might have laughed at the totally stark contrast between the two.

As it was, Hoseok bit his lip and nodded in answer to the man’s question, unable to lie even if he wanted to. “Yes, I am part of the royal family.”

Jimin quirked an eyebrow at him, “Then what in the world are you doing here?”

“That’s what he was explaining to us before you arrived,” Yoongi said. “Jungkook was in the forest when Hoseok-ssi came through the Gate. He brought him back here.”

“Brought him back-” Jimin looked like he was about to explode as he desperately looked at the young vampire. He seemed to cut himself off before he could start scolding him. “Never mind, that’s not important right now. What is important is why Hoseok-ssi came through the Gate and why his energy levels are dropping. So, while I make some tea to help with that, he can continue his story.”

Hoseok was a little surprised by how forward the other fairy was, but he didn’t question it.

Perhaps it wasn’t the best idea to tell three nearly strangers his personal story, but Hoseok felt all the adrenaline of the last few hours wear off and bone-deep exhaustion take its place.

As Jimin made his way over to the corner of the lounge room, where a small counter sat, to turn on the kettle to boil, Hoseok took a deep breath. “I’m...my older brother is the King of the Fairy Kingdom,” he began, ignoring Jungkook’s immediate little gasp of surprise. “I...We had a disagreement during a council meeting and he...he, ah, he banished me from Aurora.”

Hoseok couldn’t help but feel embarrassed as he took in Jungkook’s shocked expression and Yoongi’s thoughtful one.

Jimin sat down bravely next to Hoseok and place a comforting hand over his own. “Your brother is King Minseok?” At Hoseok’s confirming nod, Jimin hummed understandingly. “He’s a...a bit of a loose cannon, isn’t he?”

Hoseok hummed his affirmation. “No one can predict how he’ll react to something, even the smallest of things. After our father was killed fifteen years ago, Minseok has had the throne.”

“I remember the coronation,” Jimin commented.

Hoseok vaguely wondered why Jimin had left Aurora, and if it had been of his own accord. However, he knew that he was the one being interrogated right now.

“I was under the impression that the current King was a good man,” Yoongi said, his brows furrowed slightly.

“He is,” Hoseok defended, almost instinctively. “I mean...he’s far from the worst ruler the Kingdom has ever known.”

“That’s not very convincing,” Yoongi rebutted.

“He has good intentions, but he is prideful,” Hoseok admitted. He’d never said such things about his brother out loud before, and it honestly felt really good. “He doesn’t like when someone has ideas that differ from his own.”

“H-He banned you just because you had a different opinion than him?!” Jungkook nearly shouted, incredulous.

Hoseok nodded, still a little ashamed. “I’m not allowed back into Aurora. He’ll kill me if I show up there ever again.”

A silence came over the room as everyone digested Hoseok’s story. Yoongi and Jungkook were both obviously lost in thought as Jimin crossed the room once more when the kettle whistled.

Hoseok watched as Jimin pulled a teabag out of a tall, silver container and placed it in one of the available mugs. Jimin then poured the water into the mug as well before adding in a bit of honey and stirring. In the back of his mind, Hoseok wondered if Jimin somehow knew that that was how he preferred his tea, or if it was simply a coincidence.

The pink fairy sauntered back over to the sofa and handed Hoseok the steaming cup of tea. “I could feel your energy levels sinking, so this should help a bit.”

Hoseok inhaled the scent of berries and a hint of citrus. Cautiously, he took a sip. There were floral undertones to the tea that seemed to send a spark of something through his veins, though he couldn’t quite identify what it was.

“It tastes wonderful,” he complimented. “I swear I feel more stable already.”

Jimin giggled, “I would hope so. Our Taehyungie worked on perfecting that blend for years.”

Another one of Jungkook’s ‘hyungies’, Hoseok guessed.

He hadn’t really wanted to admit to himself, but his magic energy truly was dropping low. He’d never experienced it before himself, nor had he heard many others’ stories of it, but Hoseok knew that’s what was happening to him. Low magic energy is one of the only ‘sicknesses’ that could kill a supernatural creature. Though typically caused by overuse of magic, it can also be caused by a spell or come about as a reaction to shock. Hoseok didn’t think that what he’d gone through that day warranted enough shock to cause it, but he certainly hadn’t overused his magic. Perhaps a spell had been cast on him by a witch, though that was highly unlikely. Oh well, that was something for future, not-tired Hoseok to worry about.

“Well, thank you,” Hoseok said. “Both for the tea and for taking me in. I don’t really have anywhere to go.”

“You should be thanking Jungkook for being reckless,” Yoongi replied. “If he hadn’t brought you here, we wouldn’t have been able to help you.”

Jungkook looked up at the older vampire then, all wide, puppy eyes and a pout on his lips. “H-Hyungie, I’m so sorry that I was so stupid. I realize now that Hoseok-ssi could have been a bad person and I let him into our house. I just really liked him and I wanted to help him,” Jungkook muttered, still ashamed. “I didn’t mean to put the pack in danger.”

Hoseok was surprised when, for the first time, Yoongi’s expression shifted into something else entirely, his typically stoic exterior melting completely at the younger vampire’s cuteness and innocence. He reached out and curled a hand around Jungkook’s shoulder, sliding to the edge of his seat so he could be closer to the younger.

“It’s alright, little one,” Yoongi reassured in a smooth, calming tone that filled Hoseok with warmth. “I know you didn’t mean to. You haven’t been in contact with many others besides us in years, I’m sure meeting a new person was really exciting. Just remember to be more careful in the future.”

Jungkook nodded almost feverishly as he melted into his hyung’s familiar touch. “I will,” he promised.

Jimin must have noticed the surprised look on Hoseok’s face because he couldn’t keep in his giggles. “Yoongi-hyung seems all scary, but he is truly the biggest softie in the whole world.”

“Park Jimin,” Yoongi replied, a fake-sweet smile on his lips. “Shut your trap.”

Jimin smirked, “Well, you can’t tell me I’m lying, hyung. I’m a fairy.”

Hoseok blushed a little in embarrassment about being caught staring, but he giggled along as well, albeit a bit more tiredly.

Jimin turned back to him and gave him a knowing smile. “After the day you’ve had, I’m sure you’re more than exhausted. Let me show you to a guest room where you can take a nap.”

“Wait,” Hoseok blinked, “So...you’ll allow me to stay here? Even though you don’t really know me?”

“You’ve been easily honest with us, which is rare, even from a fairy,” Jimin replied. “Plus, your aura has told me enough.” The pink fairy stood up and held a hand out for Hoseok to take. “Come on, you need rest.”

Hoseok looked over at Yoongi, who was now running his hands through Jungkook’s hair soothingly. The older vampire gave a single nod, “I’m cautious, but I trust Jimin’s intuition. I also know that I’m much older than you and that it would be foolish of you to try to take me on.”

Well, at least he was honest, even if brutally so.

Hoseok gave him a small, thankful smile anyways and turned back to the pink fairy in front of him. “Okay, lead the way.”

With Jimin’s hand occupying his right, and his left curled around the warm mug of tea, he followed the pink fairy through a maze of hallways. Unlike Jungkook, who excitedly pointed things out to him, Jimin was quiet, probably because he could feel how tired Hoseok was as their hands touched.

“Just in here is one of the guest rooms,” Jimin announced, pushing open one of a hundred doors they’d passed by. “Though, we don’t have guests all that often, so don’t expect much.”

The room greeted Hoseok with the same wood cabin style walls and floor that seemed present throughout the whole house, the walls decorated with a few abstract art pieces. A king-sized four-poster bed was the centerpiece of the room, with a set of drawers, a vanity, and a bedside table filling up the rest of the space.

Simple, unlived in, and a safe place to sleep.

“It’s wonderful, thank you.”

Jimin smiled brightly at him, his eyes nearly disappearing with the action, before he gestured towards the two doors to their left. “The en suite is through there, and the other one is a closet, though I suppose you don’t have any other clothes with you...”

“Jimin-ssi,” the orange fairy began.

“Yes?”

"Thank you,” Hoseok licked his lips, suddenly feeling parched. “I really don’t know much about Earth and I’m really not sure how I would have faired if the little vamp hadn’t found me. As reckless as it may have been for Jungkook to invite me into your home, I am eternally grateful for his kindness. And yours and your pack’s as well, for allowing me to stay here.”

Jimin’s smile softened and he replied, “I would never leave a fellow fairy in need. Besides, your aura has given me nothing but positive feelings. My pack trusts that I can read your intentions well enough.”

Hoseok took a sip of the tea he’d nearly forgotten about in his hands, soothing his parched throat.

“Get some sleep,” Jimin said. “Hopefully that will bring your energy levels back up some.”

Hoseok nodded in agreement, setting the cup of tea on the bedside table and taking a seat himself on the edge of the bed. Moments after Jimin left the room, Hoseok laid down to sleep. He was out before his head hit the pillow.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

A/N: Props to anyone that really worldbuilds in their story, it is not an easy thing. I feel like mine is kind of a mess, so I apologize. Let me know if you’re confused about something or have any suggestions for me <3

[tearsofthemis]

Tears of Themis : Chapter 1 “Social Snobbery” Part 9

[Previous Part] | [Masterlist] | [Next Part]

▌ Location- QingPing Restaurant, Second Floor

(XinRan finished taking Fang Yuan’s blood pressure, and then removed the cuff from his arm and packed it away.)

Fang Yuan: “XinRan, don’t worry about me. The truth was and is, that the restaurant sanitation was poor, and the customers suffered from it. Just because you hired detectives doesn’t mean that they’ll be able to turn the case around. Why don’t you tell grandpa about your studies, when do your classes start?” (XinRan stopped fumbling with the blood pressure records and turned to look at Fang Yuan. Her eyes were red with unshed tears.)

XinRan: “Grandpa Fang, you… you’re hiding something, aren’t you?” Fang Yuan: “Hiding something? XinRan, grandpa’s not following what you mean.” XinRan: “I just took your blood pressure, and the numbers are better than they were two days ago. When you said you were feeling ill downstairs, were you faking it? You didn’t want to answer the detective’s questions, right…” Fang Yuan: “XinRan, I…” XinRan: “What are you covering for? If this case goes sour, the restaurant will be forced to shut down!” (Fang Yuan paused and sighed.)

Fang Yuan: “I… there is no other way. This… is a long story.”

~~~

▌ Location- QingPing Restaurant, First Floor

(After Xia Yan’s analysis, the pesticide powder and fingerprints opened up new questions. Like Xia Yan and Zuo Ran predicted, this case may not be just a simple case of accidental food poisoning.)

Xia Yan: “Analyzing individual clues by themselves won’t get us any further. We have to cross examine them and connect the dots if we want to provide concrete evidence for the case.”

MC: “You have a point. For instance, the pesticide found in the spring water could very likely be different from the one that Fang Yuan purchased. Bugger-Off isn’t harmful to humans. In that case, the pesticide we found crystallized on the water pump should be Insect Repellent 330.” Xia Yan: “Right, the yellow compound found on the pump is clearly dangerous to humans. I looked it up, and the composition is a match for Insect Repellent 330. I took apart the water pump and found a high concentration of pesticide residue inside the core. This explains why we found residue on the spout; the spring water is saturated with the stuff.” MC: “Then, as long as the water was retrieved using the pump, the water would be contaminated! There’s absolutely no mistake now that this was intentional!”

Xia Yan: “Does that explain why customers experienced food poisoning symptoms? Is it because they ingested food made with the contaminated water?” MC: “Let me think… we already have the story and evidence. We should be able to find more concrete proof that supports this theory.”

~~~Start analysis!~~~

AI (Instructions): “By now, we have collected tons of evidence. All that’s missing is to piece it together and form a theory. The problem we must answer is denoted here. Please select two clues that can provide an explanation.”

▌ [Select: Contaminated spring water, Customer’s medical examination info]

MC: “I can confirm this: the medical examination describes that the patients experienced stomachaches and diarrhea. These are both reactions that can occur when Insect Repellent 330 is ingested.” Xia Yan: “We can say for certain that this case is not an ordinary accidental food poisoning caused by malpractice.”

MC: “Right, Insect Repellent 330 is an industrial pesticide. To find traces of it in a restaurant supports the fact that this was intentional and in no way caused by poor management! The culprit operated under the intent of causing bodily harm. This is a crime! So if Mr. Fang’s runner didn’t buy the industrial pesticide, then who did? There must be more evidence that the culprit has visited the restaurant. Perhaps they left prints, or other marks?”

▌ [Select: Fingerprints on water pump, Fingerprint ID registered in door lock]

Xia Yan: “There were prints on both the inside and outside of the water pump, of which, four sets of prints obtained correspond to the ID records from the lock. The earliest ID record was from ten years ago and was probably registered when the lock was first installed. This set should undoubtedly belong to Fang Yuan. There were two more IDs registered three years ago, and one year ago, respectively. Based on the workers that Xue XinRan identified earlier, those sets would belong to the restaurant’s employees. The fourth set was registered six years ago. At the moment, I can’t think of who this person may be.” MC: “An ex-employee, perhaps?”

Xia Yan: “That possibility can be eliminated, I think. The history of all registered IDs can be viewed, and any ex-employee records were cleaned. I found a match for the fourth set of prints on another clue, wanna guess which one it is?”

~~~Analysis ends!~~~

MC: “I-it’s the prints from the Insect Repellent 330 receipt!”

Xia Yan: “Bingo. The same set of prints were also found on the inside of the water pump’s core.” MC: “So we know for certain that someone who doesn’t work at the restaurant has appeared recently. This should be our culprit! To add, since they have access to the restaurant, they must be close to Mr. Fang. In regards to who that person may be… we may need to interview Mr. Fang in order to get their name.

Xia Yan: “Even if we were to present Mr. Fang with what we’ve gathered thus far, I don’t think we have a reliable line of questioning built just yet.” MC: “You’re thinking... that Mr. Fang would protect the culprit?” Xia Yan: “That’s right.” MC: “If you’ve already anticipated his reaction, does this mean you have more proof to fall back on?” Xia Yan: “With your typical water delivery service, they will collect used containers and process them off site. However, the empty container is still at the restaurant, and the production date is the same as the day of the incident. It was also scrubbed clean. No prints, no leftover spring water, nada. To add, the harmless insecticide found leftover underneath the wine rack was swept away.” MC: “Bugger-Off is what the restaurant has always used for pest control. What if one of the employees swept it away?”

Xia Yan: “In a restaurant that’s already dealing with a food safety case, the employees wouldn’t dare to do something that would further jeopardize the restaurant’s merit without the owner’s consent. I’m guessing this is an attempt to tamper with the evidence. After Mr. Fang found out about the culprit’s actions, he must have tried to cover up their tracks.”

MC: “If it’s like that, then Mr. Fang and the culprit must have a deep relationship.”

(Why would Fang Yuan go to such lengths to protect someone that’s trying to sabotage his restaurant? Xia Yan and I were at a loss. Just then, Xue XinRan rushed down the stairs. The corners of her eyes were red - she must have been crying. When our eyes met, she stopped in her tracks. She opened her mouth, and then closed it, as if she wanted to tell us something.)

(Before she could, however, Fang Yuan called her back upstairs.)

Fang Yuan: “XinRan, where did you put my medication…”

Xue XinRan: “I’ll grab it for you, Grandpa Fang. Don’t you dare get up.”

(XinRan hesitated, then turned to head upstairs again.)

MC: “Mr. Fang… what is he hiding?”

Xia Yan: “He may be unwilling to tell us the full story, but he hasn’t explicitly forbidden us from looking into it further. All we can do for now is to try and get to the bottom of this.”

MC: “In regards to the culprit’s identity… six years ago, they gained access to the restaurant and can come and go as they please. I wonder if this place brings back bad memories for them.” Xia Yan: “That’s true. The culprit must have had a bad run-in while the restaurant was operational. We should be able to find supporting leads, for example, a financial record of some sort. Let’s do another sweep of the first floor. If we come up empty-handed, then we’ll have no choice but to directly question Mr. Fang.” MC: “Ah, speaking of bad run-ins, I suddenly recall…”

(Perhaps we really were connected. Xia Yan and I exchanged only a brief glance, but he was able to infer what I was implying.)

Xia Yan: “Could you be referring to… MeiWeiKa!”

-------

[Previous Part] | [Masterlist] | [Next Part]

-------

《CREDIT》 Translator: @humi-and-co​ Editor: @hallowsivy​​ 《未定事件簿》Tears of Themis is a 2020 Chinese otome game by 米哈游Mihoyo. All original credits go to 米哈游Mihoyo. 

《 VOICE ACTORS 》  Xia Yan | Jin Xian: https://weibo.com/riceranger Zuo Ran | Zhao Lu: https://weibo.com/mzhaolu Xue XinRan | V17-Su Wan: https://weibo.com/u/2925530143 Fang Yuan | Zhao Yang

[bbq-hawks-wings]

Series Review Pt. 1/3

So, this isn’t even a YouTube video where you have the advantage of hearing a voice over a recording with snappy editing to lighten the mood or convey feeling; but believe me that there was a lot of earnest sincerity put into the review this time around.

But before I put the rest of it under the cut, there are some corrections/clarifications I want to put down about my last review that I believe we're significant shortcomings on my part. 

My first, and probably most MAJOR goof was my choice of words in trying to describe the scene with Hawks and Twice at the end of 263 - “ he clearly hasn’t killed Twice yet, and we don’t know why, but if he has to he’s prepared to do so without hesitation or remorse.”

BIG OOF. I hadn’t even been looking much at others’ opinions and the common-enough impression that Hawks doesn’t care about Twice at all/is incapable of empathy/ONLY concerned with his mission from the Commission. When I looked back at my own review, though I didn’t have any indication anyone believed I was one of those people (“without remorse” being the problematic phrase in question), I could easily see how others could get the impression and decided to wait until the next review to do a better job instead of just saying I would. My views on that particular scene will be clear later on, but at least that’s out of the way in case that was keeping people from reading this in the first place.

Second, I failed to arrange my observation points in a more ideal order. If anything, the fact that we were seeing that last page from Twice’s perspective should have been the first point. This mistake made it sound like a neutral assessment of the situation instead of an observation through the context of Jin's feelings. This ended up confusing even myself, as someone who usually writes these reviews solo, into forgetting to factor in that Twice's perspective may be warping the perception of Hawks guarding him into one of intent to kill while forgetting that the Hero Code forbids killing others unless it's truly a necessary last resort. For some reason, Sad Man's Parade and Twice's two-double limit also slipped my mind which brings me to the last point.

Third, I rushed things. When I rush, I make mistakes, sometimes pretty sloppy ones. It has been a ROUGH couple of weeks to be a Hawks or villain stan, even more so if you’re both, so for some reason I felt like I needed to get my thoughts out there quickly. I don’t have any kind of real incentive to do so other than a faster response - I don’t make any money off this, don’t have any relevance algorithm to feed as if I was on YouTube or Twitter, and I’m not the only half-decently known blog to hold these opinions so I don’t know what I was thinking. That’s my problem, but that doesn’t mean I have to make it anyone else’s.

For complete transparency, I’ve been reading and re-reading through the entire series canon again, starting with Hawks’ manga debut, and reviewing the entire series’ events and in-universe history, and have been taking literal whole pages of notes and drafts since Thursday the 12th. I’m glad I did because it brought to mind things that often get left out of pockets of fandom discussion who hyper-focus on their circles of interest while forgetting that each individual section is meant to work with the whole.

That’s what we’ll be working with today, and additional thanks goes to  @baezetsu and @dorito9708 for volunteering as proofreaders and editors to make this more focused and concise. If you’re interested please keep reading. A fair warning, this is what we in the professional field call a “long-ass post, no seriously guys grab a drink and a snack we’re gonna be here a while.” It's actually so long I have to split it up into parts because Tumblr Mobile is stupid and doesn't like making the "read more" function available to the mobile version.

So here we go, people, let’s try this again one last time…

Where we’re at in Chapter 264 (or at least, you know, ignoring literally everyone in the series that isn’t these two) is Twice and Hawks’ confrontation in the study room; but let’s put a pin in that for now and come back.

The biggest piece of information to keep in mind is that even though both these characters are currently front-and-center and have major plot and symbolic value in the series, they are still not the main characters. Their conflict is also not the central conflict. Let’s zoom out to the big picture and see what happens when we put everything together at the end.

The whole inciting incident of the series is when humanity began to display superhuman abilities in a few random individuals. These abilities are neither inherently good or bad - they are constantly intended as neutral with the potential being dependent on the user. Eventually these abilities began to be collectively termed as “quirks” - literally just a single facet of each person’s unique identity. From a social commentary standpoint, quirks have been used as a narrative stand-in for the unique situational circumstances or combinations of circumstances individuals may find themselves with that are either mostly or completely outside of their control like aptitude, physical ability, race/appearance, mental state, and inherited societal station. While more of these examples have been explicitly stated and inserted into the story later on, quirks still serve as the main catalyst and lens by which these topics are discussed.

Because of the initially new and unfamiliar nature of these abilities, people who possessed them faced descrimination and persecution despite having no say in whether or not they had them; and some who did possess these abilities began abusing their power. Taking advantage of this, a man calling himself One-for-All took unwanted quirks from people and redistributed them claiming to want to help others and bring about peace but merely wished to amass power and a following for his own gain. Morally upright individuals eventually rose to the occasion and placed themselves between innocent bystanders and evildoers, earning no official reward or compensation for their work, though eventually they became so effective that they became recognized and endorsed if they went through proper governmental training and channels. These endorsed specialty crime fighters came to be dubbed “heroes.”

All-For-One had risen to prominence by this point and his loyal following actively supported him in his now blatant criminal empire despite the morally reprehensible actions he committed which incessantly terrorized innocent bystanders - earning him the title Symbol of Evil or Symbol of Fear. Eventually a hero named All Might rose up to specifically deal with All-For-One’s reign of terror, having worked his way up from obscurity taking down criminals and saving civilians in unprecedented numbers, determined to create a world where everyone could feel safe in the face of danger. Though only succeeding in beating AFO into hiding All Might ushered in a new era of safety and prosperity earning him the title Symbol of Peace.

Therein lies the central message - “It’s not the situation you’re given that determines your worth or potential but what you choose to do with it” - and the main conflict is - “I want to use what I’ve been given for my own benefit" vs "I want to use what I’ve been given for others.” Deku and Shiguraki are merely the next generation iteration of this conflict distilled down to their simplest essence. Deku's desire is to save anyone who needs help the moment he realizes they need it. Shiguraki wants to remove people's sense of security regardless of their character or situation. 

This conflict is initially framed as simple - a clear black and white/good and bad dynamic that’s easy to see from a distance; but as characters and groups developed over time it’s become more and more difficult to tell the two sides apart. It was not a coincidence that immediately after introducing the clear-as-day bad guys to the series we were presented with the idea that who we perceived to be “good guys” could be bad people doing good things or that people could do good things for the wrong reasons when we were presented with the personal conflicts that Bakugo, Shinsou, and Todoroki all faced at the Sports Festival that were either their internal struggles with the way the were perceived by others or were their personal struggles with the way they perceived themselves. Immediately after that, we were introduced to Stain's criticism of modern heroes and shown who would come to be the core members of the League of Villains.

At the current events in the series we’ve waded through so many shades of grey we’re expected to determine who’s a “hero” and “villain” not by what they say but what they do, how they do it, and why they do it. The individual members of the League of Villains touch on various ways a person might be driven to a life dedicated either to the pursuit of personal satisfaction with no concern to others or to the active pursuit of destroying others, and generally the villains are some of the most morally gray characters we have in the series, though not all of them - the two most notable morally gray “good guys” are Hawks and Endeavor.

There’s one last thing to note about how the series chooses to distinguish morally gray characters as “good” and “bad,” and that ultimately boils down to the choices they make with the hand they are dealt - that being to help or to harm others. This is not quite the same thing as a “hero” and a “villian” (I know, as if it wasn’t confusing enough), but the series has now gone to great lengths to make a clear distinction between the ideals of heroism and the institution of heroism.

Looking at the difference in institutions and ideals as the series presents them we get a better picture of the actual core issues the series seeks to address. The institution of heroism is a utilitarian approach to maintaining a sense of order and safety, and it does so by incentivising people to resolve as many public altercations as possible in exchange for wealth and fame. Criminals are those who break the law regardless of the motivation for the crime or its degree of impact. The institution does not take into account factors that may drive someone to commit a crime nor is it concerned with the core motivations of those enforcing the sense of order.

On the opposite hand, the ideal of heroism offers no reward, no recognition, may require some amount of suffering on the part of the hero, and never guarantees that the victim in question will be saved. Conversely, villainy/evil is any action taken for one's own gain with zero regard to the impact on others and/or is any action committed with malicious intent. These definitions are about moral obligation and human to human connection.

While having a strong correlation (helping others because it's right usually helps the majority in the long run, and doing harm is often ultimately bad for the majority) these two schools of thought are able to function independently of each other. In other words, a criminal can be a good person fallen on hard times (like stealing food to feed their family, but only as much as they need from someone who won’t notice it missing) while a “professional hero” can be an evil person doing good things for the wrong reasons (like obsessing over gaining wealth and popularity with no mind to collateral damage they may cause). Most characters are categorized and even described in-universe as morally aligning with the institution they associate with; but several have been explicitly noted as exceptions to the rule such as Gentle Criminal and La Brava, Endeavor, and Twice. 

Are we properly confused yet? Great, because there’s one more layer to consider! What do we make of someone who is trying to do a good thing (like saving as many people as possible from a known threat) but to do so has to make a choice that might leave a few people in the fire? Which outcome do we use to decide if this is a good person or a bad one? Do we judge based on intent or on the outcome?

Now we zoom back in to Hawks and Twice, but we’ll pick that up in Part Two.

Part Three

[demonsfate]

canon divergent masterpost .

Although I mention a few points in my rules, and in their biographies, I wanted to make a post that specifically points out all major parts of my Jin that diverges from canon. Anywhere from characterization to events that transpired.

● Devil is not Jin's alter ego. He is another, completely different person. He and Jin are two souls in one physical body. [This may be something that's more unclear in canon, but this blog strictly depicts Devil as an unique individual]

● Devil has a true name that was given to him at conception by Azazel. This name is Abaddon. Which is Hebrew for destruction, It matches Azazel's intentions for Devil, which was to punish mankind and cause destruction amongst the world. Nobody else, besides Azazel and other devils, are aware of Abaddon's name unless he told them in threads.

● Jin & Devil have known each other since essentially birth, as they were both born at the same time. Devil is not an extension of Kazuya's devil. He is not his other half, he has never been with Kazuya, nor did he later possess Jin as a teenager. Devil has been with Jin since the very beginning of both their lives. Although Devil hadn't ' awakened ' until Heihachi killed Jin, Devil would sometimes appear in Jin's dreams during his childhood & up until his teen years. Thus, Jin had technically known Devil since they were children, but assumed he was an odd, specific reoccurring dream until his death awakened Devil from his slumber. [Just like in canon, devils can only awaken within the host after they endure a (near) death experience. However, on this blog, Devil has always been present, just in the back of the subconscious]

● Devil was never ' protecting ' Jin. Pre-Tekken 8, there may have been instances where Devil had protected Jin either inadvertently or intentionally, but it was never his priority nor the reason of his existence. Pre-Tekken 8 / Pre-Purified Devil was horrible to Jin, and downright traumatized him on several occasions. Whilst Devil liked Jin, he saw Jin as inferior, and treated him more as a possession (object or pet) than as an actual person. Prior Tekken 8, Devil and Jin were almost constantly fighting each other for control of the body. He was not a guardian devil, and would always pick himself over Jin.

● The Devil Gene was never a good / beneficial thing that Jin had to just ' accept ' . No, Devil was always meant to be a malevolent force that was to punish mankind. Jin was merely a host so that Devil can carry out his purpose.

● Jin is autistic. His neurodivergence is primarily why he's a ' stoic ' , simply because Jin struggles to express his own emotions. He feels deeper than his face lets on. Jin will also struggle to read other people's emotions, too. Ironically, he has an easier time reading those who are more exaggerate in their emotions.

● Devil is responsible for the war, not Jin. Devil began to grow stronger within Jin during the 5th tournament, which was Jin's reason for joining the 5th tournament - to stop Devil from consuming him completely. Ultimately, Jin failed and Devil took over the body. Believing he had ' killed ' Jin within, Devil took on Jin's appearance and identity when acquiring the Zaibatsu to gain trust among humanity, as a means to have a proper army. Devil's motivations solely were to awaken Azazel, take its power, and take over the world for his own. Any excuse of saving the world from something that will destroy it is simply a lie to gain trust and nothing more. This failed when it turned out Jin actually wasn't dead, and was able to take back the body right before Azazel's emergence out of its tomb. Because of this, Jin does not remember anything during the war, nor the people involved. (He didn't even know who Lars was until meeting him in the Middle East)

● As stated, Devil was never good. Therefore, when Jin confronted him in his mindscape during his visit in Yakushima, Devil didn't turn out to be good when Jin learned to ' accept ' the Devil gene and his ' past ' . It was another struggle for control of the body. However, Jin decided fighting wasn't going to work, and instead decided to try to save Devil's soul with the newfound power he felt deep within. This power was the power of purification that the Kazamas possess. Jin managed to successfully purify Devil, and eradicate every influence or intention Azazel had planted into Devil at conception.

● Jin always had the power of purification as the Kazamas seem to often possess. It was awakening during the 8th tournament, another reason why Jin couldn't control the devil powers anymore. Jun simply amplified his powers so that he may be strong enough to reach Angel form, with addition to Devil's help.

● Angel Jin isn't just Jin, but instead a fusion between both Jin & Devil and will have a mix of their personality traits. Angel Jin himself feels like both Jin & Devil, but also feels as if he's his own person. It's a confusing but intriguing existence for him.

● Jin still has the devil gene / Devil isn't dead. Devil didn't die during the struggle with Kazuya at the end of T8. It nearly killed him, but didn't quite. Devil was in a ' comatose ' state for weeks after the battle, but eventually resurfaced, albeit in a weaker condition. Because he's been weakened, Devil cannot give his powers to Jin. Devil is also less likely to be in control as much as he's still in a recovering state. The reason for this is because Devil has always been a primary muse on this blog and I wanted to continue writing him, and because I simply do not think Jin is free of the devil gene for a couple reasons. (Still has the mark on his arm, and was still talking to somebody in the end that clearly wasn't his mother, and nobody else was around)

● Whilst Jin accepts that Devil will always be with him, and they are much friendlier with each other / living together in peace, they're not exactly close buddies. Devil had caused a lot of trauma. To both Jin, and the entire world. It's something that isn't easily forgotten nor forgiven. They will always have a strain in their relationship because of this. Devil wishes Jin will someday view him as a close friend, but Jin doesn't see that happening in the near future.

Things that diverges from popular fanon. There are a few popular fanon takes that I simply... do not agree with. It's not much, but I'll list them here real quick.

● Yes, Jin is a virgin (by default / outside of ships). But... this doesn't mean he's a sexless guy. Jin is still very much interested in sex. He'll even talk about sex and make innuendos. Jin is not shy when it comes to sex. Sometimes, he can be very open about his sexuality, actually. Jin is a virgin due to his busy life, not because he's disinterested or because he doesn't know what sex is. Come on.

● Jin isn't good at socializing, but he isn't an introvert. Jin actually really likes making friends and deeply cares about them. There are a plethora of reasons why he didn't have many for years. The primary reason being he was scared of getting close to anyone due to the fear of Devil or his family hurting them. Jin thought it was best to push people away as to protect them. Now that Heihachi, Kazuya, and Devil are no longer of concern, Jin is very willing to hang out with his friends and make new ones. Jin also doesn't enjoy attending crowded places because they overwhelm him quickly. Jin sucks at socializing due to his quiet nature, haven't been occupied with hobbies in years, and failing to understand other people's emotions sometimes.

● Jin is a good guy, but he isn't exactly boy scout material either. Jin isn't a completely humble guy who has restraint and doesn't know what sex is and doesn't like breaking da rules. uwu. Sometimes, Jin can even be a punk. He isn't afraid to break laws if he believes they're not actually hurting anyone (see; graffiti, vandalization, illegal street fighting). Jin is quick to disrespect authority figures if he does not think they are deserving of his respect.

● Although Devil can speak in ' growls ' , he's very capable of speech. Other than when he was a kid, Devil can always speak beyond growls. Devil is a highly emotional being, therefore he may resort to growling and screaming should his emotions overwhelm him. But not only can Devil always talk, but he has a silver tongue. Devil may seem feral at times, but the intention of his creation was to manipulate both his host and humanity. He needs to be capable of proper speech to do that! That also being said, despite often seeming feral, Devil can be both domesticated & sophisticated. The latter being that he has a taste in expensive suits & material objects.

● Jin isn't as passionate about his rivalry with Hwoarang. He doesn't get as fired up or angry around Hwoarang as Hwoarang may to him. Jin actually sees Hwoarang as a friend, and won't deny it. This, of course, may differ with Hwoarang blogs. But it's generally how Jin feels.

This post is subject to change.

[littlenoona]

Control.

¬ Namjoon likes exactly that, control.

Genre: Smut.

Pairing: Namjoon x Reader(F).

Word Count: 693.

Understanding.

¬ You get your period while you’re with your boyfriend and you bleed through your jeans.

Genre: Fluff(I think? It’s got a teasing end(Don’t know if you can say a little bit of angst?)).

Pairing: Jin x Reader(F).

Word Count: 1,151.

Insecurities.

¬ You’re desperately in love with Jin, and he is in you, but your own mind will not let you give in to him and let him see you, all of you.

Genre: Angst.

Pairing: Jin x Reader.

Word Count: 1,500.

You need to feed.

¬ You know Yoongi hasn’t fed in a while due to a recent bad experience and he’s been burying himself in work because of it, so you go see how he’s feeling. What could go wrong?

Genre: Smut & angst(kinda? not really).

Pairing: Vampire!Yoongi x Reader(F).

Word Count: 2,569.

Climax.

¬ You’ve never had an orgasm before, but Yoongi wants to show you how it feels.

Genre: Smut & fluff.

Pairing: Yoongi x Reader(F).

Word Count: 4,624.

Passion.

¬ Jhope and you have a toxic “relationship”, but you can’t give him up.

Genre: Angst.

Pairing: Jhope x Reader.

Word Count: 538.

New Experiences.

¬ Jimin is your best friend and an encounter with one of his previous lovers has you wondering a lot about what sex is like.

Genre: Smut & fluff.

Pairing: Experienced!Jimin x Virgin!Reader(F).

Word Count: 9,204.

New Experiences(Part 2).

¬ Jimin has lots more to teach you and you love the way he’s teaching you.

Genre: Smut with some fluff, tiny bit of angst.

Pairing: Experienced!Jimin x Reader(F).

Word Count: 11,285.

Let them see.

¬ Your boyfriend forgot his lunch, so you bring it to him and he rewards you.

Genre: Smut.

Pairing: Boyfriend!Jimin x Reader(F).

Word Count: 5,374.

Don’t send me back.

¬ After years in a cage, alone and unwanted, a young man finally gives you a chance.

Genre: Fluff, angst & smut.

Pairing: HumanOwner!Jimin x HuskyHybrid!Reader(F).

Word Count: 9,211.

Cute?

¬ You talk to the other members about how cute Jimin always is, the boys start teasing him about how he’s not very assertive and dominant, but he shows you otherwise that night.

Genre: Smut.

Pairing: Boyfriend!Jimin x Reader(F).

Word Count: 4,871.

Night Terrors.

¬ You have a nightmare where Jimin dies and you need to find him to tell him you love him, to make sure he’s okay.

Genre: Angst & tiny bit of fluff.

Pairing: Jimin x Reader(F).

Word Count: 736.

Release.

¬ Jimin can’t sleep, and of course, you want to help.

Genre: Smut, it’s kinda fluffy.

Pairing: Bestfriend!Jimin x Reader(F).

Word Count: 2,359.

Wrong Move.

¬ Maybe you shouldn’t have said that to Taehyung.

Genre: Smut.

Pairing: Taehyung x Reader(F)(best friends with benefits).

Word Count: 1,838.

What makes you different?

¬ You’re not ready for commitment - you don’t know if you’re even ready to to think about it, previous experiences have left you rough, but Taehyung isn’t giving up on you just yet.

Genre: Angst & fluff.

Pairing: Bestfriend!Taehyung x Reader(F).

Word Count: 3,237.

Dinner Reservations.

¬ Trying to get ready to go out proves to be a little more difficult than usual with Taehyung in the house.

Genre: Smut.

Pairing: Boyfriend!Taehyung x Reader(F).

Word Count: 2,714.

Fever(ish). 

¬ A way to cool you down turns into something not so innocent. 

Genre: Smut.

Pairing: Roommate!Jungkook x Reader(F). 

Word Count: 2,806. 

Returning a favour.

¬ Jungkook has been taking good care of you while you were ill, and now it’s your turn to take care of him.

Genre: Smut.

Pairing: Roommate!Jungkook x Reader(F). 

Word Count: 3,673. 

Show me.

¬ Your old self-harm scars are annoying you, but your boyfriend shows you that you’re beautiful, even if you think the scars are ugly, he doesn’t.

Genre: Smut & fluff.

Pairing: Boyfriend!Jungkook x Reader(F).

Word Count: 2,242.

First Bite.

¬ Jungkook feeds on you.

Genre: Smut(kinda?).

Pairing: Vamp!Jungkook x Reader(F).

Word Count: 1,476.

Performances.

¬ The same handsome guy has been appearing at your performances and you become more and more interested in who he is - now you’re dancing only for him, despite a hall full of people.

Genre: Smut & fluff.

Pairing: Shy!Jungkook x ProfessionalDancer!Reader(F).

Word Count: 6,188.

Disobedient.

¬ Your alpha commands you to do a task you don’t want to - you refuse and end up paying the price.

Genre: Smut(there’s no story).

Pairing: Alpha!Jungkook x Packmember!Reader(F).

Word Count: 2,572.

Untouched.

¬ Your long time crush finds you in a club and unexpectedly takes you home. 

Genre: Smut & fluff.

Pairing: Jungkook x Reader(F).

Word Count: 5,553.

Life’s Blood.

¬ You produce blood cells at an increased rate when blood is lost, effectively, you cannot bleed out. This ability has served you well so far, even gaining you a rare friend, and you’ve made it your source of income, but it also has its downsides, one of which you’ve managed to avoid successfully, until now.

Genre: Smut, fluff & angst.

Pairing: Vampire!Jungkook x Human!Reader(F).

Word Count: 13,926.

You need us: The Buried Secret.

¬ Asking for protection comes at a big price and you’re more than ready to pay it, but betraying the ones that provide it, is a big mistake.

Genre: Smut.

Pairing: DomMafia!OT7 x Reader(F). 

Word Count: 10,036.

You need us: The Torturous Truth.

¬ Won-Shik has answers that you’re desperate for but you can’t locate him and the heads of your organisation tell you they can’t find him either - Jealousy comes back to haunt you, it’s not your own but you end up paying the price.

Genre: Smut, fluff & angst.

Pairing: DomMafia!OT7 x Reader(F).

Word Count: 23,175.

You need us: The Forced Reconciliation.

¬ Your relationship with the 7 heads turn toxic.

Genre: Angst, minimal fluff.

Pairing: DomMafia!OT7 x Reader(F).

Word Count: 13,928. 

You need us: The Uncertain Realisation.

¬ Not released yet.

Genre: Smut & fluff.

Pairing: DomMafia!OT7 x Reader(F).

Word Count: Unknown.

[sailor-cresselia]

Zero One 04: Watch out for incoming lore!

(And for incoming Riders and rocket fists.)

So, I’ve been having a lot of trouble freeing up the brain power to actually, y’know, even get myself to watch this week. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to, it’s just that I’m completely drained. So, this might not go as in-depth as I have in the past.

On a lore episode.

Ah well.

––

We’re starting this episode off with a bang – almost literally. The trip Aruto and Izu are on is to observe Anna, a tourguide HumaGear. At first, he’s still having fun, because, y’know, it’s a bus tour.

And then Anna announces that they’re coming up to the site of a significant event.

Aruto’s excitement drops off.

He was there, after all.

In Daybreak Town.

(One of the young boys who is also on the trip grows just as serious, looking down in the same way Aruto is.)

––

It turns out that Daybreak Town was a collaboration between the Japanese government, Hiden Intelligence, and a number of other corporations to design a city run by HumaGears. It was also where they launched the satellite from, the one that controls them.

We get treated to a diagram of several of the company logos spreading across the city, implying that they each were in charge of a district, before a ‘blueprint’ of the satellite.

I don’t like the phrasing said blueprint uses for some of the data readouts. There’s “Core Unit”, which is fine. The two “M-Wheels” are probably short for Motion, and what keep it stable. The section labeled “Life Line” is a little concerning. And I really, really, wish that Toei had chosen literally anything else for the bottom one, which reads “Slave Analyzer.”

Like, I know this is a Japanese show, and the kids probably aren’t going to be able to read it, but their parents? MAYBE! And since we’re dealing with ‘robots’ who are slowly gaining sentience… yeah. I’m not comfortable with this at all.

ANYWAY. Let’s leave the sub-text issues, and into the real-text issues, shall we?

And it sure is an issue!

Like I mentioned before I got off track, the city was an attempt to design an urban center run by HumaGears, as well as all sorts of research projects, including the satellite.

But 12 years ago, there was an accident in the Research and Development sector. It’s shown as a wide view of the city, showing just how large the explosion was – and it was big. And bright blue. You know. The same type of blue flame that we see in Aruto’s flashbacks.

But the damage didn’t stay in R&D for long, and it spread to the power infrastructure. In the end, the entire city was wiped out.

Even 12 years later, nobody is allowed in.

––

Back in the present, we see Anna and the school tour (and Aruto and Izu) at a viewing platform, with a view of the lake that the city has become.

At one very smug looking students prompting, Anna explains that the theory is that the incident was likely caused by faulty maintenance.

Aruto looks away, remembering how Isamu had said that the truth was covered up, that HumaGears had gone on a murderous rampage.

Nobody sees a certain hooded not-Gremlin approach the bus driver, tapping on the window with a Zetsumeriser and Zetsumerise Key.

Two kids start mocking one of their classmates, the one who had gotten as serious as Aruto earlier, saying that it was his dad’s fault, because he was the one in charge of the factory. One of them says that his dad blew the whole thing up.

The bus explodes behind them.

The bus driver, the soon-to-be-overwritten Bāsu, pulls out his key and ‘transforms.’ I know that his name is basically ‘bus’, but Rider Wiki also romanizes it as ‘Burs’, which I can only assume is because of his incredibly massive sideburns. Like, dang, those are big.

But we don’t have Bāsu for much longer, because he becomes the Onycho Magia, based off of the Onychonycteris, the most primitive form of bat. Interestingly, it may have been diurnal. The fossil record is inconclusive so far, but it may not have had the adaptations to echolocate, or the enlarged eyes that nocturnal bats have.

Something I’ve noticed is that most of the species that have been used as Magia so far have something in common aside from all being extinct: They’re mostly comparatively recent discoveries, and there are very few fossils that have been found of them. Just something I thought might be worth noting for the future.

Also, Onycho has huge claws on his ‘normal’ hands and also on each finger of his wings – remember, bat wings are technically webbed hands. Those ridges are fingers. Onychonycteris had claws on each finger, unlike modern bats, who only have two or three.

As Aruto yells for the kids to get out of there, Jin sits on top of a retaining wall, kicking his legs idly, and asks Onycho – who can’t hear him, anyway – to kill some humans for him.

Whenever he says that to his Magia… that’s the only time he’s really serious. That’s the only time he drops the smile.

Interesting.

––

After the OP, which I love, we cut to Onycho pursuing the tour group through a wooded area, Aruto herding the kids along. One of them, the one who was being mocked earlier, trips. As Onycho catches up, Aruto prepares to transform – but doesn’t get to do more than pull out his belt before shots are fired  from another direction. He hurriedly hides it behind his back as Isamu and Yua show up on scene – somehow – and transform.

Of note, Isamu still has to force his Key open, and he’s still punching the bullet. Yua has no such issue, and just lets her armor form, before they go on the offensive.

She’s still quick and efficient, while he’s more of a wildcard whose primary mood is ‘gun.’

Onycho quickly gets out of range when he goes to hang upside down on a high branch, and then flies away. (There’s an ‘analyzing’ sound effect as Izu watches him fly off.)

The two agents detransform as they go up to Aruto, the boy, and the two functioning HumaGear. Isamu points out that ‘Oh, look, Hiden’s president is here. Again.’ But the boy, who’s been sitting on the ground, curls in on himself, saying something about wondering why this is happening to him.

Both Isamu and Aruto look at him in concern.

––

Back in Aruto’s office, we have Aruto, Izu, Anna, Isamu, and the boy. Said boy’s name is Sakurai Gou, and his father was one of the victims 12 years ago.

I can’t help but wonder just how many people died that day.

Especially when Gou says that people have always told him that it’s his fathers fault it happened. That’s an awful lot of weight on a teen’s shoulders. And, Isamu, I know you mean well, but I don’t think that’s quite the way to go about reassuring a kid that it’s not his dad’s fault. Usually, people don’t react well to someone saying that it was HumaGears, who were designed to kill.

Although, Gou seems to take Isamu’s claim that it was HumaGear who leveled the factory in stride.

Isamu, of course, doesn’t take Izu’s statement that ‘there are no records to back up his claim’ very well., yelling that it’s because it was covered up.

Anna points out that the consensus is that it was caused by faulty maintenance.

Aruto looks down as he wonders if the concensus is the same things as the truth.

Anna watches him, just like she’d watched Isamu during his claim that Daybreak happened because of the HumaGear.

––

Outside, Isamu and Gou are leaving, and Gou says that he wants to know the truth.

Isamu asks if he really feels that way, and when Gou nods… he says that he does, too.

“Hey, kid, want to go break into a secured area?”

––

Ohhhh, man, I like Serious Aruto.

He’s flat out interrogating Jun, asking what happened at their factory 12 years ago.

But all that Jun will say is that he can’t recall.

Anna and Izu both call him out on this – not activating their look-up functions, by the way. Anna asks why there’s no record of the HumaGear uprising. Which implies that she knows there was one, somehow. Izu says that a cover-up seems intentional.

Aruto knows he’s hiding something, the way that Jun is so nervous makes that pretty clear. And he’s not a comedic nervous, like we’d expect from his characterization in the first three episodes. No, he’s scared… and maybe ashamed. Especially given how, as he takes his leave, he says that ‘sometimes, the way business works means that you have to keep the truth in the shadows.’

So, there’s definitely at least one layer of cover-up here. Probably more than one, in fact. This is written by the same guy as Ex-Aid, after all.

––

Later on, Anna and Aruto – without Izu, it would seem – are basically confirming to each other that they want to find out the truth.

Anna is looking into this because, as a bus guide, it’s her duty to know the historical facts of her tour. It’s her duty to make sure the truth is known.

Aruto says that he guesses they’re going back to Daybreak Town then. After all, he’s the president. He can’t ignore an employee in need.

He’s not saying that he wants to know, too. Not out loud, anyway.

––

The next day, at the entrance to Daybreak Town, Gou and Isamu are… actually breaking into a secured area. I mean, it was a foregone conclusion, but I didn’t think they’d be this blatant about it. Isamu’s even got a huge bag with him, probably with some sort of camera equipment or something. They’re not alone, though, when Yua steps in front of the gate, asking what they think they’re doing.

What they think they’re doing is that they’re going to find the truth.

She sighs. She’s not going to be able to stop them, is she? So, Yua pulls out a grey Progrise Key, and offers it to Isamu. She does say that it’s ‘high performance’, and he probably won’t be able to use it. He asks why she’s giving it to him, then, which is a valid question.

Yua just warns him to not forget what his job is.

Isamu takes the Punching Kong key, tucks it into his suit jacket, and takes off his tie, smirking. “Actually, I’m off duty today.”

––

As Isamu and Gou are about to set out on an inflatable motorboat – which appears to somehow be what he had in that giant bag – Gou isn’t sure if they’ll really find anything by going out there, to which Isamu says that they’ll just have to try.

And then a bunch of Trilobite mooks come up – some of them still saying ‘intruder detected.’

See? This is what he means by a cover-up!

Isamu’s shooting some of them down, but one gets close to Gou-

And is tackled into the water by Aruto.

Isamu accuses him of being there to make sure they don’t see anything they aren’t supposed to, but Aruto shoots that down. (Heh.) He wants to know what happened, too.

Completely ignoring Izu’s protests about ‘protecting his secret identity,’ he pulls out his belt and stands next to Isamu.

“Do you want to die, get out of- wait what’s that belt?!”

Aruto, with his serious face on, promises, as Hiden’s president, that he’ll find the truth, and transforms.

Both Isamu and the Trilobites dodge the heck out of the way of that robot grasshopper – and yet he still can’t believe his eyes when he’s standing next to Zero One.

Aruto tells Anna to go with the two of them – it’s a tour guides job to make sure her guests get to their destination, after all. He takes over fighting the Trilobites, as they head out.

––

Ohhhh. I’ve just realized that comment I made earlier about the rarity of the species used for the Magia. I’m making a separate post right now, but I’m copy-pasting it in.  

The skeletal design of all the Magia isn’t just to make it easier to repurpose the suits - it’s because they’re all using extinct creatures as their base. They’re all fossils, themselves.

The main Magia, the corrupted ones with powers, are all powered by creatures that have relatively few examples in the fossil record.

The mooks, however, are Trilobites. This doesn’t just allow the anonymity factor with the shell acting as a mask.

Trilobites are incredibly common, and as such, make the perfect option for a swarm of faceless cannon fodder.

––

In the flooded ruins, Isamu, Gou, and Anna make their way to what used to be the control room of the factory, where Gou’s father worked.

It’s also where the explosion started.

Why… is Anna the one searching for things to help them find the truth? She explicitly says that she will look. That’s odd.

And why would the control room be where an explosion started? Why not, say, the factory floor, or a lab, or a test area?

Why the control center?

––

On the shore, Zero One handily dispatches the Trilobites with a Shark-powered Slash finisher. Much like his Impact finishers, it involves the sword summoning a giant hecking row of sharks teeth.

I love this seasons fights.

And here comes Onycho, swooping in with energy spheres to blast our hero back. Aruto tries to jump after him, to bring him down to the ground, but he can’t jump high enough on command to catch up to someone who’s continuing upward, and misses.

As he picks himself up, Izu throws him a Brand New Toy Progrize Key, which fortunately he catches. Y’know, unlike the unfortunate incident with the Attache Calibur in episode one.

WING

When the robo-bird is beamed down, it attacks Onycho for a while, before Aruto finally uses the key. And there are bright pink feathers fluttering around whenever it hits, too, which is really cool!

Fly to the sky! Flying Falcon!

Spread your wings and prepare for a force.

…We’re never going to see this form again.

Not with how Zero One immediately rises into the air, and doesn’t even try to land as he and Onycho start an aerial fight over the lake, swooping around the buildings, firing attacks, Aruto streaming pink and yellow energy effects with every movement.

This thing requires far too much CGI for us to see it more than… I’d say about one more time in-show, and maybe in one of the movies. Maybe.

This is GataKiriBa all over again.

Also, as he’s flying around, Izu waves, wishing him a safe trip.

Izu, I love you.

––

In the office, Gou’s given up. He can’t find anything… it must have been his fathers fault after all. Why bother looking any further?

…son of a- Toei named this kid Gou on purpose, didn’t they? I was initially thinking, ‘oh, hey, they’re reusing names, that’s nothing new.’ And then I just remembered that ‘Oh, right, the main Gou’s father actually was to blame for the robot uprising in Drive!’

Anyway, significant name reuse aside, the kid’s surrendered, but Isamu encourages him to keep looking.

And then the Trilobites show up. Even as he’s fighting them, Isamu keeps giving small!Gou a pep talk. It can’t have been his fathers fault, it was the HumaGear! So if you don’t believe in him, who will?

Isamu, I get it, but, uh, maybe don’t take this much of this particular trait from Mach? The one where you say that a human can’t have be to blame, it’s the out of control robots? I’m just saying. I doubt this kids father in particular was to blame, but I’m pretty sure at least one human was very heavily involved in what happened here.

Looking at you, Grandpa Hiden. You are very much not above suspicion.

Isamu’s statement, as he is getting very beaten up, that “if you stop now, it’s all over, so raise your head and keep going’ seems to be as much to himself as it is to Gou.

And he’s getting very beaten up, so he pulls out the Punching Kong key.

I’m pretty sure that not only did Yua not unlock it, he’s also opening them wrong. I know that’s just a joke theory at this point, but it really looks like he’s actively blocking the part that swings out when he’s holding the keys, so I think he’s making it worse on himself.

Whoops.

It’s still not fair that his transformation is this cool. This time, instead of punching the bullet dead on, he backhand punches it. Because why not.

Punching Kong!

Enough power to annihilate a mountain.

…Huh. The keys that Vulcan and Valkyrie use don’t have the pre-announcements that Zero One’s keys do. Like, he has the whole ‘fly to the sky’ for Flying Falcon, and the ones for Rising Hopper and Biting Shark, but there’s no such announcement for the three AIMS keys. Interesting.

As Vulcan starts wailing on the Trilobites, Gou takes his advice to keep going forward to heart, and starts looking again. Good thing he looked right in front of him, because he finds an SD card with the Hiden Intelligence logo on it.

According to Anna, it’s the memory chip for an older model of HumaGear. She inserts it into one of her earpieces to start reading the data.

…Maybe you shouldn’t be doing that in the middle of a battle area? I’m just saying. Maybe, you know, wait until you guys are out of there?

Yeah, see? Aruto and Onycho crash in through a wall, and the Magia fires off a set of cables, overtaking Anna. Nobody is okay with this, least of all Anna.

Who is fighting back. She lasts longer than any of the other Trilobite transformations we’ve seen. The overhaul completes, and ‘she’ goes after Gou, grabbing him by the neck… and as Vulcan aims his ShotRiser in her direction, she stops, and her ear pieces start flashing between the hacked red and their native blue.

…wow…

“Now p-playing… f-footage from-”

She activates her ear pieces to play the security footage. And it is still Anna in there. She’s fading fast, but she’s still there. She is so intent on seeing this through… I hate to say this, but Anna would have made an excellent Magia, wouldn’t she?

––

The footage is absolutely heartbreaking.

Gou’s father, Sakurai Satoshi, is in his office, lit by red emergency lights. He’s recording a last message.

“All HumaGear in the factory have gone berserk! The factory is likely going to explode. All the employees should have evacuated, so…”

The monitors are overtaken with static, and the regular displays are hijacked to play a message. A shadowed figure with rectangular yellow eyes stands in front of a purple background, with the logo of metsubojinrai.net in black.

He’s declaring their war against humanity, their intent to destroy the town and annihilate all humans.

But Satoshi says he won’t let that happen. He refuses.

He pushes one of those big red buttons, the ones that should never need to be pressed, closing all gates. He’s sealing all the HumaGear inside… as well as himself. As the head of this factory, he will take responsibility for making sure they are destroyed.

As the emergency alert continues to sound, calling for evacuation, he takes off his microphone headpeice, and all but falls into a chair.

“Gou…”

The scene is covered in flames, before the footage cuts out.

––

As Anna’s hand falls from where she was projecting, she manages to say – without any of the usual broken stutter – that the database is being updated with regards to Daybreak Town. She slumps down, inactive.

Aruto is quiet as he says that Gou’s father was a hero.

Isamu is quiet, trembling with rage, as he says that this wouldn’t have happened if HumaGear didn’t exist. He prepares his finisher.

Why does he get such AWESOME FINISHERS?!

The default Punching Kong finisher? The ‘Punching Blast’?

It’s rocket fists. He literally shoots his gun – and by that, I mean the fists of his armor turn into rockets, going after Onycho, pushing him through three levels of ceiling and out into the sky, where they go right through him.

As the fire from the explosion channels down the GIANT HOLE IN THE CEILING, the fists return and reattach to his armor.

Yo.

Isamu seems… I don’t know if determined is quite the right word? But he’s almost calm as he tells Aruto that AIMS will be confiscating the HumaGear (Anna) and analyzing it’s (her) memory to uncover the truth behind Daybreak-

A spike lands in her back as he says this, and she glows purple, before… well, I hate to phrase it like this, but she basically pops. I wish that wasn’t the sound effect they used, but it’s a dissolving sound effect combined with a balloon bursting. She’s turned into motes of purple light, and is gone.

Aruto and Isamu – still transformed, mind you – run over to where she was, confused.

…The spike didn’t glow, but we didn’t see it after the light passed.

––

A figure in purple, with a yellow belt and rectangular eyes on his helmet walks away, and removes his progrise key from his belt, detransforming into Horobi.

Jin bounces behind him, calling him cold for doing that.

Horobi doesn’t change his neutral expression much as he says that it would cause too much trouble if anyone found out about the Arc. Or, maybe it’s supposed to be Ark? It’s hard to say. But he smirks at the end, before he and Jin walk away.

Well, Horobi walks. Jin is skipping.

––

The next day, we see that the news is reporting on how Hiden Intelligence released new information on Daybreak, showing that the incident wasn’t what was on the record, and that they had obtained footage of those final moments.

Gou’s classmates apologize to him, for being so mean, but he seems okay with it. (He probably wouldn’t have been so determined to find out what happened if they hadn’t been.) As the news report, given via those giant heli-drones, ends, they head off to school.

Aruto watches them from a pedestrian bridge, and Isamu walks up to him and Izu.

“So, you really meant it when you said you wouldn’t cover anything up.”

“And you wouldn’t have known what happened if you had destroyed Anna right away.” Aruto smiles gently, before the comedian sound effects start kicking in. Oh no.

The Awful Pun Of The Day as Aruto flips up his hood is something involving being a ‘hood guy’, or telling Izamu not to ‘sweater it.’

Apparently, the original pun is a combination of the phrase for being indebted to someone, but part of the phrase also contains the term ‘to wear’, as in clothes, so he’s saying this while putting on his hood.

Aruto, please.

Isamu trembles while he’s still facing Aruto, and walks away as Izu starts explaining the joke. Aruto’s desperate attempts to get Izu to stop doing that mean that he doesn’t hear as Isamu almost lets a laugh escape, even while desperately trying to regain his composure.

Isamu’s willpower fails during the closing screen, and we hear him laughing as the Flying Falcon and Punching Kong Progrize Keys show up on screen.

––

Oh, nooooo, the next episode looks like it’s about relegating entire tasks to HumaGear, and also about passion for one’s work.

You know, getting heated.

And Izu’s line in the trailer actively asks if humans have trouble regulating their temperature if they get too passionate.

In the episode where Zero One’s fire form debuts.

Oh boy.

––

So, that’s episode four! I guess I still wound up going pretty in-depth, huh?

Man, the aesthetic of this show. It’s really cool, and I love the music, too.

Zero One really isn’t shying away from the ethics of what’s going on here, is it? And it’s not dodging the terrifying backstory, or putting it off until later.

I hope they can keep this momentum going!

[xzybkp]

“Written In The Stars” • ASTRO One Shot Collection

Written in The Stars • ASTRO oneshots by @aaxbbxx​ 

this oneshot “book” will be based on socky/sanhyuk, myungjin, and binwoo pairings. But also, ASTRO/ASTRO family love (because who doesn't like family fluff? Our boys adore each other!)

Words:195,943 

Works: 68 

Complete:Yes

Skinship (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 5,669

skinship was second nature but why does rocky shy away from him now?

Bloom (myungjin)

Words: 1,098

Basically, my version of how ‘‘Bloom’’ was made...

Under wraps (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 1,773

Sanha keeping his body a secret.

Or Sanha has abs but no one knew until now.

Scripts (binu)

Words: 545

in which Bin is frustrated and sleepy and Eunwoo fetches him

Hana hakimasu (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 7,391

Sanha suffers from Hanahaki Disease and he's determined to keep it from the rest of the members.

Out of control (binu)

Words: 3,186

It was a good thing Bin and Eunwoo never really had those kinds of fights. They were probably the most level-headed couple among their group.

That's what they thought.

Star (별) (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 1,247

when Rocky found out about Sanha’s depression during autumn story after months and even years later, Rocky still worries

Autumn story (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 2,593

based on the interview where Sanha revealed he became depressed during the release of their 3rd album

Remember (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 2,498

He swore Rocky was doing it on purpose. Or maybe it was all in his head. But he was pretty convinced, when it happened over and over, that it wasn’t his imagination.

Walking on the moon (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 1,212

rocky teaching sanha the choreography of moonwalk; he finally realized Sanha definitely grew up (he even surpassed Moonbin's sexiness and he was proud)

The road to nowhere and everywhere (myungjin)

Words: 2,293

“I was thinking...” This was the reason why he was deemed the slow rapper, when he talks, he might as well take the whole day. “We should go on a roadtrip.”

How angels sing (myungjin)

Words: 1,201

In which Jin Jin is entranced by MJ's voice.

That's it, that's the story.

Me after you (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 5,203

I think I found a perfect love That I’ve waiting for a long time Because you held me and gave me energy Because you hugged me by being considerate lovingly After I met you

Airport mishaps (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 820

Normally, Rocky was the one that was rarely to cover up when they go to the airports, but lately, he’d taken to wearing hats and face masks... wonder why?

Tattoo on my mind (sanhyuk/socky, myungjin)

Words: 3,489

In which MJ and Sanha got tattoos together and the rest are all shocked.

Drive (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 1,106

Sanha wants ice cream so he forces Rocky to drive him to get some.

Sweet melody, i cry (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 3,414

It was without a doubt, something Sanha had feared on coming true. He just didn’t expect it to happen so suddenly, and so real.

The chick and the wolf (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 1,509

If Sanha was Rocky’s baby chick, Rocky was Sanha’s baby wolf.

It’s the voice in my head and the fear in my heart (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 5,708

Sanha always had fears that Minhyuk would leave him...it was coming true

A surprise wedding (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 9,028

"So Rocky asked me to be his fake date to his cousin's wedding so he could avoid the usual 'Are you seeing someone?' questions."

"I've read enough fanfics to know this will end with you two declaring your undying love for each other."

No pain no gain (binu)

Words: 1,116

one second he was spinning and the next he was sprawled on the floor hissing in pain and clutching at his ankle

In the heart of the old continent (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 2,115

Ddana: Why did you have to stay behind? Your boyfriend is stealing mine!!!

Heavy is the head who wears the crown (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 11,591

Yoon Sanha was pretty. Pretty enough that he knew it and flaunted it every chance he would get. Rocky knew one thing for sure: Yoon Sanha was to be steered away from, at all costs.

Part 1 of The Socialites

Innocent love (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 2,654

They've been saving it till the very best moment, and Sanha swore when he heard the screams of their fans, it was the best decision they made.

Cider (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 1,531

Now that Sanha was an adult, would he still drink Cider with Rocky?

Want of love is the emptiness that robs the joy from life (myungjin)

Words: 10,271

“Ah, Hyung, What the hell was that?”

He took out the piece of card from his pocket, fingered the embossed name, he found, was a business card.

“I have no idea.”

But he didn’t mind.

Part 2 of The Socialites

The airpod mystery (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 634

In which Sanha is seen with airpods but he has an android phone.. so what does this mean?

Or where Sanha uses airpods and borrows Rocky’s phone.

If i let you in, will i regret it? (binu)

Words: 5,060

Bin recalls the first time he and Dongmin met, 6 years ago.

Part 3 of The Socialites

My heart hurts when you’re suffering (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 1,555

Rocky was quiet, cool, composed and doesn’t let anything affect him. Minhyuk, however, was still quiet, cool but not as composed as Rocky was especially when he caught sight of something that makes his heart ache.

Third week of may (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 1,672

When they met with the others and he received the rest of the gifts, Sanha couldn’t be happier on his coming of age, especially since he was surrounded by the people he loved the most.

Subtlety is not in our vocabulary (myungjin)

Words: 3,236

They were the definition of low key. But apparently, they were too in love that even with all the precautions they took, someone was bound to find out that they weren’t exactly just best friends.

The three bad boys (sanhyuk/socky, myungjin, binu)

Words: 2,275

When Kim Sohyeon moved to Hanlim Arts High, she learned two things. One, it was a huge school and everyone was very friendly and two, the school was ruled by three bad boys who looked and walked like they don’t have time for anyone.

Look what it made me do (myungjin)

Words: 2,435

Hours later, Myungjun was right. He hid a laugh as Jinwoo walked slowly from table to table, mumbling ‘yes’s and bowing his head at each person, the rest of the staff returning it or laughing to themselves, some just as drunk as the leader of Astro.

Confession (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 3,413

When his two hyungs pushed him out to the living room to sit, he wonders just who he could trust.

Hours later, when all he could accomplish was stare at the wall blankly, he fished out his phone, scrolling through his contacts before his eyes landed on one familiar name. That’s when he knew. He dialled the number, waiting for the person to pickup. When the call was answered, he spoke.

“I need you.”

Cherry blossom ending (myungjin)

Words: 1,421

“Do you think flowers miss each other when the others fall off from the wind blowing?”

Hey ryan (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 1,007

When he came back with a paper bag, he had a fond smile on his face while Bin was pushing at his shoulder peering inside his bag.

“Why am I not surprised?”

Minhyuk only shrugged in response and hugged the bag close to him, walking ahead of the rest, eager to go home.

Law of the jungle? (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 1,597

It was upsetting, worrying and overall just sent him into a tidzy. Sanha wondered why he even agreed in the first place. Was it the fact that he basically didn’t have a choice or did he agree so Astro can have more public appearances (even though it would only just be him on the show)?

I get to love you (myungjin)

Words: 862

Myungjun knew his life was only going to change for the better.

Marking territories (myungjin)

Words: 1,223

MJ felt territorial, even though he knew it was all falsehood, he wanted everyone to know just who Jinwoo belonged to.

Living for you (binu)

Words: 4,558

There were times that Moonbin thought of quitting. When the dance was too much, he thought of ending it midway through practice. When the note was too high to reach, he thought of just giving the verse to either Sanha or MJ. When the pressure of being an idol was getting to the point of no return, he thought of giving up and just leaving. But they were really all just thoughts.

Neverland 

Words: 1,002

"Why did Peter Pan, chose Wendy instead of Tinkerbell?"

"He didn't chose Wendy, it's his heart who chose her."

"Did they live happily ever after?"

"No."

A way to a man’s heart is through… (binu)

Words: 602

Bin didn’t say anything but the heave of breath and the pout showing back on his face told the older male that, yes, it was indeed an Eunwoo problem. Seongwu tried to hide his smile. The only person who, from what he observed anyway, made Bin the child and sulky boy he was was more often than not, Eunwoo.

Darling (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 6,072

Sanha ran away to the gate before MJ could retaliate for his insult. He was giggling to himself, looking back at MJ, which was a wrong thing to do, when he smacked into someone as soon as he exited the open gate.

"Woah there, darling." A velvety smooth voice, exclaimed, tone amused.

(prelude to angel )

Angel (myungjin)

Words: 5,646

The day Jinwoo left, he kissed MJ and that’s when his world shifted again. The younger pressed promises into his lips. He’d call, keep in touch and when he comes back, they’d be together forever. MJ had only kissed back, the taste of promise too sweet. Then he waved goodbye.

Jinwoo was his everything until he wasn’t.

(companion fic to darling )

Of the past (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 2,268

When the rich suffers, sometimes there was no sympathy for them, some people thinking they deserve the pain they feel. But they were human too, they hurt and have emotions, however they knew how other people would see them, that was why most of the time, when the rich do suffer, they tend to keep it to themselves or make themselves fall deeper into the very pain they are suffering from. It was twisted and unhealthy, but sometimes that was all they know how to do.

Part 4 of The Socialites

A weight on my shoulders (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 1,930

Rocky was never really good with words, he knew that, the members knew that, everyone knew that. So he expressed himself in dance, and if he needed to say something, it took him a long time to get it out of his system because he wants to use the right words. But the downside of things, was because of his inability to put his thoughts into words, he'd often just be seen as introverted and be quiet in most shows, even their ASTRO DDOCA, PLAY and whatever else, even his vlives were mostly boring. It was safe to say, it might be that one factor he seemed to be lacking and it might be that factor that hinders him from getting schedules.

Scaredy cat (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 1,684

From the smallest of things, to the biggest of scares, Sanha was easily frightened. That was proven way back during their trainee days, where you could hear him scream the haunted house down, and when there was a cicada in their office room, when they had to swing a thousand feet off the ground (exaggerated? Maybe.) and even when he’s just tapped on the shoulder and he didn’t see it coming. Sanha was a scaredy cat. Period.

Skate to my heart (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 8,785

Rocky was a figure skater, a very famous one and a very successful one at that. From the very moment he learned how to dance, and that was when he was very young, and stepping foot in the ice, the combined passion and love he had for both had lead him to his dream. He loved his career, from the way he practically floated on ice and to the way his body moved to the music, he loved every ounce of feeling he got of it.

First impressions and never ending hurts (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 5,836

The man was tall, but not as tall as Sanha. He was maybe average in height, but he commanded attention just by his features alone. He looked like a wolf waiting for its prey, and Sanha was mesmerized by the beauty of the man. The way his jawline framed his structures, and the sharp angle that made him stand out. The man was with another, and just when he was about to look away before he gets caught staring, he met eyes with said wolf.

Part 5 of The Socialites

The best part of waking up (binu)

Words: 2,315

The first thing Eunwoo does when he wakes up, is to shake Bin awake. It was a routine, one he grew to love. Until it wasn’t anymore. What happened after they moved dorms, and he gets a room all to himself.

Clingy baby (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 989

Two pieces of a whole (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 6,918

In the modern world, werewolves and humans coexisted, enough so that at present, genes were so well mixed, each person was rarely purely human or werewolf. Together with genetics came with the gift of mates, bonded souls, the other half of a person. From the age of eighteen, a person knew his or her mate by scent and sight; each vary for either person, but it was said that it would be the most appealing scent they would ever smell and would be ingrained in their heart and mind forever, imprinting itself upon the very first time they discover their lost soul. At their coming of age, it was when they finally bond and seal their fates together, a promise to love forever and protect each other throughout their lives.

For the summer (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 1,888

Rocky stared, lips twitching into a smile. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately. But who wouldn’t when the first thing you see as you wake up to another day was a giant baby, lips parted with half a face being smushed into a pillow, snore leaving every once in a while.

Rock climbing (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 951

Sanha's rock climbing skills are practically nonexistent. But does he care? He was cute damn it. Rocky should know that well.

A stone of emotions (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 1,063

As the years went by, the outgoing and loud Rocky, became shy, observant and aloof. Of course, there were times that he would be as crazy as the others, but on camera, he was mostly on the sidelines smiling at the others and joining in only when he couldn’t help himself. But overall, he was mostly just observing.

Or

MJ's insight on Rocky over the years.

Starfruit (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 2,458

what the starfruit fanmeet had considered the "Your Shyly Hidden Chocolate" challenge

The walls have ears (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 4,095

Sanha pulled away from the wall and dragged himself on his hands and knees to the other side, leaning on his bed, sitting as far away as possible so he couldn't hear anymore heart-stabbing words. He placed a hand on his chest, wondering why it was suddenly painful, and he thumped with his fist, trying to ease the pain.

Lie (다 거짓말) (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 1,768

Trying to live without you There’s nothing more painful than that No night more scary than that After I wake up, you’re not here

Burning hot (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 1,478

Jealousy burns hot when the choreo was just as flaming. What to do?

Fallin all in you (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 780

Everyone already knew he was somehow whipped for the younger when he made a mistake of posting another one of his ‘PapaRaki’ segments on twitter of the younger sleeping and he couldn’t help but coo out loud at how cute the youngest was.

A little playful (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 541

He continued to look up, counting down the minutes until they could move on and maybe have some rest for the night when suddenly a little sting came from his ear.

Sweet enough (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 1,081

In which everyone knows Sanha hates coffee, but he’s too polite to turn it down.

Deep secrets (myungjin)

Words: 2,663

Jinwoo has a secret. One that he had hidden deep inside of him lest anyone knew the leader of Astro, a freak.

The day you left (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 2,067

Maybe Bomin was right, Sanha was a whipped man, but really he thinks it wasn’t just a one sided thing.

Missing you like crazy (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 1,502

In which Sanha went home for a couple of days and Minhyuk tries to sleep but failing miserably because he missed his boyfriend

99ner (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 914

Now, Minhyuk was rarely ever possessive, only when provoked but other than that, he was mostly calm compared to Sanha who was the more territorial of the two.

Three days too long (sanhyuk/socky)

Words: 5,540

He was startled out of his daze when he was bumped into from behind, hard. He stumbled and caught his balance not a moment later and looked up just in time to see the culprit walking ahead with others as they all boarded the bus. Sanha cursed as the man in plaid didn’t even apologize. He swore people these days were just so rude. He hoped he didn’t have that kind of person in his group.

All i want 

Words: 1,898

MJ and Jinwoo are the best hyungs ever. Enough said.

Or

In which it's christmas and astro just wants to show us how fluffy they all can be when it comes to their family.

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z 020

This is the Knife Lady episode.    I mean, there’s other stuff in this one, but come on.    I’m not gonna bury the lede here.

Okay, so last time, Goku had to get used to the higher gravity on King Kai’s planet, so King Kai had him chase Bubbles around until he could catch him.    The last episode made it look like it only took one afternoon, but in this episode the narrator says it took him like three weeks, which seems fishy to me.   I feel like Toei messed up, one way or another.   Of course, there’s really no good way to mark the passage of time on this planet, so there’s no telling. 

Anyway, the Bubbles exercise was in the manga.   This time however, it’s a filler episode, and Goku’s next challenge is to chase a cricket-looking creature named Gregory.   Gregory is a filler guy, but he appears in just about every King Kai scene from here on out.   It’s weird how seamlessly they worked him in, and then you read the manga and he’s just not there.  

King Kai says that the idea here is to improve Goku’s speed under the high gravity, so I’m pretty sure the only thing different about this exercise is that Gregory is faster than Bubbles.   Also, Goku has to hit him with a big heavy hammer, which will only slow him down more.  What could go wrong?

Yeah...

Meanwhile, on Earth, Gohan’s still improving under Piccolo’s training, but he gets knocked down a cliff anyway, and Piccolo orders him to climb back up.   For some reason he starts shouting random nouns at Piccolo and tells him to do the next one.   I guess this is some sort of game? 

On Kami’s Lookout, everyone has to wear weighted training clothes like Kami made Goku wear.    Krillin looks awesome in his, Yamcha looks a little off, and Tien and Chiaotzu look really weird.  

Why are they letting Chiaotzu take a breather?  

Yajirobe bites Krillin on the ass.  Hey, save that for the Saiyans, tiger.

Later, Kami just tells the boys to leave and pursue their own training down below.  This whole thing feels like a total ripoff.   They had a year to prepare for the Saiyans and it took like four months just to get everyone up here, and then he tells him he won’t teach them anything, and now he’s sending them back with like three months to go.

Elsewhere, Master Roshi asks his sister, Fortuneteller Baba to look into the future and tell him how things turn out after the Saiyans arrive.   Baba gives it a go, but she can’t forsee anything, good or bad.   In the dub, she tells him “The Earth has no future!” which I always liked because it completely flies in the face of what she foresaw in the finale of Dragon Ball, when she peeked ahead to DBZ.   Things looked pretty rosy before, but now all bets are off.    The fate of the world is balancing on the head of a pin.  

Okay, that covers all the other stuff, let’s go back to Goku.    King Kai has them all break for lunch, and these two guys look adorable.   Not sure why Bubbles is wearing a hat... oh, wait, yes I do know.    While Goku was chasing Gregory one of them zipped right over the back of his head and shaved a stripe up his scalp, so he must be wearing the hat to cover it up.  

Goku asks King Kai what he knows about the Saiyans, on account of he is one, and he’s fighting two more later, so he kind of needs to know all he can.    King Kai offers to tell him the story, so Goku pulls up a chair for him.

This whole account was filler, so some of it has been retconned or just plain contradicted over the years, but it still forms the basis of a lot of Saiyan lore.   For example, this episode introduces the Tuffles as a second intelligent species that shared Planet Vegeta with the Saiyans.   The Tuffle concept would be used later in the OAV “Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans” as well as the Baby arc in Dragon Ball GT.   

What never seemed to catch on, on the other hand, was the idea that the Tuffles were much smaller than Saiyans (or humans for that matter) due to the intense gravity of the planet.   The implication here is that the Saiyans are only as big as they are because they’re so strong, although I think later sources established that they emigrated to this planet from somewhere else.    At any rate, the Tuffle characters in GT and “Plan to Eradicate” always looked full-sized to me.  

Basically, the Tuffles ruled most of the planet, and they had all sorts of advanced technology to sustain their larger population.  

On the other hand, the Saiyans lived in primitive dwellings, with a smaller territory and a smaller population.

King Kai’s flashback also puts them all in animal skins.   They sort of look like a cross between B-movie cavemen and artwork depicting early figures from the Bible.   

Here’s Knife Lady again.   She doesn’t do anything, but she looks awesome, and this episode is really the first solid evidence that female Saiyans existed.   That may seem silly to younger or newer fans, but I’ll bet there were a lot of fans in 1989 who figured female Namekians were going to show up, and that got shot to hell.   You just never know.

At some point, the Saiyans got strong enough or bold enough to start attacking the Tuffles outright.  Again, note the size difference.

The Tuffles invented weapons to fight back, so they weren’t completely helpless.   I always find this guy kind of ironic, because he looks a lot like Gohan in the Buu Saga, and he’s wearing a scouter, so he looks way more like a Saiyan than a Tuffle here.   I think the intent was to suggest that the Saiyans got their scouters from the Tuffles, but that won’t hold up in future episodes.   Besides, how could the Saiyans make use of Tuffle scouters?  They would be too small to wear.

The problem for the Tuffles was that the Saiyans would turn into giant apes at the sight of the full moon.   This only happened once every eight years on Planet Vegeta, but it was often enough to turn the tide of the war.

Now, I feel like a dope, because this is the first time I ever watched this story in the original Japanese, and I see now that a lot of things were different when the story was translated to English.   The dub implied a relatively short war, lasting maybe a few years, or a generation at most, and ending on a single full moon.   The Japanese version tells of a much longer transition from Tuffle to Saiyan rule, with the Tuffles barely able to hold the line and the Saiyans steadily gaining ground every eight years.   This makes it sound like it took a long time for the Saiyans to take control of the planet, and that would explain the fuzzy booties, among other things.   I always found King Kai’s story a little unsatisfying for only covering the last decade or so of Saiyan history, but it looks like he was actually going back a little further than that.

Also interesting: the term “Arcosian” was a dub-ism.   I just always took it for granted that these robed aliens had a name in the Japanese script, but they don’t.   Fans have adopted “Arcosian” as a name for Frieza’s species, although the terms “Ice-jin”, and “Frost Demon” have also been used, along with others I’m probably not aware of.    It makes sense, seeing as how these “Arcosians” are basically doing in this flashback what Frieza and King Cold actually did.   

On the other hand, now that I see the context of this flashback, I start to wonder if it makes more sense for the Saiyans to have overrun the Tuffles a long time ago.   Let’s say 100 years before Goku’s birth.   These robed aliens gave them the means to travel further into space, and the Saiyans operated as an independent kingdom for a while until they finally fell under King Cold’s influence.   I’m not sure how well that gels with some of the other lore, but I think I like that better, since it gives Saiyan history a chance to breathe.   It always irked me how they beat the Tuffles and got taken over by Frieza almost immediately.

The biggest flaw in King Kai’s tale is the part where he explains the destruction of Planet Vegeta, which Raditz attributed to meteors.   King Kai says this was done by the Kami of Planet Vegeta, as a way to punish the Saiyans for their evil deeds.   You’d think he would have stepped in a lot sooner, back when the Saiyans were killing all the Tuffles, but better late than never.  

Really, the idea of the Saiyans falling victim to divine justice was a cool idea, but the problem is that it suggests that King Kai really knows what happened here, and as we’ll later learn, he has no clue.   But Toei has him speaking with great authority on this subject, like he witnessed this happening.  

On the other hand, this is sort of true.    According to Battle of Gods, Beerus chose to have Planet Vegeta destroyed, and he tasked Frieza with doing so.  Who’s to say that Beerus didn’t ask Planet Vegeta’s Kami to handle it first, and then he went to Frieza when the Kami botched the job?

King Kai also states that only four Saiyans survived the planet’s destruction, which again sounds kind of weird because it implies that he went and counted them personally, except he ended up being wrong.   I’m not trying to nitpick here, I’m just saying that this can be the trouble with filler scenes.   The writers need to leave themselves a little wiggle room in case things get changed later.    Essentially, King Kai is just reinforcing everything that Raditz said in Episode 2.   Well, Raditz can be misinformed, but it’s a little off for King Kai to have his facts wrong. 

Anyway, Goku gets all fired up and wants to get back to his training right away.

He catches Gregory and gives him a little tap on the head.   Gregory brags that he’s tougher than Goku gives him credit for...

... but he’s still got a bump on his head.

King Kai is encouraged by Goku’s rapid progress, and believes that Goku might be good enough to learn the Kaio-ken, a technique so advanced that it’s just a theory he invented.   And he has another technique even cooler than that, but we’ll learn about that one another time.