#*me approximately 2 minutes later* What the heck

[asmuchasidliketo]

Ten of favorite films

Self-tagged from @princessprouvaire​... and this was more difficult that I expected.

To avoid any kind of classification, here they are by year of (first) release.

Fantasia (1940 and 1999)

Paris brûle-t-il ? (1966)

Les Visiteurs (1993)

Philadelphia (1994)

Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)

Erin Brockovich (2000)

Spirited Away (from 2001)

Daniel Craig’s James Bond cycle (2006 to 2021)

Wreck-it Ralph (2012)

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)

Tagging absolutely everyone who wants to play!

[justcourttee]

If you take request how about Class, Bustier, Lila, Adrien salt! Lila had a cousin back in Italy who is a master in manipulations but contrary to Lila with her lies, he use his manipulation skills to help others and he REALLY despite Lila. Back when Marinette was in high school junior she got a pen pal from Italy and this pen pal is Lila's cousin, through their letters the two become friends and even stay in contact for years and Lila's cousin got a crush for Marinette. (part 1)

One day Lila's cousin goes to Paris to finally meet Marinette who is very happy to finally meet her pen pal. Later he learn that Lila is in the same class than her(he know that Lila goes to a school in France but didn't know it was the same school than Mari's)and is worried since he know Lila's antics. And when he learn about the bullying Mari is victim at school because of Lila's lies and he is like "OH HECK NO!". (Part 2)

He use his manipulation skills to protect Marinette and to take down Lila. Not even Adrien or Bustier's BS can stop him. Him and Mari become closer day by day and become a couple. After Lila is exposed for everything, even for being Hawkmoth's minion, and is arrested, the class try to confront Lila's cousin and to talk to Mari but Lila's cousin shut them down and give them a good big "the reason why you suck speech". BONUS: Lila's cousin join the miraculous team. (Part 3)

(I couldn’t figure out how to combine the three asks so I copy and paste them)

Ooo, I love a good salt fic. I hope this is kind of what you had in mind :) @sayuricorner

The PenPal

Marinette knew two things when the day started.

1, She was beyond ecstatic to finally meet her PenPal, Mateo, face to face 2, She was beyond worried that somehow, someway Lila Rossi would mess it up

Mateo had been assigned as her PenPal from Italy as a part of their foreign language class to help improve her Italian and his french. They only had to write back and forth until the semester ended, but as it came and went, she found herself intrigued by the Italian boy. Today was their three-year friendaversary and to mark the special occasion, Mateo was coming to Paris.

Marinette bounced on the balls of her feet outside her parent's bakery, her eyes darting up and down the street, trying to find anyone that could be heading in her direction. Pulling out her phone, she checked the time.

3:00p.m.

His plane landed at 2:15p.m. He said he was leaving the airport at 2:50p.m. The airport was approximately ten minutes from her parent's bakery. Any minute now he should be here.

“Marinette!” Sabine poked her head out of the bakery, her eyes landing on her daughter, a knowing smile plastered across her face.

“Marinette, I know your boyfriend will be here any minute, but you still need to get ready for your school dance tonight. It starts at 6 and you still haven’t decided if you want me to do your hair or not.”

“Maman,” she couldn’t help the whine that entered her voice. Her parents were literally the worst when it came to boys. “He’s not my boyfriend, he’s-”

“Just a friend. Yes, I’m well aware of the drill. Well, I’m just letting you know, if he’s not here in the next ten minutes, maybe you should come inside and let me get started.”

Marinette nodded before returning to her search of the streets.

“Did you lose someone signora?”

“Oh no, monsieur. I’m just looking for my Italian friend. He’s supposed to be coming in today, hey wait a moment-”

Her eyes widened slightly as she whipped her head around to come face to face with him.

“Mateo?”

“Pleased to finally meet you Marinette.”

Marinette’s face broke into a grin as she flung her arms around his neck. Pulling back, she brushed a few stray hairs out of her face, completely oblivious to the shade of red the boy’s face had turned.

“I can’t believe you’re actually here! Did you remember to pack a suit? I mean I had your dimensions and made you one just in case but I just can’t believe you’re here. How was your flight? How’d you get here? Taxi? Uber?”

Marinette bit her lip trying to stop the word vomit that was falling out of her mouth.

“I’m sorry. I’m just so excited to finally meet you.”

“It’s fine, really. I’m overwhelmed as well. I mean I knew you were beautiful, but seeing you in person?” Mateo reached down to pick up her hand, bringing it to his lips softly.

“Marinette? Oh! Well, hello.”

Mateo dropped her hand quickly, both of their faces flushed red. Sabine leaned against the doorframe, that same knowing look from before creeping onto her face much to Marinette’s distress.

“Maman, this is Mateo. Mateo this is my Maman.” Her voice was strained as she tried to beg Sabine not to embarrass her.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you signora.” Mateo smoothly lifted Sabine’s hand to his lips, placing a gentle kiss on her knuckles.

“Oh, Italian! Well, young man, the pleasure is all mine. Now let’s get you kids inside, we have so much to do in such little time.”

Without thinking twice, Marinette grabbed Mateo’s hand, dragging the blushing boy behind her. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

“Don’t forget to call me when it’s over! I don’t want you kids walking home in the dark!”

Marinette waved as she pulled away, her eyes rolling at her mother’s invasive tactics.

“She does know we’re 17 right?”

Marinette shook her head before threading her arm through his.

“Don’t mind her, she can be overbearing and invasive, but it’s all with love. Especially with Papa away at the moment visiting his mother.”

“Oh I don’t mind, it’s best to get on your future in law's good side now. It’ll make things so much smoother in the future.”

He sent a wink in her direction earning him an elbow in the side and the most precious laughter he had ever heard.

“You’re such a flirt! C’mon, let’s get inside before you-know-who shows up.”

Mateo did in fact know who. Some girl that moved here while Marinette was 14 and had been making her life a living hell since. He couldn’t imagine what kind of person could hate a  kind-hearted person like his friend, but he was determined to put an end to it tonight.

As soon as they entered the courtyard, Marinette was swept away by two intense-looking girls, both cutting him a glare in the process. Mateo soon found himself by the punch table, taking in the sights of the dance. He was just about to step away to look for Marinette when a loud crash caught his attention.

“How DARE you ruin Lila’s dress?”

Lila? No, God, it couldn’t be.

As Mateo stepped forward, his eyes landed on a small girl with dark hair and glasses, an empty cup in her hand, and much to his horror, his cousin Lila Rossi standing behind her, crocodile tears pouring down her face.

“Marinette would never! She doesn’t even know where Lila got that utterly ridiculous dress from.”

The intimidating blonde from before stood in between the girl with the glasses and his poor friend, now soaked from the punch poured on her head.

Just as Mateo took a step forward to intervene, a blonde boy and an older woman stepped in between the girls, pulling them apart before anything further ensured.

“Marinette, you have to be the bigger person here. I can’t have you starting fights with your classmates. You know Lila has a lying disease, you can’t get angry with what she might spread.”

The teacher placed a fake supportive arm over Marinette’s shoulder, handing her napkins to help soak up some of the punch.

“Yeah, Marinette. We know how she is, we just have to take the higher road.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry girl. I just get so angry sometimes cause I can never tell when you’re just acting out of jealousy or if it’s her disease flaring up.”

Mateo felt his anger rising as he watched the scene unfold in front of him. Lila had no disease, she was just a good liar. He watched as the two girls escorted Marinette toward what he assumed were the bathrooms, leaving Lila to fake cry in the arms of the blonde boy.

It was one thing to take down her bully while he was here for the week, but Lila Rossi was a different story. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Mateo sat up near the DJ, eyeing his first target. A small blonde girl and her goth friend. They looked easy enough to sway, not quite swarming Lila like the rest of the class, but not exactly rushing to Marinette’s defense either. Placing his phone against his ear, he walked toward them, a smirk plastered across his face.

“-I’m sorry Prince Ali. I know Lila promised to help you with your rounds at the Children’s Hospital tonight but she’s just too busy at this school dance. I understand your disappointment, I too am disappointed. Well, what can I say except that call me next time. I’ll be there friend.”

He slipped his phone into his back pocket letting out a long sigh. He turned to face the blonde, her interest piqued as her eyebrows furrowed.

“Were you just on the phone with Prince Ali? Talking about Lila Rossi? How do you know them?” “Me?” Mateo dramatically looked behind him before leaning into where the blonde stood, her hand intertwined with the girl beside her. “Can I trust you with a secret?”

She nodded carefully, her eyes darting left and right as if someone was watching her.

Mateo slipped his phone out again pretending to search for a particular picture before turning it in Rose’s direction. On the screen stood an edited picture of him with his arm thrown around Prince Ali’s shoulders in front of a hospital, both wearing grand smiles. He swiped to the right showing a less ecstatic picture of him and Lila posing together as children.

“I’m Lila’s cousin, Mateo Rossi. Prince Ali is my best friend and has been for the past three years. I introduced him to Lila last year and she made a whole bunch of empty promises to him, you know, with her disease and all. It’s really tearing him up because he knows with her star power, she could really help the poor children, but alas, she never shows.”

The blonde seemed to doubt him for a moment, but as she scrolled through a couple more carefully edited pictures, her face dropped into one of sadness and anger.

“I can’t believe Lila lied to me about helping Prince Ali! She only met him two years ago?”

Mateo nodded sadly as if he couldn’t believe it either.

“Didn’t Lila say she knew him when she first got here? That was like three years ago.” The goth girl had spoken for the first time. It was quiet and difficult to make out, but the blonde understood and it only seemed to fuel her rage.

“I can’t believe I fell for it!”

“Hey, it’s okay. We’ve all been there before, sometimes you just have to take the higher road.”

Mateo smirked as he walked away, leaving the words Marinette’s classmates told her all these years to sink in with the girls as he looked for his next target. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The rest of the night continued on in the same manner. Mateo would listen in on group conversations, figure out what Lila had promised them, and moments later crush their dreams with a few carefully placed lies.

Pretty soon, all that was left was the girl with the glasses, the blonde boy, and Lila herself. Straightening his collar, Mateo shoved his hands in his pockets walking as calmly as he could to the group, his ever-present smirk widening at the sight of Lila’s panicked eyes.

As loudly as he could, Mateo shouted “Cousin!”, gaining the attention of everyone on the dance floor.

Lila seemed to pale quickly as she completed the embrace, her lips close to his ears as her panicked voice trembled.

“What are you doing Mateo?”

“Watch and learn.”

He pulled back, offering his hand to the girl with glasses who hesitantly reached out to shake it.

“Mateo Rossi, how are you doing tonight?”

“I’m fine.” The girl pulled back, her hesitancy and curiosity mixing.

“And you sir?” He reached his hand toward the blonde boy who gladly accepted it.

“Pretty great! I’m Adrien and this is Alya!”

Adrien and Alya. He should’ve guessed from Marinette’s letters that these two were the ones constantly egging on Lila, letting her get away with bullying his friend. His smirk faltered for a moment, but not a second later it was back in a more sinister way.

“Now Lila, I’ve heard you’ve been promising some people things you can’t deliver.”

“That’s- That’s not true. I always deliver.”

A murmur of doubt waved through the crowd behind him, building his confidence in his plan.

“Lila, please. I know your disease is worsening, but you’re really hurting some people here! You’ve got to stop.”

He placed his hand on her shoulder, a fake sincerity monopolizing his face. Her panicked eyes darted between him and the growing crowd behind him. She seemed like a caged animal, ready to pounce when there was an opening with no idea if it would help or hurt it.

“Mateo,” Adrien frowned as he placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to gently pull his arm from Lila’s. “You shouldn’t tear people down for their errors, it won’t put them on the right path.”

Mateo simply shrugged his hand off, not bothering to even glance at the boy.

“Neither will indulging their lying when it’s not only hurting your friend's feelings but their futures as well. What would’ve happened when she lied about getting Nathaniel in to meet a huge Magna artist to publish his comic doesn’t come true? Well, he already turned down other amazing opportunities so oh well, guess he’s never getting published.”

Another wave of agreement and anger washed over the crowd. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the only person who mattered, still in between the overprotective girls, all three smiling brightly in his direction.

“You can’t dO THIS!”

Lila pushed him as hard as he could, causing him to stumble backward. She was honestly making it too easy to play the concerned cousin card, it was making it hard for him not to burst out laughing.

“Lila, please. Your reign has to come to an end. I mean, you threatened your little designer friend that if she outed your lies, you would destroy her life!”

Alya’s mouth gaped as her eyes turned in horror to stare at Lila.

“You did what to Marinette?”

“No! You’re misunderstanding!” Lila’s panic seeped into her voice as she searched for a way out of the growing crowd.

“Mateo watch out!” Before he could turn to look, Marinette tackled him to the floor as a purple butterfly swooped over his head.

Screams echoed through the room as everyone backed up, trying to avoid the butterfly who made a straight beeline for Lila.

“About time Hawkmoth!” Lila jumped, her outstretched arm reaching for the flying butterfly. Just as her fingertips almost made contact, Adrien tackled her to the floor while the teacher from before trapped the butterfly in a small glass container.

The room was silent as everyone stared in horror at Lila.

“She just attempted to purposely be akumatized. She just called Hawkmoth by name, praising him for showing up!”

Alya zoomed in on her phone, her eyes tearing up as she ended the video, posting it straight to her blog.

“Alright kids, let’s just calm down,” the teacher tried to stop the panic from spreading but she didn’t even sound sure herself as she stared in a mixture of fear and pain at her student.

“I already called my dad, he’ll be on his way soon to arrest you, Lila!”

Cheers erupted from the room as they tried to rush forward, all apologizing in various different ways to Marinette. The two girls beside her did their best to hold them back but it was proving too much.

“Everybody back off!”

Surprisingly, everyone moved to the side, allowing a clear path for Mateo to make his way toward his friend.

“You all don’t deserve her forgiveness, not now, not ever.”

He reached back, intertwining his fingers with Marinette's as the crowd burst into anger. Alya and Adrien pushed their ways to the front, both of their eyes zeroing in on their hands.

“You don’t even know Marinette Mateo. She’s my best friend!”

Alya attempted a step forward but was stopped abruptly by what Mateo deemed as Marinette’s bodyguards.

“You haven’t been her best friend in years Alya, get over yourself. In fact, I’ve heard her gush on about this Italian kid more than I’ve heard her mention your name in the past three years.”

Marinette’s face flushed as she felt Mateo’s eyes searching her face for any denial.

“But-”

“But nothing. The Marinette I have grown to care for over the years wrote to me about you people. She tried to say you were redeemable, that you were under some fantasy spell and that one day you would wake up and come back to her, but you never did. If i hadn’t stepped in tonight, you all would have continued treating her like garbage.”

Marinette tightened her grip on his hand giving him the strength to continue.

“Marinette is kind, intelligent, courageous, and extremely talented. She has this bright personality that you just can’t help being drawn to. She did so much for you and your class, but you all overlooked it the instant something shiner came in. Alya, right? You do realize that Marinette got you your first interview with Ladybug? If she said that Lila didn’t know Ladybug, what other proof did you need?”

Alya stood there, her mouth gaping like a fish out of water.

“And you Adrien. Marinette took the fall with your father for the book you stole from him knowing that it could risk her chance in the fashion empire by pissing off Gabriel Agreste. She made sure that you could come back to school to be with all your so-called friends.”

Adrien’s face mimicked Alya’s as they tried to come up with a counter-argument, failing to do so. Mateo turned to face Marinette, his free hand rising up to cup her cheek.

“Do you want to leave this dance Marinette? You, your two bodyguards here and I could go grab some coffee if you’d like.”

Marinette nodded as if lost in a trance, seeing her penpal in a completely new light. The blonde raised two middle fingers to the class as the four of them headed toward the exit.

“Marinette wait!”

The group paused as Alya ran over, her face contorted in distress.

“Who is this guy Marinette?”

Mateo looked down, his eyes meeting hers as if silently coming to an agreement. They both broke into smiles as he brought their intertwined hands up to his lips.

“My boyfriend, Mateo Rossi.”

And without another word, the four left, basking in the victory that one night brought.

[mozart-the-meerkitten]

Alright, so I guess I’m not gonna be able to sleep until I get this off my chest so here’s why I didn’t like Luke taking Grogu at the end of the Mandalorian season 2:

First, I have absolutely no problem with Luke training Grogu. I HOPED they’d drag Luke into this, I’ve been hoping that the whole season. If anybody was to train Grogu I wanted it to be Luke because I know him and I trust him, and who better understands how someone good can fall to the Dark Side but also not be consumed by it than Luke, whose father was Anakin? Who could better help Grogu navigate all his struggles and emotions as he tries to control his powers?

Right, so with that out of the way, here’s my issue with what happened:

It was too fast.

That- that’s literally it. It happened too fast. Luke showed up, busted up the evil Iron Man droids and then five minutes later he’s taking Grogu and skedaddling. What. No. 

Personally (and this is my opinion, I’m not changing it or looking for a fight take it or leave it) I think that the only people in character in this scene are Din and Artoo, and now let me tell you why.

First off, the kid, Grogu. We know he loves his dad deeply. We have seen him have separation anxiety when away from Din (though that’s toned down this season, which is good, it means he knows Din will come back for him). We have seen him now, in two finales, cling to Din’s boot out of a desire to be with his dad. And now he just. decides to go with a random stranger. Um. No. First of all, from a child development perspective that’s really worrying. If a kid can just leave a caretaker like that with minimal fuss it means they haven’t attached to them well. We have seen Grogu and Din interacting a LOT in the past two seasons! It has seemed like Grogu has grown healthily attached to Din- this is good! And then he just... willingly leaves his dad Like That for a stranger (okay and Artoo, they were obviously buddies, but he’s still switching caretakers from Din to Luke). This means that either 1. the bonding moments we’ve seen them have were fake and one sided, or 2. the kid is acting out of character. I think he’s acting out of character OR he misunderstands what’s happening. It’s unlikely but possible that he thinks Luke is only taking him temporarily and then going to bring him back to his dad after like, a week, but the kid SEEMS to have pretty good comprehension so???

Secondly, Luke, I think, is also acting out of character. You have to remember this guy’s background here for a second. Luke’s father died in his arms after he had approximately 5 minutes with him while his dad wasn’t actively trying to kill him. He lost his aunt and uncle without ever getting to say goodbye to them. Do you think, do you REALLY think that Luke would just watch Din cry like that and watch the baby holding onto him and not break down and be like, “Hey do you want to, like, follow my x-wing and land somewhere and we can get this sorted out properly and you can say goodbye?” because if not that seems either awfully cold or awfully OOC to me.

Listen. Listen. Din JUST got his kid back and his kid JUST got his dad back. Grogu has just been freshly and deeply traumatized and we never got to see Din comforting him. Instead, IMMEDIATELY after getting his kid back Din has to give him up to ANOTHER stranger. And yes, Luke is good. But he is still a stranger to both Din and the kid. And that? That’s messed up.

Ten minutes. They could have fixed all this in TEN MINUTES. If they got Mark Hamill to show up and cameo Luke I feel like they definitely could have gotten him to stay and record an extra 2-5 minutes of dialogue. Just give me Luke and Din flying off somewhere and spending at least a day transitioning (a week shown through a timeskip would be better but I’d take even a day tbh)

Also they 100% missed opportunities to have:

Luke and Cara talk, “So you were a rebel fighter.” “Yep, I was from Alderaan.” “Oh my sister was from there.” “Who’s your sister?” “Leia.” “....what”

Din trying to tell Luke all of Grogu’s favorite foods and when he should go to bed and he likes THIS kind of cookie and he WILL hunt live frogs and DON’T try to teach him electrical wiring it won’t end well. While Luke just. nods along and humors him. Y’know, like a parent leaving their kid with a babysitter.

Boba Fett’s ship coming back and then he starts to land, see’s Luke’s x-wing and NOPES THE HECK OUT while Luke squints out the window like, “is that the guy who froze Han”

Listen. Listen. I LOVED this episode. I just felt the ending was unnecessarily rushed. That’s all. Like I said, ten minutes would have fixed it, and an hour is NOT long for a finale episode. It could have been done, and if it had been it would have made me feel a lot better.

[itsdingdong]

Define Us - pjm

Pairing: Park Jimin x reader

Genre: smut, angst, roommate au, slice of life, some fluff

Warnings: explicit language, smut

Word count:3792

18+

Synopsis: The day you enroll the university Jungkook is there to help you. When you have difficulties with the place you move in, Jungkook asks if you’d like to be his and his friend, Jimin’s roommate. The tension between you two is undeniable but you’re not certain of your feelings. How will things turn out with Jimin after a night out?

⌜Hope you’ll enjoy…💜⌟

You’ve met Jungkook on the day you enrolled to the university. He was in charge of helping the newcomers. There was a document missing and he was signed to help you. It was the last day of the enrollments and the guy that was supposed to be renting you the house you were going to move in turned out a fraud. That was the reason you got there the last minute. You found a place but it was too expensive and located way too far away from the school.

Having to spend the half of the day running here and there for signatures, you’ve become familiar with one another. After the term began, he would always call you over during breaks and you’d join him and his friends. You were so grateful that your breaks coincided with the only person you knew there.

Eventually you two ended up becoming good friends. One day, he was appalled to see your puffy red eyes as he was leaving the school. You ended up explaining him that you were having problems with your place. Right away he told you that him and his roommate were looking for a roommate and asked you if you’d like to move in with them. You didn’t take the offer right away since it’d be relatively odd to stay in a boys, let alone a person you’ve never met in person’s house but you finally gave in and decided to give it a shot.

 The highly anticipated weekend was finally here after an exhausting week. You going from place to place for job interviews to be able to pay the rent for Jungkook’s place which you now shared with his other friend Jimin.

With Jimin things were different. You were here now for almost 2 months and you got along very well. There was a chemistry. You couldn’t quite tell if it was a romantic or more of a sexual one, either way whenever he was around, your body somehow reacted to him.

It wasn’t obvious whether if he liked you or just wanted to fuck your brains out. On the other hand the attraction you felt towards him was something tad different than just lust. You wouldn’t hate going into bed with him but it was really likely for you to feel hurt afterwards to act as if nothing had happened. You guess you actually really did like him.

 It has been two weeks since you started looking up for a job and you finally landed in one. Part-time but enough to pay for your part of the rent. You were in front of the condo waiting for boys to let you in.  “What’s the password?” You could feel Jungkook smiling now through entry phone.

 “Let me in.”

 “Oh wrong address.”

 “I’ll be going then.” You pretend to leave and he chuckled and granted the entrance. You slowly made your way up.

“Come on in.”

You open the door and let yourself in.

 “Boys?”

 Jungkook and Jimin were both sat on the couch looking intently at the phone in Jungkook hands.

“You received a dick pick? Congrats!” You cooed at Jungkook as you closed the door behind you.

“You’d like that. Wouldn’t you?” Commented Jimin as he smirked at you. You smiled and shook your head disapprovingly as you start untying your shoes. “Fuck off.”

Jimin chuckled and motioned you hello with his free hand while Jungkook was still scrolling through something. “Hey.” You mouthed back. You went to your room to drop off your stuff and went back to the living room just before they stood up.

“Hey boys. How has your day been?”

 “Not bad really. How about yourself?” Jungkook spoke as poured himself some water from the counter.

 “Tiring but now I have a job!” You said shrugging.

 “Oh congratulations!”

 “Thank you. Thank you.”

 You did a little dance and took a bow.

 “How about we go out to celebrate? And this way you won’t be able to have an excuse.” You asked and looked at him expectantly. Jungkook stopped and thought quickly before nodding.

 “Why not? You coming too Jimin.” He nudged him.

 “Can’t let two ladies go out by themselves.” Jimin joked and came to you put his elbow on your shoulder and leaned on you. This made your heart skip a beat but you remained cool.

“Pfft. True.” Scoffed Jungkook. “Let me see if the boys will tag along.” And he left the room leaving you and Jimin alone. He moved away from you without breaking the eye contact. “Let’s have some fun tonight.”

 It took you approximately an hour to leave. Despite the common belief, boys took longer to get ready, defying the odds. Boys were going to meet you at the club.

As you were headed there you caught his eyes on you multiple times. The night was going to be interesting. Maybe tonight was going to be the one to define you. What you were to one another.

The boys were already here, encircling a table in the back of the club. Typical night out for them, or just whenever they were together it was all laughter and jokes, pretty much enjoying themselves no matter what. Jimin offered his arm to support you in your heels as you got to where the guys were.

“Finally! I was going to call the cops.”

“I swear this isn’t on me this time.” You put your hands up laughing.

“Well you look great love.” Hoseok complimented.

“Thank you.” You smiled at him humbly.

“The night has only begun, keep the flirting for later on.” Spoke Jin out of nowhere, making everything go absolutely awkward.

Jimin shifted uncomfortably next to you. “I’ll get the drinks. Jungkook, soju yeah?” Jungkook was in the middle of a saying something before briefly nodding at Jimin he went back to talking to Taehyung. “I’ll have a-” Your sentence was cut right in the middle because he already was headed to the bar. “Cheongju?” You stare after him slightly stupefied.

You stood there waiting for him to comeback as the guys were long gone into a conversation about God knew what. You felt like you’ve done something like you were responsible for his odd behavior but the thing was that there was nothing to be acting the way he did. A sigh escaped your lips catching Namjoon’s attention.

“What’s up with you?”

“Nothing. Just a little tired.”

“Oh come on the night haven’t even started yet.” He was right you’ve been here for only 15 minutes and here you were being a Debbie Downer for no reason. “Yeah, you’re right.” You smiled at him, trying to lighten up your mood. A moment later Jimin joined you with two beers and a Cheongju in his hands. Handed Jungkook his beer and you, your drink. “Thanks.” He looked away as he took a sip from his beer. This was starting to get on your nerves. Why was he acting like this? What was the point?

After two drinks you were starting to feel them oozing into your mind and weakening your mind and body. Your limit was 3, beyond that was blackout. It had the effect of a 3 on you. This drink was already strong as it was but since your stupid ass decided it was okay to do shots when they weren’t even half way empty, you were somewhere in between drunk and tipsy at this point.

The rhythm was bringing your hidden careless self out. Along with the drink as well. As you were dancing it felt like nothing mattered. You felt sexy. Shortly after showing off some of your dance moves you stole off of some stuff you’ve watched online, you were pulled in for a dance off with Hoseok. You were going from competing to dancing together and so on. Mixture of cheers and laughter erupted between you as you enjoyed each other’s company.

Your mind wandered off to Jimin for a second. Wondered what he was up to during all the dancing. You knew he wasn’t particularly a dancer unless he was truly drunk. You tried to find him in the club as the lights danced on the zombie like bodies that were dancing off tempo to the beat.

At first your eyes missed him but the second time you saw him the picture finally sank in. There was a girl. Dancing on him. Literally she was on him grinding and was holding onto him as if her dear life was depended on this. This girl was all over him. She attempted to kiss him but he didn’t let her. That very moment his eyes met yours.

This wasn’t right. Your chest filled up with pain. What was this? Jealousy? You diverted your gaze and attempted to focus on the sweaty bodies away from where he was stood. “At least someone is enjoying themselves.” Stated Jungkook coming up to you with a bottle of soju in his hand, pointing at Jimin. “Are you enjoying yourself?” You asked attempting to shrug off the stabbing pain in your chest. “Yeah. You?”

“Well, I will.” You smirk as a not so smart but good enough for an intoxicated state of mind kind of an idea came to your mind. You let your body loosen up and leave yourself into the hands of the music. Your hips started to sway to the beat, earning a cheer from Jungkook before him going back to where the other lads were. Your hands go up and down on your torso as you give a quick suggestive glance at Jimin. He wasn’t looking. You ignored and continued the process. Just before you were about to hit the ground you felt someone’s hand on your arm.

“Mind if I join you?” Asked a stranger. His breath smelled of gin and cigarettes. He wasn’t going to remember tonight. Heck like you were. “Please.” You turned your back to him and kept swaying your ass. The dress slightly going up with every courageous move you make. You did make a daring fashion choice but the person you made it for was too busy with someone else.

As you kept dancing, more like grinding at this point the stranger started to get rougher with you. At first you let it be but slowly it was becoming aggravating. You were trying to get away from his arms without making it look like it but he pulled you even tighter and you felt a bulge poking your back, you truly hated everything. Hated yourself. Hated Jimin for making you doing stupid things like this. You hated Jimin because he drove you crazy and he chose that slut. You attempted to escape his grip one more time. This time you were being obvious. You didn’t want him or his stupid dick. You just wanted to leave.

“We’re not done yet sweetheart. Where do you think you’re going?” He leaned for a kiss but you pushed his face away. “Let the girl go.” Jimin’s hand was on the guys shoulder in a threatening manner. The guy let go of you and raised his hands in surrender. Jimin’s physique must’ve intimidated him. Compared to Jimin, he in no shape to win a fight against him.

After the guy left our sight, it was you and Jimin. You staring anywhere but him. His eyes on nowhere but you. “I’m going home.” Your voice came out weak but you were surprised it did after all. You doubted he heard you in this loud place. You glanced at him before moving away from him. His facial expression told you that he was mad, fuming really but he wasn’t likely to show aggression. He wasn’t that kind of a person. Not because he was a softy or anything but because he was too chill for that jazz.

You managed to find your table then took your purse avoiding any possible eye contact from the boys then left. It only took you about 15-20 minutes to get home. You were already sober with the adrenaline. Way to ruin a night out. The heels were killing you by now so you took them off in the elevator and waited to reach our floor. With the beep sound, the elevator reached your floor and the doors opened. The feeling of familiarity was all you needed right now and as soon as you were a step away from the main door, your wish was granted.

The night was supposed to be great and yet here you were by yourself feeling worse than ever. If it weren’t for Jimin, you could’ve ended up in this guy’s house and God knows what would’ve happened then. You hated that you owed him that now. You gently put the key to the key hole, shortly after realizing it’s the wrong key. Just you were about to look for the next one someone grabbed you from the wrist and spun you over, pinned you to the door and forced a kiss on you. His cologne was familiar enough to knock you out of your senses. This wasn’t the familiarity you were asking for. Or was it? As much as you wanted to kiss him, more than anything in the world you didn’t reciprocate the kiss. It didn’t take him long to get that. He stepped away to look at you.

“What’s wrong?”

“Honestly? Everything.”

“Is it because of that guy?”

“Yes.” A big fat lie.

“Or is it the girl?” You rolled your eyes before kneeling down to get the keys.

“Why are you even here?” You spoke, your voice harsher than you intended it to be. You put the right key in this time and managed to open the door.

“I followed you.” He entered after you then closed the door behind him.

“Creepy.” You mock and put the keys on the key holder. You rush to your room that ironically happens to be right next to his. Just you were about to close the door he came in.

“You can’t deny what we have.” He leaned on the wall, blocking your way.

“What is it that we have?” You asked slowly losing your temper.

He took a step toward you, closing the distance. Just before he could you moved away from him.

“Look. Maybe we did have something. But now, it doesn’t feel like that anymore.”

Why did your chest hurt so badly?

“Why not?”

“I don’t know. Maybe we’re not meant to be.”

“But we are. Look you’re the only one in my mind. Every minute, every fucking second.”

 “Bullshit.” You sat yourself down on your bed to take a breath. The argument was getting heated up and you didn’t want that, not that you didn’t want to argue with him but to give him that. He felt important but was he really that important?

“If you want to address to what happened tonight, it was all your fault.” He said coldly.

“Excuse me?” You looked at him offended, your voice raised slightly. He sighed and sat next to you.

“If you weren’t wagging your tail at Hoseok like that nothing would’ve happened. The girl. That jerk. This, right now.”

“I wagged my tail at Hoseok? He’s my friend! You should’ve known that by now. Your stupid misunderstanding led to this. It caused a chain reaction and now I feel more defeated than you I have.”

“How about we stop blaming each other and enjoy each other’s company? It’s just you and me at last.”

“Jimin I-“ you tried to protest. He cut you off by putting his thumb on your lip then moved it on your cheek as he intently watched you.

“I’m going to show you what it is that we have.” He leaned in and waited for you for a second to see whether if you liked it or not. You didn’t hate it but you were butt hurt and you wanted to rant but he was making it impossible. It was as impossible as resisting to him.

Once he made sure it was okay to kiss you, he slowly pecked you. Your heart fluttered with the warm feeling taking over your body. His eyes met yours briefly. There was hunger, lust and a little bit of innocence hidden. Was it perhaps love? You gulped on your thought right before he connected our lips for a longer kiss. You were no longer mad. You wanted him. You wanted him right there and then. You put your hands on each side of his cheeks deepening the kiss turning it into a full on make out session. He broke the kiss to look at you.

“Holy shit.”

You pulled him to continue from where you were left off only for him to pull back again. Disappointed in the loss of his soft lips on yours, you let out a grunt and gave him an annoyed look.

“If you won’t stop me now, you won’t be able to.”

“I don’t want you to.” You spoke as moving a stray hair out of his face, giving him a smile. His mouth dropped a little to say something. His face was redder than you could ever imagine him possible be. His lips once more found yours much more forcefully. With the impact of the kiss you were now lying on your bed. He easily turned you around and you were now on top. You could feel his growing member underneath you making you more aroused than you already were. His hand found the hem of your little dress, removing it with one swift move leaving you in your purposefully picked lacy underwear. He admired your body for a second and seemed pleased with the choice you’ve made.

“Mm. Somebody was prepared.” He grinned. You felt the blood rushing up to your cheeks so you leaned in for a kiss. You didn’t want him to see the affect he had on you.

“That’s cute.” He smiled in between the kiss. Well shit.

“Shit baby.” He spoke breathlessly as he admired your breasts and pulled you closer to him as he gently palmed them. You moved your hips a little to rub his manhood. A moan escaped his plump lips. Then you pushed him off with a smirk on your face before tugging on his shirt signaling for him to strip down.

“Your wish is my command.”

He quickly took off his shirt and his pants. You licked your lips and admired the view. He was like a Greek statue. He was perfect. This was perfect.

“Like what you see huh?”

“Mm-hmm.” You smile and give him a kiss as you climb back on him. After giving one last peck on his lips you slowly started going down on his body. He exhaled loudly then tilted his head back. You kept leaving trails of sloppy kisses until you stop on his V-line just before you got to his manhood. You sucked on him little through the fabric of his boxers making him shiver with anticipation. You pulled his boxers down and took his member in your hand and stroked him up and down. He gave you a vulnerable look as you brought your lips closer to him; he gulped right before gave him a little peck. Then you started to lick him from his base to the tip of his shaft. You tease him by making delicate circles with your tongue on his tip before wrapping your lips around his member. His hands almost immediately found the back of your head and pushed you further down to your surprise. You gagged a little before readjusting yourself to take him deeper.

“Sorry.” He breathed chuckling. “Jesus.” You chuckled and rolled your eyes then gave his now rock hard member another kiss before taking him back in.

“Damn you’re good.”

You giggled then shrugged with a smug look on your face.

“Your turn now. I want to taste you baby.” He brought you back up and gently placed you on the mattress and kneeled down before the area you craved him the most. He teased your entrance with his tongue then swirled it around your clit. Every spot his lips touched was aching for his touch.

“So this is the affect I have on you?” He whispered turning you on more than you already were. You didn’t think that was even possible.

A moan escaped your arched lips causing him to smile with amusement and victory.

“I’m almost there.” You breathed heavily feeling the throbbing sensation taking over your lower abdomen.

“Wait for me baby.” He said before standing up, motioning you to scoot further so he could join you in the bed. He climbed on top of you then placed himself in between your legs. He rubbed his dick along your entrance teasing you mercilessly.

“Stop teasing.” You said through gritted teeth. He smirked at your hastiness and licked his lips as if you hadn’t suffered enough.

Hasty or not you couldn’t wait any longer so you wrapped your legs around him and pulled him to you startling him with your sudden action.

He collided his lips with yours as finally slid himself in. Your bodies became one. You pulled him closer with your arms leaving you chest to chest. His warmth on you sent an ecstatic feeling into each pore existing on your body. With each thrust you were again getting closer and closer to your climax this time to be able to let it go. He planted brief kisses now and then on your lips as he continued to penetrate you.

“I’m-.” You moaned and tensed around him before you could let him know your body was trembling with your climax.

His breathing increased and his thrusts became erratic indicating he was also close. He pulled out and jerked off and spilled himself all over your belly.

“You made a big mess big boy.” You teased playfully. He laughed and stood up to get a towel.

“Let’s take a shower instead.” You offered.

“One condition.” He jumped back on the back looking dead serious.

“Uh...yeah, okay what is it?”

“Be my girlfriend.” He spoke softly nuzzling into your neck leaving small traces of kisses here and there.

“Oh. OH. Well I thought it would be like a one night stand kind of a thing.” You pushed his face away.

His face fell almost immediately. He looked down and gulped and you truly felt bad at the sight. Yet it was definitely worth it.

“I’m just messing with you.” You smacked his arm and leaned in for a peck.

“You, are the worst.” He put his hand on his chest sighing in relief.

“Seriously though. Let’s get it done before Jungkook gets back.”

“After you girlfriend.”

[yaboylevi]

After rereading the chapter with the official translation and looking at the timeline once again, I’ve been very confused by the timing of Hange and Magath’s meeting. The main problem is that we don’t know when exactly the Rumbling began, but I’d say that it probably happened in the afternoon, some hours before sunset.

This theory on Reddit really made me think about the timeline a lot... The theory speculates that Hange and Levi have received a different message in the Paths, at a different moment compared to the others, namely at night. This would explain why Hange and Levi identify the problem in Zeke only, not Eren. I have already thought of some potential counter-arguments for that theory (also thanks to the official translation - though I still have to check the Japanese version), so I’m not too sure it can be possible...still, the timeline is very confusing.

When Hange meets up with Magath&Pieck in chapter 125, the sun is setting, and it seems to be right after they have escaped the battlefield. The Colossals are still there, and the Marleyan airships are retreating.

But then Hange, after being transported into the Paths, says that half a day (12 hours?) has passed since Zeke and Floch headed for Shiganshina. Well, then it should've been night-time when Hange and Levi were in the forest. But when they get out of the forest it is still light outside. Sure, it could be the morning of the next day. Maybe we were just tricked by the sequence in chapter 125 (Connie and Falco riding in the sunset light - and right after that we have the Commanders' meeting). As Jean said he joined forces with Marley “the night before”, we would have another night where supposedly Hange and Pieck, etc got in contact with Jean&Mikasa. And also met with Connie, Armin, and Annie...But if this happened in less than 24hours, it was way too fast, based on how much spread out across Paradis everyone was.

Hence why I’m thinking 2 night could have passed. Let me break the timeline down. Btw, judging by their clothes, it seems autumn or spring so the hours of light should approximately be from 7AM to 7PM...probably.

Here’s a map of the walls:

DAY 1 - Afternoon (& DAY 2 - Morning)

Eren gave his brain radio signal a bit after the Rumbling started, let’s say around 4-5PM.

Connie and Falco rode into the sunset. He must have separated from the 104th at 4:30PM and we see him again at around 6PM riding with Falco. To get from Shiganshina to Ragako, Connie stopped for the night, and so he and Falco arrived in Rakago the next morning (approx 7-9AM?). So it took at least 13-16 hours, more or less, and they were riding slowly.

Armin and Gabi departed from Shiganshina a while after Connie left, let’s say 6:30PM, the sun hadn’t set yet. He then caught up with them in the morning. He didn’t stop to rest, so by horse at full speed, it should’ve taken...10-13 hours maybe?

If Mikasa&Co defeated the titans in one hour, then the discussion between Armin and Mikasa happened around 5:30PM, with Armin departing one hour after that, tops. After their fight, there should be still 1 hour and 30 minutes of light. Mikasa goes to see what Jean’s up to where Floch is.

Annie and Hitch meet in the late afternoon, the sun is setting while they ride out of Shiganshina. The next morning around lunchtime, in a place not specified, they meet Armin&Connie.

NIGHT 1

We see what all of the 104th and Hitch did that night in between the afternoon of DAY 1 and the morning of DAY 2. During this night they’re all in very different places. 

DAY 2

For Armin, Annie, Connie, Gabi, and Falco to get back to Shiganshina, since they stopped to eat in a village between Rakago and Shiganshina District, it must have taken more than 10 hours for them to reach Mikasa. Let’s say 12-13 hours? So if they departed from Rakago at like 9-10AM, this would mean they got to Shiganshina when it was night already.

During the morning, we see Mikasa helping out as a doctor, she talks to Louise. The flow of the chapter seems to imply this is the same morning Armin met with Connie, but we can’t be 100% sure. It would make sense though.

I can really only make a guesstimate for this as well, but...The last Colossals leave Shiganshina at around 11AM (?). A bit after that, Floch talks to his Yeagerists. Later on, let’s say 2PM, Floch tries to execute Yelena and Onyankopon, but the plan concocted between Pieck, Hange, Jean, Armin, Mikasa etc is already ongoing. How is this possible if it should've taken a lot more for Armin to get back to Shiganshina? Hence why, imo, another day passed that we didn’t see. So 2 nights. 

If this is the case, it would explain why, when Hange and Magath met, the Colossals were still marching in Paradis: it was the afternoon of DAY 2, and they later on contacted Jean&CO during the second night. It doesn’t align with Armin’s timeline, though, and it wouldn’t make sense for Magath and Pieck to be stranded in the middle of nowhere without food or water for 24hours. (I have a headache, can you tell?)

Now, let’s analyze Hange’s timeline!

Zeke: he and Floch left the Forest of Giant Trees and 12 hours later, Hange and Levi got the radio message from Eren. They talk for a bit, Hange finishes the cart for Levi, straps him on it and they exit the forest. Meet with Pieck&Magath. It is afternoon, the sun is setting (7PM?). If we count backward, keeping the Rumbling+Eren’s message at 4-5PM, then Zeke blew himself up at 4AM that day, which is impossible, as there was daylight when the storm cleared up.

The Forest of Giant Trees on the map seems to be at least a bit closer to Shiganshina. At full speed, it might’ve taken 7 hours to Zeke and Floch to reach the battlefield in Shiganshina. Let’s say the battle lasted 1 hour since their arrival. It means Hange saved Levi at around 8-9AM. It checks out, because Zeke made himself explode a bit after sunrise, I’d say, during a rainstorm.

So, actually, Hange’s timeline doesn’t check out, imo. According to it:

8AM Hange finds Levi

3PM Zeke reaches Shiganshina

4-5PM Rumbling starts, Eren video calls everyone.

8PM (12 hours later finding Levi) Hange and Levi got a paths-call from Eren. (Night 1)

After a while, they exit the forest and it’s (still? already?) afternoon.

If they had gotten Eren’s message at 5PM(?) like everyone else, Zeke should’ve blown himself up at 5AM (12 hours prior). But when, right after that, the skies cleared up, it was already well into the day.

Also, I fear I am already putting the Rumbling too late during the day, but if it happened even before 4-5PM, then Hange’s timeline above (”half a day has passed”) really doesn’t make sense, IF WE WERE TO BELIEVE THAT HANGE AND LEVI HAVE MET UP WITH MAGATH AND PIECK THE SAME DAY THE RUMBLING STARTED AND ZEKE BLEW UP.

It would’ve taken a really long time for Hange to get from the forest to the outskirts of Shiganshina where Pieck and Magath are, considering Hange was transporting an injured person on a (poorly) self-made cart-thing, so they must have ridden slowly. How can it still be the afternoon of the first day? Unless the river current brought them a lot closer to Shiganshina than expected and they were resting in a different, smaller forest. 🤷

Hange must have taken track of how much time passed by looking at the sky, which imo must’ve been already pretty late if Hange could tell 12 hours had passed when they got Eren’s message.

So, if Hange&Levi received a message from Eren (?) at night, finished the cart, rested for the remainder of the night because heck, Hange must’ve been exhausted, and the next day met with Magath, it would’ve made sense. But:

The Colossals are still there during their meeting, so it must have been the same day? Because the citizens said the last few titans left inhabited areas on what I guessed was DAY 2, I’d say between sunrise and midday.

Then again:

Jean says they joined forces with Marley the night before. But Armin’s group couldn’t have been in Shiganshina by that morning/early afternoon (the timing the Floch-Jean scene seems to happen) because it would’ve taken them longer (11+ hours) to get to where Mikasa and Jean were. Armin’s group were also taking their sweet time, as Gabi states there was no rush, since Reiner would be sleeping for 2-3 days.

So MY CONCLUSIONS ARE:

- If only one night has passed between the start of the Rumbling and the SC teaming up with Magath, then that theory can’t be. But the timing of everyone reuniting doesn’t make any sense, unless they literally teleported around the island.

- If two nights have passed between those 2 main events, then the timing is correct, and the theory could be onto something. In this case, we haven’t seen what the main cast did for one whole night, which was skipped. Considering a LOT of very important interactions were skipped, that’s possible. But it wouldn’t make sense for Eren to deliver the message to everyone, except Hange-Levi, and later give only them a different one. Unless...? ;)

- Ultimately, I suppose it could be a continuity mistake, or there could be a different explanation in the next chapter(s).

[meditativeyoga]

Pain is Your Friend: A “Painfully Honest” Messenger About Your Yoga Practice

Anyone that is struggling with chronic discomfort is already stating, "What is this moron speaking about?" Having suffered my very own reasonable share of extreme discomfort, I must state I would gladly have actually murdered that "pal" and hidden it at the end of the garden. In this article, we will certainly concentrate on sharp pain, the type of pain that might occur during your technique, or within the subsequent day approximately. We will check out the typical scenarios that might trigger discomfort, and the course of activity you need to follow.

When you experience pain, it is, in effect, your body attempting to speak with you. Possibly it's claiming that it's not delighted with the aberrant placement it locates itself in, the damages that has actually been done to it, the tension patterns that are developing, or on a positive note, that structural adjustment is happening. Usually, it is claiming, "Back the heck off."

When doing asana (the physical technique), it's easy sufficient ahead throughout pain, either during the technique, directly after, or a number of days later on. For a pursuit concentrated on balancing and opening up the body in a gentle and controlled method, it occasionally appears we are instead putting our bodies with the wringer.

I invest 6 months yearly in Goa assisting yogis with their injuries, as well as it's reasonable to state I discover it tough to discover enough time to see everybody. Many individuals come to yoga with existing injuries, intending to utilize asana as a healing technique. Regrettably, a reasonable number of us manage to injure our bodies with our technique. Ideally, as yogis, we are extra sensitive to what's taking place in our bodies, more quickly seeing inequalities, tension patterns, and pain, yet this is only possible if we take regard. It is extremely easy to obtain captured up in desiring to take our technique to the next degree, neglecting what our bodies are attempting to inform us.

Pain During Yoga Practice

Every time we step onto the floor covering, we are asking our bodies to relocate into positions that may offer the possibility for soft tissue damage. At certain threat of injury seem to be shoulders, reduced back, wrists, hips, knees, ankles, and neck (not much left). We might put stress on the joints as well as their sustaining frameworks (tendons and also cartilage material) or particular muscles or groups of muscular tissues (e.g., hamstrings). So exactly how do we interpret what our bodies are saying?

Padmasana (Lotus Posture) is the perfect yoga exercise pose, and also thus, our enthusiasm to achieve a form of the stance appears to load our ears with cotton wool. If your hip joints do not conveniently externally turn, you are more than most likely to experience discomfort in the knee (either medially or laterally) and/or the ankle (typically simply below the front edge of the side (outdoors) ankle bone). This discomfort is because of the tendons being stressed also much, as well as your body is stating, "Maintain going, and also damage will certainly happen."

Ligaments are only gently flexible, permitting for maybe only a 6 percent stretch before tissue damages happens, and they do not repair easily due to a very little blood supply. Unless your tendons are chronically reduced due to some previous trauma, there is absolutely nothing to be gained by overstretching them. Their task is to provide architectural stability to joints by limiting activity in undesirable instructions. By loosening them, you are not becoming extra versatile. Instead, you are threatening their function.

So if you discover yourself in this scenario, don't hang it out in the posture assuming that by suffering the discomfort, you will at some point open that location. You might harm on your own before you obtain there. Rather, leave it and exercise other poses that concentrate on the location where you wish to enhance flexibility. Revisit the position several weeks later on to see if it is a lot more comfortable. This is not the exact same situation as actively placing light tension on the joints to elicit a favorable reaction, such as with Yin Yoga.

In the situation of Padmasana, it is essential to recognize that a viewed absence of "openness" in your hips may not be associated to soft tissue inflexibility. It's totally feasible that inhibited exterior turning results from the construction of your hip joints. If that holds true, no amount of extending will enable you to exercise full Padmasana-- and also that's alright.

Another location of usual injury as well as discomfort is where the muscles connect to the bones using tendons (their origins and also insertions). In this circumstances, the pain is sharp. Its specific area is quickly determined.

Repeated extending near your limit of flexibility might emphasize these areas, causing damages to the tendon fibers, causing inflammation. Due to all the forward folding in yoga, a constant website for this kind of discomfort is where the hamstrings connect to the ischial tuberosity (sit bone).

If you ignore this pain, which might start out as more of a worrying inflammation, the injury is likely to worsen, become persistent, and also start to hurt not just when you're ahead bending, but additionally when you're resting as well as strolling. In these instances, you must change in order to enable the swollen location to recover. If you are feeling pain in a position, you need to withdraw until it does not harmed. This may look like usual feeling, but I bet that at lot of times throughout a yoga course, there are people just attempting to disregard some pain or various other, wishing that the later repercussions will not be too bad.

So what around when we feel an abrupt acute pain while practicing, and also it hurts to relocate the angering limb (to varying levels)? Do we plow on wishing that it will relieve? I would claim no, the longer you go on, the most likely you are to make things even worse. It is very easy for the visibility of endorphins and also the distraction of the technique to mask truth level of the damage.

The finest program of action is to quit as well as initiate the RICE protocol (rest, ice, compression, elevation) as soon as possible. If you didn't require it, no damage would be done, yet if you did, you would profit from punctual activity. The topping, in particular, will certainly decrease swelling in the area and aid decrease the quantity of damages, and the earlier it is used, the better.

When icing, never ever put the ice straight on the skin unless you are mosting likely to keep it relocating (such as with an ice massage therapy), as well as restrict the moment of application to 20 minutes for more fleshy locations (e.g., thighs) and also 10 mins for bony areas like the feet and also hands. You might ice often. Simply enable a space of a minimum of half an hour in between applications. A good indication that it is risk-free to reapply ice is that the skin and tissue have actually gone back to normal temperature. Just bear in mind icing for too lengthy can create tissue damage, especially on the fingers as well as toes-- think about frostbite.

Pain After Yoga Practice

Okay, you have a good method, and after that the following day, or the day after, you get that sensation like you've aged ten years over night. Muscle mass soreness, inflammation, and rigidity permeate your body, as well as you seem like anything however a bendy yogi. The experience might be very local, restricted to one or 2 muscle mass, or it may cover a larger area. When the angering areas are in the resting setting, you do not feel discomfort. It is just when the muscles are gotten or stretched that you experience the complete magnificence of what is happening.

This body response is called delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS for short. If you have actually really offered on your own a looking at, it may last 5 to seven days, however generally 2 to four sees the rear of it. The factor might be that you are brand-new to yoga exercise, yet this experience is by no methods limited to the beginner. If you have had a long term break, amped up your practice, or started doing some poses that use extra stamina than common, you may well sustain a little suffering.

So what's the cause, and also what can you do regarding it if it happens? A few of you could currently enter with "an accumulation of lactic acid," and I will certainly claim, "err, no." It is now currently accepted that lactic acid build-up might assist produce the tiredness pain connected with intense task, yet is not responsible for postponed beginning muscle soreness, as the degree of lactic acid in the muscle mass has actually been revealed to return to typical within one hr of exercise termination.

As a dual "no," lactic acid is linked with anaerobic workout. Because of the intensity of the exercise and the high power demand of the muscular tissues, the body is compelled to produce energy without making use of oxygen. Consequently, lactic acid ends up being manufactured therefore of the metabolic waste produced by this methods of power manufacturing. Sprinting might create this, but yoga exercise not a lot. (Well alright, you might feel this kind of melt in Titibasana (Firefly Pose) B, C, and also D if you have limited hamstrings as well as are striving with your quadriceps to straighten your legs. That's a "yes" for me).

What Causes Postponed Start Muscle Mass Soreness?

There is still much difference regarding the specific reason for delayed start muscle soreness, but it seems to steam down to a mix of elements (e.g., swelling, boosted level of sensitivity of nerve receptors) arising from microdamage experienced by muscular tissue fibers and the connected connective cells. This damages is more probable to occur throughout eccentric contraction (antagonizing a load while lengthening).

For example, the triceps muscles are functioning eccentrically when we lower down right into Chaturanga Dandasana (Four-Limbed Team Posture).

This pain is not necessarily all negative. Postponed beginning muscle soreness is a sign that your body is adjusting to the brand-new anxieties to which it is being subjected. It must not be puzzled, however, with repetitive pressure injury, which is a much sharper pain and stands for damages being done instead of adaptation.

Delayed start muscle mass discomfort may, in certain scenarios, also be used as a barometer of practice intensity. I keep in mind several moons earlier, in my fitness center days, that if I really did not obtain delayed beginning muscle mass soreness the day after training, I would think about that I hadn't educated hard enough because session, which motivated me to work more difficult next time. Thankfully I utilized a split regimen (different body parts on various days), which allowed me to avoid revamping the area impacted by postponed start muscle mass discomfort for numerous days.

I am not suggesting right here that you ought to lay out in your yoga technique to experience delayed start muscle mass discomfort, however sometimes it's not a bad thing. As postponed beginning muscle soreness is really felt just in the muscle mass that have been striven (either by tightening or stretching), it can actually tell you rather a lot. Say, for instance, you have made a decision that your method has been overlooking your quadriceps, so you include in some postures that you believe may make a hit. If you experience postponed beginning muscular tissue pain in that location, you can be guaranteed you have obtained it right.

On the various other hand, if your educator may have recommended you to attempt and engage a particular muscle mass when doing a particular position. Delayed beginning muscle discomfort may show that you were doing what you assumed you were. Of course, if you utilize this muscular tissue a lot already, you might not experience delayed start muscular tissue pain. On the other hand, you may occasionally get a sign that you are utilizing specific muscle mass also much.

What To Do Regarding Delayed Start Muscular tissue Soreness

So a little delayed onset muscle discomfort can be wonderful. Yet excessive, as well as we need a treatment. It may hurt to relocate your sore muscular tissues, however in fact, that's specifically things to do. Light workout, such as gentle biking, will assist ease those uneasy feelings. Light extending is additionally great, so a gentle yoga method is additionally fine. Remember: much like the health club training, if you intend to still practice strong, that's also great, yet you need to change the asanas you do so that you are not functioning the afflicted area strongly.

If you like the "unpleasant medication" training course of action, an ice bathroom will aid for certain. Top athletes often have an ice bath directly after a tough session to try to decrease the effects of postponed start muscular tissue pain and also promote a quicker recuperation. As high as I wish to claim or else, massage therapy, although extremely useful for treating many injuries, may give short-term remedy for delayed onset muscle mass pain yet will certainly not quicken the duration of the symptoms.

What About Rigidity After Yoga Exercise Practice?

I understand that I have actually most likely babbled on for far as well long already, yet right here's simply one more point. Sometimes you obtain a feeling of rigidity and soreness the following day that seems a little bit like delayed onset muscle mass pain. Possibly this limits your series of motion a little bit as well as may create aches when resting. Common websites for this kind of feeling would be the neck and also reduced back. What you have actually most likely done here is to worry the tendons because location. What your body is doing right here is tightening up the muscular tissues bordering the area that you have overstressed in an attempt to splint as well as rather paralyze the area.

Unlike postponed beginning muscular tissue soreness, where you may be ready to think, no worry, modification is underway, in these circumstances you need to check and look at what you are performing in your practice and also make changes. It could be that you are being too aggressive in your forward bends, or maybe there's as well much stress on your neck in Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand Pose) or Sirsasana (Headstand Pose). Or perhaps you're making use of a little head flick in the infamous Urdhva Dhanurasana (Wheel Posture). Whatever the cause, require time to determine what you require to do to remove the pressure you are putting on these areas.

It is usually claimed that as yogis, we can heal a lot of our injuries on the floor covering. I would claim that this is fantastic guidance, yet just if taken the right method. What it does not suggest is to keep with what you have been doing, waiting on the pain to go when in some way yoga exercise amazingly kinds it out. In my mind, what we are discussing is making use of every sensitivity you have established in your technique to figure out where the issues are emerging from and after that making adjustments as needed. Concentrate on opening those areas that might be triggering stress and anxiety to be experienced in various other areas. Most of all, pay attention to your body and also allow it direct you.

[sheusedtobesassier]

Day 10,402

Approximately two months ago I sent you a calm and collected message in which I asked seven questions about our break up. I made sure to say, “Write back whenever you feel the urge and if you never experience that urge then wow please don’t reply that’s fine. I know I need to ask, but it’s okay if you do not need to answer.” I really meant that.

You wrote me back six days later, but without answers. A polite message letting me know you were going to respond eventually. That was 2 months, 2 days, 22 hours, and some odd minutes ago. In my heart of hearts, I don’t believe you will ever send me your answers. The process would take some degree of emotional effort and truthfully I think it doesn’t matter enough to you. And that’s really really really really okay. It has to be.

I am going to answer the questions tonight. Not for you to read, but for me to write. I’ve got a glass of decent Pinot Grigio. I just heard some thunder rumbling. I think I read somewhere that there’s a full moon up there tonight. So. That all lines up for expression.

(I’m not going to include the actual questions in this post because goddamn I love to come off as elusive. I have them and you have them. Anybody else’s guess is good enough.)

1. Limit of four because limits help. You were my buddy so instead of being usually on my own I got to be usually with you. You knew how to be a steady force when I needed space to not be one. You usually felt/saw/reacted/thought differently than everybody else in the room, including me. You deliberately accessed me in ways I’d begun to believe nobody could or would ever want to.

2. Limit of four because limits help. It was extremely hard to be next to you when you were making it obvious you wanted so badly to be elsewhere. I didn’t ever laugh as hard as you like to laugh and it didn’t matter to you what I thought about music. It felt like it was always going to suck that I was a white girl. I think the shine wore off, like I think you’d lost a lot of respect for me by the end.

3. I mean. I think a few months into being officially together we were having a difficult conversation about how you were 90% sure you were going to leave camp soon. It came up that we didn’t really believe in the concept of long distance relationships. That neither of us were that kind of person. How ultimately that would be just a slower more painful break up. And like. Idk. Tbh this question is hard for me to answer and I really wish you would. That’d help me out a ton. When people ask me why we broke up I make vague jokes around it and I’m pretty sure I sound stupid as fuck.

4. Okay. Work hit a rough season financially and it put you it a bad spot. We went on a cold air walk one afternoon and you told me you were going to talk seriously to an Illinois buddy about possibly moving in with him. After that we went to the Moyers for dinner and you pulled Bill aside to speak privately. As I was falling asleep that night I asked what you’d talked about and you said, “I told him I am leaving.” I was caught totally off guard because you had not said those words to me yet. The conversation didn’t go further. I attempted to hide that I was crying and you said goodnight and left. Then for about three days you cut yourself off from the world completely. Hid out. Others started asking me what the heck was going on and I didn’t have an answer. I was subtle crying almost constantly lol, so I finally txted you and asked if we needed to talk. We acknowledged that the conversation we were about to have would require bravery. I asked my boss for some time off work and got it. Um. This is when it all gets pretty confusing for me. Looking back now I think at this point you already knew we were going to break up and were even possibly trying to do it haha, but uh. I didn’t realize your mind was made up. Which. To be fair to me, you did not communicate with me how far gone you were. So. I assumed we were still in the midst of a difficult decision making process. Perhaps I should have asked more questions than I did. But. Um. We spent like the next four days together and they were borderline perfect? Which. Lol whatever I don’t want to write about them. I want you to tell me what the fuck was going on there because I think the way you were looking at our last week together was 1000% different from whatever the hell I was perceiving. I was in a honey colored daze. I’m sorry if that time was low key tortuous for you. I truly did not understand what was happening. Um. We took each others clothes off on a Friday evening and afterwards I was laughing and realized you weren’t laughing. You were blank. Staring hard at nothing. I softly asked what was wrong and you said you had to call your friend and give him a final answer. And um. And I had to say the words, “And? You’re upset? Because? You’re going to tell him yes?” Um. All this is a blur. I don’t remember saying much else. I got dressed and began putting on make up, getting ready to go watch a children's musical with friends. You stood at the door watching me a while then left. Um I cried uncontrollably on the drive into town, through the whole damn elementary school production of Annie, and the ride back. When I got home I sent you a txt saying, “If you need things before you go or have things you need to express then please let me know and we can do that.” along with some other sad content. I didn’t hear back so then at midnight I txted you a comforting I love you message and you sent a comforting I love you message back. I fell asleep worrying about you. Mm. And then. Whatever I’m not going to write in detail about it, but you very abruptly left first thing the next morning and from that point on (THOUGH WE’VE NEVER HAD THE FUCKING CONVERSATION) we have been not together. Next question.

5. Okay. I got way too specific on that last one and would like to not make a pattern of that. Sorry. So. For this one. For me. Afterwards I went dark. I went through very ugly withdrawal. I guess I can’t really write about then. Um. I waited for weeks to hear from you and heard nothing. I read everything about our star signs and I listened to the break up playlist I’d been fucked up prepping throughout basically our entire relationship. I watched ALL the Marvel movies and I drank a lot a lot so much I just wanted to drink. I couldn’t fucking sleep ever and when I did I had cruel dreams about you. When we finally did start writing to each other I got really really really really emotionally messy. Paragraphs and then more paragraphs. DRAMATIC TAKE AFTER DRAMATIC TAKE. I didn’t call you and you didn’t call me. But I bothered you and I bothered you and I bothered you. You hardly ever seemed interested in talking to me. You’d give a little and I’d gross myself out at how desperate I was for more. You were polite and you didn’t want to talk to me. Yeah okay that’s the simplest way to describe what afterwards was like for me. I was in love with someone who didn’t want to talk to me.

6. Um. Okay. Honestly. Right now when I think of you there are a few common reactions. I think of the dialogue from Liz Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love often. “But I love him.” “So love him.” “But I miss him.” “So miss him. Send him some love and light every time you think about him then drop it.” Usually when you come to mind it’s because of one of hundreds of things that connect to stories I like about us. I’m consistently telling me, “Shut up. Nobody knows how to react when you talk reverently about your ex.” Idk. I use a lot of my 11:11 wishes on your behalf. Like unselfishly. I don’t make them about us getting back together or anything like that. No, just for your happiness/wholeness. I wish for good for you. But maybe now that I’ve typed that here none of them will come true. Sorry.

7. I am not.

[littlestgahena1301]

Fountain of Youth Part 2

In his home, Katsuki was figuring out if he had everything that he needed. He guessed that it wouldn't be much different than staying with Izuku and Inko but with much more annoying extras and suffocating coddling. He didn't mind some of them, namely one Yaoyorozu Ponytail, an Iida Robocop and also Kirishima Shity-hair.

Not quite sure with Half and Half. Sure, the man acknowledged him, but it might be was said in spite of the moment. Izuku mentioned that there were some extras in his class that asked about his well-being. Izuku told him that people were worried about him, but he didn't pay much attention to who asked and said what.

He heard from Shinsou that he will be joining 1-A so at least Katsuki has one person who won't smoother him as much. Good thing.

For the rest of his days, Katsuki would still be stuck with 1-C and without Shinsou there, Katsuki would have to grow another pair of eyes behind his back and look out for any possible danger. He's not so sure with how they would react — seeing as he was the only person who received special treatment and get to hang out with kids from the Hero courses. Next week won't be pretty, and he wished that the weekends could drag on longer. He wants to be finished with packing and go back to Inko's for some brownies, and maybe Izuku wouldn't be too busy for a quick game with him.

Speaking of which, Izuku hadn't messaged him about anything yet. It's almost 11 a.m., and Izuku was never this late on messaging him. Weird. He did remember that Izuku has training for the day, but he slightly wonders why there was no good morning text or any text in that matter. Deciding that Izuku would come around to doing that later, he moved on to his shopping list.

He spent last night figuring out what he might need in his dorm room. He figured he would mostly end up crashing with Izuku more often than not, but one can never be too careful. It is better to keep things in hand just in case he needs them with some pocket money and savings that he had left for the month.

He gave his account a quick check. Mitsuki banked his allowance into his account every month. Most of the money remains unused since Inko had so carefully provided him with most of the food. He even helped Inko pay bills with his cash secretly, wondered how busy Inko must be busy not to notice that the electric and water bills had never arrived at her house anymore. He gave his list another quick scan.

Do I need a microwave?

Undoubtedly one of the most prestigious Hero School in the world would have enough funds to provide their students with the necessary kitchen equipment. Plus, he is going to be living in the Hero's dorms, which means it's likely to get the best stuff out of all the other dorms. Even so, Katsuki feels like he would be more comfortable using his own, and not having to share with other people who are not Izuku. With that, the microwave stays on his list. He then left his home to go shopping for his list.

 Bakugou emerges through the front auto door with plastic bags in both hands (don't worry, it's biodegradable.) feeling spent after walking down numerous aisles searching for whatever he needs. His microwave, however, was nowhere to be found and he would have to make do with the dorm's until he can get his own.

He ended up with spare bed sheets, towels, linens, a handkerchief, a warm and fluffy blanket for the cold weather, a cushion for his chair and organizing boxes (though he might not have that much to organize anyway). Getting home without all of this falling apart would be an achievement. Bakugou was making his way to the train station when he heard a wailing nearby.

"Mommy?! Mommy?!"

A boy was running around, looking frantic. Passersby just left him be, unbothered to help. He sighed. Who the heck lost their child in the middle of bright daylight?

Bakugou felt somewhat troubled when the child was walking too close to the main road. The boy stopped at a nearby crosswalk, looking at the wrong direction to see that there's no car coming his way. Bakugou heart dropped when he saw a car coming out of the junction and the boy completely missing it.

He dashed forward to yank at the boy away from the street, who fell on his rear and was in complete shock. The car driver noticed and stopped a good quarter of a meter after the crosswalk, the wheels ending just where the boy planned to step. He did not want to think of how things might have ended differently, and thank whatever higher power that exists for his fast instincts kicking into gear when he needs it. He snapped at the driver.

"Yeah yeah, you almost fucking run this kid over! The fuck why you hit a 50 at a junction? You think your fat-ass belongs in Initial-D?"

The driver who is a middle-aged man, (who happens to be not at all fat) tsked at him and drove by, revving the engine a bit too loudly as he went. Bakugou was about to flip the bird at him when he realized that the kid had gone quiet.

"Brat, you okay?"

The boy was in sobbing hiccups. Tears were falling to his cheeks as his body quake with each little squeak of his voice. The boy looks pitiful, and Katsuki felt somewhat repulsed by the amount of snot starting to pour down his nose. What the hell did he sign up for now?

"Get off your damn butt and wipe those snots off your face." He barked. Fucking disgusting.

The boy wiped his snot away but didn't get up. That's when he noticed the child's bleeding hands. Well, of course, he would be bleeding, you yanked him off like he's some animal and now the kid is hurt, of course, he won't get up. Well, this way above and beyond from what he originally planned to do. Well damn, he can't just leave him alone and let the kid kill himself could he?

He grabbed at the kids' shirt and gave it a light tug. "Hey, get up! Up!" he motioned. Avoiding to the kids snotted hands from being near him and keep a strong enough tension to get the boy back up to his feet like he's some prize in a claw machine game. The boy managed to get back up to his feet. His sobs completely disappeared but he tears are still rolling, and the boy wiped it away with his other hand.

The scene attracted quite a crowd and Bakugou resorted to glaring so hard till everybody leaves. One of the audiences gave him a disappointed look, and it makes Bakugou's blood boils. What, you think this is my fuck up?

His attention shifted back to the boy's bleeding hands. He needs to do something about those. Katsuki spotted a vending machine nearby and figured he should get the boy some water to wash the wound. He turned to the little brat. "Wait here, can you do that?"

The boy silently nodded.

And so, Katsuki went.

He returned back to his bags to get his new handkerchief and spent 150 yen on bottled water.

They found a nearby drain to wash their hands at, and the kid thankfully knows what to do without him having to instruct. "Wash your arms too.." he added, and the boy did.

And then he proceeded to use his 500-yen handkerchief on the boy. Whoever the mom is, he might have to charge her babysitting fees out of spite.

Katsuki grabbed on the plastic bags with his left hand and gave the boy his right, not wanting the kid to hold on to the bad hand.

"We'll go to the police station now, okay?'

The boy nodded quietly but midway his detour to the police station the boy starts opening his mouth, and it was fucking unbearable.

"Whats your name? Why is your hair all poofy? Hey, why are you not answering? You talk earlier, so why can't you talk now?"

Katsuki inhaled. "Kid!"

The kid looked at him, shocked.

"Just shut up will ya?" he sighed with the kindest smile that he could manage. Except to the kid, it looked absolutely off-putting.

"Okay…"

Midway trip Bakugou had to stop to exchange hands as the end of his fingertips is starting to turn blue from the cut-off circulation. His palms sweaty as the sun is beating down on them mercilessly.

"Hey, give me your other hand."

Bakugou was very careful enough to not squeeze on the boy's hand, knowing it is still delicate for rough handling. They went like that for the whole trip where he was slightly relieved that the boy's mom was already there drowning in tears while the police officer looked at her apologetically. Huh, like mom like son. Although to be honest, the two of them are reminiscent of how Izuku and Inko is.

"MOM!"

The boy ran towards the surprised woman and was immediately greeted by a warm hug. The scene almost made him miss his own mother.

"Dear heavens, Masaki! Why did I tell you about wandering around?!"

She then proceeded to scold him a good minute before noticing the handkerchief around the hand, and to that she almost shrieked.

"What happened Masaki?"

"I fell, and my hands start to hurt."

Which is half the truth? Katsuki will take that.

"Did you wash your hand afterwards? This is why I don't want you to-" The woman the precariously tried to unwrap the handkerchief but stopped mid-sentence to inspect the hand. A bewildered plastered on her face.

"Strange…" she said, completely forgetting where she was going with her sentence.

The boy looked at his hand who Katsuki noticed was pristine and unmarred like before. It looked soft and supple. He thought the same thing too.

Strange indeed.

"Well that big boy helped me washed it…" he pointed at Katsuki

The mother turned to look at him and gave him a big smile. "Thank you so much for taking care of him."

"Nothing much," he said even though his brain screamed NO YOU DAMN FUCK HE WAS TOO FUCKING MUCH.

The woman proceeded to pay him for the price of the handkerchief with a 10,000 yen, which he isn't going to think about any time soon. I mean, …she offered.

________________________________________________________

 Welp, that's about it. Dead week is two weeks away so I will be on another hiatus starting approximately from now. Thank you @abbystaffyisgeek for the awesome story and being such an awesome inspiration!

Go check out her Baku centric fic called Worse Than Quirkless! It is a very good read, and she's a major queen for updating each week!

[tearlessrain]

I’m about to watch Arthur and Merlin, which is free on youtube and came up in my suggestions randomly. I have no idea what it is but I am hungry for the arthurian Content so Imma watch it and see how it goes

update: it was way better than I expected and accidentally SUPER gay. that merlin tv show everyone loved was amateur hour compared to how gay this was.

“there is magic in the air, and in the water, but it has been forgotten by many in these lands” wow why does that sound familiar I wonder

the funny thing is I watched fellowship of the ring literally yesterday so this will be hilarious

but there is hope [extremely unsubtle cut to a baby who is definitely important]

now I think... and I could be wrong... but guys I suspect this baby might be the chosen one.

oh god there was no father he was conceived by midichlorians

THE SKYWALKERS HAVE INFILTRATED THE CELTS

okay place your bets is it arthur or merlin

it’s Merlin. or Merddyn rather, in a surprise twist this movie was written by Fucking Nerds

so far mild cheese aside this is surprisingly watchable

“your crops fail and so you ask the king for help, but do not help yourselves! where are your alters?? starvation is punishment for your lack of faith!” THE RNC HAS INFILTRATED THE CELTS

okay so near as I can figure out the mark is from the old gods but there’s a druid who I guess speaks for the king or something who wants them to worship different old gods and now he’s demanding the villagers make a human sacrifice and it’s gonna be Smol Merddyn.

aw no they killed Celtic Shmi. Merddyn got away though and is now wandering the Forbidden Forest

I’m mad this is actually a solid movie so far. absolutely nothing unexpected has happened but I didn’t click on a movie called “Arthur and Merlin” to be surprised

oh wait that kid who freed him was Arthur

fifteen years later arthur is... a military leader who looks strangely like one of those romans played by obviously white actors in older movies

I honestly can’t pinpoint when this movie was made on aesthetics alone

ooo some Roving Misogynists™ are here to cause trouble and assault random women for being christian. by order of the druid no doubt.

“you mock us!” “I do.” okay I’m starting to like this arthur.

oh my god is that. he just fucking. tripped over excalibur while wading in like a two foot deep pond to get this woman’s cross back for her. best interpretation ever.

wait Olwen??? as in Ysbaddaden’s daughter Olwen?? once again I assumed they’d go with Guinevere or make someone up but I forgot, this movie was made by Fucking Nerds.

okay I know insisting everything is gay is a constant thing on this site but I want to point out that Arthur has showed nothing but very platonic friendship to Olwen but this is the face he makes when he sees Merddyn in a vision

and I mean to be fair to him this is what Merddyn looks like now

goddamn

oh no they’ve immediately made it very clear that he’s Romantically Involved With Olwen In Secret Look They’re Kissing Nobody Is Gay

so now I really want to know who wrote this movie because what I’m seeing here is people who intentionally chose to use the name merddyn, and know that olwen exists, but then decided to pair her romantically with... king arthur. and culhwch just doesn’t exist I guess. not that this is the most off the wall welsh mythology ship I’ve encountered but still it’s a weird one for this kind of media even if it’s an indie film

who are you people. how did this movie get made. I mean I like whatever it is but for real how and why did you do this.

I love how there’s just this trio of random dudes who don’t even have names who are arthur/olwen’s friends. and yet somehow they’re likable and I’m rooting for them. whoever they are.

so the only real problem with this movie that’s denting my enjoyment is that nobody has names and they all have the same haircut so I lose track of who’s doing what. see these are arthur’s friends:

and these are bad guys:

and Olwen is the only person in either screenshot who has a name

if any of them ever changes into a new outfit I’m screwed.

I’m gonna be real with y’all I love me a cursed forest

in an ironic twist, excalibur is now firmly stuck in a tree trunk and arthur cannot get it out

why is this movie GOOD what the heck. I mean the druid and king situation is blatantly ripped from wormtongue and theoden but I still like. care about the king. they’ve done it well.

“I’ve already told you, I am no longer a man.” “are you so sure???” see I know nothing will happen since this is a movie not a fanfic but that line is the quintessential hate-makeout segue

THIS IS VERY HETEROSEXUAL they’ve had most of the argument while approximately that distance from each other

oh god what the fuck arthur’s friends got sacrificed by the druid just to make a point to olwen. this is the opposite of a Sacrificial Girlfriend.

they do not need to be this close to each other to argue but they keep on doing it

they’ve been on screen together for less than five minutes y’all

arthur: maybe you’re right, you are no longer a man

merlin: [conjures an entire patch of flowers for him to make... some kind of point I guess?]

okay now they’re arguing again but there’s all this “I thought I knew you” talk (which, again, it’s been five minutes) and the actors have clearly decided that their dynamic is based entirely on constant, roiling sexual tension

why does every single thing they say scan like dialogue from a slow burn enemies to friends to lovers fanfic

“the girl in the village, did you love her once?” “I know little of love” “Surely a man who can control the growth of a flower must be able to make love blossom” JUST FUCK ALREADY

this is how they’re having this conversation by the way

there was only one shrub hollow

“to control nature is one thing, but only the most powerful sorcerer could control the mind of a man- OR WOMAN,” he said, heterosexually.

y’all I’m gonna be honest I thought I was just projecting at first but this is the gayest thing I’ve seen since the baseball song in high school musical 2. this is just absolute beleg and turin levels of probably unintended but utterly blatant homosexuality. I’m so glad I decided to watch this movie and youtube was right to recommend it to me.

this movie really speaks to me because on a spiritual level I too am a mystical but irritable and socially stunted forest hermit with sexy hair just waiting for a brash but pure-hearted warrior who looks like a roman statue to draw me out of my cave with homoerotic banter. 

oh it’s not excalibur it’s... nuadu. which I guess in this movie is not the king of the tuatha de danann but a sword forged by them? see my first impulse would be to assume that the way they’re mangling everything, the writers knew nothing about Celtic folklore, except that they’ve chosen such weirdly specific things to mangle. they know their shit, they’ve just deliberately chosen to go absolutely buckwild with it.

THEY’RE DOING IT AGAIN THEY ARE INCAPABLE OF ARGUING WHILE STANDING MORE THAN TWO FEET APART

for real though character-wise this might be one of my favorite interpretations of merlin/merddyn I’ve ever seen. I feel like everyone involved was genuinely super passionate about the subject matter they were working with. like all jokes aside he’s really honestly well acted and well written.

STOP IT NOW YOU HORNY SIMPLETONS

uh oh they’ve been captured by... bandits?

oh it’s olwen’s uncle

“TO GOOD WOMEN... WHY DO YOU NOT DRINK, MERDDYN”

it is a mystery, olwen’s uncle.

a mystery.

this motivational monologue could have been so cheesy but like. I’m here for it. I would follow arthur into battle.

aw come on. olwen’s uncle betrayed them. I kinda saw it coming but dammit.

again, the druid should be absolutely stupid but he’s kind of a cool villain.

yay olwen’s uncle unbetrayed them. probably so would I if I’d seen what merddyn just did to the druid’s guys.

so the druid is trying to sacrifice ten thousand souls to raise a god from the underworld and merddyn is on the fucking warpath. and olwen’s uncle is ON BOARD HELL YEAH.

THE HOBBITS THE HOBBITS THE HOBBITS THE HOBBITS TO ISENGUARD TO ISENGUARD

arthur and merddyn have escalated to clutching each other’s clothes during their heated two-feet-apart discussions

olwen is a badass in her own right like she has her own whole thing going trying to save the king from basically his own literal dementia and the druid who’s taking advantage of it, which is somehow way more compelling than just magical mind control.

“I thought the cave taught you fairness” “well... you taught me fighting” JUST KISS.

okay let’s see how they pull off this dark god on the shoestring budget they definitely have, at this point I honestly believe in them.

by avoiding showing the god entirely apparently but they made it work even with that.

aw the king has named him his heir. which again we all knew would happen but it’s still so well done.

and we end on merddyn placing the crown on arthur’s head while lovingly quoting his own words back at him, while olwen looks on with the kind of approval that implies they’ve ended up with some kind of road to el dorado situation. solid.

so I was expecting this to be absolute garbage with bad actors and checked out writers just trying to make another mediocre coattail-riding medieval fantasy movie and what I got was some weirdly good actors and writers who are clearly obsessed with celtic folklore and desperately wanted to just run amok with it for an hour and 45 minutes. and they did. they poured every ounce of their hearts and souls and tiny, tiny budget into it. and it was beautiful. 10/10

[nanowrimo]

4 Tips to Balance Research and Writing

If you’re writing a novel this November that has the potential to involve a lot of research—say, science fiction or historical drama—you may be feeling a little overwhelmed trying to balance your time. Today, Dan Koboldt, author of Putting the Science in Fiction, shares his tips for making your research help rather than hinder your writing:

Doing research is one of my favorite parts of the writing process. Of course, I'm a genetics researcher by day, so I probably love it more than most.

Scientists don't exactly advertise this, but we don't know everything. Just like engineers, doctors, lawyers, and other professionals, we tend to specialize in a particular area. Often, we don’t know anything more about a subject outside our field than the average Joe. So yes, I do my research, and I encourage other authors to do the same.

At the same time, it's important not to let research become an excuse to avoid writing. I see this happen to some of my friends who aspire to be authors. Heck, I'm guilty of it myself. It's understandable, because writing is hard. It's much more fun to read stuff that's already written under the guise of preparing to crank out words of our own. Yet, a writer who wants to be successful must not fall into this trap. Especially if they hope to win NaNoWriMo.

Naturally, this raises the question of how an author should balance research for writing purposes with the writing itself. I'd like to offer a few suggestions.

1. Research Efficiently

In this digital age, information is more readily available than ever before. It's easy to get lost in the flood of new information. One thing I try to do is to limit the scope of my research to what I need right now. If I'm writing a story about space travel, for example, I don't need to understand everything that's happened since The Big Bang. I just need to know where the closest celestial bodies are (short answer: really far away) and how long it would take to get there using current technology (short answer: thousands of years).

It's useful to come up with specific research questions before diving into a book or search engine. For example, I might want to know the crew size and approximate armament of mid-century Soviet submarines. That's a specific inquiry that might take some detective work, but at least I know the type of information I need. When I find the answers I need, I stop.

2. Ask an Expert

One of the most efficient ways to do research is to approach an expert in the relevant subject area and ask for help. Thanks to social media, real-world experts are easier to find than ever. If you approach them politely and with genuine interest, many are happy to talk about their work (I love it when people come to me with genetics questions). An interactive conversation with an expert can get you answers quickly, and also provide important nuances that you might miss when researching on your own.

This is part of why I began seeking out scientists, engineers, and other experts for my Science in Sci-fi blog series. Each week, I invite someone with real-world expertise to share it in a guest post on my blog. With 150 articles and counting, it's grown into a massive resource for writers of genre fiction.

I'm also a prodigious note-taker. When I read something or get answers from an expert, I write it all down in a text file. Often I encounter interesting tidbits that aren't related to my immediate question, but might be useful later. Everything gets copied into a searchable notes file—which I back up to my Dropbox account—so that I know I'll have it later.

3. Block Out Writing Time, Squeeze In Research Time

If you want to be a productive writer, you have to protect your writing time. That means putting it on the schedule and blocking out those crucial hours to get words on paper. Research, on the other hand, is something you can squeeze into the margins. Maybe you're waiting in line or zoning out after the kids take control of the TV. Grab those few minutes and spend them on your research. If you follow my note-taking advice, you'll have it all in place when you need it later.

An important corollary of this time management strategy is this: when you're writing and in a groove, don't stop for anything. This includes doing research, picking character names (my personal weakness), or other tasks that pull you away from the writing. Use TK as a placeholder and stay in the writing groove. That's what it takes to win NaNoWriMo.

4. Start and End with Research

You can always do some research after you've written a draft to make sure that you got those details right. But if you're like me, you want to get your feet wet even before you start. In fact, one of my favorite things about research is that it often seeds new story ideas. That's why my blog contributors have been sharing sci-fi story prompts all month long in the run-up to NaNoWriMo. Read them, get some ideas, and go write that novel!

You can enter to win a free copy of Dan’s book, Putting the Science in Fiction, by clicking on this link!

Dan Koboldt is a genetics researcher and fantasy/science fiction author from the Midwest. He is the editor of Putting the Science in Fiction (Writers Digest, 2018) and the author of the Gateway to Alissia series (Harper Voyager). Dan works at the Institute for Genomic Medicine at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, where he and his colleagues use next-generation DNA sequencing technologies to uncover the genetic basis of pediatric diseases. He has co-authored more than 70 publications in Nature, Science, The New England Journal of Medicine, and other scientific journals. Dan is hoping to reach his 10th consecutive NaNoWriMo win this year.

Top photo by Kevin Ku on Unsplash.

[tiberiusjeffersonkippen]

Dancing for You

Here’s chapter two! Thanks to everyone who liked the beginning! Here’s the AO3 link.

Summary: As Cyrus prepares a dance for his high school’s talent show, he finds himself entangled in a new friendship with none other than TJ Kippen, Grant High School’s resident jock. Only good things can come from new friends…right?

Words: 2087

Chapter 2

“Good morning Grant High!” The voice of Grant’s principal, Mr. Hayes, rang out from the loudspeaker. Although he usually paid attention to the announcements (unlike most of his peers), Cyrus could barely even keep his eyes open. He was really tired out from the talent show, and he almost overslept. He listened to the announcements as best he could, but his “best” ended up being falling half-asleep for everything but the very first and very last announcements. He zoned back in just as Mr. Hayes finished with “And please go vote for all of our very talented students who performed last night! Videos and the ballot can be found on the school’s website!”

“Does he not understand that you literally can not vote for ‘all’ of the performers?” sniggered Buffy, who sat next to Cyrus in first period Spanish.

“Oh, you know Mr. Hayes,” said Cyrus as he yawned. He really needed to get more sleep. “Besides, it’s a nice gesture, right?”

“You’re too nice, Cyrus.”

“Well someone has to stick up for the guy. All everyone ever does it makes fun of him.”

“Principal’s pet,” teased Buffy.

“Whatever. Let’s get down to business before Senora Gonzalez yells at us.”

Cyrus drifted through school as a zombie. He was probably going to have to relearn everything he was taught that day, but he was too exhausted to care. His math teacher even noticed that he was more tired than she’d ever seen him! After almost running into several people in the hallway (including one who Cyrus swore didn’t even go to Grant), Cyrus somehow got himself to history on time. Granted, he was literally the last person to arrive when he was usually one of the first, but Cyrus was willing to count it as a win. Unfortunately for him, someone had decided to appropriate his typical seat (which was the best one in the entire room, if you asked Cyrus), leaving the only open seat at the end of the last row, next to TJ Kippen. Cyrus groaned, but he couldn’t help but be somewhat satisfied with the temporary change. As much as he hated the back row, Cyrus was dying to have another conversation with TJ, and, more importantly, find out what the heck ‘Underdog’ meant.

However, before Cyrus could even open his mouth to ask TJ, Mr. Forbes started class. ‘That’s right,’ thought Cyrus. ‘I’m not as early as I usually am, so I don’t have time to chit-chat like I usually do.’

“Good morning class! I hope you all got the chance to go see the talent show last night! Let me tell you, Grant has some very talented students! In fact, we even have a very skilled dancer in this class! Our own Cyrus Goodman killed it last night!”

“Thanks,” Cyrus mumbled while the entire class turned to look at him. He really did not need the entire class to be very aware of his dancing abilities. Sure, he did decide to go and dance in front of hundreds of his peers, but he didn’t expect any of them to talk to him about it. Now, Mr. Forbes was practically inviting them to! Although, Cyrus supposed, he already had someone talk to him about it. TJ. In the bathroom of the Spoon.

Speaking of TJ, when Cyrus glanced over at him, he found a very soft and a very not-intimidating TJ staring back, before he shuddered and looked away. Cyrus was really going to have to interrogate him later.

“Anyway, we are going to begin our decades projects today! Now, they won’t be due until about a month after the AP test (which let me remind you is in three weeks!), but I wanted to give you guys ample time to come up with great ideas! This will be a partner project, so I’ll give you guys some time to pick partners after I’ve explained the entire project.”

Anxiety spiked through Cyrus. None of his friends were in this class! He looked over each of his classmates. Steph would pair up with Katie, Andrew would go with Victoria, Alex and Oscar would probably work together, Kira was too bossy and too much of a perfectionist, and Reed was too much of a dumbass (Cyrus wasn’t even sure how he got into AP US). Maybe he could work with Leo? His locker was right next to Cyrus’s, and he always seemed nice.

“So, without any further ado, I release you to the Battle Royale that is the picking of project partners!” announced Mr. Forbes (ever the dramatist), and the chaos began.

Cyrus stood up and started to make a beeline for Leo, but then TJ knocked over the tall pile of papers and folders that was sitting on Cyrus’s desk. By the time he finished cleaning everything up, Lester had already claimed Leo, and everyone one else had partnered up. Except for TJ.

“Guess we’re stuck together, huh?” said TJ, although he didn’t seem to be too disappointed about it.

“I guess so,” said Cyrus as he sat back down. Since he was already sitting next to TJ, there was no need to move to another spot.

“Kippen and Goodman? There’s a pair I never thought I’d see,” said Mr. Forbes while he wrote their names down next to a decade. “You two will have the 80s. Don’t mess it up! I am entrusting you with the decade of my youth!”

“Forbes is such a dork,” TJ said after their teacher walked away to assign decades to the other groups.

“I know, but it’s sweet. What other teacher is willing to be that goofy with their students?”

“Yeah, you’re right.” TJ paused a moment before a grin broke out on his face. “Did you watch those videos of him that Reed found?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Are you in the groupchat?” After Cyrus shook his head no, TJ continued “Oh, give me your number and I’ll add you. Anyway, there are these videos of him on YouTube where he’s telling stories. One of them is about him selling all of his belongings and going backpacking across Europe.”

“There is no way he actually did that.”

“I dunno, he does have that glimmer in his eyes…” TJ’s sentence drifted off and they both started at their teacher for a moment before Cyrus brought them back to the task at hand.

“Well, I guess we should get started.”

“Yeah, I guess.” A beat passed. “So,” TJ continued, “Do you have any idea what we should get started on?”

“Not really? Brainstorming is probably the place to start, and I don’t know about you, but personally, I think my brain is feeling pretty calm right now.” Cyrus was expecting a response, and he got one, but not in the form he thought he would get. Instead of using his words, like, y’know, any decent person, TJ started laughing.

‘Great,’ though Cyrus. ‘He’s finally come to his senses and realized what a joke this is and now he’ll try to weasel out of being my partner, which is perfectly fine by me because I probably would’ve ended doing it all anyw-’

“That’s a good one, Underdog,” TJ said, (quite rudely) interrupting Cyrus’s inner monologue. “Mind if I use it?”

“Wait, you mean you weren’t just laughing at me?”

“What? I was laughing at what you said, not at you.”

“Oh,” Cyrus swallowed. “Well, how stormy is your brain feeling right now?”

“I’d said pretty stormy.” TJ grinned, but Cyrus could just barely hear TJ add an “as always” onto the end of his statement. As much as Cyrus would have loved to dive into what TJ meant, he decided against it. If TJ did in fact not hate him (which seemed to be the case), Cyrus was not about to go and ruin it.

“I guess we can get started with that then?” he said instead.

“Sound like a plan.”

Twenty minutes and more than a couple of pieces of paper later, TJ and Cyrus had come up with approximately one hundred million ideas, none of them very good.

“What even happened in the 80s?” groaned TJ as he crumpled up another piece of paper and expertly shot it into the trash can.

“Three minutes twenty-three seconds to three minutes thirty-four seconds,” said Cyrus.

“Huh?”

“‘We Didn’t Start the Fire.’ You know, where it goes ‘Wheel of fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal suicide/foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz/hypodermics on the shore, China’s under martial law/Rock and Roller coaster wars’? It happens between three minutes and twenty-three seconds and three minutes and thirty seconds.”

“One, how the fuck do you know that? Two, HOW THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW THAT?!”

“I thought it would be valuable information when I was like 12.”

“Seriously? You have got to be the most interesting person I know, Underdog.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say I’m that interesting. And what’s with that nickname? That’s like the third time you’ve called me ‘Underdog.’”

Before TJ could answer, the bell rung. “I’ll keep trying to come up with ideas!” he called as he went out the door. “I’ll let you know if I think of any good ones!”

“You guys are NOT going to believe this!” Cyrus said, sitting down with at his lunch table.

“What is it, Cy? Did they overstock chocolate chocolate muffins and are giving the extras away for free?” responded Buffy.

“Haha, very funny.”

“What? 9 times out of 10, when you are yelling in the cafeteria, it’s about those damn muffins!”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

“While I am sure that that would be a very entertaining argument to listen to for twenty minutes, I want to know what Cyrus was going to tell us,” interrupted Andi.

“Oh! So you know how I had that conversation with TJ Kippen yesterday?” said Cyrus.

“Yeah, did you ever figure out what that was all about? And the whole ‘Underdog’ thing?” said Jonah.

“I’ll get to that. So today Mr. Forbes has us pick partners for the decades project. And somehow I ended up being partners with TJ! And for some reason he seems happy about this! And then he called me Underdog again, like twice!”

“I’m starting to wonder what exactly his motives are,” said Buffy.

“Me too! But don’t you think he would’ve just shoved me or something if he wanted to mess with me? It’s so much easier than being forced to spend time with me.”

“Maybe he just wants to get a good grade on the assignment?” suggested Andi.

“Maybe,” said Cyrus.

“Speak of the devil,” muttered Buffy, and, before he could ask what she meant, Cyrus felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to face a grinning Kippen.

“Hey! I just has an absolutely amazing idea for our project!” TJ said excitedly.

“Well? What is it!” responded Cyrus.

“So you know how you were talking about that one section of ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ that’s about the 80s? What if we rewrote it be entirely about that decade!”

“Hmm, an iconic song filled with events of an iconic decade? I think that’s a great idea! We’d probably have to write a more detailed explanation and analysis about the events, but it would definitely work!”

“Awesome! I guess we can figure out when to get together and work on it tomorrow?”

“Sounds like a plan! See you in history!”

“See ya in history!”

When Cyrus turned back around to continue his lunch and conversation with his friends, he was met with a couple of shit-eating grins.

“What?” he asked.

“You seemed a little enthusiastic about that exchange,” teased Andi.

“Yeah, I could literally hear the exclamation points at the ends of your sentences,” added Buffy.

“What are you guys talking about?” asked Cyrus.

“They’re talking about how you obviously like TJ,” said Jonah without looking up from his phone.

After a beat of shocked silence from the others at the table, Jonah looked up. “What? I’m not as oblivious as you all think I am,” he said, and laughter erupted from the table.

“But seriously,” said Buffy as she tried to suppress giggles, “you so totally like him!”

“I so totally do not!”

“Okay…” said Buffy, and they all went back to eating their lunches.

“Oh, hi TJ!” said Andi.

“TJ?” Cyrus whipped around, but TJ was nowhere to be seen. Andi and Buffy, however, were giggling uncontrollably behind him.

“Yep, you don’t like him at all,” said Andi.

“Oh, shut up.”

[sassycassie-s-writing]

To Be Happy - Summer (Fin)

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): DC, BatFam, SuperFam - Jason Todd/Red Hood & Conner Kent/Kon-El/Superboy

Rating: PG-11 (violence)

Original Idea: Part 1 Summer, Part 2 Autumn, Part 3 Winter, Part 4 Spring

Notes: (Masterlist)(By Character)(About Me) This one is a bit longer than the others! It’s also the last part! @welovegroot

^^^^^

Approximately Four Years Later…

^^^^^

June 14, 7:15AM

Red Hood peered over the town, chewing the inside of his cheek under his helmet. Mt. Justice, to the north, stood like a mighty statue. It loomed over the nearby town—a silent protector.

Red Hood scoffed at the thought. “Sure. Leave the protecting of innocent civilians to a bunch of kids. What was the League thinking?” he muttered under his breath. After another moment of regarding the town from his vantage point on the hills to the south, he cracked his knuckles. “Well. I guess it’s now or never. If I don’t go see her now I never will.”

^^^^^

June 14, 9:10AM

I woke up to a hand gently running the backs of fingers down my face. I groaned in complaint at being woken up and peeled my eyes open.

I wasn’t in my room. I sighed. “Did I fall asleep in your room again?” I mumbled.

Kon chuckled. “Yep,” he said.

“Mm… ‘M sorry.”

I felt Kon shift on his side of the bed. His hand rested on the side of my head. “Don’t be sorry, babe. I like it when you fall asleep in here. It reassures me that you’re safe.”

“You’re so sappy when no one else is around,” I said.

“Just for you,” he said. “I'm every bit as in love with you as I was when we first started dating—if not more so.”

“Aw. That’s sweet. I am too.” I leaned forward and kissed the tip of his nose. He smirked at me.

“You ever think we should move out of the mountain and find our own place?” Kon asked.

“I haven’t thought about that yet, why?”

“We’re getting older—we may outgrow this team soon like Aqualad and Nightwing. We’ve been together for four years so… maybe it’s time.”

“Maybe,” I agreed. “But I think for now the youngsters need us.”

“Hmm,” Conner hummed.

“I bet M’gann’s convinced that we’re way more physically involved than we actually are given the amount of times I fall asleep in here,” I mumbled.

Conner chuckled quietly. “Maybe,” he agreed.

OOOOOWHOOP! OOOOOWHOOP! OOOOOWHOOP!

We both sat up and looked at each other. “The town’s in trouble,” we said in unison.

Conner and I flung the covers off and jumped into action. I used my powers to summon my suit from my room and changed into it quickly. Once we were both changed, Conner grabbed me around the waist and flew out of the mountain.

From the air over the town, we could see a pillar of smoke rising over the warehouse district. Kon banked in that direction. Several stories above the ground he let me go, I dropped like a rock, using my powers to catch myself near the burning building. I did a roll anyway out of habit to spare my knees and popped up in an alert stance.

Kon landed heavily next to me, nearly cracking the pavement under him. He took my hand. Together we ran inside the burning building, looking for victims. The younger members of the team would turn up eventually.

Inside, I kept a telekinetic shield around us as best I could to keep the smoke out of our lungs.

A hoard of robots surged out of the ground the moment we ducked through. I yelped and jumped closer to Conner. He held onto me protectively and yanked me to the ground as bullets shot past us.

“Can you hold them?” he asked.

I took a deep breath. “Not for long,” I said.

We felt the mindlink connect our thoughts as M’gann swooped into the warehouse. They’re piloted, her voice said in our minds. I hear thoughts in them.

“Hold them still for as long as you can,” Conner instructed. I nodded. He pulled us both back to our feet. Once I was safely standing, he hovered off the ground, knees bent. “It’s going to be okay, babe.”

I nodded, took a fortifying breath, and turned to the oncoming robots.

Flinging my hands out, I froze the robots in their paths.

“Supes, go!” I shouted. “There are too many for me to hold for too long!” I was already struggling to keep the piloted robots at bay. Kon nodded to me and swooped away, tearing the bots apart without killing the pilots.

My breathing was already labored and we’d barely begun. I was sweating and exhausting myself trying to make the fight easier for the others. Robin leapt over my head with a flip, bo staff at the ready, and threw himself into the fray. A green eagle—Beast Boy—soared after him.

My knees were shaking and I could barely stand. C’mon Starry, Conner encouraged through the mindlink. You can do this. You’re strong enough to stop a bullet dead. You can hold these clowns!

I… I can’t… I can’t keep this up forever, I replied, panting even in my thoughts.

Just a little longer baby. It’s gonna be fine. We’re almost done.

They didn’t look “almost done.”

I… they’re too strong… struggling…

Hang on, Starbeam! Conner’s voice in my thoughts sounded far away…

My knees buckled. I went tumbling down as though in slow motion.

“Whoa there, Stars. It’s okay. I got you. I got you,” a soothing voice said. It didn’t sound like Conner but my mind was worn out from the use of my powers. I was fairly certain my nose was bleeding. It felt like Conner’s strong arms though…

“Conner?” I mumbled.

“Think again, gorgeous,” the voice said, lowering me to the ground.

I peeled my eyes open. They hurt.

Peering over me was a blob of red, black, and brown. I narrowed my eyes, confused and trying to block out the painful light of the fire and smoke. The telekinetic shield I’d been using to keep the smoke out of my eyes and lungs had dropped when I collapsed since I wasn’t strong enough to keep it up.

“Who… who… you?” I tried.

One gloved finger touched my lips. “Shh. You exhausted yourself. I'm going to give you a shot of adrenaline, okay? Everything’s going to be fine.”

My vision cleared enough to see a shiny red helmet, black top, and brown leather jacket.

Something sharp and painful hit me right in the chest. I coughed.

Before I knew it, the pain was gone—and everything was thrown into sharp relief. The helmet was set in a scowl and the black top was body armor that had a red symbol on it, partially obscured by the leather jacket. It looked a bit like a bat?

I was wide awake and wired within moments, all exhaustion gone. I jumped back to my feet. The newcomer joined me in standing. He was about as tall as Conner and built the same—muscular and powerful. I wasn’t ignorant enough not to notice the guns strapped to his thighs, but chose not to comment on them unless he used them wrongly.

Right at that moment, some bots that slipped through the rest of my team made their way to us. The newcomer’s back pressed against mine. I heard the shwing of knives being drawn from sheaths.

We jumped into the fight at the same time, watching each other’s backs while the rest of my team was distracted by their own foes.

“I know what you’re called,” I said to the newcomer.

“That so?” he asked.

“You’re Red Hood—the rogue that terrorized Gotham and usurped Black Mask,” I said.

He laughed. “At your service, Starbeam,” he said.

Something about the way he fought seemed familiar to me. Like we’d fought together before. But I’d never met Red Hood before—I didn’t think. “What are you helping us for?” I asked.

Red Hood snorted. “Bold of you to assume I'm helping anyone other than you,” he remarked, ducking so I could access a bot and tear the armor off, exposing the pilot.

Red Hood drew one of his guns.

BANG!

The bullet stopped dead two inches from the pilot’s head, spinning in the air, held in place by my powers. I dropped it and grabbed Hood’s gun. “We don’t play by those rules here,” I snapped, yanking it out of his hand.

“I don’t play by anyone else’s rules but mine, sweetheart,” he snarled.

“This is my turf and you’ll play by my rules while you’re here,” I returned. Throwing his gun into the air and holding it there with my powers, I clocked the pilot hard with my elbow and knocked him out.

“Fine,” Hood snarled. “Only because I like you so much.”

I scoffed.

Everything okay, babe? Conner asked.

Fine. We have a third-party. Red Hood. He’s helping for now. He gave me a shot of adrenaline.

S’pose I’ll have to thank him later.

S’pose so, I agreed, yanking the power source out of a robot so it crumbled, pilot still inside. There’d be a manual release to get them out.

Aqualad appeared and helped put the fire out. Beast Boy helped. The rest of us took care of the robots.

Once everything deescalated, the mindlink was dissolved and Red Hood’s arm snatched me. His other one shot a grapple gun at the ceiling. We went shooting through the smoke and climbed out onto the roof of the warehouse.

“What the heck, dude?” I demanded. “I gotta make sure my team is okay!”

“They’ll survive without you for five minutes, princess,” he returned. “But you and I need to talk.”

“That’s not a phrase that’s ever followed by good news,” I said.

He snorted. “Yeah you’re probably right. But we do,” he said.

“Why me?” I asked. “Nightwing is technically the leader—”

“Ah nah. I can’t talk to that idiot. I needed someone reasonable. Someone friendly,” he answered casually.

“I'm not particularly known for being either of those when under this mask,” I pointed out.

Red Hood shrugged. “Yeah but I know you. The real you.”

I took a step away from him. “What? How could you—? I don’t know you!”

I heard a chuckle from under his helmet. Red Hood lifted his hand and pressed something under the jaw of his helmet. I heard it hiss. Something on the back released. He bent down and pulled it off. It slipped off his head. He shook his hair out and straightened up. There was a red eye mask on his face, but that didn’t stop me from recognizing it. I’d seen his face with a mask on before—many times. That one used to be red too.

I gasped. “Jason?!” I hissed.

He chuckled. “Surprised to see me, gorgeous?”

The adrenaline he’d shot into me hadn’t worn off because I could feel my heartbeat in my eyeballs.

“Uh… I feel like surprised would be the understatement of the century. I went to your funeral! I mourned for you—I cried for you! I watched you get put in the ground!” I exclaimed.

“Yeah that would be tough,” Jason said flatly. He glanced down through the skylight at the inside of the building and then back to me. “Is it pathetic that I literally died and came back to life and still hurt to see you with Conner?”

“… What?”

He shrugged. “Yeah. But I accepted that you would never feel the same way about me when I made my way back to the States.” He made a face. “And it’s better to be the only one suffering. I’d rather be put myself through heartache if it means you’re happy. I always wanted you to be happy. That was why I didn’t tell you how I felt until right before I left.”

“Jason…”

“Nah don’t worry Stars. Don’t worry about me. The pain of dying and coming back to life and digging myself out of my own grave hurt worse,” he said. He stepped closer and put his hands on my shoulders. “Just look me in the eye and promise me you’ll be happy with Conner.”

“I promise,” I said automatically. “I promise.”

He kissed my forehead. “Good. See ya around Starbeam.” He let go and ran to the edge of the building, pushing his helmet onto his head.

“Where are you going?” I shouted.

Too late. He jumped off and disappeared.

Nightwing and Conner came through the skylight. “Starbeam?” Nightwing asked.

“Baby?” Conner asked. His hand rested on the small of my back.

“What was that about? Who was that?”

I stared at where Red Hood had jumped. “That was… that was Jason. He... he’s alive,” I said. Nightwing’s jaw dropped. He rushed to the edge to look over the town. I turned to Conner. “He made me promise that I’ll be happy with you.”

He kissed my cheek. “And what did you say?”

“I promised him that I would.” I kissed him on the lips. “I love you, Conner.”

“I love you too.”

The End!

(Epilogue)

[mae-gi-writes]

Wrong Number (Baekhyun x OC) Part 2

Synopsis: In which Hwang Jinae insistently leaves voice messages to her boyfriend every night since he’s gone to Veterinary College, only to discover that she has been confessing all her struggles and hardships to the wrong number. More specifically; to his roommate Byun Baekhyun. 

Parts: One | Two |

It’s needless to say that Jinae oversleeps the next day, only waking up to the sound of her ringing cellphone and the feeling of sunlight slithering through her closed blinds. She doesn’t need to check the time to guess that she’s already late to class, and one glance at her device indicates her classmate’s name glowing on the screen, further confirming her deduction about the situation. 

She makes a grab for her phone, swiping the green call button before pressing the device to her ear. 

“Where the heck are you?” a voice explodes at the other end of the line. Chaemi is someone who Jinae had considered her friend until the end of the last semester, when she realized that the said girl had been distributing her notes to her other classmates with the excuse that Jinae’s notes are the best she had seen, and that knowledge should be shared among the people fighting the same battles.

Jinae hadn’t been completely comfortable with the idea, but she’d clamped her mouth shut at the retort that clawed away at her throat, instead giving the girl a tight-lipped smile. 

From that day onwards, Jinae had learnt not to trust too easily, not to fall for people’s kindness when it’s readily available.

“I’m sick.” Jinae lies smoothly as she runs a hand through her messed up bed hair, “Won’t be coming today. See you.” 

And before she can hear Chaemi’s response, she cuts off the call and falls back onto the bed.

Memories of last night float up through her mind, which is the reason as to why she has overslept and has practically wrecked her sleeping schedule. It’ll take her approximately two days to get back to routine if she manages to go to bed early tonight, but something tells Jinae that she’ll be calling an all-too familiar number soon. The conversation she’s had with Baekhyun is still fresh, impregnated in her memory like a permanent engravement. While he’s a practical stranger, he has made her feel so much better than her boyfriend ever did during these few weeks. 

Balancing her phone with one hand as she brings it up to her face, she catches sight of a familiar name on the screen. 

Taehyung, she mouths softly as if it’s a prayer that she shouldn’t be saying out loud. She opens the message and the words pop up on the screen. It reads: 

I’m sorry that I forgot to tell you about my medical conference. My phone battery died and we’re practically in the middle of nowhere, but I managed to charge it when we reached the hotel yesterday night. I’m sorry, can I call you later? 

Jinae’s nose wrinkles up in part annoyance and agitation. Is he even for real? She thinks to herself as she locks her screen and tosses her phone aside, a dead weight of frustration building up inside her stomach at the thought of being placed on the back burner all because of his career. It’s always about his career, always about himself and what he wants that are placed first. Jinae fully understands his responsibilities and had been fully supportive of his decisions at first. But she can’t seem to feel as though he’s throwing everything away just for that. And if that’s the type of person that Taehyung is like, then clearly she doesn’t seem to form part of his important circle of priorities anymore. 

The day crawls by at an uneasily slow pace, but it’s mid-afternoon when she receives a message from an unknown number. Momentarily pausing in the middle of folding her clothes, she picks up her device and reads the message with a growing sense of recognition. 

Hey, it’s Baekhyun. Hope you’re feeling better after last night. Just wanted to say that I had a nice talk with you. 

A small smile impulsively curled her lips upwards. That is indeed sweet of the familiar stranger. She can’t seem to put a face to his name, but those words are enough to make her feel warm with slight happiness. At least there’s someone that cares enough. It gives her hope that there’s someone who wants to listen to her problems, even when she barely even knows him. 

She texts back, her fingers flying over the keyboard: 

Hey. Thanks for listening to me yesterday night. Hope I didn’t take up too much of your sleeping time. Thanks again, for being there. Really, it means a lot. 

His answer comes buzzing through a few minutes later, and she doesn’t hesitate to pick up her phone to read: 

It’s no problem. I hope that helped you. Also, I told Taehyung about you. I hope you don’t mind. I think he deserves to know that you’ve been having a rough time. 

Jinae already knows this from Taehyung’s earlier message, but the reminder causes another flare of annoyance to ignite within her, causing a rush of adrenaline pumping through her blood as she thinks of all the things he’s been hiding from her. It’s not just the fact that he hadn’t even told her about his impromptu trip, it’s not just about the fact that he hadn’t even bothered telling her about his roommate. No, it has just been an accumulation of things that had built up over time the moment he’d moved to another city. 

A relationship isn’t one-sided. She needs him to understand that the only way for this to work is for both of them to cooperate and communicate with each other.  And clearly he hasn’t been doing a lot of communicating these past few days.

As he’d stated before, Taehyung calls Jinae while she’s busy stir-frying some vegetables for dinner. Feeling her phone buzz through her jean pocket, she fishes it out and puts it on speakerphone before settling the device on the counter, giving her vegetables another stir through the saucepan. 

Taehyung’s voice floats through the kitchen like an echo, “Hello? Jinae?” 

“Took you long enough.” she says in a cold tone, reaching for the pepper at the other end of the counter. 

There’s an audible sigh at the other end of the line, “You’re mad at me, aren’t you?’

‘Are you serious?’ she shakes her head while sprinkling a shower of pepper over the saucepan, ‘I’m not mad, Taehyung. I’m disappointed in you.’ 

‘I’m sorry,’ his voice sounds genuine enough but that makes her snap, ‘Do you even know why I’m mad? You’ve been MIA for the past few days. How would you feel if our roles were reversed?’ 

‘You’re right. I should’ve told you but I--’ he takes a pause, hesitating slightly before continuing, ‘You have to believe me, I really did forget to tell you.’ 

‘Yeah, because all you care about is your career.’ She shoots back snarkily, ‘look, I don’t ask for much. I don’t need you to call me every day. Heck, we can call once a month if that’s what you want. But for god’s sake Taehyung, help me out here.’ 

She can feel the tears coming, can feel their threatening prick at the back of her eyes as she struggles to keep her breathing stable enough to finish this conversation. 

Taking a deep breath, she tries to find her courage, ‘I gotta go, my dinner’s ready.’ 

‘Wait, Jinae--’ 

‘You want me to wait?’ she hisses, ‘Until when? Next week? Next month this time?’

‘Can you just listen to me--’ 

‘No Taehyung! You listen to me!’ she bellows through the phone while her knuckles turn white from gripping the phone too tightly in her hold, ‘I’ve had enough running after you when the only thing you do is take me for granted. So I’m not going to run after you anymore. If you want this relationship to work then you better prove it.’ 

She doesn’t wait for him to answer before cutting off the call and pressing the phone to her chest. The tears are already sliding down her cheeks at this point, crystal jewels reflecting the kitchen light as she takes staggering breaths. She is gripping her phone so hard that it practically engraves an indent through her skin, turning red from where she has held it so tightly. It takes her a moment to recollect herself, but when she does, it’s only because of the realization that her vegetables are burning. 

Quickly, she reaches over the stovetop to switch it off before scrambling the food over onto her plate to salvage what she can. Thankfully, most of the them seem edible, though a bit on the brown side. Grabbing some rice and plopping it on her plate, she proceeds to her couch before turning on the tv, balancing her plate on her crossed legs.

Stupid Kim Taehyung, she grumbles inwardly while switching from channel to channel, her mood having significantly darkened due to that one phone call. Sometimes, she wishes that she’s single, just to avoid all these conflicts that are unnecessary and emotionally draining. Most of all though, she feels stupid to even feel so affected by such a triviality. She wishes that she doesn’t have to care, for that would make her world so much simpler, less complicated. 

But they always say that the deepest wounds are the hardest to heal. 

--------- xx ---------

Byun Baekhyun is what you would call a social butterfly. 

Except that he’s never given the chance to be the confidante. He’s always called up for parties, for external activities that require social skills and entertainment. He is deemed as the funniest, stated to be the one to go to when you want to have a good time. Because of that reputation, he has gained a lot of friends and acquaintances. If they don’t know him by face, then they’d definitely know his name. Everybody knows him. 

And yet, that comes at a price. 

Because when people want him around to have fun, when they call him up to hit bars and to attend clubs, they barely tell him about their problems or their worries. 

Baekhyun knows them by name, he knows his friends by face and enjoys their company. 

But that doesn’t mean he knows them. 

So when he finds out that there had been another voicemail message for his roommate-- it’s the fifth time consecutively this week that he’s received messages from her, each more and more distressed and agitated -- he’d decided to take matters in his own hands and called her back with the intent to help her sort out her feelings. Her call out for help had been obvious and for once in his life, Baekhyun has felt like he’s actually made himself a friend. 

He hadn’t taken this as a sign that they were now full-fledged to a normal type of friendship and understands that it’s probably a one time thing. But that doesn’t stop his ears from perking up from his position on the couch upon hearing the familiar click of the receiver to indicate that another voicemail has gone through. 

He gingerly approaches the home phone and sees the light blinking, thus knowing that it isn’t just his imagination playing tricks on him. He has heard a voicemail coming in. He hesitates slightly when his hand reaches out to press the button, wondering if it’s actually wise to listen in on the messages, before realizing that this is a shared phone and that he has all the right to listen to the messages if he wishes to. 

So he presses down onto the voicemail button.

‘Hi.’ 

His head snaps up at the sound of the all-too familiar voice filtering through the flat. He stands alert, eyes pinned onto the machine. 

‘It’s me again.” there’s a slight pause. He can imagine the cogs turning in her head as she debates on what to say, “I’m not here for Taehyung though. He’s not home and I know you are, I just wanted to say that I’m really grateful,’ she laughs in a slightly awkward manner and his own mouth twitches into a half-smile, ‘The conversation we had really saved me that night, and I think I have to thank you again for that. It really helped me.’

She pauses slightly, as if pondering over what she can say next, before continuing, ‘Anyway, Good night Baekhyun.’

The mention of his name jolts him out of his senses. He stares at the receiver for a minute as he wonders if he’s hearing it right. He’s not used to this, not used to having people genuinely thank him for just being there. Whenever others reach out to him it’s always centered around parties and how fun he is, how he manages to drag people in without effort, how he can make one single reunion turn into a freaking pub crawl in merely five minutes. People praise his social skills and his attitude, people crave his compliments and enjoys his fun nature. 

And yet, there’s just something about her words that cause his chest to blossom with warmth, a smile smile alighting his lips as he thinks back to that particular night. 

And that’s when he decides to press the button that will call back her number, hovering in hesitation as he hears the dialing tone of the phone, almost like an impending death sentence. 

He doesn’t realize he’s been holding his breath until he hears a click at the other end to indicate that she has indeed, picked up the phone. 

‘Hello?’ she ventures, tone timid and shy, totally unlike the rawness she had exerted a few nights ago.

Baekhyun clears his throat awkwardly, ‘Hey. Thanks for calling back.’

‘It’s no problem,’ she replies, ‘You deserve that much for helping a stranger.’ 

Her words cause another rush of warmth to tingle up and down his spine. He can’t help but grin while jokingly saying, ‘Yeah, people say I’m good at coming up with bullshit.’ 

‘Trust me, it was pretty good bullshit.’ 

He laughs again, ‘Did you talk things through with Taehyung?’

Jinae lets out a sigh and Baekhyun guesses that things aren’t going as smoothly as they should, ‘we fought. Long story short: he’s sorry and I’m pissed.’ 

‘And you have all the right to be. Not that I’m trying to add oil to the fire.’ 

‘No,’ she replies, ‘No, he deserves it.’ 

Baekhyun is aware of his roommate’s tendency to forget things, especially when he is engrossed in his own little world of scientific facts. Taehyung might’ve been all too invested in his latest project to remember the rest of the world and it’s not fair on JInae’s end. But Baekhyun hopes that they’ll be able to work through things somehow, considering that Taehyung’s ways are really just a part of his personality. 

‘Anyway, I know I’ve taken full advantage of you that night when I ranted for so long.’ Jinae continues on and there’s a rustling to signify her movement through the room while Baekhyun sits himself down on a nearby couch, ‘So I wanted to return the favour.’ 

His eyebrow raises in curiosity, That is?’

‘It’s only fair if you’re the one to rant this time.’

That must be one of the weirdest things anyone has ever said to him, and to think that she’s nothing but a random girl on the phone, one that he barely knows and one he can’t even claim a face to her name makes him burst out into soft laughter. 

‘What?’ the girl asks, ‘What’s so funny?’

‘Nothing, it’s just--’ Baekhyun manages to calm himself down enough to say, ‘Do you realize how weird that sounded?’

‘I say a lot of weird things.’ 

‘I know you do.’ 

‘Excuse me?’ she chokes back a chuckle, amusement present in her tone, ‘You barely know me.’

‘You cried with me. I’m pretty sure I know you better than most of your friends.’ 

She seems to consider his response fair, ‘that’s true.’ she says, ‘But stop changing the subject. I really want to return the favour. Take it as a thank you gift.’

Baekhyun hums, receiver pressed to his ear. He doesn’t realize that there’s a permanent smile that seems to be plastered over his face as he swings his legs in thought, looking out his apartment window and noticing for the first time that the scenery is one that is pleasant to the eye.

‘Fine,’ he finally answers, ‘there’s something I’ve never told anyone.’ 

Her silence is enough to make him go on. 

‘I’m— err— this is weird.’ He laughs awkwardly, impulsively rubbing the back of his neck while hearing the girl laugh softly. He takes a deep breath before trying again, ‘okay, here goes: I have many friends, but barely any genuine friendships.’

She seems to take a moment to weigh his statement, ‘Go on.’ She says. 

‘I--’ he scratches his head, feeling weirdly vulnerable with the words that are tumbling out of his mouth, ‘I’ve always envied people who had close friendships. I mean, it’s not like I don’t have friends. I have them,’ he chuckles slightly, but the laugh is hollow and without meaning, filled with something other than the lightness he claims to be feeling, ‘It’s just that they never confide in me, nor do I confide in them. And I know that confiding in everyone isn’t a thing, but at the very least, I’ve always envied other people who had people they could count on, because I don’t have any.’ 

‘I’m sure that’s not true,’ Jinae insists, ‘You’re such an easy person to talk to--’ 

‘And that’s probably why,’ Baekhyun replies gently, ‘people find me too easy to talk to. They like me because i’m easy-going, because I can make them comfortable. They like having me around for a good time.’ he shakes his head although he knows that she can’t see him or his face. His lips are pressed into a tight, thin line that is taut at the corners, biting the inside of his cheek as he contemplates over the horrible truth that he has just admitted out loud. 

‘And I guess I’m partly at fault for not telling them what I really feel,’ he continues, ‘But it’s not like I can go ‘hey, tell me your problems’. It just doesn’t work that way. If people don’t trust you, then they don’t trust you and there’s nothing I can do to change that.’ 

--------- xx ---------

Jinae hears the rawness in his voice. There’s a delicate fragility in the way his alto shakes, the way in which he measures his words carefully so as not to sound too dramatic. And yet, it hits her right in the middle of her chest. A mixture of pity and sympathy burn through her heartstrings upon listening to his explanation, and it dawns on her that friends aren’t easily given to everyone. 

It must be a pretty lonely thing, not having people other than your family you can rely on. 

When she finally finds her voice after listening to his story, she can only hope that it gives him some kind of comfort to know that someone cares and someone understands. She says: 

‘You have me.’ 

There’s a brief pause at the end of the line. Jinae can practically feel her heart beating through her ears as blood starts racing with adrenaline. Was that too forward? She can’t help but think that maybe that will only scare the boy off. In her moment of contemplation, she’d blurted out the most genuine thing she thought about her relationship to him and though it’s a brash statement to make, she believes it to be the truth. 

Because not anyone would take away their time to listen to her problems, and actually care. 

Baekhyun listened and Baekhyun had cared though he had no reason to. 

‘You--’ the words are choked at the back of his throat, ‘you don’t have to say that.’

‘But I mean it.’ she presses on, ‘you listened to me when I had my troubles, and right now I want to listen to you, because friendships are relationships between two people, and relationships are a two-way thing.’ a small chuckle leaves her lips, ‘at least that’s what I told Taehyung.’ 

He laughs lightly at the other end of the line, and she picks up the heartiness of his baritone this time. It sounds more genuine, filled with a warmer light, ‘that means a lot then. Thank you.’ 

‘Don’t thank me,’ her lips danced with a smile, ‘That’s what friends are for, right?’ 

‘Right.’ the words seem foreign falling from his mouth, ‘friends.’ 

She grins into the receiver, ‘Let’s make a deal.’ 

‘Okay, shoot.’ 

‘I’ll be your person whenever you need to talk or rant, and you’ll be mine when I’m having a mental breakdown.’

‘That sounds like a fair enough deal.’ 

‘Of course it’s fair,’ she scoffs, ‘I made it.’ 

‘And here I thought I made myself a decent friend.’ 

A small chortle erupts through her throat, ‘stop trying to insult me. We both know I’m amazing.’ 

‘And here goes her ego.’ Baekhyun laughs with her, his alto filling her with a pool of warmth so that she can’t help but let another smile stretch across her mouth before breaking into a full out grin, ‘Admit it,’ she can’t help but tease him as she runs a hand through her hair absentmindedly, ‘I’m a great person.’ 

He pauses. Then, ‘You are.’ 

The words are warm and full of genuine clarity. There’s no hesitation, no attempt to please her. Just the truth coming out of his mouth, and Jinae can’t help but feel like there’s just something about this young man that makes her enjoy his company. 

She doesn’t know whether it’s the way he seems to be saying everything from his heart or the fact that she can hear the truth with just the mere presence of his voice, but though she shouldn’t be trusting him so easily with her problems, there’s just something magical about him that makes her want to get closer and to get to know him better. She feels like out of all people she’s met, he understands her the most. He is wise and open-minded to understand that she’s different, and yet provides her with a comfort that one else ever did. It’s as if he can step in her shoes for a small moment and be her, experience what she does, before giving her the opinion she needs. 

‘I should be going to sleep soon.’ Baekhyun finally breaks the spell of the moment. Jinae glanes at her clock on her bedstand to realize that they’ve spoken for more than an hour. 

Hurriedly, she quickly replies, ‘Yeah. I should be going too. I didn’t realize we’ve spoken for so long.’ 

‘Let me know what’s up with Taehyung,’ Baekhyun states with a firmness, ‘I’ll beat him up if he gets unreasonable.’ 

She laughs, ‘Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.’ 

‘You better.’ he says. ‘Thank you, for today.’ 

Jinae softens, ‘you’re welcome.’ 

A/N: Second chapter is up! What do you think of Baekhyun and Jinae's interaction? And what about Taehyung? Do you find it fair the way he's treating Jinae? Feel free to comment down below!  As always, thank you for supporting and giving so much love to this story! I realized that I made a small typo in the first chapter and a subbie was kind enough to point it out ^^' so thank you for that :) I corrected it so there's no issue anymore.

Love you all, it means so much that there are people reading this :) 

- nutmeggu 

[stone-man-warrior]

December 8, 2020: 4:10 pm:

I survived the COVID Testing Center, the trip to the COVID Testing terror take-out, the stop at the Dairy Queen, and the ride home, but not without being shot at, at least once to my knowledge.

There was a lot to observe, and a much can be said, so, some highlights is what I have for now.

First thing is that email from Hollywood Vatican Choir HQ, Denmark Chapter.

https://www.carlmartin.com

The way the knobs are set on that PlexiRanger, is part of the Sturgeon hit orders from the Bergoglio Pope Francis.

The two on the top, are at 10 and 2. That’s me driving down the road.

The two oposing knobs on the bottom are Sandy Monroe, and a bearded assistant that was with her as I left. The knobs are minutes apart, not much time for them to do what they were supposed to do as I was leaving, and that is to make a phone call. Sandy got on a phone call as I was leaving, I could see her as I left in my car. She almost never is seen talking on a phone, so I could see that the inclusion of the bearded assistant and the phone call was some kind of bullshit I needed to know about.

The two center knobs on the Carl Martin Plexi Ranger from Denmark are associated to the phone call, to Rogue Regional Transport. You could say that the two center knobs are in disagreement, and are in a head-on, conflicting physical arrangement, one that included there are two sets of Flying V Knob Triangular shape of three knobs each, on a collision coarse.

And, that is what happened.

Rogue Regional Transportation, a big 20 foot box truck, one I don’t recall having seen before, came down Jackpine just as I began to leave my house at about 1:30 pm. There was a Head-On moment on Jackpine, I had to pull to the side to let the truck pass by on the narrow gravel road that Jackpine is. There I waited as the RRT truck approached. I rolled up my windows, and waited, then as the RRT truck was beside my car, they stopped. I rolled my window down and lit my lighter as the driver of the RRT truck was rolling their window down. It was tense for a moment, but I got on my way, without looking back to see what was going to happen next.

You may find that is far fetched, but this is not my first rodeo, and that truck was here to kill, and to cart away valuables from my home

===

On my way, there were a number of Gauntlet style obstacles to clear on the drive to Medford. Most notably was that I was escorted by a Pacific Power Truck most of the way, a white Dodge, flat bed, with approximately 36 inch tall wood gate sides and tail gate. A “Easter Basket Flat Bed” Pac-Pow truck.

The other notable obstacle was a big rig at the crest of the Medford Drop In where you come down the hill into Medford. The truck was a forty foot trailer hauling saw dust, another Basket Truck because of the screen-like container that the trailer is made of for hauling saw dust wood chips. That truck was going no more than 25 miles per hour on the freeway, with no caution lights blinking as traffic was moving at about 70 MPH around the saw dust Easter Basket. One car ahead of me avoided collision with the ass end of that saw dust rig by only a few inches as the car quickly and suddenly had to swerve after seeing the hazard it presented without caution lights moving so slowly.

Other hazards also.

There was a “Homeless Encampment” at the Crater Lake Blvd Medford exit south bound, and about 15 people hanging around at all of the corners there at and near that exit, all were people from the encampment. I could demonstrate how Boris Johnson called that to happen with photo Tweets he made recently and perhaps along with Trump saying that things are “tense” lately. also with use of Twitter. The Boris elements include some coded reference to “Bottom Dwellers”. With interview, I could elaborate.

I was able to anticipate almost exactly what the conditions were going to be at one particular corner at Biddle Road, as I called it like a little league umpire before it happened, as the terror soldier spies there began to enact their sequence of prearranged activity, having seen the exact same set of scenario rolled out there so many times in the past.

There is a man that rides a motorcycle along the route I take on Biddle. He wears a outfit that is an illusion, he looks as if he has a child passenger on the back of the motorcycle, but when you get closer, that illusion passenger appears to be a two dimensional, flat, person on the back of the motorcycle. You have to rub your eyes to see what the heck is going on with that. Then, look to the left, and in the lane is a flat cat in the road, squished flat as paper. That same man, same illusion, same flat cat, at the same intersection is present much of the times I go to Medford. They plan that I will see the flat passenger, and the flat cat in the road at the same place when I go to Medford. The whole fucking world knows that I will be going there, and they do whatever they can do to make me crash my car, with obstacles and illusion, pressure from Pac-Pow escort, and the same homeless camp that pops up on occasion there, with the same people riding the same bicycles in the same places and walking the same dog across the same street at the time I arrive at that corner, as happens the previous times I have gone to Medford.

It’s all very “Twilight Zone” weird freaky to see the same shit happen on a different day months apart with the same people all involved. Terror is a nine to five job on a stage in the world, wherever I go.

(more later, I need to stop for now.)

5:11 pm.

===

Ok, more: 5:27 pm:

Once to the Pain Specialists of Southern Oregon, I could see the familiar fat lady spy at the Bennet Arms Apartments as I approach the corner, she sits in a chair in the parking there, and is a scout for that part of the neighborhood. There is always a piece of discarded furniture right there on the curb that serves as communication about neighbor hood conditions there, usually is a discarded reclining chair, today was a discarded sofa-bed, broken, bent bed frame sticking out partially unfolded on the curbside. That lady has access to the blue-tooth transmitter in that is in my jaw, so, when I arrive there, I sort of talk to the spy lady, tell her that I know she is a terror spy, and that I know she can hear what I say, so, today’s response from the fat lady spy at Bennett Arms Apartments was that she pulled a black hoody completely over her head as I was saying that I know she is a spy, from in my car, whispering, about 300 feet away from where she is stationed on look-out duty there.

There were more cars at the Crater Lake Surgery Center than I have seen before. The place is usually empty of cars, only three maybe, but today the parking was full, maybe twenty cars there, it’s part of the Pain Center, is next door, is new this year, and is very small, maybe 3,000 square feet of small surgery center.

The Doctor appointment today was weird. I am not going there for a COVID test, it’s just a regular doctor appointment I need to do, at a fake doctor office, where I have killed most of the people who were there five years ago, in defense as they attack every time I go there. The Doctor I was scheduled to see has been dead for more than three months, but they are pretending he is alive and seeing patients. Today there was no Easy-Up canopy, so that was good. But there is a lot of special signage about the dangers of COVID, and some pointing out that the way the office is doing business with video and phone only appointments is all because of Kate Brown said so, with information on the door that points out Oregon government mandates and Kate Brown specifically.

Today, was telephone appointment, I don’t have the mandated Smart Phone that they demand I have, in order to have Video appointment. So, I check-in, use the hand sanitizer at the front door, see that I have to knock on the door as the sign says to do, then wait there. So I checked in that way. I was told the (dead) doctor would call my phone at the appointment time in a few minutes. So I waited around and explained a lot of terror communications that are going on visibly there to no one but me, wishing that the fat lady at the Bennett Arms Apartments was not the only person that can listen to that Blue-Tooth transmitter in my jaw.

The call from the fake doctor came to the phone. He asks how my pain level is, I tell him it hurts and what I do to make things feel a bit better.

He says: “You have arthritis” on the phone call appointment as I am wondering around in the parking lot. I have been going there for five years, and they still don‘t know that I have a spinal cord injury. When I was transferred there from Medford Medical Clinic, I insisted that a new MRI was done, and survived that at “Asante MRI & Front End Suspension & Steering” at the hospital. The doctor at the Pain Specialists, who ordered the MRI per my request five years ago, has still not looked at the MRI to see the spinal cord injury or the post surgical reasons for my needs to see a doctor, the reason I go there is to manage post surgical spinal injury.

He says I have arthritis on a phone call appointment as I stand in a parking lot at my doctor office.

So, that happened.

I was told only video appointments with Smart Phone are allowed, but since I don‘t have a smart phone, he called, as other people were going in, and coming out of the doctors office, where I was told that no one can go in there.

So that also happened. People going in and coming out, but I have to stay in the parking to wait for a phone call.

More later. I have to move around.

I’m a Wig-Wam.

I’m a Tee-Pee.

I’M TWO TENTS!

6:10 pm.

===

Ok, more: 6:26 pm:

While I was at the parking lot phone call doctor appointment with the dead doctor on the phone pretending to be Paul Leppert, I observed all of the standardized terror elements of a lot people in their cars all monitoring their Smart Phones for correct blue-tooth signal handshake information of all of the other people who come near within Blue-Tooth range, there are many of those kinds of terror scouts, hundreds of them on every city block, most are older women who do that work, to alert others when strangers come near who don‘t have the approved terror code presented in the Blue-Tooth handshake as they monitor and scout with Smart Phones.

So I left there alive, is more than I expected today. I even poured out the whole bag of cat food for my cats and left the toilet seat up for them when I left today, just in case I don‘t come home from the COVID Corona Slaughter.

I was hungry, decided to take some chances to get something to eat. The Mexican Restaurant I wanted to go to had a COVID Easy-Up Canopy out front, so I skipped that and went to Dairy Queen.

It’s been about four years since I was there last, so, I went there, on Biddel Road. There, was the same conditions as last times I have been to the DQ. A green Harley Davidson parked, a BMW that follows me in, the same Chevrolet Crew Cab with orange power cords rolled up and hanging from a rack who drives by after I park, takes a good look at me when I step out of the car, then he pulls over to the next parking aisle to stop and look some more, and check for proper Blue-Tooth settings that I don‘t have. Then, I go inside and see that the same man is still working behind the counter as last time, about 50 years old man, way over qualified for the DQ front counter, and wearing Carhardt carpenter pants while serving hamburgers there.

I ordered some food, he gave me a free soda, Enormous Jumbo Size. So I filled that cup he gave me at the fountain, that is when the fake doctor called me again, this time to set my next appointment time. I wrote down the time and day of the appointment for next time, it’s going to be with someone by the name of Denise, next month, who I am told, will be calling for another phone appointment with the fake doctors there at Pain Specialists of Southern Oregon.

Just as I was talking with the appointment schedualer while at the Dairy Queen, that is when a large size woman came into the DQ, stood right there, and took a shot at me with a .25 caliber gun. The bullet bounced off my coat, is the kind of custom .25 that has no barrel, uses the brass of the bullet as the barrel of the gun, so, they are not very powerful, only make a small wound that looks worse than it is... it bounced off my leather coat as I was talking to the appointment scheduler for Pain Specialists of Southern Oregon.

That lady turned around and left in a big hurry after taking the shot at me with the .25 custom made gun that has no barrel and uses bullet brass as the barrel.

Those guns are very small, about the size of a large car key, holds two bullets.

So, my food was ready, there was some commotion, I don‘t know exactly what, I just wanted to leave safely with something to eat, so that’s what happened.

On the way home, I was just glad to still be alive, and did not pay so much attention to more than I needed to. I did notice that a familiar group of pedestrians were walking on the shoulder of the northbound freeway, four people, with one baby stroller on the freeway walking, they show up there at the exit 55 sometimes when I drive by there.

That, and one Amazon Prime truck was with that Pac-Pow truck that was escorting me along the way. And, when I returned to Three Pines, there was a white pick-up at the 800 block waiting to do some kind of bullshit there, so, I shouted “You fucking pirates...leave me alone”... I could hear the sound of my own voice come from that truck as I passed by shouting, with just a short echo delay.

Stevie Bell’s truck came out of nowhere and was suddenly right on my bumper behind me as I approached Jackpine, so I pulled over, he went by, and I got behind him instead. There was a pedestrian female on Jackpine who waved to Stevie Bell as he passed by her, then she waved at me as I passed by her. It’s the woman I said looks like Hillary Clinton, is a Fran Taylor look-a-like also. That pedestrian woman is new, a replacement terror soldier at one of the addresses here on Jackpine, I don‘t know which one yet, I suspect she is trying to be Francis Taylor of 600 Jackpine but could be at Myers 560. Almost all of the residents have changed on Jackpine recently, but the cars and houses have not changed hands.

End COVID Terror Hit Survival Report.

Tomorrow, is another day... stay tuned, please send help.

7:18 pm.

---

7:25 additional, is worthy of mention that the fake doctor on the parking lot COVID Hit Phone appointment told me that the assassin that came into my house last night while I was in the shower and was hiding in the laundry room and hit me with a baseball bat, was Terry Sparacino, who apearantly was killed in the attack, acording to the fake doctor on COVID Parking Lot doctor appointment for post surgical spinal cord injury treatment.

======================

9:20 pm: I’ll wager dollars to doughnuts, that there were federal officers assigned to have a look around here, at my home, and around it today as I went to the fake terror doctor SAGClubMed terror cell today. I say, those guys were entertained somehow by Sandy Monroe, and her bearded new young friend over there. I say that the fools were fooled as per usual by local authorities, and whatever may have happened here on Jackpine as I was at the terror doctor, included that those fools witnessed that  terror doctor, standing in my front yard, as he was talking to me on the phone call, and I was at his terror doctor office, however, since that man was a fake, and was not Paul Leppart, he could have been anyone, anywhere, will convincing me that he was inside the doctor office, and, also convincing others that he was me, standing in front of my house, as fools observed, and listened with a Stingray, while the settings on the Stingray were reversed, to flip-flop the two phone numbers involved with the call, mine, and the Pain Specialists. I have seen the reversed calls happen time and time again with other kinds of calls, and when Richard Chartrand was still alive and active as a terror soldier, he was highly skilled at vocal deception, able to hold three conversations at once, in three languages, while one of the four people involved in the conversation is a mark, and the other two are terror assistance of Chartrand. He could work secretly with two other people, while having a face to face conversation with the mark, who thinks there is only Chartrand present. So, some federal officers are likely to have observed someone in my front yard today while talking on a cellular phone, as I was in Medford at the terror doctor, and the Stingray was not only reversed, but also duplicated at least one additional iteration of the same phone call, maybe more duplication done with external surplus Stingray devices, and/or KingFish hand held verity surveillance units. The federal agents don’t understand that there are hundreds of Stingray surveillance units in the hands of terror cells just in Josephine County. Many thousands of them throughout the state of Oregon, all used and operated by terror cells who work under protection of State Police. That, in addition to other, Huawei brand Hong Kong Stingray Knock-Off units that have far more functionality than the name brand Stingray does. The terror is British terror, the electronics that US consumers use, are made in Hong Kong, and Hong Kong has been ruled by Britain since the first Opium War, about 200 years ago. By the way, Britain brought the opium to Hong Kong, not the other way around. They brought it, enough to control all of the people there with it. That is the opium war, bring opium, control people. That’s it.

If you are federal officer assigned to Grants Pass, you are in great danger just by default of that circumstance. You are no longer going to be able to simply clock out at the end of the work day anymore, that is not available once you are here. Personal survival is going to be a 24 hour job, and national security is not going to be possible with a few agents, it’s not possible with all 4,000 field agents I am aware that work at FBI. Even if all 4000 FBI field agents came to Josephine county, they would be outnumbered by about 10:1 just in Josephine county. If you add protection of Jackson County, that increases of an additional triple of the amount to about 40:1.

Let’s see:

50,000 + 75,000 rough estimate of terror soldiers of the two counties all ready to kill, armed, well connected with lots of electronic gadgets, and are supported by the White House and Congress.

125,000 terror soldiers

4,000 FBI, lets make it five thousand for easy math

125:5

25:1 outnumbered if there are 5000 FBI.

That’s only two out of 36 counties.

50:1 Two stroke mix for a chain saw.

They have a lot of chainsaws per FBI Officer when you look at the bigger picture of the fractal terror zoom.

Go get US Military now.

What federal officers need to do, must do, is find a way, enough evidence, to show that the WH and Congress is already hijacked. Take that to some Generals of US Military, find some Admirals of US navy, make absolutely certain that those people are not SAG Actors playing army at the bases. Show that there is not much time, and your own estimates of how outnumbered you are, but don’t underestimate the number of hard core Christian Crusade warriors there are. That is how many terror soldiers there are. Many millions of them. Add SAG, and that is another million or so people who are traitors.

[burorahoshikein]

Sky Company

Pairing: Namjoon x reader (feat. Yoongi)

Genre: fluff ??

Words: 1,678

Warning(s): f-word and yoongi got exposed for saving adult vids lol

Author’s Note: IM REALLY SORRY IF ITS SHITTY (AGAIN)

Gif below is not mine, all credits goes to the owner.

     “So you’re going home this holiday, sweetheart?” It’s going nearer to the end of the year, you have spent 2 years abroad and leaving your family behind for college, but you never let a holiday spend alone without going back home. The hope in your father’s voice could be heard through the phone, and you’re certain your mother is standing next to him, with curiosity in her face waiting for your answer.

     “I don’t think I can, father. I’m sorry, but these college things, assignments and all— I gotta finish them.” You’re actually planning to surprise them with your sudden presence. As the fact that disasters could come anytime, anywhere, you contacted one of your cousins first before actually arranging the plan.

     “Oh… Shame… But alright then, we both understand. We hope the best for you, love.” Joy in his voice turned to disappointment very quick. You try your best to hide the smile away – even though they can’t see you smiling – and the excitement from your voice, you play pretend to be heard as if you’re very exhausted and on the verge to cry.

     “Thank you, father, for your support. Tell mum I really miss her apple pie. Alright I gotta go, talk to you later, dad! I love you!” You hang up the phone after they shout ‘Goodbye’ really loud. In the speed of light, you open your laptop and reserve a flight ticket to your hometown, the departure date, 23rd December… crap it’s expensive, 20th… okay, perfect. You mumble to yourself with your eyes focused on the screen, not realizing your friend, Yoongi, is standing by the door.

     “You keep on talking by yourself but yet you always told me you’re not insane. You good at lying, y/n.” His sarcasm is beyond your level, and sometimes you can’t even tell if he’s being sarcastic or angry.

     “Shit—you scared the heck out of me. What are you doing here? I don’t have more porn videos.” One time, you caught him saving an adult movie on his laptop while you were borrowing it for printing your assignment. 

     “God, can you stop talking about it? True or false; everyone watches porn, including you. Don’t lie to yourself.” Yoongi getting pissed is your biggest mood of all time, probably your favourite.

     “Well at least my kinks are better than yours,” you let out a mischievous laugh. “I don’t know, can you stop being sarcastic and pop up out of nowhere unexpectedly?” Once a fire is off from you, it made him actually stop talking and buzzing some nonsense words. He takes a sit on your bed and observes your laptop screen.

     “Coming home near Christmas… Typical.” His back falls harshly to your bed, letting out a sigh as his eyes focusing on the sunrays shining to the ceiling through your blinds. He doesn’t need to reserve a ticket and travel miles away like you, since his parents’ house is still in the same area with the university. 

     “So you’re going from when ‘til when?” He grabs a tiny bounce ball from the drawer beside the bed and throwing it to the wall in front of him.

     “20th December until… still deciding, probably on the first week of January. Hope you don’t miss me for going away that long.”

     “I’d rather die than missing you.”

     “If I see your name on my phone log then you have to treat me.”

     “Deal.”

     The date finally arrives. You have packed for everything, not forgetting the plane ticket and some snacks for you to eat on the cabin, you know, the food up there is pretty overpriced. Waiting for your name to be called got you hungry. Don’t want to eat all of the snacks you bought, you open a pack of chewing gum, you have this theory if you chew a gum until your jaw is tired, hunger is cancelled. Your eyes wander around the room, scanning for something interesting, all of a sudden your phone vibrates, a text coming in

     13.43 | Mean af Yoongi      “Good flight. Don’t get lost by the sea or you’ll going to vex the whole population of the world.” “Unbelievable.” You mumble.

     13.44 | You.      “Oh fuck off.” This prick… Switching the phone off might help.

     Continuing from the last spot your eyes were scanning, you overheard a conversation between someone who’s around your age and his parents.

     “Promise me you’ll come home every Christmas, okay? Take care of yourself, don’t cause trouble, don’t drink, don’t go cl—“ The tall boy cuts off his mother’s words – she seems to be his mother, who else would worry that much than a mother?

     “Ma, don’t worry, I’ll be good. I promise I’ll come back every holiday. Even if I get the chance to I’ll definitely come home.” The boy holds his anxious mother’s hands tightly and places it right in front of his chest. His father standing behind his mother begin to give him some man advices and tapping on his son’s shoulder several times.

     Finally, they call out the passengers to board the plane. You hurriedly repack the things you unpacked before and walk to the gate where the flight attendants check your ticket. In front of you, stood the boy whose conversation with his parents you overheard on. Damn he’s taller than me. As soon as you enter the cabin and found your seat, you struggled to place your bag on the bag storage above the seat.

     “Here let me help you.” Your head instantly turn to your left, where you see that boy giving you his hands and the warmest smile you have ever seen. Refusing his help seems a bad idea at this point, so you give him your bag and go to your seat, letting him set your bag’s position by himself. And surprise, he turns out has his seat next to you.

     “Thank you very much, uh what’s your name?” You lift one eyebrow.

     “It’s Namjoon, Kim Namjoon. Oh, don’t mention it, I just like to help people.” He seems a shy boy, he smiles from the beginning until the end of his sentence.

     “That’s very nice of you. By the way, I saw you earlier on the waiting room, having some talk with your parents about life, eh?” Does that sound too straight off to the point?

     “Oh… yeah. You know, parents’ anxiety when they send their child off for college.” One habit of his: rubbing his hands when he’s talking.

     “I know that feeling really well.” You let out a small chuckle. “So you’re just starting your college?”

     “Yeah, I started late though.” He pulls his lips to one side, making a deep dimple on his left cheek. “By the way, I don’t know your name…” 

     “Oh yeah, I haven’t introduced myself yet. My name is y/n. I’m a college student too, year 3.” Isn’t that unnecessary?

     “Wow you must be really experienced. How does it feel like?” This b— guy, is really talkative. Throughout the long flight, he always has new topics for maintaining the never-ending conversation, it only stops if one of you had to go to the lavatory, then resume where it left. The more he opens his mouth, the more you know about him; from his family to how he got the name God of Destruction from his friends. 

     The ‘eternal’ conversation eventually comes to an end where he decided to take a short nap, and to be honest, you need a nap too thanks to the longest conversation you’ve ever had. Usually, it needs some time for you to sleep on a plane since your ears pops easily and the turbines sound disturbs you, but this time is worse – Namjoon, who is already in his dreamland, snores loud as hell. You really wanted to stop the snore, but as you turn your head facing him, he actually looks cute with his headband holding his hair back, his arms inside his jacket pockets, and his head keeps on falling. You can’t help but laugh quietly, until he wakes up by himself.

     “Are we here yet?” He quietly asks you with his husky voice thanks to sleep.

     “No, approximately,” you took a closer look to the small TV attached to the seat in front of you. “47 minutes more.”

     “What—did I sleep that long?” His eyes got widen as if he’s really surprised.

     “No, you didn’t, we had that long conversation, remember?” You say, almost whispering while staring into his beautiful monolid eyes.

     “Oh… yeah, we did. I almost forgot about that,” he flashes a dimple-y smile before saying another word, starting another conversation. He even expresses his passion for rapping and he really shows you his rapping skill, which is no joke. This guy is really amazing, you thought, he got the brain, the talent, the looks, what’s more he could ask for?

     The time flies so fast, the plane finally lands safely. Have to admit, you actually don’t want to say goodbye to Namjoon. You never really do this before, but you straight up ask him for his number, even gives him your address if he needs something – you even ask him to have dinner on your house. 

     “That’s a nice idea, you know, I’m free tonight, so I’ll come to your house, can I?” You never expect a guy – a cute one – to come to your house, having dinner with you.

     “Of course. Dress nicely, okay? First impression is important.” You joke around. First impression, who is he? Your new boyfriend? Why did I say that?

     You turn your phone on to call your cousin that you have landed safely, but 1 second after turning it on the notification screen is filled with Yoongi’s text, and – wait what is this? One missed call from him?!

18.10 | You “Get your wallet ready, cause you’re going to treat me. By the way, I think I’ve found someone cute, he’ll come to my house tonight for dinner. I’ll tell you how it’d going to be.”

21.22 | You “He’s taking me out tomorrow.”

See my other works

[sweetnestor]

12 Days | Chapter 2

Two guys that lowkey hate each other are forced to walk in each other’s shoes in order to learn a lesson.

***in collaboration with @themarkiplierexperience

lmao soz its not actually x reader we’re just desperate for attention haaaa

previous

“I really think you overworked yourself this time,” said a soft, yet clear female voice. “Maybe you should have slept instead of working at the office all night.”

Tom wasn’t sure how long this girl had been speaking. All he knew was that he was in a car with her, and she was driving him to… he didn’t know where. Probably missed that in the midst of all the panic. He barely even got a look at her, so he turned his head to the driver and, well…

He recognized the shiny black hair that faded to a vibrant pink. Her side profile was oddly familiar. This was Bella, right? The girl who the people at “the office” were talking about. Tom knew her from somewhere, he just couldn’t pinpoint where. For some reason, he had to look at her until he figured it out.

She noticed his staring and glanced at him before turning back to the road. She seemed very concerned for this Ethan guy. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

Yes, actually. I think I switched places with your friend and I don’t know where I am or how to switch back. That’ll land Tom in the hospital for sure. He didn’t need to be locked away in the psych ward, he just had to find out how this happened. In the meantime, all he could do was go along with what this girl was saying.

“I-It’s probably what you said,” he replied, breaking the gaze. “Overworked myself.” He pulled out his - or Ethan’s - phone and one look at the lockscreen made it click.

Bella is his girlfriend.

“Yeah, next time,” she continued, “let’s not go right back to editing after a convention. I know you’re passionate about YouTube, but you need a break just as much as anyone else does. And besides, Mark has two editors for a reason, Kathryn could have taken over if you were really that exhausted.”

“Right, got it.” Tom hesitated. Maybe he could still play off being disoriented from the panic attack. “Um, love… do you happen to remember my, my passcode?”

She chuckled. “Is it not your thumbprint, my dear?”

Well, shit. Now I’ll never know who’s body I’m possessing. This is useless, I’m stuck-

Again, it clicked. Tom pressed the button, mentally kicking himself. Before he could dig around and find more information, the car came to halt in front of an apartment complex. Was this the place Ethan shared with Bella?

He got out of the car and followed her into the building. This was so strange, he shouldn't have been here. He was supposed to be in his own body, on a plane to Atlanta.

“Chamomile?” Bella offered as she unlocked the door to the apartment.

“Yeah… please,” Tom replied.

While she dove into the kitchen, he looked around at the place. Things were scattered here and there. However, he noticed 2 large plaques on the wall and went to look at them.

They were identical play buttons in large frames, one was silver and the other was gold. They both read “Bella Santiago, Congratulations for surpassing ______ Subscribers.” The silver was for one hundred thousand and the other was for one million. This girl was popular on YouTube, apparently. Tom didn't quite understand that.

Wait. YouTube. Pink hair. Blue hair.

Tom gasped just as Bella approached him again, this time with a mug of tea. She raised her eyebrows at his miniature burst.

“What's wrong?” she asked.

You interviewed me. I know you.

“Nothing,” he replied as he accepted the mug.

She chuckled. “Come on, cariño. Let's go lie down. Or… would you rather I just take you home?”

So this wasn't a shared place. Why were there two bedrooms, then? Tom was very confused, and that was already an understatement.

He had to find out more about Ethan, and where exactly they both were, so Tom decided to let Bella take him ‘home’ after he finished his tea.

It didn’t have any calming affect on him. It was even worse when Bella leaned in to kiss him when she walked him to the front door. Tom instinctively leaned back in shock, his eyes wide. He was the boyfriend.

After that awkward interaction, Bella unlocked the door for him, since Tom left Ethan’s keys at the office. His girlfriend didn’t seem too pleased when she left, but there were other things to think about at the moment.

Tom wandered around the apartment, glancing at all of Ethan’s belongings before pulling out his phone again. With a press of a button, it was unlocked again, and Tom began to properly snoop through this guy’s social media. What kind of life was this Ethan person living? Besides having a hot girlfriend and an office job, of course.

Instagram name: CrankGameplays. Still don't know his surname. Bio: “I scream at the video games.” Helpful. Tom scrolled through Ethan’s profile, only seeing the face that he now owned. Although, the first picture he saw was of him wearing a red wig, making a silly pose with a woman with black hair. He’s seen worse. The next one that caught his eye was of Ethan posing in front of a huge screen. His head covered most of it, but Tom could make out the words: Markiplier’s You're Welcome Tour.

So… he's a comedian? Is he in an improv group?

Tom left that app and went to Twitter. Ethan's profile was mainly a bunch of tweets with links to YouTube videos. Did he do this alongside the office job? Or… was this the office job? He tapped on one of the links.

“What is up my cranky crew? It's Ethan from CrankGameplays, and today we are back with ‘Little Nightmares!’” said the real Ethan in the video.

Growing impatient, Tom skipped forward a few minutes, only seeing the guy play some horror game. That's all this 45 minute video was. He looked at other videos of his, and they were all the same. Playing video games. This is what he did for a living? Tom had so many questions, but most of all, he just had to know how to contact the real Ethan.

He went back to Twitter and searched his own handle. As expected, there were no new tweets. Of course he couldn't send a direct message to this account either because they weren't following each other.

Tom went back to the homescreen, thinking. If everything in his actual schedule went according to plan, then his actual self should be in Atlanta right now. So if he was still in the States, then that meant he had his America phone…

~

The only reason Ethan had decided to play along, to 'take the role' as Tom was that, well, he had no choice. It was either pretend he was Tom and nothing was wrong or spill the beans and risk getting put in the hospital for a week. Also, the car was at least a way out of this hotel room that was increasing his anxiety by the minute.

He'd underestimated the severity of his sickness though. He was sure he was hungover now, judging by the way he couldn't stop sweating and the way his stomach kept flipping. He stepped into the car with every intention to make them turn around and take him home, but was knocked out as soon as he felt the unusually comfortable leather seats. So much for going back home.

He woke up long enough to stumble onto a plane with the help of Harrison, completely in a daze that he couldn't quite shake. "Jeez Tom, you fat lard," Harrison mumbled as he carried the majority of Ethan's weight.

Ethan was barely able to groan in response.

He was nudged awake a little while later. "Come on, you've got to drink this," Harrison whispered as he shoved a glass of water into Ethan's hands.

His sight was blurry, but that glass of water was a sight for sore eyes. His cotton mouth was horrendous and his throats felt raw and scratchy. Two pills were shoved into his palm. Without even asking what they were he popped them in his mouth, finished off his glass, and fell right back asleep.

He woke up once more while on the plane, approximately 40,000 feet in the air on its way to Atlanta. The light streamed in through the half open window next to Ethan, effectively blinding him as Harrison sat down in the seat next to him.

"Rise and shine sleepy beauty! Up for good now, or have you still got some sleep left in ya?" Harrison clapped his hand onto Ethan's knee.

Fuck, so it hadn't just been a bad dream.

"Jesus Christ, why are you yelling?" Ethan mumbled, covering his eyes with his palms as he stretched.

"I'm not, you're just still bombed from last night," he snickered.

Ethan groaned, he doesn't even know who this guy is, much less why he's on a plane or where he's going. "How much longer?" He murmurs, eyes still squinting as the sun beamed onto him.

"We land in 20 minutes. You slept through a 4 hour flight, there's no way you're getting any sleep tonight."

Ethan's blood ran cold. 4 hours?! The flight to Maine is almost 5, where the heck was he going?

"Oh good, you're up." A blonde woman walked into the room and sat in the seat facing him. "Feel any better?"

"Uh yeah, yeah. Guess I just needed some more rest," Ethan tried his best not to stammer, how would Tom act in this situation?

"I bet, you were hitting those drinks pretty hard last night," she laughed as she pulled out her tablet.

"Yeah, my bad," Ethan chuckles nervously. He can't help but wonder if he looks as nervous as he feels. Can they hear how fast his heart is beating?

"Alright, so here's the plan for today. We land in about 20 minutes, then you and Haz can stay in your hotel rooms for about an hour or so. You've got a meeting with the Chaos Walking crew at 3, so be down in the lobby by 2:30. After that you've got a few interviews at 5, they shouldn't take very long though. Dinner afterwards and then we’ll be back on the plane by 10." The words flowing out of her mouth just served as a smack in the face for Ethan. He's going to do what and go where at what time?

"Uhh," the blank face on his face pulled a laugh out of 'Haz', is his name not Harrison?, and the woman in front of him. "Run that by me once more?"

"No need, as long as Haz knows the schedule you'll be fine. I'll be there too," she said with a shrug. Ethan slowly began taking in her features as she and Haz began discussing something about the schedule.

Shoulder length blonde hair, curled at the ends. Blue eyes, a pair of glasses resting in her hair. She didn't look like she was taller than Ethan, although it's had to tell from where he's sitting. A name catches his interest. Olivia. She must be his agent or manager or whatever those people that tell you what to do are called. She seemed nice.

Ethan spent the last 10 minutes of the ride staring at his shoes.

Another rush of anxiety passed through him while exiting the airport, he was getting used to these. Holy shit, was he going to have to interact with all of the fans waiting outside? Sure, he's interacted with fans in the past, but never on a scale this large outside of a convention. He didn't even know what Tom's signature looked like!

"You up for a few pictures?" Olivia asked. Ethan shook his head, no, not in a million years. "Figured, you look a mess."

Well thanks. The security guards pushed past the group of fans outside, the look on Ethan's face a mixture of excitement and terror. So this is what being swarmed feels like.

The car ride was quiet, Harrison and Olivia chatted the whole ride while Ethan was just content to look out the window. He calmed down a bit, feeling ok for the first time all day. Harrison led him up the elevator and to their rooms.

"Oh, by the way, here's your phone," he said right before Ethan walked into his room. "I grabbed it back in LA before we left. I'm surprised you haven't asked for it yet," he said with a chuckle.

"Ah, thanks," Ethan nodded at him, mustering up a small smile and quickly locking the door behind him.

As if on cue, the phone in his hand started to ring. The panic that runs through his body is cut short, that's his phone number! “Hello?” He answers, still not used to the sound of his voice.

“Hello!” Tom said, nearly jumping at his own voice. “Hi, hello!” He was so antsy about what he would hear on the other line that his mind immediately went blank. What was he supposed to say now?

There was a silence then, an uncomfortable one. Unsure of what to say Ethan blurted out the first thing that came to mind, “Is this… Ethan’s… body?” Stupid, what kind of question was that?

“That depends,” he replied slowly, like he was choosing his words carefully. “Is this… is this Tom?” His heart was beating unnecessarily hard.

“Uh, yeah?” Ethan let out a sigh of relief, “I'm not crazy right? Something really fucked up is going on, right?”

“Definitely.” Tom leaned forward in his seat, trying to form any sort of coherent sentence. “God, I have so many questions… I - er, how the fuck did this happen?”

“No fucking idea, god this feels like a nightmare, no offense,” Ethan whispered before he made his way to hide in a closet. “Just kinda woke up in a strange hotel room in someone else’s body. By the way, thanks for the killer hangover. I was sweating and slept the whole time I was on that plane ride dude.”

He scoffed and rolled his eyes. “A hangover is probably nothing compared to what you were shooting up last night. Yeah, I saw those needles in your pocket. I swear to god, I thought I was high when I looked in the mirror.”

“...You mean my epipens?” Ethan wanted to laugh, this fucker really thought he'd just be shooting up in the office? Yet another reason to hate Tom Holland. “Anyway, hi nice to meet you. Ethan Nestor, professional screamer and deathly allergic to peanuts at your service.”

Tom covered his mouth. “Sorry, mate. My bad… Er, hi, I’m Tom Holland, professional actor and still very confused as to what happened to us.” Wow, he felt like an asshole.

Professional actor, what a narcissist. Professional screamer sounds way cooler anyway. Ethan laughs, “Well don't be too humble now.” Was Ethan actually salty about Tom taking pride in his work? No. Was he still salty about Bella’s googoo eyes for him? Hell fuckin’ yeah.

“Hey, my acting was able to save your ass and have a panic attack to get the day off from your job,” Tom shot back. Yes, the panic attack was real, but it did buy them some time. “If I was still at… your office place, then we wouldn’t be here trying to figure this out.”

“Well I'm not even a professional actor, and I'm able to pass as you no problem?” Ethan shot back. There's no reason for this to be happening, he should be playing nice. It's not like it's Tom’s fault this is happening, but Ethan can't help himself. “Some ‘career’ this is,” he continued, kinda regretting what he said but also kinda meaning it.

Oh god, Tom swapped lives with a grade A asshole. What did Bella see in this guy? He shook his head, trying to bring back the main focus of this conversation. “Okay, you can sit there and take jabs at me, or we can try to… switch back…? And then we’ll never have to see each other again. Take your pick.”

Ethan hesitated, he still had more to say that's for sure, but Tom was right. This wasn't getting them anywhere. “Whatever, something had to have happened at the convention to cause all this,” Ethan said with a sigh as he racked his brain for anything out of the ordinary. Nothing.

“Right,” Tom agreed. “I remember seeing you. You were with Bella when she interviewed me. Do you think something happened there?”

“Your guess is as good as mine, I didn't feel any different afterwards when I was with Bella in the bathroom… Nothing felt different until the next morning?” Ethan was stumped. The convention went about like every other convention he'd ever been to. What made this one different?

“In the bathroom?” Tom repeated with a chuckle. “Quite an eager beaver, aren’t we?”

“Oh my- no, not that way! God you British and your awful humor,” Ethan stifles a laugh as he rolls his eyes. “No, if you must know, you literally gave my girlfriend an anxiety attack and I had to calm her down in the bathroom.”

That changed things. Tom didn’t know how to react at first. He didn’t know much about anxiety attacks, even after experiencing one himself not that long ago. “Shit. I’m sorry, man. Did I say something to make her… like that?”

“Sorta, it was mostly just the whole situation? I don't know, she's fine don't worry about it. Just, careful what you say, okay? She's been through… a lot.” Ethan's face and mood dropped. He missed Bella. A lot.

An awkward silence filled the air. He wasn’t good with things like this, he didn’t know how to console people with a tragic past, if that’s what Ethan was implying about his girlfriend. “Well,” Tom began, “she seemed… relatively normal when I was with her just now. She was worried about you. Actually, you had a few people worry about you.”

Aww, they care. “Yeah, they're great…” How many awkward silences are gonna happen throughout the duration of one phone call? Ethan didn't know what else to say. Thankfully, he didn't have to.

“Tom, are you back in the closet?” Harrison called out. “Didn't think you'd be back in there again,” he joked. Shit, how did he get in? Hadn't he locked the door?

“Uh, yeah, gotta go Tom, I'll call back later?” Ethan said wondering what happened to the so called hour of a downtime he was promised.

“I - alright,” the real Tom replied, feeling the sinking sensation in his stomach. He barely made out the sound of his friend’s voice on the other line. Now, he had to go on without him for the time being.

“Ok bye,” Ethan replied. Back to the real, bizarre world.

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tag list: @marie-is-in-the-dark @beardedsteveslut

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