#Ahem...Did I pay that much attention to the building itself? Not really but it was starting to rain and there were also peacocks...

[lightineventide]

Location: Monastery of Temska, Serbia 😄

Bonus: the local Parking Service:

[madcatlad]

I just came to a angst realization....

(Thank you to @shirazens for allowing me to use their comment)

I literally just came to this conclusion in a comment threat under my "Aaron Needs Friends" post with @shirazens .

In summary Aarmau comes off as unnatural

I think the main issue is how rushed and force the relationship was in the series, and the fact that it change key elements in the story to make a place for itself.

The Aarmau agenda also had to down other characters to build itself up, which sucks. A lot of character assassination stem from Aarmau. Including the way Aphmau interacts with her support. But I'd like to focus on how unnatural (and frankly problematic) this relationship comes across if you actually pay attention to how they interact with eachother.

And their relationship is certainly off.

@shirazens

THIS is why I've always disliked his character, he felt so disconnected.

also he continues to constantly mourn his past wife WHILE getting closer to aphmau which feels like to me he was just using her if that makes sense?

Their relationahip has always come across as strange.

In my former post I address a portion of this problem with Aaron not having any relationships outside of Aphmau. It is odd.

Aaron- despite being so closed off and mysterious and (quite rude in some instances), CONTINUED to follow her group around for months...but NEVER take an interest in ANYONE??? Except Aph. That is mad weird. If you like her so much to risk your life for her consistently why avoid her Support System so adamantly???

It makes the relationship seem very strange. Almost like Aaron is isolating Aphmau from her friends when building their relationship. They only really talked about his trauma or her stress-

Aaron and Aphmau are TRAUMA BONDING...

It hit me like a train! It isn't romance, it isn't a love story. It is codependency!

Aph ONLY goes to Aaron when she is stressed about her responsibilities. "Because he understands". And in turn Aaron's only personality trait is trauma- and he only really opens up to (or talks at all) to Aphmau. Think about it, this man is FOLLOWING her- for seemingly NO REASON by time the Post-Irene-Dimension arc roles around! "Having nothing" isn't really a logical reason anymore. He had NO motive to be present. He's made no connections, no character growth, no earthly ties, so WHY are you following the 🎆"magical friendship woman"🎆 if you don't want to make friends???

And I think this is great writing potential. This makes sense for the storyline in season two, as Aph was extremely overwhelmed, and the steaks had just risen from village quarrels to Armageddon. And I definitely can see where @shirazens was going with the how Aaron saw Aphmau, as a stand in or familiarity to his wife, or that he was using Aphmau to get a semblance of his late wife, Lily.

Personally I'm not amongst the re-write clan of aph-fans, (I prefer to progess with the shit show we were given). But this is a juicy narrative to explore for both, especially if you don't want to throw out Aarmau all together.

If you want to get angsty, you could argue that Aaron being so distant to Aph's support group was to isolate her from them. Again, this fits, and I am well aware Jesson did not intend this BUT Aphmau DID become a lot more distant to her companions for Aaron's sake. She became dismissive of their concerns, argued with their suspicions, and lowkey berated them because "she trusted him" and expected everyone to follow suit (fr a lot of them were so real for that, homie was acting up- ahem- Laurence- ahem- Katelyn). She put Aaron on a pedestal out of nowhere, and vouched for him undeservingly. You could argue that this was a result of isolating her, you could argue that this was just Aph blindness to Aaron's faults.

And this also really REALLY fits well with the Irene VS Shad motif and how that entire mess went down between them. I can totally see those two being codepent with one another as well with their similar struggles and pain. I can see them relying on one another too heavily. I can see that leading to suck strong feelings of betrayal. Especially if Shad was as isolated as Aaron. In fact I'd say Irene and Shad damn near prove this idea.

Fun right?

[i-write-and-therefore-i-am]

One Monstrous Miracle (Part Five)

Okay. So. This one got away from me. It got unexpectedly dark, and I’m not sure how I feel about that but I’m going to post it and move on with the story. I am not a happy author about this chapter, for many reasons. Nevertheless, I love each and everyone of you and I hope you find it within you to enjoy this <3 (Pst! If you’d rather read on Ao3, here ya go!)

Previous-Next-First

Pairing: Aziraphale/Human!Reader

Summary: Michael takes some initiative. So does Sandalphon. Uriel is basically the emotional support nerd ig. Aziraphale has a nightmare. Reader does NOT have a good time.

Warnings: Okay listen closely. I have written a non-graphic description of a kidnapping, and subsequently a heavily-implied violence segment. I might be overstating or understating (please tell me if I am understating!), but I just want to keep you lovelies safe. 

ALSO: This is NOT a warning, but while you’re here I might as well tell you that I have used they/them pronouns for Michael, and it/its pronouns for Sandalphon (from the script).

Word Count: 2730

(@gif, shits going down)

Michael was not stupid. They were not dimwitted, or blinded by heavenly goodness, or any of the things that they could very easily accuse their fellow celestial beings of…being. They had been paying the Angel Aziraphale very close attention these past millennia, and they had seen exactly what they had expected; the Angel had gone native. Worse than that, he had gone native and he was fraternizing with the enemy. THE enemy. El Numero Uno. The Demon Crowley.

Because Michael was none of the things mentioned above, they had quite a bit of room to be some other things, like cunning, vigilant, and good at waiting for just the right moment. They didn’t bring the aforementioned knowledge to Gabriel’s attention straight away for the sake of…strategy. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that the Archangel-Fucking-Gabriel wasn’t the only gosh darned Archangel around (and that’s with a capital ‘A’, thank you very much), and so there really was no pressing need for Michael to give the information in the first place, now that they thought about it. They could investigate on their own, build up a solid case, and then work from there. Maybe get some respect around the elitist promotion trap that was their Heavenly home. If only.

Michael enlisted Uriel, knowing that she would be invaluable when looking for documents or anything paper related. She had the memory for things exactly like that. Michael brought Sandalphon precisely because they knew that Aziraphale was still terrified of it after what happened at Sodom and Gomorrah. Together, they monitored Aziraphale’s every move—although the angel had somehow devised a way to keep the group from ever being able to overhear any of his traitorous conversations with the hated Crowley, they weren’t deterred in the slightest bit. They could follow the pair, take pictures, perhaps the odd selfie when the mood hit. Michael was building their case against Aziraphale, and it was only a matter of time.

Armageddon threw everything into quite a pretty mess, now didn’t it? Aziraphale was openly discussing his meetings with his “wily adversary”, reporting on the current status and whereabouts of the Antichrist (Warlock. What a revolting name). Things were starting to get fun for the first time in about a hundred years, and Michael simply didn’t have the time for their surveillance missions anymore. Not to mention that Gabriel was demanding that they all stay together as often as possible, which was a nightmare in and of itself. Michael was rather looking forward to the end of the world, not for the gargantuan blood bath that would ensue, as most of their angelic associates where no doubt panting for, but for the endless peace that comes after a job well done.

One day, when the Antichrist (still Warlock, despite Michael’s very best efforts) was 10, nearly 11, Michael noticed something very strange about the familiar bookshop that they and the rest of the group had been watching for the last couple of centuries. There was a woman, well-dressed (Michael assumed. Angels, proper Angels, that is, Aziraphale not included, have no real sense of human fashion), practically cantering down the pavement, apparently towards Aziraphale’s shop. “No, that can’t be right,” Michael thought to themselves. Although, thinking back, that woman did look strikingly familiar. So familiar, in fact, that—

“Uriel! Take a look at this.” Michael had rolled her rolly chair away from her workstation and towards the cubicle to the right of hers. Uriel popped her head around the weird, cloth divider separating their “offices” with a curious expression.

“Yes, Michael? What is it?” The other angel asked from her rolly chair. Michael gestured that she should roll her rolly chair into Michael’s cubicle.

“I’ve found something strange in the Eden files, take a look at it.” The Eden files was their special code name for anything pertaining to Aziraphale that was not, strictly, on the books. This strange something happened to be a livestream of the street where Aziraphale lived. The woman was getting closer to the shop, although not quite close enough to tell if that was, indeed, where she was going. Michael pointed the woman out to Uriel.

“Now. She looks awfully familiar to me.” Michael’s gaze drifted from their finger to Uriel sitting beside them. Uriel had her thinking face on, which could mean one of a million different things and by this point in their long, coworker relationship, Michael had learned to just let her think. Uriel frowned slightly, moved closer to the screen, tapped a single key on the keyboard in front of them on Michael’s desk, and rewound the feed. She paused it. Zoomed in. Michael wondered why it was so difficult for the Management to install some touchscreens on the ground floor, at least for the Archangels and Possibly a few of the Principalities. They’d seen inside of Gabriel’s office (Yes! A whole, bloody corner office with glass windows instead of walls so that he can survey the worker bees in their nest and not one but TWO whole touchscreens!), after all. Uriel snapped her fingers in front of Michael’s face.

“Michael? Were you listening?” Michael, as you know, had not been listening. At all.

“Of course, Uriel. What was that last bit, again?” Uriel sighed and pointed at the woman zeroed in on.

“She visits the shop almost every day. She might be important.” Michael leaned forward in their rolly chair, squinting at the grainy image despite the fact that every angel had perfect 100/100 eyesight. They hummed.

“Yes. I quite agree. Sandalphon?” They called out the name of the coworker whose cubicle stood on the left side of theirs. They heard the familiar sound of the rolly chair growing nearer until Sandalphon sat beside the two other angels. Michael pointed to the woman on the screen.

“Let’s keep an eye on her.” They all watched as Uriel unpaused and the woman entered the shop.

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They did not have to wait long for the woman to make another move. Only a few hours later, she was hurrying out of the doors, clutching onto her purse and…crying?

“He doesn’t hold on to them long, does he?” Sandalphon remarked, rubbing its forefinger across its teeth diamonds. Uriel giggled but sobered when Michael glared at her. This was not the time for making jokes. That woman was certainly a human woman, there was no doubt about that. Why was she spending so much time around Aziraphale? Why had she run sobbing from his shop? Was this like that holiday Aziraphale took with Alexander the Great? Michael very dearly hoped not—Aziraphale had positively ruined that poor boy.

“Keep your focus on that woman. We need to learn more about her.”

The kept the feed trained on her as she made her way home. She didn’t live too far from Aziraphale’s shop. But just far enough that walking was just slightly out of her way. Uriel, the more softhearted of the bunch of angels huddled around the screen, wondered whether they should miracle her a taxicab, but she was quickly shut down.

“What, and give ourselves away? Gabriel would have our halos!” Michael exclaimed, shifting in their chair. Once the woman was in the door, Michael cut the feed, gaining the attention of the others. They cleared their throat.

“Ahem. So. Not only has Aziraphale been seen consistently in the presence of known Demon Crowley, but he also appears to have developed some sort of relationship with a…mortal woman. Once again, Aziraphale proves that he does not have the strength required to walk among them. Instead, he cavorts with them, befriends them—”

“Runs a bookshop,” Sandalphon growled helpfully. Michael nodded appreciatively.

“—and runs a bookshop. Clearly, he is no longer fit for his position.”

“That’s all well and good, Michael, but he can’t be removed from said position. Only the Almighty can deal with that level of personnel change.” Uriel reminded them calmly. Michael sighed deeply.

“I know that. We all know that. The only problem is something must be done about it. Aziraphale can no longer be allowed to continue this way. It’s heinous.” All the angels nodded their head in mutual agreement. They all tried to think of something they could do, but nothing seemed to jump out at anyone. It stayed like this for a few long moments before suddenly, Sandalphon gasped loudly, startling the other two.

“I know!” it said. “The girl. She’s important to him, right?” Uriel scoffed.

“She did just run from his shop in tears, Sandalphon, did you miss that part?” It was unfazed by Uriel’s goading.

“Exactly. It’s Aziraphale! He’s so soft, he’ll go groveling for her forgiveness within a fortnight. And when he does…”

“They’ll make up with each other. Where are you going with this?” Michael interjected impatiently, not in the mood for idle chatter. Sandalphon grinned, its teeth glinting in the Holy light.

“We kidnap her. Get us in Gabriel’s good books, get some information, and, of course, to scare powe ickle bitty Aziwaphawe. Perfect plan.”

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It was not, as it happens, the Perfect Plan. However, credit is due where credit is due, and that credit goes to Sandalphon for thinking of a Nearly-Perfect Plan. It would have been the Perfect Plan had Aziraphale and that blasted woman not been so stubborn and stayed apart for so long. The days until the Antichrist’s birthday were slowly running out, and the time during which the angels could execute said plan was drawing thin. Thankfully, the two made up just in the nick of time, so it had worked out in the end.

The trio had made the trip to Crowley’s flat, knowing that they would find Aziraphale there. Aziraphale had been flustered, but his story about checking about in the demon’s abode appeared to check out. Michael refused to take their eyes off of him the entire time. After they miracled away, they appeared in an alleyway not far from the woman’s home, and on her usual route. Michael had decided, because Michael was a little bit of an ass at times, to make the mystery just a smudge more difficult by abducting the woman outside of the home BUT simultaneously leaving a single, white wing feather on the floor of her locked flat. It really was quite devious for such a pure-hearted creature. Hmm.

The kidnapping went swimmingly. Uriel snuck up behind the woman, Sandalphon had thrown the bag over her head, and once everything was settled (or as settled as can be with a kicking and struggling woman in tow), Michael miracle them into a top-secret location. I’m afraid that I, as the author, am not at liberty to disclose the location of the following events, because of course I’d have to kill you afterwards, and I’d rather not do that.

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Angels do not have dreams. Angels cause dreams in other people, they take away dreams from other people, and they may, upon occasion, serve as conduits for messages from the Almighty, which often appear to other people as dreams. But Angels themselves do not dream. Except for Aziraphale, evidently, whose subconscious had decided to do away with the natural order of things to just…you know…spice it up a little. Aziraphale frowned deeply in his sleep and rolled over, sniffling.

He was in a corridor. There were no lights, only a faint glow that seemed to come from nowhere at all. There was one door, ahead of him, but the rest of the corridor was bare, empty grey concrete. He began to move towards the door, but the corridor seemed to get longer the closer he got, until he was nearly running, trying to make some progress down the hall but never moving one inch.

The scene changed, the corridor erupting into grey and black smoke that smelt faintly of saltwater taffy. The scene reconstructed itself as a square room lit with an old-fashioned lightbulb swinging slowly back and forth from the ceiling. There was a figure shivering on a metal chair in the center of the room, hands tied behind their back and a sack over their head. Aziraphale heard whimpering from the figure and made to rush over to help them but he found that his feet were rooted to the ground, as though someone had glued them straight to the floor. Aziraphale looked up from his shoes and gasped.

Surrounding the figure were Michael, Uriel, and Sandalphon. Michael stood directly in front of the figure, bending over slightly. Sandalphon stood directly behind the figure, fingers grasping at the sack. Uriel stood apart from them both, in the corner opposite to Aziraphale. Michael made a motion at Sandalphon and it yanked the sack off of the person’s head to reveal—

Y/N. Eyes red from crying, hair a mess, makeup smudged and beyond repair. Aziraphale felt his heart stop beating. What the hell was going on? Was this some kind of joke? A voice, nagging at the edge of his consciousness told him that no, it was not a joke. Aziraphale struggled against whatever was holding his feet down with renewed vigor. He stopped when he heard your voice, hoarse and trembling. It broke him to hear you like that.

“W-who are you? What do you w-want from me?” You coughed, and Aziraphale felt a miracle dance along the tip of his fingers. He would make you well again, he would heal whatever has happened to you. You continued. “I have m-money if that’s it! It’s n-not m-m-much but—”

“Silly girl, we don’t want your money.” Came Sandalphon’s voice.

“Mmm, that’s right.” Michael responded. They leaned in closer to you, and you sank deeper into the chair to escape them. “What we want is information.”

“Wh-What? What information? I don’t- “

“What do you know of the Angel Aziraphale?” Azriaphale’s blood went cold. He had been so close to telling you himself! After all of the Armageddon mess was straightened out, he had promised himself, he would march right up to you and tell you the truth. But not now! Not when he couldn’t be there to explain, when you were hurting, being hurt, tied up like some criminal. A noise horribly like a snarl erupted from Aziraphale’s throat, startling him. Was he truly invisible in this room? After a couple of seconds of pure terror, Aziraphale’s pulse began to slow and he realized that this was most likely a vision dream, a message from someone showing him something that was either already happening, or about to happen. He prayed to anyone who would listen that it was neither of those two options.

“I swear I don’t know!” The sound of your terrified voice brought him back. Sandalphon laughed its ugly laugh and Michael chuckled.

“Should we really be doing this, Michael?” Uriel inquired softly from her spot in the corner. Aziraphale was sure he was just projecting his terror onto her, but he thought he could almost see a hint of concern in her deep black eyes. Michael just shook their head.

“It’s not as though she’ll have very long to remember it, will she?” At this, your body seized in horror, eyes open wide in shock. Fresh tears were streaming down your cheeks. Aziraphale wanted to burn this room to the ground.

“Are…are you going to kill me?” you whispered through your crying. Aziraphale held his breath to listen for the answer:

“Oh, dear me, of course not. Do you know how much paperwork that would be? Oh no. Definitely not killing you. As long as you give us the information we need.” Came Michael’s reply.

Aziraphale felt that old rage bubble up inside him, and his sword hand itched, as though the missing sword were a missing limb instead. He took a deep breath and clenched his hands into fists. He would not debase himself in such an appalling manner. He had grown since those days, and he would not be brought to his knees by a dream.

“I told you, I don’t know anything!” you pleaded desperately. The room was beginning to fade away, smoke swirling at the edges, illuminated by the swinging bulb. Aziraphale cried out, reaching out for you only to be met with empty air.

“Oh, we’ll see about that, now, won’t we?”

The last thing Aziraphale heard before waking was the sound of Michael’s laughter.

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[taendrils]

cloud delivery! — preview

― ❝sometimes other fairies really can’t tell what goes through your head or if anything at all does, but your kind’s wonder reaches its peak as they spot you interacting with min yoongi: the closed-off garden fairy. you choose not to mention how you deliver things to him on the daily and how you may or may not stop at nothing until you get to see him smile.❞

• genre: fluff, comedy, romance, idiots to lovers, disney fairies au • warnings: swearing, mentions of anxiety and perfectionism issues • pairing: garden fairy!yoongi x fast-flying fairy!reader • preview wordcount: 2.8k words

An old knowledge with ties back when humanity couldn't trace says that when a child laughs for the first time, a new fairy is born. Back when the first humans came to be, once their hearts bloomed with genuine joy, fairies followed their path and helped their surroundings grow along with their smiles. Water fairies purified their rivers and those of light have sown the sun into rays falling from the sky to give humans guidance and brighten their circles. Gentle braids of blossom that they called flowers started rising from fertile soil and frost dusted the tops of the mountains where fairies flew to give colour to this world.

As much as humans depended on fairies, the same could be said from the other perspective: with fairies learning new ways to care for the world and building routines often broken by events impossible to imagine for those who kept an axis of seasons and light. Many curiosities have arisen in young minds but humans meeting their helpers was rarer than the eclipses or red auroras that were painted for them. Despite that, sprinkles of magic still caressed heads on pillows and brought consciences along the path of pleasant dreams.

Eras have passed and happiness took different forms, yet no matter the timeline, they all kept the same core belief. Fairies were shaped by the experience of euphoria, and laughter trailed after them in their early stages with the same purity and open heart they were created from.

Yoongi doesn't know what kind of laughter lightning must have struck the child who made you appear, but he's sure that wherever they are, that baby must have had some future sight and is having a field day with watching him interact with the bane of his existence. That's what must have caused the laughter, unforeseen circumstances that no fairy kingdom ruler or human scientist could have explained, because you were too out of this world for him to explain otherwise.

Well, you or your head, that is.

If his house branch sharer Namjoon, fawn fairy extraordinaire also held residence in Yoongi’s head where dramatic monologues were played more ardently than those on a slow roll of a film, he might’ve reprimanded Yoongi, stomped on his dreams and overall existence by telling him you were not so bad. Or worse, tell him that he’s exaggerating and that this grudge he’s holding over you has no place on moral grounds like those where fairies existed in.

Ok, fine. Maybe he was being a little dramatic. Blame it on his nature, on the talent he was born under, or just pin it under the mentorship of Rosetta, head garden fairy and symbol of house behaviour. It is her fault that garden fairies are thought to have a stuck-up reputation, therefore many are surprised when they meet the other fairies with the same talent, like sweet Jimin, who bared resemblance with the snowdrops he carefully bloomed every spring season.

Yoongi doesn’t mind the reputation, might even be true in his case. He’d like not to be approached. It sounded about festive right now.

But eternal life doesn’t go the way we want it to, honeydew, Rosetta’s words ring into his head, pushing aside the unfinished monologue still tapping at the back of his head. There might be some truth to that, as no one would wish to share her experiences of being dragged in the mud and stuck in a carriage hundred times their size in The Mainland. Yoongi shudders, the roses in his hair rattling with the rhythm of his vibration.

Still, he wishes he could sleep in a hollow deep enough for fate to spare him the responsibility just this day. And the following one. And the next season, until autumn comes in and he gets to do what he has been meaning to all this time. See, another reason why he loathes being assigned on spring, besides having no way out of meeting with you. His conscience finds itself pouring magic dust on the monologue which takes the spotlight as it returns, and fine, he is exaggerating. You were not a bad person. Ahem. Fairy. 

Not a bad fairy.

In a sense, he knows that he can’t deal with you due to the differences in your kind and how you stood out from his perceptions. By nature you lacked tints of responsibility and regard for every other living creature, not for the fact that you chose not to care but you just forgot. Whatever the consequences were, you had no mind for those either: you were more inclined to brush them off and continue on with your duties, excuses and pretences of living in the present almost synonymous with your name. Yoongi had a word for that: human.

From what he learned about humans and their characteristics, you were eerily similar, it scared him sometimes. Only on the inside, where he liked to keep any thought which could give you an advantage over him. The first ‘oh well, I forgot’ from you in his presence brought a month’s drought on the eastern region and a near heart attack from Yoongi, while your first ‘oops’ stuttered with the most radiant smile followed after gentle, idiotic Namjoon trusted you with leading a lost mandarin duck and ending up on the other side of the world with it.

Although the similarities don’t make him lose his balance and fall face-down on bulbs nowadays, you’re still a constant surprise. Might be due to the fact that you are so far from the usual fairies he interacts with, preferring to stay away from fast-flying fairies and their tempers. Those often found him with his tongue prodding at his cheek, snarky remarks growing in his head like forest fungus but blocked as they glide closer towards his mouth. Might be due to the fact that you’re the fastest fairy he’s ever seen, speed intertwining with such positivity and enthusiasm that Yoongi is sure you could circle the world before it grinned sunset if you wished.

You were so far off what he had expected and all over the place that he used to hear about you only in emergency situations, wandering around with desires of helping and without a department, carrying every task your kind couldn’t. Not even Vidia, made of dark purple, confidence and sarcasm stepped up in times of crisis quite like you did.

Current crisis? Yoongi himself. At least that’s what he thinks, because he couldn’t explain your visits otherwise without shame dusting pretty cheeks pink.

Meeting with other fairies, it often left him on edge, small changes he would make picking apart at his brain and tightening inside his chest, scared of lashing out at others but obviously uncomfortable. Fairies needed routine, moves not missing the smallest element, but mistakes were prone: a package here, a honeysuckle with its vines intertwined there–one second of not paying attention and no one was doing things the way he wanted. And oh, how aware he was of it but how futile were his attempts to control his fixation as it ate away at his will to express it.

More often than not, the means of speaking up forced his heart into erratic pounds, coming down from the interactions drained and exhausting every resource in his body. He wishes for quiet, for slumber into tulip petals, wishes the warm wind breezed through the static air, widening the space between his fingers. Like now. Pixie dust stars fall upon his ground with you getting closer, and your grip on the strap loosens, the leaf cover of the pouch now held gently by your palm. He recognises the sensation without bringing his focus into it, the breeze that changes the direction of the heat and instead of descent, it’s brought into a spiral that surrounds the being. 

But then your mouth opens. 

“Ten bowls of clay, taken straight from under the sunlight,” you beam as you drop the luggage down, crouching to detangle the cover. Used to hearing the fairy’s instructions, you waste no time to put the items one over the other, bending to in your arms. Yoongi stares at you with his mouth open, and for once the shock in his eyes has a pleasant warmth rising the corners of your smile.

“Are you sure you can handle that?” Yoongi says slowly, syllables forming in reluctance as he watches the pile grow until it reaches your chin. It's going to fall.

“Of course, of course, I got it, just give me some space so I can move.”

His heart starts to pick up the pace at your mismatched steps, part of him wondering why didn’t you just fly over? Hello? He’d love to have the time to judge your transportation choices more, but his instincts kick in as his eyes land right on one bowl slipping from under your chin. It will fall.

He moves faster than his thought, diving to catch it, but he is no wind person and ends up hanging in the air, wings pulling his weight with shame as he finds himself face to face with the fallen bowl levitating in front of him.

“You think I’m some sort of fool, Min Yoongi?” you reprimand and the pixie dust you used on the items seems to form its usual sparkle, mocking his attempts. “All you do is nag me about getting flower paint on your precious cutlery. I can’t begin to imagine what would happen if I broke one of these limited edition bowls. What do you do with these anyway.”

He doesn’t even have the brain to be offended, questions about your word choices puzzling him and setting a fog over the remains of his previous scare. “Limited edition?”

What the hell.

“Well, of course,” you say as if Yoongi truly is some fool, and truly doesn’t know anything. “You think Jungkook likes playing with dirt?”

“Isn’t that what he always does?” Jungkook, that talented, curious and awful, awful tinker fairy who lived to torment him as well, Yoongi was sure Jungkook said this to you so you could rub it in his face.

“Yoongi! You know he has more important business, trying to decipher all this lost stuff. Tinkerbell never lets him breathe.”

Ah yes, the lost stuff, Yoongi recalls. The pieces of plastic with strobes of wires and organised circuits. He grimaces thinking of where those could have come from.

“Very fun,” he says despite himself, sarcasm dripping at the end of his mouth. “You were gone for a long time. Did you get to eat?” Yoongi coughs before crossing his arms, studying the cracks between the tree's bark. He didn't care for those in a while.

“Why? You wanted me to pick up something on the way? I could do it next time,” you say, eagerness pouring out of your words before it pauses to a halt, stopped by Yoongi’s blank face. “No? Fine. I ate, thank you for asking.”

And see, his fading conscience makes it hard for Yoongi to hate you when you are like this–and when he met you this often. Because you were not just the bane of his existence–you were his delivery girl too. His forgetful, airheaded delivery girl who treated everyone the same, paying no attention to Yoongi more than you’d do to anyone else, he thinks as you tilt your head to look at him with big, curious eyes. The silence stretches with the time you take to analyse him before you run with it in your chaotic rhythm.

“You should see how it goes when I don’t want to eat,” you continue on, not seeming to notice how you switched the tangent of your conversation. “Him and the other tinker fairies surround me and chant food, food, food, you know what I mean? I can’t believe them. It’s funny, but my mouth hurts from all the chewing.”

You cup your face and squish your cheeks with one hand to make your point, petal mouth open in a pout. Not soon after, way before Yoongi has time to dwell on it, your posture sags, hands flying to grip the ends of your top. The top made from bits and pieces of purple salvia that he took care of and sent for stitching with careful instructions, and here you were–not a care in the world about all that work by the way you were patting your tummy with mock indignation.

“They’re so so stubborn, I thought my stomach was going to pop out of this fucking–”

Rose glass breaking, Yoongi almost swears himself, getting close out of habit before he realises what he’s doing. His feet plant themselves straight onto the ground, feeling too awkward to back out or resume the beginning of his rant. “H...How many times did I tell you?”

“What? What am I doing?” you ask, dopey arches framing a full smile as you dote on the way his lips purse.

“Stop swearing,” he speaks with his voice lowered, reproachful tone curling like tendrils as it gets to you.

“What’s wrong with that?”

While fairies adapted the language of the region they were residing in, swear words were rare and a clear sign of human interaction. A thing you weren’t supposed to do. The hopeful part of his conscience was praying for you to have heard it from Vidia, back from when the group had their own human encounters. But the realistic side of him, the one occupying itself with creating bonds and structures within his space laughed at the thought: your curiosity was too big to be restrained to a life of nature for eternity.

“You can’t do that here. We have manners, unlike you wind people.”

“You’re being mean, you menace in pink,” he hears Namjoon say from a low branch before you get a chance at a reply and Yoongi drifts his eyes to see his preferred acquaintance (not for long) painting over the wings of a ladybug.

The garden fairy squints at his companion, eyebrows furrowing over delicate features. “Talk about me when your rat stops eating away at my seeds.”

Namjoon rolls his eyes, taking a second brush to puncture the first dot. “It’s a mouse, not a rat. Where did you even hear that?”

“But? But...They told us rats were an accident.” 

“They were,” Namjoon nods, solemn as he continues his work. “Weird how that happened. We should ask Yoongi, he has the experience.”

“For the last time,” Yoongi says in the same fashion, looking ready to puncture Namjoon with those brushes, “My aim was off.”

You cross your arms over your chest as you lean against the stem of a dandelion, a small smile playing over your lips at their bickering.

“So was the smell. And the plant. And the root that kept growing.” Namjoon points matter-of-factly, accentuating every hit with a dot on the ladybug. “Seems like you couldn’t get rid of that green duckfoot.”

Yoongi’s jaw ticks, “Stop making fun of it, no one actually calls it that.”

“That’s true, in cities they call it oregano,” you throw and both men turn towards you with bulging eyes, prompting you to return the stare with even bigger ones, as if saying ‘what?’. Namjoon snickers and Yoongi asks Mother Dove what duty he omitted to deserve this. Was it this cursed ‘oregano’ that made it all like this?

The mint disaster happened more than twenty seasons ago, when he was a mere apprentice fairy. Nothing more than a distracted occurrence, where he did not pay much attention to the fact that bloom happened with intention, his thoughts drifted as his magic poured into the soil. When he snapped back to reality, he was met with a different smell and patterns which made him think he had created another type of grass, but with more of a scent. It was humiliating, and it took a lot for him to wash off the stain over his reputation in the following cycles. The realization sinks in as it dissolves, disbelief replacing his initial panic. Not only did you know about the incident, but also–

“She’s been to the cities.” Yoongi murmurs to himself in despair, lips trembling with his shaky exhale as he watches your blank face, no reaction to your slip.

“Of course she’s been to the cities Yoongi, where have you been?” Namjoon teases. “Who do you think gave them the oregano?”

“You're welcome anytime too, you know,” you say with a smile, treading with care on making a direct invitation to Yoongi and putting him in a position he might not want. High chances are he is never doing that, and by the way your eyes plead with him, he realises you think the same. The garden fairy contemplates changing the subject, but he knows you're trying to help, and again, you do this with everyone, so he does not feel as pressured. 

His traitor heart, however, has another agenda: it jumps at seeing you manifest a sense of empathy, a patience that goes against your nature. He assumes you mean to ease him into the thought you, or any delivery person won't be there forever. Still,

“There’s something else I have to do.”

The way he says it makes you sigh.

He is so dreamy when he rejects you.

i’ve Been Workin On THis For 2 MOnfs and still not getting close to the end please motivate me !!!!! Tell Me WHot U think praise makes my red bloodcells multiply!

[dgcatanisiri]

I had the thought recently about how the idea of “canonical character interaction is antagonistic which leads to them being shipped” is DEFINITELY representative of heteronormative attitudes - We have, for good and for ill, been brought up to believe that “pulling pigtails” is a sure sign of attraction between little boys and little girls, and this is then transferred over into a same-sex pairing. As a trope, this goes back AT LEAST to Shakespeare and The Taming of the Shrew.

Problem is, that’s NOT the same-sex attraction experience. The same-sex attraction experience is that someone of the same-sex shows us the smallest ounce of decency and kindness, we will spend years following in their shadow and building an image in our head of them being our perfect example of love. 

*ahem* What, why are you looking at me like that?

Anyway, there are two particular examples in my mind that kinda emphasize just how this plays out when it comes to media and the fans reactions of same-sex pairings, at least on the M/M end. And they make a case for certain problems within fan communities, with the respective media they’re for reacting in different ways, and, in my personal opinion, show how the people running the shows and the fan responses don’t get the differences.

(Even though, yes, I realize, both of my examples are helmed by gay men - it’s not like their staffs were gay and the studios were not, so that is less of a thing for the purposes of what I’m trying to say here.)

So, example one: Glee. Glee is, rightfully, a dark period of time we are truly better off pretending never existed, but it’s useful for my point, so please bear with me. IN CANON, Kurt spent much of the first season hopelessly head over heels for Finn. This was an actual, ongoing subplot through the first season, up to the point it culminated in the mess it that it did we’re not here to go into that god I really could rant on Glee if I were going to...

Right. My point. Sorry. Glee does that to me.

Anyway, Kurt’s canonical attraction in season one was towards Finn, and, while we all knew it would never happen, that the intent was always going to be towards the heterosexual breeding pair of Finn and Rachel... At this point in time, when I was in the Glee fandom, the main pairing was Kurt and Puck. 

Puck, the guy whose INTRODUCTION was leading a pack of bullies in tossing Kurt in a dumpster. THAT was where the majority of the fanfics I came across at the time were looking towards. 

Fandom saw “bully and victim” and took it to “Puck is expressing his repressed feelings for Kurt by bullying him.” 

And stick a pin in the concept of “fandom” in general, I’m going to come back to it after the second example.

Now, and brace yourself, because I’m about to say something positive in regards to Glee, the response on the show was to turn around and, the following season, not only introduce a new bully for Kurt who WAS doing what fanon!Puck had been doing, which lead to Kurt actively refusing a relationship with him, while also getting a canonical boyfriend. Yes, I call that a positive.

Because while I was closeted throughout my time in public school, I was still bullied and mistreated by other students, if not due directly to my sexuality. It did not lead to crushes on those guys. Hell, there were a couple of guys who spent a good amount of time pretending to be my friends, and if it had been a few years later, that might have become a crush. Instead, though, they revealed themselves before that happened and I completely cut them out of my life when they revealed themselves. And I’ve never felt bad about that.

The gay experience is not crushing on your bullies. It’s crushing on your friends, on the people who you know will be there for you. You don’t see the bully as “disguising their feelings.” No, that you’re gonna take at face value, because the alternative may well be dangerous to you. At least if someone’s been kind to you, they’re more likely to keep up that behavior. But why would you EVER put your heart - and your LIFE - on the line by telling someone who has shown you nothing but disdain “I’m attracted to you”?

Now, for the second example. If Glee was the good one (because the law of averages say it had to happen), then Teen Wolf is the bad one.

See, we all know that Stiles and Derek (no I am NOT going to refer to it by the ship name, I do NOT need that drama showing up in my feed) were considered the fandom darling. 

BUT... They were the above “bully/victim” ship. Their interactions in season one were very distinctly antagonistic. Meanwhile, in terms of positive pairings that could be teased, there were a few - Scott/Stiles (bromantic best friends), Scott/Danny (Scott canonically cuts in between Danny and his Prom date so that he can hide the fact that he’s not supposed to be there by making Coach look homophobic), Scott/Derek (Derek talking about how they had a bond as pack), Stiles/Danny (”Am I attractive to gay guys?”). 

But no. It was Stiles and Derek that became the runaway darling in the fandom. To the point that, eventually, the show engaged actively in queerbaiting, throwing them together more and more often, but ultimately never doing more than teasing before throwing female characters at the both of them. 

(Granted, I also don’t think that any discussion of that particular ship is valid unless you also acknowledge the racism involved, considering that the ship itself features two white guys, while the other two characters I mentioned are, respectively, Latino and Hawaiian, very clearly not white - you will note that Scott and Jackson had a similar antagonistic relationship, and THAT pairing didn’t get much attention at all, despite not having any competition with the “main” ship. In particular, I think that it was entirely valid for Tyler Posey to have seen this reaction and condemned the ship, because it was basically people diminishing him and his character to focus on white guys, especially when you consider how often Scott’s traits ended up being transposed onto Stiles... Okay, this is starting to move beyond the scope I wanted for this.)

Now. back to the issue of “fandom.” Because you know... I don’t think the “fandom” of either of these pairings, Kurt and Puck and Stiles and Derek consisted heavily of actually gay fans - not that they weren’t out there, but I don’t think they were the bulk of the initial fans of the first season, only really coming on board after season two and the active queerbaiting. I think they were, at the time of the first season, heavily made up of teenage girls.

And I’m not saying this as part of the general habit that there is in media critique to just dismiss teenage girls as a demographic as cringey don’t-pay-attention-to-THAT-crowd. It’s just my observation that, for teenage girls, all the things we say about women in fandom exploring their sexualities are magnified - what’s the common observation, that women in fandom use M/M pairings to explore a “safe” dynamic that they can observe and play out harmlessly for themselves, something to that effect?

So that’s the awareness I’m coming into this with - those teenage girls (and I’m emphasizing teenage girls because we have high school dramas, where I’m fairly sure these are the primary audience) use the awareness that they had of “how relationships work” when it comes to heterosexual relationships and were simply applying it to their perceptions of the gay pairings they were looking at. That “pulling pigtails” is the trope this audience associated with attraction, and so it’s how they applied.

THIS IS NOT CONDEMNATION. I really feel I have to hammer this point - I am observing a trend, in the name of awareness and understanding, I am not trying to say that anyone who was doing this or is still doing this has done ANYTHING wrong here. I want that to be very clear. This is me having spotting this trend and wanting to give it some attention, because look at the age of the examples I’m offering - both these shows lasted for six seasons and have concluded their runs, I’m only looking at their first seasons here as is, we are not talking about recent stuff, just history of fandom. I could have looked at more and seen if there was a universal trend or just a trend of the times or what. While this certainly could be grounds for one, this is not me having done some massive research project consisting of multi-media examinations of fandom and queerness, I’m just connecting dots and trends that I have seen to look at this thing that, going forward, I would like to see us pay attention to and be aware of.

Because my point is (for the TL;DR summary) that same-sex attraction manifests DIFFERENTLY. To express attraction to the person who is mistreating you is to invite harm being inflicted. The gay experience is to pine from afar because they were nice to you. And, obviously, a straight person is not going to know this inherently - this is part of an experience that they don’t have. 

I’d just like to see this recognized in the future when it comes to how people respond to and react to the popular same-sex ships in fandom - are they being shipped by actual queer people, or is it prominently the straight fandom using their view of things and latching on to a ship, rather than being actual queer fans expressing themselves.

Like, that’s one of my big things - I often don’t feel very... I’m going to hedge this as “noticed,” rather than any other term, within fandom a lot of them time, as a queer man and queer creator. The big names in fandom, writing for the popular ships, still tend to be female creators, which... I’m not discounting the queer women who are writing and making art and all that featuring M/M pairings, but I do feel like they get elevated to a point where the queer men doing the same creation do not, which can seem like a problem, even if I recognize that it’s as much an issue of who even picks up the pen or opens the word processor or whatever as it is a matter of promotion - I do recognize that it may be as much that queer men aren’t creating as much as it is anything else, there is a complex ball of interconnected issues pushing and pulling on one another.. 

It’s just a frustrating feeling of not seeing your experiences being given your voice - it means you have to depend on others to speak your story. Which, surprise, surprise, is not exactly encouraging to gay people, who’dve thunk?

[thefilmsnob]

Glen Coco’s Top 10 films of 2019

2019 was one of the better movie years I’ve experienced. It was no 2007 or 2013--we all know that--but it was pretty damn good. People who say ‘they just make crap nowadays’ probably aren’t really into movies and are definitely out to lunch. Dammit, now I want lunch. Anyway, here are my picks for the ten best films of 2019 which, as always, follow my runners-up and the traditional bonus track...There’s always a bonus track. 

Runners-Up

-Bombshell

-Booksmart Full Review: https://thefilmsnob.tumblr.com/post/185427895290/booksmart-out-of-5

-Ford v Ferrari

-The Irishman

-Joker Full Review: https://thefilmsnob.tumblr.com/post/188571262775/joker-out-of-5

-Parasite

-The Peanut Butter Falcon

-The Two Popes

And here are my top 10!

#10b. (Bonus Track) Avengers: Endgame

Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, the rest of Hollywood

Maybe, like some people in the industry, you don’t consider Marvel films to be ‘cinema’. Well, that’s a legitimate and long debate for another time. But, you can’t say that weaving a narrative through 22 related films isn’t an impressive feat. That’s what Marvel Studios did and with the help of the Russo Brothers, and despite the countless moving pieces, they ended this chapter of the franchise almost perfectly with just the right balance of action, human drama, twists, turns and some surprisingly poignant moments. If you didn’t get goosebumps--and maybe even pee your pants a bit--when those portals opened up at the end, bringing to mind Gandolf’s triumphant entrance into the Battle of Helm’s Deep, then maybe movies just aren’t for you, my friend. 

Full Review: https://thefilmsnob.tumblr.com/post/184694412545/avengers-endgame-out-of-5

#10. Marriage Story

Director: Noah Baumbach

Starring: Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson

Ironically, Marriage Story is actually about a divorce. But, writer/director Noah Baumbach imbues this civil-turned-nasty separation with all the complexity and aggravation that come with being married with child. He treats the divorce like the grueling process you’d expect it to be, one which involves real, flawed people whose needs and desires don’t align, making the situation increasingly distressing for all parties involved. In turn, Driver and Johansson make this distress increasingly palpable for the audience until it feels like we’re in the room with them during one of their several heated arguments. Both actors give some of the best work of their careers, yet it still may be overshadowed by Laura Dern and Ray Liotta who shine as the two ruthless lawyers representing them. Baumbach has been churning out these gems for years, but his latest, which may be his most accessible, may also be his best so far. 

#9. Jojo Rabbit

Director: Taika Waititi

Starring: Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Scarlett Johansson

What do you get when you mix Nazi Germany, the ghost of Hitler and a poor Jewish girl trying to survive the second World War? You get one of the funniest and most touching movies of the year, of course. The surging writer/actor/director Taika Waititi, who specializes in quirky films filled with quirkier characters, hasn’t made the typically grim melodrama about Nazi Germany nor is he doing anything close to promoting Nazi culture. Instead, he uses the tale of a young boy who attends a Hitler Youth training camp to highlight the absurdity of this horrible movement while promoting tolerance. He delivers this powerful message by introducing a young Jewish girl who seeks refuge in the home of Jojo and his mother, played by Scarlett Johansson (who clearly had a good year). This leads to Jojo’s crisis of conscience which is complicated by his imaginary friend...who happens to be Adolf Hitler! Yes, the movie is different.

#8. Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie

It’s no surprise that Quentin Tarantino would make a film about 1960s Hollywood starring one of the most prestigious celebrity trios in the business; the guy’s passion--obsession even--for film is unmatched. Here, he uses the medium to take a horrific moment in history like the murder of Sharon Tate at the hands of the Manson Family and gives it the stereotypical Hollywood happy ending. In doing so, he showcases the wish fulfillment of the movies and their power to comfort us with optimism while simultaneously warning of their ability to shelter us from our cruel reality. DiCaprio and Pitt give brilliant performances as characters who add to the perception-vs-reality theme, DiCaprio playing the huge movie star full of anxiety and doubt in real life who relies heavily on his stunt double, Pitt, who’s the actual confident hero. All this and much more takes place in a meticulously recreated Hollywood of the ‘60s that sweeps you up in nostalgia and immerses you in a world of make-believe.

#7. Knives Out

Director: Rian Johnson

Starring: Ana de Armas, Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christopher Plummer 

Yes, there have been many murder mysteries. No, Knives Out isn’t just like the rest of them. Writer/director Rian Johnson does a masterful job at crafting a labyrinthine story that’s just complex enough without overwhelming and strikes a perfect balance of suspense and comedy. Featuring one of the greatest casts assembled in 2019 playing a dysfunctional family of despicable yet intriguing individuals of means, the story is full of truly surprising twists and turns and, more crucially, some well-integrated and astute social commentary. This isn’t a two-hour lecture, though; the film is undeniably entertaining. The stand-out here is detective Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig with a delightful southern drawl and an attention to detail that rivals Sherlock Holmes. Craig transcends his James Bond persona while the film itself transcends a genre. 

#6. 1917

Director: Sam Mendes

Starring: George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman

If this were a few years ago 1917 would be, without question, my #1 pick. However, as the long, uncut tracking shot has become more common over the years, it’s also lost a bit of its luster; 2014′s Birdman, one of the best films of the decade, also had the appearance of a single take. Nonetheless, to make a war film, with all its tricky choreography and pyrotechnics, look like one long take is still a phenomenal achievement and an absolute marvel to behold. And, although it obviously couldn’t be filmed in one shot, Sam Mendes and master cinematographer Roger Deakins still had to shoot long takes and stitch them together digitally while stealthily hiding the seams. It all helps tell the story of two young soldiers tasked with traversing treacherous territory to warn a Battalion of British soldiers about an impending German ambush. We follow the pair in real time amidst a story of remarkable bravery, enhanced by the fact that we’re with them every step of the way, at once experiencing everything they do up close while being reminded of how removed we really are from the danger they face.

#5. Uncut Gems

Director: Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie

Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin Garnett (hey, why not?), Julia Fox

There are several talented actors in Hollywood who’ve gained a bad reputation for poor career choices. Ben Affleck and Will Smith come to mind. Perhaps the king of this group is Adam Sandler. He’s excelled sporadically in movies like Punch-Drunk Love and The Meyerowitz Stories, but he gives a truly Oscar-worthy performance in this--ahem--gem. As Howard Ratner, he’s a gambling addict who runs a jewelry store in New York’s Diamond district when he gets his hands on a rare Ethiopian black opal which he hopes will help pay off his many debts. In fact, he owes so much to so many people that he struggles to keep track of it all and we cringe every time he does. The tension builds to an almost unbearable level as a host of dangerous men seek payment. If that’s not enough, he’s on the verge of a divorce as he continues seeing a mistress who’s also his employee while owing $100 000 to his own criminal brother-in-law. If you were stressed just reading that, try watching the movie...or being Howard himself. The Safdie brothers don’t let up either, filming it like a documentary to add to its realism and immediacy...as if it needed that extra boost.     

#4. The Lighthouse

Director: Robert Eggers

Starring: Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe

The first thing you notice watching The Lighthouse is that half the screen is missing; Robert Eggers, who also wrote and directed The Witch, shot the film with a 1.19: 1 aspect ratio, making the picture square, like an old-timey photograph. It feels limiting at first until you fully appreciate the feelings of confinement and anxiety it evokes. That’s important in a film about two lighthouse keepers, or wickies, who are forced to live together in insanely grungy and cramped quarters of a lighthouse on a remote island off the coast of New England. Considering the harsh conditions and the fact it’s a horror film, they soon clash and seemingly lose their grip on reality which manifests in macabre images and supernatural occurrences. Or does it? Ha! This is one of the most unique and beautifully filmed movies of the year with the grainy black and white 35mm making it seem like it was made closer to the late 19th century, when the film takes place. Like many recent horror films, this one relies more on mood and imagery than jump scares and is buttressed by only two actors who give award-worthy performances. Alright? So, go to hell; Pattinson can act.

#3. Little Women

Director: Greta Gerwig

Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Emma Watson, Timothee Chalamet, Eliza Scanlen, Laura Dern

You might assume that Little Women is a stuffy period piece and even unnecessary considering it’s the seventh adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s iconic 1868 novel, but the prodigious actor-turned-writer-turned-director Greta Gerwig is too adept in her craft to settle for conventional story-telling. She gives this classic story a fresh, modern take with a non-linear approach and a feminist angle that enhances without overwhelming. Like her work on Lady Bird, she keeps scenes brisk and to the point with decisive cuts. She also adds her unique wit and snappy dialogue. Every conversation, no matter how superficial, leaves you enraptured. So, too, do the characters; it’s a pleasure following these complex girls through the ups and downs of their lives as women of little means and even fewer rights. They’re portrayed by a stellar cast, particularly Jo March who’s played by Saoirse Ronan, perhaps our greatest sub-30 actress. This may be a little movie about little women, but the payoffs and sheer enjoyment are truly grand.   

Full Review: https://thefilmsnob.tumblr.com/post/190231754125/little-women-12-out-of-5

#2. Us

Director: Jordan Peele

Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke 

I know it’s blasphemous, but I might be the only person on Earth who not only thought Get Out was a tad overrated, but that Jordan Peele’s second feature, Us, is the superior picture. It’s easy to look at this film as merely a unique take on the slasher genre, but it’s so much more than that. Like any good horror, it’s creepy as hell, but it’s also brimming with foreshadowing, symbolism and metaphor. There are three or four ideas that Peele sets up at the beginning that seem disconnected to the story, yet they each have a specific purpose and when that becomes evident, it’s incredibly satisfying. Even more impressive is how Peele turns a movie about a vacationing family encountering their doppelgangers into a brilliant commentary on the current state of America, specifically in regards to class division and its relation to the Nature vs Nurture debate. And the movie’s neat twist at the end isn’t just added for shock value; it’s actually the final puzzle piece and essential in conveying the film’s message. I struggled with ranking Us at #1 or #2, but its over-reliance on slasher film action around the mid-point (a minor flaw) was the deciding factor. It’s near-perfect, nonetheless.

Full Film Interpretation: https://thefilmsnob.tumblr.com/post/184073868405/interpreting-jordan-peeles-film-us

#1. Midsommar

Director: Ari Aster

Starring: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper, Will Poulter

If there’s one thing for which the 2010s should be known, it’s great horror films, a refreshing development after decades of mediocrity. But, just like movies in general from the ‘New Hollywood’ ‘70s, horror films are more creative and ambitious than they’ve been in ages thanks to a handful of visionary filmmakers. Three out of the top five entries are horror movies and that’s saying something.

Midsommar is a mesmerizing horror film that hearkens back to the 1970s when the genre relied more heavily on atmosphere and pacing and sheer creepiness than on jump scares and gimmicks. It takes one hell of a talented writer/director to make a movie shot almost entirely in daylight feel so utterly sinister, but Ari Aster, who also made the acclaimed Hereditary, does just that with ease. What’s more, the film contains no monsters, nothing supernatural and an astonishingly minimal amount of violence, yet when we do see bits of blood and gore, it’s a complete shock to the system. What Aster does rely on is his mastery of lighting and framing to produce images that are unexpectedly eerie.

This is a movie that starts with a group of anthropology students looking to take part in a once-in-a-lifetime festival at a commune in the Swedish countryside and ends in an unspeakable nightmare. It’s a long and sometimes grueling experience that steadily snowballs into horror, but that slow burn is crucial for this delightfully nerve-wracking series of events. Oh, and it’s also a breakup story...possibly the scariest breakup story of all time. It’s certainly the best film of 2019.     

[strayneoculturekids]

Adoration - Renjun x Reader

Summary: For as long as you can remember, you had always drawn on your arm and for just as long, you had always remembered finding a drawing that you didn’t remember doing, often they were just as good as your usual ones, if not, better.

Soulmate AU, Strangers to Lovers AU, Highschool AU

Genre: fluff, crack (?)

Word Count: 1900

You groggily woke up, yawning loudly and stretching your arms, pulling one back to rub your eye afterward. Catching a glimpse of your arm, you saw watercolour painted all over the floral drawing you had done in black pen, colouring it a beautiful array of not too bright pigments, complimenting your skin tone and the ink pen well. You would be proud of it, however, you truly don’t remember colouring it in. Looking over to your art desk, you saw trays of your watercolour and gouache spread across it.

“Oh, I guess it must have been me then. Maybe I really should get this whole memory thing checked out” you mumbled to yourself, slowly putting your sheets to the side and stepping out of the blissful warmth that was your bed into the cold hell that was the winter morning

Wanting to get dressed as quickly as possible so you didn’t end up freezing to death, you quickly pulled out a pair of jeans from your closet, a long sleeve shirt, and a warm sweater, also grabbing the fluffy pair of socks you had thrown into the corner of your room before going to bed last night.

Your phone suddenly buzzed, checking it, you saw a text message from your best friend.

[The only Snake I accept]: “Oi bruh, where tf are you, we’re all waiting at the mall for you”

“SHIT” You yelled, checking the time, seeing that you were meant to meet your friends 15 minutes ago

[You]: Yeah sorry, I’m almost there!

You were not almost there.

Rushing out of your room, you said a quick goodbye to your parents and sprinted out of the house, jumping into your family car and starting up the engine. Once you had actually started driving and your adrenaline rush was over, you realized how godamn ice cold it was. You looked out the side window, realizing it was covered in frost.

“Shit. That’s illegal.” You mumbled to yourself again, winding the window down and straight back up again to get rid of the fog and frost that had made its way onto there.

A couple of minutes later and you had a call from your friend. You cursed yourself and answered the call, putting it on speaker so you could talk without being distracted.

“If you’re not almost here, don’t tell us you’re almost here!”

“Yea, yeah, I’m sorry. I’m a wreck, I know” you said, hoping she wouldn’t yell at you too much

“Just hurry up, it’s freezing, we need to start walking”

“I’m sorry! Love you, bye” you said quickly, hanging up before she could say anything back

Soon enough, you had made it to the mall. It was still reasonably early so it didn’t take long to find parking. 

“Oh my God! There you are!” your friend called from across the parking lot “Hurry your ass up, the others are waiting”

You quickly ran to catch up with her, finally entering the heavenly warmth of the mall.

“Cool drawing by the way,” She said, motioning slightly to your arm

“Oh, thanks!”

“The colours are really nice”

“Oh yeah...thing is, I don’t remember doing that part” You mutter, rubbing the back of your neck, still confused by your own actions, even though this had been going on for as long as you had been drawing on yourself

“Again? I’m telling you, it’s your soulmate. You can’t just be forgetting stuff like that out of nowhere”

“No way! I’m not old enough for my soulmate sign to show up yet, and besides, the drawing style is always similar to mine.”

“If you say so,” She said back, unconvinced of literally everything you had just said

“Oh come on, you know that soulmate signs are always gene connected, my family always has something to do with telepathy!”

“Sure, sure”

After about another minute of walking, you met up with the rest of your friends. They all collectively groaned once they saw you and slapped you on the back. You smiled awkwardly, rubbing the back of your neck again and giving them small apologies. They all rolled their eyes jokingly in return and told you that you were paying for lunch because of it. You sighed but accepted your inevitable yet horrible fate.

The day was spent with you and your friends goofing around and them emptying your wallet with expensive food as payback for you being late. One by one, they all noticed the array of elegant flowers and vibrant colours adorning your arm, winding up it gracefully. You told them one by one what happened with your memory and they all looked at you, repeating the same thing one after the other; telling you that it was your soulmate and not just your shit memory. You dismissed all of them, telling them it was ridiculous.

The end of the day came around and you all said your goodbyes. You were walking back home, admiring the snow-covered trees and the soft snowflakes falling down but despising the cold and inwardly regretting not putting on more layers than you had. 

Just as you were about to dig your hands into your basically non-existent jean pockets, you caught a glimpse of the back of one of them, seeing that it had writing on it. You put it up to your face; ‘Hey’ is all it read. You looked at it, uncertain about what to feel. You shrugged it off, figuring one of your friends probably drew it on you while your attention was elsewhere.

The next morning came around and you once again had to reluctantly climb out of your warm bed, this time though, it was for school, making everything all the more worse. Sighing, you let the cold hit you like a sledgehammer, accepting the shit destiny laid out before you. 

You groggily descended the stairs after getting dressed and grabbed an apple from the fridge, not bothering to make yourself a real breakfast before heading out and getting into your smaller family car and starting to drive to school, not wanting to wake your parents up just to say goodbye.

You pulled into the parking lot at your school, looking at the building in front of you remorsefully and sluggishly opening the car door, stepping out and making your way into the school gates just as the first bell had rung. You suddenly were wide awake and rushed to your locker, getting out your books for the first and second period and quickly heading to class, not exactly wishing to be late.

Halfway through the first lesson and you already wanted nothing more than to go home. You looked back down to your arms, wanting to distract yourself from the lesson with the intricate patterns on your arm you had drawn and the pretty tones that had mysteriously appeared. As you were admiring the way they fit so well together, you caught black ink appearing on your other arm through the corner of your eye. Alarmed, you quickly look over to it, seeing writing appear magically on your skin. Realization had finally set in. It was your soulmate.

‘Are you in school right now?’ the writing read

You quickly grabbed a pen, finally getting over the initial shock and writing a quick message back.

‘Yeah, first period. You?’

‘Same. We must be in places with similar time zones’

“Ahem, Y/N and Renjun, maybe one of you would mind telling me the answer” You looked up, dumbfounded, to see your teacher switching her gaze between you and another kid in your class

Looking over, you saw the other one, supposedly named Renjun, also had writing on his hand, you also managed to catch a short glimpse of his other arm, displaying a floral pattern exactly like the one on yours. He looked over to you and you made eye contact, he dropped his gaze down to your arms and immediately his jaw dropped, right along with yours

��Maybe you two could stop drawing on yourselves in the middle of class and actually pay attention”

“R-right, sorry,” You said, peeling your eyes off of your newly found soulmate to look your teacher in the eye

“Y-yeah, sorry miss” Renjun said, mirroring your actions

Class continued as normal but you and Renjun continuously kept looking over to each-other, amazed you had been so close together the entire time and never realized. Any moment your eyes weren’t on Renjun, they were on the clock, desperately anticipating the end of the period. After what felt like years, the teacher finally dismissed you and the class. Renjun immediately made his way towards you, you doing the same and meeting him halfway.

“Meet me on the right side of the school gate after school.” Renjun said, before quickly walking away, obviously not wanting to be late for class

You blinked, trying to process what just happened. Shaking your head, you snapped yourself back to reality and followed the crowd out of the classroom into the crowded hallway to head to your next class.

Each period felt like it lasted forever, each tick of the clock etching itself into your brain. Finally, the bell for the end of school rang and you dashed out of the classroom once the teacher had dismissed the class. You made your way to the front of the school, going to the right side like instructed and waiting patiently. About half a minute passed before you saw Renjun running up to you, waving slightly. He finally made it, slightly out of breath. You stayed silent, telling yourself you were letting him catch his breath but really, you just had absolutely no idea what to say, which led to it getting very awkward once he did catch his breath.

“Um…Nice art?” You said, not being able to stand the silence

“Uh…you too,” He said hesitantly

It stayed silent for a while before both of you made eye contact and suddenly burst out laughing, out of anger? Amusement? Adrenaline? I dunno, something starting with ‘A’, the word was on the tip of your tongue but oh well.

“I can’t believe we were that close to each other the entire time and never noticed,” You gushed once you’d calmed down

“Same! It’s so hard to believe, I’m almost always drawing on myself in that class”

The laughter died down and it ended with you two smiling at each other in comfortable silence. You stuck your hand out in front of him.

“I don’t believe we’ve been properly introduced. I’m Y/N”

“I’m Renjun,” He said, taking your hand and shaking it

BONUS

You and Renjun had gotten to know each other really well over the past few days, and here two you were, in your room making a huge mess that you were gonna pay for later with art supplies, brushes, and paper. Renjun was making all sorts of things, and every single one of them beautiful, almost as beautiful as Renjun’s smile, or his voice, or personality.

You finally found the word starting with ‘a’ you were looking for a few days earlier.

It was adoration

[teddystrap]

[神なる君と] Spirit duo - Rei

なんかちょっとラストスパートな感じですけど…

Rei is the friendly spirit that Sakuya and co. met when they were investigating rumours about hauntings in the old school building. He’s arguably the most ‘mysterious’ character, since nothing is known about his former life, and I was super curious what his deal is. Not to mention he’s the final obstacle standing between me and Mikoto!! Ψ(￣∀￣)Ψケケケ

Truth be told he’s not really my type, though - since I’m not 15 anymore. I mean he’s a ghost but looks more like a forest elf / Mori Boy circa. 2001, and his voice sounds like it’s breaking. Compared to the other characters also he has a personality (or lack thereof) that is blander than konnyaku. In fact I found myself opening all the Yuzuru options in his common route first before going back and redoing them for Rei, because senpai saranghae I only wanna be wit u <3... 

Aaanyway.

-Mizuniwa Rei-

Rei-kun’s common route was actually quite revealing and interesting - in two of his ema, Mikoto actually asked to tag along, so it seemed like there might be some important information there idk. 

In his second ema, Mikoto tells Sakuya that she has the power to push people who are on the brink between Life and Death into one world or another, depending on what kind of guidance she gives.

Which in retrospect seemed like heavy foreshadowing for what’s about to come.

Fuu-san’s backstory was also revealed here:

Around 10 years ago, Fuu-san and his bff, a boy named Kawashina Yuuya, were students at Mikagurayama High School. One day they found a hidden basement storage room in the old school building, and turned it into their hang-out spot.

The basement used to be a bomb shelter, and had some books left over on occult spells and curses, that were used during the war to protect the townspeople. Fuu-san found a book with a spell to summon the powers of the Great Demon, and wanted to try it out of fun/boredom, but Yuuya was against it.

So Fuu-san did it by himself anyway. He got the sealed cursed box from the magical cave and took it back to the basement to perform the spell. Halfway through he passed out... and when he came to, he realised that Yuuya saved him by transferring the spell onto himself. 

Yuuya never woke up again, despite a lot of medical attention and whatnot. After half a year, Fuu-san decided to quit school and skip town to learn exorcism so that he can save his friend. But when he finally returned a few years later, Yuuya had already died...

Fuu-san lived with guilt all these years and thought that Yuuya died hating him. But when he went down to the basement with Sakuya to liberate his spirit, Yuuya’s spirit communicated through Sakuya that he doesn’t ever regret saving Fuu-san, and he hopes Fuu-san can stop blaming himself and go forward in life, smiling... By this point I was pretty much crying like a baby... ｡･ﾟ･(ﾉД｀)･ﾟ･｡

Oh how I wish there was a Su-sa-no-o in my neighbourhood, with a sexy store-owner like Fuu-san... 

But we’re not here to court Fuu-san (I wish we could, mang. I wish we could), so let’s get back to Rei. In his route Sakuya tries to help him to find out about his family and his past. She asks Aki for help ofc, and Aki reports back that she couldn’t find anyone matching Rei’s description in the database of deaths, nor the missing persons list...

And the mystery deepens dun-dun-DUN. This would’ve made for an interesting story development,... except the writers totally abandon it and instead opt for Rei and Sakuya frolicking around in the forest, true to his Mori Boy style (wholesomely tho, since they are both underage XD). Then Rei realises that he’s not long for this world, and he tries to put some distance between them - but Sakuya eventually convinces him that they should spend his last remaining time on earth together and make lots of beautiful (wholesome) memories.

There were a lot of group events in his route, which was nice since I got to see Yuzuru-senpai mucho. (Although he’s not an option here obvsly T_T)

You know I will happily choke on a fish bone for you, senpai <3.

So hoshimatsuri night, Rei undergoes the ceremony to pass into the other world. Sakuya stays home, because she’s not strong enough to go and say goodbye to him. Is this like deja vu from the Yorihito/Nisei story arc or what?? ...After that, Sakuya goes to the old school building one day after school, and finds a note from Rei. SURPRISE - he’s still here.

...

It turns out that Sakuya’s, uhh, clinginess is keeping him from successfully departing. At this rate he’s going to grow weaker and weaker and become trapped in the interstitial space between two worlds - forever. They keep communicating through notes, and through voice chatting over radio, while Sakuya grows enough balls to finally let him go.

Eventually she does. Because let’s face it - Otomate can’t afford to pay their seiyuu to carry on a story for like two gajillion chapters.

In his final moment of departure, he appears to Sakuya in a dream, but they can’t hear each other’s voice. Just as Sakuya is freaking out, he pulls her in and kisses her, then disappears into the ether. (*ฅ́˘ฅ̀*)♡

...I guess Yuzuru and Rei’s routes don’t work the same way as Narumi and Yakumo’s, bc you don’t get the alternative ending by choosing the ‘wrong’ option for the last couple of choices. I wasn’t strong enough for senpai’s bad end, but I was actually pretty curious about Rei’s, although all the same I wasn’t able to unlock it. Either way I hope he didn’t get stuck in between worlds forever, poor kid has been through enough.

1. Good end: Fast forward 10 years, Sakuya becomes a teacher at Mikagurayama High School, just as Rei had hoped. She still goes to the garden every day to take care of Rei’s flowers. The old school building is about to be torn down because it’s too old and might be a safety hazard. She’s on her way there one last time... when she gets a call from Aki, who finally found out what happened with Rei’s past-life investigation 10 years ago. Unfortunately Aki trips on something and the line cuts off before we get to hear it. _(:3」∠)_

So Sakuya is there happily watering her flowers, when guess who appears - ahem *Rei*, now all grown up. He tells her that this time he’s not a spirit anymore... and the scene just ends there. I’ve seen a lot of abrupt endings but this has gotta take the cake. Although I’ll admit adult Rei is kinda sorta smoking hot, so less talk more making out!

[Thoughts] What can I say? This route really didn’t explain as much as I thought it would, although there were some good bits. For one, the Fuu-san backstory really got to me. Fuu-san was always the side character that I was most curious about, since he seems kind of... shady, and like he might’ve had a colourful past. His arc really delivered, and it’s my favourite out of all the four side stories, although I loved them all in their own way.

I was expecting to find out about Rei’s past here, but I guess the writers are saving it for Mikoto’s route / wrap-up, which almost certainly means there’s going to be a surprise revelation. So I am looking forward to that and I hope they don’t fuck it up.

The route itself actually felt like it was mostly stuff that belongs in a fandisk, rather than an individual character route. All the group hangouts, and scenarios that reveal idiosyncrasies about the other characters (e.g. everyone’s drawings in the Fuu-san arc. I finally got to see Yuzuru-senpai’s kawaii creations! :3).

Senpai’s art totally unleashes his inner otome...

As expected, Rei failed to give me any doki-doki feels... except at the end, where we saw grown-up Rei and got to hear Iguchi Yuuichi’s normal voice for like 2 seconds. (I wish this game had a fandisk bc I *definitely* need more of that!!) From the other character routes I got the sense that he’s an iyashi-kei type of guy, and he’s probably the most consistent out of all of them, because he continues being selfless and caring about Sakuya before himself throughout - e.g. helping her to find her future path despite not having one himself. 

Still I gotta admit, when he confessed that he liked Sakuya, I did a silent fist-pump in the air, because FINALLY here’s a guy who said it first. I’m so tired of always having to make the first move >;(

Also the thing that Narumi said really touched me here: that Rei would rather choose a lonely existence as a spirit trapped between two worlds for the rest of eternity, than force Sakuya to let him go. Even when he was weakening, he never said anything to Sakuya. In a way he was perhaps the most adult-like one out of all of them. Admittedly I didn’t like Sakuya very much in this route. She seemed very self-absorbed and immature, refusing to face the truth. But eventually Narumi kind of slapped some sense into her (figuratively ofc, I mean Narumi would never actually slap her XD) and she did choose to do the right thing.

...I guess Narumi is determined to be the guy that has a crush on her and ‘saves her’ one way or another in every route. Kudos to him but he’s still only, like, my third or fourth favourite lols.

Lastly, I felt that this route was actually the most poetic + metaphorical one so far. (Maybe the other ones were, too, and I just wasn’t paying attention?) ...The metaphor of flowers bearing seeds that blossom into new flowers, bearing witness to their relationship and carrying on their legacy. When they first met the flowers were newly planted, and when they said goodbye they were just about to wither. 

Also Sakuya and Rei always met after class at sunset, the time between day and night - like the space between Life and Death. Idk mang but that’s, like, really beautiful or sumshit.

But this is the most poetic thing of them all~!

[twinfoxtails]

Redbellion: A Foreign Land

@soulwitch​

"Miss Hakune... Where are you?"

Eri was whispering to himself as he and Meiling were in a room in a cheap, small inn. The boy was sitting on the bed, while the elderly woman was lying her back against the wall.

The room itself is quite simple and… traditional, in a sense. Instead of using key-cards and fingerprints, it was just normal keys to lock the door. Pretty much what you’d find in a traditional inn back in Earth.

Still, this place… The United Federation of Arcadia, was it? It was just so much for him to take in on their first visit. Vehicles were flying on air, people tapping on ‘mini rectangles’ with their fingertips, and flashing signs on buildings, it really was stepping onto another planet.

However, what’s sad to the boy was that while the inn they stayed at still upheld the traditional values of old, the lack of greenery from trees to bushes around the inn made him slightly uncomfortable.

“You alright there, Eri?”

“A-Ah, yes… I suppose so…”

At least Meiling is a familiar face in this large, foreign world. He’s glad he was proven wrong on going on his own to find his lost friend.

“I’d be surprised if you got used to it, especially since we’re far away from home. Let’s see… Miko said about going to the ‘Assembly’ to find more information about our missing friends, didn’t she?”

“… Miss Hakune, Flandre, Mao, and Kasen…”

Right, Kasen and Mao. Those were the ones which Miko specifically told to find as well, on top of the other two. And with Eri looking for Hakune, and Flandre for Meiling, this turned out to be quite a search party, hasn’t it?

It was just as Miko requested back in Senkai an hour ago...

---

“… And that’s why I’m asking you two. Any more people or anyone else, and this would catch the attention of most people in Gensokyo.”

“Verily! Like how word spreads with much haste on how the Crown Prince sucks her thumb when she sleeps-“

“Shut up, Futo!”

BZZT!

“GYAAAAAA!”

PLOP!

Ah, Tokiko just electrocuted her.

... Still, this was Senkai, wasn’t it?... Eri came here a few times, but only because Seiga invited him in. Both Meiling and Eri were in the grand meeting hall, with Futo, Tojiko, and of course, Miko.

“Ahem… Regardless, Meiling, Eri, the notes of the events which happened so far are written in that notebook. Feel free to write anything down on it should you come across any new information as well.”

“Well, umm…”

“… Don’t worry, Eri. I’ll handle that.”

“R-Right…”

He still couldn’t read and write, after all.

“So, Miss Miko, let me repeat. You want us to sneak into this ‘United… Frontline… Arcana-“

“United Federation of Arcadia! Geez! For a kitsune, you’re a bean for brains, huh?!”

“I-I’m sorry! Arcadia! You want us to sneak in to get information, yes…?”

“Correct, although I’m sure you’ll find a way in, as I don’t think they’ll take well of a child being there. You know what I’m trying to say, don’t you?”

“It means doing what kitsune does best! Shaking thy hips to seduce victims with thine body, and-…”

“Okay, ya dingus! Back to the other room with you!”

“CROWNNN PRINNCEEEEeee-…”

BZZT!

“... We’ll be at the other room if you need us.”

And the both of them left the room, with only the boy and the two other women inside. Miko couldn’t help but to give a chuckle from this, before turning back towards the duo, and tapping her baton on her palm gently.

“Ahem, anyways, you two will arrive in your destination the moment you step foot out of Senkai. All I can say is… best of luck, and I hope you rescue our friends.”

“Thank you, Miko. Well, let’s not waste any time, Eri. Let’s go.”

“…”

“... Eri, the meeting’s over.”

“H-Huh? A-Ah, I’m sorry, yes…”

“Ahem... one more thing. Eri? I know it’s hard to move on after what happened, but don’t forget, you have others behind you too.”

“I-I’ll keep that in mind, Miss Miko. Thank you.”

Getting up, the both of them waved their goodbyes to the hermit before entering towards the futuristic world of Arcadia…

---

But... Arcadia is just so big, it’s safe to say that the planet and easily larger than all of Gensokyo. And with the both of them being unable to fly, it just makes it harder to navigate.

“Where do we even begin? She said to go to the Assembly, but…”

“Judging by Miko’s description, that Assembly is that place you mistook for the moon when we first entered the planet, I’m sure.”

“Ah, that…”

Right, when they first came in, it looked like there was something orbiting around Arcadia, wasn’t there? So that entire… moon… was the Assembly?

… His head was just spinning, thinking about all this.

“By the way, Miss Meiling, if I may ask, are we not supposed to pay in the counter to get a room firs-…”

“Wait… Eri, be quiet.”

“…?”

Grabbing the boy effortlessly with an arm, Meiling quickly fled to the wardrobe at the corner of the room, and waited. Eri didn’t know what was going on at first, until a few moments later…

...

Tap tap...

“Phew, it’s finally over… This is so exhausting…”

What broke the silence in the room were a pair of footsteps entering, followed by the sound of the door locking. The voice sounded like it belonged to a young woman, confirmed when both Eri and Meiling peeked a little after sliding the wardrobe doors a bit.

Other than their limited vision, the both of them couldn’t hear anything but the sound of her undressing her clothes, followed by laying down on the bed with a loud sigh of exhaustion. It really has been a long day for her, hasn’t it?

“Things had been worse ever since the last Assembly meeting… Our High Priestess openly declared our hatred towards machines in the worst possible time, and even after Kansaku’s queen has been taken by the Collective… It’s not making my job any easier…”

There were a few mumbles coming out from her, such as the current state of her accounting job, the Extermination Directive, and just how much of an emotionless person the speaker was. Basic things.

“...”

As for how the hiding kitsune and gatekeeper were, Eri’s heart was pounding out from panic, hoping him and Meiling won’t be caught. The gatekeeper was calm and firm, while the boy was shaking a bit.

Still, for the woman, what better way to end the day with a nice, long bath? 

By some pure miracle, the woman didn’t check the wardrobe and went straight into the bathroom, leaving Eri and Meiling behind.

…

Nope, No such luck! She was about to get a change of clothes, and…!-

“Eeeee!-”

CHK!

Before the woman’s voice could alert the entire inn, Meiling quickly jumped out of the wardrobe, covered her mouth, and did a light chop on her neck, rendering her unconscious as the youkai caught her as she fell, all in one single movement.

… It’s no wonder she’s called ‘The Gatekeeper of the Scarlet Devil Mansion’.

“I-Is she… going to be okay?”

“She’ll be fine. The original plan was to take some clothes and flee before anyone got hurt, but… If only all things went out exactly as they planned, hm?”

Right… Because Miko did say that ID Cards were required to enter the Assembly, the only way both Meiling and Eri could do so is to steal them.

The original plan was to hide somewhere and steal their clothes, not harming anyone. Because the city outside was crowded, there were no places to ambush them, not even in alleyways. Which makes traditional inns like these the only viable place to do such a thing…

“I suppose so, Miss Meiling… Still, there is one problem…”

… It was that there’s only one person who came in, not two. In other words, there was only one ID Card to enter the Assembly in.

“… Eri, listen to me. You go ahead to the Assembly, alright?”

“Wait… what?”

“Who says that information is just limited to the place which Miko talked about? I’ll stay here and check around the city while you’re up there.”

“R-Really? Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. These clothes won’t look good on me anyway, and they look like your kind of attire, see?”

Now that she mentioned it… Eri looked over to the unconscious woman on the floor, and her clothes on the bed. The clothes are what looks to be a kimono, while the woman looked quite similar to Eri, as she too shared both fox features, having four fox tails, and fox ears.

Miko talked about them, didn’t she? They were the… Ulinari, weren’t they? From the Izalith Syndicate?

The boy looked over at the unconscious body one last time. There’s no other choice, is there?...

“If you insist then, Miss Meiling… Please give me a moment, okay?”

Crouching next to the unconscious woman, Eri looked over quickly for details he could use, from her body shape, to her scent, so he could take her identity.

The gatekeeper, however, did not agree with this idea at all. Tapping his shoulder as she shook her head, the woman folded her arms as she looked at the boy in the eye.

“Hmm... I don’t think you should take her identity. How about taking someone else’s instead?”

“R-Really? But… won’t they question if it’s a face they’re not familiar with?”

“Think for a moment. You saw how many people there are in Arcadia, right? So it’s not like everyone knows every single person’s face, and you’ll also avoid running to acquaintances who know her.”

“That makes sense, but who…”

The boy tapped his chin for a moment, and a person immediately came into mind in the next second.

This woman’s measurements, along with the cutting of the kimono… There’s no other person, is there?

Quickly undressing his clothes before the gatekeeper and folding them neatly without any worry about Meiling being embarrassed, it was then he shapeshifted into the person he believed to be the best fit for this situation…

...

And when the usual warm, blue glow which surrounded his body faded, Meiling didn’t look surprised at the form he took at all. 

“Are you really sure, Eri?”

“… I’m fine. These clothes fit her perfectly anyways.”

It was the only person which came to mind who could fit into these clothes without suspicion.

Harune, the Memory Weaver. As usual, his form looks exactly like her, right from her appearance to her scent. The boy was an especially talented shapeshifter, it may not be an exaggeration to say that he could fool even Hakune if she were here.

Regardless, Eri snapped back into reality quickly and started changing into the kimono on the spot, with Meiling helping ‘Harune’ getting dressed from the back and tying up the obi.

Overall, the clothes were a perfect fit, and inside the pocket of the kimono was a green, blank ID Card, and… a few bits of candy, half melted.

… Well, that seems to be everything.

“Alright, I’ll be off looking for information here. You head off to the Assembly, and if you get into any trouble, I’ll be sure to come running to you.”

“R-Really? How?...”

“Come now, have I let you down before? Trust me a bit, will you?”

And with a head pat from the gatekeeper, the kitsune nodded and with that, the both left the inn and went off their separate ways, leaving him alone in the streets of Arcadia.

… For a nation filled with so many people, he never felt so alone and lost.

But still, he had to go on. There were people to be found and returned back safely, after all.

“Now… Where is the Assembly?...”

As he looked around, a mechanical voice boomed around the entire nation, much like someone using a really loud megaphone.

‘ATTENTION: ALL ASSEMBLY PARTICIPANTS. AN URGENT BRIEFING HAS BEEN CALLED BY THE ASSEMBLY. PARTICIPATION IS MANDATORY. I REPEAT. ATTENTION: ALL ASSEMBLY PARTICIPANTS…-‘

“What?...”

Eri looked up at the sky, at the direction of the voice as he tried to process what he just heard. The people around him were also murmuring amongst themselves over this announcement.

“Ugh, what is it this time? I had plans today…”

“Hey, at least they’re letting us do something instead of keeping us in the dark. You know how it was like before, right?”

“The death toll has been getting higher lately, but it can’t be worse than what happened to Bammun, would it?...”

There were mixed receptions about what people thought about this, but… the message was clear to Eri. It really was as bad as Miko described it…

“Is it really that bad?...”

“I don’t know, but from how it sounds like, things are gonna be interesting.”

“Hm?...”

And right next to him was a man, who looked so much taller than him, perhaps even twice in size.

“Yeah, just a gut feeling I got... Anyways, what say you that after this little briefing of theirs, we go out for some drinks and maybe I could show you just how much manly the men of Tatari are compared to those back at Izalith? It’ll be the best night in your life, if ya know what I mean.”

Was that… what he thought it was? He know that Harune was quite the looker as she’s the hostess of her lodge, but he still felt extremely uncomfortable, although he doesn’t show it in his expression.

“… I’m not interested, thank you.”

“Tch, you women are all the same, acting so high and mighty, just like the ones from the Red Collective. Whatever, bitch.”

And with that, the man walked away with an annoyed expression on his face, as Eri watched him head towards where everyone was gathering. Further ahead was a gate, and multiple teleporters behind it.

Was that… the teleportation hub?

Although there were hundreds, if not, thousands of people heading towards the teleporters, there wasn’t a need to queue, as all the people need to do were to scan their ID cards at the gate, and enter.

Eri waited in line for only a few seconds, before he scanned the ID on the card reader. And in a single beep, the screen on the reader’s console flashed with a message.

ID RECOGNIZED. PLANET: IZALITH, SITULA. WELCOME BACK.

With the gate doors sliding open, Eri passed through and headed towards the teleporter. Pressing the only button inside, a white light engulfed his entire body, and in that instant…

FWIP!

Inside that beam of light, he felt his body becoming lighter for just a second, and when he came to, what stood before him was a dark, grey hallway. Multiple people from Izalith who came through the teleporters too walked towards the end.

Did he... make it inside? Probably.

“It’s going to be okay... Act natural...”

Gathering his nerves together as he hid his hands under the kimono’s sleeves, he too walked along the hallway with his fox kin, and when he reached the end…

“This…”

What awaited him was a large conference room. One could fit the entire Hakurei Shrine in it… No, maybe ten of them?

“… is amazing.”

Seeing so many people come together, it… was an impressive sight, for sure.

[sweetpxsin]

Soulmate au! Lee Felix

•Requested:Keeyakeeya (from wattpad)

•Member:Lee Felix

•Genre:fluff // soulmate au!

•Plot:Felix and reader meet by chance and he’s all cute and shy (like Chan’s soulmate au)

•A/N: bruhhhh someone tell me what sleep is cause I don’t know what it is anymore 4hrs daily my dudes what’s good(this isn’t even related to the fic I’m sorry) Also I made this a soulmate AU to injure two birds with one stone(don’t kill kids) Also ��I just decided to use blue because felix has brown eyes // [ Master list // request box:open // Guide lines ]

•There was multiple ways that connected soulmates

•Some were more common than others

•Like having a flower tattoo that connected you to your soul mate  or having time stop when you both touch for the first time [ wink wonk ;))))) ]

•And there were less common and more rare ones

•The one you so happened to have was one of the more rare ones

•Heterochromia was what connected you to your soulmate

•Basically one of your eyes was your own eye color while the other eye had  another color that perfectly matched with your soulmate

•And when you met your soulmate your eye that had a different color from your own would have a mix of the two colors (look at moodboard for reference; top left corner)

•But what was tricky about this was that specks of your natural eye color would appear on the eye if you were near them, you never knew who your soulmate was till you made full direct eye contact with the other only then your eyes would change simultaneously

•personally you liked the deep blue eye you sported along with your brown eye

•and never wanted to cover it up with a contact lense

•It had caught a lot of attention towards you having growing up with people who predominantly had only one eye color

•Though as you grew old you did have a small insecurity about it because a couple of jerk kids would call you weird

•But it never pushed you to get contacts like some people had done

•Anyways that was the only way you could find out if someone was your soulmate so the chances of you finding him/her was pretty low

•CONSIDERING LITERALLY EVERYONE AROUND YOU HAD ONE EYE COLOR and because some people had natural heterochromia that didn’t attach them to a soulmate

•Ahem...anyways although the chances were so low you didn’t mind whether or not you or you soulmate had found each other because it wasn't’ your dream or main priority in the first place

•You wanted be a producer with your own studio

•matter of fact you had written and produced a couple hot mixtapes with some underground artists

•With that some companies were pretty interested in you but of course you never signed because you didn’t wanna be signed to a contract

•But you did work with them a couple time if you really wanted to because kpop didn’t really mix with your style (think Jake Hill and 3racha)

•So once you got a email from JYP you almost thought it was a joke

•cause like no way would your music style ever mix with his idols styles

•But apparently the email was real and that he wanted you to collab with his newest upcoming group Stray kids

•You had no freaking idea who Stray kids was so you looked them up and decided to give them a try because you actually liked their music

•Once you met up at the jyp building you felt hella out of place because everyone was dressed so nicely while you wore ripped jeans, a graphic hoodie with a denim jacket over it paired with basic vans

•You also felt out of place because the staff just looked at you before whispering to the person next to them rather than just walking  by or greeting you

•but by the time the 3 boys had entered you soon felt back in and place

•they didn’t dress super nice they dressed casually and you liked that

•The whole time you worked with Jisung, Chan and Changbin they were super sweet and never once brought up the difference in your eye color

•okay no that one's  a lie, Jisung did once but it was just to compliment you

•But that’s not the point so far the whole day had managed to be super productive you were able to work on the beats yourself, mixing some of their style with yours

•of course you called them back a couple time to asked them what they thought and you were ecstatic to know they liked it so far

•But somewhere during the time you were working by yourself someone had abruptly opened the door and you had thought it would have been Jisung considering he was rather energetic but when you turned your head you were met with a new face

•”O-Oh I’m sorry I thought Chan was here.”

•And with that he closed the door just as abruptly as he had opened it

•You  decided to just brush it off and go back to your own work

•On the flip side the boy who had abruptly walked in on you was having a mini heart attack as he looked for this beloved leader

•Once he had found Chan he quickly spilled the scenario to him in a rush of  English and Korean

•”Felix calm down I can’t understand you.”

•”I SAID I ACCIDENTLY RAN INTO ONE OF THE PRODUCERS WORKING THINKING YOU WERE IN THERE! YOU SAID YOU WERE WORKING IN THAT ROOM YOU BETRAYED ME HOW COULD YOU!”

•”First of all I was in there and secondly what’s up with you did your contact fall out or something??”

•If there was one thing you should know about Felix was that he appreciated the idea of  soulmates

•and although he totally loved the deep blue his left eye possessed his parents made him cover it with a dark brown contact that matched his own to avoid complications

•Though he still wanted to find his soulmate, so he'd sometimes purposely forgot to wear his contacts because the public eye had ever witnessed him with his blue eye and just assumed it was a contact in itself

•That was one thing he could defiantly thank his parents for

•But to know there was something off about his blue eye made him smile with a warm fuzzy feeling

•quickly grabbing his phone he opened the camera and nearly dropped it seeing the hints of brown that speckled in his once naturally blue eye

•but just as quickly has his heart skipped a beat it had fallen to the pits of his stomach

•how in the world was he supposed to know who he looked in the eye to cause his eye to change

•For all he could know his soulmate could have been covering their eye or had accidentally made eye contact with him when he wasn’t playing much attention to it

•Feeling a sudden drop in Felix’s mood Chan couldn’t help but slightly pity the boy having that he went through almost the same thing

•”Actually the producer we’re working with has a deep blue eye but I’m not sure if their just born with it or it has something to do with soulmates.”

•Immediately Felix perked up at the sound of the  statement and instantly thanked his mother…(I meant chan but I’m keeping that right there…) before slouching once again

•”I  don’t know what they look like.”

•”Dude we’re literally working with them it’s not like your is from a different company”

•”Yeah but what if they’re just born with it?”

•Rolling his eyes Chan left the boy to mope in his own thoughts not knowing how to cheer him up any longer

•With a sigh Felix soon left the building remembering that he was going to head to some new pop up stores with Jisung,  Seungmin, and Jeongin

•By the time him and the other three boys had headed out to the chilly streets of Seoul the idea of soulmates had left this mind

•Especially since the whole time they were just having fun, being goofy while dancing around or randomly singing parodies about how hungry they were, like normal teenagers

•Though in one store while Felix was looking through vinyls he had bumped into another person and once he turned to see them he notice how their once blue eye suddenly had a hint of brown appear in it

•”O-Oh um sorry I didn’t mean to bump into you.”

•”I-It’s alright really.”

•Their voice sounded like music to Felix’s ears and he wanted nothing more than to confront them about their eye

•But it was hard when he had decided to cover his eyes with a contact

•”...u-hm I don’t mean to come off rude by you-”

•”(y/n)!”

•Both of your eyes shot towards the owner of the voice before you quickly excused yourself to catch up with friend  

•Not feeling in the place to stop you he stood there quietly scratching the back of his head

•Despite losing his chance of talking to you, he couldn’t help but smile a little to him

•”(y/n) huh?”

•He barely knew you but he already loved the way your name rolled perfectly off his tongue

•Shaking his head he allowed things to be the way they were and found his friends to  just have fun tonight and worry about confronting you later

•The next day Felix and the other 5 other boys had been called into the studio for recording

•at first Felix didn’t bother to pay attention to new person that was sitting considering he was in a very enthusiastic  conversation with Changbin

•and well because their back was facing him

•But his attention was all theirs once they had turned around to introduce themselves.

•”Hello I’m (Your full name) I hope we can work well together.”

•Your eye was a dead give away and your name only confirmed his thoughts further

•But at that exact moment something came over Felix and he no longer wanted to confront you about it

•”Let’s see...Let’s start with Felix.”

•Getting up with a little bounce he walked towards the door and confidently walked to the mic

•”Shall we try it now?”

•Felix gave you a little nod along with a small thumbs and his heart fluttered upon seeing a small smile appeared on your face before you turned on the music and started recording

•Once you stopped the recording you tilted your head slightly

•”It’s really good but something seems off..”

•You looked at where Felix was and evaluated the space he was in before immediate standing up and entering the recording room to fix his mic to his height

•In that same time Felix took the time to rush a small conversation with you

•”Aye how could a professional like you forget? It’s because I’m super cute right?”

•”No- Wai-t Yes- WAIT NO- not in that way.”

•Your face instantly heated up and you chose to be quiet and quickly fix his mic before scurrying out of the room to finish up his recording

•”Alright let’s try this again.”

•Hitting record you loved the sound of his voice more now that the mic was actually leveled with his height and instantly went into doubling it

•Once Felix was done you went to change the mics height but on the way in Felix was on his way out and managed to mumble a compliment you on your way

•”You look really cool there.”

•Brushing passed him you couldn't help feel your heartbeat acclerate as you fumbled to fix the mix for Hyunjin

•You thought he was just saying but he meant it in all honesty

•The whole time you working he couldn’t take his eyes off you

•Like honestly he was watching talent at it’s best right in front of him

•And when day of recording came to an end he was still amazed with you and the best part was that JYP was letting you work with them this whole album

•And if you’re not getting the hint now it meant Felix had the whole time to subtly flirt with you

•He did exactly that, but not to the point you were uncomfortable

•Besides the whole time he did flirt with you, it’d be something super cute or cheesy

•The members even caught on to what he was doing and even shipped it to the point of small teasing

•Though you only started to thinking about having feelings for Felix when you had to work with him late at night because he was having trouble with one of his parts

•you ended up sitting with him, helping him with the tone he need  to use for the song

•and by the time he had gotten it down it was already late so you told him to go home

•he had left but came back soon with drinks, food and a blanket

•he draped the blanket over you and opened your food and drink for you

•and the whole time he didn’t say a lot but he didn’t need to because his presence was just nice (?)

•I mean you were still young and having to stay alone every night trying to achieve your dream got lonely and dull sometimes

•and the fact he stayed by your side while occasionally asking you if you were okay the whole time you were working made your heart flutter

•and what sealed the deal was when you wrapped up to go back home Felix stood up with you and kissed your forehead while mumbling goodnight before telling you to go home safely

•The next day you couldn’t help but smile back at him as he waved at you with the widest smile

•but in the back of your head you couldn’t help but regret that today would be the last day you’d be working with them

•and in all honesty everything was going really well till Felix started to whine about something

•at first you paid no attention to it thinking the members would help him with what was wrong

•but it got progressively louder to the point you had to turn around to see what was wrong

•and when you turned around you just saw Felix lying on the couch with the boys surrounding himself as he went on about something being in his eye

•and how it really hurt

•since they weren’t really doing anything you stood up to help the poor boy

•when you get to him you noticed how puffy and wet his eyes were from being irritated

•So you went to pull away his hand that was rubbing at his eye

•but when you did your breath caught in your throat

•It took you awhile to notice the huge smile on his face and once you did you couldn't help but mimic his smile

•”you sly little-”

•”I know I’m awesome right.”

•You rolled your eyes and playfully hit the boy despite the amount of joy coursing through your veins that  almost uncontrollable

•Pulling you into a tight hug Felix showered your face in kisses happy to know that the feelings he shared were mutual

•and suddenly today wasn’t as bad as it would have been

•sure it was your last day working with Felix and Stray kids

•But it wasn’t the end of you seeing them

•You never signed with JYP as a producer but you did drop by often if the boys had difficulties, or had been practicing for a while and you wanted to bring them food

•But it just another excuse to see Felix since he was the most precious thing ever

•It didn’t matter how late he would practice he would never miss a day to visit you and stay up late waiting for you to finish  so he could cuddle with you back at your apartment or the dorm

•If you were feeling super unmotivated in your work he’d always be there to bring you up and vise versa

•He had managed to change your own perspective on soulmates and you really grew to admire him

•But besides all that serious stuff the both of you were just super fluff balls together

•If you ever came over just to hangout or with food without fail Felix would always pull you in between his lap with his arms wrapped slowly around your waist

•And if he was just watching you work he’d always get lost in your eyes because he always thought your eye was a pretty shade of blue (even though it was the exact same color..)

•Highkey loves it when he manages to gets you all shy and embarrassed

•But you always manage to make him super soft by composing cute little things for him

•and even taking the time out of your day to teach him how to produce too (and he’d always get lost because he’s too busy staring at you lovingly because he’d love just how much your eyes sparkled when you talked about stuff like this)

•Overall both of you were just super soft for the other

[stellisae]

A Group Affair (Orion x MC)

Book: Starship Promise

Pairing: Orion x MC (Juliette Adams)

Word Count: 1530

This fic starts out in Lorelei’s point of view, and then switches to MC’s point of view for the rest of the fic.

~~ Lorelei’s POV ~~

It took great strength, and remembering years of practice, to resist the urge to give her “the look”. You know, the one you give someone when they’re being impossibly dense. As a doctor it goes against my morals to give my patients that look, especially when they were as worried about it was Juliette was, but...did she really not know?

After listing her symptoms of the past few days did she still not realize what was happening?

Tender breasts? Cravings and nausea? And a missed period?

These were all the classic signs of pregnancy that I imagined every young woman would know. Or at least, every young woman that has a risk of becoming pregnant. Having been married almost a year, and not on any form of birth control, Juliette counted among that group.

Still, she sat silent as the dead as I checked her vital signs and blood sugar. Both her blood sugar and blood pressure were sitting on the low side. Two more common signs that occur with pregnancy.

“Juliette,” I started calmly as I took a seat across from her. “I’d like to run some more tests to be sure but, I think there’s a very strong possibility that you’re pregnant.”

“P-pregnant?” she stuttered out, her eyes shooting wide as saucers.

I offer a confirming nod, watching her facial features carefully as she reacts to the news. One thing I’ve learned about Juliette is that hiding her emotions was one of few things she could never accomplish. They all showed clear as day in her face.

This time starts with shock, quickly followed by confusion which slowly resolves itself as she thinks back to the -ahem- process of getting here. Thankfully, she finally settles on excitement. I wasn’t sure what we could do if she’d decided on anything that wasn’t on a scale of happiness.

“How far along?” she asks after her face has run through its myriad of expressions.

“I can’t say for sure but these symptoms usually appear around the first few weeks. I’d estimate around 3-4,” I answer

She nods slowly, likely reaffirming whatever day she’d considered being the date of conception. “How can we know for sure?” she asks,

“Well, I’d like to do a blood test to confirm, but those results will take awhile so how about we start with a classic,” I answer and hand her one of the at-home pregnancy tests I’ve learned to always keep in stock in my medbay.

~~ Juliette’s (MC) POV ~~

“Orion?” I called softly as the door to our bedroom wooshed open. As I stepped into the room I could feel a flutter in my chest, from a nervousness I didn’t understand. We’d talked about kids before. We both wanted them. We were married. There was nothing wrong with getting pregnant. Yet, the idea of telling him the news had me feeling butterflies.

“Hmm?” he hummed from where he sat at his desk, scrolling through something on a tablet. I cross through the room to him and wait for him to look up from his tablet before I speak. When he does something in my face must grab his attention because he immediately drops the tablet and jumps to his feet. “What’s wrong?” he asks, taking my hands in his while his eyes search my face.

“I-” I start, then have to take a deep breath. My heart hammering away in my chest is making it difficult to think of what I want to say. Even though I’d rehearsed it nearly fifty times on the walk here. Finally I manage to blurt out, with none of the ceremony I’d planned, “I’m pregnant.”

At first Orion freezes as he takes in the words but barely a beat later the largest grin I’d ever seen spreads across his face and he has me by the waist, lifting me into the air and spinning us in a circle. As soon as he sets me back down his lips are on mine and I can almost feel his excitement bleeding through where our skin touches.

“You’re pregnant!” he shouts as soon as our kiss breaks, and gives a hearty, joyous laugh. “We’re having a baby! I’m going to be a dad! You’re going to be a mom!”

His happiness is infective and soon all the nerves I felt just moments ago have completed dissipated as I laugh alongside him.

“Are you okay with this?” he asks after peppering a few more kisses across my face. “You...didn’t look like you had good news when you walked in.”

If it were possible I’d swear my heart just swooned for this man again. Of course, even in the middle of his own overwhelming joy Orion would always consider my feelings. Every day gives me a new reason to love him more and more.

“I just wasn’t sure how you’d take it,” I explain, smiling up at him so he could see how I felt now. “I know we’ve talked about kids before but...you can’t blame a girl for being nervous.”

Orion pulls me in for another deep kiss, and suddenly our excitement builds into a different kind as the kiss turns heated. Orion’s hands eagerly grip at all the parts of my body they can find and a low moan escapes me as one dips between us to rub against me through my jumper.

“We should tell the crew, they’ll want to know,” I say when we finally pull back, panting to catch our breath.

“They will…” Orion starts, and I lifted an eyebrow as his mischievous tone as he trailed off. “But they can wait. I have a wife to make love to right now.”

With that he sweeps a hand under my legs and carried me to our bed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After we’d, um, properly celebrated the news we gathered the crew in the lounge area with plans to share the latest development with them.

Atlas however, was an excellent surprise ruiner.

When he started pouring drinks before we’d even spoken, and I had to refuse the alcohol, it didn’t take Nova very long to guess at why. With her extra abilities I imagine she might have guessed at it soon anyways.

“You’re pregnant?” Jaxon shouted as soon as I confirmed her suspicions.  “This is awesome! Oh man, me and this kid are going to have the best time!”

Orion and I share a look at Jaxon’s exclamation, neither of us sure where his excitement came from. I mean, of course we expected them to be happy for us but this was a little beyond that. “Uhh...Jax? You know this is our baby?” I ask cautiously.

“Are you kidding? This is a group affair!” Jaxon claims, looking proud of himself. “Except for the hard stuff. Like diapers and the all night crying. That’s all on you guys. But outside of that, Uncle Jax is gonna spoil this kid rotten.”

“Uncle Jax?” Orion says, trying to look serious as he lifts an eyebrow in question. Though the grin he hasn’t been able to get rid of since I told him doesn’t quite help his case.

“Jaxon, you are not Orion’s brother. You would not be an uncle. That would befall to Captain Fairchild,” Nova interjects

Jaxon gives an exasperated sigh, “I know I’m not his biological uncle. But this kid is gonna be with us all the time. That makes me a defacto uncle.”

“It is true that it would be difficult to keep us separate from the child, living in such close quarters as we do,” Nova adds, and even she looks excited. “Would this make me an uncle as well?”

“We wouldn’t want to keep you guys separate anyways!” I say.

“Well not all of you,” Orion adds, unable to resist the dig at Jaxon.

“Hey!” Jaxon shouts indignantly, and Orion just grins at him as I continue over them.

“You can all be uncles, though Nova you would be an aunt,” I explain and I can see her mouth the word before giving me a bright smile.

“Call me Uncle Atlas all you want but I am not baby-proofing the Promise,” Atlas cuts in, trying to keep up his usual cynicism. Though even he couldn't help giving us both a small smile.

“Don’t worry. She still has a long 9 months before the baby is due, and then a while after that before it will be able to start getting into too much trouble,” Dr. Hensen cuts in, speaking up for the first time since we’d all gathered.

“Emphasis on long, have fun with that Orion!” Jaxon says with a cackle.

I reach over to gave him a playful swat and he, not paying attention, manages to spill his drink all over himself. “That’s what you get!” I quip, rather pleased with karma’s quick interference.

Soon the whole crew, Jaxon included after a moment of sulking, is laughing away. Looking around at the pure, honest joy and love they all share I’m filled with those warm and fuzzy feelings, and an unwavering conviction that as long as we had all of them at our side, Orion and I could handle every curveball life was surely soon to throw at us.

[downtomyunderoos]

untitled

// akihiko sanada (downtomyunderoos) & naoto shirogane (delusorydetective)

1. naoto --

       ❝Ah- Sanada-san, thank you.❞ Naoto glanced up at the sudden cover from Akihiko’s umbrella. Despite the forecast and looming clouds, she’d been more focused on their stake-out to really pay much attention to the sudden rain. There was a slight chill in the air that caused her to stand closer to her current investigation partner.       Despite the trivial nature of their current task, she was hardly bothered. Sometimes an easy job was a refreshing change of pace. A faint smile even played on the Detective’s lips as she tipped her hat slightly as her gaze met Akihiko’s own.

      ❝Supposedly tonight after work most of the precinct was going to the karaoke bar, if we’re out of here soon enough did you intend on joining them? That is if we don’t freeze out here first.❞ The detective shivered. ❝I hadn’t realized it was supposed to rain today.❞

2. akihiko --

Akihiko watched her quirk that came with wearing a trademark hat and welcomed the salutation only she could pull off, a calming yet kindling eye peeked out from beneath the bill. He gave a forgiving smile; while Shirogane didn’t notice the rain until it occurred, Akihiko didn’t properly acknowledge it until after. Her smaller presence modified the wet and drab atmosphere before he realized how the weather’s behavior — aside from dropped temperature — affected his impression prior, the rain’s drumming against the roof of his umbrella being white noise. Akihiko felt more solitary before, soon to be demonstrated in his response.

“Hadn’t thought about it,” he admitted, a slight shrug. “Since you brought it up, I wonder if I should now. Maybe it would help with strengthening our teamwork, but honestly whenever I participate in those kinds of gatherings, they always end as though they don’t… work out in my favor. To say the least.”

He gave a pathetic chuckle. Memories of embarrassing (some discovered through hindsight) after-school activities should have been put to bed by now, that he grew from his awkwardness since then, but here they manifested as the foundation for a confession during a time he had claimed his place in this world.

Akihiko positioned the umbrella over his partner a little better as if to apologize for himself. “Though to be honest, I’m more of a one-on-one person than a group kind of guy.”

3. naoto --

     ❝Glad I’m not the only one. I’ve never noticed a positive correlation between alcohol and group activities such as this. I believe we can gain enough rapport on the job rather than embarrassing ourselves in front of our peers.❞ She let a soft laugh escape herself as well.        She herself had some memories to share regarding group gatherings and silly games for ‘team building’. Even just the thought of alcohol seemed to have a strange effect on people and she’d rather not put herself through that sort of thing again. For others perhaps it was fun, although Naoto simply found the situations to be uncomfortable.        The soft tapping of rain on the umbrella commingling with the white noise of the streets, even with the slight chill of the air was much preferred to crowded karaoke bar that generally smelled of cheap beer and was filled with loud laughter and usually poor singing. Drinking was hardly a pastime the detective enjoyed, the thought of losing control an unwelcome one.

         ❝I share the sentiment. Groups can be overwhelming. I was actually trying to think of an excuse not to go myself. You know … there is a premier of a new noir film tonight. If you’re looking for an excuse as well, I wouldn’t mind the company.❞

4. akihiko --

Alcohol itself was fine, he just had the darnedest of luck with the socialization aspect. But Akihiko didn’t tell her that. Ace detective here needn’t any more clues regarding his insecurities.

A detective’s intuition was one thing, another was a detective’s pride. Shirogane was chock full of it, which she was kind enough to lend. Beneath the umbrella a club with two proud attendees took place. Akihiko huffed in amusement.

There came a twinkle in his eye. “Hey, now that’s something I can get behind. I’ll take you up on that offer,” he said, still holding the umbrella as they strolled across pavement. With each step Akihiko increasingly valued her but without realizing that Shirogane might’ve orchestrated this from the start.

5. naoto --

   ❝Great. I’ve actually been looking for an excuse to go myself, although I’ve never been fond of attending the cinema myself.❞ A grateful smile played on her lips, glad to hear he’d accepted her offer. The two tended to work well together, so she figured some time outside of work would be a welcomed change of pace. And a good way to gain rapport with one another.    ❝If this goes well too, I wouldn’t mind utilizing more excuses like this in the future, although I suppose it would only be fair to allow you to decide the next movie- or activity. I understand noir can be a niche genre, and from what I’ve gathered around the office, you tend to prefer movies with more action?❞ It would only be fair after all, and from branching out the little she had since her school days, she knew that much.

6. akihiko --

A small, knowing smile hinted teasing. “Books over movies, right?”

Yet Shirogane flipped it back on him. Akihiko, a deer in the headlights. “Wait—you guys talked about me?” Why did he feel embarrassed.

He straightened himself. Ahem. “Yeah, that’s not wrong. When I was a high school student, there was this one chop-socky flick I saw during the Summer Film Festival. Oh man, I could never forget that one,” as his excitable inflection indicated.

[junker-town]

The biggest reason Carmelo Anthony’s Trail Blazers tenure is working so far

Melo has made a positive impact on the Trail Blazers since joining the team.

Anthony’s mythology is still working in his favor in Portland.

How good has Carmelo Anthony been since the Portland Trail Blazers ended his year-long NBA exile in mid-November? The answer is complicated.

It’d be convenient if he was actually a star again. Who doesn’t appreciate a redemption arc where our once-famous protagonist, fueled by determination, willingness to change, and the perfect opportunity at the right time, gets back to his old self after hitting rock bottom? This narrative trope is as seductive as sport itself, as is the idea of proving doubters wrong.

Enough has happened in Melo’s first eight games to buy into the hype. He is averaging 17 points a game and has seared multiple hot-shooting performances into our collective memories. He is the reigning Player of the Week (ignore the — ahem — questionable criteria used to bestow him this honor). Portland has won four of five after a terrible start.

The more dispassionate perspective is we’re getting too swept up in the narrative. Melo’s efficiency numbers are decent, but hardly spectacular. His shot diet hasn’t changed much, and his defense is about the same despite more visible effort. The Blazers are winning more with him, but six of their eight opponents have sub-.500 records, and they’ve lost the only two against good teams. Those breakout moments are merely hot shooting nights against terrible defenses, blown up to the masses because of Anthony’s name recognition. In this view, the only thing Melo has really done is not be Mario Hezonja or Anthony Tolliver.

In a vacuum, the dispassionate view is more correct. But in the real world, it’s impossible for even the most cynical human to ignore the romanticism of the moment. Because he’s Carmelo Anthony, his story carries a lot more weight than a more complex analysis of his performance.

So much weight that I think it’s affected his opponents in a way that’s made the rest of the Blazers thrive — on offense at least.

Nobody benefits more from Melo mythology than the rest of the Portland Trail Blazers. It’s only been eight games against largely poor opposition, but defenses address Melo like he’s still CARMELO ANTHONY. They stick closer to him on the perimeter than other players with his skill set, which creates more space for his teammates. They divert more attention to a diverse Portland offensive pallet that now includes mid-post isolations against switches and even the occasional inverted pick-and-roll, which means they spend less brain power on Portland’s bread-and-butter.

Melo has a shadow impact that goes beyond his individual performance, one that’s fueled by name recognition and the ubiquity of his redemption story. Because of this, Anthony has actually become quite valuable to the Blazers.

The numbers prove it, at least so far. Portland has scored 116.5 points per 100 possessions with Anthony in the game and just 104.7 points with him on the bench. The new starting lineup of Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum, Rodney Hood, Anthony, and Hassan Whiteside is blitzing teams by more than 10 points per 100 possessions, largely because they’re scoring at a ridiculous rate. The Blazers get similar shots when Anthony plays as they did before he signed, but they’ve made more of them while turning the ball over significantly less often. The sample size is small and opponents have been weak, but these numbers aren’t happening by accident.

Melo certainly looks more spry than he did in his last couple stints. He stayed ready physically, and it shows. (Check out Matt Ellentuck’s interview with trainer Alex Bazzell to learn more about how Melo stayed in shape). We haven’t seen these quick mid-post moves in years.

His old-school isolations have looked ugly against like-sized defenders, but he has done well against smaller players after they switch pick-and-rolls involving Lillard or McCollum. You wouldn’t build an entire offense around these kinds of plays, but they’re a nice change-of-pace for a team that becomes predictable otherwise.

And Melo certainly has displayed better playmaking and ball-handling than anyone the Blazers have deployed at power forward in the past. He slips nicely into open space when opponents trap McCollum or Lillard, and can make plays in the ensuing four-on-three situation.

He can also handle the ball passably enough for Portland’s guards to screen for him from time to time.

All of that gives Portland’s offense more variety than it has with, say, Nasir Little playing in Anthony’s sport.

But Melo’s biggest contributions to Portland’s success come when he doesn’t have the ball. Because he’s CARMELO ANTHONY, opponents have stayed one step closer to him than they would for a less famous player. Notice the difference in these two similar alignments.

Those steps make a big difference. In the first clip, Lillard got a layup driving to the basket. In the second, Anfernee Simons turned the ball over because Lou Williams was plugging the drive and the big man’s roll.

The attention that Melo’s mere presence sucks away from the rest of the Blazers has also created lanes for Lillard, McCollum, and Whiteside that didn’t exist before.

And it’s created more open shots for Melo’s teammates.

Lillard, McCollum, and Whiteside have all scored more efficiently with Melo in the game than on the bench, and the latter two have done so with significantly different shot profiles. Whiteside’s taken six percent more of his shots at the rim with Anthony in, while McCollum has launched 11 percent more of his shots from the rim or the three-point line. Since Anthony arrived, Portland’s entire team has taken three percent more of its shots after zero dribbles and nearly nine percent fewer after three or more.

Whether Melo merits the extra attention defenses give him is besides the point. In the aggregate, he probably doesn’t. At the same time, he has occasionally made teams pay that leave him, and those buckets have more staying power because they’re all over social media and various highlight shows. You’ve seen this clip far more than a run-of-the-mill spot-up three-pointer in the second quarter from any other player because it came at the pinnacle of Melo’s redemption tour. If you have, so have NBA players.

Perhaps the better teams Portland eventually must face will guard Melo based on his merits rather than getting swept up in the story. Perhaps those sterling on-off numbers are random and will stabilize over a larger sample. Perhaps Melo himself will cool off or fatigue. Maybe the novelty of Anthony’s return will fade, thereby lessening the feel-good factor that powers his shadow impact.

But a redemption story is hard for anyone to overcome, and especially tough for elite athletes who view Melo as basketball royalty. If you’re a Blazers fan, keep pushing the MELO BACK! narrative. It helps your team if the public doesn’t let certain facts get in the way of a great story.

[captainschmoe]

I Will Survive [Beta] - Chapter 3: Caught Ya Napping

[A/N: Not much to say about this one other than I’m pleased with how smoothly the writing went. ^^]

[Summary: In which Sean tries to record Bio Inc. again and then gets interrupted by Ma- ahem, “Mark.”]

[Previous - Next]

Jack,

I know you probably don’t expect me to say this, but I believe you. I trust that you and Signe wouldn’t make this shit up, and really, it’s too weird to be a coincidence. If I see anything suspicious or out of the ordinary on my end, I’ll be sure to let you know. I also promise not to tell anyone about this, unless you tell me otherwise.

However, I don’t think there’s anything I, or you, or anyone can do about it right now. There really isn’t enough information (at least from what you’ve told me) to go by. And if it is supernatural, I don’t think we can really stop it. Or if we can, I don’t know how.

Again, thank you for trusting me. Be safe.

-Robin

Well, that was a pleasant surprise to find between games. Sean honestly didn’t think that Robin would be this calm about it. Then again, it was all in writing. Who knows what faces he made as he read the email.

It was exactly Sean’s concerns, though: not enough information. Too many questions and no answers to go with them. Is it related to the Anti stuff? Is it supernatural? Will it happen again?

Sean was becoming as much frustrated as scared. Of course he didn’t want more shit to happen. He didn’t want anyone to worry, or be in danger. But fuck’s sake! He wouldn’t die happy unless he got to the bottom of this, he just knew it.

Bio Inc. If he tried Bio Inc. again, he might get and answer. He’ll do his second game right now, and then go through Bio Inc. after that. That would be the plan - that would have been the plan regardless. Bio Inc. may have to come out slightly later than anticipated. That was fine; he could find some way to pass it off as all part of the plan. He could incorporate that into the game and Anti’s monologue or something.

Grrrrr...

Whoa. God damn. First things first: get some food to make his stomach happy. It didn’t seem to want anything in particular. Maybe it would change its mind once it saw the contents of the kitchen. Something quick and easy. That was all his brain was in the mood for, anyway.

As he passed through the living room, he spotted Signe lying on the sofa, face towards the back. Sound asleep, as evidence by some light snoring. Sean chuckled to himself. That wasn’t quite the level of “taking it easy” he was thinking of, but whatever works for her. Whatever helped her relax and recover from seeing whatever demonic monstrosity she saw - that’s all Sean cared about. Maybe he’d even spread a blanket over her. She got cold pretty easily.

You know what? I’m gonna do that.

It was a lot of back-and-forth trips through the house - but hey, it was exercise. Back up to the bedroom - with the sandwich he threw together. He set it down temporarily on the nightstand and grabbed one of the blankets off the bed, the really soft and fluffy one. Her favorite. Sean brought it back out to the living room, paying attention to and minimizing the sound of his footsteps this time. He waved it over Signe and let it fall. The blanket gently drifted down to cover her, minus her feet. Didn’t even faze her, though Sean wouldn’t bother trying to mess with it too much for fear of waking her up. Whatever, it was fine; she’d mess it all up herself in her sleep anyway.

He couldn’t resist the temptation to press a kiss to the back of Signe’s head. She fidgeted a little, yanking some of the blanket closer to her face. Called it.

This was it. This time, he made it through. Nothing had happened. No nightmare. Just Jack and ze good doctah having a bad time, all as originally planned. Now Sean just had to tackle Anti’s segment. He supposed it wasn’t too late for anything bad to happen. If it was somehow tied to Anti, this would be the moment for it to happen.

...No time to be thinking about that.

Sean fluffed up his hair in the bathroom mirror, trying to nail the look he wanted. Damn it, this still looked a little too soft. He spritzed some water into his hand and combed his fingers through. There. A little better, a little rattier. Throat “sliced,” gauges in, he was set to go. And the knife. He was using a newer, bigger one this time around. He could envision his reflection in the wide, stainless-steel blade. Heh heh... No wonder everyone got so hyped about him. Sean did, too. Running his fingertips along the edge thrilled him. So in-character. Maybe a little too in-character.

But these kinds of characters were so much fun!

“Guess who’s back, back again,” Sean softly sang to himself as he walked down the hall. “Anti’s back, everyone knows already.” He laughed. Ah, the theorists. Nothing escaped their collective eagle eye for more than half a second. But then again, how easy was it to hide from 16 million people and counting on the Internet?

Back in his office, Sean stood in the middle of the room, in front of his camera. What should he even say? He still had to pin down exactly what kind of mood he wanted for the scene. Something a tad more aggressive. Something threatening. Something that showed he really wasn’t fucking around this time.

“Well look who’s back!” He gritted his teeth in his best “psychotic” smile, and the classic evil giggle willed itself through. “You all thought you had him back. But this...” He dragged the dull side of the blade across his throat. “...will never end!” The tip poked him as he finished speaking. “Ow. That actually kinda hurt.” He laughed at himself. Can’t get through an Anti video without hurting himself in some way, whether burning his arms on candles or outright stabbing himself. Jeez.

“Well, I hope you’re happy...” He already used that line before. Was that all right? “I do,” he continued, breaking character. “I do hope you’re happy. Anti hopes you’re happy. He may be a character, but he’s got a good heart. He wants you all to feel spe-”

Buzz.

“Agh. Shut up, phone!” Good thing he didn’t have to do all the lines in one shot. Whatever. At least it was bugging him during a line that was meant for the outtakes. “Who’s texting me? ...Fucking Mark. The hell does he want?”

Sean predicted it was probably something stupid.

Though jokes on you jack :P wasn’t exactly the kind of stupid he was thinking of.

“The fuck?”

What the fuck did that mean? Couldn’t have been a wrong number due to the “Jack” at the end. Unless he sent some other message earlier and it just got eaten or something? Yeah, that was probably it. Or something like it.

Sean wouldn’t get the chance to ask any questions or get any answers, as the phone buzzed again in his hand, startling him. Another one from Mark. This one was an image-

“Jesus Christ!”

Thud. Somehow the phone resisted breaking against the desk.

Sean instinctively backed against the wall, hands balled up into fists and pressed against the sides of his head. “Oh my God... What the fuck?” Morbid curiosity urged him to check again, to make sure he wasn’t freaking out for no reason. But his legs didn’t want to take him anywhere but far away. As far away from that phone as he could possibly get.

He took several deep, calming breaths, overriding the paralysis and slowly walking back towards the spot on the floor where the phone landed. It wasn’t going to hurt him. Was it? Only one way to find out.

He picked it up again, feeling a burst of vertigo from bending over. His eye twitched like mad again, and he started feeling uneasy in his gut. Good God, it was getting worse. Everything was getting worse. Why was he suddenly this sick? Either that was one hell of a sandwich, or...

What the fuck was happening?

Sean managed to tap Mark’s name despite the visible tremble in his thumb. No, he wasn’t seeing things. It was definitely Mark’s blackened body - exactly what Signe described happened to Sean while he was navigating the nightmare. Mark’s mouth was gaping open as well, and his limbs were splayed out. He was definitely outside on the grass, near a building wall - most likely his house.

The unease in Sean’s stomach transitioned into all-out nausea.

Somehow, it was even more unnerving than waking up in the nightmare himself. Something about this hell happening to someone else was so much more terrifying. Perhaps it was the lack of control. The inability to communicate to Mark how to get out. The not knowing if he would be in the mindset to experiment around with the dot-ghost the same way Sean did - or the luck to land near it and find it at all. Now he fully understood Signe’s breakdown earlier.

Should he wake her up and tell her? She hadn’t come up to his office despite the obviously-unnatural screaming. This would be important for her to know, Sean felt, and yet what a rude fucking wake-up call. At the very least, he could tell Robin. He had to. He would. Right now.

Robin its happening again. But now its Mark. Got the freakiest fucking text from him. Pretty sure its not him.

Sent. Now he had to wait. Oh God, now there was nothing to distract him from his upset stomach. Don’t puke, don’t puke, don’t puke... Deep breaths. Willpower. His eye still twitched periodically. Come to think of it, he’d made Jack have nausea at least twice now in response to Anti. That and the eye twitching...

Holy fuck. Maybe it was somehow...

Buzz. Robin’s response couldn’t have come too soon. Sean opened it up.

What? Is he okay? Can you text him back?

Text him back? Really? Would that work?

I’ll try.

Sean switched over to “Mark.” Who the fuck are you???

The stomach upset was growing. He was confident puking was inevitable.

A buzz surprised him. From “Mark.”

someone who doesn’t like being mocked

Sean switched back to Robin. Hey got a response back from him surprisingly. Will send you screenshots later.

ok

“Mark” sent another one on his own. u feelin ok jack? ur not actin like urself

Sean wasn’t going to fuck around with this. Just cut to the chase. Are you Anti?

what do u think ;)

Where’s Mark?

i think u kno lol

Man, Anti was even more of a fucking asshole than Sean envisioned him. Why Mark? What did he do?

hes guilty as u r

What, the Dark vs Anti thing?

wow ur slow...

God fucking dammit. So Anti wasn’t a fan of that video. Figures. But that wasn’t seriously the reason he was-

Sean started salivating. Fuck. He shoved the phone into his pocket and bolted for the bathroom, and just so happened to encounter Signe, awake and apparently heading the same direction.

“Hold on, Signe, gonna puke.”

“Sean?”

He slammed the door shut, a little harder than he probably should have. The phone buzzed one more time as he knelt over the toilet. He pulled it out of his pocket.

just try to save him

Sean lost it.

[afunkypopsong]

How Seventeen’s Performance Unit Dances

Hoshi dances with his whole body, something that might seem obvious but really requires constant tension in almost all the muscles in one’s body. Because of this, his centre of gravity tends to be not as stable, resulting in occasional loss of balance after jumps and the like, and he leads with his shoulders when travelling across the stage or into formation. However, he has one of the best musicalities I’ve seen in kpop; every one of his gestures matches accents in the music, and his expressions and alignment correspond to each and every flow and nuance in the accompaniment, which is why he seems so at home onstage. A black belt in taekwondo, he utilises his history in martial arts to make his movements sharp and deliberate, reminiscent of the patterns/choreographies in taekwondo. He pays a lot of attention to details like gestures, and his stage presence is incredibly natural; he utilises his focus very effectively, meaning that his gaze and facings are choreographed down to the nanometer. (see what I did there) Hoshi also has a very youthful, boisterous energy about him, an energy which lends itself to the cheerful, energetic choreographies Seventeen is known for.

Jun dances more subtly than Hoshi; leading with his pelvis almost instinctively. This is characteristic of someone with confidence, or someone with an intention to put across to the audience. His stage aura is very sensual because of this, even in light-hearted performances – he knows what kind of gaze to direct at the camera, and knows when and where to find the camera. He also tends to exaggerate his facial expressions, probably at least in part because of Jessi’s advice to him in 17 Debut Project, and partially because of his background in acting. Jun’s hand and finger movements are very elegant, somewhat uncharacteristic of a martial artist, though his other movements correspond to his history of martial arts; his movements are very crisp and deliberate. He uses his core (ahem, abs) muscles a lot in his movements too – again, very typical of a martial artist, especially one trained in wushu, and his movements are very fluid. I very much want to see him dance a contemporary piece. He also has a very stable base, and seems to know his limits as a dancer very intimately; in other words, he knows his own body very well and dances as one confident with their own body and its capabilities.

The8 dances like a b-boy would dance – that is to say, with an explosively simmering energy in his muscles, and he uses his arms instinctively for balance while doing footwork. Because of this, his gestures are very natural, and have an inherently effortless, confident aura. For some reason, he also has a habit of playing with his jackets or outer clothing, and if he has a hat or cap on, he’ll fiddle with that too at least once during the performance. His build suits tumbling and b-boying; he’s very light on his feet, nimble in his footwork, and even though that’s the case, he also has a very solid base. His hand movements are very typical of someone with a background in b-boying, and he pays a lot of attention to his lower body in dances; his foot movements are very crisp and precise, very aesthetically pleasing. His dancing style is very masculine because of the way he looks so comfortable onstage, and the explosive yet subtly contained energy of his movements – the best example of this is Boom Boom era stages, and Shining Diamond stages.

Dino dances like he’s been dancing his whole life, or like he was born to dance. He moves like it comes naturally, yet with that practiced quality that only comes with hours and hours of rehearsal – he probably pulls all-nighters practicing the movements. He pays a lot of attention to expressions, something all Carats will recognise, and is able to switch expressions in a millisecond – but the most incredible thing about it is that his expressions constantly correspond minutely to the feelings of the song, which makes him look like he’s having a lot of fun when he dances. A lot of idols and dancers fall prey to the “blank-slate smoulder” – that is to say, during intense/sexy songs, they keep the same half-lidded, somewhat dazed-looking expression throughout the performance, but Dino is known for being able to smirk or grin somewhat evilly/menacingly even during such songs. Like Hoshi, he also has a youthful energy to his dancing that shows best through light-hearted, cheerful songs, and he’s a dancer who looks genuinely at home onstage. He also dances with his entire body, and is a dancer who is comfortable with his own body, which contributes to the natural quality of his movements.

[tbeofficial-blog]

LOCATION : LUCKY FOOT THEATER.

TIME : 7 PM.

        PROLOGUE EVENT : MEETING THE SUPERVISOR.

                Seven o’ clock on the dot, isn’t that what the rabbit had implied. The way he talks about the Supervisor is only one of the things that gives you the impression they’re a real stickler for the rules, whoever they are ... It’s almost surreal to imagine that there’s someone actually watching over all of this -- it has to be a person, right? All this talk of experiments and observation... There’ve been those among you who have already been speculating the kind of person who would run something like this -- whether or not it’s a government sanctioned project, whether any of you actually agreed to be here... Everything is so large scale, the idea of one person running things seems ridiculous ( but that’s what you’re all here to find out, right? ) And even if you aren’t curious, it’s not like it matters. Thinking about what that rabbit would do to you is enough to get you there. Those Sentinels walking around... they don’t exactly look friendly.

          The tension in the theater could be cut with a knife, it’s so thick. Some people stand around in groups mumbling among themselves whilst others take seats in the less than inviting theater aisles. The building may be in good conditioning, but the interior has seen better days -- the map’s description wasn’t kidding when it hinted at how sketchy this place is. There are red stains on the chairs; it looks like something closer to what would be seen in a horror movie than in real life. Still, there’s a roof over your heads and no water is leaking through... All the electric work seems to be in order, too. Although the lights are dim, there are bright stage lights illuminating the line of Sentinels standing guard on the stage. They don’t move ; it doesn’t even look like they’re operational until you notice their eyes are following the movement of those of you who get too close.

     Despite the number of people spread out between the four floors the large theater has to offer, it’s still incredibly unsettling. All your voices mixed together make the theater seem loud and lively, but even then, there’s something dismal and... off about this place. You think back to what the rabbit said, about needing to get used to being here and can’t help but wonder about it. What���s so special about this place? As you sit there waiting, occasionally checking your tablet for the current time -- it isn’t until right before the clock is about to hit 7:01 that you hear a SUDDEN, EAR-SHATTERING BANG ECHO THROUGHOUT THE THEATER ------------- one that shuts up the entirety of the crowd in one go, leaving a painful ring in everyone’s ears. It takes you a moment to register your hands covering your ears or the sudden blurriness of your vision ( SHOCKED is a kind way to describe how you feel ) -- but when you do and you manage to look up at the stage where the shot echoed from, IT’S THE FIRST TIME YOU SEE HIM, standing in the middle of the Sentinels with a smoking gun in his hand, THE BODY OF A YOUNG CHILD LAYING IN A POOL OF HIS OWN BLOOD at the foot of the stage below him with a BULLET THROUGH HIS RIGHT EYE --

               “ Ahem. Lovely. Now that I have your attention, I would like to formally welcome you

                                      TO THE BUTTERFLY EXPERIMENT.”

CURRENT EXPERIMENT DEATH COUNT ---- 01 RECENT DECEASED SUBJECT ---- ( ORION 4/BLUE @celestis ) CAUSE OF DEATH ---- Bullet to the head. MURDERER ---- The Supervisor.

               An unpleasant metallic stench fills the air almost as soon as the gun in the Supervisor’s hand is tucked back into a holster on the side of his belt. He doesn’t make eye contact with the crowd for a few seconds, calmly reaching his hands into his pockets to fish out a cigarette and lighter. The kid with the bullet in his head isn’t even done twitching by time he lights the tip, tilting his head back to exhale smoke towards the ceiling. The stage’s curtain is still closed behind him, though there’s a subtle flutter in the fabric hinting he must’ve stepped through when none of you were even paying attention ( or, at least, before the majority of you had noticed. ) You were ALL staring now, of course -- though at what is debatable. There so much spontanaity to his actions, it’s impossible to choose what to focus on first. To most of you, there’s no doubt that this is who you were waiting to meet. The way he carries himself, dignified and unfazed by his own actions, means that he’s at home here. There’s no arguing it ------ THIS IS THE SUPERVISOR, this is his experiment.

          He nor the Sentinels make any move towards the child’s body, though the man’s hand waves in its direction -- his words amplified by the microphone clipped to his suit, making every word he speaks audible to every one of you. “Zero, who did I just kill?”  ( He didn’t know ; he didn’t even care, by the sounds of it. )

     “ Ahahah aahhaaha !!” On cue, the rabbit’s face pops up on the screens on each side of the stage, his form bouncing up and down excitedly.

     “NAME -- ORION! AGE -- TWELVE!! What a way to HOP straight into it, Boss! I didn’t think you’d kill a KID! And before you were even introduced properly! Hhuehehehhueuhehehe!!”

               The Supervisor seems to fall silent for a moment before taking another drag on his cigarette, shoulders raising in a careless shrug. “Mm. Orion. Noted. Well, now.”  He finally turns his attention to the crowd, gazing upon the child in question for only a moment. He’s devoid of any concern or remorse; the way his nose wrinkles expresses only disgust at the blood spreading on the floor. Those of you around him step away, if you haven’t already, no doubt eager to put distance between you and the liquid soaking into the wood. If you look too hard, you can see the splatter of brain matter squished between his cracked skull and the ground he’s laying on...

          This time, when this man speaks, he’s addressing all of you.

     “If you had any doubt about being in danger here, let this example rectify that. This child, Orion -- he is dead. Why, you ask? So that I may prove a point. He did nothing wrong. Broke no rules. I do not believe he even interacted with any of you -- he was simply here, minding his own business. Was it unfair of me to take his life for no reason? Absolutely. But now you know there is no hesitation for taking all of yours.” A pause -- he reaches to adjust his tie and flick his cigarette to the ground, grinding it down with his heel.  “My name is ‘KUMA,’ as far as you all are concerned, and as you may as guessed, I am the Supervisor of the Butterfly Experiment. You all have already read about what the experiment entails -- you are here to kill one another in hopes of weeding out the butterflies. I will not repeat myself; it is a waste of time. Why kill the butterflies? Why you? For what purpose? That is none of your concern. You are on a need-to-know basis. You will do what we tell you or you will die. That is the reality of your situation.”

               A busy man. That’s what he’d called himself in his message to all of you, right? He certainly is acting like it... But to think someone could shoot a child in the head without any cause and then stand before you all like it hadn’t even happened... Who is this guy?

          “I am sure you all have plenty of questions. From here on, you will be able to find me in Quarantine on a daily basis between noon and five in the afternoon. If you want to ask anything, you may do so then. However, I may not answer your questions. That being said, I will shed some light now. The Butterfly Experiment will be conducted completely blind on your part. You are not allowed to know anything about it other than the roles you must play. However, I will inform you regarding the Quarantine Zone. This town is a virtual reality setting that reacts and changes itself based on the fears, insecurities, memories and secrets of the individuals who inhabit it. Make no mistake -- you are physically here, in this town, and everything here that happens to you is real. If you die here, you will not wake up. Anything here can and WILL harm you, so I suggest you play it safe and heed the warnings Zero and I give you from here on out. What you are allowed to know is that we will be observing and recording not only your reactions and behavior throughout this experiment but the way the city itself changes in order to manipulate you as it learns more about you as people. Whether or not you understand what that entails, I do not really care. You will learn.”

     He certainly has all the answers -- that much is obvious. But sharing them? He doesn’t seem to keen on that. You suppose it was too much to hope for an info dump, but what does any of this mean -- why you, why any of you -- WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? He just keeps going on, no care given for the tension, not even LOOKING at that kid anymore -- at ORION. Are they just going to leave him there?

               “Noooooooooooow, I know SOMEBUNNIES have been asking about that HARE-itating bracelet! What do ya say, Kuma Kuma ?? You gonna let ‘em in on that yet?”

          When the rabbit addresses him, the Supervisor momentarily freezes, then chuckles, slipping his glasses off in order to tuck them into his pocket. He pushes his sleeve up to reveal a bracelet similar all of yours, turning the face towards the audience. ( 0 , PINK. )

     “They are kind of uncomfortable, are they not? Do not worry for now. I will reveal the meaning of these bracelets shortly. For the time being, please try not to play with them. It would be a shame if one of you poisoned yourselves before even getting to the true experiment. For now, let us just say they are good accessories for a game we will be playing. I know Zero is impatient for the reveal, but... it will come when I address all of you for the FIRST INCENTIVE. You all did read the experiment debriefing, correct? That means this SUNDAY, when the murders start -- that is when I will REALLY tell you what is going on with these. This was just a meeting, right? You cannot expect me to hold you here forever. Introductions that drag on too long are... so very awkward.”

               He looks so smug. He knows you want answers -- he knows he’s the one who has them and he’s dangling them in front of you, mocking you. Did he really call you here just to introduce himself like this? ( No, it wasn’t as simple as saying ‘welcome.’ The shot, the random murder, all of this -- he had no intention of giving you the answers you want right here, right now. He just wanted to illustrate to you that he means business. He just wanted to rub the power he holds over you in your face -- this was never going to be a Q&A explaining anything ; he intended to MURDER one of you and that was the only reason you were called here. ) It’s such a disconnect from the way he sounds, the way he looks -- his voice is soft and gentle, like he’s addressing children he has no desire to scare  and  there’s something inherently elegant about his mannerisms, but his ATTITUDE --

          “As I said before, welcome to the Butterfly Experiment, everyone. You can find me in the Quarantine Zone starting tomorrow -- and make no mistake, if I even THINK you are up to something mischevious, you will be executed immediately, so do remember your manners and keep your hands to yourself. Let us all act like civilized individuals, yes?

     WITH ALL MY HEART, I SINCERELY LOOK FORWARD                            TO WORKING ALONGSIDE ALL OF YOU.”

               He laughs -- and the sound is so soft and airy, you’d think he was simply welcoming you to a party. With a single wave of his hand towards the body on the floor, he turns on his heels and throws the curtain aside to disappear behind it, into the darkness concealing whatever’s back there ; giving no time for questions or reactions. Two of the larger Sentinels on standby suddenly begin to move, hopping off the stage to grab the dead victim. One of their claws closes around his head whilst the other one grabs his feet -- without any hesitation, they rip his body in half and throw each part of him to different ends of the theater. His torso FLIES through the air, smacking the wall and exploding into a gorey mess on the right side whilst his waist falls midway through the air and lands in the audience, legs hooking themselves onto the railing of the second floor balcony, leaving that half of his body to dangle and dripp blood towards the floor below it.

           “ Hahahhaa.... hehehehehhe..... EHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!”

     That’s all your left with -- the horrific sight of the experiment’s first death committed by the very man who has you trapped here, the laughter of your unstable AI Overseer as he watches the Sentinels retreat back to their position with bloodied claws, and the reassurance that this is, without a shadow of a doubt, REALITY.

EVENT COMPLETED: MEETING THE SUPERVISOR.

CURRENT OBJECTIVE: ... wait for your first murder incentive?

. . . YOUR TABLETS HAVE BEEN UPDATED!

Supervisor Kuma ( @desbearer ) will be in The Quarantine Zone each day from 12PM to 5PM. You may approach him and speak with him or ask questions of him as you wish, but remember that any harm done to him is punished with IMMEDIATE death! As in, if we even think you’re gonna hurt him, you’re toast. So don’t even look at him funny. There’s a good number of you. We can meaninglessly kill you left and right without sacrificing the experiment!