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elencelebrindal · 4 years ago

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Female Cloths that have no reason to exist

You all know what I’m talking about, right? Yeah, you do. You absolutely do.

I’m talking about three specific instances of Silver Cloths that, instead of looking like armor and acting like armor, are more like... oh, you’re a girl? Let’s show that body! Let’s have nothing but a pathetic excuse of armor that should you try to fight will have you easily stabbed in the guts.

What pisses me off is not the (bad) design itself. It’s the fact that the Silver Cloths are described are armors that cover the body more than the Bronze Cloths. Yet, we have Marin, Shain and Yuzuriha wearing nothing. These Cloths should adapt to the body of the wearer, right? Well, I want you to imagine how those pathetic armors would adapt to a man’s body. It’s so painfully clear that those armors (or lack of armors) were designed without keeping practicality in mind, but just to have something revealing.

This is a really long post, so I’m hiding it under the “read more”, but I wanted to put my thoughts out there because I’m honestly tired.

We have example of functional armor. We have June (who’s still better in Awakening as far as design goes, imo), and we have Thetis.

So first of all, let’s take a look at those good ones, shall we?

This is, in my opinion, one of the best armors I’ve seen worn by a woman on this series. It’s not different from an armor you would see a man wear, just adapted to fit a woman’s body. It has everything; gauntlets, boots, cuirass, pauldrons... nothing’s missing. A perfect example of how an armor should look. Not a comparison for a Silver Cloth, because the probability of a Silver Cloth having less pieces is high, but a comparison between a good decision and a bad decision.

This is really good for a Bronze Cloth. The amount of armor, given the description of those Cloths, is perfect. She has everything, and at the same time not too much, perfect for an armor of that rank, since we know that the Bronze Cloth cover the smallest amount of the body when compared to Silver and Gold. The only thing I don’t like is that she has an impossible “catsuit” (I really don’t have any better ways to call that) under it. It would make way more sense if the upper part was more like a tank top, than whatever sorcery is going on. You ever tried to wear sleeveless anything? You know that stuff slips off continuously. Aside from that, she’s amazing.

The main reason why I wanted to present these examples to you is to clarify that I’m not complaining about how much of the body is shown. There’s plenty more male characters that literally are unable to stay dressed on this show (Shiryu, I’m talking to you, wear a goddamn shirt for once). I’m complaining about how unfair it is to have female characters being so... in a way, objectified. We have good examples, so why not using those examples for characters that should need more than what they’re given?

To make this even more clear, another armor that has no reason to exist is this:

Because honestly, a Surplice covering nothing of importance is really useful.

I’m focusing on the female characters here because, while half a Surplice is bad, is not as bad as women wearing Silver Cloths that are supposed to be a better protection than Bronze Cloths and instead they get to wear metallic underwear.

This little armor:

only makes sense for a Bronze Saint. They are supposed not to have a lot of it. And yet, this example in particular has more pieces than the classic Eagle Cloth. It does nothing, but it literally covers more than a Silver Cloth. This armor also has boots, of course.

Let’s tackle the problem, shall we?

Try to convince me that she’s not wearing just a goddamn metal bra. Come on. This is not armor. This is Marin opening her closet, finding one of her fanciest bras, and wearing it alongside those gifts that are actual armor parts.

The smallest Bronze Cloth of the classic series has a large total of pieces. Boots, gauntlets, some kind of cuirass, pauldrons, knee guards, helmet (in Saint Seiya the definition of helmet is weird, by now we know). Some of them also have those pieces that in a suit of armor could be faulds or tassets, some of them have simple belts, some have cuissess. Give or take 1 to 3 pieces, basically. The smallest proper Silver Cloth has the same pieces, only they cover much more of the body. Or at least, they should, but we have examples of Silver Cloths literally being the same as Bronze Cloths. It makes me kinda frustrated, but knowing that those armors are stronger gives me a bit of peace. The best Silver Cloth is the Lyra Cloth, obviously, since it actually matches the description accordingly.

So... we have what? 2 for the boots, 2 for the gauntlets, 1 for cuirass, 2 for the pauldrons, 2 for the knee guards, 1 for the helmet, and give or take 1-3 pieces for the “optional” ones I mentioned. It’s 10 pieces of armor.

How many pieces is the Eagle Cloth composed of? 0 boots, 1 gauntlet, 1 breastplate (in absence of other words to call that), 1 plauldron, 2 knee guards, 1 helmet. It’s 6 pieces of armor. She’s supposed to have the same, if not more, compared to a Bronze.

Not only that, have you seen what she’s wearing under it? How is that even remotely comfortable in battle? You know how many times that weird... what the hell is that? A tight high sock? would slip down during a fight? Unless she glued it in place, I highly doubt it’s a good fighting outfit. It would have been better for her to wear either a single catsuit, or even to keep the leotard but have both of the red tights (preferably leggings uh, you don’t go to battle in tights) be a full piece.

The manga armor actually has one more piece. It’s not much, but it’s something. It resembles way more how other Cloth’s are treated, when the breastplate is so small. However, it’s still missing boots. There’s literally no other Cloth, save for Ophiuchus, that doesn’t have boots. What now, they are too much for a woman to handle? June and Thetis have boots. Marin gets leg warmers and shoes she has to personally provide, apparently, because her Cloth is a discount one. I get that it has to resemble an eagle, but come on. There’s totems depicting smaller animals that have more stuff.

This artwork I found is from CamilleAddams on Deviantart:

See how easy is to give her a proper armor? It’s still missing the boots, but it’s already much better. It looks like a Silver Cloth, now. And this is only one of the many “updates” I’ve seen made by artists way more talented that I could ever aspire to be.

This is my own sketch of a proper Eagle Cloth:

Is this really so unrealistic? To have an actually good Cloth for a Silver Saint?

Now, time to take a look at Shaina.

How many pieces is this armor comprised of? 1 breastplate, 2 pauldrons, 0 boots, 1 gauntlet, 1 helmet, 2 knee guards. A total of 7 pieces, just one more that Eagle. 3 less than a basic Bronze Cloth.

The same exact discourse applies to the Ophiuchus Cloth. Copy-paste what I wrote for the Eagle Cloth and use it here. Also the hot pink leg warmers paired with yellow HEELS (which yes, are stupid), green leggings and brown leotard are a spectacular combo. Who in the fresh hell decided the colors for her, this is a disaster more than her Cloth.

At least she actually has no gaps between leotard and (hopefully) leggings.

I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but the Omega Ophiuchus Cloth is so much better than this, at least in base concept. The art is as ugly as my face in the morning, but the concept is legit.

Look at this, ridiculous but PROPER armor.

Once again, the manga has one more piece. It looks like she’s not wearing shoes, but it’s the manga, I give that a pass.

But this particular Cloth makes me unbelievably angry, and you know why? Because the Ophiuchus Gold Cloth exists. And the Ophiuchus Gold Cloth is the proof that this thing doesn’t need to be so useless, because if that can be proper armor, this could be as well. It’s a design choice, and it’s a poor one to say the least.

Look at the Gold Ophiuchus Cloth (render by LadyHeinstein on Deviantart):

Look at this, and tell me that a decent suit of armor couldn’t be conjured for the Silver Cloth as well. The Ophiuchus constellation is literally a man holding a snake. There’s no excuse for not having a human-like Cloth like, I don’t know, the Andromeda Cloth. Instead, Shaina gets a version that’s not even half a human figure, with nothing to wear but discounted armor that honestly should go straight back to the shop where it came from.

This is what makes me even angrier when it comes to this particular Cloth.

Again, this is an “updated” version of the Ophiuchus Cloth by CamilleAddams on Deviantart:

See how much better it is? How much more realistic it looks, when it comes to Saint armor? It looks like a proper Silver Cloth like this, even with no boots.

In comparison, here’s my own sketch (much lower quality, I know) of the Cloth:

It’s not that difficult! Just have them wear the same stuff their companions wear, is this so much to ask?

But now we come to the best one. Peak character design. So amazingly appropriate for battle that it’s stunning. Crane Yuzuriha from The Lost Canvas.

What. The. Absolute. Fuck.

How is that a Silver Cloth? How is that a Cloth? Come on!

Leaving aside the fact that I hate how she doesn’t wear the mask (I made a post about this whole issue, back in the day, I’ll try to link it as soon as I can), she has basically no armor on expect for her legs and arms. Whatever bullshit is going on on her chest is everything but armor. She has sandals, for gods sake. Sandals. You don’t want to be a Saint wearing sandals, this is not Ancient Romans having wars for breakfasts, this is a supernatural warrior constantly kicking the shit out of stone and trees (generally speaking). How are sandals something appropriate for a Saint? This is the same exact stuff I wrote for the skirts of the Saintias, it’s not appropriate for the setting.

But let’s leave this, and let’s tackle what she (doesn’t) wear under her armor. Yuzuriha, my dear, I know that you have abs of steel and you want to show off, but that’s an excellent way to get injured all over with no effort whatsoever. Unless you have invulnerable skin, you’d want to wear something better than booty shorts and bandages that are apparently glued on her boobs. Wear at least something like June, if you don’t want to have sleeves. This is a design flaw, not something beautiful. The concept is good on its own, but a Saint should NOT be dressed like that. They’re constanly being thrown at whatever surface is the hardest at the moment. Imagine your bare skin sliding at the speed of sound on rocks and dirt. It’s not only unpractical, is technically dangerous. And I get it, this is an anime, everyone is invulnerable unless blood is needed, but even then this is utterly ridiculous.

And now, the most ridiculous thing of them all: the breastplate. It’s literally two sheets of silver feathers apparently glued to her skin. Nothing more. It’s not armor, it just... it’s literally nothing. She’s better off not wearing it, at this point, because it’s useless.

She would just need a better breastplate/cuirass for that Cloth to be appropriate. Everything else is fine (minus the heels, but at this point why do I even try). In comparison, a male Saint wearing that Cloth would probably end up shirtless, either the Cloth adjusts itself to the body or not. Who in their right mind would go in battle shirtless????? (yeah yeah, Shiryu and Dohko, but those two have armor on when they don’t act like strippers, at least pay them good money dammit).

What infuriates me is knowing how the other Silver Cloths are like. It’s painfully obvious that Yuzuriha had to be the edgy woman with revealing clothes and armor, when you look at the REAL Silver Cloths of this series.

Those shrtless dudes also want trouble, but at least they are somewhat covered. They still need to wear a goddamn shirt, but they also have more armor. Why they can be THIS normal, but Yuzuriha has to look like she lost half her armor in a dumpster fire and tried to make to with the remnants?

I really like her as a character, and I don’t mind her wearing what she wears (dude, she’s can afford to dress like that, I wish), but the Cloth is terrible.

The women in Saint Seiya Omega were better equipped than these three poor souls. I don’t like that series at all, and I forgot at least half of it (if not more) since the last time (aka the first) I watched it, but they do have more properly designed armors. These three - Marin, Shaina, and Yuzuriha - are a perfect example of what you don’t have to do when designing armor for female characters, unless you don’t actually need the armor and it just aesthetic. June and Thetis, on the other hand, are the perfect example of what you HAVE to do when designing armor for female characters, following the circumstances and the setting.

Thank you for reading my (way too long) essay. Have a good day.

#saint seiya #i cavalieri dello zodiaco #los caballeros del zodiaco #os cavaleiros do zodiaco #knights of the zodiac #the lost canvas #silver saints #bronze saints #eagle marin #ophiuchus shaina #crane yuzuriha

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julie1706 · 4 years ago

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Julie’s incredibly aesthetic incredibly autumny list of movies that she maybe recommends (part 2)

Oh sweet joy! It turns out that there are many more great, fantastic, cosy movies (and tv-series!) just absolutely perfect for autumn. By popular demand, I return with even MORE autumny recommendations, and this time, there might even be spell-checking. (Looking at you, “Silence of the Lamps”) (I won’t edit that, because that’s just funny.)

Thank you for reading the previous one, and I hope you’ll enjoy this one too! We have some GREAT ones coming up. I hope! Maybe! But what I believe will really perfect this second list, is the fact, that autumn is close to being at its peak right now, with it being October! Woohoo!

Pumpkins, Jack’o’lanterns, spooky movies, Halloween, tricks and treats, fog, rain, candles lit in the dark, delicious tea, and scarves, because the chill is back in the air! Amazing! The aesthetics are to die for!

I’m on a small break from university, and have actually been having some allowed free time, to do autumny stuff. By this I mean I can do autumny stuff with my family and friends, and not feel guilty, because this time I’m not procrastinating. Well, I’m a little behind on some books, but it’s not that bad. You’re allowed free time on breaks! They’re supposed to be mostly free time, anyone knows that. I refuse to be a good student on breaks!

This free time means that I have actually had time to watch some of these movies and tv-shows myself, and so I can feel a little better about recommending most of them, since I’ve actually seen them. Hehe. Still. I do have other, boring stuff to do, like reading for uni, emptying the dishwasher, cooking, vacuuming, etc., so there will be some of these I’m including, I have not watched, and those will be, again, backed by the power of optimism. Yay! Anyway! You’ve read enough not-halloween recommendationing, and is getting bored - Let’s get to it! (Also, these are still in random order, and I will put warnings at the end, again <3)

Coraline

I remember watching Coraline when it came out in theaters, years ago. I also remember that we had a little closet-thing in the wall, small and closed-up, but still very similar to the one she goes into, in the movie. Needless to say, this was not a favorite for little Julie, who was absolutely scared shit-less by this movie. I remember button-eyes, decaying puppets, and a very scary mom. Now, I have not watched the full movie since, but from bits and pieces through the years, I can wholeheartedly recommend this one. It’s stop-motion, the details are incredible, and wow, this movie is great. If you, like me, are no longer 9 years old, watch it! It’s wonderful, and surprisingly, very feel-good in the family aspect. A great movie!

Official synopsis:

An adventurous 11-year-old girl finds another world that is a strangely idealized version of her frustrating home, but it has sinister secrets.

//Warning: do not watch this, if you are around nine years old. It will absolutely traumatize you about small closets in old houses. If you are not nine years old, I think you’re good! Just the right amount of spookyness, I believe!

Sense and Sensibility

I watched this with a good friend in february, I think. So I’m not sure why I think this has to go on an autumny list, but I stand by it! Maybe it’s the beige and brown, beautiful clothing, the many shots of nature, and the relationships between these characters, that fits very well with the cold and chilling air, we find ourselves in, here in lovely October. I don’t know. Food for thought. But this is a great movie, and I really think you should try watching it under a blanket, with tea and a good friend. We didn’t know the story before we saw it, and it had us guessing! And there is a part my other friend Sif told me, always makes her dad cry, and I think that should be taken as a compliment to this movie! It’s great! Love, sisters, crisis and period drama (and great clothes), this movie has it all! (also - Emma Thompson!)

Official synopsis:

Rich Mr. Dashwood dies, leaving his second wife and her three daughters poor by the rules of inheritance. The two eldest daughters are the title opposites.

//Warning: It might make you cry. But I promise, it will be a good experience, in the end. It’s not scary, though.

Over the Garden Wall (animated series)

Well, this one, I’ve been dreading to add to my list. Now, you must not misunderstand, it’s not because I don’t like it. It’s because this series is so great, so weird, so beautifully drawn and made, that I’m afraid I could write a whole blog post dedicated only to Otgw, and still not feel that I have done it justice. It's just so good. It’s like the someone just decided one day, to make a series, that absolutely, perfectly encompasses autumn and halloween, and then did just that. The storyline is good, the art is good, the soundtrack is good. God, the soundtrack. I’ve also made sure to listen to this show’s soundtrack, since we left summer behind, and it’s just so good. There’s a reason tumblr went wild, when this show was first released. But since this is an AUTUMNY list, let me focus on those aspects. Big dark woods, scary noises in the dark, red and golden leaves, fantastical beings - this show has it all, and trust me, it WILL get you in the mood for autumn. I almost started puking leaves and pumpkins when I watched this with my friends, that’s how pumped it got me. This show has a special place in my heart, and if you promise not to tell all the other movies and shows on the list, I’ll admit something: this might be a favorite of mine. Maybe THE autumny favorite.

Official synopsis:

Two brothers find themselves lost in a mysterious land and try to find their way home.

Warning: May be a little spooky, but I have it on good authority from a friend that is a true scaredy-cat, with nerves of whipped cream, that’s it’s fine. She could handle it, watches it every year, and she’s fine. Good levels of scary.

Corpse Bride

Believe it or not, that same scaredy-cat of a friend, I just mentioned, actually instructed a musical, based on this story. Is she a horror-fan or not? I have no idea, but her show was so well-done, that it actually made me like this movie a bit better. I have seen it before, but she convinced me, by telling me the original story behind this movie, that it’s pretty great. And by association, this movie became pretty great, too. It’s been some years since I saw this, but it’s a pretty good halloween movie, I think. Dead people tormenting the living. Classic autumn stuff, I would say. And it’s pretty well-made, I think, stop-motion again! I like the aesthetic of a corpse bride, though you have to admit the actual thing is pretty sad. The premise is haunting and scary, but it’s more morose, melancholic and depressing, I think. Poor Emily. But a good movie! Sorry, maybe that wasn’t a very enticing description, but I promise, it will do you more good than bad, to watch it. And then go google the original story, the movie is based on!

Official synopsis:

When a shy groom practices his wedding vows in the inadvertent presence of a deceased young woman, she rises from the grave assuming he has married her.

//Oops, nearly forgot a warning! Warning: some people are dead, and therefore rotting a bit. If you’re squeamish, don’t watch. If you love sad love stories, definitely watch!

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Yeah, I’m not sure why this has to go on my Autumny List either, sorry. It just has to. I know it takes place over an entire year, but in my head, it jut fits very well with the whole magic, supernatural, foggy halloween times we find ourselves in. I mean, look at the cover! Maybe it’s the iconic scene, right before the troll is discovered in the girls’ bathroom (sorry, spoiler), with the floating jack’o’lanterns, and tables almost crashing undet the weight of candy and cakes, that convinced my brain, that this is a halloween movie. I don’t know. Just trust me on this, and watch the first Harry Potter movie. It’s pretty good.

Official synopsis:

An orphaned boy enrolls in a school of wizardry, where he learns the truth about himself, his family and the terrible evil that haunts the magical world.

//Warning: Nah, you’re good ;-)

Little Women (Important: 2019 edition)

Alright girls, we’re hopping genres again! This is another period-drama (sort of), about sisters, and wow, I cried to this. I bawled, I sobbed, I choked on snot, and was a little inconsolable, when I watched it with friends, at the cinema. One of the best experiences this year, and one of the greatest movies I have watched in a long time. I love everything about this movie: the family-bonds, the clothing, the many nature-shots, the developments of characters, (almost) all the characters, and just, wow. No good way to end that sentence, because I want to just keep describing all the good parts of this movie, because it's everything. It’s amazing, and yes, i’m exaggerating, but I can’t help it. I forgot to eat my popcorn or drink my water, when we watched this, that’s how mesmerized I was by this movie. I love Jo, I think I can empathize a lot with her, and if I could talk to her, if she was real, I would thank her for telling her story. This movie is great, you should watch it, because it makes you feel so warm inside.

Official synopsis:

Jo March reflects back and forth on her life, telling the beloved story of the March sisters - four young women, each determined to live life on her own terms.

//Warning: Might make you break down crying. But in a good way. Very cathartic, actually.

Alien

I watched this for the first time last year, when I decided I was going to watch the classic older horror movies, and not freak the fuck out. I mostly succeed. And this movie was a joy to watch. That’s maybe weird to say about an alien horror movie, but wow I just love Sigourney Weaver, and the aesthetics of this movie. The story is thrilling, and I really did not like most of the characters, I thought they were hysteric and annoying, but I still rooted for them. It’s a different kind of horror movie, that’s for sure! But when I watched it, I totally understood why it has become such a classic.

Official synopsis:

After a space merchant vessel receives an unknown transmission as a distress call, one of the crew is attacked by a mysterious life form and they soon realize that its life cycle has merely begun.

//Warning: Uh, yeah, Sif, this is not one for you. It’s gross and scary. Malin, I think you’ll like this one! Go ahead! Maybe we should see it together?

Edward Scissorhands

Haven’t seen this one! I want to, though. I think I’ve seen one scene, where this man accidentally pokes a water-bed, and younger me felt that was a very tragic thing, on more levels. Johnny Depp yet again, so it has to be good, right? I know this poor guy, Edward, has it rough, and was given some really not that practical hands. Man, he looks sad, huh? So maybe more sad than scary, yet again. Dont know! But I really do want to watch it. Winona Ryder is in this, too, so really, it’s a no-brainer!

Official synopsis:

An artificial man, who was incompletely constructed and has scissors for hands, leads a solitary life. Then one day, a suburban lady meets him and introduces him to her world.

//Warning: I don’t know? Maybe not that spooky? I think it’s more sad, to be honest.

Pride + Prejudice + Zombies

I mean, why the hell not - right? I love Jane Austen. I love Pride and Prejudice. And I really like halloween, so OF COURSE, I’m including this one. I’ve seen it, too. My friend Malin and I watched it a couple of years ago, and yeah, it’s good. It’s not high cinema, no, but I don’t need that. It was a fun, weird twist, and sometimes, that’s all you need. There is a very interesting scene with a corset, that was NOT in the book, and I think it really added something to this story. And Lily James. Whew. Great movie. Great for autumn. I will be watching this one again.

Official synopsis:

Five sisters in 19th century England must cope with the pressures to marry while protecting themselves from a growing population of zombies.

//Warning: I can’t really remember, but I think there’s some pretty gross scenes with zombies. Rotting flesh is NOT pretty. But just close your eyes for that, and you’ll be good!

The Haunting of Hill House

I first watched this series when i came out some time ago. I never finished it, I don’t think my heart was in it, but by no fault of the show. Now, that the same creator has made another show, which my mom and I are hooked by, and almost through, I think I’ll be returning to this one - it deserves another chance! A great old house, ghosts, family secrets and INCREDIBLE aesthetics, mean there must be something here! Also, I think it’s based on a novel by Shirley Jackson, and it’s supposed to a classic horror novel, and Stephen King tweeted that he liked it, so yeah, it’s promising! The series I’m watching with my mom is spooky, but tumblr says the Haunting of Hill House is supposed to be much more spooky, terrifying, even, and I really want to find out if that’s true!

Official synopsis:

Flashing between past and present, a fractured family confronts haunting memories of their old home and the terrifying events that drove them from it.

//Warning: Very Scary! Faint of heart - Beware! Just enjoy this beautiful gif of Nell dancing by herself, and move on <3

Psycho

Another old classic! Woo! Have not watched, but really, I feel like that’s almost a crime by now. I HAVE to watch it. Soon, I’m planning to. Sadly, It’s old, and I grew up with the internet, so I’ve been spoiled oh so dreadfully, and knows all the bloody details and plottwists of this oldie but goldie. But I still want to watch it! It must be a classic for a reason - right? Also, I’ve never seen the full version of the famous shower scene, and that’s just embarrassing. Shame on me.

Official synopsis:

A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run, and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.

//Warning: It’s a horror classic! It’s gotta be scary. Then again, it DID come out in 1960. Be careful about this one! Sorry, I have no idea, have never watched it.

Hannibal (the TV series)

It’s gross, it’s scary, it’s aesthetic, there is a danish elegant man eating people in snowy Baltimore, and you really shouldn’t pay him to be your psychiatrist. Hannibal! I first watched this as a young, edgy teenager, and all the blood and gore didn't get to me at all - I just enjoyed the cat-and-mouse game between Will Graham, our main character, very mentally unstable, and a dog-lover, and Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a renowned psychiatrist, elegant, high-society - and also, he talks like a mixture of the bible and an old greek sonet. What I'm trying to get at is that this show is weird. Good weird. But also, now no longer an edgy teenager myself, it’s really gross. A man’s leg is cut off and served to himself. That’s gross. I didn’t like that, and I definitely covered my eyes. Other than that, it’s a very vivid show, with great focus on presentation and symbolism. I would love for someone to analyse each episode, because there's so much attention to detail. It’s honestly impressive. And after having watched many, many shows about crime and murders, I must say, this show has THE most buckwild, creative, never seen before ways of killing people. How the hell do you come up with a murderer using people’s different skin colors to make a mural? I don’t know. It’s disgusting, but man is it different. I’m halfway through season two, and there is a lot to unpack! Also, have to mention, very homoerotic - that’s a plus. Don’t think I could’ve stomached all the blood, otherwise. I hate blood, and wow is there blood in this show.

Official synopsis:

Explores the early relationship between renowned psychiatrist, Hannibal Lecter, and his patient, a young FBI criminal profiler, who is haunted by his ability to empathize with serial killers.

//Warning: Yeah. You read how many times I wrote ‘gross’. Just trust me on this one, it’s gross. It’s good, but maybe don’t watch it. You don’t need to introduce your brain to this.

The Haunting of Bly Manor

Ooh boy. Ooooh boy. This series is very good. VERY good. I’m watching it with my mom right now, I think we’re at episode 7, and wow are we hooked. It’s spooky, it’s haunting, it’s thrilling, it’s mysterious, and wow is it scary. We both agreed to go together, the first night we watched this, and our dog had to be taken out on his night-walk. She didn’t want to go alone, and i didn’t want to stay back at the house, alone. So we went together, and I was so freaked out that I nearly peed my pants, when some kids screamed in our neighborhood. It’s so very much what I want a ghost-story to be, but it’s also a lot more, and much greater for it. I love all the characters, they’re all so well-rounded, and most of them are good. The big manor is spooky, and the woods surrounding it are foggy and dark, and yes, this is really a great series for autumn and halloween. It’s the second series made by Mike Flanagan. There are some similarities between the two shows, and surprisingly, some of the same actors! I think that’s very interesting, and it also made me very confused, as I watched the first episodes of the Haunting of Bly Manor, and could not, for the life of me, figure out where the hell I had seen these people before. It made it even more eerie in a way, and I appreciate that. I love this show, and I think I’ll be very sad when we’re through with it. I guess the natural thing to do, will be to follow up with Flanagan’s previous horror series, The Haunting of Hill House! Also, there’s lesbians in this one. Very nice. I appreciate that. Also, surprisingly - I love the children! They’re so cool and brave, and it would be very nice if especially Flora could go with me, the next time I’m going to a haunted house. Such a badass.

Official synopsis:

After an au pair’s tragic death, Henry hires a young American nanny to care for his orphaned niece and nephew who reside at Bly Manor with the chef Owen, groundskeeper Jamie and housekeeper, Mrs. Grose.

Warning: It’s spooky. It’s the perfect halloween series, so of course it’s very spooky! This gif I chose is spooky, and I promise the show itself is worse. But if you can handle dead people creepily staring in the background, and maybe has someone to watch it with, I think you’ll be fine!

Alright! We made it! Another spooky, aesthetic, autumny list, for us to enjoy this crispy season! Woohoo! Also, I’m sorry if there’s any spelling mistakes or whatelse, I hope you enjoyed reading anyway! Thank you! Now go drink some tea and relax, you’ve earned it. I recently tried chili-tea, and damn, that’s another recommendation from me! It was amazing!

Hope you have a great Halloween, it’s close now. Watch out for the cold weather, remember to bundle up, and don’t let the impending darkness get you down. Light some candles! And also, watch some of these spooky tv-series and movies with your family and friends! And have a great fall! <3

Love, Julie

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thedreadvampy · 4 years ago

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look it's very simple most main cast tma characters (except possibly Basira and Sasha and MAYBE Tim) are reacting to not just supernatural trauma but clear, explicit childhood trauma and I think that's important to take into consideration.

Jon evidently came from a difficult place in the first place, and he was taught that he was an unwanted annoyance who'd derailed his grandma's life, that his intelligence was unpleasant, arrogant and inconvenient, and that the worst thing he could do was get in a grown-up's way. Of course he's bad at talking to people about his feelings. Of course he apologises for seemingly random things and tries to hide big problems and power through on his own. He had a really lonely childhood where he felt like an inconvenience, and now in adulthood it's deeply difficult to believe that anybody will help him and not hold it against him. Of course he comes across staid and aloof - he doesn't believe that anyone will like him if he isn't Doing Everything Right. It's so easy in that situation to worry so much about not being a burden that you freeze your friends out even as they can see you spiralling and you end up hurting them when in fact they'd be more than willing to offer help and get you out. It's why addiction is such an easy hole to fall in, because it feels like a way you can be self-sufficient and deal with your feelings without being a burden. Jon ISN'T a very closed off person naturally, he wants to reach out and be close to people, but he's been taught over and over (as many autistic children are) that he's too much, that he takes up too much space, that it's unfair for him to expect people to go out of their way to help him, so he boxes it away and shoves it down and turns to cigarettes, paranoia and denial in an attempt to manage the problem by himself. He's trying so hard to not be the Weird Kid, he's trying to play the part of what he thinks an archivist and a boss should be and blah his way through; he knows believing in weird shit opens the door to all sorts of stuff so he sticks his fingers in his ears and goes LALALA. he's deeply avoidant which ironically is why he often ends up diving in recklessly - it feels safe to only put yourself at risk (you who think you don't particularly matter, are unloved, and are an annoyance anyway) rather than wait and let others get involved and either judge you or get hurt. He didn't tell ANYONE that his encounter with Daisy had hurt him for SEVERAL YEARS because he didn't want to upset anyone. This speaks to me so much of a kid who growing up was always treated as underfoot, in the way, abnormal and with emotions and problems that weren't nearly as significant as the Important Grownup Things. I don't think anyone knew how to help 5 year old Jon with navigating his parents' deaths, and his grandmother's grief at losing her child probably made it very hard for them to connect whether or not she actually resented him the way he thinks she did. He was treated with bitterness and coldness his whole childhood, and he's never been given space to be angry about that because she was doing her best and dealing with a difficult situation, but it certainly left him with an expectation that trying to turn to anyone for emotional help and support will get you in trouble AND is unfair on them. Being with Martin, and indeed all his friendships and relationships, is hard to navigate when you've been taught for so long that exposing your vulnerability will get you yelled at or will upset people. You try to harden up and develop an exoskeleton but you're so chronically soft and in need of help and love so it spills out messy and you don't know how to take the walls down or build better ones up.

Martin's obvious, because his parental abuse is at the centre of his arc and is explicitly spelled out by Elias. He's so sure it's something he's done that's made his dad leave and his mum despise him, and he's hoping against desperate hope that if he can be Good Enough, little enough of a problem, helpful and invaluable, he can make up for whatever chronic flaw in his personality makes him unlovable. Of course he ISN'T unlovable, and none of his parent's treatment of him is his fault, but it's much safer to believe it's your fault and you can change it than it is to believe people who are meant to love you can just not hold up their end of the bargain for reasons totally outside your control. Much like with Jon, Martin has been taught to believe that he's a Problem - where Jon puts up walls and tries to be aggressively separate, Martin tries as hard as he can to prove himself Useful and Valuable while walling off an excess of humanity. Honestly though Martin's coping with it better than Jon throughout the series because he knows what it is and he's TRYING to push past the impulse to Not Be A Bother and actually let people love him. But he's still seeing the world through the lens of someone who's spent his whole life believing that the only way he'll deserve love is to become invaluable, to be useful, to be caring, to be needed, to be all give and no take, and that's not sustainable. And how much must it knock him back from trusting enough to ask for help when his boss (leave aside the love interest bit) talks about him like he's a buffoon and a waste of space however hard he's trying to be helpful and valuable, just like his mum has for years? Finding out that you matter enough to that person for him to risk his life to save you, and to really truly see you, goes a long way towards showing you that you're not always right to assume that people are lying when they say nice things about you and honest when they say cruel things about you - sometimes you are genuinely loved by people who ALSO see you as flawed. and while obviously after that the circumstances are very different I think we've seen Martin become more comfortable with his own tendency to acidity and sarcasm, anger and messy feelings, around not just Jon but in general (although also I can't talk about this without as usual observing how weird it is that people read Martin as sweet, servile and wimpy when he's consistently tough, sarcastic and brave AS WELL AS deeply lacking in confidence, afraid of conflict, emotionally giving, and terminally people-pleasing. He's right when he repeatedly says people underestimate him and don't see him - it's weird that the fandom is a big culprit of that)

Speaking of characters whose trauma responses are often overlooked, Melanie doesn't talk much about her pre-statement life but she's clear that it hasn't been good, and that other than her dad she's had nobody in the world she can trust. I am positive that her childhood was marked by parental abuse/neglect to at least a certain degree, because she was willing to kill her mum/let her die without much compunction (I THINK that's the implication of Elias' line about her mum's life insurance paying for her dad's care). To me (projecting), Melanie's fear of losing control of her own anger speaks to somebody who grew up in a volatile and probably physically violent home, and I suspect her mother was struggling to cope and lashing out at Melanie and her dad. (I also think that while it's unlikely to be made explicit because Jonny generally shies away from talking it writing about sexual abuse, that it's very probable that Melanie experienced adolescent sex abuse from some source and wasn't protected or supported. That's pure conjecture though based on how she acts.) I think she's definitely had issues with everyone in her family except her dad when it comes to her sexuality and that she's been largely estranged for a long time, and I think those are the kinds of things which, coupled with abuse and sidelining in adulthood, leave you with a lot of rage and nowhere to put it, and with a huge amount of difficulty trusting people. Undeniably, Melanie has been on the sharp end of other people's violent anger often enough to be really, really wary of ever giving her own anger free rein, or losing control of herself.

We don't know much about Daisy's childhood beyond what happened with Calvin (Pretty Damn Traumatic), but I think what I find interesting about Daisy is that she's definitely someone who, like many girls, struggled with that point in childhood where you're supposed to Stop Liking Boy (Fun) Things and Become A Girl. I think it's safe to say that Daisy was fairly subject to bullying and alienation in primary school, and I think people often overlook how badly that affects you your whole life. But also to be severely injured and traumatised, to tell people what happened, and to not be believed? That leaves marks. Marks that teach you that you can't trust that justice will be served, and you have to take the law into your own hands. I think there's also a lot of the Gendered Traumas happening around Daisy - she clearly has a conflicted relationship with femininity - but that's another post.

#tma meta #csa mention #abuse mention #jon sims #martin blackwood #melanie king #daisy tonner

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ask-gotham-city · 5 years ago

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Do you have any favorite conspiracy theories surrounding the bats?

G: Since I’m not as passionate about the Bats in the same way W is, I mostly stick to their history in and impact on Gotham more than the theories and more fandom-y side of the community. However, I do strongly believe at least a few of them aren’t fully human. My front runners for that theory are Black Bat II, Batman, Red Hood, and Orphan. There’s just something funky going on w/ those guys. Anyways I’ll turn it over to W now for whatever she has in mind.

W: Oh boy anon :-)

Here’s a whole post we’ve made about Batman theories, and now it’s time to get into some others.

1. There have been/are multiple Batmen

Think about it. Being Batman is a tiring and complicated job, he gets beat up a ton, much more than most people could probably take. Not to mention descriptions of his personality, voice, abilities, etc. vary wildly from person to person. Makes you think. Is it multiple people alternating wearing the suit over months or years? Is it really just one crazy powerful or supernatural guy? No one fuckin knows bro!

2. The Red Hood is some kind of ghost or zombie

There are soooo many reports of strange encounters with Red Hood. People describe everything from feeling like they’re being watched to getting a strange cold sensation when they catch sight of him. I’ve had that experience once, when I saw him while walking home. By all accounts he carries this weird air of oddness with him, something unsettling and supernatural. He still acts pretty human in fights and when he talks to civilians according to most reports, but no one can remember what his voice sounds like. At all. We love a spooky bitch guys, but damn that bro creepy.

3. They’re all vampires

I mean. A classic. From the Bat theme to reports of members reportedly being supernatural or withstanding lethal wounds to Bat sightings in the day being extremely rare, there’s really a lot you can speculate on. Also there are a few pictures floating around the internet from like... idk some time a few years ago that actually look like a vampire Batman, but it might just be photoshop.

4. New developments and theories in the hero relationship world

Over the past couple of weeks there have been reports of some new or changed hero relationships. I guess the capes are jumping on the Wayne trend of breakups! The only stuff I’ve really been able to find so far is that Spoiler/RR couple sightings have declined recently, and that a few weeks ago when there was that company explosion over in San Fran there were also some shaky videos that have lead people to believe RR might be with Superboy, Impulse, or both now. We aren’t really sure! But I hope all parties involved are happy with where they are. There have also been more scattered sightings indicating a possible new relationship for Mr. Batman himself, but the parties involved can’t be identified in the video.

5. Secret Batfamily leader/puppet master?

This is a favorite of mine. It stems off the fact that when the Bats are caught talking a lot in battle, it never seems to be to each other. People have picked out a few names that don’t match up with the vigilante’s aliases, including A, O (thought to be Orphan by some though people talked about this mystery person before that name change, making that unlikely), and finally Oracle (who many people have tied to the aforementioned ‘O’). Is there someone behind the scenes organizing the Bats? A leader who isn’t Batman? The theories on who this is range from the second Robin and first Batgirl all the way to Bruce Wayne. I love this theory, and though I don’t have a stake in this mystery person’s identity I do think they exist. I don’t see too many people talking about this one though which is insane! There might be another Bat right under our noses guys!!

6. Spoiler=resurrected from dead or relative of previous Spoiler

I’ve talked abt this one before but I was too lazy to find the post. Basically, there’s a swirl of theories around the blonde haired vigilante(s) that have been seen in Gotham. Some theorists think they’re all the same person, from the first Spoiler to that female Robin to the blonde Batgirl to the current Spoiler, but some people think there’s more to it. It’s pretty well known that something bad happened to the female Robin. There was all that gang shit and violence and then there are civilian reports of seeing Batman at a free clinic in the Narrows, etc. etc. Personally, I agree with the people that think she died, which is pretty widely accepted as fact. From there though things get muddy. Some people think that girl was resurrected somehow (it happens man who knows) and went on to be Batgirl and Spoiler, others think she didn’t die but you end up the same way. People who think she wasn’t resurrected point to the similarities in hair and build of the following heroes as a possible genetic connection, citing sisters, twins, even parents or children depending on the age people slot the original Spoiler at. Personally I kind of like the sister theory, but imagining the original Spoiler is still kicking is a happier concept. I’m not really sure on this one but it’s a deep rabbit hole for sure.

7. The Signal is a meta

This ones almost not a theory, just based on the amount of overheard conversations and firsthand accounts. People aren’t quite sure what his powers are, but I’ve found stuff on shadow manipulation, possible precog stuff (though might just be Bat training), and other mixed abilities. This is one of my favorites just because I already thought Signal was cool, but when the news of him being a possible meta started spreading I know a lot of meta kids in Gotham found a new role model! You don’t have to be a supervillain if you have powers in Gotham, you can be a hero too!

Anyways I have more but those are a couple off the top of my head and this is long enough. Let me know your guys’ thoughts on any of these, or if you have any theories yourself. I’d love to talk to some other Batfans!

-W

#the dynamic duwu #gotham city #batfam #batfamily #red hood #jason todd #spoiler #stephanie brown #batgirl #robin #timkonbart #barbara gordon #oracle #duke thomas #the signal #dc #dc comics

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bansheeoftheforest · 4 years ago

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1) What expression do you think is the hardest to draw

2) If your tgs ocs could be any mythical/supernatural creature what would they be

3) Random headcanon of yours?

4) One random headcanon of mine (that I'm pretty sure is common) is that due to Hyde, if Jekyll were to go into a state of adrenaline he could absolutely lift like something well beyond what a human should be capable of. Just an absolute huge boost of strength

5) Do you think j&h bones are super stong or super weak? One one hand your 'bones grow back stonger' but on the other. They're breaking them everywhere everyday. I feel thatd make em rather weak

Can I just start off by saying that I like that I can always count on you to ask me something when I make 'ask me' posts? You're wonderful x3

1) All of them. I can draw 1 and 1.5 expressions, either being sheer indifference/mild annoyance or a grin. Nothing more, nothing less. I'm not very good at drawing and I try to get better at expressions but... Expressions are so hard. I have no idea how you do expressions so good honestly, but I would say the hardest is like... Very exaggerated faces? Sad, mad, happy... Especially sad, they look so weird when I draw them sdfsd

2) OooooooOoOohhh.. Collin would be a centaur for certain, or basically any other humanoid/animal creature since I made him an animal lover and a horse breeder (although that might be up for change, I'm thinking of revamping the chars sooner or later)

Hmm... I have mentioned (in between the lines of 1 post. that was) that Abigail would, at some point, maybe become a banshee, mostly because the heartbreak of losing her son, being in love with a man she can't have plus the fact that Douglas is more or less borderline abusive (and considering the fact that Douglas might or might not have had a hand in her death, I'm still debating that point), and banshees are seen as a good creature too, warning people of their or a loved one's death. Either a banshee or a forest nymph, perhaps? Maybe a selkie?

Lastly, Douglas... Werewolf, maybe? A werebear, perhaps? Some kind of bear/wolf monster at the very least, something generally aggressive and capable of great destruction/murder if left unattended. Douglas a... Shitty dude, to say the least. He does not like people and he could not give less of a shit if he hurt people around him, and while werewolves generally are remorseful for the pain they cause and the fate they lead, he... Would not care. Have I mentioned he is a very bad dude?

3) Random Hc of mine... Hmmm... The hc I can think of right now is either A, Henry can no longer feel pain after the HJX potions and his body regrows and regenerates quite quickly, basically like a lizard, so he could chop his hand off and be perfectly fine, just needing to... Well, use some potions to regrow it. Mostly because I like the idea of Brokenshire and the Scotland yard, or sponsors, interrupting an tired Henry who just wants to get his work done but they refuse to leave him alone, so he carries on with his experiments and just... Chops his hand off without flinching, much to the horror of whoever is watching him, or B, that literally everyone (except, of course, for the older peeps like Cantilupe, Maijabi and Sir. Danvers/Lanyon) has had a crush on Henry at some point. All the Lodgers his age? Half the Scotland yard? He is a sought after man, as shown during An Army Of Nightmares, and to be fair, I'm sure he would have been able to make some question their sexuality... More than once.

4) Oooh, I have actually not seen a lot of that hc! I knew it existed but I wasn't sure if it was common or... Half canon at this point because everyone just has accepted it already. I think it makes sense and is a really good one! Anyone, under a specific set of adrenaline, can get crazy strong in life threatening situations, but perhaps Jekyll's strength or necessary amount of adrenaline got altered with the help of the HJ7? this is a very interesting hc!

5) Man... On one hand, I love the angst, and I love to have like... Frail, sick, weak characters because --as a writer-- they are fun to toy with, which is also why I hc/made Collin have some kind of longlasting illness that makes it hard for him to have a normal work, but also makes him need to wear that scarf most of the time. However, as per my previous hc, I do feel like they would be stronger-- Perhaps not because they get broken every night but instead because the HJ7 physically alters their body to make way for the two different life forms. I like (and have basically accepted it as canon) the hc you got/made that, if Henry lost a finger, it would grow back on Hyde and Henry would have it when he turned back again (the teeth post, I believe? I'm not sure if that was the specific conclusion you came to but I digress), so, I do believe it's a bit up for interpretation and the context? It would make a good baseline for an sickfic story, but also a comedy fic because Henry just... Cannot get wounded... At all. Unsatisfactory answer? Most likely but sdfsdjfhs

#thank you for the ask! I spent way too long on this sdfsdfs #ask #darling-dolly-darlene

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mj-spooks · 5 years ago

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based on that fix-it post. The Leverage Crew as the crossover fandom they would fix

Okay sooooo I actually read a LOT of those crossover fics so I’m going to be doing this one based on my favorite fics for each character

Thus

Eliot - Supernatural. I’ve read quite a few fics where he’s crossed paths with the Winchesters in the past and more or less adopted a “I ain’t seen nothin’“ attitude towards anything vaguely Weird, until Leverage gets hired for a case and it turns out that there’s Weirdness afoot, and he either calls them or realizes they’re already involved from another angle. He’s also a popular slashship with Dean, and one of the few that I think actually works? Although it definitely falls under the, “You think the “opposites attract” trope is highly overrated” umbrella, lol. I think that he works as a good foil for the boys because he’s naturally inclined to be more skeptical. The way the crew interacts would also set a good example for them to work out their shit.

Parker - Doctor Who. Parker as a Companion is hysterical, alright. I especially love reading fics where she’s got more of a Clara “gets picked up when the Doctor gets bored/lonely” backstory than a “lives on the TARDIS fulltime” one. Plus, if any of the members of the crew were secretly friends with a nigh-immortal alien and didn’t think to tell anyone, it’d be Parker. Cue the Doctor coming to pick her up and landing in the middle of Leverage headquarters. They’re all baffled. Something horrible has happened and Parker gives everyone puppydog eyes until they agree to help. Obviously because it’s what they’re good at, whatever Parker and crew do also ends up with the side benefit of saving someone the Doctor would’ve otherwise lost.

Hardison - DC Comics. Specifically, I love Hardison getting into a hack-war OR being mysteriously contacted by Oracle. The sheer amount of fanboying that would happen, okay. Also, bonus points if the reason for the hack-war or contact is because Leverage got hired to investigate something related to Wayne Enterprises, only to realize that the client is trying to set WE and Bruce Wayne up for a fall. Bonus bonus points if it turns out that the client is the Riddler or some other Batman baddie (not the Joker), and that the person the crew spoke to is an actor or a goon. I’d go wit the tried and true “literally just the villain in a not-at-all-convincing-disguise” trope, but let’s face it, the crew would see right through that. Also, I still maintain Eliot is the one to realize Bruce is Batman. Leverage crew manages to set something up that helps make a proper dent in the ridiculousness that is the Gotham crime scene.

Sophie - White Collar. Honestly White Collar/Leverage crossovers are a dime a dozen. But I like the idea of Sophie and Neal being old frenemies since they’re interested in the same sorts of loot and just go at it from wildly different angles. Plus, she has a lot of insight when she puts her mind to it, and I think she’s the one who’s most likely to be able to win Peter over. Eliot’s too harsh, Nate’s too cynical, Parker’s too weird, Hardison’s too nerdy. Sophie, on the other hand, would be able to win Elizabeth over, and that plus her history with Neal and Mozzie would make Peter begrudgingly trust her. From there, I think she could do a lot to set the whole crew on the right path.

Nate - NCIS. idk, I just like the idea of Nate and Gibbs as a dynamic duo. Obviously this starts because there’s a murder, and NCIS is investigating. Leverage gets hired by someone related to the victim because they don’t trust the military, because they have a history and/or reason to believe that the military is somehow responsible for the murder. There’s a lot of near-misses where Gibbs starts getting a little too close to the investigation. Eventually though, they get caught. Not by Gibbs, not at first. I’m thinking Tony, who is more likely to let something slide if he thinks it’ll help. By the time Gibbs realizes what’s going on, they’ve proven themselves to be The Good Guys, and Gibbs has to relent and let them do their thing (he obviously still knocks Tony upside the head, though). Nate, having been more or less in Gibbs’ shoes, the good person inside a corrupt system, will be a massive help in the general fuckery of a conspiracy that goes on with all these damn crime dramas. In this case, they both help each other get out of their own heads. Nate also learns a healthier coping mechanism than drowning in alcohol. Also, Hardison + Parker + Abby = amazing.

#leverage anon #fix-it crossovers #eliot spencer #parker leverage #alec hardison #sophie devereaux #nathan ford

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raguna-blade · 4 years ago

Text

So carrying on the shared symbol thing with persona games, here’s a fun one that probably needs more time in the oven but hey, can come back later with later revelations

So, here’s one that technically shows up in the first game but doesn’t really become a thing until (I am assuming, i still need to actually play the first few and finish most of them but whatever) Persona 3

Evokers! Also known as guns. Specifically hand guns, but I think that’s the least important detail when one of the big symbols of your game is shooting yourself in the head to summon mythic figures.

So Evokers. In game, and as per the wiki, they are supposed to function by more or less...making you face mortality and the fact that you’re going to die for real.

By simulating shooting yourself in the face. It’s a good thing that the Kirijo group already got their mad science comeuppance because man, that’s kinda...

But hey, the logic and rules at play here do seem to be consistent across the games. To Summon a persona requires, apparently, a huge amount of stress and or trauma to activate properly, and the Evokers are a fast way to do that that isn’t, comparatively anyway, super duper traumatic. It’s free artificial trauma for everyone that is comparatively less permanent.

Which...Well I don’t believe that for a second considering SEES is one big trauma center. I don’t think there is a single person in that group who is trauma free really. Nobody is free of it, even the dog.

I mean maybe the protag, but they come off as super depressed to me.

But for the moment let’s accept that as true. If i’m wrong i’m wrong, but I think i’m right and i want to get to the juicy stuff.

So given evokers function by applying trauma directly to the soul to summon yon persona, I think it’s obvious then what guns are SUPPOSED to represent right?

Trauma. But not just any kind of trauma no. Remember, Evokers are supposed to basically be going Hey Trauma But For A REASON. To Summon a Persona. A persona which is used to protect yourself from something (Shadows technically, but A persona is a mask used to face life’s struggles as the games are so fond of reminding us.)

So, Guns are Trauma Turned Towards Protecting Yourself from...something. My understanding of psych stuff is you know, layman, but basically it’s an active self defense mechanism. Or at least turning that pain on outside hurty things.

So if this holds true as a consistent and shared symbol going forward, we should expect that everyone who uses a gun is both

A: Traumatized in some manner.

2: Actively Defending themselves possibly by literally using that trauma against things.

Which i’m sure is totally a healthy thing to be doing. Has to be. Can’t not be right?

I can see no possible way in which using your trauma like a club against the world can possibly backfire on you.

SO!

Who uses guns in the series going forward.

In Persona 4, We have two for sure, maybe a third. That is Naoto, Adachi, and Maybe Dojima (I assume he HAS a gun, but I don’t think he’s ever shown using it. I’m going to assume for the moment this is true as fits the analysis, cause it fits well enough, but if he actually pulls it out ehh)

Persona 5 has uh...literally all of the phantom thieves. Technically not morganna, but if you think a slingshot isn’t basically a fire arm, well sure technically but also you can absolutely kill someone with a slingshot don’t get it twisted. But yeah, all of the phantom thieves and ESPECIALLY Akechi, since he uses a real one. Well, sans Futaba, but we’ll get there.

And do these individuals demonstrate being both traumatized AND using that as some kind of defense mechanism...?

yeh.

So start with P4. Now compare the other persona users in 3-5, the group in 4 is actually really well adjusted. Like yeah, you have some elements of stress and being an outcast and elements of weird harrowing stuff happening to them sure. I mean if nothing else they’re in the middle of a murder mystery with a serial killer in town, that’s stressful for anyone, let alone the weird supernatural shit on top of it, and then there’s the more mundane stressors.

But...Uh...Largely, they’re handling it pretty well actually. Protag was pretty alright moving to town and seems to get along with people well. Yosuke had the dislike of being in town but he had friends, he wasn’t really hated or anything. Chie is pretty alright, Yukiko is stressed but not exactly freaking out, Kanji has some shame going on however you want to frame that i’m told it reads different for japanese audiences though it’s not mutually exclusive, Teddie DID in fact have an existential crisis but that’s not really the same thing i think, Rise is hella stressed, and then there’s naoto who uh.

Kid’s got some problems. They’re also the only one who uses a gun So Hey First stop.

So depending on how you want to read it, Naoto is either dealing with some trans issues or just aggressive and unending misogyny given their profession. Personally while i can see the naoto is trans reading, the game doesn’t explicitly come out with that as the issue, while it DOES with the misogyny so I’m going with that. If you do think it’s more that than what i’m going with, you can easily sub it in I think since from what i’ve heard on the subject suggests it very much CAN be traumatizing dealing with that in society....And also because it’d still feed back into the misogyny thing so it comes back to that anyway.

Regardless. This is a thorny enough issue really, so i’ll strive to not fuck up but please forgive me if I do cause it’s not intentional.

What do we see with Naoto? They’re a genuinely skilled, talented and experienced detective, and at a really young age. Their skills are undeniable really, and they’ve got acclaim and real accomplishments under their belt.

They are also, apparently, belittled constantly because they’re read as female and that is apparently far far more important than their skill. Because of that they’re belittled, talked down to and dismissed purely because of that.

And Naoto is fucking tired of it. So much so that they do everything in their power to present as male and believe they should straight up just...cut out whatever lady aspects are there and just go full dude.

Which here you get two really radically(?) different readings depending on if you fall on the Naoto is Trans and so fucking tired of the misogyny vs Naoto Is fucking Tired of the misogyny and so damn desperate.

In case A, Naoto genuinely believes they’re a dude, and genuinely believes duding it up will solve their problem....But they’re rejecting that part of themselves actively, and refusing to acknowledge it at all. That’s a problem for him, if only because actively rejecting a part of yourself is by no means a healthy thing, especially when it keeps getting brought up constantly in your line of work (I can only imagine how much this would suck to be dismissed because people think you’re a girl when you’re a guy but also you’re denying that you’re a guy and recognize that even if you were outwardly a guy they would STILL dismiss you as a girl even though you’re not. Just typing that out is...yech.)

In Case B, you have a still tired of the dismissal, but also they think they radically need to change their body and gender just to get anywhere in the world which is egregiously fucked up because you know. She’s good at her job! Why should she HAVE to be a dude to get anything done? It’s fucked up.

But they’re a gunman! So...i mean i guess it’s obvious what the trauma at play here is, it’s gender related regardless of how you slice it and how is it used...? Naoto disguises (or “disguises”) themselves as a guy, actively using the thing that they’re being traumatized by to fight back against the world in some way.

I mean as thorny as the issue is in the reading it, the outcome is at least simple enough under the shared symbols thing.

Ok, but what about Adachi...? Welllllllllllllllllll

Adachi is definitely traumatized I think but it's not in the kind of way that's sharp and specific. I'm cribbing a bit off of [https://youtu.be/8qG8Mqe_1v8] with their description of how Adachi reacts to the Scoobies calling him out.

To summarize and or paraphrase, it's not that there's a specific thing that broke Adachi down. It's that he's trapped in a job he hates, or at least without the possibility of improvement. He's shoved in a backwater town when he's a city boy. He feels ignored, he doesn't like the people around him very much, he's got basically no money, he has no significant other, he has to just keep going and existing day in and day out and it's...

God it's so fucking soul killing.

It's not like his childhood was better apparently, in that it basically was a prelude to adult hood but also unlike then, he didn't have the supposed promise of do well in school and get cool shit that was summarily broken.

So what's a guy who's made to feel worthless, made to feel like a nobody, made to feel utterly disenfranchised, and has actual evidence to support some of this (keep in mind the reason he got reassigned did involve him screwing up somehow, though I don't think it's explained what or how) going to react when given the ability to act out with no consequences, or seemingly?

Well, I imagine that you would see them do some fucked up shit really. We've seen people in real life do things just as bad if not worse, and the exact way he wields his trauma is well...sadly understandable to anyone.

Though another interesting shared thing, which I neglected earlier and MAY share into the Gun Imagery is a sense of isolation. Which...Actually. Actually may track. Evokers are used by well...ritualistically killing yourself, which is for all the harm it throws out to everyone connected to you, is also a very solitary act. And in both cases here, the characters are in a very real way killing their true selves in order to deal with the world (In adachis case by presenting a fake version of himself and in Naoto's case by actively rejecting a part of themselves however you want to spin that one)

This does raise a question of the SEES gang having elements of isolation which off hand I want to say yes that's the case across the board, and only by coming together do they win but I also legitimately cannot recall how it plays out beyond the minimal We're The Only Ones Capable of Dealing With This thing which isn't quite the same thing. The ritualized killing yourself still stands so that's still in play really, and i'll keep an eye on it going forward.

I should probably ALSO keep an eye on the uh...Suicide aspects. Even looking back at Naoto and Adachi they have elements of it, although more figurative than literal. Both very much have a life is over thing related to their careers and where they end up when first introduced, so it's not an unreasonable call though the strict actual read of suicide suicide is...Hmmm...

Well I suppose Adachi's chunk of the world is accessed through the noose room if I recall, so that might not be quite as empty a connection, while Naoto's secret lab thing may not be quite as on the nose it does focus on a destruction of self in some way given the way a lot of those secret labs go about doing things in those shows.

That is, there's generally one of two outcomes. Either the Evil Org creates a mindless/corrupted pawn to use whatever their powers/abilities are for the organization (see every monster of the week) OR they create a hero/renegade warrior that uses those very same powers they were imbued with against them....Which suddenly makes me wonder if the the ambiguity of if Naoto's transness vs woman in male spaces thing is intentional in regards to how to read that section. If so that's actually clever as hell because then either way you want to read it the literal what's going on with their shadow (body modification either to become their true self and the rejection of that or to be able to actually be respected for their work and the implied destruction of self that's going on there) it reads as this is bad so...Kudos.

Anyway, off topic, maybe another day.

All this said, this leads to Dojima who SHOULD have a gun and probably does, but...never uses it that I can recall, not once. Doesn't even show up with a gun if memory serves.

It's not that he's not traumatized. He most definitely does have some shit kicking around what with the dead wife, disconnect from his daughter and all that, but he never really...weaponizes it does he? He never turns it on others, never uses it to isolate, none of that. Which is interesting because as a Cop I think we can safely say he SHOULD have a gun of some flavor right? That does seem to be the vibe, and yet he doesn't freak out. The reason why is heartfully straightforward though.

Nanako. He can't exactly revel in his hurt and lash out at folks with it. Like yes, he's not winning parent of the year at the start of the game by a long shot, but frankly emotionally distant and neglectful after your wife died but still trying (failing but trying, critically, the trying) is not the worst spot to be in, no way. And he takes to reorienting things quite well once he get's the additional stability in his life Yu and (at least in part) Adachi.

Which, really, is what also ended up saving the SEES members. Not Yu, but the fact that they managed to form genuine connections with each other that let them get past the hurt and not be taken up and swallowed by it. It's why Adachi ended up going the way he did because he really DIDN'T forge those connections, and because of the whole everything he couldn't really get out of that loop and fix himself up.

I mean Izanami's game basically threw two whole ass people into the deep end of their problems but this ain't about her right now.

So ok, that's the group from 4 and right now this is feeling pretty consistent.

So let's get to the group that has literally every party member carrying with The Phantom Thieves.

So...again, to bring it back, Guns symbolically here are weaponized trauma right? They're using that to strike back against what's threatening you, often by using it against them.

Now, there are variances with the phantom thieves for sure, and the most relevant and DIRECT one is that all of them, every last one, is an outcast of some flavor from the social norms, and this has screwed with them something fierce. Now it's not as apparent or visible in all cases, but I'll get into specifics as we go down the list, but I want to say this at the top because it fundamentally comes down to Because Of this outcast status, this particular form of trauma, they became the Phantom Thieves, and in doing so struck back against the society that hurt them, with the intent to inspire those like them.

Well not Akechi, but his specific issues at least nominally align I guess.

Anyway. I won't go into as much detail here, but I feel it's worth pointing out that their Phantom Thieves Personas are probably the cleanest way to point out how they go about weaponizing their various more personalized traumas to protect themselves and fight back.

Joker: Accused of a crime he didn't commit, sent to a city away from his family and friends, said to be a violent felon...Like it's not exactly brought up in the game in part because he's a silent protag but Joker absolutely had his life ruined. Like full stop, his world fell apart over night, not because he did something wrong but because he tried to do the right thing. And then Kamoshida happened which basically took boyo from being merely fucked over to losing what little he had left (where what he had left was a friend of a friend of his folks taking him in and shoving him in a drafty attic)

And then from said trauma he created the well...Joker Persona. Someone who emphatically is a criminal, the kind of guy who is actually pretty ominous when you consider the knife,gun and dark outfit combo making him look like some kind of assassin. That he helps people is probably a small miracle really.

But by the same token, it's blatantly clear the persona that he pretends at school is not his true self either. He has to hide himself, make himself look small and innocent and as unthreatening as humanly possible. He's not, by any means but...

Morgana: Imagine you wake up one day and you remember maybe your name, a few random bits of information, and nothing else except that you were (probably) a human and now decidedly are not. That's...Rough man. It's just rough to deal with and it's awful, and then you just keep getting hit with that fact over and over and over again. Mona's pretty straightforward, but it tracks that they would make themselves out to be the cool collected sort that they do (even though they botch it nigh constantly). If you can't remember anything about yourself, make yourself out to be the coolest smartest most talented type right?

Ryuji: He literally had an authority figure not only mock his family situation, he straight up broke his leg, killed his dream of running track, ostracized him from his friends and peers, put more pressure on his mom. He was reduced to a thug and his response to that was, apparently, let me be a (diet) delinquent then. It's not like he did anything bad really but he certainly stopped giving any kind of a shit to the world. His attitude got turned up for sure. This got more emphasized with the Actual Skull persona as a phantom thief, where he's far more intimidating, outright hostile and violent (A bat and a shotgun? yee)

Ann: I mean there's the obvious sexual assault, her friend attempting suicide, etc, but i've seen it pointed out that a good chunk of Ann's problems are also based in the fact that she's white in japan, so basically she straight up has to deal with racism too. It's why she's considered the sexy one for example (girls like her are easy you understand) so it's...well. How the game handles (or doesn't) that aside, the persona she ends up developing first off a very blithe sort of vibe to how the world views her (seen in her confidant arc) before ultimately gravitating to having more active control over her image and consciously choosing how the world will view her instead of them making the choice themselves.

Yusuke: Abusive parents (which is damn near a theme with the phantom thieves. Families being broken or Abusive which is hm) who actively stole his work, and he knew about it. It very clearly messes with his art and his relationship to this thing that he loves, and even after knowing how his adoptive dad was abusing him and other students and making a mockery of art...To which he actively throws himself into Art EVEN HARDER than before, as a dedicated fuck you on the subject. Actually straightforward, which is perhaps weird for Yusuke, but hey they can't all require deeper reading.

Makoto: Makoto's deal is a bit more complicated but boils down to She's tired of having all these expectations pushed onto her and dictating the exact kind of person she should be. Always the good girl, always kind and elegant, soft spoken, I mean she knows aikido and is supposed to be good with it. Which is why she turns that around is basically Lord Humongous, albeit less jacked dude in bondage gear and more Badass Violence Biker. Just let it all out and take no shit from anyone ever. Again straightforward enough.

Futaba: Now...Here's a weird one to say because it's...She doesn't have a gun. I mean we could probably make a fair enough statement, if an absolutely buckwild one, that she does not at this point have a trauma. Or at least, not one that is weaponized. Because well...Her issues were very self focused. She thought her mom killed herself because of her, and that almost made her (futaba) kill herself. That's not a great place to be, but it's not like she ever takes her dead mom issues out on the world. She doesn't even really take her extreme social issues out on the world. If anything she pretty much...Has them and kind of deals with them quietly.

I suppose you could say that her weapon of choice is the computer. It's no gun, obviously, but unlike everyone else up til this point she also doesn't really...hide herself. There's no fake persona (in the not summoned beings of myth and story) that she presents to the world. She's decisively genuine about everything, and pretty much the only difference between her and her Oracle persona is neat goggles yeah? Which makes her an interesting pair with Maruki who we'll get to later as another gun not haver.

Haru: Kind of a complicated one, though also kinda straightforward. She's ostracized from her father and finds the abuse that he's laying down on the people who work for them abhorent, which is bad enough, that kind of realization that your life is built on the suffering of others. There's also the uh...It's not strictly this because arranged marriages are very much business affairs more than romance, but the way it's portrayed definitely reads as her dad selling her which is you know. Not...ideal, though her specific reservations there seemed less the arranged marriage (it's business she get's it) but more the dude was an creep and also again the abuse. The family motto being betray anyone to get ahead (paraphrased to hell and back) also suggests some not so great things really, though her bond with her dad did seem to be genuinely strong, which is why her reaction is tada heroine of justice.

Which, I just realized this and I gotta point it out, actually lines up MARVELOUSLY with Morgana and Zorro. Wealthy Individual who see's the crimes and evil deeds of the world and decides to mask up and fight the crime they cannot contest with their unmasked face, warring against the system that enriched them at presumable cost to themselves because it's the right thing to do? Beautiful. Probably should look into that more. But yeah.

Sumire: I mean...I mean she basically straight up says I think I was second best to my sister in everyway and then I got her killed and her reaction to that was Let Me Be My Sister and well...yeah that's exactly how she dealt with her trauma, albeit with a little bit of magic help. And Perhaps most notably, this is almost the most explicit demonstration of Evoker Gun Antics because She Creates a Persona (“Kasumi”) To Protect Herself (alldattrauma.exe) by using that trauma (dead sister) against the world (Literally everyone else) it's...Actually a really clean example I think?

Akechi: Last but not least of the gun havers, Akechi who uh...Outcast because of family reasons (single mom, Dad's a creep) in a way that just...We don't actually ever get the details I don't think, but the way he reacts to it I think makes it clear that his whole life was basically a string of kick this kid while he's down, keep him outside the system, and of course the persona he ends up creating, both of them, end up being one the charming charismatic prince who seeks justice and a bloodthirsty lunatic, neither of which accurately reflect his true self I don't think. Aspects of it sure, but not completely. If pressed, I would say that the Akechi we see in the Third Semester is probably the closest even though he's probably a dream Akechi, being someone who does have a distinct judgement for what is right and wrong but also, critically, can and will shoot you in the face cackling as his plans come together. Rather like Joker actually, which is appropriate given their mirrored trickster roles, and the general shape of their outcomes (both get their smuggery on when things go to plan)

Anyway, the way he reacts to being forced to live an outcast is as mentioned, let me get back into that system, let me be part of it and all that.

And last but not least

Maruki: Now...He doesn't have a gun. It doesn't quite match up with the symbol thing which I think at this point is established enough that it's probably some kind of thing, but what I find interesting is that...he fits MOST of the criteria right? Definitely has a trauma that shaped how he reacted to the world and yet, it's not weaponized right? It doesn't well...evoke a different persona from him. It's not weaponized to protect him and that seems odd right? He ends up with a Palace right?

Sure. But I want to go back to what i'm proposing the Evokers Represent.

Trauma, A Destruction of the Self (Suicide literal or figurative), Isolation, and weaponizing your trauma to protect against the world...And he only actually tracks to the Trauma part of that. He IS hurt for sure, no question. He is fighting back against the world in his own way for sure, what with Azathoth and his mind whammy, and I would say that the nature of it is directing how he's doing things (no more pain for anyone yeah sure)

But where it falls apart, and actually DOES line up with the guns as metaphor for those things mentioned, is that he doesn't really Isolate. He doesn't present a fake self to protect himself. He doesn't destroy an aspect of himself to protect himself. No, he's extremely upfront that “No this is bullshit, it should change, fuck this noise, I'll do what I can with what I can and oh hey godlike power now I can help everyone”

Which cool, except that apparently in the Stay in Maruki's world ending he kinda fades into the background, which suggests the self destruction but no, not even then really. Like I know I made a bit of meta about him obscuring himself and kinda fading away as a person, but I don't think it's strictly meant to be get rid of yourself so much focus on the message and not the messenger. You can throw your mask away. No more pretending. You don't have to hurt anymore. As the song goes.

And it's worth pointing out that, in comparison to literally everyone else on this list, Maruki is unambiguously a healthier person mentally by a long shot. Shady antics with Sumire aside, He genuinely wants to help people, he want's them to be better the right way ideally but if he had the means to do it of course he'd just hot delete those deeply traumatic and life shattering pains that they couldn't overcome. Then he does get that ability. And Then he does do that.

Anyway, the ramblings on long enough, and I kinda feel i'm drifting, but yeah. Think this is another symbol that tracks (I probably wanna check out Persona Q and Q2, but what I know on those does have it break down a bit but they're also not mainline games so I'm not sure how to square that so....)

#Persona 3 #Persona 4 #Persona 5 #Spoilers #Evokers #Shared Symbols

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artsystranger · 5 years ago

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Karma’s Playlist Chapter 1

Karma’s Playlist. Chapter 1. Introduction to the Snow.

Content: Beetlejuice/OC, language, inappropriate beetle behavior, he’s a creep what do you expect, oh my god they were roommates Word Count: 7040 Summary: Karmilla has always been able to see ghosts; something that becomes immediately more troublesome than ever when she makes eye contact with the sandworm-dodging demon-ghost. Author’s Note: I have an actual playlist for Karma. I will be using songs in there as titles for chapters. Sometimes the songs will be very telling on what’s going to be happening in the chapter.

The rain had started in the middle of her shift, something she should’ve expected given how cloudy it had been lately. It was just a light rain, though, so she felt her jacket would suffice for the short amount of time she would be out in it. The sound of the continuous pitter-patter of drops soothed her, letting her mind settle easier into the mindless monotony of her job.

Soon enough, her shift was over and she was able to leave. As she tugged on her jacket, she brainstormed on how fast she was going to have to walk to the bus stop while staying as dry as possible. There were a few trees she could take cover in, but they, of course, only did so much good. With a heavy sigh, wishing she wore a thicker jacket, she pushed through the store’s door and began her trek.

It wasn’t that far of a walk to her bus stop, thankfully. Just around two blocks. With her quick pace and there being so few people out on the streets thanks to the rain, she was able to get to the bus stop cover with her jacket being minimally soaked through. With a sigh of relief, she took a seat at one end of the bench, which had remained dry thanks to the metal cover surrounding it. An older woman sat at the other end, giving Karmilla a smile and a nod.

As she relaxed in her seat, bringing out her phone to pass the time, the rain began to pick up, desaturating the area with it’s dreary greys. It would’ve been much more enjoyable if she didn’t have one last walk to suffer through after the bus ride. Still, the sound was nice and helped her space out and let time pass.

“FUCK!” The shout came from across the street, followed by cackling laughter.

Looking up, Karmilla saw a man standing under a cloth covering that now has a large hole in it, presumably because it wasn’t able to handle the sudden downpour. He was soaked head to toe, staring in disbelief as he continued to stand under the hole. To the left of the man was where the cackling was coming from; a vividly green-haired individual in strikingly odd clothing, pointing and laughing at the victim of misfortune. While his style could by eccentricism, his floating mid-air as he laughed could not.

Karmilla couldn’t stop herself from staring at him, exasperation overtaking her mind. It had been a long while since she had seen a ghost out and about, but never one quite as relaxed or unconcerned as this one. Either he didn’t know about the weird, ghost-eating worms that evaded her supernatural perception or he had a way of avoiding them.

As a whole, ghosts were not a new development for her. She had always been able to see them ever since she was little, even if she didn’t know why. They were few and far between but even the occasional sighting and telling her mom of such had landed her being sent to many doctors to try and see what was going on in her head. Still, the sightings of ghosts didn’t seem to be enough for doctors to diagnose her with any hallucinatory disorders. Something she was very happy to escape.

When she came back to reality, the drenched man had wandered away down the street, leaving the ghost’s laughter dying out slowly before it stopped very suddenly, his interest in that small accident being lost. His dingy shoes rested on the ground as he started looking around, as if trying to decide something. His scanning gaze stopped very quickly when he noticed the woman staring at him.

Karmilla diverted her gaze quickly down to her phone, acting as though she was very much engrossed with whatever was on it. She flicked through her screens, looking through different social media to try and distract herself from the green-haired stranger, hoping that he would think she was just looking past him and go on his merry way. She had a feeling this wasn’t the case when she felt a lingering chill begin to hover in front of her. She looked slowly up from her phone to the upside-down, pale face that she had seen across the street. With the sudden closeness, she could very clearly see patchy stubble, which was mostly green, very much matching his darker-rooted to vibrant green hair. With it just being stubble, it seemed that his cheeks were also stained green for whatever reason.

As a smile started to brighten his face, she looked back down on her phone from his dark, trying one last time to ignore him.

“You can see me!”

There was a pause for response, but she just continued looking at her phone, pretending she saw nothing. She’s found that talking to ghosts in public brings nothing but weird stares and trouble. This one was not easily thrown off, however.

“Hey, don’t ignore me!” he shouted, rotating back right-ways up before bending down and almost shoving his face into her’s. She flinched back just a bit, but pulled her phone closer through his cold face, trying harder to ignore him. “Our eyes met! Our souls bonded! Well, maybe not my soul, but- LOOK AT ME!”

Karmilla heaved a sigh, letting her hands and phone fall into her lap before giving in and looking at him. He looked particularly pleased with himself when her eyes met his own again.

“You got some pretty greens there, babes.” He kept his face uncomfortably close to hers, smiling almost lecherously at her.

She leaned as far back into the bench as she could, trying to create some space as she looked off to the side. His cold presence moved from her front to her side, taking a seat on the bench very close to her. From the chill behind her, she could easily assume that he had stretched his arm out to rest behind her. This guy really had no concept of personal space.

“You’re not just gonna sit there and ignore me, are you, babes?” He was facing her, legs spread with an arm still resting behind her back.

Looking down at her phone again, she clicked on the closest thing with a text box and typed out, “Not gonna talk to a ghost in public.”

He leaned over her shoulder watching her type, silently mouth the words as she typed them. The ghost was quiet for a moment, staring deadpan at her phone and then back at her face. “You’re a millennial, aren’t you? Don’t you all carry fuckin’ headphones or something? Just pretend you’re calling someone. You know how to do that, right?”

She couldn’t help but roll her eyes at him.

“Hey, it’s true and you know it! Don’t roll your beautiful eyes at me and act like it isn’t!” He snapped his fingers in front of her face a few times before pointing to himself. “Hey, hey, hey, look at me.”

She didn’t look full over at him, but gave him a sidelong look.

“Talk to me, or I’ll start begging. Ask anyone who knows me, I am very good at being annoying.” The expression he had on his face made her believe that he was 100% serious.

Suppressing an annoyed sigh and seeing as she wasn’t going to be able to get rid of him any time soon, she shifted her legs out so she could reach into her pocket and grab her ear buds. As she plugged them into her phone and connected them to her ears, she could feel the green-haired ghost smiling very contentedly at her.

“You’re pretty easy, huh?”

Her eye twitched as she tried to keep herself from outwardly grimacing. Once she had herself situated in as relaxed a way as she could get, she finally spoke, her tone very deadpan. “Hello?”

“You got a very sexy voice, lady. Such a nice one to come back to, just for little ol’ me.” He relaxed back into the bench, stretching his legs forward. Were he corporeal, he would’ve surely been leaning his head against her tensed shoulder. “Oh, babes, it’s been so long since someone has talked to me and not through me. There’s lots of interesting, juicy conversations out there but, holy fuck, sometimes a dead guy just needs a little back and forth.”

“Sure, but did you need something?” Karmilla did her best to keep her gaze either forward or down at her phone, not wanting to draw anymore attention to her.

There was a short pause between them as the ghost shifted in his seat again, turning himself toward her, the grin reappearing on his lips. “What? A creepy, old demon can’t just strike up a conversation with a sexy lady?”

God fucking dammit. “Oooh, a demon? Then definitely no.” She wasn’t exactly sure if he was serious about the whole demon thing, but there was a lot she still didn’t know about what exactly resides in the Netherworld.

Sneaking a small peak over at him, she noticed a few small changes. His dark eyes had taken up a golden spark while his hair seemed to have dimmed. She could’ve sworn she saw some strands of red coming to the surface. He held a hand against his chest, mocking a shock of pain. He was still grinning, but it looked sharper now. She couldn’t really explain it, but the change in his demeanor was overall more threatening than before.

“Well, shit. Your words cut me so deep.” His voice seemed a bit more rough now too. It’d probably be an attractive thing were she not in public and felt her anxiety begin to well up. Something about her own expression must have pleased him, as the new colors began to fade away and he relaxed again. “You know, your reaction to everything so far is very chill. I usually prefer to get at least one good scream, but-- for you-- I’d gladly skip to-”

“Bus is here,” she interrupted him. During his brief spiel, she heard the familiar engine of the approaching bus. She waited for it to get halfway down the street before standing from her seat, remaining in cover from the rain.

“Oh? And where is that fine ass of yours headed?” His choice of words made her think he was almost certainly staring at her aforementioned ass.

“Home,” she said simply. “I’ll talk to you more when I get there.”

“A lady usually has to buy me dinner before I let her take me home, but for you, babes, I’ll wave it.”

As the bus pulled up, she felt the older lady who had been sitting at the other end of the bench step up next to her. When the doors to the bus opened up, Karmilla gestured her arm forward and let her get onboard first. The older woman thanked her with a nod and a warm smile before moving as quickly as she could to the steps of the bus.

“I woulda tripped her.”

His voice suddenly in her ear made her jump. She had not noticed the cold almost fully encompassing her back, like he was almost pressed up against her. She took a deep, calming breath before stepping into the rain and into the warmer shelter of the bus. Of course, it didn’t stay warm, as she felt the ghost-demon following after her. It was a bit irritating but easy enough to deal with, she guessed. When she found and settled into a seat, she pulled the buds from her ears and phone, wrapping the wire around her hand before shoving it back into her pocket. Even if there wasn’t any jostling from him sitting down, she could feel the cold and see his striped form plopping down next to her.

As she brought out her phone again to help pass the time, she could see him lean over a bit to look and see what she was doing. She had a considerable number of games on her phone, most of which she had forgotten were there but kept because she might go back and play them. To keep herself busy, she pulled up a tapping rhythm and key game. It had music to go along with it but didn’t want to bring any attention her way, so she kept it muted. Scrolling through the long list of songs, she picked one of the faster ones and started tapping away at it.

The ghost stared down at Karmilla’s phone, squinting his eyes as he watched her thumbs tap quickly away on her phone. “Jesus fucking Christ. How much time do you gotta have on your hands to keep up with that shit?”

With a little finesse, she stuck out her middle finger at him while still keeping up with the tiles as they sped down the screen.

She heard his gasp of mock offense, almost certain that he put his hand on his chest in a similar way to last time. “Well, that’s just downright rude. What a way to treat a new friend.”

His words were enough to make her pause, slipping up enough to miss a note in the game. With that song essentially over, she looked up from her phone and to the side at him. He was still leaning very close to her to watch whatever she did on her phone, but as soon as that stopped he turned his attention to her puzzled face.

“What’s up, doll? I got something on my face?” Just as he said a few bugs crawled out from his hair and ran across his face.

Unsure of what to do, she just stared wide-eyed at him before slowly turning her gaze back down to her phone. Better play a few more songs to wipe that from my memory.

“Ah, come on, that was funny! I coulda done something a lot worse. Like this!” From her periphery, she could see his hand go up to the top of his face and peel it down. Even from what little detail she could make out, she was able to tell there was nothing more to the horror than the grotesque musculature of his face.

Doing her best to communicate in a mute fashion, she made a so-so gesture with her hand, trying to say that it wasn’t so bad. Or, at least, not necessarily worse than the sudden appearance of bugs crawling over his skin.

“You’re not even looking at me,” he said, in mock offense. “You never look at me during.”

Her lips flattened out into a straight line, trying to stop the small laugh that she felt coming to the surface. Karmilla didn’t like admitting it, but his sense of humor was right up her alley. Usually, strangers had a harder time getting her to laugh. Maybe her guard was down because he was a ghost and couldn’t really do much to her, aside from visual-auditory hallucinations and gags.

She looked over to him again, after she successfully held down her laugh. The skin of his face was hanging off of his chin, revealing the muscles and tendons that made up his face. It wasn’t scary or shocking to her, just a little unsettling and surreal as she had never been able to get such a close look at facial muscles as she was now.

“Wow, really?” He had no trouble speaking apparently, even with a lack of lips. “You are a really tough cookie, aren’t ya?” After he finished his words, he slapped the slab of skin back onto his face, pushing and pulling it around to fit back where it was supposed to. “Well. I’m gonna go fuck with someone else now. BRB.”

The green demon pushed himself up from his seat and started striding down the aisle, looking for someone to properly torment with his limited power. At most, he's able to put people on edge and make them more irritable. Essentially, just being an annoying presence. Looking back down to her phone, she started again on another song, putting a majority of attention on it as she waited for the bus to reach her stop. She would occasionally hear the angry grumbling and cursing of another passenger as the demon-ghost messed with him.

Time passed relatively quickly on the bus, reaching her stop just as another round of her game came to a close. As soon as the bus came to a halt, she got up from her seat and made her way back down the aisle to get off.

“Aw, are we leavin’ already? I was this close on getting this guy to break,” the specter called after her as she walked on by, not responding to him. He hummed for a second in thought before fucking with his victim one last time before following after his friend.

It was raining harder now, the cold droplets sinking easily into the fabric of her thin jacket. Keeping her electronics as close to her center as she could, she started her fast trek through the rain. She lived only a few blocks away from the stop, so-- if the crosswalk lights were kind to her-- she wouldn't have to be in the rain for too long. If they weren’t working in her favor and there was no one hurtling down the road, she would book it across the street. Anything to get out of the beating, cold rain.

Minutes later, she was finally able to take cover under the overhang of her small apartment building. It wasn’t the fanciest place, but it also wasn’t the dingiest. The only thing that could be construed as concerning was the ivy growing up the front. Pulling her keys from her pocket, she unlocked the door and pushed her way in, getting a loud buzzing noise as it closed and locked behind her. The inside was similar to it’s exterior, nothing really standing out in the lobby aside from a few dreary paintings and a small grid of mailboxes on the wall. Dredging past it, she started ascending the steps to her apartment. It was days like these that made her wish she had gotten one that was closer to the ground instead of being at the top of the stairway. Given the small size of the building, there wasn’t any room for an elevator to be put in, making it virtually inaccessible to those with physical disabilities.

As the ghost followed her, floating up the steps rather than walking them, he would occasionally divert from the path to sneak a peek inside the other apartments. This one definitely had no sense of personal space so it wasn’t really surprising to her that he would be ignoring her neighbors right to privacy.

Finally reaching the last residential floor of the building, she walked up to her door and started unlocking it. By the time she got it open, the demon-ghost was by her side again, passing through the doorway before her.

“Oh, yeah, just go right ahead. That’s fine,” Karmilla mumbled, finally feeling like she was allowed to speak now that she was home. She followed in after him, closing and locking the door behind them. When she turned back around, she saw him still standing in the short entrance hall leading into the rest of her apartment.

“You know, I did not peg you as a dog person,” he said, still not moving forward.

Even though she knew she could pass through him, she opted for skirting around him instead, not wanting to deal with the uncomfortable chill and feeling that happened whenever you passed through a ghost. At the end of the hall sat her dog. Her tail had stopped slapping against the floorboards as soon as her new ghostly tag-along showed up.

“That’s Bingo. She’s not a fan of supernatural stuff,” Karmilla said as she walked by the alert Malinois, who continued to stare at the ghost. “Bingo, rechts.”

Without any hesitation, the hound stood and did an about-face, walking along her person’s right side as Karmilla walked to her bedroom. Karmilla had a feeling that because of how anti-boundary the ghost was, that he would try to follow her in there to watch her. She wasn’t sure how long he was going to be sticking around, but even if it’s only for a few minutes, she felt she had to set some sort of boundary for him to follow.

As soon as she threw off her jacket and got to her dresser, she saw his green hair pushing through the wall before his head popped out.

She gave him a stern look, something easily mustered by her. “Listen, ah- I don’t even know your name, but if you’re going to be in my home you’re going to have to give me some space. Now, shoo.”

“No show then?” He made a face as if he was contemplating something, looking from her face, down to her chest, then back up again. “Alright. Fine. Because you’re my friend. And friends do friends favors.”

She wasn’t sure she liked where that thought process would end up, nor was she sure where he got the whole idea that they were friends, but at least he slipped his head back through the wall, allowing her to change in peace. Bingo laid down next to her, watching the door as Karmilla stripped out of her wet clothes.

“What is your name, by the way?” she called out.

“I can’t tell ya.”

She paused for a moment before continuing, changing out her normal bra for a sports one and replacing her shirt with a loose band tee. “What do you mean? Can’t or won’t?”

“A big ol’ no can do, babes.” His voice sounded further away that time. She guessed he was looking around. This was only a 1-bedroom apartment, so there wasn’t really going to be anything else to see. “You know how it goes; fuck with higher-ups, get cursed, lose your fun powers, and can’t give your own name to a lovely lady without jumping through hoops.”

During his explanation, she had replaced her wet jeans with grey sweats, snatching the earbuds from jeans before tossing all her wet clothes into a laundry basket in the corner of her room. As she walked out of her room with Bingo following on her right, she pulled her hair from the bun it was before shaking it out. Sitting at the end of her couch that was farthest away from her TV, she could see the ghost sticking his head through the door that went into her bathroom.

“Sounds rough,” she responded, propping her bare feet up on the coffee table as she watched him.

When he heard her voice coming from somewhere different, he brought his head back out from the bathroom and spotted her on the couch. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared and reappeared right next to her on the couch, lay back with his head at the other end, one leg fully up on the couch’s cushions as the other dangled off. He laid the back of his hand over his eyes in a dramatic fashion. “Such woe is my existence. Like taking it up the ass with no lube.”

Bingo growled lightly at the sudden appearance of the ghost on her couch, because of his proximity to Karmilla and the fact his feet were passing through her. A hand on the head was enough to quiet the dog, luckily.

“I’m almost afraid to ask, but why your name?” She tried her best to not react to the cold chill from his foot sitting essentially inside her.

“Well, you know that one guy who made the fish fucker village people and had a giant free-swingin’, octopus head thing? Yeah, my name’s like his cat. You know exactly the one.” Even lying down, he was very animated while talking.

From his description, she assumed he was talking about H.P. Lovecraft. “Yeah, I know what you’re talking about.”

“HA!” He sat up suddenly, pointing at her. “I knew you were a fuckin’ nerd. But, nah, I’m just fucking with ya. My name is nowhere NEAR as terrible as that.”

As he laid back down again, her mouth flattened into a straight line, trying to keep the fact that she thought his roundabout shenanigans were funny. No need to encourage him. “Okay, but you didn’t answer my question.”

“Look, babes, I love talking about me, don’t get me wrong. But I feel like we need a bit more of a back and forth here.” He was using more hand motions to emphasize his point. “You’re learning all of my deepest, darkest secrets, but I haven’t gotten anything juicy from you.”

Her brows furrowed as she looked at him. “All I asked was your name. You gave me your life story freely without answering the actual question.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not my fault saying my name became so complicated.”

“Isn’t it, though?”

There was a pause from him as his mouth turned into a tight-lined, exaggerated frown. “Alright, you got me there.”

There was a long bout of silence between them, one that felt awkward and a little tense. Karmilla took this time to think of a way for him to tell her. He’d probably think that just spelling it out was too boring, so turning it into a game might help it go down better.

“Would a word game work as a loophole?”

He perked up at the sound of ‘game’, almost in a way a dog would when someone would say ‘play’ or ��walk’. “A game, you say?”

“Yeah, like charades or something.”

He sat up quickly and turned to sit more properly, waving his hand off at the suggestion. “Nah, not that one. I did that last time.”

She gave him a curious look, wondering what exactly that meant. A question for a different time, she thought to herself as she stood up and went back into her bedroom to fetch a pen and a notebook. Walking back into the living room, she plopped back down on the couch before putting her feet back up on the coffee table.

“We’ll do it like this then,” she started, flipping open the notebook to a blank page and turning it horizontal. “I guess a letter. If I’m right, you tell me where it goes. If I’m wrong we’ll do a little thing of truth or dare. Good?”

A smile curled his lips. “Oh? Adding some stakes for moi?”

“Yeah, why not. Might as well make it an actual game, you know? Now, how many letters?” She laid the notebook on her lap so he wouldn’t have any problem seeing it.

After scooting close enough to her that they were touching shoulders, he started mouthing the letters counting the letters on his fingers. “Uhh, eleven.”

She drew eleven evenly sized lines on the paper. “Alright then. S.”

It takes a moment for it to click with the ghost before seemingly going over it in his head. “Go fish.”

She sighed, writing down the letter under the lines so she wouldn’t say them again later. “Not ‘go fish’, but I will choose ‘truth’.”

“Boring. Ah well.” He leaned back, stretching his arm out to rest behind her. “Much as I love just callin’ you ‘babes’ and ‘sexy’, I’d love to know to be callin’ out.”

“Don’t get any illusions that anything could or would happen, buddy,” she responded quickly with side-eyed, half glare before looking back at the page. “My name is Karmilla Nazarian. You get the surname as a freebie.”

“Karmilla, Karmilla, Karmilla,” he repeated, trying out her name. “Karma’s a good nickname for you. It even has its own-”

“Yeah, yeah, Karma’s a bitch and all that,” she cut him, tapping her pen on the journal. “Any ‘f’s?”

“Rude to cut off a guest like that, Karma,” he said as he leaned forward and shifted around so he could look at her unamused face. He could only guess how many times she’s heard that classic line in her life. “And that’s a hard no on the ‘f’, babes.”

She groaned in annoyance this time, looking up at the ceiling and blindly marking down ‘f’ in the used letters row. “Truth again, I guess.”

He tapped his chin in thought as his eyes wandered around the room before landing on her again. Then down a little lower. He kept his eyes there even as Karmilla turned her head back to face him. Completely unashamed, he turned his eyes up to her and grinned. “What cup size ya packin’?”

“Wow, you really do not shy away that shit, do you?” The question was rhetorical, asked in an astounded state of mind.

“What can I say? I know what I like,” he said cooly with a shrug. “Now, spill.”

With a few moments of hesitation, she answered. “I’m a C. Happy?”

“Very.” The wide, pleased smile on his face definitely attested to that.

Rather than going for conventional letters this time, she went with ‘x’. Third time’s the charm, right? Or maybe not, given the look her ghostly guest was giving her. Fuck.

Taking her feet off the coffee table and slapping the pen and pad down in their place, she stood up, careful to not step on Bingo and turned to face him with her hands on her hips.

“You know what? Fuck it. Dare.”

He was amused by her sudden change in attitude, giving her a toothy grin. “You’re a competitive one, aren’t you?”

“Just give me a dare already, chucklefuck.” She had to admit, she did have a competitive streak. No matter how often she would try to play it cool in any sort of game, after a few bad turns her attitude would sour and desire to throttle people would kick in.

He did, indeed, chuckle at her words. “I gotta say, I am loving this color on you, babes. Very hot. Now, why don’t you show me how flexible you are?”

The glare on her face became harder, almost looking like a snarl had she decided to bare her teeth at him. She did growl at him a little, so there’s that. “What? You don’t want me to do a handstand while singing ‘I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts’?”

“Not for this one, but thanks for the idea.” God, she wished he was tangible so she could punch his stupid face.

Moving her feet to keep her balanced and from falling over, she started bending slowly and fully backwards, making an arch with her spine. All the while, she kept one hand up to flip her ghostly ‘pal’ the bird. As she went back, he tilted his head to follow her until her hand finally reached the ground. He would go over there, float above her and tease her, but he knew he was already pushing it with her this go-’round.

Straightening his neck back out, he slapped a hand on his chest. “Oof. Babes. If my heart was still beating, it woulda stopped just now.”

Getting back up was a slower process than bending back, but she made it without having to lay on the ground. She walked back over to the couch, dropping down back into her spot with a bit of a bounce. Grabbing the journal and pen again, she grumbled to him, “Fuck you, we’re doing the next letter.”

He laughed at her words, ready for the fun to continue. Seeing her getting frustrated at the game she proposed seemed to scratch an itch for him. It wasn’t as good as when he scared the daylights out of someone but it was still fulfilling. The added bonus to it all was that he could actually talk with someone. It had been a good long while since he had that chance with someone who wasn’t dead or a 1-dimensional clone.

The game continued on with Karmilla guessing the wrong letter a few more times before she finally got one. When she finally did, she was probably too ecstatic. Not jumping up and down ecstatic, but the quick, in-your-face yell of ‘fuck you’ before moving onto the next letter. By the end of the game, he learned a lot; the black padding she had lining the walls of her apartment was to save her neighbors the trouble of having to listen to her blaring music and her singing along with it; she’s slept with a good few people, gender never really coming into play for her; she’s always been able to see ghosts and knew more about the Netherworld than the average breather should know. There were a few more dares involved, none of them fun for her but all of them entertaining to him.

Eventually, the game came to an end, much to Karmilla’s relief. With all the letters lined up on their spaces, she stared at the pad.

“Beetlejuice?”

He leaned more forward at the sound of his name. “It sounds very nice when you say it. Why not give it to me a few more times?”

She gave him a suspicious look as she closed the journal and tossed it on the coffee table with the pen she was using. “Why?”

The smile on his face tightened. He was probably a little too eager with his words. Standing up and walking through the coffee table, he started to pace slowly in front of her, watching her eyes follow him. “Oh, you know. Curse stuff. Can’t say my name, can’t talk to the living, can’t get summoned and get all my powers back.”

She shifted herself on the couch, tucking herself comfortably into the corner as she watched him. “It’s that easy?”

He stopped his pacing and looked at her with a tight-lined smile. “Is it, though? Usually, someone would think the whole ‘living people can’t see me’ would be a pretty big kink in a plan to return to full power.”

She mocked his expression, inadvertently making him laugh. “Whatever. So, I guess the summoning requires your name? Is there more to it? Sacrificial lamb? Blood of the willing? Sacrificial virgin?”

“You could bring a virgin to me, though there wouldn’t be any blood letting. Unless they were into that, then maybe a little blood letting.” His words earned him a disgusted look from his friend, which just made him smile all the more. “Lucky for you, there’s no ghosty mumbo-jumbo you gotta deal with. Only thing you gotta do is say my name three times in a row--” he held up three fingers to emphasize his words-- “Nothin’ in between.”

She gave a small hum of contemplation as she nodded at him. At least, there’s no murder involved. Unless, that’s something he planned on doing when he’s ‘summoned’. From what she’s seen so far, she’d just assume he’d be more of the practical joke type that might sometimes end with someone getting hurt. Still, she hasn’t known him for more than three or four hours now, so there could still be a lot under the surface she hasn’t seen yet.

“What will you do when you’re back at full power? What exactly happens?” Better to ask up front than try and be clever about it. All she could hope for now is that she could spot any lies he tried to use.

“Would you believe me if I said it was to become a better part of the community and help those in need?” Beetlejuice put on his best attempt at an innocent expression, batting his eyes at her. The visual itself got him a half-smile from her but also a shake of her head. He dropped his little act quickly. “Didn’t think so.”

He sat on air, crossing one leg over the other and put his hands on the top knee, like he was trying to sit pretty. She wasn’t able to describe the voice he was doing as anything other than a peppy lady at an interview. “Well, what I really want to do is have some fun. Ya know, go out on the town, wreak some havoc, scare the daylights outta people, and maybe throw in a few dismemberments to spice it up.”

Her eyebrows arched up as he spoke, putting more thoughts of what exactly she let follow her home. Nothing harmless, that’s for sure. “Yeah, I’m definitely not going to do that.”

He groaned dramatically, rolling his head to emphasize his eye roll. “Uuugh, but why? We could have so much fun together!” He stood up from his air seat and took a few steps towards her. “And you look like a gal who could use it.”

She opened her mouth to object to the last part, but in all honesty he was right. The most she ever did was work, college, home, and dance and sing with Bingo when she’s drunk. “Causing harm to people is not fun.”

“Unless it’s someone who really deserves it.” As he was about to take another step forward, Bingo growled. He did a quick, mock growl back at her before continuing on, staying in place this time. “And you didn’t say ‘no’ to the havoc wreaking and the daylight scaring, so-”

“It’s a no to the whole thing, Beetlejuice,” she said flatly, looking him right in the eye. She noticed that hearing the sound of his name made him perk up, his hair seeming to brighten in color and the air around him feeling more electric. At least, electric enough that she felt a tingle in her limbs and warning bells going off in her head. “Listen, I just met you. I don’t know you. I don’t know why you’d think I’d help you out.”

“Because we’re friends?” He said this like it was the most obvious thing to him. Come to think of it, she had noticed that he had referred to her as a friend every so often between the come-ons and general sexual harassment.

She let out a long sigh, letting her head fall back to rest on the cushions of the couch, trying to think of what she should say. When she finally had it, she brought her head back up. “Don’t wanna break your heart, dude, but I’m pretty sure we’re not friends. There’s no real basis for it, other than I’m the only one that can see you.”

He deflated a bit at her response, but continued trying to keep up his relentless attitude. Of course they were friends. How could she not see that? “We made a connection! This is destiny or fate or whatever the fuck it is. You talked to me!”

“Didn’t have much choice there.”

“You brought me home with you!”

“You would’ve followed me anyway.”

He paused again. “Both valid points. But come on, Karma! You’re not really gonna leave a dead man hanging, are you?”

She didn’t respond, just leveled a deadpan stare at him.

Dammit, lady, you’re killin’ me! He bit the inside of his lip as he tried to think of a way to convince her. He thought he had been very good and friendly thus far, but he may have come on a little strong with her.

“Alright, alright, okay,” he started as he came back to the couch, walking through the table again to sit next to her, facing her as fully as he could. “What if I prove myself to you? So, you can trust that I won’t be going out and killing randos on the street. Unless you want me to, then I totally will. But I’ll behave! As much as I can, anyway.”

She continued just staring at him, but thought over his words. Until she noticed him starting to do his best attempt at pleading puppy dog eyes. She’d hate to admit it, but the longer she stared back at him the more she felt his look getting to her. God, he’s really good at playing up being pitiful. Doesn’t help that he probably genuinely wants a friend. Fuck. Something about her eyes must have softened because she could see a small smile coming back to his face. God dammit, now it’s cute.

Karmilla had to break eye contact with him, losing out in the battle of wills. Curse her empathetic heart. “Fine, I guess.”

As soon as she relented, Beetlejuice jumped from the seat up into the air in a cheer, going higher than normal physics would allow. He landed on the coffee table facing her. “Oh, babes, thank you! You are not gonna regret this one bit!”

God, I hope not, she thought to herself as she pushed herself up from the couch. “Make yourself at home, I guess. I need to walk Bingo, so I’ll be back in a bit.”

He turned as he watched her go back to the counter where she had left her keys, seeing her pocket them and grabbing a leash, the dog following alongside her. “Want me to come along, my new best buddy?”

Karmilla attached the leash to her dog’s collar before pushing her feet into the shoes she had been wearing earlier. “No. I’m not gonna be long. Like I said, just make yourself at home.”

He shrugged even though she wasn’t looking before falling back and laying on air before floating gently down to the couch, hands interlocked behind his head. “Whatever you say, boss lady.” Oh, sweet, sweet freedom here I come.

He looked over and watched as she picked up what she needed, hooking up her dog and walking out the door. The click of the lock bolting into place was very audible even in the sound deadened room. As he continued to stay reclined on the couch, he looked towards the TV. Probably should’ve asked her to turn it on before she left. Live and learn. Well, maybe not live. The point stands that without his friend here, there was nothing in the apartment that would help pass the time more easily.

“Well--” he jumped up from the couch suddenly, taking a few steps towards Karmilla’s room. “Time to complete the invasion of privacy before I gotta dial it back.”

#karma #karmilla #beetlejuice #beetlejuice oc #beetlejuice the musical #musical!beetlejuice #musical!beej #beetlejuice x oc #beetlejuice x karmilla #expect nothing from me and you'll never be disappointed #my writing #karma's playlist

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katehuntington · 5 years ago

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Title: Changes - part five Word count: ±4000 words Summary “Changes”: Huntress Zoë Sullivan (OFC) crosses paths and swords with the Winchesters, when the brothers stumble on a case she’s already working. When complications arise, they are forced to work together. Summary part five: While Dean catches up on some sleep after being shot, Sam goes over Zoë’s research, curious to find out more about the case and the intriguing huntress. A whole lot more is revealed, however, once Zoë wakes up. Episode warnings: Dark! NSFW, 18+ only! Angst, gore, violence, character death. Description of blood, injury and medical procedures. Demon possession, supernatural creatures/entities. Smut, swearing, alcohol use/addiction. Kidnapping, mentions of torture and murder, illegal/criminal practices. Mentions of nightmares and flashbacks. Music: Down By The River - Neil Young, Look But You Can’t Touch - Poison, Changes - Black Sabbath. Author’s note: I couldn’t be more excited to share Supernatural: The Sullivan Series with you. There are quite a few people I want to thank: @coffee-obsessed-writer, @soupornatural & @mrswhozeewhatsis, who edited the early drafts, and my girls @girl-with-a-fandom-fettish & @winchest09 who are deciphering the recent version. Everyone who encouraged me to go for it, you are awesome!

Supernatural: The Sullivan Series Masterlist 01x01 “Changes” Masterlist

Sunshine peeks through the red curtains, like a little kid playing hide and seek. The beams of light illuminate motes of dust, which playfully dance in the air. Thunder and rain have moved on and made room for the sun to brighten the Northern state. It’s past noon and Sam is seated at the table, which is entirely filled with papers, books, files, and both his and Zoë’s laptops. Concentrated, he goes through documents on Zoë’s Macbook, preparing for the next encounter with the shapeshifter. Neil Young is singing Down By The River on the radio, so softly, that he has to listen carefully to make out the words.

Besides traffic rushing by on Route 52 right next to the motel, it’s peaceful. Dean stirs in the double bed, but settles again and continues to sleep while snoring softly, causing his brother to look up and grin. He’s not sure what’s funnier; the fact that Dean is neither sleeping on the floor nor on the couch as Zoë persisted earlier, or that she’s actually the one sleeping next to him. Just before 8 o'clock she finished up the last stitch on Dean. Sam still doesn’t know if Zoë actually knew what she was doing, but she did great. After a night like last night, neither of them gave a damn who slept next to whom.

He thought Dean was hard-headed, but Zoë takes the cake, which is without doubt the reason why they can’t stand each other. It is unimaginable now, but they must have gotten along fine before, otherwise Dean wouldn’t have remembered her. Hell, he doesn’t even remember some of the girls he hooked up with, not to mention the girls he didn’t. If Sam may believe his brother, she was this fun, sweet and caring student, living the good life. A typical Californian girl, loved to surf and hang out on the beach. Also quite a musician; apparently she’s pretty good with a guitar. That’s what Dean told him on their way over to the motel anyway. She worked hard to become a surgeon, aiming for neurology. Then that demon came along and fucked it all up.

Sam sighs, sympathizing with the young woman. Why do bad things always happen to good people? Now look what she has become. She's a hunter, one that is damn good at her job, but still. She could have ended up with so much more. It turns out that everyone in this line of work needs history to get lost in the world of monsters. He hasn't heard the whole story yet and Zoë doesn't seem to feel like sharing, but one thing is for sure; she uses her intelligence that got her into med school to her advantage as a hunter. The supernatural database she’s built is outstanding, especially taking into account that the first file dates from 2001, a little over four years ago. She is dedicated, that’s for sure.

He looks over at the young woman, who is sleeping peacefully, curled up on her right side, eyes closed and breathing calmly. It’s weird to see the huntress like that; she seems so vulnerable now. Not entirely, though, because even in her sleep, the huntress seems to have the upper hand on Dean. She has claimed the covers and is comfortably cocooned by them, not leaving much for Sam’s brother. He doesn’t seem to be bothered, though. It will take a lot to wake Dean up after what went down this morning. He was in agony during the procedure, probably wishing he had taken her offer for a sedation when he had the chance. The pain took its toll, knocking him out soon after Zoë ran the last stitch through his skin. After he had his burger, of course.

The light from outside shines a graceful glow on Zoë’s pretty face; she seems to be smiling slightly. Their roommate for the night might act like a total bitch, especially to Dean, but Sam finds her attractive. It isn’t just the fact that she’s a beautiful woman; it’s her attitude, too. Zoë has proven already to be incredibly intelligent, not to mention independent. She stands her ground and doesn’t let anyone tell her what to do. Since they have met, he saw both fire and ice in her eyes; she’s a force of nature to be reckoned with. However, he has to be honest with himself. After what happened to Jess, he can’t think of her like that, not now.

His eyes are taken over by sadness as his thoughts go back to that moment, almost a month ago. He shifts in his chair, causing it to creak. He doesn’t have time to dwell in his sorrow, because out of nowhere, Zoë bolts up startled and pulls a gun from under her pillow. “Whoa!" Sam shows his hands in innocence. Puzzled, the huntress stares at him, then aside at Dean, only then lowering the gun. “Guess it wasn’t a weird dream,” she mutters with a raspy voice. “No, I guess it wasn’t. Holy shit.” He relaxes again when Zoë flips the safety switch of the gun and puts it back under her pillow. “I’m not used to having people around, that’s all,” she excuses as she intends to get out of bed. “I think paranoid is a better description,” Sam comments. “Shut up,” Zoë sneers, clearly not in a good mood. “What time is it?” “Almost one,” Sam replies, concentrating on the computer screen again. Not even five hours, she realizes; although it’s past midday, she didn’t get much sleep.

She licks her lips and swallows thickly, trying to get rid of the bad taste in her mouth. Not a great way to wake up, she still feels like roadkill. The amount of whiskey she drank last night, followed by fries and a burger, didn’t help either. Thankfully, it’s still pretty dark in the room. Her eyes can’t handle the bright light from outside just yet. A moan escapes her mouth as she gets up, her hand covering her painful abdomen. God, it seems even worse than last night, but she’s not worried. It’s normal to feel sore, unfortunately this is not the first time she’s been shot. Slowly, she shuffles to the bathroom while Sam watches her. “You alright?” he wonders, surprised by her condition. “Yeah, just a bit hungover,” she lies.

Sam decides not to ask any more questions. They may have only just met, but he’s under the distinct impression that he won’t get far if he goes at her with the third degree. He turns back to his laptop, watching an installation program proceed. The county website of Rochester is hidden in the lowest toolbar, and finally the slow moving progress bar hits a hundred percent. A program opens and asks for a password. “Damn it!” Sam curses. How on earth is he gonna crack this? He is pretty skilled with a computer, but he’s not a hacker. “What?” The voice comes from the bathroom, it’s just now that Sam hears the shower running. “Nothing,” he responds, absently. Zoë decides not to ask again. Besides, it’s not like she actually cares. The cleansing water coming from the showerhead feels like acid on her stitched up bullet wound, but at the same time it’s relieving. She rakes her fingers through her hair and lets the water rain down on her face. The silence bothers Zoë, she could use a little music to start her day. “Could you turn on the radio?” Silence. Sam is so focused on his work, that he doesn’t hear her. “Sam!” Zoë shouts over the noise of the shower. He snaps out of it. “What?” “Could you turn up the radio?” she repeats. “Dean’s asleep,” he reacts, typing strenuously. “So?” Again, Sam fails to respond. “Hello?!” “What? No, I can’t work with music,” he mutters thoughtlessly.

Zoë doesn’t ask again. Dean - knowing her better - would’ve probably noticed that unusual fact, but it’s not until Zoë walks by, completely naked and dripping wet, that she catches Sam’s attention. “Holy sh--" He swallows down the last word and quickly snaps his head away, almost falling off his chair. Not even a bit uncomfortable, the huntress elegantly parades to the table, leaving footprint shaped puddles in her wake. She bends over to turn up the volume, getting into Sam’s personal space. Look But You Can’t Touch by Poison blares from the radio once she gives the button a spin, but she doesn’t leave just yet. Amused, she turns to face him, leaning against the table, provokingly. The younger Winchester brother awkwardly tries to keep his eyes from wandering; it’s obvious he’s ill-at-ease.

“Never seen a naked woman before, geekboy?” “You could have warned me,” he responds, his voice slightly higher than usual, still looking away with wide opened eyes. “You could have turned up the radio,” she counters. Only when Zoë moves away from him again, he breathes out. When he’s pretty sure it’s safe to turn his head, Sam carefully glances at the bathroom. Thank God, she’s back in the shower. Again he rubs his face and stares at his brother for a moment, who’s still asleep. “Dean, you have no idea what you just missed,” he mumbles, before the huntress’ voice startles him again. “What’s that?” Sam shifts uncomfortably in his chair and stares back at the bathroom. “N-nothing!” he responds, too fast. Not a sound.

She’s not gonna come back out again, is she? Sam swallows apprehensively and tries to concentrate on his work, but he finds it difficult to do so. Whoa, I mean, really… Whoa. She might behave like a total bitch, but she’s breathtaking. He only had a glance, but the image is carved in his memory. Curvy, yet muscular; it’s clear she’s fit. He hits himself in the head; he cannot think of her like that. She’s a bitch, not sexy. Bitch, not sexy. Suddenly, he hears her voice echo from the bathroom. At first it scares Sam, because for a moment, it sounds like she’s right behind him, but then he’s pleasantly surprised as she joins in during the chorus of the song playing on the radio. “‘cause you can look but you can't touch, cause the best things in life ain't cheap. You can look but you can't touch, cause baby I ain't for keeps,” she sings, teasingly. Again, he peeks at the bathroom. He can see her pretty much perfect silhouette through the blurred glass, and he quickly turns his head. Sam Winchester, keep it together! He’s disgusted by the fact that he can’t keep his eyes off her, but then again, any man who could, isn’t interested in the opposite sex.

The song fades into a new one, this time an easy listener: Changes by Black Sabbath. Not particularly a happy song, and it changes the mood in the room. “What’s up with the whole vampire lifestyle?” Zoë asks out of nowhere, after a long silence. Apparently, she doesn’t feel like singing anymore. She closes the faucet and the sound of the water falling down on the ivory colored tiles stops. “What?” Sam looks over at her, puzzled, although he can’t see her behind the glass. “There are about half a dozen empty coffee containers on the table.” Her voice sounds hollow in the empty bathroom, but Sam can hear her loud and clear. She opens the shower door and grabs her towel. It takes Sam a while to answer her question, as he’s trying to decide whether he should tell her or not. “I can’t sleep,” he answers shortly, choosing the latter. “Sure you’re not craving for human blood?” she jokes. Behind the blurred glass she shimmies in a pair of jeans and puts on her bra. “It’s nothing like that, really. It’s--” He pauses, scratching his chin, finding it difficult to talk about it, “- it’s Jessica.”

His thoughts wander as he folds his hands together and leans forward, his elbows on his knees, staring at a single pixel on the screen. Suddenly, it’s not that difficult to disregard the attractive Zoë. For a moment he pictures her, his pretty Jess. Long, curly blonde hair, that beautiful smile. God, she was gorgeous in every way. He was in love with her, he still is. “Girlfriend?” Zoë assumes. “Yeah, well… She was,” he answers with difficulty. “Oh, I see,” Zoë grins, thinking she got it figured. She enters the main room while she buttons her white-grey plaid blouse. “She dumped you, huh?” Sam remains quiet and leans back in his chair. He takes a sip from his coffee, still staring into nothingness. Meanwhile, Zoë sits down on her side of the mattress and takes a bottle of painkillers from the nightstand, popping two pills to dull the pain. She pulls a pair of socks and black leather ankle boots out of a backpack underneath her bed, putting them on while she glances at Sam. “You dumped her and regret it?” Zoë tries again.

He swallows thickly, trying to get rid of the lump that is building in his throat. Then he looks her straight in the eye, only for a few seconds, before he averts them down to the carpet again. It spooks her, the sudden and penetrating gaze, and she pauses her actions. But Sam is not angry with the huntress, who is shocked by what she sees in the depths of his pupils. So much sorrow, so much guilt. She knows that look, she knows it way too well.

“She’s dead,” she realizes. Sam doesn’t need to tell her, but he confirms with a nod, almost unnoticeable. She looks down at her boots, feeling sorry for him for the first time since they’ve met. Showing those feelings isn’t something she’s comfortable with, so she keeps it plain. “Because of something we hunt?” she asks carefully. “Yeah,” he answers shortly, looking at the empty coffee container in his hand.

An eerie silence falls over them, as the image of Jessica returns to his thoughts once again, the vision clear as a bell. This time he doesn’t see her smiling, he sees her in the state that he found her. He grinds his teeth, trying to ban the haunting memory from his mind. While Sam struggles, Zoë observes him, noticing something about the youngest Winchester that feels familiar, something she recognizes. He’s grieving, trying to cope with the impossible. “I’m sorry for your loss,” she says, pronouncing the words somewhat like a doctor would do, monotone and distant. It’s about as compassionate as Zoë gets these days, and although Sam only encountered her a couple of hours ago, he seems to realize it. When he looks up, his eyes glisten. He doesn't say a word, but gives her a thankful nod. Although this is a painful moment, she cannot drop the question that led to the reveal. “I can’t help but notice, though, that you’re not completely honest with me.” She gets up from the bed and shoves the curtains aside, letting the bright sunlight in. Dean, facing the window, groans and turns his head. He breathes in deeply and lets out a sigh, but doesn’t wake up. When Zoë’s sure he’s still out, she continues. “You see, you say you can’t sleep. I think you can, but just don’t want to. Otherwise you wouldn’t need six large cups of coffee to stay awake,” she analyses smartly.

Sam glances at the empty containers on the table and scoffs; someone’s observant. Seems like she’s figuring him out in record time. Strangely, he doesn’t feel uncomfortable. Actually, he wants to tell her. Dean knows his little brother has nightmares about the dreadful event, but doesn’t know the whole truth. Sam doesn’t want to worry him or raise a red flag just yet, he’d rather figure out what’s going on first. But for some reason, the younger Winchester has the urge to open up. He trusts the huntress enough to reveal some of his darkest secrets, yet there’s a fair amount of distance between them to avoid awkwardness. Where that trust comes from, he’s not sure. It’s more than a gut feeling. If he didn’t know better, he would describe it as instinct. Sam looks over at Dean; he’s still sound asleep. Zoë notices. “You’re worried about him?” She huffs, looking back at the younger brother. “Don’t. You’ll need to set off a bomb before he wakes up.” Sam chuckles; seems like she’s got Dean figured out as well. He knows the two have more history than his brother let on, but he doubts that it was sexual, otherwise Dean would have bragged about it. Yet Sam can tell from the non-verbal communication that their bond lies deeper. Dean was there when her life got turned upside down, maybe he had a significant role to play in saving her from that demon. Whatever the origin of their strange relationship, it has them bickering like an old married couple.

Hesitation has him pondering. He trusts the female hunter, and on a certain level, so does Dean. But enough to allow her a glimpse at the skeletons in his closet? “I have these nightmares,” he blurts and then pauses, deciding that he might as well give her the whole story. “Let’s put it this way: I'd rather stay awake than have to experience them.” Zoë strolls through the room and halts on the other side, leaning against the wall; she seems interested all of a sudden. “Nightmares, huh?” she repeats, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “What do you dream about?” “All sorts of things. Bad things happening to people I don’t even know. Except for the first one.” He stares at the floor again. The huntress knows enough. “You dream about Jessica, didn’t you?” He nods. “Thing is, I don’t just dream about her now...” A shuddering exhale leaves his lips. Here goes nothing. “I saw her die... days before it happened.”

Zoë doesn’t respond, yet continues to intently observe him. He’s unable to read the huntress, but surprisingly enough, she doesn’t seem shocked by the statement. Sam glances over at Dean again, making sure he’s still asleep. Not wanting him to hear the conversation, he continues with a lowered voice. “I can’t put my finger on it. How is it even possible that I see an event take place days before it actually happens? It almost seems like--” “- a vision?” she fills in. “Yeah,” Sam whispers. “Come on, it’s strange. Even for people like us.” “It is strange.” Zoë bites her lip again; it seems to be a habit. “Do you have headaches?” she wonders, out of the blue. Puzzled, Sam glances up at her, but she doesn’t blink. “Yeah. I do, actually,” he realizes. “But with everything going on with Jess and Dad--” “John?” Zoë intervenes. “Yeah. He’s missing,” Sam clears up. The huntress scoffs. “Aha. He’s good at that sort of thing.” Sam registers the cynical tone and narrows his eyes, but decides to ignore the comment. “This is different. He just took off one night, left Dean and disappeared. That’s when my brother came to Stanford,” Sam tells her. “To drag your ass back into the family business?” “Yeah. I guess that was his intention, but it isn’t the reason why I’m hunting again,” he says. “Mom was murdered, and now Jess? It’s too much of a coincidence, especially with Dad gone. Something’s up.” She walks back to the window and observes the parking lot outside. It’s a great day, the sun is shining brightly, smiling down at Rochester. It’s almost ironic, working on a dark case and discussing these family matters during weather so sunny; it doesn’t fit the picture. “Maybe something snatched him,” she mentions, not even considering that this conclusion might upset Sam. “No,” he counters fiercely. “Since when do monsters make such an effort to cover up the death of a hunter? When they take one of us, they leave a body for others to find.” She frowns at that, nodding slightly. Sam has a point. “You think he’s on a hunting trip?” “I think he’s hunting down the son of a bitch that killed Mom and Jess,” Sam speaks up.

Zoë continues to stare at the passing cars on the freeway and pulls on her bottom lip with her teeth, thinking about his assumption. The younger Winchester is probably right. John has always been obsessed with the thing that killed his wife and he will do anything to get revenge. No matter what the consequences, no matter what the sacrifice. She sits down on the bed again, this time not facing the window, but Sam. His girlfriend, his mother’s death, John Winchester’s disappearance, maybe even the nightmares, this could all be connected. Without making eye contact, she frowns and lets a sigh escape her chest. “Are you absolutely sure that the thing that killed your mother came back, Sam? ’Cause this could be pretty damn important,” she urges. This time she does observe him, her dark eyes boring deeply into his. He gazes back, hurt by the memories resurfacing, yet confident. “I saw my girlfriend, pinned on the ceiling, bleeding on me, after which she caught fire. The same way Dad saw Mom burn.” Sam pronounces his words slowly, his voice breaks halfway through the sentence. Zoë can imagine the scenario haunts him. He relives it, every day, every time he thinks of her. “It’s the same monster,” Zoë realizes, as the pieces begin to fall into place.

The young Winchester doesn’t respond, not until has picked up her biker’s jacket from the chair and heads for the door. “Where are you going?” “I’m gonna check on my Dave. I thought I heard a sputter in the engine last night,” Zoë explains, but halts by the door. “One more question.” Sam waits patiently, looking at her from where he’s seated. She seems to hesitate, but then continues without looking him in the eye. “Do you have them during the day?” “What? The nightmares?” he returns, puzzled. She nods, glancing up at him now. “Wouldn’t be nightmares then, would they?” he returns, not understanding her reasoning behind the question. “You’re right, never mind. I’ll grab some lunch on my way back in. Meanwhile, good luck getting that brother of yours out of his coma.”

The door closes, and Sam is left with his unconscious sibling. The younger Winchester shakes his head while he scoffs. She’s a strange girl, that Zoë Sullivan. She has a dark sense of humor; sarcastic, cynical. Arrogant, even more so than Dean; now that’s a new one. It doesn’t happen very often that they come across someone who can knock the older Winchester on his ass. Or is all that big talk just a facade she’s trying to keep up? She seems bitter, even cruel at times, but her heart isn’t all black, not yet. Sam believes there’s a lot more under the surface. Loneliness, anger, frustration, sorrow, fear; he knows those feelings and deep down, Zoë probably knows them, too.

There’s something about her that he recognizes. All three of them lost their normal lives because of something supernatural. Dean was four years old when he was introduced to this world so few people know about, and grew up in it. Zoë, on the other hand, was twenty-one when she found out. He himself stepped back from the hunting fields and was about to study law at Stanford, until a few weeks ago, that is. Sure, Dean might pretend that he embraces his hunting career and that ordinary is dull, but if he ever gets the chance, Dean would want out, too. All of them were normal up to a certain point in their lives, and that’s what they have to hold on to. It gives them the slightest bit of hope they need to keep going, believing that one day they might be able to return to that simple life. Whatever happens, though, things will never be the same again. People died and won’t ever come back. They will always know. They will always be looking over their shoulder. They will always be hunters.

Thank you for reading. I appreciate every single one of you, but if you do want to give me some extra love, you are free to reblog my work or buy me coffee (Link in bio at the top of the page)

Read part six here

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xiubaek-13 · 5 years ago

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Case File 99

Prompt: You meet Minseok in a bar and swear that you know him from SOMEWHERE but have no idea where, but now you have to do something about it

Pairing: Minseok x Reader

A/N: This was for a one shot challenge done on tumblr with friends but I’m leaving it open to further one shots in the future. If you like this AU please let me know who and what you want to see and I will make a small list to work on. There are 3 pieces of dialogue in here that are not mine. I have borrowed them from Scott Lynch and his amazing Gentlemen’s Bastards series. I recently reread the 3 books and couldn’t word the dialogue in these 3 spots any better

Rain pelted the windows of your corner office, only adding to the dreary day you were having. You said corner office but you could hardly call it that. It’s not like you worked in some big office building for a massive corporation. No, you worked out of a rundown apartment in the shadier part of town. Still, it had a big glass window that wrapped around the corner of the building and rain was pelting against it. The only people that ever sought you out were in desperate need of your skills. Photographic memory, ability to sneak or talk your way into almost anywhere (except for that one demon club downtown), an unhealthy amount of supernatural knowledge and a general fuck it attitude were among some of your more specific skills that seemed to bring in the clients. If a person went missing and couldn’t be found, you got a call. If one of the supernatural got a little too public with its existence, you got a call. If something was just plain weird, you got a call.

After one too many run ins with the law, and one extremely close call, Detective Markham had worked out exactly what you had been doing every time they found traces of you at a crime scene. Since that day you’d been given a small amount of trust to sort out the less human problems in the city and once you’d been given the freedom to emerge from the shadows without fear of being arrested and thrown in a psychiatric ward, you’d realised just how fucked up your city was.

It would actually be fair to say that humans thought they controlled a lot more of their city than they actually did. You had worked out that the city was divided into 6 very uneven sections. The largest parts went to the vampires, the demons and the fae, then the werewolves, other beings and lastly the humans. The humans bled into all the sectors, unbeknownst to them the danger they put themselves in or the nature of those they worked for. They had no idea that the coexisted with non humans and you couldn't help but laugh at how enterprising the supernatural were. Minhyuk the incubus ran the local sex shop (and business was booming), Heechul the changeling and his mix bag of supes ran one of the malls and Hyojong the ghoul was the local mortician to name a few.

You worked right near the border of the demons territory which meant the streets were always littered with addicts, working women…sometimes men, the odd counsellor trying to help, and travellers for hire. The travellers were chameleons in this city. They could change at will to blend in to the sector they wandered in to so if you needed someone to scout an area or find names for you, you sought out a traveller. They were an information only service though. If you actually wanted to get anything done you either had to do it yourself or pay through the teeth to get it.

In these quiet periods you occasionally wished for the ignorance you once had when you would never have believed in anything other than humans. But, life was rough growing up and you had seen some shit that defied explanation. Then when a friend of yours went missing at the ripe age of 16, a traveller sat you down and explained everything to you. At first you called him crazy but he dragged you all over the city and pointed out the things that were ‘other’ about the residents. Things you ignored if you weren’t looking. Like how some of the ‘people’ moved too fast, how all of their eyes changed, the differences in emotions, how they held themselves, their walks, the agelessness and the sheer cunning in all of them. It had shaken your world view and altered it for the rest of your days.

Sure the humans had their fair share of bad eggs but after seeing the supernatural for the first time you started to notice all of the ways people were manipulated for them. The vampires dealt mainly in brothels and hospitals. It was a good cover for bruised glassy eyed people and blood supplies as well as a good means of disposing of bodies. The demons dealt in contracts, so their sector had the lawyers, the high rollers and gamblers. The werewolves dealt in drugs and weapons since it allowed them to give in to the carnage they desired. The fae were the smugglers. They were who you looked to if a person just disappeared. The vamps at least had the decency to take adults and toss them back after they were done. The fae took children. they took anyone who might interest them for a few hours. Then you never saw them again.

They were the jobs you hated the most. You knew you’d hardly ever find the people you were looking for, and from the few encounters with the high fae over the years, any conversations you had with the fae required all of your wits. They were more cunning than the demons with how they could talk you round in circles without ever helping you. Entering their territory had its own set of dangers and it was ultimately never worth your time.

A sharp knock at the door broke your reverie. You spun in your chair and waited. Like hell you were getting up, the last three times someone had knocked it was for deliveries to the wrong apartment, salespeople or charity. So this time you decided to wait in your chair and see if they came in. They knocked a second time and still you waited. If whoever was on the other side of that door was seeking you out and they’d ventured through the city to your apartment block, through the gang territories, drug addicts and drunkards, then they weren’t leaving until they saw you. The handle turned and the door opened slowly, creaking loudly. You’d fix it but it was a good makeshift security system. No one came in through the door without you knowing about it.

“Hello?” A voice broke the silence. “Um, is anyone here?”

“If you aren’t here to try and sell me a product, a religion or a donation then come in. Otherwise fuck off.”

A young woman entered the apartment, closing the door behind her. If you had to guess you’d say she came from uptown, the section controlled by the demons, she looked too put together to be from any other area of town. Her eyes were wary but determined as she approached your desk. “Det. Markham gave me this address. Said you might be able to help me.” She took a seat opposite you and waited.

“I might be able to. It’ll cost you but I’m sure Markham told you that already.” The woman nodded. “Alright, what seems to be the problem?” You leant back in your chair. If Markham had sent her then it was probably an actual case, now you just had to determine if it was worth the risk.

“My sister went missing a week ago. She’s a nursing student and had been having night classes at the hospital. We live in uptown so she had a bit of a journey home each night. She’d always let me know when she was leaving and how she was getting home. That night I got a text saying she was catching the 2.45am bus but she never turned up. I reported her missing and the cops looked for any trace of her for the past week but came up with nothing. Markham gave me your card and told me you might be able to find something they missed. Please help me, my sister is all I’ve got and someone took her from me.” As she spoke, the desperation and loss ebbed into her voice. She was genuinely upset about her sister. You were going to have to call Markham to make sure there weren’t any details you should know about this case but it sounded like the vampires were involved. Your guess was she’d either been attacked or turned. It could also be the fae but you were hoping that since she went missing in vamp territory that the fae weren't involved.

“I’ll have a look into it and see if I can find anything for you. It’s a $200 upfront fee for services and then more as the investigation progresses based off the risk involved. I should know by tomorrow if there is anything to go off but I’ll get you to give me all the information about your sisters movements that week that you have.” The woman nodded and pulled out a binder and handed it to you.

“That has basic info on Juliet, that’s her name by the way, her hobbies, class schedule, travel routes, what she wore that week and more. Anything you need should be in there.” She handed you a wad of money and turned to leave.

“I assume that there is a number to contact you on in here too?” She nodded. “Alright, leave it with me. I’ll do what I can.”

“So what you’re telling me is that you found nothing?”

“Yes. It was weird, if I didn’t know better I’d say someone was trying to make it look like she never existed. When we first looked she still had insurance and bank accounts and a mailing address. Now all of that is gone. Medical history, gone. That’s why I gave her sister your card.” Markham’s voice crackled through the receiver as you leafed through the binder you’d been left.

“I’m guessing vamps. It’s their territory and they have a tendency to delete records when they need to.”

“And if it was them?”

You sighed. “Then Juliet is either dead, a plaything or a baby vamp. I can only get her back if she’s the second option but that won’t be pleasant.”

---

The club was in full swing by the time you arrived. The music hit you, the dirty bass jerking your pulse to its beat. You wove through the throng of bodies writhing on the dance floor, seeking out one person. You scanned the bar and the booths tucked in the far corner of the club. Out of the light and obstructed by shadows, you spotted him. The lime green hair was a dead giveaway, pun intended. You observed from a distance, taking in his features. His skin was unmarred, save for the tattoos you could spot on any of his exposed skin. He looked up and stared straight at you before pointing a finger at you and beckoning you over. His brows were significantly darker than his hair and his eyes, dark and mesmerising.

You’d heard a lot about the head of the vamp clan, Kwon Jiyong, but you had never spoken to him before. Tonight was a first. You’d requested a sit down with one of the clans higher ups but you had expected your usual contact, Seungri. You approached the booth and tried to get a feel for the leader of the vamps. You had questions and no plans to overstep your boundaries while you were in their territory.

You took a seat opposite him. He leant back and settled into a more comfortable position in the booth, never breaking eye contact. All vampires had a special quality to their eyes but his were enthralling. He smirked and you got a hint of the mischievous side you’d been warned about.

“Thanks for meeting me. I have to say I honestly didn’t expect you to turn up. Usually it’s Seungri.”

“He was otherwise engaged tonight. You requested a meeting with someone high up so I figured since I was free why not send you the highest up in my clan.”

“I won’t beat around the bush. This isn’t a social call after all. Since we haven’t met before I’ll introduce myself. I’m a P.I. I’ve been hired by someone who is trying to find her sister.”

"Does this P.I. have a name?"

"You can call me Sophrosyne. Syn for short." you replied.

He chuckled, giving you and indignant look. "Greek gods? Really now."

"Names are currency in these parts. This is the name I go by. My true name is not up for discussion." He raised his hands, not in surrender but more as a show that he was willing to move on.

His gaze lingered on you. Vampires were unsettling in that they stared. A lot. “And you think it’s got something to do with us?” You nod. “Why?”

“The girl in question was taking night classes at the hospital and her records have been scrubbed.” A small frown ghosted across his face. If you hadn’t been watching him for any signs of reaction you would have missed it.

“Mmm I see why you came to ask questions. It makes sense. I can tell you this much though. It wasn’t us.”

“Forgive me if I sound rude but I’m gonna need more than that if you actually want me to believe you.”

Jiyong sighed, an action that was completely unnecessary for him. “We have not made any new vampires in the past fortnight and we have not disposed of any bodies that would fit her description. If she was taken by us, she’ll be in one of the brothels. We wouldn’t scrub her records for that though so it’s unlikely that we have her. You are welcome to check, I’ll send word to answer your questions if you should turn up at any of our fine establishments.” He smirked as he finished his last sentence, amused at the thought of you visiting every brothel in his section of town.

He leant forward, all signs of mischief gone from his face. “We aren’t the only ones to scrub records darling. If I were you I’d check uptown then the west. If she was taken downtown then you might as well tell whoever is looking for that she’s dead because if the fae have her, she’s never coming home.”

You nodded. You had the same plans. Vamps were the most likely suspects but if it wasn’t them then you were off to see the demons next. They were sly but civil. The wolves were tenacious so you had to pick your moments with them. The fae… well you were hoping to avoid setting up a meeting with them. “I planned on leaving them til last. I have connections with the other 3 factions but not the fae. I’d need all my wits about me before questioning them.”

Jiyong raised an eyebrow. “And you don’t need your wits about you with the rest of us?”

“I understand how each of you work. I’ve had dealings with each of you in the past. I’m not saying that makes you predictable or safe because lord knows you’re all dangerous but the fae are a whole other monster.”

You settled into a conversation with the head of the vampires. You could see the cogs turning in his brain every time you answered one of his questions. He was gracious, offering you a tidbit of his or his clans life whenever you answered him. There was no doubt in your mind that this man was also cunning and ruthless, one doesn’t remain the head of a clan for so long by simply being nice.

You noticed a man standing at the bar, his body turned towards your booth. He was swirling a glass of whiskey in his hand. His lilac hair stood out amongst the crowd of darkly clothed club goers. He was staring down at his glass as if it was the most interesting thing in the room. Something kept dragging your focus from him and no matter how hard you tried you couldn’t keep your eyes on him for more than a few seconds. It was like something was willing you to not notice him. You turned back to Jiyong to mention him but when he asked you what this man looked like you couldn’t pull a single feature from your mind to share with him.

Jiyong tried to pull details from your mind for the next twenty minutes before giving up. He called a guard over and had him search the club for fae. The guard didn’t find anything which didn’t surprise either of you. After an hour the two of you parted ways. He wished you luck on your investigation but told you not to hold out much hope. What you didn’t tell him is with any client, you presumed them dead until a piece of evidence told you otherwise.

The next day you headed uptown into the middle of demon territory. You made your way through the tent city on the outskirts, the alleys full of passed out addicts and hovels with working girls. The derelict buildings only represented the edges of the district. The edges were where you went if you’d run out of luck but didn’t want to leave the district. It was where you found yourself if you still thought you could win it all back. No one ever won it all back, beating the demons was unheard of. As you continued on the buildings became nicer, sleeker and colder. There was no warmth in this district. Courts, legal offices and casinos were big business here. Not to mention all of the stores catering to the high rollers. Car dealerships, designer fashion, award winning restaurants and more were places around the central business district.

At the epicentre stood The Cardinal, a luxurious, exclusive and extremely well guarded casino. It was where the demons had based themselves and it was fitting really, each sin was well represented inside those walls. To gain entry you were required to prove your wealth and you had to look the part. It was like most casinos in that you rarely ever beat the house but the similarities stopped there. If you ran out of cash other bargains could be struck with one of the 7 owners if you were dumb enough to make a deal with them.

You had heard stories about con artists who had tried to scam the place and the tales you had heard were not pretty. It would be very, very unfortunate if one of the 7 were to realize that and patron to the establishment were counting on what one con artist had liked to call ‘discreetly unorthodox methods’ to win the game – hell, it would be preferable to simply lose the old-fashioned way, or to be caught cheating by the normal attendants. They, at least, would probably be quick and efficient executioners. They had a very busy establishment to run. If, however, one of the 7 caught you, you would wish you were dead.

You had earned yourself free entry into The Cardinal after you had been tricked into catching one such con artist. At the time you hadn’t known you were hired by a demon, they were cunning like that. Avarice, or Yoongi as he had requested you refer to him, was cutthroat when it came to losing what he saw as rightfully his. The way he saw it, someone was out to take his money, and he saw that as a personal attack. You never asked what became of the con artist and frankly you didn’t want to know.

Over the years you had used the demons for their knowledge. Very little happened in the entire city without their knowing. Not surprising when you were dealing with demons. Even less surprising after you realised that the district was run by the seven deadly sins. In hindsight, Avarice was a little on the nose but demons always had weird latin names and you weren’t always bothered with translating them.

You had learned quickly that in order to deal with the demons and not end up as one of their victims you had to be extremely adept at double speak, specifics and manipulation. They were masters at the art of talking unsuspecting humans around in circles, promising them the world all the while tricking them into selling their souls, eternal servitude or death.

You made your way up the stone steps and spotted one of the bouncers sidestep to block you from entering the building. You turned your head towards one of the security cameras and blinked, waiting. A moment later the bouncer moved out of your way. You inclined your head at the camera before continuing up the steps to the entrance of the building. You paused in front of the doors that would lead you inside. Once you crossed that threshold it was a sensory overload and if you weren’t careful you’d never leave. Normal casinos were designed to fully immerse the gamblers into a world where time doesn’t exist, money is constantly won and where they directly influence the odds. The Cardinal did all of that and more. The windows were actually black reflective glass so if you looked at them you would never see the outside, only the interior of the casino. The layout was deceptively simple but if you strayed from the main aisle you could lose yourself for days. There were no clocks so that gamblers lost track of time, servers provided free food and booze to gamblers and if you weren’t gambling they’d tell you which machines were the good ones and which tables you’d win at in order to coerce you into gambling. Each of the three floors had different music, noises, lighting and scents. The kicker was that each room might just have one of the seven deadly sins in it, influencing the gamblers every move.

You bypassed the ground floor and headed straight up the stairwell to the main bar. You didn’t have a meeting set aside with Yoongi because you refused to give him any advantage when you needed to get information out of him. The less time he had to prepare, the better. You didn’t expect to find him in the bar area but you needed one of the others in order to gain access to whichever high stakes room he was more than likely in.

As you sat and waited for your drink the youngest of the seven dropped into the seat next to you. “I see you are taking your sin literally tonight Jungkook.” He smirked back at you.

“Well when you look this good…” He chuckled. He knew he was attractive, his body and charms were a weapon. Tall, dark haired, well built, strong but not imposing, thighs to die for, killer smile and that way of talking to you like you were the only person in the universe. Jungkook was dangerous to anyone he went after. Lust was definitely in his element in the casino and tonight he was not going for subtlety. Every other time you’d been here he’d been in a perfectly tailored suit that accentuated every feature that he wanted to highlight. Tonight he was in black skinny jeans, a collared shirt that was being held together with two buttons and a leather jacket. He exuded sex appeal and you needed him to leave the room. You couldn’t afford to waste any of your mental fortitude on anyone other than Yoongi tonight.

You reminded yourself why you were here and spoke. “I need access to whichever private game he’s running tonight.”

Jungkook shrugged. “He’s not running one tonight.”

You raised an eyebrow at him, not believing the statement. “I’m not kidding, I have information to swap with him and some questions.”

Jungkook leaned forward and ran a hand through your hair. “And I told you, he isn’t running any of the private games tonight. V & Jin are. A bunch of foreign businessmen arrived earlier so those two get the honours for the night.”

You refused to break eye contact or allow yourself to notice how he had moved closer to you or all of the little touches he’d given you since sitting down. You did not come here to be seduced by Lust. No, you came here for a far more idiotic reason, to try and get Greed to give up information for free. “In that case where is he?”

Jungkook spun your body around on your seat so that he could stand right behind you. He extended his arm over your shoulder and pointed toward the other end of the floor before speaking in a sensual tone in your ear.. “He’s down near the roulette and blackjack tables. You could always just stay with me though. Surely we could work out a deal.”

You shook your head and removed yourself from his clutches. “You’d stand a chance if I didn’t know what you are. Unfortunately for you, I know better than to get involved with Luxuria.”

He grinned as you got up to leave. “Ah but that’s what makes it fun for me. When I finally do win you, you will beg for me.”

You waved as you walked off. “Keep dreaming on that. Never gonna happen.”

You scanned the area as you reached the blackjack tables. So far you hadn’t spotted him at any of the tables or walking the floor. You were getting ready to go back and chew Jungkook out for wasting your time when you finally spotted him. The mess of white blonde hair, the dark eyes observing the room hungrily from a recess in the room was unmistakably Yoongi. He glanced at you and raised an eyebrow. You approached him and took a seat in the recess next to him.

His low rasp startled you. “It’s fascinating to watch them revel in their greed. They hardly even need my influence on this floor, it’s almost like they think they could win.” He chuckled. “They know deep down that they cannot win, that no one beats the house, but still they try.”

“If they don’t need your influence then why bother making an appearance on this floor?”

“To recharge. I don’t need to influence them but I can feed off their greed.” His dark eyes gleamed. “And there is so much to feed off.” He waved a hand in your direction. “You aren’t here for a social visit so what do you want?”

“I have some questions for you about a case I’m working.”

You would have missed the gleam that flitted across his eyes if you hadn’t been looking at him to gauge his response. The vices were always easy to pander to, the difficult part was getting what you wanted unscathed. “What are you offering in exchange for my answers? You know nothing is free inside these walls.”

“Between 40 – 100% of the physical assets, gold, property, valuables etc will go to you. The percentage depends on the state that I find my client in.”

“80 – 100%”

“55 – 100%. No more. All I require from you is information, you don’t even have to move from this spot.”

He thought about your offer as he watched the humans throw their money down at the roulette tables, as if they stood a chance at winning. Their greed was palpable. “Fine. I will answer 3 questions. If you require more than that then we renegotiate the terms of our deal.” Clever. It was a smart move. This way he would gain some knowledge about what your case was and then he could figure out just how badly you wanted to solve it. He was trying to use your need for answers against you. It was not likely that he would budge from the initial offer of three questions so you got to work on the phrasing, you could not afford to leave any cracks for him to evade answering you.

“Agreed.” He shifted in his seat to face you, providing you with his full attention. “A girl went missing on her way home from night classes at the hospital. She lives in this territory. Every night she would call or text her sister to let her know she was on her way home and which bus she was on. The night she went missing she texted her sister to say she was leaving the hospital but she never arrived home. I initially thought vamps because by the time I was hired all of her records had been wiped. It’s as though she never existed. I met with Jiyong and questioned him about the circumstances. After talking it out I can safely say I’ve eliminated the vamps from suspicion. That now leaves demons, wolves and the fae.”

“Not even considering humans for this?”

“The police sent the sister to me after they came up with nothing. They’ve had similar cases over the past few months and have never found a body or a suspect. Humans just aren’t as adept at making multiple people disappear without a trace.”

“Careful now Syn, that almost sounds like a compliment.”

“Question 1: In the past 10 days have any deals/bargains or agreements been made that resulted in the disappearance of a girl named Juliet on her way home from class at the hospital?”

“No.”

“Question 2: Where was she taken?”

“It’s flattering that you think I know the whereabouts of everyone in this city.”

“You have eyes on every person who lives in your sector and she lives here. Answer the question Yoongi.”

He smirked at you. “Away from her home.”

You mentally kicked yourself for not making the second question more specific. That was a rookie mistake, something you were not. “Question 3: Specifically, what building in which section was she taken to?”

Yoongi glared at you as he pondered how to respond. He eventually sighed. “This particular inhabitant of this sector was abducted before she reached the border. She was taken downtown so you might as well forget about ever finding her. I don’t know a specific building because fae territory doesn’t abide by the normal laws of physics.”

You slumped back into the recess. Fae territory meant bad news. You weren’t even sure if the case was worth pursuing at this point. When the fae took you, you never returned. The travellers had many stories about what happened if you got taken by the fae but that’s all it was, stories. None had ever met anyone who had been taken and returned.

You stared out at the blackjack table and tried to work out what you were going to do. To proceed would mean putting your life in danger but you hated the idea of throwing in the towel and giving up. You were pulled from your thoughts as Yoongi nudged your leg with his. “So, my payment…”

“Are you trying to be annoying or does it just come naturally?

“It comes naturally. But really, what percentage?”

You scowled at him. “I’m not sure yet.”

“Wait. You aren’t seriously going to pursue this are you?”

You shrugged. “I’m not sure yet.”

He scratched the back of his head and stared back out at the casino floor. You resumed watching the blackjack table. A man grabbed your attention. He was good enough of a cheat to not get noticed by the staff or guards but you were sure that he was cheating. The most common thing people tried to do was count cards but it was extremely obvious unless you were a master at it. This man wasn’t counting cards. He was a good player but he was drugging the other players. It was subtle but you spotted the slight touches and the residue that the players couldn’t see. Their betting became more extravagant and their actions less logical so he was naturally cleaning up at the table as a result of their bad bets. “Table 12, red hair and black suit.”

Yoongi quickly looked to the table you mentioned and watched as the game progressed. “That fucker thinks he can steal from me does he? Well. We’ll see about that.” He stood and turned to you. “I can provide extraction from the fae sector for you.”

Your head snapped up to look at him. There was no way he would ever offer something for nothing. “At what cost?” you asked.

He shrugged, a cold smile growing on his face. “If you die I get everything you own.”

You tried not to laugh. What exactly did Yoongi think you owned? Your shitty apartment was full of second hand furniture and you had lived a minimalist life , not by choice, so your version of everything was a lot less than he must have thought. “Deal.” You responded. “Try not to kill the guy before questioning him this time.”

He grinned at you, his gummy smile completely changing his face. “Got to mind the delicate social nuances when you inform some poor fellow that he’s a dumb motherfucker.” Yoongi turned and disappeared in the crowds.

You returned to the bar, thankfully Jungkook was busy and was leaving you alone. You drank your whiskey in peace and watched the crowds. You’d always been fascinated by people and observed their behaviours whenever you could. You could tell a lot from watching a person who had no idea they were being watched. The Cardinal was full of liars, deceivers, criminals and the selfish tonight. Everyone you observed was trying to swindle their opponent and get rich. Observing that grew boring rather quickly.

A tuft of lavender hair across the room stole your attention. Piercing feline eyes stared back at you, cutting through the crowds like a laser. As soon as you stared into them they seemed to disappear. If it wasn’t for the fact that you could still see the lavender hair you would have believed you’d imagined it. You had no idea why you were so drawn to the man with lavender hair but you couldn’t shake the feeling that you’d seen him before.

---

You stood at the threshold between the fae sector and the human sector. You had spent the remainder of last night organising how you were going to ensure yourself safe passage in and out. You’d called Juliet’s sister to update her on the case, she’d quickly agreed to your higher fee in the hopes that you could return Juliet to her. Zico, head of the werewolf clans, had given you directions to the main bar in the fae sector. He’d told you that it was the main hub for getting information and that you might be able to get some of your questions answered there. He had told you not to hold out much hope though. The fae were very private and getting direct answers out of them was like drawing blood from a stone. Yoongi had struck a deal with you that promised he could get you out of the fae sector and demons never failed to deliver when a deal was struck so that made you feel a little safer.

You’d talked with sprites that had moved to the mixed sector and they’d given you rules to follow. Don’t eat or drink anything while in the fae sector or you’ll never leave and if you were to run into one of the princes, bow and leave. According to the sprites, the emissaries to the fae sector were the ones who did all of the dirty work like kidnapping girls but the princes were a different matter entirely. The princes could alter your mind and make it so that you’d never want to leave. They could bring you untold pleasure or unbearable pain.

Lastly, you’d called Detective Markham and told her what you could about the abduction and what she was to do if you disappeared. She wished you luck on your rescue operation but reminded you not to sacrifice your own safety just to close a case. That was a little hypocritical coming from her but you had promised her you’d try. Anything more would have been a lie.

So you stood at the threshold trying to talk yourself into crossing the invisible border. You stood at the threshold convincing yourself that you weren’t an idiot to try and find this girl. That you could enter this sector and come back out unscathed. That you wouldn’t need to call in any of your contingency plans to get you the fuck out of there if everything went sideways. You trusted in your abilities. You weren’t just any human, you were skilled in areas that others weren’t and you trusted that you could either get the job done or confirm that Juliet was a lost cause. Either way you would walk back out across the border in a few hours. You squared your shoulders and took a deep breath and then stepped into the fae part of town.

The bar was not like you had expected. You weren’t sure what you’d expected but a tiki themed bar had definitely NOT crossed your mind. It was weird. Surely it was a joke of some sort, or an illusion. Zico had told you about some of the powers the fae had and the drugs they used. He’d given you a dose of something that he said would remove glamour and allow you to really see what was happening but standing in the middle of the tiki bar… you weren’t sure that it had worked. Barmaids were dressed in coconut bras and grass skirts, tropical looking drinks and fruits were being served and there was weird rainbow coloured candy in bowls all over the bar. You felt like you were at a frat party not in a fae bar. They were supposed to be scary… this was the opposite of that.

You watched as another girl wandered around the bar, clearly enthralled by the theme. She eventually made it to the bar and ordered some weird blue drink and the bartender dropped a piece of the rainbow candy in it. He was speaking to her as he stirred her drink and she was giggling at the attention. Part of you wanted to go and stop her from consuming a drop of it but you needed to see what happened when she drank it. She lifted the drink to her lips and took a sip through her straw. Nothing happened. How anti-climactic. She took her drink and moved to a table in the far corner to continue enjoying her drink and staring around the bar. Seriously how could a tiki theme be this engrossing for a person? You were actually starting to wish for something to happen to her so that she’d stop staring at the tiki torches like they were the most exotic thing she’d ever seen in her life.

As soon as she sat down an orange haired man appeared. The way he held himself made you think he was potentially one of these princes Zico had warned you about. There was a cunning gleam in his eyes as he made a beeline for the girl and sat opposite her. You cursed under your breath. You could only see her face as he spoke to her and you watched the flirty smile and body language that she was offering up. As you continued to watch you notice the desire in her eyes build but you also saw something else. Fear. As he continued to speak to her you watched that fear and apprehension grow. She shook her head in response to something he said and he shrugged, moving to get up and leave. She grabbed his hand and begged him not to leave her. It was surreal. Here was this woman in front of you who was clearly terrified but begging to go with the very person who terrified her. She nodded at something he’d said and then they both left.

“It’s rude to stare you know.” A light voice pulled you out of your tunnel vision of the recently vacated table. You nearly jumped out of your seat when he’d spoken.

“You might need to tell yourself that if you were watching me long enough to decide that I was staring.” You turned around in your seat to see who was speaking to you. When you turned you were met with an empty seat.

“You were hardly subtle about it. Sitting at a table alone, no food, no drink, not blinking…” This time you did jump as the voice now sounded from opposite you on the table. You turned back around and staring back at you was a fae man. You knew he was fae because no human looked that good. It simply wasn’t possible. The man staring back at you had the most mesmerising eyes, feline in shape. You felt like you had looked into these eyes before but you couldn’t remember when. He watched with a smirk on his face as you took in his appearance. The lavender hair, that stood out. You were certain you’d seen him before.

“It’s also rude to invade a person’s space without introducing yourself.” You bit back. This guy clearly thought a lot of himself because he scoffed at your words and leant forward on the table, placing his head on top of his hands and raising an eyebrow at you. You hated how good he looked while doing that.

“I like doing things I shouldn’t. I don’t feel guilty. I don’t feel remorse. Why should I tell you who I am?”

You sat back in your chair, wishing you had a whiskey right now. “Well, simply put, it would be rude of you not to introduce yourself now.” There was something about this guy. If any other being irked you like this you wouldn’t have tolerated it but something about him made you keep your cool. You mind was trying to work out when you’d seen or spoken to him before but it was coming up foggy. You had a niggling feeling that he had been keeping an eye on you over the past few days but you had no proof. You weren’t stupid though, you knew someone had wiped part of your memory. The foggy emptiness that a memory wipe left behind was something you’d seen in clients over the years but it had never happened to you.

He chuckled at you. “Is this how you treat everyone you meet?”

“Stop evading the question.”

“What, and ruin the air of mystery I have working for me? No I don't think I'll give you a name yet.”

You leaned forward, closing the gap between the two of you. “Why won't you tell me your name?”

”Because that would be telling.” He took a sip of his whisky and licked his lips “Since when do you need a name to enjoy someone's company?”

It might have been his eyes, the way he just licked his lips or it might have just been the strange feeling of familiarity he gave you that caused you to respond with “I can think of at least one good reason.”

That caught his attention, earning you another smirk. He placed his glass on the table in front of him and used his free hand to push your hair behind your ear, slowly trailing his hand along your jaw until he reached your chin, which he lightly grasped. “I do wonder what that reason could be. You make it sound so very enticing. Did you notice that I never asked for your name?”

You smirked. “Names are dangerous to throw around, especially with the fae.”

He sighed. “You ruin the fun so quickly. Fine. Why are you here kitten?” You glared at the pet name he gave you. “What? You don’t want to give me a name. I have to come up with one myself.”

You centred yourself and reminded yourself not to get into an argument with the fae. This guy seemed playful enough now but if you pissed him off you could tell you’d regret it. “I came to ask some questions about a missing girl.”

He sat silently, waiting for you to continue. “She went missing a week ago from the hospital. It wasn’t humans, vamps or demons that took her. Her records were scrubbed so now it appears like she never existed. The last sighting of her was 5 days ago as she was taken across the border into this territory.”

He raised an eyebrow at you. “And?”

It took all of your will not to snap at him. Why would he give two shits about the life of a human? You described her to him and handed him a photo of Juliet. “So my first question is; have you seen her?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

“Who took her?”

He sat back in his chair, swirling his whiskey. “How much do you know about our kind kitten?”

“Enough to know that you are clever and dangerous.”

He laughed, actually laughed at you. “I meant our history but it’s good to know you aren’t stupid like that girl you were staring at earlier.”

You scrunched your nose as you thought. “Not much. No one is really all that forthcoming with fae history lessons.”

He set his glass on the table and sat up straight. “There are 9 fae princes. 4 belong to the seasonal courts, summer, spring, autumn and winter and 3 belong to the solar courts, dawn, day and night. There are 2 emissaries, one to the seasonal courts and one to the solar courts. The emissaries are the ones who frequent the human world. The other princes are supposed to remain in their lands and not venture out into the human world but they are easily bored so sometimes they visit to observe and to choose new playthings. If they find a plaything, the emissaries collect said plaything for them and transport it to the fae lands. These 9 princes are said to be devastatingly handsome and dangerous. They each have a power that helps their court flourish and grow... Why are you laughing?”

“Sorry but if you could see your face when you said devastatingly handsome. Ego much? So, is the point of this history lesson to tell me that Juliet was taken by one of the two emissaries and is now a plaything in one of the courts?”

He narrowed his eyes at you. “Be careful how to address me now. I ignored your earlier rudeness since you did not know my status. Now that you do, I won’t ignore your lack of manners or tact any more. It is true, Juliet now resides in one of the courts.”

Your shoulders dropped. If she was in one of the courts and not somewhere in the city there you had no hope of getting her back. You hated cases with bad outcomes but no one ever entered the far realm and came back. Once you entered, you were as good as dead in the real world. The man across from you noticed the shift in your mood and pouted slightly. “You could get her back. For a price.”

You shook your head. “Deals with demons are iffy enough, striking deals with the fae? That’s a whole different problem. The price is always too high, and 90% of the time the deal is worded in such a way that it only benefits the fae.”

He smirked at you. “You might find that you enjoy this one.”

“I can’t make a deal with anyone if I don’t know their name.”

“I thought you specialised in dishonest finesse?”

“I also do a brisk trade in putting knives to peoples’ throats and shouting at them”

He narrowed his eyes at you. “Something is different, you weren’t able to focus on me before. Why is it that you can now?”

“A little wolf helped me get past your glamour.” You paused. “Answer one more question for me. Have we met before?”

“Oh my dear, if you remembered you would blush.” He bit his lip and stared at you brazenly. “I will make an addition to my terms. I will secure passage for Juliet, the girl from that picture who went missing from the hospital last week, to be returned to her sister unscathed, not remembering anything about her time in the fae lands if you agree to tell me your name, allow me to remove the glamour on your mind and live in my court for one month. After the month is over I will offer to wipe your memory and return you or let you keep your memories and return you.” He took a swig from his glass and chuckled at the look on your face as you tried to process the fact that you had met him before and apparently had some sort of history with him as well as how specific he had been in wording the deal. “See, fae can make detailed deals when we want to.”

“How do I know you or anyone else won’t harm me?”

“No harm shall come to you whilst under my protection, which will last from the moment you enter the fae lands until you leave a month later.”

You mulled the proposed deal over in your head. It seemed fine, your only concern was that you would have to go to the fae realm for a month. “I will agree to your terms with a few additions. 1. The normal fae rules for food and drink consumption will not apply to me whilst under your protection. 2. You will tell me your name during this month. 3. You will allow me one phone call before I go with you and 4. Juliet and her sister will remain safe.” He agreed, his lip curling upwards as you sealed the deal with a handshake. A small brand appeared on your forearm in the shape of a snowflake. “Winter court I assume?” He nodded.

You dialled and waited for your call to be answered. He picked up after 3 rings. “What?”

“Yoongi, the extraction plan we made a deal on, if I am not back in The Cardinal in one month send someone to my office. If I’m not there, extract me from the winter court.”

Yoongi’s low rasp sounded “Are you really this dumb Syn?”

“Your missing citizen will be returned tomorrow. I’ve struck a deal and I’d like to think after all these years hanging around you lot I’ve picked up on a thing or two.”

“Just remember what happens if you die.” With that he hung up.

The prince of the winter court had a devilish smirk on his face as he approached you which unsettled you. “I’m going to show you a memory that was wiped before we leave.” He raised his hand to your face and cupped it. Memories of your night at The Cardinal came flooding back to you. How you’d followed the lavender haired fae to the bar and tried to flirt in order to work out who he was. He’d played along, toying with you. He’d moved you into a small private booth in the bar and allowed you to push him down into the booth and straddle him as you drunkenly tried to get answers out of him, the lust and desire clouding your mind. You should have left the casino earlier, the effects of the sins, namely Lust, were starting to get to you.

“Yes, I think I'm starting to see why you might want my name.” He rolled his hips against yours causing you to cry out. “Do you want to know my name?”

“Yes!” You panted. He was giving you pleasure but holding back, yet to touch you where you craved it the most.

“Hmm, I think you're going to have to earn the privilege. Think you can earn it Syn?” You responded by kissing and nibbling at his neck whilst removing his tie and unbuttoning his dress shirt. Then you started to kiss your way down his chest and slid yourself down off his lap until you were knelt in-between his legs. You ran your hands up the inside of his thighs and bit your lip. The memory then faded.

He whispered into your ear. “For the record, I know your name. You are still working on getting mine.” You were blushing as the memories remained with you, embarrassed at what you’d seen. He took your hand. “Ok, time to go. A deal is a deal. As soon as you enter the fae realm you are under my protection and Juliet will be sent back home.” He tugged your hand and started to walk towards the back of the bar. The wall shimmered and he waited for you to step through.

The last words you heard before stepping across the threshold were. “You have a month to earn my name.”

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surveys-at-your-service · 4 years ago

Text

Survey #281

“is there a method to your madness, is it all about pride? ‘cuz everyone i know, they’ve got a demon inside.”

Has anyone ever told you that you looked like a celebrity? No, just a video game character and an animated movie girl when I had black hair. What color is the pillowcase(s) on your bed? Brown. Do you have a favorite day of the week? Tuesday because it’s reset day in WoW and as a mount farmer, that means I get to try my raids for the week again to continue to be denied. :’) Have you ever been in an art show? An art show, I don’t think so. I’ve had two or three things in an art museum, though. Would you consider yourself to be well-exposed to life or sheltered? I’m pretty split down the middle, I’d say. I’ve seen far more emotional pain than I think most young adults have, but at the same time, I’ve very under-exposed to adult experiences. How high is your pain tolerance? It depends on the type of pain. I can particularly say I do NOT handle stomach pains well, though. Have you ever played the game Halo? Nah, those weren’t my type. Have you ever had to learn lines for a play/skit/movie? Only songs sung together for plays in elementary school. Never solo. Do you like your nose? … Sure? Kissing someone with facial hair, do you mind? I don’t care. Would you ever like to be a stunt person? I’m fucking dumb, I read this and thought “you mean little people?” until I read the last person’s answer lmaooo. Anyway, no. I’m not ballsy enough for that shit. Are you a pyromaniac? I find fire pretty, but it still can scare me if I’m too close to it. Are you one of those people who listen to songs on repeat? 110%, it’s literally what I’m doing now lmao. Can any of your friends sing very well? SARA. Would you ever enter any kind of pageant? No, no, no, no. I really don’t support pageants of any type I can think of, beauty in particular. What a way to scream “HEY THEY’RE BETTER THAN YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!”, again, especially in beauty pageants. That fucks people up. What a way to start things like self-loathing, eating disorders, body dysphoria, etc. Do you have piano fingers? Mom has always told me that, “like Grammy.” Have you ever slept on a beach? YIKES, no. I ain’t fuckin’ with the tides going in and out or just a massive wave. I’d also feel WAY too vulnerable. Would you like to be taller? I’m cool with my current height. Are you a fan of piercings on the opposite sex? I just like piercings in general. Have you ever been attacked by an animal? No, besides play getting too rough. Is there a movie that makes you cry every single time you watch it? It’s easy to do that lol. The Notebook in particular will 100% make me tear up. What's your opinion on Johnny Depp? He’s an incredibly talented actor that I find very attractive, but I don’t know him as a person. Can you speak in different accents? Just British and southern. Who was the last person you mocked/mimicked? My nephew, playfully of course. If you write, isn't writer's block the most horrible thing? THE ABSOLUTE WORST. What size shirt do you normally wear? Ugggghhh generally 2XL, I think. It can be one size smaller or one size larger depending on the shirt. Has anyone ever aimed a gun at you? Yikes, no. Have you ever written a song? Just poems. Do you believe there is life on other planets? It’s possible, but I don’t particularly lean a certain way, I think. The universe is just… infinite, you know? But also the circumstances that life rose within Earth were so remarkably perfect to support it that I don’t entirely know if it’s been duplicated elsewhere. When was the last time you fell? Around two weeks ago? I have extremely low blood pressure naturally but also amplified by medications’ side effects, and I got out of bed too fast when I woke up. Hurt my knees pretty bad and barely missed my head hitting the couch. Do you have any sort of debt? I do NOT want to think about this. Is there a specific time period that interests you? The era of dinosaurs of course, as well as the Renaissance, just to name a couple. Do any of your friends own an expensive car? *shrugs* Have you ever been on a train? No. Have you ever been in a parade? No. Are you, or anyone you know, an atheist? I know plenty. Have you ever sent a celebrity fan mail? No. Have you ever been in a musical? No. Is there a friend's family that makes you feel like you're family too? Yeah, Sara’s. Even though I’ve only been with them not that long of a time, they’re wonderful and made me feel so welcome. Do you ever have a fear of getting close to new people? Boy, do I!!!!! It’s funny though, because at the same time, I want to be close with people; I want to rush to the point I have a close friend. It’s weird. What is the worst things about work? N/A And the best? N/A Do you like to sleep in? Not really, honestly. I feel groggy and lazier than I naturally am lmao. Do you like to be an early bird? Well I’m in my best mood in the morning, but I don’t like waking up early. However, I’ve been planning a morning routine to adopt once we move that involves waking up at like 7 or so, so we’ll see how much I enjoy mornings then. But oh boy do I have a habit of saying I’ll do something and then not doing it, so… What is something you notice you just don't watch? History stuff and usually action. Last thing that bothered you even if just a little bit? Something Miss Tobey said to me a few days ago. Last thing that seemed a blessing from above? I don’t believe in supernatural “blessings,” but I’ll bite. The thing that made me happiest recently was uhhhh… I actually don’t know. Nothing that REALLY felt “blessing-ish.” Do you usually drink diet or regular soda? Regular; I can’t do diet. It tends to taste horrible but more importantly the artificial sweetener gives me a wicked headache. Are you on a diet? Not a diet, no. I’m more so just trying to make it a habit to simply eat better and not snack. Someone you highly respect who is not in your family? Sara’s dad. Did you say 'goodnight' to anyone last night? I don’t think I did. Does anyone ever comment on the appearance of your handwriting? People tend to point out it’s really nice. Have you looked at anyone's Facebook profile lately? Whose? Nah. Did you have a cake for your last birthday? What kind? Yeah, red velvet. Can you recall the first horror film you ever watched? How old were you? I actually don’t think I can. Maybe Paranormal Activity? Or The Blair Witch Project? When’s the last time that you mailed a letter or a package to someone, and who was it to? Sara’s bday gift I think. The last book that you checked out from the library? I haven’t done that in years. What was your pet’s last vet visit concerning? Roman got neutered, and the only time I took Venus to the vet was when I first got her and she refused food for almost a year. Changed the tactic of warming the mouse up and she was more than happy to snag it. Which animals do you tend to go check out first at the pet store? The reptiles, because they’re closest and also my favorite section. Last medication or item that you picked out from the drugstore? Nicole picked up a bunch of my prescriptions that needed refilling. Do you usually have a big list or a small list when you go to the grocery store? I don’t do the shopping here, so it’s not my choice. How much was the last check you deposited? How about the last amount that you took out? I have no clue. Have you ever been admitted into the emergency room? For what? Being suicidal and then a suicide attempt. Have you ever been arrested before? Ridden in the back of a police car? No to the first, but yes to the second because that’s just how you’re transported from the ER to the psych hospital here. Have you ever been a victim of a house fire? Thank God no. When did you graduate high school? 2014. How much gas can fit in your gas tank? N/A Does your vehicle break down a lot? N/A What’s the longest you’ve ever had to wait before being seated at a sit-down restaurant? I want to say at LEAST 45 minutes once. Can’t remember why it was so busy, though. Have you ever had a cavity before? How about a root canal? A tooth pulled? Braces? I’ve had cavities and braces, but thank Christ no root canals, and I’ve never had to have a tooth pulled by the dentist, either. Which art forms do you appreciate the most? Man, you can’t ask this to someone who enjoys art so deeply. Like I really don’t know what I enjoy *most*. Music can give me chills, poetry can be so rich and, well, poetic, and traditional artwork strikes awe and makes you wonder how they do it. I just adore art. What is your favorite zoo animal that you would like to set free? To start, I have very mixed feelings about zoos, but I guess I am *mostly* in favor of humane, adequately providing captivity to a certain degree as this allows for conservation of especially endangered species, and zoos also make it easier to study and understand the silent voices of those we share the earth with. As well, they offer a safe environment to expose the fearful to all sorts of animals, and I feel it is very, very important for humans as the alpha species to care for and understand (as best our language barriers allow) our wonderful neighbors. That being said, I definitely believe that a lot of zoos under-provide for their animals, and this is horribly heartbreaking so that I absolutely disagree with their “right” to own and display animals, but for this specific question, I am going to use my state’s zoo as the standard here. Ashboro, imo is pretty damn great and generous to their animals (you should see the miles of land the elephants, bison, antelope, and rhinos have!), but the exhibit that comes to mind first when mentioning animals I’d like to set free iiiis… you know, I don’t know. I was going to say the polar bears since it can get STUPID hot here in the summer and their abode doesn’t have a great amount of ice that survives the sun, but at the same time I’d be very wary about returning a polar bear home for… obvious reasons. I say “I don’t know” because I’m not gonna pretend to know what ample space is for so many different kinds of animals. Damn, now I really wanna go there. Wow this was a long answer to a p simple question lmao. Favorite kind of fish? I don’t have a distinctly “favorite” fish, really. I don’t know enough of ‘em, but I can say I really like clownfish and angelfish. What kinds of museum artifacts fascinate you? Whew, as someone who took Art History just last year in school, ancient art pieces of all sorts! It is so, so fascinating, watching the evolution of art and to see how the urge to just create extends so, so far back into history. Have you ever gone to court before? For a disability case, yes. Also to convince a judge that I didn’t need to stay in a mental hospital for I think the original plan was around six months. What is the last song that you danced to? Ha ha I watching Hotel Transylvania with my niece and nephew and did the macarena with ‘em. What’s your favorite alcoholic drink? Margaritas or sangrias. Is there anyone that you’ve visited in jail? No. Are you more likely to fly in an airplane, or pick people up/drop them off at the airport? Historically, pick people up. Which sporting event would you be most likely to sit through? Dance competitions. Favorite flavor of ice cream? Cone or dish? Any sprinkles? My favorite Basic Bitch flavor is vanilla, just with chocolate syrup. Cone or dish just depends on what I’m feelin’, really. I hate sprinkles on anything; the texture throws me off. Have you ever cut your own hair? No. What do you eat most frequently? Uggghhhh some form of bread, probably. Are you a fan of video games? Yeah, but not as much as I used to be. What's your favorite color combination? Idk really, I like a lot. I will say though that orange and black excites me bc Halloween Vibes. Did you share a locker at school? No. What's one sport you could never play? Wrestling, ew. Have you ever sung karaoke? Oh god no. What is the oldest age you think should wear makeup? lmao BRO tell me this a joke How old were you when you went on your first date? Idr, sometime in the 7th grade, if group dates in middle school even count? lol Has anyone besides your family seen you naked? Yeah. If so, who? An ex and probably doctors at some point? Did your parents sign you up for anything you hated as a child? Sunday school, really. Have you purchased any cool objects from a foreign country? Considering I’ve never left the country, no. Are you on a laptop or a desktop computer right now? I only have a laptop. Do you remember anyone's number by heart? No, but I seriously need to memorize my mom’s. Do you live above, below, or on the Equator? Above. Do you know how to use Photoshop? I know how to do a decent number of things, but I’m definitely no expert. Where was your first job? I was a sales associate at GameStop. What's the best place you have ever eaten? Olive Garden is fucking fantastic, fite me about it. Do you own a hair straightener? No, I don’t need one. Are you barefoot right now? I always am at home unless it’s cold enough to need slippers. Are you subscribed to any magazine? Nah. Do you need AC right now? No; it’s actually pretty cold inside rn. Do more people call you by a nickname or your first name? It’s just a derivative of my first name; “Britt.” But I guess that classifies as a nickname. Name something you're proud of. Deciding to actually *try* to move on and making massive progress through it with That Person. Lately I’ve wondered if I truly have, though. My PTSD has been really bad of the late. Does any accent annoy you? I can’t say it “annoys” me, given you can’t really control your accent, but I do find it difficult to understand extremely southern accents, even as a local. Do you take vitamins? This just reminded me I’ve been out of my Vitamin D prescription for a while… oops. I’m supposed to take it for my legs. When was the last time you took aspirin or some other pain reliever? Yesterday, actually. I had a pretty bad headache. When was the last time you deeply regretted something? God, last night, I was remembering and accepting some things. Lemme just say I regret the everloving fuck out of the subject. What is something that you regularly wear that makes you stand out? Besides my lip ring, nothing in particular. Do you prefer small birthday parties or big ones? Small. I just don’t like big gatherings in general. What song are you listening to now? “Creatures X: To The Grave” by Motionless In White. What was the most traumatic experience of your life? The breakup w/ Jason. I’ve told the story enough in surveys and I don’t wanna recite it again. Who was your childhood best friend? Brianna. Are you still friends now? On Facebook, anyway, but we don’t talk. If not, why? We just drifted apart. What is one career you don't think you could do no matter how much it paid? Butcher. No fucking way. Have you ever edited Wikipedia? No. Have you ever edited any other wiki? Oh yeah; I’m an admin at the Silent Hill wiki and have invested hours upon hours upon hours helping out there for years. I’m also a content moderator at the Team Ico wiki, and I’ve also assisted a lot at the meerkats wiki because it is a fucking grammatical and formatting catastrophe. I think that’s it? Wait no, I did a few fixes on the Dragons of Atlantis wiki when it was still at the Kabam website, too. Is there a website [besides social networking] that you check almost daily? Yeah, a few. Do you get scared when you know some virus or sickness is being passed? I wouldn’t say I get scared, no. Just more aware and cautious. What’s the worst illness you’ve had? I’ve had a fucking wicked stomach virus before. (TMI alert?) I would not stop puking to the point it was agonizing to the point of tears because my muscles were so exhausted. Which do you prefer: M&M's, Skittles, or Reese's Pieces? BITCH can I choose all???? But in almost any chocolate-related case, I will choose a Reese’s product. Where on your body would you never get a tattoo? I don’t plan on getting a face tattoo, or at least a big one. Maybe something small and cute. OH YEAH EW absolutely never getting my sclera tattooed. That looks painful as a motherfucker. Honestly, have you ever stuck gum under a table or desk? No, that shit is disgusting. If your parents could read your thoughts, would you be in trouble? Not usually. Mom might be mad sometimes when I’m angry at her. Have you ever egged somebody's house or car? No, that’s childish as shit. My childhood house was egged once, so it pisses me off especially. Do you like licorice? UGH no, that shit is disgusting. Did anybody ever read bedtime stories to you when you were younger? My mom did. Which natural disaster do you find the most terrifying? Tornadoes or earthquakes. Do you have a favorite Johnny Depp movie? What is it? Alice in Wonderland. If I gave you a Yo-Yo right now, could you do any tricks? Nope.

#survey #quiz #questions #questionnaire

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purplesurveys · 5 years ago

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907

Are you one of those lucky people to own a walk-in closet? lol lucky people. No I don’t have one of those. Is there a random object you own that has a huge personal significance? Well it’s more significant today because we had our virtual graduation this morning... so I’ll go with my graduation sash. Ever since I started university I’ve always wanted to wear my own sash in a physical ceremony so again, it sucks that our batch got affected by the pandemic. Do you use Google? For just about everything, yeah. Would you like to go swimming right now? That would be soooooo so nice. I’ve been going through old vacation photos and I really miss the beach. Can you play electric guitar? Nope.

Do you have an HDTV? My parents do. When was the last time you drank something through a straw? Around a month ago when my dad bought milk teas for me and my sister. Have you ever tried to teach yourself a different language? I didn’t teach myself per se, but I have tried my hand learning Spanish on Duolingo several times. It always comes in phases – I get passionate about learning and use the app for weeks, then it kinda burns out after a while. Right now I haven’t used it since I got sick in May. How long was your last phone call? A little longer than an hour, I think. It was pure silence though; we just wanted to hear each other’s surroundings. Do you need to repaint your nails? No, I never get it painted. Has there ever been a horoscope that came true for you? Psh. Are you a fan of industrial metal? Holy shit I feel so stupid right now. I thought this was referring to a literal kind of metal and I thought, that is such an odd thing to be a fan of...Google quickly taught me that it is in fact NOT a material for building infrastructure jdsskfjskf. Anyway, no I am not a fan. Are you one of those people who chew two pieces of gum, not one? Yeah, occasionally. I don’t like how one piece loses flavor all too quickly so I go ahead and pop two in. Do you have a wall calendar? Not since 2008. We only had a wall calendar in our old house; when we moved here we started to rely on digital clocks and our phones to tell the time. Have you ever taken the pictures from a calendar and used them as posters? I haven’t had a calendar like that, so no. I’ve done this with magazines though. Can you handle the cold? Hahaha no, I can’t. I was already in so much pain in 20ºC weather in Sagada, and I fared much worse in 12ºC Japan weather. I would still pick living in a colder climate in a heartbeat over a tropical one, though. Have you ever been to Canada? Nope. Do you believe in superstitions? Just one superstition involving my university that doubles as an inside joke, so it’s not like I take it 100% seriously. It’s a generations-old joke that’s impossible to ignore if you’re a student, so I just jumped in. When was the last time you took a taxi somewhere? It was from the airport to back home, but I forgot where we landed from. Bohol I think? Palawan? I don’t even know anymore. It was so inconvenient I begged my dad that we stop using taxis as transportation for our future trips. Would you ever join the army, airforce or navy? No. How old is the person you last kissed? 22. Is there a friend that you can always rely on to get you out of a jam? I don’t think so. When it comes down to it they all have their own different things going on and I can’t just call them whenever and expect them to come to me, and that’s okay. Generally though, I think my most reliable friends are probably Andrew and Angela. What was the most embarassing thing you've had to buy? I’ve never felt embarrassed by anything I had to buy, but it can get a little uncomfortable trying to buy napkins when my dress or pants are already soaked. I get over it quickly though, since menstruations are normal lol. Have you ever tried to balance the light switch between off and on? When I was a kid. I haven’t tried it in a while. Do you believe in ghosts / supernatural occurences? They’re fun to think about, sure, and I do enjoy watching the supernatural episodes of Buzzfeed Unsolved where they go ghost-hunting. I like to think that they somehow exist, but I still also very much maintain my skepticism at all times. Have you ever mistaken a person's gender? I’ve used the wrong pronouns accidentally but I always correct myself and apologize once I’ve noticed my blunder. What was the most expensive thing you've broken? My old iPhones. I’ve also sported a few dents on my car, but I wouldn’t say I broke the car. Has anyone texted you yet today? Not text, but online chat. We had our virtual graduation this morning so my inbox was swamped with congratulatory messages and such. Did you stay calm during the whole swine flu scare? I did, but I mean I was 11 and had no clue how serious it was supposed to be. I remember cheering when they suspended classes for a week because of a local swine flu case, so yep – still ignorant back then. Is there a light on in the room you're currently in? There is, but it isn’t turned on. Are your feet touching the floor? Nope, they’re on the bed. Have you ever been in a car accident? Mild ones, nothing too life-threatening. Do you usually make back-up plans? Yeah man I’m so anxious I always have at least plans A-C lined up in my head and ready to go whenever necessary. Can you focus well in high-stress situations? Usually. Without the aid of mascara, do you have long eyelashes? I do. I get compliments on it all the time too. I didn’t realize it was apparently a nice feature to have until more and more people pointed it out haha. Is there a kind of music you listen to that helps you release your anger? Yeah I have a playlist that’s lined up with all of my favorite loud, angry punk rock music specifically for when I’m pissed off. Are you one of those people who keep their feelings bottled up? I can, particularly whenever I feel like it’s not worth it to blow up. Is one of your friends extremely odd but you love them regardless? Not really. Aya’s pretty weird but I wouldn’t call her extremely odd. Is there anyone you dread going into public with? My mom when she’s mad. Are you a victim of writing run-on sentences? For the most part, I wouldn’t say so. If I write a run-on sentence it’s almost always in an informal setting where I’m more loose with punctuation, like if I’m chatting on IM or writing an answer on here. Still, I try to avoid them and I never do it in a formal situation. Graffiti: an art or an act of vandalism? They can be both. Some people who genuinely just want to fuck around vandalize, like how I’ve seen “Mark <3 Erica” in spray paint on public walls or some similar shit lol. But a lot of graffiti are art as well; many have important messages or symbolisms to say. Do you buy things online? I’ve done it a few times. Not regularly. I like being able to see and touch something before buying it. Are you easily frightened? I definitely am but at the same time I’m really into horror movies and serial killers and a ghost-hunting series? Hahaha it’s weird. I guess I enjoy the thrill that comes with having those interests. Do you have a favorite model? Over the years I’ve loved Elizabeth Jane Bishop, Kiko Mizuhara, Taylor Marie Hill, Gigi Hadid, Bella Hadid, and (controversial pick!) Kendall Jenner. Have you ever watched Titanic? So many times. Honestly, one of my favorites. What's your current facebook display picture of? It’s my official graduation photo wearing my graduation sash! :) I finally changed it last Friday after I got the email saying I’m on the list of graduates. How about your IM display picture? My main IM is my Messenger, which also uses my Facebook photo. Is there anyone whose hair you envy? Gabie’s for one. Hers is really smooth and silky and wavy. Would you act in a movie if it offered a role? If I was going to be a mostly unseen extra in a blockbuster film and still be paid like $600 for it, then I don’t see why I wouldn’t take it. Does speaking in front of people make you nervous? Only if there’s going to be an unscripted aspect to it that’ll make me have to come up with answers on the spot, like miting de avances or thesis defense. If I have a script or even just a general gist of what I want to say, I have no problem improvising and speaking in front of a crowd. Can you read in a moving vehicle or does it make you sick? It makes me sick but it hasn’t stopped me before. Have you ever dated someone who was extremely shy? I’m the extremely shy person... Or have you dated someone who took things too fast? I felt that way with Gab at first when she wanted to have sex like two months after we started dating, though I was scared mainly because it was going to be my first time and I wanted to make sure I was comfortable. Now that I’m a little older, two months seems like a healthy amount of time. Does the idea of driving 220 mph sound exciting to you? Sounds terrifying. It could be fun, but only if we’re in the middle of nowhere where there’s loads of space to go that fast and no chance of crashing. Everyone has a weakness, what's yours? Food. Do you or anyone you know have an account on Deviantart? I had classmates in high school who had accounts but I’m not sure if they still have it, or if Deviantart is even still as active as I knew it to be. Thoughts on the Dunkin Donut commercial that says "America runs on Dunkin'"? It’s a creative slogan but if I was American I wouldn’t want a doughnut place claiming to represent my country. It cute though. Do you bother buying movies on DVD anymore or do you just download them? I watch them on Netflix, which is still technically like buying them since we pay for the subscription anyway. Do you listen to Daughtry? No. Do you get your eyebrows waxed? I don’t. Waxing looks so painful to me. How do you take your coffee? Lots of creamer or milk, a little sugar. I like trying out different coffees, but when I’m simply relaxing I do want my coffee as least bitter as possible. If you have a dog, what breed is it? I have an aspin mix, though we never figured out what Kimi’s other half is. And I also have a beagle. Have you found someone who makes you unconditionally happy? I don’t know if 'unconditionally’ is possible but yes, I do have people who make me very happy. Do you have a friend who always seems to be dying their hair? Not anymore. Jo used to dye her hair like every month though and she must have been able to go through the entire rainbow. She looked sooo good in each of the colors. Would you swap names with a friend? I love all their names but I don’t see why that would be necessary. Do you plan on going to university? I did. I graduated today. Guys who wear muscle shirts, yes or no? Idk man, they can wear whatever they want. Are you a fan of Carrie Underwood? No. I liked some of her singles when I was younger, but I’m not a fan in that I have her albums and know her lesser-known songs. Do you make playlists on iTunes? I used to, when I still used iTunes. I make playlists on Spotify now. Have you ever forgotten someone's birthday? I don’t think so. Are you scared of being left behind? Yessir. I’m super competitive, so I hate the feeling. Do you remember your last dream? No. I’m really bad at remembering them unless they’re nightmares or insanely strange. I do know that I dreamt while we were watching mass earlier on the television though, hahaha. Do you know someone who is an obsessed Star Wars fan? So many people in my circle are. Is politics something you don't care about? No. If there’s anything I give tons of fucks about, it’s that. What's a movie/tvshow/book/series that is way overrated? I’ll go with the first things I thought of...in that order: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before; Stranger Things (it’s good, but not as good as people hyped it to be); I don’t really read anymore; and what do you mean by series? Just realized I only gave 2 out of 4 answers lol oh well. Do you think Barbie presents an unhealthy image to young girls? I don’t like how its physical features are still unrealistic; but I appreciate their attempts at diversity. I can’t say it was upsetting seeing a Filipino-themed Barbie :) Is there a pet that you desperately want? All I ever wanted were dogs, and now I’ve got two of them. Would you ever get your bellybutton pierced? Nope. Are you musically talented? Hahahahaha Have you ever shot a gun? Not a real one, so no. Athenna’s dad had this practice gun he used for target practice (duh) and I messed with that a few times. Do you have a friend that always changes their mind last second? That’s Gabie. She’s lucky she’s my girlfriend and that I love her, because it’s actually a big pet peeve of mine. Are you not afraid to voice your opinion? Yup. The only time I don’t say it out loud is if it’s unnecessary and if it’s going to be simply disrespectful. An example would be when my uncle offered to make me a carrot cake for my grad gift, and I just said yes because it was already generous enough for him to offer me a free cake when he runs a food business. In reality it’s not my favorite cake at all; it wouldn’t even be in my top 20. Are you one of those people who are always pushing their limits? Yes, I definitely overwork myself to the point of exhaustion and burnout. But I honestly prefer doing things and being busy than sitting around. Is there a word that you will always find humorous? Bubbling. Because Drake and Josh.

Do you frown upon immature people? Typically. Have you ever slipped on ice and hurt yourself? This may have happened to me once or twice when I was still regularly visiting the ice skating rink at the mall. People were always super nice and helped me get up, though. Do you try to have an intimidating impression? I don’t try. Apparently it’s naturally the vibe I give off. Living in the big city or chilling in the country? BIG CITY. Always the big city. I’ve gone to the country/province so many times; I already know what it’s like there. I’ll always prefer a noisy city. No one seems to obey the legal drinking age, do they? Hahahaha a lot seem not to. I know so many high school kids who’ve had a drink before turning 18. Do you like your country's flag? Sure. I like that we can switch up the colors depending on if we’re at war or not. Have you ever made a totally amazing snow fort? I’ve never even seen snow before. Do you use Bounty Paper Towels? No. Are you the one usually behind the camera or the one in the picture? BEHIND If you get married, will you have a traditional wedding? Traditional, yes. Religious, no. Do you feel you’re slowly losing one of your friends? No. But now that I’m no longer in school, I really hope I’ll continue to be friends with my orgmates. I’ll certainly keep in touch as much as I can. If you draw, what's one thing you always have trouble with? Everything about it. Is there someone you know moving away any time soon? No. I do know my friend’s sister had already moved and started her new job in California, but when the pandemic started she had to go back here. This virus is just ruining so many great things for everyone, man... Allergic to anything? Nope. How many cars have you owned? Zero. I drive one; can’t say I own it because my parents bought it. What are you going to do after this? Maybe take another survey.

#survey #surveys

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baekkieberry · 6 years ago

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𝕦𝕟𝕙𝕠𝕝𝕪 𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐧!𝐚𝐮 𝐛𝐚𝐞𝐤𝐡𝐲𝐮𝐧

Genre: demon!AU, Fluff. (angst + smut in future chapters), Supernatural

Characters: Baekhyun, EXO (mostly beagle line + Kyungsoo)

Pairing: Baekhyun x Reader

Summary: Baekhyun had been a demon and living in hell his whole life, hanging with his friends and having way to much fun, until one day he gets kicked out for going too far. He's forced to live in earth until he redeems himself, until he met you, and maybe he doesn’t want to go back anymore.

Warnings: none

Word Count: 3005

A/N: hii this is my first fic :) i got inspired by the headcanon made by @youxidol

hope i did a good job ;)

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masterlist: intro chap1

Byun Baekhyun was the most fun guy you´ll ever meet. He was playful and basically could change his attitude from being a 5 year old to a sexy a teasing boy. He loved the attention and making everyone laugh, playing jokes on everyone since he was small and his older brother told him to put vaseline on the door knob in the bathroom. His mom was really upset but somehow he got away with it.

Since that moment he loved practical jokes, and that's how he met his bestfriends Chanyeol, Sehun, Jongdae and Kyungsoo. Chanyeol was his first friend when he entered middle school, they were both so playful that they became inseparable quickly: staying at each other houses and when they both had 8 they got they’re demon powers together. Demon powers were something amazing that, as everyone in hell learnt, was giving at a certain time between the years of 0-10, and if you didn’t develop them you were bashed from hell and returned to earth as a new soul without the knowledge of hell. So Baekhyun and Chanyeol were really happy, and they took advantage of this as much as they could.

Practical jokes were always easy with powers, moving the chair of someone or purposely spilling someone’s drink on themselves was really fun, but they took it to another level. Maybe moving the backpack of the history teacher to the ceiling or the rooftop, putting bugs on the directors coffee, baby powder instead of sugar…. yeah it’s they’re fault that there’s a penalty for using powers at school. That’s also the reason why Chanyeol and Baekhyun knew every police station and police officer in hell. They did so many pranks and illegal stuff that they visited the station 5 times a week, but left saying that it was hell and that demons were meant to torment so that’s what they did. It was a weird system

They soon met Sehun when the school bully was stealing his money. Sehun was a shy boy but when you got to know him he was as playful as ChanBaek although he was a whiny baby. But he had nothing to compare to Chen, they met him through Sehun as he was his neighbor. They couldn't stand him at the beginning but he was so lovable and fun that the four of them were now a little clique.

Through the years their clique growed and became really popular at college, now being 9 friends that hanged out everyday and were now called EXO. Girls always wanted to be with the most fun but scary demons around, they had girlfriends from time to time but they didn’t find them too amusing so they breakup with them in just a few months.

But as fun as Baekhyun life was, he did get in a lot of trouble for the amount of jokes that he did. Sure Chanyeol and Sehun eventually went with him but didn’t get in such trouble like he did. He was known as the Bart Simpson of hell but with powers. It all started with his neighbours and then it went further and further until it got to prank the government and that’s when the downfall started.

He had messed with the actual true fallen angel Satan a few times before, and let’s be honest the guy didn’t loved it, he was always bitter and just busy with a ton of things so Baekhyun playing around wasn’t something he enjoyed but he could easily get rid of him by blocking his powers for a few days. But oh boy this only made Baekhyun more eager to mess with him. Until he got to far. He’s prank was childish but he did it anyways, he decided to get inside Satan’s house and hide in the bathroom until the angel went in and started peeing. Baekhyun decided to take a photo but forgot to silenced his phone so he was caught. And as a punishment he was sent to earth and got just a few of his powers so that he could survive. “You can come back when you do something to change our mind” “And you can come in my bed whenever you want” he said while winking at the secretary taking notes.

And within seconds, he was living in Canada, Vancouver and he was living in hell. People were so nice and oh did Satan outdid himself with this one. He lived in the most friendly neighbourhood and his neighbors were nerds or old lady’s that always asked him to help them with the laundry. Yep, he saw a lot of old lady underwear mostly everyday, and was forced to chit chat with the nerds while waiting for the elevator.

But probably the worst part about all of this was his neighbour Sabrina. She was an old lady that literally saw him everyday and obligated him into eating her food and doing her laundry twice a week. Baekhyun really hated her and especially when she called him ‘sweetcheeks’.

Even though he hated her and mostly everyone in earth he tried to keep a low profile and fit in with the rest of the canadians. He would wear normal clothes at day, but in the night he mostly went to frat parties at different universities and flirt with girls, hook up with them and when they were fast asleep, he made them disappear from his house. Sabrina quickly noticed the noise that they made while hooking up so one time he called Baekhyun into his house “Sweetcheeks, I am a very very old woman and I well it’s not nice to disturb me at night, could you tone it down?” she said. “Well they like screaming I’m sorry Sabrina” he said while smirking. “Don’t be dirty Sweetcheeks that’s not okay, you could make it up to me by doing my laundry right now, the basket is there” Baekhyun rolled his eyes but did it anyway.

One thing he liked was how his friends somehow started visiting him. Yeol was the first one to do it. He came one day at night and scared him “holy shit Yeol you scared the shit out of me” he said at the sight of his best friend infront of him. “Ah Baekhyun you don’t know the amount of places I’ve visited looking for you, I’ve seen some pretty weird shit dude” Chanyeol said while hugging him. Turns out demons can see demons that visit earth but humans can’t. Chanyeol was the one who found Baekhyun and then his friends started visiting him everyday to hang out with him and play jokes to the nerds upstairs.

He really hated Vancouver. But he loved the coffee at a Kafka’s so he couldn't complain. Especially the day he saw you. You were wearing a “University of Columbia” sweatshirt and some leggings, but you looked so beautiful he couldn’t help but choke with his coffee. He observed as you sat down near the window and left your backpack fall hard in the floor, you had made a lot of noise so everyone looked at you “Sorry hee hee” you said shyly. He giggled but continue watching as you seemed to be falling asleep.

You got interrupted by a barista that said that your cookies were ready to be taken so you took the and left. He followed you to a little park that was basically the “Dude Chilling Park” and you sat and begin to eat you cookies while you looked at your phone. Baekhyun was observing you from afar and was so amazed by your nonchalant way of doing everything: eating, laughing at maybe a meme you saw, looking at your cookies like they were magical and how your hair fell perfectly so that it didn’t hide your face.

He saw you leaving and he decided it was time to go home, since probably his demon friends were at his home playing a joke at Sabrina. And he was right, when he came he saw Sehun and Chen putting oil in the floor outside Sabrina’s house “Hey Baek, Soo is making dinner and Yeol is playing with your xbox.” Baekhyun nodded and went to his apartment, he went directly to the kitchen “Hyung what are you making?” he asked and Kyungsoo didn’t answered, so Baekhyun stole something that he was doing and earned himself a scream. It was a little tradition that the guys went at night to his house and chilled for a while and left at around 12pm.

He started going to Columbia University parties trying to find you, but he never saw you, so he went to the cafe everyday at the same time, but you didn’t appear. He went to the Park to find you laying on grass but this time you were wearing a pink sweatshirt and a white skirt and he thought you couldn’t have looked more beautiful. You were yet again eating pastries but a different ones. You were talking on the phone so he got closer so he could hear you. “Yeah Irene I know he is cute but you know he is incredibly boring” you said while stuffing your mouth with a muffin. This was the first time he heard you voice clearly and it literally made his ears melt. He was pretending to read a book in the grass near you. “Yeah look he’s just not my type, he doesn’t even like oreo like what am supposed to do with someone like that?” He giggled, he couldn’t believe you loved oreo cookies that that was an important request for being your boyfriend. “Look either he starts liking them or where done okay? find me someone cool and funny okay? yEAH I KNOW I SAY OKAY TOO MUCH OKAY?” you were talking with your mouth full and screaming, and he absolutely loved it. You were funny and cute and his stomach was experiencing weird things.

Baekhyun now was really starting to get concerned for what he was feeling, he has never felt this way before. You made his heart flutter with your addiction to pastries and oreos. Your voice was music for his ears and he was always thinking of you. He went everyday to the park and everynight he promised himself he’ll talk to you the next day, but never actually did it. His friends now we're starting to notice something was up.

“Baekhyun you’re acting weird” Sehun said one night. He had been smiling without noticing, thinking about how today you tried to feed a squirrel and got scared that you screamed everytime it came closer. “Huh? Hyung what do you mean?” He asked, and Yeol turned off the TV and turned to look at him. “Baek you had been spacing out and suddenly giggling or smiling without a reason” Chanyeol said looking actually concerned. “You guys is nothing” Baekhyun said trying to hide that he was actually thinking about your hair. “Are you sick?” Sehun asked “What? no dude wtf I’m okay really” And then Chanyeol started looking at Baekhyun suspiciously “Wait a second I know this behavior” Baekhyun started panicking cause his best friend knew him better than no one “Yeol really leave it” Baekhyun stand up and try to leave to his room but Sehun picked him up and sat him in the couch. “YOU’RE IN LOVE” Chanyeol screamed and Sehun fall from the couch. “I’m not in love okay? she doesn’t even KNOW I exist!” Baekhyun said exposing himself. “wAIT she’s human? like actual mortal? like actual girl that dies in a few years?” Sehun said from the floor. “Yah don’t say stuff like that but yeah” Both Chanyeol and Sehun stared at Baekhyun “Wow I mean I never thought this day would come” Chanyeol said “Dude it’s probably temporary its no big deal” Baekhyun said trying to convince himself “Nah ah Hyung that a lie, you’ve been like this for a week already” Sehun said.

Baekhyun sighed and decided to spill everything out “Fine okay? I like this girl really much and I haven’t even talked to her, but I go everyday at the same hour to the same park and watch her eat pastries. She makes me feel warm inside and even wanting to be a human so that I could talk to her normally. There I said it”. Chanyeol looked at his best friend with amazement. He couldn’t believe that this day finally came. “Well why don’t you talk to her?” Sehun questioned “I really have tried but I don’t have the courage, although I try to do nice things for her” Chanyeol laughed at this and said “Look you already know a lot about her since you stalked her” Baekhyun felt himself relax and started laughing. The other two joined him and suddenly they were on the floor dying of laughter. “Look if she likes to eat a lot why don’t you ask Soo to do something for her? and right now we can concentrate on doing a prank on that nerd downstairs.” Chanyeol said and so they did.

The next day Kyungsoo went in the morning and prepared all kinds of pastries that Baekhyun wanted “SOO IT MUST HAVE OREO’S OKAY?” Baekhyun yelled nervously “Oh my god you already told me that ten times could you please shut up?” Baekhyun looked at him and said “No and put more oreos” Baekhyun was really nervous that he made a little zootopia lunch box appear and started putting every pastry there. When they both finished, Baekhyun headed to the park and so you already eating thin oreos.

He could feel his skin burning and sweating all over his shirt, he took a big breath and started walking your direction. ‘God did you really had to look more beautiful today?’ he thought. You were wearing blue jeans and a simple white t-shirt with white vans. Baekhyun stand in front of you and you looked up. “Hi uh I’ve made to many of this and I was wondering if you want some of them?” He asked. ‘Holy fuck he is gorgeous’ you thought. You stood up and saw that he had a little zootopia lunch box “So you happen to have pastries on your zootopia lunch box?” you questioned. Baekhyun was getting nervous “Yeah?” You looked at him for a second and he swear his heart stopped for a second “Yeah okay whatever can I see which ones you have?” You asked while sitting and gesturing him to do the same beside you. He sat down and opened his lunch box with trembling hands “Hey don’t be nervous you’re the one with questiWOW ARE THOSE OREO?” you screamed while taking the little oreo cake that Kyungsoo made. Baekhyun laughed and said “Hey they are not questionable and they are delicious” You looked at him and said “Do you promise me that they don’t have drugs or something in them?” You hold your pinky up to him and he hold it with his “Promise you they only have flour and a few drops of poison” You laughed and ate the lil cake. “Holy mother of God this is the most delicious thing ever where did you get this from?” You were really questioning if they were from heaven. Baekhyun just watched you and touched his pinky “I made them yesterday, I really have a lot of free time” he was just so amazed that he was talking to you that he felt like flying “They’re better than the ones I usually get…” You said looking at him “Maybe I should bring you more one of this days” He smiled at you “Oh my god you can come here whenever you want to” Baekhyun wanted to say ‘that’s what she said’ but he didn’t want to ruin it until you laughed and said “Oh my god THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID HAHAHAHAHA” Baekhyun thought he was dreaming. You were literally his dream girl “You won’t believe me if I told you that’s exactly what I was thinking?” He laughed and watch you eat your cake happily and enjoyed it like it was everything “What’s your name?” He said “Y/N” You said smiling. “Well Y/N if you liked my pastries so much I come here tomorrow and bring you more” You thought he was joking and you said “Maybe you should mister…?” “Baekhyun” Wow did his name was beautiful. “Well nice to meet you mister Baekhyun” You said smiling.

You finished maybe all of his pastries and he insisted he didn’t care and that tomorrow he’d bring you more amazing one’s. You actually liked him. He was funny and you both shared a sense of humor so similar that soon enough became comfortable around him. He wasn’t like the other guys you’ve met. He was actually charming by nature but not too much. He told you funny things like him having to clean his neighbour Sabrina’s underwear and he promised you he would introduce you two, since you told him she was your role model after that. You had to leave for class but didn’t want to leave him so you made him promised he’d come tomorrow. You did asked him to make a lot of pinky promises and he loved it. Even if only touching your pinky was the closest he could get for now, he was absolutely okay with it.

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Hii tell me if you liked it I will make chapter 1 later hee hee

#baekhyun #baekhyun aesthetic #baekhyun fanfic #exo baekhyun fanfic #demon baekhyun #byun baekhyun #exo scenarios #exo imagines #exo #exo baekhyun #chanyeol #chen #kyungsoo #demon au

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houseofglass · 6 years ago

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When Jensen released the video announcing the conclusion of the series, I had a very weird feeling. I respect their decision but I think it was more Jensen idea than Jared and this annoys me a lot, but it seems that if you say something like that you are not a real fan. What do you think about it? You have no idea of the insults I took because I dared to say that Jared and Jensen think differently...

I agree with you Nonny. I think it was Jensen’s idea too.

Bottom line: Jensen wants to move on, therefore, the show must end.

Longer version:

Jared has wanted to leave the show for a long time. Or, maybe not leave, but definitely not be in front of a camera for a while. He’s said that he’d like some time off after spn ends, but any actor that takes time off rarely gets back in the spotlight. But he wouldn’t leave as long as Jensen wanted to keep doing the show. Jared didn’t want to put the crew out of work (Oprah had similar concerns with her show, and I think she gave two or three years notice before ending), but he was also burning out. The show gracefully allowed more characters to reappear, which gave Jared a lighter workload. This worked for years.

Jensen wants to stay in the industry, but that means they can’t just end spn, they have to plan it out to the last day. In that planning is prep work for Jensen to show the industry who he is, what he’s capable of, and that he’s on the market again. That involves PR work to help guide public perceptions. This can be seen by Jensen’s public image lately: Architectural Digest shoot, King Bacchus, FBBC heavily promoted, and the texting ad, just to name the ones off the top of my head. This is radically different from Jared’s public persona: meeting fans, partying, drinking, and marathon running.

The video showed me that Jensen is ready for the next step, but Jared needs more time to mourn. But houseofglass, you said Jared wanted to leave! Yes, but he holds his emotions much closer to the surface than Jensen does. I think Jared, even though he’s tired, would have kept going on with the show just to keep his lifestyle afloat. I also think that even though they planned this out, seriously planned it, that it wasn’t real for Jared until they told the crew. As long as the workplace was in the dark, Jared could keep his fantasy of leaving alive. But once it became reality, several things probably fell into place for him.

What are those things? This depends on your perceptions Nonny. I don’t know if you’re a tinhat, a shipper, or a casual fan, so I’ll give a couple of explanations.

Casual Fan:Both have said they’ll keep going until the writing doesn’t work. Well, objectively, that would’ve been a few seasons ago. I mean, God’s sister? Crowley had a mother? WTF? The writers have been adding extra characters, presumably to give J2 time off, but the show has suffered as a result. Anyway. Let’s move on.

Jared’s adult life has been consumed by this show. He was 22 when he filmed the pilot, and is now 37. He has no idea of what adult life is without the show. Everything hinges on it. Travel, family time, filming, vacations, work related PR, conventions, meeting fans, all of it. Sure, he acted before the show and had a life before it as well. But his formative adult years were spent at one job. Imagine being married during the same age range for the same duration. Ending that marriage, whether toxic or not, is difficult.

Without the show, Jared has to figure out who he is and what he wants to do to fill his days. That’s really scary for someone who has mental illness or spends a lot of time inside their own head. As soon as the crew was notified, Jared had to face up to the fact that he agreed to this, that his life will now change, that his cornerstone is going to be gone, that it’s now REAL. So while he might have been ready to move on intellectually, he wasn’t quite ready to deal with the reality of it.

Jensen wants to keep working and try new things. Supernatural is holding him back. Don’t @ me, it is holding him back. He’s typecast. Pigeonholed. He’s Dean Winchester; tough guy with a soft heart. Trying to get another role will be difficult. If he stays in the industry and works behind the scenes he has a better chance, but first he needs to put spn behind him.

He knows Jared wants a break. He knows the crew will be unemployed. He knows spn contributes a lot to Vancouver/BC’s economy. He also knows he has to do difficult things to get what he wants. He has to end the show, and do it gracefully. I have no doubt he’s shaken up by his decision, but is comfortable with it.

Jared, however, seemed less comfortable with it even though he’s made it clear he wants a break. Wanting something and getting it are two different emotional states.

Shipper:Shipping isn’t a problem for J2. Kim Manners used to show them the Wincest fics and even print them out and post them on a bulletin board. J2 found it funny and a good release of creative energy. Neither appeared to have any issue with shipping.

Until they did.

Jensen could brush off all Destiel shipping questions pretty easily at first. It was an expression of creativity and his attitude was ‘to each their own’. But some Destiel shippers became militant and started asking invasive questions at cons. They also started hounding him on SM about Destiel. He’s handled it very well over the years, despite the hatred he received in return. But when he said, “Destiel doesn’t exist” at a con, I think that was the turning point for him.

Dean Winchester was a character Jensen really liked. Kinda tough, liked cars, masculine, good-natured, free lifestyle, that kind of thing. But somehow Dean got boiled down to half of Destiel. And I don’t mean with just the fans. I have eyes, I’ve seen the show, they queerbaited Cas and Dean when Cas was new. Although I think a lot of that queerbaiting was in the editing room. They could slow film down or change the colour saturation if they chose to, and this could change the audience’s perceptions of what’s going on.

Sidebar: I watched a show named unREAL which was about the producers of a show like The Bachelor, and in unREAL they demonstrated how to make two people look like they had chemistry. I had to pause the show, rewind, and watch again. I didn’t know that slowing film down could make glances seem significant. I know now.

So, here’s Jensen, playing a character he likes, only to have it 'twisted’ into something he doesn’t believe it is. For a while this was fine. Let the fans think what they want, it brings in ratings, it doesn’t change how he acted. Then it wasn’t fine, he got more and more irritated with the whole thing. If he kept going on with the show, he might have had to play a character in a way that was more like pandering and less like being authentic to the character.

On that note, Jensen has been distancing himself from Misha over the years. Why? Because Misha fuels Destiel whenever possible. Well, not lately. He’s switched to Sastiel. Anyway, despite being able to draw a crowd at a con with a Destiel panel, Jensen only does one a year: Jus In Bello. Please gently correct me if I’m wrong here, but I’m sure there’s only one Destiel panel and it’s in Rome. Jensen participated in the charity campaign with Misha, but not much since then. I suspect he did it because TPTB insisted he do something, and he agreed to the YANA campaign. Remember, celebrities are beholden to PR.

So now Jensen is doing a show with a person that isn’t respecting a boundary (stop pushing Destiel), and the perceptions of his character have changed in a way he doesn’t like. Time to end the show. Being a true professional, he ensured the fans and crew had enough notice to adjust to the idea.

Jared didn’t seem bothered by any shipping at all. If this is the primary reason for the show’s end, it was Jensen’s idea more than Jared’s IMO.

Tinhat:I believe Jared wanted to end the show after PR tried to separate him and Jensen by insisting they get married to women. Jared’s first breakdown was right about that time, and I always wondered if it was because he was living in a happy bubble with his lover and his show, and now he had to pander to the (perceived) hetero audience. Leading men just could not be gay back in the day. There’s more outed gay actors now, but fifteen years ago things were different. He held on, did as he was told, and his world continued.

Jared’s marriage seems to be falling apart, and I, personally, suspect it’s already over and done. Papers signed, custody arrangements made, properties split. If the show was still going on, he’d have to field questions about his divorce. But, if the show is announced it’s ending and then he announces his divorce, the divorce will take a back seat to the show’s finale. Timing is everything.

Jensen has seemed happy as a pig in shit for the entire run of the show. Sure, he’s had bad days, but mostly he’s enjoyed his time on spn and the lifestyle it’s awarded him. He didn’t seem as upset about getting married as Jared did (seriously, go find the pics of Jared’s wedding. He looked like he was kissing something repugnant), but Jensen had a different upbringing that conditioned him for a celebrity lifestyle. He probably knew beards were mandatory and it was just a matter of when, not if.

In order for them to still spend a ridiculous amount of time together, they had to keep the show going. It wasn’t a problem, the network was fine with it. But the pressure was hard for Jared and has been for a long time. If not for Jensen, Jared would have left years ago.

But then they announced the show was ending and their reactions were a bit off. Jensen appeared somewhat together, a bit excited, a bit sad, but ready. Jared looked like he’d been crying for hours and still had days worth of tears to shed.

The tinhat in me says this is because their entire world is about to change, and it may not be for the better. Nobody can predict the future. How much of J2’s success as a couple is reliant on them being together for most of the time? How will they navigate their relationship if only one is working? Will they come out? Probably not, if Jensen wants to stay in the industry. Jared won’t have his lover acting with him, he won’t have his lover for most of the hours in a day/week/month/year. He’s going to be alone, and that’s scary.

For the tinats: I’m not saying their relationship won’t survive. I don’t have a crystal ball. But it might be rocky at first while they figure out their new dynamics.

TL;DR: yes, Jensen seemed happier than Jared in the video. Jared seemed much more upset, and even tried to look at Jensen, who looked toward Misha instead of meeting his eyes.

Oh, and I didn’t really address Misha in this because it’s always been said that as long as J2 want the show to continue, it will. Him being in the video is more of a PR thing to me: Misha also needs to build his portfolio and I suspect his agent has negotiated more uh, 'lead exposure’? for him. I don’t know what the correct phrasing is, but he’s been lumped with J2 more and more lately.

Oh, and if you read this far, thanks for letting me babble :)

#answering stuff #spn #finale #J2 #Jensen Ackles #Jared Padalecki #Misha Collins #tinhat #shipping #Anonymous

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