#Auto face capture

[soobnny]

cops and robbers — kim seungmin

trope: kim seungmin x reader | strangers-to-lovers ; use of profanity ; mentions of a one night stand once ; he’s a fuckboy basically summary: fuckboy kim seungmin takes interest in the quiet, photography major who lives just across his dorm. wc: 3.8k words

The first time Kim Seungmin sees you, you have a camera strapped around your neck.

You’re just across his dorm room, hands fiddling on the buttons of your DSLR and eyes shifting where you can get your eyes on, looking.

Probably for something that can be added to your portfolio, he thinks. Not that he cares.

It isn’t all that hard to spot him either. Seungmin is easy to find, with a cigarette lit between his fingers and the smell of smoke vexing your senses. His entire body is leant on the wall, eyebrow slit and all to truly sell the fuckboy character.

You lock eyes when you finally find the source of smoke, and you think for a second to tell him to stop. It’s not what you do. Instead, you shift your attention.

It’s never a good idea to be within distance of boys like him anyway. There are other things to think about, things much more important. Like what you’ll have for dinner, the old pair of shoes you need to replace, your final portfolio.

Sighing, you look down at your camera.

You hope the low ISO 200 can capture whatever the fuck you want to take a photo of tonight—long shutter speeds, white balance on auto, manual mode. You’d be fucked if you didn’t have these settings memorized.

Different for day. Different for night. It’s a hassle, but it’s a hassle you keep up with if you want to graduate.

“You know, it isn’t safe for pretty girls like you to be out this late.”

Raspy. It comes from just behind you, and you have half a mind to turn to face the threat when you’re greeted face to face with a smirking Kim Seungmin. He sounds kitschy, looks kitchsy and it seems like he knows it as well.

You roll your eyes. “I think I’ll be fine.”

He stares at you for a minute.

“Whatever you say, princess.” The bass of his voice is a little terrifying, but not enough for you to shuffle away.

He would’ve been more if you weren’t hellbent on the idea of finishing your portfolio for the semester. Nothing scares you more than a failing class.

Not even Seungmin.

He doesn’t seem to mind your lack of chalant. He doesn’t really care. The boy has never been the type to stick his nose in other people’s business, talking to others only when necessary. Being annoyingly chatty was reserved for his friends.

In hindsight, starting a conversation with you should’ve been the first outlier he noticed on his sudden shift of behavior. But he doesn’t. Instead, he shrugs his shoulders and separates himself from you.

He was only out for a smoke anyway.

+

The next time he sees you is after his one-night-stand-gone-wrong.

It’s still at night, just a week later. And you look exactly like the way you were, camera in your hand and an unbothered look on your face.

Though, when you hear footsteps echoing from just a short distance and spot a speeding figure coming from his room, your face twists in disdain.

You were only out to practice a certain exposure you want to perfect. Not to bear witness to whatever the fuck happens in Seungmin’s dorms.

When he locks eyes with you for the second time that week, you pretend not to notice anything.

“You again?”

He’s shameless. A bit of his overgrown sideburns are sticking to his skin, shirt lazily thrown on, and sweat still glistening on his forehead. You don’t want to think of the connotations of what your observations could possibly mean.

You simply look at him, the way his face morphs in recognition and the way his neck cranes just a little. He looks like he’s in his element, sweat and fucked-out eyes and furrowed eyebrows.

You’re the exact opposite, picking at the buttons of your camera with sleep-riddled eyes and air struck hair.

Sighing, you push yourself off your unflattering position on the ground, brushing off the rubble that might’ve stuck on your pants from sitting there for so long.

You slip back into your dorm room without uttering a single response to the boy.

+

He sees you everywhere after that.

And truthfully, it was starting to get annoying. Especially when the boys started catching on to his staring.

While Changbin was narrating stories of nights Seungmin couldn’t care for the details of, he finds himself scanning the student hall.

He thinks he doesn’t know the reason why, or at least not until he finds you eating with some other girl.

Your eyes are intently glued to the screen of your camera. He wonders what photos could litter the memory of your SD card.

Before he can even shift his attention back to whatever the fuck was happening back with his friends, he’s caught red-handed. Shit-eating grins surround the table, a few howls here and there, and shoves that Seungmin could've gone without.

“Is she your next target, Seungmin?”

He wants to vomit at the word choice.

“Target?” He scoffs. You weren’t a target. “She isn’t even my type.”

Kim Seungmin brushes off their noise, canceling out the ill-intentions they’ve made up for him. He just sits there, unperturbed by everything until his friends finish eating.

He looks at you one last time before leaving. It’s hard not to.

It doesn’t save him from further teasing.

+

“You’re a photography major?”

You’re caught off guard by the sudden voice behind you.

It seems Seungmin has made a habit of surprising you when you least expect to see him.

“...I am.”

You finally reply after letting the question hang in the air for a few seconds longer than necessary. He doesn’t care, only cares that you responded to him.

“You don’t talk much, do you?”

Is he only capable of asking you questions?

“We’re not friends.” You deadpan. His lips pull into a smile.

“I’m just curious why you have a camera with you all the time. Loosen up.”

He doesn’t say anything after that, just lets the silence hang there. He knows he can tick you off even more, but he doesn’t find himself wanting to. He simply walks back to the dorms with you.

When he walks too fast, he stalls—for just enough time for you to catch up with him.

You fail to notice the way he shifts his position, always standing by the busy side of the road.

+

“Are you smoking again?”

It’s the first time you initiate conversation, and he snaps out of the trance he’d been in. He was outside again, similar to when he’d first met you. And you were still you, with your camera, and the way you lift it to fit your eye through the viewfinder.

“Why? Are you starting to care about me, princess?” There’s that same smirk evident, and it seems he took your question as invitation to stand next to where you are.

You want to stomp on his face.

“‘M just asking. I really couldn’t care less.”

You can smell the smoke off of him, warranting you to take a full step away. You’ve always hated its scent, and the second-hand smoke exposure.

In turn, Seungmin runs a hand through his hair. It’s shorter, looks like he got it trimmed recently. When you put your camera away in favor of leaving the site of crime, the boy attempts to stop you.

“Leaving already?”

“It isn’t exactly part of my tuition fee to talk to people like you.”

You sound harsh, and it’s an odd feeling to suddenly feel offended about a simple phrase he’s heard multiple times before.

People like you.

What the hell was that even supposed to mean?

“Spare me a few more minutes, angel.”

You don’t bother arguing any further. Besides, you still needed a few more practice photos of where you were looking. You lift your camera back up to peek through its viewfinder, and you can only hope the noise of your photos is enough to drown him out.

“What are you doing out here so late, anyway? Didn’t I tell you it wasn’t safe?”

“I also remember telling you I’ll be fine.” You grumble, snapping a shot. He moves closer to you when you open your mouth to continue talking. “Practicing helps ease the feeling of dread, like I’d be less likely to fail if I did.”

Seungmin notices the calluses on your hands, rough with hard work, and then his eyes trail to your side profile. The light exposure from the moon makes you look prettier than you already do.

Wait, what?

The boy has never stared at someone’s hands and drawn a conclusion before, never taken the time to admire and talk to someone he wasn’t planning on screwing over either.

There’s a first for everything.

“Smoking helps.”

You snort at his sudden comment. Too much time has passed by for him to suddenly butt back into the conversation. The timing makes you laugh a little.

His heart races at the sound.

“Are there thoughts when you feel dread?” He asks, albeit a little silent, in case you didn’t want to talk about it.

You contemplate whether you should talk about it. It’s an unlikely conversation to have with an unlikely person like Kim Seungmin.

Against your better judgement, you answer.

“I don’t know. It just feels like… it feels like my heart is palpitating. I feel scared for some reason. I guess I just really don’t want to fail. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah. It does.”

“You also feel dread?” You ask.

He hums in response. “All the time. Sometimes I’m not sure if the decisions I’m making are the right ones.”

It makes him sound so human to be able to empathize. You hate to admit you’re surprised.

“Just do what feels right in your heart.”

“How am I supposed to know?”

“You’ll know.” You mumble.

The few minutes you’ve spared him has run out. “Goodbye now, Seungmin.”

“You know who I am?”

“Everybody knows who you are. You and your friends.” You wave him off, finally shutting off your camera and putting the lens hood back. “Bye.”

You’re dismissive, and it’s something that would usually annoy Seungmin because he’s the dismissive one in his friend group.

The sudden challenge should anger him, but it doesn’t. What is it about you, and your playing hard to get, and your dismissiveness that has his attention so much?

He’s usually the one being chased, never chasing.

He’s usually the one being told things, never initiating. Never telling.

You’ve definitely done something to him, but he doesn’t want to think about it.

He really doesn’t want to think about it.

+

It happened without warning.

You only remember how angry Seungmin was. Everything else was a little blurry.

You don’t even know who threw the first punch. Shapes and shadows just seemed to move around you until a fight broke out.

The victim was from the Engineering department, though you don’t find the word victim befitting for someone like him. You don’t even know his name, just that he has a history for picking on people.

And it seemed today, you had fallen prey. You guess it just wasn’t your lucky day.

Though, if you think of the situation in whole, he definitely had worse luck than you.

Seungmin was locked and loaded behind gritted teeth and white knuckles when he threw a punch. And he was unforgiving with his hits.

“Seungmin, stop it.” Your voice comes out in a desperate plea, and as if a switch, he pulls himself off of the nameless Engineering boy.

“Fucking asshole.” Seungmin spits at him.

He surprises you with how cold he can speak. While you’ve always known that boys like him were a little more asshole-coded, you didn’t think he had it in his moral compass to defend you after having only shared not more than four conversations.

“Why would you do that? Seungmin, what the hell?”

You’re exasperated as you peel him away from the crime scene. He’d suffered a few blows you’re sure would bruise later, and his knuckles were bloody from his displays of violence earlier.

He’s speed walking ahead of you, doesn’t think he can look at you.

“Why didn’t you stand up for yourself? He had your camera.” His voice was significantly louder than it had been during your earlier conversations. You think it might be the first time he’s raised his voice at you.

His features, however, deeply contrast with the upset dripping from his voice. His face softens ridiculously fast when he turns back to look at you. And while his intentions send a soft nudge on your heart, you’re still upset at the predicament he’d willingly and intentionally put himself into.

“I didn’t need you to start a fight.” You sigh, tugging him by his arm after he’d stopped walking to direct his line of sight at you.

You continue the fleet-footed walk back to your dorm, dragging him with you.

“A thank you would be appreciated.” He grumbles from behind you, but makes no move to free his arm from your grip. Seungmin simply lets you drag him away.

“Stay there.” You sit him down just in front of your door before slipping into your little room. It takes no longer than two minutes before you’re back outside.

He’s still right where you left him. The only difference is he’s looking at you as if he’d been waiting for you to come out.

You make a move to crouch next to him.

There’s a first aid kit sitting between the two of you, a tub of water, among other things.

“How could you be so reckless?” You offer no warning when you take his hands, soaking them under the water and carefully washing the site of injury.

When you’re sure it’s clean, you turn to look at him. “You barely even know me, and you’re getting into fights.”

You’re clearly stressed, packing ice into a thin cloth while lecturing him under one breath. He doesn’t argue with you. Instead, he hyper fixates on the way you hold his hand—resting it on your thigh, applying light pressure on his bruise.

Your hand is warm, almost too warm against his. And he notices the same callouses he did that night you caught him smoking again. Yours with hard work, his with stubborn lament.

The action makes his face flush an embarrassing color. You don’t seem to notice. You’re too preoccupied being upset to even look him in the face.

“You better not do this again.”

In truth, Seungmin had probably suffered much worse than bruised knuckles. This, in comparison to all the previous fights he’d gotten himself into, was nothing. But it feels more significant than the rest.

His heart folds at how you’re taking care of him.

It was a curiously intimate thing for you to attempt to reduce the swelling with your makeshift cold compress. There’s an unidentifiable feeling in his heart he still doesn’t want to think about, but he knows there’s a subtle change in the air that he needs to address.

“He could’ve smashed years of your hard work.” He suddenly breaks the silence.

It triggers you to glance up, and you lock eyes with Seungmin once more. It looks like he’s rethinking whether he should continue talking.

Against his better judgment, he does. “He had your camera, and all I could think about was how devastated you would feel if he’d broken it.”

You blink a couple of times at his sudden confession. Moreso because he’d been observant enough to know the significance of that single piece of item. And maybe because he was looking at you a certain way.

He does that sometimes.

You don’t really know what to say to him, so you shift your focus back on his wounds. And when you’re sure there wasn’t any more damage, you let him go. “I’m done. You can go.”

A silence falls between you both before the boy climbs back on his feet while holding the cold compress you’d handed him. He takes a few tentative steps away.

“And Seungmin?”

He suddenly turns back at the interjection of your voice, looking at you with that same look from earlier, like you should know he’d do it again for you. It’s almost fond. And Seungmin hovers there, waiting.

You take the brief moment where his attention is on you to finally say the words that’d been brewing in your throat.

“Thank you.”

You’re trying so hard to keep your voice monotone. He’s trying so hard not to smile.

+

Seungmin’s been in front of you for almost ten minutes now.

It’d been almost a week since he’d gotten into a fight, and he has the gall to suddenly appear in front of you. In the student center during dinner, of all places.

“Hi.” It’s his fourth time uttering those words now, but it seems your attention is still on whatever the fuck poison they were serving for dinner.

“Talk to me. Hi.” He persists.

(“He likes her, for sure.” Hyunjin laughs from a few tables away.

There’s amusement in Chan’s eyes.

“Yeah, he definitely does.” The eldest smiles to himself.)

His attempts are fruitless. You are still drinking your soup, and he is still vying for your attention.

“You’re ignoring me.” Seungmin pouts. He actually pouts. “Are you still upset I started a fight?”

You don’t respond. If you were honest with yourself, you don’t know why you’re ignoring him either. Was it because you’d felt the slightest nudge in your feelings the last time you saw each other?

“Pretty girl.”

You stall before asking. “How’s your knuckles?”

He smiles. “Better. Will you stop ignoring me now?”

“I wasn’t ignoring you.”

“If you want me to apologize, I won’t. I don’t feel regret for doing what I did. I’d rather his face smashed than your camera.”

There’s that nudge again. You didn’t want him to apologize either. A few days of mulling it over and the news of quiet in the Engineering department since his fight with Seungmin tells you enough that the benefits had outweighed the risks.

No more stories of students being taunted for doing absolutely nothing.

The boy in front of you clears his throat, trying to get your attention. “But, I’m willing to do anything else for you to stop ignoring me, or apologize for anything else.”

An idea flashes in your head.

“I know how you can make it up to me.” You say in lieu of a real response.

+

When you’d asked him for a favor, he’d gotten a little excited.

He’d thought it was somewhere along the lines of a date, like that crap he sees in movies. He didn’t think he’d have to model for a few shots in your portfolio.

“New piercing?” You ask, gesturing at your own lips to try and mirror the spot he’d gotten it. It’s silver and shiny, and definitely adds to the fuckboy appeal.

You shudder, you know your own parents would never agree to you doing the same.

“Like it?” Seungmin has the audacity to smirk, flaunting the silver on his lower lip. You simply roll your eyes.

(Though, the few seconds you spare to stare at it is enough judgment for him.

You lift your camera back up. “Alright. Just do whatever for now. Actually, maybe a hand in your pocket—yeah. That’s perfect.”

He does whatever the hell he can think of. And while most would’ve been embarrassed by now, he couldn’t find it in himself to care. If it meant you’d stop ignoring him, he’d do this a million times over.

“Stay in that position.”

“Hmm, I like it when you’re being bossy.”

“Shut up.” You snap a shot, looking at the screen of your camera and smiling in contentment. You don’t give him the time to rest before you’re lifting it back up to eye-level.

And it goes on like that for a while. You use him to study lighting, and angles, and shadows, and forms.

Though, it’s a little difficult when he looks so damn attractive in everything. You might have a biased model. You’re afraid if you were to shoot him in shitty lighting, it would still turn out good.

“Alright.” You switch off your camera after flicking through the numerous shots you’d taken. “I think I’m done.”

“So, you’ll stop ignoring me now?”

He looks at you with everything so potently him when he’s with you.

“Uhuh.” You hum, letting your DSLR drop around your neck. He smiles victoriously.

None of you turn to leave.

You lament in the night air just a little longer, and Seungmin spends the time staring at you.

You suddenly turn to him. His gaze is a little too invasive not to notice. “What?”

“Just thinking.”

“About?”

“You.” There’s something about the way he says it that makes you look away. You could swear you saw a tint of red on the tip of his ears.

“Among other girls, I presume.”

He exhales. “No. Just you.”

“Resident fuckboy Kim Seungmin thinking about just one girl?”

“Fuck you.” Though, there’s no spit in the way he says it. His heart warms at the thought of you feeling comfortable enough to joke around with him now, despite you still coining him a fuckboy. He supposes that one’s on him for years of tainted reputation.

Your half laugh at being cursed echoes in his mind, lingering more there than in the air.

“You’re acting strange tonight, Seungmin.”

“You make me act strange.” His voice softens even though he’s essentially putting the blame on you for the way he was acting. And he says it in a way that makes you think he’s waiting for you to say something, or to at least understand the intentions behind his words.

You don’t know how to respond though. He sounds a little too serious to just merely be fucking around with you, like you’ve heard he does.

“The boys are saying I’m getting soft.” Seungmin doesn’t sound like he’s waiting for your response, so you let him continue talking. “Ever since that first night I met you. What the fuck did you do to me?”

He meets your eyes.

“Will you say something?”

You attempt to flat out your nerves at how he’s baring himself vulnerable in front of you all of a sudden. You would be lying if you said you hadn’t grown fond of the boy after his multiple attempts at getting your attention, but you’d also be lying if you said you didn’t think it was just another one of his ploys to get into your pants.

“How do I know you’re not lying?”

“I’m acting like a damn puppy following you around everywhere. And I let you boss me around for pictures when I could be drinking with my friends right now.” He’s still eye-to-eye with you, and it’s scary the way honestly spills from his.

“Then go drink with your friends then. ‘M not forcing you to be here.”

You’re so fucking stubborn, and he tries to search for your eyes but you aren’t looking at him anymore. Yours are downcast somewhere, on the ground, on anywhere but his eyes.

“Look at me.” You don’t know why, but you instantly do. Maybe it was in the way he said it, almost desperate. “I don’t want to drink with my friends. I want to be here with you. Because I like you.”

You crack a slow smile at his words, and at the way he’s stripped himself in genuine softness in front of you. It wasn’t everyday you’d see Kim Seungmin like this.

“So don’t think I’d lie to you about that.” He’s pouting again, and you tease him for it.

You get on your toes, get a good look on his face and the pout that adorns it. “Are you upset I thought you were lying?”

“Fuck off. I’m just—” He can’t help but laugh, pushing you away from him lest he wants to suffer the consequences of kissing you without your permission. He wants you to like him back, and if he has to do it slowly, so be it.

“Just give me a chance.” Almost pleading.

You press your tongue against the inside of your cheek. “Okay.”

“I understand if you—” He suddenly pauses. “Okay?”

“Okay.”

He stares at your lips, at the way it forms around the word, and he’s puzzled at how hot his face feels because he’s never been flustered like this. And he thinks his cheeks will start to burn if he doesn’t stop smiling. But he just can’t bring himself to stop, not when you’ve willingly given him a chance.

On your own autonomy.

“You won’t regret it.”

You don’t think you will.

[kujiba]

||MAY THE LAND CONCEAL YOU, DEAR GRACE||

୨୧ — ꒰ gn!reader | they/them prounouns | Sagau | cultish behavior

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 6

A/n: I had a good shit today so I'll bless you all with a new chapter ( not proof read, correct me in any mistakes)

Jean's clear sapphire eyes gawked at the sight of an empty room, it's walls barely hanging by a thread, an attempt to keep everything in it's place; it's reason being directed towards the widely open area that leaves to the vast outside world.

Her lip's trembled with outrage by how their prisoner (Name), had breached through their defenses and escaped under their noses without anybody noticing only till the last second. Jean's fists tightly curled up into a ball, a fire starting in her heart that will not extinguish till her target is brought to justice.

Only imagining how that person could be running around freely in their lives without any consequences daring to come back and tear their life down made Jean's stomach twist and turn out of disgust.

5 hours till (Name)'s execution.

5 hours till they could find (Name).

Jean's mind had been put on a road, a road she will follow till the end of her lifetime, she dared not to look back at her actions and consequences. For her heart knew what must be done in order to preserve justice among the townsfolk, among her people and friends.

Her gloved hand made it's way to the hilt of her sword and drew it out towards the crumbling barrier "Hunt down (Name)! Issue every individual to hunt for them in the land. Those who successfully capture (Name) will be granted a reward of 2,000,000 Mora" Her voiced boomed around the thick interior, the knights accompanying her gladly followed and raised their own swords as well "Kill the fraud! Kill the fraud! Kill the fraud!" They chanted all together, a declaration of war happening towards one individual.

"Kill the fraud under any circumstances!"

!!!!

"Ugh why do I have to do this again?" You grumbled under your breath with irritation as you wielded a plain sword you had gotten for free from the system tightly in your hands. By your side was the system, navigating you through your needs to grow more powerful and stronger.

MISSION:

Kill 50 slimes [24/50]

Kill 50 hilichurls [12/50]

Kill 3 Ruin guards [0/3]

Rewards: advance to level 25, unlock 4 star weapon, +1 level up to talents

You scowled at the words displayed infront of you, of course it had to have all sorts of missions... You disliked it but deep inside you knew no other choices were displayed infront of you. Taking a deep sigh the tip of your sword met with the strange liquidity substance of an hydro slime, piercing it to death. The details were very much more advanced than you had seen from the game, every move; you felt it. This wasn't a dream, the blood you've taken from hilichurls wasn't a dream, being locked away was definitely not a damn dream.

'No.. What am I thinking, I have to focus on completing this stupid mission' You sighed to yourself contemplating whether or not you're finally safe. Turning your blade against another pack of slimes who had spawned from the ground, you dashed towards the creatures and shredded their bodies into small fluids that fell onto the floor, some also getting stuck on your sword much to your dismay.

As your focus shifted to cleaning off the translucent fluid on your blade the system suddenly began going haywire, loud and consistent beeping echoed through the screen as you were forced to face it to find out what is making that unpleasant sound come from the screen.

" WARNING! WARNING! DANGER IS RAPIDLY APPROACHING [INITIATING AUTO MODE] "

A bright crimson text presented itself on your face, the words reflecting against your eyes as you tried to comprehend what the system was trying to do, your lips quivered trying to find words to say to mutter but only a deaf silence came. Your silence quickly faded as you let out a cry, you felt a sudden strong ache on your shoulder as if something had pierced through you (it didn't help it felt like it was burning too).

Looking to your side your pupils stopped at a blazing wooden arrow had penetrated your own shoulder, crimson liquid trailed down your clothes staining it whole while your own knees decided to give in, dropping to the ground. Round droplets of tears falled down your cheeks for the pain had reached through your brain at lightning speed, your palm grasped the wound tightly, an attempt to stop the bleeding.

"Agh, who..." You managed to mumble out those two words out of your unsynchronized breathing, a pair of (E/c) pupils darted around the vast green land to wiggle out the source of the one who attacked you.

It barely took a second till your sight landed on a familiar brunette at a distance, her gloved hand gripped her bow tightly as she summoned 3 pairs of arrows, aiming directly towards your direction. You were quickly alarmed by the girls actions, your mind quickly flooded with a thousand questions as to why Amber had suddenly attacked you for no reason.

"Amber?...." you whispered out her name and quickly regretted it seeing as her expression stiffened even more: "Shut it. Don't ever say my name out of that disgusting mouth of yours" She stated out her words loud and clear, you could barely even gather any of the previous amber you know and love deep in your heart. The throbbing pain in your shoulder muscle only covered as a nuisance at your disposal, you peered down at your legs that were covered in dirt and small ounces of blood that came from your shoulder.

You hesitantly looked back at amber to see what she was doing only to find out she had been gathering the knights at favonius towards your direction. 'SHIT! SHIT! System!' your desperation reached through the system, begging it to help you in this situation. You shutted your eyes tightly, hoping that you would only hear the systems voice the next moment and not Amber's or any of the knights of favonius.

A familiar voice rang out inside your ears that let you breathe a sigh of relief

[INSTALATION COMPLETE, ENTERING AUTO MODE]

The Ai like voice were very last thing that went through your mind before your vision began to fade along with your consciousness. You felt your body didn't meet the solid ground yet but only remained standing, your mind wondered on events that were taking place while you weren't in control of your own body.

The sounds that you could vaguely differentiate were the sounds of Jean's roaring voice along with rapid footsteps coming your way, you only hoped deeply that once your eyes flutter open again, you will be in a much safer area and far away from mondstat.

✧✧✧

Jean's gloved hand tightly held the hilt of her sword, it's blade reflecting against the golden and copper colored mixture of the sky around them. A small wind blew past her blond locks making her sapphire eyes and stern expression ever the more clearer.

Beside her was the knights of favonius, that included Kaeya, Amber, Lisa and Noelle. Jean's gaze shifted to noelle as she mentally shook her head at the young girls decision to come along. She would've much preferred Noelle to be out of this hunt/battle but the maids persistence was rock solid, she had stated herself 'My loyalty to the knights of favonius is as strong as my love for the creator. I will not let some foolish scoundrel get away with this.'

With a final nod, Jean straightened her back and pointed the tip of her blade towards the direction of (Name), her expression cold as ever towards them: How could she not afterall? This was certainly not a first for someone to suddenly step up and declare themselves as the creator just to gain power and control everyone. Her lips scowled lowly with her gaze piercing through (Name)'s skull.

"Imposter! I, the acting grand master Jean declare you an enemy of Mondstadt. You dare to fool us again with your pathetic tricks? Your head will be displayed at the center of Mondstadt, to show and warn any of your other repulsive companions" As her voice boomed across the vast land her followers roared in agreement, declaring that (Name) was a dunce for even attempting to step inside their borders.

(Name)'s head only hung low facing the ground, their expression unclear but Jean took that as a sign to take charge, she putted her blade infront of her face flat and quickly turned it vertically, she soon casted her ultimate "Wind, hear me!" the very same time she announced her burst a glowing circular anemo field surrounded the knights of favonius as small little dandelions floated in the air.

The anemo field casted as an attack buff for the party as many began charging towards (Name)'s direction. Kaeya being the fastest one and summoned his own ultimate "Don't get a frostbite" he smirked, raising his palm in the air, a glowing white emitted from his hand which then summoned large cryo icicles around his body, those icicles which almost pierced (Name)' s limbs if they hadn't swiftly jumped back and dodged them all.

"Heh, Dodge this!" Kaeya thrusted his sword towards (Name) as the same pure cryo icicles came out of his blade. (Name) was about to dodge once again to avoid Kaeyas attack but noticed how he was smirking the whole time, why was he smirking? (Name) felt someone's gloved hands touch their back: that was because Lisa who had abruptly appeared behind (Name) had her hand on them.

Without a second, a sudden surge of electricity flowed through their body top to bottom, (Name)'s body having some small little violet electrical effects. Lisa hummed in satisfaction, her lips turning upright as she backed away from them "Aha, How dirty." She expressed teased in such a mocking voice towards (Name), after all they were another fraud attempting to cheat through the top.

"Nice one, Lisa" Kaeya added then began clapping both of his hands together "I'll leave the rest to you, Noelle" Kaeya's slate blue eyes fixated on the young maid behind him who only gave a affirmative nod "Time to clean up." Noelle brought out her claymore which then started to quickly glow with a beautiful golden color at her words.

(Name)'s automatic system were slightly damaged by the electricity given by Lisa, but thankfully recovered enough to catch the young maidens claymore in mid air.

Noelle gasped in bewilderment, that action also shook Kaeya, Lisa, Jean and the other knights of Favonius to their core "You..." Noelle muttered to (Name) with her hands slightly shaking "Are you actually?-...." yet Noelle couldn't finish what she was trying to say before getting thrown away by (Name)'s brute strength alone.

She stumbled over the grass and used her claymore to keep balance, her eyes never taking off (Name)'s figure for even a second.

(Name) used the opportunity immediately and ran away from the knights of favonius while they on the other hand were trying to process what just happened.

Jean tightly held the grip of her sword with a face full of confusion and hatred towards the unpredictable individual. Jean bit her lip with her gaze on the area where (Name) previously was, with a long sigh she letted go of her blade, the item fading into small little yellow particles.

"They're still injured. They can't run for long." Jean maintained a stoic expression towards the knights of favonius, yet deep inside, her burning flame of hatred towards (Name) only kept growing by the second.

Kaeya nodded his head to Jean's words and also made his sword dissapere in the meantime. Even though (Name) successfully escaped Kaeya couldn't help but smile "Oh poor Imposter, they should've just complied and come with us" He shook his head in dissapointment of their actions "Now you will have to face the wrath of my dear brother."

The knights of favonius weren't the only people after you, every inch and corner of Mondstadt has people bloodthirsty for your blood to be spilled on their territory. The woods, the caves, the mountains, each one of those have people ready to attack incase the Imposter comes for protection and shelter.

But no one could compare to the absolute beast a certain redhead becomes in the night, where he swore to spill the Imposters blood in his hands and leave their flesh to be ravaged by the animals. His siganture weapon The Wolf's Gravestone, a long and heavy claymore with its design having a crimson red and dark shaded black with rough textures. It's color would shine brighter in the night sky where the moon would reflect it, only those who were killed by the holder could witness the beauty of the weapon and the murderous son of Master Crepus; Diluc Ragnvindr

...

You lowkey felt that all of what happened was just you being high while dreaming cause one; why are the characters you cried, sweat, and worked so hard for trying to hunt you down like you were in the hunger games.

And two, why the heck did you woke up in a dark cave with so much injuries!? It hurts like shit! You would've thought the moment you got your conscious back from the system you would be safe and sound. CLEARLY, alot had happened when the system was taking over your body.

As you were brainstorming ideas on possibilities and attempting to remember how to be like Katniss everdeen a blue screen popped up beside you once again, this time it showed your current stats

...

LVL 17/25

Max hp: 500/1,237

Atk: 234

Def: 100

Elemental mastery: 1,000

Max stamina: 240

Crit rate: 30%

Crit damage: 90%

Energy Recharge: 400%

"... what the hell" Your mouth dropped seeing how fast your stats advanced so much, all that after grinding for 2 hours!? Has the system finally took pity on your sorry ass and gave you a blessing?!

Aside from that your brows furrowed slightly at your health. Your hp bar is currently at orange since your body took alot of blows, classic game design.

But all that aside, it was definitely shocking to see your previous low level stats ascend to higher numbers by only using like 20% of your own body power. And with just that simple buff, maybe you'll let the system live another day..

[System entering automatic shut down after overheating, Duration: 2 Hours]

You take everything back.

'Curse you system! How dare you take over my body and make me wake up like I've just been at war!!' Your hands tightly balled up, clenching tighter and tighter by the second a clear vein popping out of your forehead with it bulging slightly.

Out of frustration the side of your clenched hand met with the surface of the cold, solid ground of the eery cave. The sound echoing throughout the interior of the place growing smaller and smaller by the second,

You quickly regretted that decision though since your hand hurted like hell, the skin turning slightly red because of the impact received from the ground below.

You brought your swollen reddened hand closer to your chapped lips to blow on it carefully, you're severely dehydrated and starving, not to mention the never ending stinging of the wounds on your body you received from the fight.

If you were honest to yourself. Sitting inside a dark and empty cave with nothing but the deafening sound of silence was uncomfortable. The system would return after 1 hour and 29 minutes, so you just had to find out a way to survive without it for a while.

You'd grown used to hearing small little 'ping!' from the system and getting flashed with a bright blue screen on your face. But now it's just you and well... You.

Your (e/c) eyes glanced towards your vision dangling from the side of your hip. You took notice on how it weirdly was glowing all of a sudden, isn't this when a characters burst is charged up?

Unfortunately.

You cannot press Q or any button to just automatically cut into a burst animation, Actually are you a 4 star or 5 star?...

"Dang I think I broke it." You mumbled to yourself while your index finger slightly scratches your cheek, the system was a jerk since it refuses to give you a simple guide on how to do this and that.

Your body shuddered like a leaf as a cold harsh wind blew inside the already dark and gloomy cave. Stands of hair flew towards your face making you looks more haggard than before, but you still protectively turned your back to face away from the intense breeze.

Bringing your legs closer to your chest to emith warmth around your freezing and shaking body you leaned the side of your head on the stone wall then began slowly itching more and more towards the darkness to make a distance from the cave gate since it looked like it was beginning to rain heavily tonight.

To cope with your issues and problems, you instinctively began ranting inside your head with your expression full of dissapointment and annoyance

''Damn reincarnation, nothing good happened! All I got was getting kidnapped then hunted down?!''

If you could freely activate your dendro vision things would be much helpful for you!! But NO your skills are locked away from the system, you're unable to level up or grind to ascension since the knights of favonius and people of Mondstadt could be everywhere!

If bitch was a person they 100% must be fucking with you.

But then, your ranting came to an abrupt halt as the sounds of footsteps began closing in on you. Footsteps that didn't seem to be a mob nor group, but instead coming from one person.

You felt a cold sweat drip down your cheek with multiple scenarios racing through your mind gathering every and any possibility that could happen once they found your hide out.

You quickly covered your dendro vision using your own clothes as a coverage since it was still glowing brightly throughout the gloomy cave, and being the only source of light aside from the radiating moonlight high above the jet black sky with many stars accompanied by it.

"If I can't see them then they can't see me." You internally thought to yourself and quickly took advantage of the caves darkness, using it to cover and blend in with the surrounding area and hide from whatever is out there.

You hoped to yourself and prayed that it was just some random npc who doesn't give a single fuck about you and let you off the hook, what you DESPERATELY don't wish for is some vision holder coming out for you, especially a certain blonde, brown and red haired trio.

"If you can see me through this darkness then you must have some sort of 24/24 vision or something" you lamented in your head while dozing off to some random school memory you had in your past that was until two large pair of black boots stopped directly infront of the caves entrance making you freeze and mentally shit yourself.

"WTFF!! I know those shoes anywhere! Since I worked my ass off to buy that very skin!!" Your mouth dropped to it's lowest seeing as they began to slowly move towards where you were hiding at. You immediately shifted positions quickly and as quietly as you can, using both of your hands to hide any loud breathing or sounds you might accidentally let out.

Your eyes shrinked while eyeing their gloved hand feeling around the pitch dark area you were previously sitting in. Your only choices now was hope they don't find and grab you before ending your right there and then, or make a run for it.

Second choice not looking so good huh

"You can't see me, you can't see me" You repeated endlessly to yourself while trying to stop your body from shaking like a leaf that just got blown over by a strong gust of wind. The person eventually retracted their hand from the dark and took a step back and towards the caves entrance making you sigh in relief.

Your eyes that were ungulfed in darkness looked towards them, their hair color not being much clear to you since you guys were inside a cave without any source of light other than the caves entrance, with a small nod you unconsciously formed a small smile "Thank goodness... Now just go awa-" But that happiness quickly dissolved for you felt a gloved hand roughly grab you by the collar of your shirt and threw you to the caves entrance where the moons light shined down on your body, revealing your presence to them.

"Fuck!..." You cursed under your breath and letted out a rugged cough since your lungs were having a hard time inhaling some air.

Your (e/c) pupils met with a pair of the same black boots that were in the cave that made your breath hitch and stop for a moment, this was your end and you knew it. Out of all the people you had to encounter, you were met with the intense stare and fury deep inside the red heads heart.

Your lips quivered with a severe feeling of fear rush through every part of your body, barely making out his name you desperately did not want to believe in;

"Diluc?..."

3rd Person Pov

There were many stories floating across the nations of Teyvat, Diluc wasn't an exception since his father, Crepus, frequently reader him and Kaeya a small story before bed. A story about a god who was seen as the glory and perfection of the people living in teyvat.

Soft looking (Hair color) locks that glistened under the moons luminosity and was said to feel like brushing your fingertips through a valley of soft fabric, a beautiful body that was carved out by the gods with their own hands to produce what they call 'perfect' for a person; they had carved for 5 months and 20 extra days to slowly built the base for their grace without a stop since they were afraid to even make the smallest mistake for such a large responsibility.

Dilucs vermillion eyes gazed down on (Name) and studied their features from a distance. In all of the stories he had read there was never a same picture for what their grace looked like as they took on many forms throughout their rule. Yet for some reason, What diluc imagined his grace to look like was oddly on point with the person sprawled down on the ground with their hands and pants now dirtied from the soil below.

But no matter what the person or cause, Diluc had come to a conclusion when their grace left. That they had abandoned them all. And he, existed to purge and exterminate anyone who defies his god.

"Don't call me like that you pest" Diluc blurted out towards (Name) which made their eyes widened and their eyebrows wrinkle together, "What?" they muttered with confusion evident in their voice.

Diluc clenched his teeth together and held his tounge back from saying anything unnecessary "It was an idiotic move for you to step inside mondstat territory you fraud." Dilucs right foot stepped forward as yellow particles began to form near his fingers and created his signature weapon, the wolves Gravestone "Burn."

He swung his claymore forward and unleashed a ginormous blazing pheonix that would burn anything in it's path, and that ultimate was coming right towards (Name)'s direction.

"Shit!! Wait! Hold on!" (Name) panicked vigorously as they felt their skin heating up by the second. (Name) attempted to bolt out the way but suddenly felt their left leg get trapped by something, looking down their mouth dropped seeing as they were caught in a bear trap specifically used for hunting boars.

"NONONO SYSTEM!!" (Name) desperately shouted while the phoenix slowly got closer and closer to (Name) making them feel hopeless at the current situation.

**Ting!

''Given conditions have been met, automatically unleashing burst,,

An AI voice rang throughout (Name)'s ears making them hiss and groan in pain, their dendro vision that was covered through their clothes fabric shined brighter than ever making Diluc himself stunned by its glowing aura, one that he had never seen before.

"My grace?"

Just before the blazing pheonix could reach (Name), long ropes made out of strong roots emerged from the landscape and formed a protective shield around them, blocking (Name) from the incoming attack and further damage.

Before Diluc could get back to his senses and spam his burst, even more roots resurfaced and wrapped around Dilucs arms and legs tightly making him groan and drop his claymore to the ground making a loud 'clang!'

(Name) stared at the situation dumbfounded by its power, they shakily looked over to their vision that was now flickering and barely remaining it's iconic glow

"Holy shit I'm op"

They huffed in amazement, slightly terrified yet proud of their new found power even beginning to get sidetracked of their current messy situation.

Diluc stared at (Name) who had sparkles inside their eyes as they were practicing on doing it again but unfortunately failed miserably,

Without even Diluc knowing, his gaze softened at the sight of the joyful individual. It was like watching his own fantasies he had made as a child play out in front of him like a show he yearned his whole life, a dream where he would watch his grace enjoy their life to the fullest with him always being by their side.

But just now, a small blaze ignited deep inside his heart. It wasn't hatred connected to them, but hope. Hope that there was a possibility that the person standing across from him with roots and veins protectively around their body... Was his grace?

Without a moment of hesitation Diluc easily ripped apart the veins that were holding him back and landed on the ground swiftly making (Name) shriek at the sight of the red head slowly making his way towards them.

He stopped when he was only a small distance away then crouched, he kneeled at (Name)'s presence with a soft expression evident on his face though inside he was holding himself back for a rush of excitement and adrenaline coursed through his veins.

"Welcome back my gra-"

[Fixing complete, automatically teleporting you to the nearest statue of the seven..]

(Name) stared at the screen in absolute horror making Dilucs expression shift to one of confusion. He was about to say something till he also made a look of horror since (Name)'s body started to slowly fade away

Terror and anxiety replaced whatever diluc felt at that very moment, were they going to dissapere once again? You can't. He won't ever allow it

"YOUR GRACE!!"

Diluc charged forward, the tip of his fingers about to reach (Name) but they were already gone before he knew it. Diluc dropped to the floor with beads of sweat rolling down his forehead, (Name) had just been teleported away by the system and diluc had to go find them again before the others get to (Name) first.

But the system had surely made a mistake. Because surely they purposely didn't teleport (Name) to INAZUMA where they saw death themselves right?

"Maybe if I pretend I didn't see them then they won't see me.."

And what's with the person that looked like them sitting on top of a statue looking all high and mighty? That's way too dangerous.

...

"I'm so fucked"

[chipjrwibignaturals]

hey bestie dream i have a video for you to watch ^-^

what i find so funny abt the united smp beyond the whole. “”first multilingual server”” thing is that HES STILL LOOKING FOR APPLICANTS. AND HES TAKING RANDOM SUBMISSIONS,?,???

like. legitimately how has he Not Learned yet that just throwing a bunch of ppl on a server will NOT guarantee success. you have to have ppl w chemistry who KNOW each other or at the very LEAST you know can be compatible w each other (say, because you’re a mutual friend of both members). like his OWN server’s success only worked bc it was a FRIEND GROUP who KNEW EACH OTHER and already worked w each other well like. sir did epic smp teach you nothing

[arc-misadventures]

An Offer You Won’t Refuse

Jaune: Why can’t you guys believe me when I say I got laid?

SN: Because it’s you.

Jaune: Haaaa… Assholes.

The person complaining that his roommates couldn’t believe he had sex was one, Jaune Luna Arc. A first year college student majoring in business. While his collage roommate’s doubting the fact that he had sex were a blonde hair monkey faunas named, Sun Wukong, and their friend the blue haired self proclaimed ‘ladies man’ named, Neptune Vasilias.

The duo had dragged, Jaune to a bar with the intent of, ‘picking up some ladies.’ And, where he had actually managed to score a night with a beautiful lady, they had failed to get anything. And, because of this they doubted that he got anything. Actually, now that he’s thinking about it…

Jaune: You guys are just jealous I spent a night with a lady, while the only thing you guys got was a pair of matching black eyes.

Jaune’s remark was a very accurate statement of fact that after he come from an enjoyable one-night stand he came back to see the pair with ice packs over their eyes.

Sun: Not true!

Neptune: I would have totally banged that chick! If her boyfriend didn’t arrive…

Jaune: Yeah, that’s why you didn’t get any.

Neptune: Hey man, you just don’t understand the art, of seduction~!

Jaune: The what?

Sun: The art of seducing a woman~!

Jaune: And, that is?

Neptune: We’re falcons pal…

Sun: Falcons~!

Neptune: You can’t just send us out when a pretty girls is there, and expect us to capture her now can you?

Sun: That’s not how we falcons fly.

Neptune: We gotta fly high, and scope out the prey, and when we find our mark we’ll swoop in for the kill. We just can’t go in, and steal the girl on command now can we?

Sun: It’s an art, Jaune. You wouldn’t understand it.

Jaune just looked at the duo as he was forced to comprehend the dumbest thing he had yet heard, and considering the people who he hung around that was something.

Jaune: What the hell are you two talking about?! Yes you can send a falcon out on command to hunt its prey! There’s an entire sport based around it: Falconry!

Sun: Eh?

Neptune: Beg pardon?

Jaune: It’s like one of the oldests sports out there! People are still doing it to this day! Hell, people have been using falcons, and hawks to take down drones!

Neptune: That’s not true… right?

Sun: Oh shit, they actually use hawks to take down drones.

Neptune: Wait really?!

Jaune: Haa… if hitting on girls was like hitting the broadside of a barn, you lot couldn’t hit it with a, Javelin missile.

Sun: I couldn’t do that!

Neptune: Guns scare me!

Jaune dropped his head as he sighed at the duo’s stupidity, or more accurately their ignorance.

Although stupidity is a more adept description the pair. The duo would offer a drowning man a drink thinking he’s not drowning, just really thirsty.

Jaune: A Javelin missile is an rpg with an auto-lock feature. Not a gun.

Neptune: There’s a difference?

Jaune: Haa… you see this is why I don’t invite you to play, Arma with my clan.

Neptune: Well we may not know the difference between… weapons…? But, that still doesn’t mean you had sex with a girl.

Jaune: Guys, it’s been two weeks since we went to the bar, can we just drop it, and move…

“Knock, knock, knock.”

Jaune: On…?

Jaune stopped talking in his tracks as he heard a knocking upon the door. He looked at the pair while pointing his finger at the door.

Jaune: We’re you…?

The pair shook their heads, and shrugged their shoulders. They weren’t expecting anyone to come visit them. Like anyone would anyway.

Jaune just shrugged his shoulders as he walked over, and opened the door, he was met with several individuals dressed in black suits with tinted shades hiding their face. The quartet seemed to be watching around them to see if anyone was coming.

Jaune was worried they were a hit squad coming to make get their mark. He could only cower as he wondered whose girl, Neptune pissed off that they would put a mark on him. But, that thought swiftly died as he started at the woman between what actually were four bodyguards. For it was not someone he expected to meet again. He never thought she would grace his presence with her beauty ever again.

With flowing ashen white hair cascading down her elegant shoulders. Draped in a tapestry of fine jewelry of silver, sapphires, and ruby’s. A red gown that displayed a fair amount of her sizeable cleavage, as a dark coat hung lazily off her shoulders. But, what drew, Jaune in the most were those red tinted glasses, that hid a pair of striking vibrant red eyes that he lost himself in.

It was the lady from his one night stand. A woman, Jaune would never forget until death took him.

Jaune: S-Salem?!

Salem: Hello, Ar… no. Hello, Jaune. You’re looking well.

Jaune: Thank you! Y-You’re looking fantastic. But, uhh… why are you here? You said after our… night together that it would be just a one time thing, and we would never see each other again. And, yet here you are.

Salem: And, yet here I am…

Jaune could barely see, Salem’s eyes because they blended beautifully with her glasses, but he could tell by the way her body was seemingly twitching that she was nervous. He was about to ask her whats wrong, but then his roommates happened.

Sun: Holy hell?! You actually had sex?!

Neptune: Damnmmm! She is smoking hot! How much did she cost you? Eh, eh?!

Salem could tell by his teasing manner upon which the blue boy spoke he was joking with, Jaune. But, to insinuate that she was a call girl?! Maybe she should let her associates teach this child some manners.

But before, Salem could give the command, Jaune held a single finger up, silently asking for a moment before shutting the door. She was wondering what was going on, but then she heard a loud thud as if something had fallen over. As the door soon reopened to reveal the smiling face of, Jaune Arc. She could see behind him the form of the blue haired boy, groaning in pain as he clutched his groin.

Salem shot, Jaune a small smile from the corner of her lips, and he just waved it off as if it was nothing.

Jaune: So… What bring you to our humble abode?

Salem: I need to discuss something with you of the utmost importance.

Jaune: Okay, what is it?

Salem’s eyes darted around as if she was trying to find the words to speak before she returned his gaze.

Salem: This would be a discussion best help in private.

Jaune nodded his head as he told his friends to scram. The blond monkey nodded his head as he pulled his friend, who was in the fetal position whilst still clutching his privates on the floor out the room. As soon as they were out of the room, Jaune stood aside allowing, Salem to enter his dorm room.

Salem: Thank you for allowing me… in…?

Salem’s thought process stopped in its tracks rather abruptly. She was going to tell him something important, but as she took in the absolute state of, Jaune’s apartment her mind did a reset, and was the midst of a reboot as she processed this, ‘mess.’

Jaune was about to ask her if something was wrong, then he saw where her eyes were going, and he sighed in understanding.

Jaune: Yeah its a…

Salem: A pig sty?

Jaune: That’s an… apt description.

Jaune’s apartment was an absolute mess: Wrappers, and empty bottles strewn across the place. Half finished take out boxes laying across every table in sight. Clothes from teeshirts to underwear draped all over the furniture. But, there was one thing that was most damning of all that was the crown jewel of this pig sty.

Salem: I-Is that a banana peel on the lamp shade?

Jaune: Haa… Gods dammit, Sun…

Jaune looked over, and groaned in disgust as he grabbed a bucket, seemingly filled to the brim with banana peels, and tossed the latest addition into the bucket.

Jaune: Sun, uhh… the blond monkey faunas you saw earlier. His family are all monkey faunas’s so the have a habit of eating a banana, and tossing the peal away when they’re finished.

Salem: Not into the trash I assume?

Jaune: Unfortunately not. I’ve told him to stop doing that, but he won’t listen to me. So, I’ve been collecting his banana peels for the past two weeks, and I plan to stuff them in his pillow case as form of petty vengeance.

Salem: Do you think that will work?

Jaune: Well, they stink so they should send a message of sorts. If not I’ll tie his tail to the bed frame, or something.

Salem: You would do that to a faunas; That seems rather cruel don’t you think?

Jaune: I have slipped on several banana peels, and landed hard on my back, I will make sure he learns through pain that I am very vindictive bastard.

Salem: And, is the rest of this mess from that blue haired boy?

Jaune: Neptune? Ehh no. It’s from both of them, they’re total slobs. I was about to threaten them with bodily harm if they didn’t clean up the place. But, they started going on again that I totally didn’t have sex with a woman who had the body of an angel carved from the finest of marble slabs, craved painstakingly by a superb master craftsman.

Salem: Why thank you~! You would make a handsome marble statue yourself, Jaune.

Jaune: …

Jaune: Ahck?! I-I-I’m sorry?! I didn’t want to tell them anything about you, but they wouldn’t believe me, so I had to say something?! N-Not a lie, you are gorgeous! Divine even… But… Uhh… It’s a little hot in here…? Perhaps I s-should open a window…

Jaune made way for a window, but was stopped in his tracks as he heard, Salem’s melody of laughter. During the time they spent at the bar talking, he spent every moment trying to get a laugh out of her. Her laughter was angelic, and her smile divine. One he spent the whole night trying to make appear before his very eyes.

Salem had told him the sad story of her life, and her past love. It was a story of sorrow, regret, and betrayal. A love that was, a life that could have been, and the truth to a lie that ruined it all.

She didn’t tell him every detail, it was her right to have her secrets. Jaune didn’t want to know everything either, they were just two strangers sitting alone at a bar. One musing over her drink, the other musing over time. He was just there to be the ear who heard her complaining, the voice to ask the question she wanted asked, and the shoulder to cry over.

Afterwards, Salem asked if, Jaune could give her a ride home. She hadn’t drunk a lot, but even a little alcohol mixed with driving a car could be fatal. And, being the gentleman he tried to be, he accepted her request for aid.

He took her home, and he would have left things at that. But, she insisted that he come in, he remembered her giving him a vague excuse of why he should stay, but he never remembered it. What made him stay was the pleading look in her eyes that beg that she didn’t want to be alone. So he stayed, and one thing lead to another, and he awoke in her bed with her resting softly against him.

It was a moment of weakness, and desire of the flesh. One that they both knew that shouldn’t have happened. But, it was one neither would deny they regretted. After that they agreed to part ways, they would never regret this moment of fleeting love shared between them. But, it was a one time deal, and they would never see each other again.

And yet, Salem was here, right now, right before, Jaune’s very eyes.

Jaune: Why don’t we go to my room? I can assure you it doesn’t look like a bomb went off at a dump.

Jaune opened the door to his room, and ushered, Salem inside his room. Salem was hesitant to enter his room, because it was his, but he assured her it wasn’t like the pigsty she was currently standing in, so she walked in. And, what surprised her ahead l was that, Jaune, once again, he was true to his word.

While the description of, ‘a bomb that went off at a dump,’ was an adept description of their living room, Jaune’s room was a complete contrast to that.

His bed was made, his clothes hanged on their hooks, his floor was vacuumed, and his books neatly arrange along the book case. Even the little figurines he had were neatly in their display cases. The only mess there was upon his desk where an assortment of art supplied, and school books lay strewn about. And, if anything, it would be considered an organized mess at best.

Jaune: Would you like a seat?

Jaune pushed, his charge towards her, and graciously offered her a seat. Salem looked towards the chair, and simply shook her head at his kind offer.

Salem: No, no thank you. But, perhaps you should take a seat.

Jaune: Why, is something wrong, Salem?

Salem: Over a week after our night together, I went in for a medical check up. Standard routine check up for me, I usually have one every three months, or so.

Jaune: That’s a good routine to have. I probably should get a check up myself, it’s been a while since I last saw a doctor.

Salem: Yes… while I was having my check up… They discovered something rather… unexpected…

Jaune: You’re dying?!

Jaune didn’t understand why someone he had a fling with was coming here to tell him that. Unless, was it his fault she was dying?

Jaune was about to start having a panic attack, when, Salem rushed forward, and spoke softly as she tried to calm his nerves.

Salem: Nononono… It’s nothing like that. Quite the opposite really.

Jaune: What’s the opposite of dying? Reincarnation?

Salem laughed as she shook her head, taking off her glasses, and gently placing them on his desk.

Salem: I forgot how much of an adorable goofball you are.

Jaune: Thank you?

Salem: Jaune… let me put this to you bluntly.

Jaune: Okay?

Salem straightened her back, and started, Jaune dead in the eye. Crimson, and cerulean locked in a bitter struggle, neither wanting to look away from the beauty before their eyes.

What felt like an eternity, but merely lasted a few seconds, Salem took a deep breath, and told, Jaune the reasons she was here. A reason that filled her with equal parts dread, and hope. So, with those blood red eyes, she stared at the young man, and spoke words with a voice of steel that completely enthralled him to ever word that dropped from her luscious red lips.

Salem: Jaune… You better take responsibility, or else…

Jaune: …

Jaune: Eh…?

[scary-grace]

Opposites Attract (Chapter 5) - a Shigaraki x f!Reader fic

Your quirk lets you capture almost anyone with ease, and you can't believe you let Shigaraki Tomura escape. Shigaraki can't believe it, either, and according to the League, there's only one possible explanation -- you let him go because you've fallen in love with him. He decides to find out if it's true. You decide you won't fail to capture him again. You both get a lot more than you bargained for. (cross-posted to Ao3)

Chapters: 1 2 3 4

Chapter 5

“Shigaraki.” Spinner snaps his fingers in front of Shigaraki’s face, and Shigaraki snaps out of it in a hurry. As much of a hurry he can manage. He’s not used to having the kind of daydreams he doesn’t want to wake up from. “Hey. Toga said she’ll have a route for us soon. Do I really have to drive?”

“I can’t drive,” Dabi says. He’s leaning against their stolen truck, lighting a cigarette. “Compress. Can you drive?”

Compress waves his metal arm. “I’m disabled.”

“You pickpocketed me with that thing! Bullshit you’re disabled.” Spinner is getting desperate. He must be, if he’s looking at Shigaraki for help. “You can drive, can’t you?”

“You won the game,” Shigaraki says. “You’re better.”

Nobody in the League has a driver’s license, so they played successive rounds of Grand Theft Auto to see who was the least bad at it. Spinner beat Shigaraki pretty soundly. Spinner scowls. “If you said that’s why we were playing it, I’d have thrown the match.”

“Too late.” Shigaraki feels the urge to either pace or scratch, and for the first time in maybe ever, he starts pacing. “You’ll be fine.”

“Did you hit your head or something?” Dabi gives Shigaraki a weird look. “You’d better have hit your head, because if you’re high on something and you didn’t share –”

“I’m not high,” Shigaraki says. “We’re about to take revenge on Overhaul. The heroes did all the hard work. And –”

And I have a girlfriend. “And what?” Dabi says suspiciously.

“And I’m not driving. Buzz off.”

Dabi rolls his eyes. And another cigarette. Spinner looks like he’s practicing driving on an imaginary car. Shigaraki keeps pacing, wondering if he can get back to the same daydream he was having before. It was a good one. A lot of his daydreams have been good ones lately.

Shigaraki hasn’t made a ton of progress – or really any progress – on turning you to his side, but in spite of that, he’s pleased with how it’s going. He might have fucked up with the handholding, but what he got instead was a lot better – you sitting next to him for the whole second movie, tucked under his arm, very clearly not freaking out like you did in the kitchen. Shigaraki probably missed half the movie between trying not to squeeze you like a stress ball and trying not to pop one over the fact that you were about ten centimeters of elevation away from sitting in his lap, but it doesn’t matter. The movie’s one of your favorites. He’s willing to bet you’ll watch it with him again.

It’s going really well. Probably too well for the fact that you aren’t turned yet, because Shigaraki thinks about you too much for his own good and it would be easier not to wonder where you are and what you’re doing and if you’re thinking about him and how much you’re thinking about him if he actually had eyes on you. This Overhaul thing would be easier if you were here, too. Shigaraki’s pretty sure you know how to drive. You could drive today, teach Spinner later, and then the League would have two people who knew how to drive the getaway car.

Compress’s phone pings. “We have their destination,” he announces. He puts his phone away and cracks his knuckles one-handed. “I for one am looking forward to this.”

“Same.” Shigaraki watches as Spinner climbs into the cab of the truck, and Dabi and Compress take their places in the back. He himself climbs up on top, all according to plan, and raps against the cab’s roof with his knuckles. “Move out!”

It goes well. So well that Shigaraki’s almost suspicious, because his plans never come anywhere close to going off without a hitch – but this one does. They cut off the convoy transporting Overhaul. Shigaraki distracts the driver while Dabi takes out the single escorting hero. Shigaraki knew there’d be a hero escorting the convoy, and part of him was worried it would be you, which is why he put Dabi on hero-neutralizing duty. He knows you could handle Dabi. He doesn’t want to get stuck fighting you. For a lot of reasons.

Heroes always talk about how revenge doesn’t make anything better, but in Shigaraki’s opinion, they’re just doing revenge wrong. Stealing Overhaul’s quirk-canceling and quirk-boosting bullets and stealing his quirk along with it makes Shigaraki feel pretty damn good. It’s good for the rest of the strike team, too. Compress has a spring in his step as they walk back to the truck, and even Dabi’s bitching less than usual. Shigaraki, meanwhile, is already thinking about how he’ll tell you what happened. How you’ll be impressed. How you’ll agree that Overhaul deserved everything he got, and be pleased that Shigaraki gave it to him. How maybe this time you’ll understand that the rules you’re playing by get in the way of doing what needs to be done.

But he’s not going to need to tell you. You’ve already found out. “We’ve got trouble,” Spinner says, and when Shigaraki looks through the windshield, he sees you standing in the middle of the road.

Shigaraki’s heart sinks. You’re standing squarely in the truck’s path in full costume, right down to the boots that keep you from being yanked off your feet by your quirk. Even from this distance, he can see your expression, determined and perfectly calm. So much for the plan going well. Spinner is looking to Shigaraki for direction, a little more panicked every time he takes his eyes off the road, but Shigaraki’s frozen. And he has to make a decision. Now.

Maybe you’re here to help them escape. Maybe you’re here to join the League at last. You love him. You’re his girlfriend. There’s no way you’re just going to –

“Floor it,” Dabi orders, and Spinner hits the accelerator. “She’ll move.”

No. You won’t. Shigaraki sees you plant your feet, extend both hands in front of you, and he feels the exact moment when your quirk catches hold of the truck. You can’t stop it. It’s too close to you. But the front wheels of the truck lift, followed by the back wheels, up and over your head – and then it inverts into a slow barrel roll, still moving forward, steadily shedding momentum. Spinner’s got his seatbelt on. He’s the only one who doesn’t fall towards the ceiling.

But Dabi and Compress freeze in place. Shigaraki doesn’t. Shigaraki falls headfirst to the ceiling, because he still doesn’t have enough iron in his blood for you to catch him. And because he’s not paralyzed like the others – being rescued by you comes with a price – he can get all four of them out of here, because he learned from last time. Shigaraki ignores the sharp pain as his shoulder strikes the ceiling, fumbles in his pocket, and activates his phone’s location tracker. Kurogiri can find them now. It’ll be mere seconds before they’re safe.

The last of the truck’s momentum fades as it spins through the air, and you lower it carefully to the ground without turning it right-side up. Now that the strike team’s escape is secured, Shigaraki can focus on you, on just how insanely strong you are, how you can split your focus well enough to control the truck’s speed and rotation without losing your grip on Dabi and Compress. The heroes were stupid for letting you fill the role of an underground hero, keeping you away from the spotlight. Their loss is the League’s gain.

“Get us out of here!” Dabi snaps at Shigaraki as you walk towards the truck. Next to Shigaraki, Spinner looks similarly panicked. “We’re in a metal box. I can’t blast her without cooking us. If you don’t –”

Kurogiri’s warp gate swallows Dabi first, then Compress, and Shigaraki realizes all at once that while he’s about to escape clean, you aren’t. You haven’t done any of the things he knows you’re capable of to stop Kurogiri from rescuing them. You haven’t contracted the cab of the truck around them or bent off pieces of metal to bind them to their seats so Kurogiri can’t separate them from it. You’re going to be in trouble again for letting the League escape, and you’re going to be pissed at Shigaraki – unless Shigaraki finds a way to let you win at something.

And he’s got just the thing. As Spinner vanishes into another warp gate, Shigaraki fumbles the box containing the quirk-canceling bullets open in his pocket. He pries two out, palms them. Then he makes a show of pulling the box partway clear of his pocket.”

The box is metal. You melt the windshield one-handed – since when can you do that? – and snatch it, and before Shigaraki can stop you, you steal the box with the quirk-enhancing bullets, too. That’s fine. Shigaraki wasn’t going to keep those, and he only needs two of the quirk-canceling bullets for what he’s planning – and it’s not like he has a gun to fire them out of right now, anyway. You can keep the bullets, and he’ll escape. And he got to see you today when he wasn’t expecting to. Shigaraki smiles at you as the warp gate consumes him. He’s gone too quickly to see if you smile back.

Back at the hideout, Shigaraki discovers that nobody else thinks it went as well as he does. Spinner’s the least dramatic about it. “We got away,” he says with a shrug. “Overhaul was punished and we still got some of the bullets. All our win conditions were met.”

“They should not have been.” Even with the mask on, Compress somehow still manages to look disturbed. “That hero let us go.”

“Yeah, no shit she let us go. That’s the crazy one who’s in love with Shigaraki.” Dabi smirks, like he thinks he’s making fun of Shigaraki – except you are in love with Shigaraki, and Shigaraki maybe likes you a little bit. “Compress is right. If that had been any other hero, we’d have been fucked. Next time we should leave from the scene instead of driving off into the fucking sunset.”

Shigaraki can acknowledge when a plan needs some refinement. He nods in agreement, and Dabi, who seemed like he was looking for a fight, wanders off grumbling about how he needs a cigarette. Spinner sticks a little closer. “Did you know she could do that?”

“She stopped a train.”

“Yeah. That was one big thing moving away from her. She flipped us up and over her head while we were going 80km at her face,” Spinner says. “She’s really strong.”

Shigaraki struggles to hide his grin. “Yeah.”

“If she likes you, maybe you should use that,” Spinner suggests. “Her actions align with Stain’s principles, which means she can’t be happy with the way the rest of the heroes act. Maybe she’d want to join us.”

Spinner has good ideas. Next time there’s a plan to be made, Shigaraki should listen to more of him and less of everybody else. “Already on it.”

Spinner stares at him. “How?”

“How do you think?”

Spinner looks like he thinks Shigaraki is out of his mind. Then again, Shigaraki thinks Spinner is out of his mind for being so fixated on Stain. Spinner’s the weird one. A little weirdness doesn’t bother Shigaraki. Once he adds you to the League, it’ll straighten out. In the meantime, Shigaraki tucks the bullets away to an inside pocket of his coat and makes his way over to Kurogiri. “Is she back yet?”

Kurogiri’s yellow eyes narrow as he opens a warp gate into your apartment and peers through. “Not yet,” he reports. “It will likely be some time until she returns, given the paperwork that results from an incident like the one that occurred today.”

Shigaraki feels weirdly disappointed. He wants to see you now. But it’s not practical at the moment, and until he can bring you and the League together, he can’t let you distract him from them. “Keep checking,” he instructs. He turns to the other three and pitches his voice up. “When Twice and Toga get back, we’re celebrating.”

“How are we going to celebrate? We don’t have any money.”

“Something will work out,” Compress says. “We’ve had very good luck today.”

They do have pretty good luck. Twice and Toga grabbed some stuff to fence on their way out of Overhaul’s compound, and with that sold, they’ve got enough to send Compress off in search of snacks. He comes back with half a convenience store and way too much money left over to have paid for most of it. Shigaraki doesn’t eat much. More for everybody else, and he’s going to eat later. You’ll cook at your apartment or you’ll order in, and either way it’ll be better than feasting on convenience store snacks. It occurs to Shigaraki that he’s getting sort of spoiled, and sort of picky, except the other way this time. After eating real food as often as he’s been doing, it’s hard to get excited about instant noodles.

He makes Kurogiri check on the hour to see if you’re back at your apartment yet. He wants Kurogiri to check on the half hour, but Kurogiri says no. “Allow her some time to get settled,” he says. “The chances that she will react poorly decrease the longer you give her.”

You haven’t reacted poorly to seeing Shigaraki, except the first time when you weren’t expecting him, and the last time when he tried to hold your hand without telling you he was going for it first. Shigaraki feels weird about that. You clearly thought he was going to be offended that you were scared to hold his hand, and he definitely wasn’t expecting you to panic like you did. To somebody else, it probably wouldn’t have looked like you were panicking at all.

But Shigaraki knows you. He should, since you’re his girlfriend who’s in love with him. And even if he was completely clueless, the fact that the shackles around his wrists and ankles were starting to vibrate would have been a major tell. You’ve been so calm both times he’s faced you in battle. It was weird that you freaked out holding his hand.

Maybe not weird. Shigaraki was freaking out, too, just on the inside. And maybe Kurogiri’s right about letting you have a little more space. “Go two hours before you check again,” he says, and Kurogiri nods. “I don’t want to, like –”

He doesn’t know what. This girlfriend thing is a good thing, sure, but he spends a lot more time being confused about shit than he used to. Shigaraki toys briefly with the idea of asking Toga for advice, then rejects it. Toga is still seventeen, and still basically insane, and besides, he’s not ready for everybody to know about you yet. He can keep you to himself a little while longer.

Shigaraki means to wait the full two hours, but he snaps at an hour and a half and tells Kurogiri to check. Sure enough, you’re back at the apartment, and it’s getting dark early enough now that no one will notice him outside your building. The difficult part is getting away from the others, but he tells them that he’s cultivating an ally – something they’re all supposed to be doing – and sneaks off through a warp gate onto your fire escape. The restraints encircle him almost the second he steps through, which means you were waiting for him to show up. Hoping he’d show up. Good.

He settles on a grade for the restraining job this time while he waits for you to let him go – a solid B. Like always, you don’t let him go all the way. He’s still got metal around his wrists and ankles. Lately Shigaraki’s been thinking about getting some metal of his own to wear, so you won’t keep fucking up your fire escape every time he swings by. The window opens, like always, and he climbs in.

But something’s different about your apartment this time. It’s subtle, but it’s there. Usually you’re already cooking, or just started. You’ve got the ingredients laid out and two place settings at your kitchen table – but you’re sitting on the couch instead. You aren’t watching anything, or looking for anything to watch, or even looking at your phone. You’re just sitting still. It’s weird.

Maybe you’re mad at him. Shigaraki speaks up as the window shuts behind him. “How much trouble did you get in?”

“Less than last time,” you say, without looking away from the black screen of your TV. “The HPSC had a rare second of self-awareness and realized that they should have come up with a stronger escort, given who they were transporting and who might be interested in getting revenge. And recovering the bullets didn’t exactly hurt my case.”

“I thought that would help,” Shigaraki says. You nod. “Uh –”

“One of the cops sent a distress signal before you crashed his car,” you say. “It went out to every hero in the area. Dispatch hit me up specifically.”

Just like the heroes should have seen the League’s attack coming, Shigaraki should have guessed that the heroes would send you to stop him. There aren’t many quirks better suited for stopping somebody escaping in a vehicle than yours. “It worked out,” he says.

“No, it didn’t.”

Shigaraki gets the worst hit of foreboding he’s felt in a while. “What do you mean? I got out, you didn’t get busted –”

“We got lucky,” you say flatly. “If there’d been another hero with me, I wouldn’t have had a choice but to capture you. You’d tell on me the instant you were in custody –”

“Hey,” Shigaraki says, offended. “You think I’d sell you out?”

“Why wouldn’t you? I’d have just captured you and ruined everything.”

“I wouldn’t sell you out,” Shigaraki repeats. The longer he thinks about it, the more offended he gets, but him being offended isn’t fixing this. Whatever it is. “If I turn you in, I won’t have anybody to break me out.”

Your quirk was basically designed for prison breaks. Shigaraki’s not kidding, but you must think he is, because you laugh, quiet and dull. “That’s why this can’t keep happening.”

You’re breaking up with him. Shigaraki feels like he’s gotten punched. You can’t break up with him. You’re in love with him. You can’t break up with someone you’re in love with, right? Knowing that doesn’t change the sinking feeling, the sickness sweeping up over him. “What do you mean?”

“I mean –” Your shoulders tense under your oversized t-shirt. “Do I have to spell it out?”

“Yeah, you do.” Shigaraki needs you to talk. He can’t come up with a countermove until he knows what you’re thinking. He pries off his shoes, hops the back of the couch, and sits down next to you. “Pretend I’m stupid or something.”

“When this goes wrong, and it will, one or both of us will lose everything.” You’re still staring at the TV, even though there’s nothing there. “It’ll be better to stop now, before it gets worse.”

“Before what gets worse?” Shigaraki asks. You don’t answer. You aren’t doing anything. What’s going on with you? “Look, if you’re done with me, just say that. Don’t make up some bullshit excuse about –”

“I let you escape. Again. What part of that says I’m done with you?” You don’t move, but the shackles are starting to vibrate. You’re getting upset. “We got lucky this time. Next time we’ll get caught.”

“Or not,” Shigaraki says. The despair from before is fading a little bit. It doesn’t sound like you actually want to break up with him, which means he might be able to talk you out of it if he plays his cards right. “Stay out of my way on the job and I’ll stay out of yours. We’ll deal with it once we can’t anymore, but – with your arrest profile, there’s no way they’re putting you on my case. You’re strictly small-time.”

You shouldn’t be, but you are – and that’s how you like it. You’ve said. Both times you’ve crossed the League, it’s been because you’ve been somewhere you shouldn’t have. If you stay where you’re supposed to be, this big clash between your feelings for Shigaraki and your responsibilities as a hero will never happen. Shigaraki looks around the apartment, trying to come up with his next move, and something on the coffee table catches his eye. He reaches over, nudges aside an English-language horror novel that’s been there for weeks, and picks up the pair of gloves.

They’re not your gloves. They’re new, and they’re weird – missing the thumb and first two fingers on each hand. They look like they were designed to be that way. Shigaraki goes from miserable and frustrated to some weird buoyant feeling he can’t describe in a split second, and the change in elevation almost makes him dizzy. And nauseous. He waves the gloves at you. “If this has to stop, what are these for?”

“Shut up,” you say, but your face is flushing, the same way it did when you got all awkward about the sex scene in the first Terminator movie. It was cute then and it’s even cuter now – more than cute, because if you went out and got special gloves that will let Shigaraki touch you safely, it means you want him to touch you. “At least admit that I have a point.”

“Yeah, you have one.” Shigaraki starts putting on the gloves. He wonders if Sensei knew about these, if they had them back when Shigaraki was a kid. If he had a pair of these, he wouldn’t have Decayed so many of his favorite things by accident. “But I have one, too, and mine’s better. You didn’t get made, I didn’t get caught, and Overhaul got what was coming to him and more. So we shouldn’t break up. We should celebrate.”

“Break up?” You look at Shigaraki like he’s lost his mind, and the last bit of worry evaporates. He never had anything to worry about. Of course you weren’t going to dump him, when you react to the idea of it like this. “How am I supposed to break up with you if –”

“You aren’t.” If Shigaraki wasn’t such a chickenshit, he’d kiss you right now – except the last time he sprung some kind of physical contact on you, you freaked out, and you already look sort of on edge. But you’re not breaking up with him. You don’t even want to think about breaking up with him. Fuck it. Shigaraki leans in.

In hindsight, he should have known better than to push his luck. He’s off-balance as he closes the distance between the two of you, courtesy of only putting one glove on and having only one hand to lean on. And because he’s off-balance, he misses. He manages to tag the corner of your mouth, but that’s it. The rest of his mouth is on your cheek, or maybe your jaw, and your skin is soft, smooth. So are your lips – the tiny piece of them he made contact with, anyway.  The opposite of his lips, which are dry and flaky and constantly cracking. How did Shigaraki forget how disgusting his mouth is?

He sits back from you, but it’s not far enough back. He retreats all the way to the end of the couch and tries to regroup. The longer he thinks about it, the more certain he is that there’s no way to regroup. He fucked up the first kiss. No bouncing back from that. He can feel you looking at him, and he knows his face is flushing. He knows how ugly it looks, too, and as the seconds tick past, Shigaraki’s options for what to do about it grow narrower. Turning away makes him look stupid. Covering his face with his hands makes him look like a little kid. Decaying your couch so you’ll kick him out is such a dumb idea that he can’t believe he thought of it. But the dumbest thing of all is just sitting here, waiting for you to figure out how to ask him nicely to leave.

“Quit staring,” he finally snaps. “Just kick me out already.”

“I’m not kicking you out.” You’re watching him from the other end of the couch, head tilted, perfectly calm. Your face is still a little flushed. “You have to warn me with this stuff, Shigaraki. It goes a lot better when it’s not a surprise.”

Shigaraki’s pretty sure it would have gone like this whether he surprised you or not. He doesn’t answer, and you get to your feet, leaving your end of the couch and sitting down next to him, close like the last time he was here. Your hand comes up to hold one side of his face, and your thumb runs lightly over the scar on his lip. Shigaraki freezes. This must have been how you felt when he tried to hold your hand the first time. Except you aren’t able to kill him just by touching him.

It feels like you could, though. Shigaraki’s heart is beating too fast. “What are you doing?”

You lean in slowly, not breaking eye contact. It’s intense enough that Shigaraki closes his eyes to avoid it, and a moment after he does, your lips press against his. Unlike him, you don’t miss. You don’t stay for long, either – longer than Shigaraki thought you would, shorter than he wants you to. Even knowing that his mouth’s disgusting. You sit back from him, looking pleased with yourself. You don’t look like that a lot, but you’re almost smirking, and Shigaraki remembers suddenly that he’s dealing with a hero, one who can flip speeding cars and stop out-of-control trains. “Uh –”

“It goes better when it’s not a surprise,” you say. “Don’t you think?”

It’s not even a question. Shigaraki nods, and you get up from the couch and head to the kitchen like absolutely nothing happened at all. Shigaraki sits there for another five minutes, inert like somebody’s stun-gunned him, before he pulls on the other glove, scrambles off the couch, and chases after you.

Whatever you’re cooking already smells good, but Shigaraki has something else on his mind. “Hey. You can’t just do that.”

“Do what?”

“Kiss me and walk away.”

“That’s what you were going to do,” you point out. “How was I supposed to feel about that?”

“It’s not the same,” Shigaraki says. You raise your eyebrows, and he grits his teeth. “You didn’t fuck it up like I did.”

You don’t make fun of him, but you don’t argue, either. Shigaraki gets back to the point. “You can’t kiss me and leave. That’s not what’s supposed to happen.”

“What did you think was going to happen?” You drop something into the pan on the stove and a cloud of steam billows up. “We’d kiss one time and then have sex on the couch?”

“That’s not what I thought,” Shigaraki says at once, except it must have been sort of what he thought, because his face goes up in flames. Either it’s what he thought or he thinks it would be hot. Or both. “It sounds stupid when you say it like that.”

“It sounds stupid because it is stupid,” you say.

“Why is it stupid?” Shigaraki challenges. Maybe you’re playing dumb. “That’s exactly what they did in Terminator.”

It’s also what they do in every porno Shigaraki’s ever seen – at least the ones that don’t cut straight to the sex. You stare at him for a second, jaw dropped, then burst out laughing. “What?” Shigaraki snaps, but you’re cracking yourself up. It would be cuter if you weren’t laughing at him. “Don’t just stand there and –”

“It’s a movie, Shigaraki,” you interrupt, wiping your eyes. “That’s not how it works in real life.”

“No shit it’s a movie. I don’t see any robots in skin suits from the future,” Shigaraki says, which only makes you laugh harder. “It’s not funny. I’m not stupid. If you just –”

“That’s how it works in movies. Maybe it works like that for some people in real life. That’s not how it’s going to work for us,” you say. Shigaraki doesn’t hate that, mainly because you’re implying that it’s going to work at some point. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want to do things Terminator-style.”

Shigaraki is working on calming down. He thinks you might be joking a little bit. “Yeah, if we go that route, you get knocked up and I die.”

“Or you get knocked up and I die,” you counter, straightfaced. “That would be bad, too.”

Shigaraki’s pretty sure that would be worse. You’re snickering again. “You’re crazy.”

“I’d have to be,” you say. Some of the mirth evaporates. “Wouldn’t I?”

Shigaraki remembers thinking early on that you had a screw or two loose – for naming yourself after a villain, for getting dragged behind a train, for falling in love with Shigaraki in the first place. You having a couple screws loose worked out really nicely for him. “Yeah,” he says. He takes the three steps into the kitchen until he’s right alongside you at the stove. “I like it, though.”

He only got ‘like’ out of his mouth at the last minute. Something else tried to get through instead. You nudge him lightly with your shoulder and it almost comes out again. Shigaraki swallows it. “Okay, so not Terminator style,” he says, and you nod solemnly. Your mouth is twitching again. “Then what?”

“I don’t know,” you say. “We might have to watch some more movies.”

“Fine,” Shigaraki says, and you smile. Your rice cooker beeps on the counter behind you. “Which ones?”

“If you don’t hate old sci-fi, more of those,” you say. “I made a list.”

It almost gets out again. Shigaraki’s in trouble. He’s not going to think about that until later. “See, you could have led with that. If you’d started out saying you bought me gloves and made a list of movies for us to watch, I never would have thought you were trying to break up.”

“I told you. We weren’t breaking up.”

The last time you said that, Shigaraki kissed you and fucked it up. This time, he taps your shoulder with a gloved hand and waits for you to look up. He tries to remember what you did. Eye contact. One hand on the side of your face. You don’t have a scar on your lip like he does, but Shigaraki improvises, brushing his thumb across your lower lip. Your eyes widen slightly, and your lips part. Shigaraki leans in.

You were right, he decides as his lips meet yours for the second time. It goes a lot better when it’s not a surprise. And it gets even better than that when you set one hand on his chest and kiss him back.

It takes some getting used to, to see kissing as something other than an achievement to check off on the way to getting laid. Out of context, kissing is a weird thing to do for any significant length of time. In context, Shigaraki’s annoyed every time you have to stop kissing him so you can do something to the food. If kissing is where the two of you are at right now, he wants to get as much out of it as possible. Besides, you’ve got your quirk. You don’t need to let go of him to move things around on the stove.

“Come on,” he mumbles, after probably the eighth time you’ve drawn back. “Who cares if it’s messed up? Order takeout.”

“Are you paying the delivery fee?” You take your other hand off Shigaraki’s shoulder, too, when you absolutely don’t need it for what you’re doing. “Takeout’s expensive, it’ll take longer to get here, and this has more iron in it. You’re still anemic.”

“So I should come over more often,” Shigaraki decides. Then something clicks in his head. “Wait, is that how you decide what to cook when I’m here? By how much iron it has in it?”

“I cook like this all the time. My quirk doesn’t work as well when my iron concentration isn’t high.” You seem like you’re focusing really hard on stirring what’s in the pan. Too hard. Stirring doesn’t take that much brainpower. “And yours is still too low. That’s why I dropped you.”

“I figured.” Shigaraki’s not mad about it. A sore shoulder’s a small price to pay for not getting paralyzed like everyone else. “Do you feel bad or something?”

“That depends. Did you get hurt?”

“That depends. What do I get if I say yes?”

“No,” you say, and Shigaraki snorts. “Is this what it’s going to be like? We meet up after fights and figure out who owes what?”

That’s really stupid. “We’re going with my plan. That means we aren’t going to fight.”

“And what happens if we do?”

“You still can’t grab me,” Shigaraki says with a shrug. “Unless you want to do it like this.”

He pulls your hand, wraps it around his waist, then steps in close. “And if you do it like this, we’ve got bigger problems than whether you’re trying hard enough to capture me.”

You still don’t look convinced, and instead of bringing your other hand over and putting it back on Shigaraki’s shoulder or on his chest or anywhere, you’re still stirring whatever’s in the pan. “All you have to do is not go plus ultra,” Shigaraki continues. “I know that’s a lot to ask from somebody who went to UA –”

You roll your eyes. “How long have you been sitting on that one?”

“About as long as you’ve been sitting on being in love with me,” Shigaraki says. “So, the whole time.”

“Shigaraki –”

“The plan is a good plan. It’s going to work,” Shigaraki says. Since you’re finally looking at him – and not touching anything on the stove, and probably expecting it now that he’s done it a few times – he kisses you. Then he keeps trying to talk. That doesn’t go as well. “It’ll work out.”

It’s going to work out. For Shigaraki, absolutely – and for you, too, once you finally realize the truth about the system you’re upholding. Maybe all it’ll take is one more clash with the League, one more time where you catch the blame that should belong to everybody, not just to you. Or maybe you’ll wake up one morning and it’ll all make sense, the way it all made sense to Shigaraki after he talked to Midoriya at the mall before Kamino. Either way the game ends, Shigaraki wins big.

He hasn’t gotten a win like that in, well – ever. And with the way things are going right now, he doesn’t mind waiting a little while for it to happen.

[emeritusemeritus]

Ughhh i cant stop thinking about soft soft sex with Fred after a long, tiring day. Just turning your brain to mush and then pampering you and holding you close... ♡

Hi Anon! My dear, this is on my mind near constantly too so here we go! My own personal HC that after the war Fred would grow his hair longer again, kind of like James in real life so I snook that in 🖤

Warnings: smut, graphic smut, soft sex, piv, fingering. Tooth rotting smut- is that a thing? Fluff, use of petnames, kind of a smutty comfort fic?

Word count: 891

You feel like Home.

You hadn't had a bad day necessarily, just a long day. You felt you were going through the motions, entirely on auto pilot, counting down the minutes until you'd be back home. Both you and Fred had the day off together tomorrow and there was no better feeling. All day you'd held on to the hope of a nice dinner, preferably one that you didn't have to cook, putting your comfiest clothes on and mindlessly watching muggle Tv whilst you cuddle up to Fred or even better, completely naked and cuddled up to Fred in a very different way.

When he first slips inside of you, a blissful sigh of relief escapes your lips. Your hands stroke down his naked. muscular back, legs locked tightly around his waist as his hips lazily drive into you, stroking deeper and deeper with each thrust.

“Fuck, you feel like home baby,” Fred whispers into your ear as he thrusts into you, burying his cock deep and staying there for a few moments, letting you adjust to his size.

“Always so tight,” he whispers, as if he’s talking to himself. You reach up and pull back the few strands of hair that have fallen into his face, making him look at you as he lifts his head. You share a sweet, meaningful smile as you look at each other before he leans down on bulging arms to kiss you. It’s passionate and loving but lazy with no rush to it, as if he’s savouring the moment just as you are. When he draws back his hips and thrusts into you again you can’t hold back the moan that escapes you. It’s quiet and subdued, muffled into his shoulder but so powerful, like a secret shared between you.

His pace is slow and steady with perfectly angled thrusts, taking his time to make it blissful for both of you. Your hips meet his, rolling in time with his thrusting and each time he seems to get deeper with every stroke.

“Roll on your side sweetheart,” he whispers, pressing a kiss to your forehead as he pulls out of you and moves to spoon you on your big, soft bed. He kisses your neck and shoulder as he settles behind you, free hand wandering across your breasts as he rests his weight on his other arm. His hand trails down your skin, purposely dancing around that spot on your waist that tickles the most and he chuckles as he watches you squirm. His big hands part your legs and begin toying with your clit, spreading around your wetness and reigniting that fire in your lower belly. He pulls away and grabs hold of his cock as you lift up your leg, allowing him to slip back inside of you. It isn’t your favourite position, usually reserved for lazy mornings when you’re both still half asleep but still need each other, but right now you’re enjoying the intimacy of it.

“Fred,” you sigh out in bliss as his pace quickens, your hand rising up to grab your breasts as his fingers slip back to your clit and circle the little nub perfectly. You turn your head to the side and he captured your lips with his almost instantly, each of you sensing the increasing intensity as his hips thrust harder and quicker.

“Want you to cum sweetheart, want to feel that perfect little pussy squeezing me,” he says in your ear, his voice sending shivers down your body as his fingers speed up just slightly on your sensitive nub.

“Fred, Fred,” you breathily chant, chasing your building orgasm as you move your hips to Fuck yourself back on his cock.

“Will you let me cum inside you baby?” He says, beginning to pound into your harder just like he knows you need.

“Fred, cum inside me!” You cry out, reaching your peak under his skilled fingers and perfect cock. Your pleading is enough to hurl him right over the edge with you and he grabs your hips with astronomical force as he pulls you down onto him one last time, sinking deep inside as he spills his load inside.

You’re both breathless and sporting with matching smiles on your face as you come down from your highs. He pulls you in for another kiss as he slips out of you, smirking against your lips as he hears you gasp. His hand comes up to rest on your breast as he pulls you into his body, his flaccid cock resting against the curve of your bum as he holds you in his arms.

“I love you, so much,” he says quietly and you smile, reaching up to entwine your fingers with his where you can reach.

“Love you more Fred Weasley,” you say slightly dreamily, still amazed that you get to say those words even after being together for so long.

After a few minutes of bathing in the post-sex glow, you hear Fred’s breathing steadying and know that he’s undoubtedly fallen asleep. It’s too late for a nap and too early for bed but you don’t care, cuddling down into the muscular plains of his chest where your head fits perfectly under his chin. Dinner can wait, chances are you’ll just order in anyway and so you let yourself drift off in Fred’s arms, the day forgotten.

[onyxsboxes]

I got a 3x3 card with the theme color for the @mota-collab bingo (you can get your own here 😉). It was really fun to find art working for each fills, and I tried to do it completely with visual artwork (non-fic) for this one 🥰

YELLOW -> Gif by @carnevol it gives such a beautiful magical vibe 🥰

ORANGE -> Buck landing in Algeria gif set by @mithrandirl love this scene and the way the gifs capture it is stunning 😍

RED -> This gif set by @ronsenthal with the buckies reunion, their smiles make me beam every time 😁

BEIGE -> Blue sky gif set by @sluttyhenley, the way they look at each other make me want to scream every time 🤩

VIOLET -> Violet hill by @kbsd an AMV beautiful and full of feeling 🥹

GREEN -> The Lion and his lamb by @frozensoldier-png amazing 🤗

BROWN -> Bucky giving Buck a little pat by @nebudaze, such a lovely scene 🥰

TEAL -> Auto rec for this one with a post-war Buckies moodboard

BLUE -> This cute art and sweet headcanon by @drylite and @johnbottoms always puts a smile on my face and lightens my mood every time I see/think about it 🤗

What do you think?

[boringkate]

whats the secret of good self butt photography how do i capture there glory and not throw out my back

1) Get something to hold your phone. Dollarama (if you're canadian) has these like $4 goose neck phone clip things that you can clip onto a chair or whatever and are pretty great, but if you can spare a little more money (and you expect to use it enough to justify it) then get a proper tripod (I use a couple 60 inch amazon basics tripods, but it seems like they've gotten more expensive and other brands are probably no worse) and pair it with a screw on phone tripod mount (aliexpress has them for a couple dollars and you can even get rotating ones that'll let you film in portrait mode).

2) Use a free auto clicker app (I'm on android, but I assume ios has them too) to automatically tap the button to take a photo every 4 or 5 seconds. You're gonna end up with a lot of wasted photos where you're just getting into position, but that's fine (just delete em). I wildly prefer this over using a bluetooth remote because it keeps your hands free and something about not needing to choose to snap the photo makes it easier (the time passes faster and you'll end up with more usable pics which is dope even if you just want one good one because the way to take a good pic is to take a lot of bad ones untill you get lucky).

3) Set up a way for you to see what the camera sees. You could plug your phone into a monitor or tv using an hdmi adapter or use a free screen streaming app to watch your phone's screen on a laptop.

4) Use the camera on the back. It's always higher quality. The selfie camera is only for when you don't wanna deal with those first three steps.

5) Natural light is your BFF. Take your pics while the sun is out and your curtains are open.

6) Filter your pics. I use an app called MIX (specifically an old build of it bc they changed some stuff like their payment model for the batch image filtering feature) (which is definitely on both Android and iOS), but I imagine there are a ton of others that do all the same stuff. I loath smoothing for face pics, but it can be alright for butt pics. Noise can further obscure stubble. You're probably gonna wanna raise the temperature and maybe even the tint (people look unwell when their skin is more blue or green than it should be). Lowering the contrast can be nice too. Beyond that it can be fun to just experement and see what looks nice.

That's my process anyways. You do you. I know a lot of hotties are more into the pink blue lighting thing for example (you can get colored bulbs at the dollar store and stick em on a couple cheap thrift shop lamps) and I could especially see that being appealing if you aren't getting much natural light (pls don't just be taking nudes at night under the harsh light of your apartment's one shitty ceiling lamp lol).

Bonus protip: If you are using a lamp or lamps or softboxes and you want extra brightness then you can get E27 lamp bulb splitters online for a couple dollars that'll let you plug multiple bulbs into a single lamp.

Bonus bonus protip: Keep an eye out for selfie sticks with a screw on the base. I use a gimbal extension rod with a 1/4 inch screw paired with a hinge (and had previously been using a selfie stick with a screw on the bottom which was cheaper although it eventually broke) and screw it in between my tripod and my phone clip so that I can get my phone hovering over my bed (without the instability that comes from actually putting your tripod on your bed). It's very optional, but it does rule.

[dixons-sunshine]

The Boyfriend Assessment | Quarters Of The Undead AU

Summary: Meeting your best friend’s boyfriend for the first time was never easy. In Georgianna’s case, meeting Vec’s boyfriend felt like a life or death situation—until it didn’t.

Warnings: I can’t think of anything.

Word count: 2.8k

A/N: First official fic for this AU on my part! Aahhhh I’m so excited! I hope I captured Vec accurately, @thevegandarkelf. If not, I’d be more than happy to change a few things. Also, I know there’s no Daryl in this, but I wanted to get a head start on Georgie and Scud’s sibling rivalry. My next fic should probably include Daryl!

“How do I look?”

At the sound of her voice, Georgianna looked up from the tests she was busy grading and up at Lydia Rae Vector—or, well, Dia for her personally due to best friend reasons, and Vec for others—her roommate and absolute bestest friend in the whole world. The woman in question stood in front of Georgianna, sporting a casual yet outgoing look, all in an attempt to impress the guy that worked at the auto repair shop near Atlanta General, the same guy that was coming over for dinner so that Georgianna could finally meet the man that held her best friend’s heart as of late. The cutie with the bandana, as she had come to know him as from their extensive talks about the man.

Georgianna clicked her red pen closed and leaned back on the couch. She hummed and scanned Vec’s attire, a faux look of contemplation on her face. It was all for show, really. Vec was one of the most fashionable people she knew. If one were to give her a trash bag, she would find a way to style it. But Georgianna knew that Vec loved her reassurance nonetheless, so she always made sure to let her best friend know her honest thoughts.

“You look great, Dia,” Georgianna spoke up after a few beats of silence, her tone laced with honesty and sincerity. “Now calm down and take a few deep breaths, okay?”

Vec took her advice and followed the breathing patterns Georgianna was demonstrating. Once she was certain she was not going to freak out, Vec sighed. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” Georgianna stood up from the couch and made her way over to Vec, closely inspecting her rather nervous stature, something that was rather uncommon for the usually confident, straightforward woman. “What’s up, babe? What’s got you so worried? I’m the one that should be nervous.”

“I don’t even really know,” Vec admitted with a small groan. “I mean, when it’s just me and him, everything is so natural. He matches my freak, y’know? And obviously, when it’s just you and me, we can talk about anything and nothing all at once. But—”

“You’re nervous about how we’ll feel about each other,” Georgianna finished for her, instantly understanding where her worry was coming from.

“A little bit, yeah.”

“Dia, you don’t have to worry about what we think of each other, okay? Even if we end up despising each other, I won’t let it affect you. I’ll learn to tolerate him. But I’m sure that won’t even be necessary. I’m sure I’m gonna love him. Well, not like that, of course. He’s your man. I would never betray your trust like that. I—”

“I get what you meant,” Vec interrupted her with a light laugh, knowing well that if she did not, Georgianna would go on a rant in an attempt to explain something she did not have to in the first place. Georgianna had a tendency to overthink, and Vec was the anchor that helped her in those types of situations.

Georgianna sighed and shrugged. “Besides, if this guy—”

“Josh.”

“—Josh is as great as you say he is, then I’m sure we’re gonna get along great.” When Vec nodded, Georgianna continued. “Now calm down, okay? Tonight’s gonna go just fine.”

“You’re right,” Vec agreed. “It will be fine.”

The doorbell to the two women’s shared apartment rung, making them both look over at it. Georgianna frowned and looked up at the clock on the wall, before looking back at her best friend. “It’s only five thirty. I thought he was gonna be here at seven.”

Vec shrugged nonchalantly. “I mean, I told him to be here any time after five if he wanted. I didn’t think he was actually gonna be so early.” Her earlier nerves being replaced with an idea she deemed positively brilliant, Vec smiled. “It gives the two of you the time to get to know each other while I make dinner!”

“You’re kidding,” Georgianna exclaimed in a hushed whisper. “Dia, you can’t leave me alone with him! The living room is a mess! And you know what—”

“What a flibbertigibbet you can be when you’re nervous. Yes, I know, but I also know that he wouldn’t mind that.” Vec gripped Georgianna’s shoulder in—what she hoped was—reassurance. “Believe me, he doesn’t mind messes at all. And besides, I seriously doubt five test papers can qualify as a mess. You’ll be fine, Ginny. I promise. Think of this as a parent-teacher conference.”

Georgianna hesitantly nodded. “Yeah, okay. I can do that.”

“Perfect, because you don’t really have a choice.”

Before Georgianna could say anything, Vec backed away from the woman and stalked towards the door. She opened the wooden barrier between her and her boyfriend, and smiled brightly at the man on the other end. Georgianna forced herself to relax, trying to remind herself that this was not a big deal. She loved meeting new people. She strived for social interactions. She was a complete social butterfly. She could do this.

“Josh, hey!” Vec greeted the man enthusiastically.

If it was not for the fact that she had seen it with her own eyes, Georgianna would never have thought she was nervous at all. Vec truly was a master at changing her emotions in a matter of seconds. Georgianna often joked that her best friend should have gone into the acting business instead of surgery due to that little fact alone.

“Heya, Vee.”

Vec leaned forward and gave the man a quick peck on the lips, before beckoning him inside. “C’mon, you gotta meet Georgie.”

Got to was a bit of an overstatement, Georgianna thought to herself. However, she forced herself to calm down and plastered a smile onto her face. This meeting meant a lot to Vec, and by god, Georgianna was going to ensure that it went as smoothly as humanly possible.

The moment Georgianna’s eyes landed on the man she had heard so much about, the woman had to resist the urge to comment on his choice of clothing. He wore a shirt that had some science joke on it, with a pair of jeans that had definitely seen better days, a big puffer jacket and a pair of sneakers that had a bunch of small doodles on the side. He even wore a bandana, but from the various conversations she had with Vec regarding the cutie with the bandana, Georgianna had expected that last part.

The couple walked into the living room and came to a stop a few feet away from Georgianna. She exchanged a look with Vec, before turning back to the man—Josh—and extended her hand.

“Hi. I’m Georgianna,” she greeted in a tone of voice that closely resembled the one she used when greeting the parents of the kids she taught. “Georgianna Marianne Hawkins.” She had no idea why she had felt the need to give her full government name, but there was no going back now.

The man smiled and gripped her hand in his and shook it once. “It’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.” He removed his hand from hers and motioned towards himself. “I’m Joshua Frohmeyer, but you can call me Scud. Just about everybody does.”

Georgianna nodded and looked at Scud with a scrutinising gaze. It got quiet for a few moments, before Scud chuckled awkwardly and cleared his throat. “Okay, then. Where’s the bathroom?”

“Down the hall, first door to the right,” Vec explained, smiling at him as he kissed her on the cheek and disappeared down the hall. When she heard the door close, she turned back to Georgianna. “What was that about?”

“What do you mean?” Georgianna inquired with a confused frown.

“You know, that look you gave him. Like you’re a dad trying to figure out his intentions with your daughter.”

“You trying to insinuate you see me as your mom?” When Vec simply sent her a pointed look, Georgianna laughed and shook her head. “Okay, okay. I just… I guess I just don’t really understand something.”

That got Vec’s attention. “What do you mean?”

“You kept going on about the cutie with the bandana, and I just don’t get it. I mean, I can clearly see that he’s wearing a bandana, but I’m struggling to see how the word ‘cutie’ comes into play here.”

The clearing of someone’s throat slightly startled both Vec and Georgianna. Whipping around, she came face-to-face with none other than the man she had been talking about a few moments prior. Georgianna would have felt embarrassed, but for some reason unbeknownst to her, she did not.

Scud went and stood next to Vec once more, his blue eyes studying Georgianna’s face intently. “Well, then it’s a good thing it’s only her opinion that matters.” For added emphasis, he motioned towards Vec.

Georgianna crossed her arms over her chest and met Scud’s gaze head-on. She did not know where this sudden surge of confidence came from, but there was just something about the man in front of her that made her feel weirdly at ease, like she could speak her mind without having to fear looking like an absolute fool. She could not explain the odd feeling.

“Well,” she began matter-of-factly, “considering the fact that Vec came to me for the initial “yes or nah” evaluation of you, I personally think that my opinion holds a ton of value.”

Scud simply stared at her with a deadpan look. “Not in this case, it doesn’t. In fact, any opinions ya have of me will be taken with a grain of salt.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Well, I think—”

“Okay!” Vec interrupted. Maybe leaving them alone to talk wouldn’t be such a brilliant idea after all, Vec thought to herself. In an attempt to ease what she thought was an uncomfortable tension, she turned to Scud. “How about you help me in the kitchen while Georgie finishes up with her work?”

Scud shrugged and nodded. “Sounds good to me.” He turned to Georgianna with a smirk on his face. “That okay with you, Marianne? Considering your opinion holds so much value?”

Georgianna rolled her eyes at his comment, and the unnecessary emphasis of her middle name. She knew exactly why he did that. Vec must have told him how much she hated being addressed by her middle name. It was the perfect way to take a jab at her without outright insulting her.

“Yes, it’s completely fine with me, Joshua. Just don’t burn my kitchen down while you’re at it,” Georgianna replied, emphasizing his name as well and smirking slightly at the way he cringed at that. Vec had told Georgianna how much Scud hated being addressed by his full first name, so now that once unimportant piece of information had turned way more vital for the Hawkins woman.

“Guys,” Vec chimed in, her eyes darting between her best friend and her boyfriend, “please don’t.”

Georgianna and Vec shared a look, before the former moved over towards the couch and sat back down in front of the test that had laid momentarily forgotten. “Whatever you make, remember—”

“No onions or tomatoes. Yes, I know.”

With that, Vec ushered Scud into the kitchen, leaving Georgianna alone in the living room. With one last look towards where the couple had stood only moments prior, she picked up her pen and resumed with her task of grading the paper, a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

Yeah, Georgianna had a feeling that her and Scud were going to get along just fine.

“Thanks for coming over, Josh.”

“Of course. This was great.” Scud leaned down and pressed a soft, tender peck to Vec’s lips. He shrugged his jacket on and sent Vec a charming, heartfelt smile.

Georgianna—who stood off to the side—simply observed the couple with a small, fond smile on her face. The two truly did make a terrific pair. They complimented each other’s personalities beautifully. All throughout dinner, Georgianna had noticed how Scud’s eyes barely strayed away from her best friend, even when Vec was not looking. They were perfect for one another, and Georgianna was beyond happy that her best friend had finally found the person that was meant for her.

Georgianna liked Scud. She could see that he was a great guy. Despite only officially knowing him for a few hours, Georgianna felt like she had known him her whole life. Her usual very slight awkwardness when meeting new people failed to make an appearance with Scud, and that little fact spoke volumes. All throughout dinner, Scud and Georgianna made jokes and took playful jabs at one another, like they were siblings just catching up at a family dinner instead of being complete strangers to the other.

Scud’s eyes shifted over to Georgianna, a smirk playing at the corners of his lips. “Good night, Marianne.”

“Night, Joshua,” Georgianna greeted with a roll of her eyes. “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

With one last kiss to Vec’s cheek, Scud disappeared out of the front door. Closing the door behind her, Vec locked it, made her way over to the couch and collapsed onto it. With a heavy sigh, she looked up at Georgianna, her blue eyes sparkling in the dim light of the living room.

“So,” she began, her eyes following Georgianna as the aforementioned woman went about tidying up the living room, “I have a feeling that you don’t particularly like him.”

“Who, Scud?” Georgianna asked rhetorically, though she still received a nod from Vec. “Oh, no, he’s great. I like him. I can totally see why you fell for him. He’s not my type, but he’s yours and I can see myself becoming great friends with him.”

That confused Vec. Her eyebrows furrowed behind her glasses as she gazed up at the brown-haired woman. “I—what? Huh?”

“What’s wrong?” Georgianna inquired, completely taken aback by her friend’s strange behaviour. “You sound like you’re having a stroke.”

“The two of you didn’t stop taking jabs at each other all night!” Vec exclaimed, her tone evidently laced with confusion. “It sounded like you hated him.”

“I don’t hate him. He’s actually really cool, and I could tell that he didn’t mean what he was saying. You know I’m good at reading people, Dia. He’s a good guy and he clearly makes you happy.” Georgianna sat down on the armchair, a sigh leaving her chest. “Besides, his “insults” were kinda weak. I’ve had way worse things said to me before.”

Vec smiled at her. “So he has your stamp of approval?”

Georgianna nodded. “He does.”

“Then it definitely makes me feel better about giving him your number.”

“You gave him my number?” Georgianna asked, although she was just curious, not angry. “Why?”

“I gave it to him a while ago,” Vec replied with a shrug. “It was just in case there happened to be an emergency and I couldn’t call you with my phone. I completely forgot to tell you that I did. I’m sorry.”

Georgianna nodded slowly. “Okay, yeah. That makes sense. And it’s fine.” Vec was just about to say something else, but a yawn cut her off, making Georgianna chuckle. “Go to bed, Dia. I’ll clean up.”

“You sure?” When Georgianna nodded, Vec got up from the couch. “You’re the best, Ginny. I love you.”

“Love you too, Dia. Now go to bed. You have an early shift tomorrow.”

Vec nodded, and with that, she disappeared down the hall and into her bedroom. A few seconds after the door was shut, Georgianna’s phone buzzed in her pocket. She took her phone out, opened it and read the text that had come through.

Unknown: hiya, Marianne. It’s Scud. Thought I’d shoot ya a text to thank you for having me over. It was fun.

Unknown: By the way, I hope you didn’t take my “insults” to heart. I didn’t mean anything by it. It was just playful banter.

Georgianna shook her head at the texts. She quickly saved the number to her phone, before replying to him.

Georgie: Don’t worry, I know. Same here. I didn’t mean anything by it.

Joshua: Good to know.

Joshua: Anyways, I gotta go. Nightly call with my bae. She’s way better company than you. Sorry about that.

The moment Georgianna read that text, she heard the muffled sound of Vec’s ringtone, before it got silenced by the enthusiastic “hey, babe! You home yet?” from the aforementioned woman. Georgianna smiled at the clear-as-day happiness her best friend exuded. She put her phone down on the table and made her way to the kitchen, humming to herself as she went about cleaning up the mess.

Scud made Vec beyond happy, and that was enough for Georgianna to decide that her and Scud would get along just fine.

Georgie belongs to me.

Vec belongs to @thevegandarkelf.

Comment/DM/inbox me to be added to the taglist for this AU!

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

1950 Oldsmobile Polynesian Coupe

It’s the early 1950s, and the world of custom cars is booming with excitement. In the midst of this automotive frenzy, one car stands out—the Polynesian. Crafted in 1952 by the talented folks at Valley Customs in Burbank, California.

1950 Oldsmobile Polynesian Coupe

This special car was ordered by Jack Stewart, a car lover from Canton, Ohio. Fresh from military service, Stewart fell in love with custom cars when he saw Dunn’s Ford at the Motorama show in Los Angeles.

The Exciting Transformation

1950 Oldsmobile Polynesian Coupe

Completely captivated, Stewart got in touch with Neil Emory and Clayton Jensen of Valley Custom. He had a dream to transform his ’50 Oldsmobile 88, and over nine months, the car underwent an incredible makeover.

The changes included a 4-inch body section, a redesigned front, unique fender skirts, and a cool front bumper/grille made from a ’47 Olds bumper. The headlights got a special touch, and ’52 Studebaker taillights were treated the same way.

Emory and Jensen, who were true experts, used hammer-welding and metal-finishing to make the car look fantastic, ending with a beautiful orchid metallic finish.

In the Limelight

1950 Oldsmobile Polynesian Coupe

Debuting in Hot Rod magazine in September 1953, the Polynesian became a star. It even won ‘best of show’ at the first Michigan Auto Rama in 1953, proving it was a showstopper. The car appeared in many magazines and books, becoming famous in the world of custom cars.

A Mysterious Disappearance and a Glorious Comeback

1950 Oldsmobile Polynesian Coupe

But like many classic cars, the Polynesian disappeared mysteriously, hiding away in storage for a long time where it faced the effects of time. It wasn’t until 2005 that a dedicated owner decided to restore it to its former glory carefully.

Under the Hood

1950 Oldsmobile Polynesian Coupe

Beneath the shiny exterior is the powerful heart of the Polynesian—a strong 324 cubic-inch Oldsmobile V8 engine. With a .030 overbore, egge cast aluminum pistons, and a 9:1 compression ratio, this engine brings the iconic custom coupe to life.

In essence, the Polynesian tells a story of a time when people put their hearts and skills into making timeless cars.

With its triumphant return, this Oldsmobile 88 Holiday 2-door coupe keeps capturing the imaginations of car lovers, showing that classic custom cars will always be fascinating.

1950 Oldsmobile Polynesian Coupe

[detailtilted]

NEW Enhanced Edition - CHICON 2010 - Mishalecki Breakfast Panel

Direct link to video. Link to YouTube channel. (15 videos available.)

My latest video is up! This is a rare U.S. Jared and Misha panel. They have a fun dynamic with Jared's playful humor and Misha's dry sarcasm. If you haven't seen my posts before and want more details about what I'm doing, see the bottom of the post.

92% of the footage came from the video AgtSpooky sent me. It was already on YouTube, but not properly credited to her. Most of the audio came from a different source, and I used a few other sources to fill in small sections of both video and audio. All sources are credited in my video description.

Video Quality Notes

As usual, the breakfast video quality is lower than the main panels. AgtSpooky's video came out the best and clearest overall, but the quality does fluctuate. She also had a more sideways angle, so we don't always have a clear view of their faces depending on which direction they're facing. The other videos with a more direct view were usually quite blurry, so I mostly stuck with AgtSpooky's because I thought her clearer profile view offered better visibility than a blurry direct view. There were a couple short clips with good quality and a direct view, and I cut to those when I could.

The main panels have much better quality and a more direct view, so my next set of videos will look better.

Subtitles

Many of you know that I subtitle Jared and Jensen in red and blue because those were their mark tape colors on the set of Supernatural. When I tried to find Misha's mark tape color, I found this post which has photos indicating it was probably yellow.

I've used yellow to represent the fans at the mic during the main panels since I started this project. At the time, I hadn't thought ahead to the likelihood that I'd eventually subtitle Misha too. Since my YouTube statistics show that nearly half my viewers watch with the subtitles turned on, I don't want to cause confusion by switching up my colors after all this time.

I did want to give Misha's color some symbolism that fans would likely recognize though, so I subtitled him with orange in honor of his apparent penchant for wearing orange underwear.

This video was more difficult to subtitle than most I've worked on so far, so you may see more than the usual dreaded [inaudible].

What's Next

I've started working on the main panel from this same convention. It starts off as a solo Misha panel, then it becomes another Mishalecki panel, then it becomes a J2M panel. I plan to split them up into 3 videos, the same way I treated the Jared/Jensen/J2 panels that ran one-after-the-other at other conventions. This will keep them a more manageable length so that it won't take me an eternity to publish a new one, and it allows people to more easily watch just the video(s) with the actor(s) they're interested in.

Although my project is more focused on Jared and Jensen, I do plan to do the solo Misha panel. I had promised a while back that I'd probably do Misha's solo panels if I happened to have any good-quality, mostly-complete videos of his panel that I could use at the time I was working on other videos from the same convention. That probably won't happen often, but in this case I have a video like that from AgtSpooky.

Before/after Comparison Photo

A recap for anyone not familiar with this project…

In December 2023, I started this project to enhance old convention videos. I'm upscaling the videos and making other visual improvements, adding extra content to clarify various references, and adding human-generated, color-coded subtitles so you can better understand the sometimes-chaotic audio. The subtitles can be auto-translated to other languages via YouTube.

My goal is to publish the best, most complete, and most watchable versions of these older convention panels yet seen, but this is only possible thanks to the fans who captured the footage in the first place and were generous enough to share it with other fans. My video descriptions on YouTube will always credit my sources.

If you have any old convention videos you'd be willing to contribute to this project, please message me! I can also be reached at DetailTilted@gmail.com. Even if your videos are on YouTube, the original files, if you still have them, may upscale much better. If I can get them to upscale, I'd happily send the upscaled files back to you for your own collection whether I use them or not.

[blvckentropy]

Meet the Cast (top to bottom, left to right)

Trumere Douglas | 32 | Professional Photographer | Simadelphia (Newcrest) | VC🔊: Trumere "Tru" is a well-known photographer celebrated in the celebrity world. She thrives in her entrepreneurial journey, running a successful studio that has gained popularity. With a passion for creativity and a love for the arts, she also enjoys letting loose at parties during her free time. Although she struggled initially, she discovered her unique talent for capturing stunning sceneries and fine art. While her parents never viewed photography as a viable career, they take pride in her business achievements. Her entire persona revolves around her work, with little focus on anything else apart from her relationship with her boyfriend. However, everything could change when she encounters a charming stranger.

Zachary "Zach" Love | 34 | Freelancing | Simadelphia | VC 🔊| : (Traits: Goofball, Bro, Maker) Zachary is a true visionary at heart. His greatest aspiration is to contribute to his community and launch his own contracting business. Currently, he juggles his responsibilities as a construction and mill worker, striving to make ends meet. Contrary to popular belief, he experienced a period of immaturity in his younger years, which led to him maturing later in life. After a significant life transformation, he finally has something to look forward to, yet he still feels distant from finding a partner to share that journey with. Despite his parents' separation, he holds love in high esteem, much like his name suggests. Zach has always been easygoing, but it seems he may have finally found someone who challenges him.

Halo Wallis | 31 | Student/Night worker | Simadelphia | VC 🔊: (Traits: Geek, Overachiever, Snob) Halo is one of Tru's closest friends. As the middle child in a family of five, she faced several challenges growing up, including sacrifices related to her education. By the time she turned 18, she found herself needing to make a difficult choice about her future. An opportunity arose when Madame Darling, the owner of a nightclub, offered her a job. Although she could have turned it down, the reality of her situation made it hard to say no. By the age of 21, she was working discreetly at the club and had saved enough money to move out of her parents' house and into her own place. Over the years, she continued her job at the club while also managing to save for her education. Now, she is focused on her studies, aiming to become a physical therapist or pursue a doctorate.

James "JB" Blake | 33 | Jack of All trade | Simdelphia | VC 🔊: (Traits: Bro, Ambitious, Adventurous) Just like his best friend Zach, James is a dreamer. He has multiple jobs ranging from freelancing and construction work with Zach. You can say he's a jack of all trades trying to reach his lifetime goal of owning a customization auto repair shop. He got his obsession for cars and how they work from his old man. James was always a workaholic and struggle turning it off. That is until his friend invited him out to a unspeakable night out

[piratefern]

okay so basically about your AU it's great but I honestly don't understand why scp 049 left scp 035 alone and what's with briefcase? *confused noise* I'm quite confused I do understand some things but some things are quite confusing to understand there backstory I will appreciate if you explains to meh clearly (*°∀°)=3

Hey :D! Thankyou for your ask :3

Basically, to understand the briefcase you’ll need a bit of context first :3

SPOILER WARNING (technically, im hopefully making them a youtube shorts series once ive finished with my main project, but we’ll see :3)

Hasel (or 049 :3) comes from 1340’s france. He had a wife and a daughter who both caught the black death. He was working as a doctor at the time, and tried everything he could to save them, but they died. His daughter’s dying wish was for him to live, which cursed him to live forever altering his form to something resembling a crow, the omen of death.

In this sense he is now a monster (or anomalous if you prefer) and now portrays more birdlike traits :D

So with this in mind, he feels incredibly guilty. He feels as though the deaths of his wife and child are entirely his fault because he couldn’t cure them.

This guilt manifests itself into a caricature of his wife, where she taunts and tortures him within his mind in a place known as the grey dimension (seen in my earlier birdsong project)

when he gets lost inside the grey dimension (more or less lost in guilt) his physical body turns to auto pilot, and will hunt down anything obstructing his path to “the cure”. This is the monstrous form we see :D

The caricature also produces a black vine, which is my au’s version of the pestilence :D He can see this everywhere, he believed it infects people, and he believes he must find the cure for it in order to redeem himself (this isn’t true, especially because this vine isn't actually real)

CONTEXT OVER

right, so Hasel meets dyo (or 035 :D) in 1601. They travel together and eventually fall in love :3 Hasel slowly becomes happier now that hes learning how to enjoy life, and continues his journey to find a “cure”, unaware that its staring him in the face, Dyo, who helps him to forgive and tackle his past, whether unintentional or not.

Eventually their story leads up into 1916, during the first world war. Battles, despite their nature, are an efficient way for Hasel to research the dead whilst avoiding killing where he can.

He had almost hurt dyo by accident after his monstrous form takes him over, and the vine was telling him that he was in the way, that dyo was stopping him from reaching the cure.

At this point something had been building up inside of him. It was a sense of dread, a feeling that something bad was going to happen.

And there it was. He looks over no-man’s land and all he can see is death. He can’t take it anymore, and that night he runs, scared of hurting his lover and scared of “failing” those from his past.

(…)

The briefcase however? Its not too important :3 Its a way for him to carry his supplies and it changes to keep up to date with the time period :3 He left it behind so dyo would know he’s gone. Dyo had also had this impending sense of dread, he felt deep down that something like this might happen, but he desperately tried his best to ignore it. So now he’s searching for hasel, the only person in his life who could never leave him, the only one who wouldn’t die.

So yeah thats it in basic terms :3 (after hasel leaves the caricature of his wife is replaced with a manifestation of dyo, masks comedy and tragedy and a mix of the two as it shows how his guilt has become more complex over time :3)

(Once he gets captured by the foundation the back of his cloak is branded with the logo)

any more questions lmk :3

I haven’t shared much on dyo since this was mainly a hasel focused question so if anyone’s curious about that then be my guest to drop an ask whenever :D He isn’t as built up but I do definitely have ideas for him :3

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s3 episode 4 thoughts

here we are!!! i actually turned off auto caps on my phone for this; that’s how serious this blog is getting. don't worry, i'll probably remember to turn it back on before i send an important email.

i haven’t seen an ep in a few days and i feel like it has been 80 years. the last episode wasn’t the greatest, so our time apart feels even longer.

this episode is about a guy named clyde. clyde bruckman is a hell of a name. i’m expecting a real cowboy. a guy who knows his way around a horse. he probably spits chew in a certain fashion. we shall see if i’m correct.

(editor's note: op found that clyde was not a cowboy, but something just as special... a friend <3)

we open with a man reading a magazine article on predictions, written by a celebrity psychic. we later learn that this fellow doing the reading is, in fact, clyde bruckman. and elvis being dead but buddy holly being alive has got to be one of the greatest theories i’ve ever heard. i WILL incorporate this into my belief system.

allegedly, buddy holly is going to open at a big music festival. and this is how i learn that lollapalooza was a thing even before chappell roan visited... but we all know that when she steps on that stage in a few short weeks it will blow anything secretly alive buddy holly could have cooked up in his wildest dreams. "the night the music died" <- crazy thing to say about a time before miss roan was even born. anyway...

bruckman ran into someone in the street. feels like a chekov’s gun moment but who knows.

hint: it was!

now the clumsy man is at the psychic. and he says he saw his own future and he seem himself doing things that are “out of character”. now that's suspicious~

OH??? clumsy man just killed the fortune teller and says she should have seen this coming. HUH???? clumsy murder man needs to be punished …our psychics deserve federal protection. 

we are at the scene of a murder. a different murder, because this one did NOT take place in the psychic's room. “they say the eyes capture the last thing a murder victim sees” “so what do they say about the entrails?” “yuck” LMAO i giggled a little….

they’re talking about some guy in vague terms, that he’s “unorthodox” and “a kook”, and then mulder walks in and it looks like they’re talking about him but the investigator says “who the hell are you” HAHAHA that got me as well

so the murderer left behind the eyeballs and scully says that they made a profile for the killer and i’m thinking yaaaaay they worked together <3 i love that spooky mulder, the well-established profiling expert, is willing to collaborate. but with her only.

and also the house is filled with porcelain dolls 

mulder knowing the professional name for the people who read tea leaves… unfortunately i love him so bad.

THEN the real star of the show rolls up. it’s the psychic from the cover of the magazine we saw clyde reading earlier. CROWDED w paparazzi. he's got a vague european accent going on here. hold up is that jon favreau in the background. i received no clarification on if that was him or not.

psychic is describing a guy who could be literally anyone “white man with facial hair… or not” “tattoo somewhere on his body” wow king of specifics. it's like he's in the room with us. /s

the agents are watching him do this and share a glance and i want it on a poster it’s sooo cute <3

celebrity psychic says he lost the vision from negative energy and then gets right up in the agent’s faces. they handle it pretty well, all things considered. because i would be telling him to back tf up. 

he asks mulder to LEAVE!!!! he has been diagnosed with negative energy. she leans in and says “i can’t take you anywhere” LMAOOOO so he stands outside and then the psychic says that skeptics like mulder make him sick. yeah i laughed!!! so what!

description of our guy: “white male, 17-34, with or without a beard, maybe a tattoo, who is impotent” <- wow.

back to the clyde cam. he's selling insurance. telling some guy that he is going to die in a car crash. well this is an effective life insurance sales policy. or not, because he doesn’t close the deal!! sure would have worked on me.

back home, he takes out some moldy cabbage that looks like a guy’s head into the trash. takes out his neighbor’s trash as well, and sees a vision of the dog eating her remains. (sabrina brier voice) oh!!!

(wait i just realized i reference that video all the time and have never cited my sources. if you are unfamiliar with the legendary "oh!" moment please click here)

back to the plot at hand.

clyde asks if his neighbor has enough dog food. thoughtful man. BUT he sees a body in the trash!

this episode is making me giggle <- don't remember what prompted that note but it was true.

clyde, who reported the murder, says that he knew the eyes were cut out, but she was found face down... so. how do you know that. site your sources. “well it just figures”, he says, and it absolutely, and i cannot emphasize this enough, does not

they bring him to… a murder scene. dun dun dun!

he thinks they're pranking him and asks to see their identification again (sees mulder’s badge) “i’m supposed to believe that’s a real name?” yeah get him again for me.

he sees blood at the crime scene and throws up which... yeah. that’s pretty messed up. he emerges from throwing up and starts saying and doing the same things as the earlier psychic. but then he starts getting... a bit more specific. allegedly, the woman was having sex with the killer before she met her end.

“well then, what’s wrong?” “sometimes, it just seems that everyone’s having sex except for me” LMAOOOOOOOOO clyde you are too real

scully looks soooo confused and i love it

all of a sudden, he sees one of the many dolls as a bloated corpse head, and announces where they’ll find the body then… hands the doll to mulder. which is not the first time we have seen him holding a doll. it is an interesting visual. what are they trying to tell us??

scully isn’t buying it. why does clyde know all this stuff? “i don’t believe he’s the killer”, says mulder, and she responds with, “i don’t believe he’s psychic” yeah that’s the dynamic i love. and she is sooooo pretty. 

mulder goes to the dude’s house and he knows exactly what is going on. but then clyde seems shocked it's him so we are getting mixed messages here.

he asks mulder if he wants to know how he’s going to die, and mulder says yes after stuttering a little and i’m like WOAH where is this going… but clyde responds with “no you don’t”, which, okay yeah, i don’t think i could handle that either

(he goes on to try and sell mulder insurance)

clyde says the future is inevitable. or if he does get involved… what if there is the whole butterfly effect thing? and then he immediately agrees to going along with the investigation. king of not having an answer. the indecisive representation we deserve.

mulder you’re so pretttttyy... look at him watching clyde touch some brass frogs and base conclusions off of them.

scully arrived at the door as mulder has his head FLAT ON THE TABLE lmaoooo 

so, it appears that clyde can ONLY tell how people are going to die. nothing else. now is that useful to this investigation? it's arguable. maybe they can find an angle.

clyde says that the scrap of fabric he’s holding comes from mulder’s new york knick’s t shirt (which was a thing that happened in 1x13 when he was testing that other psychic!!!! ohhhh i remember! do not think i forgot!! and i was confused as to why he would have a knick’s shirt if he was from new england... perhaps he knows no loyalty to geography when it comes to sport)

but mulder denies that it is his shirt anyway, so.

they found keychains on the bodies, and clyde is going on about all the personal information of whoever owned said keychains. it turns out he just sold the guy an insurance policy a few months ago lmaooo... but he knows he was murdered! the death power strikes again.

scully is driving. clyde is in the passenger seat. mulder is sticking his head in between them, asking how he receives his psychic transmissions. it's funny. he wants to know how being a psychic works! so is it like, visions, or dreams or something?

he then implies that mulder will die by autoerotic asphyxiation <- HELLO????? he looks at scully after receiving this news. as if she can possibly defend him against such an accusation.

they’re in the forest looking for a body and clyde explains he knew “the big bopper” was going to die.

scully says she doesn’t believe in that stuff, and even if she did, she wouldn’t believe that story. damn, just really going for his throat, huh. he seems to believe her indignation is over the fact that he liked the big bopper better than buddy holly and he defends himself.

they try to get the car out and mulder’s suit gets all dirty (this is sad to me, a mulder suit enjoyer) but gasp!!! the car is RIGHT OVER THE BODY. that has to be bad for finding evidence. so he did know exactly where it was!!!!

they have a thread from the scene, and have presented it to clyde. “but don’t you have crime labs that analyze these things for you?” he asks scully “yes. yes we do” (pointed glare at mulder) LMAOOOO but he says it takes time!!! and they still haven't analyzed the other thread. so please please please just give your powers a go.

he doesn’t want to help out, but mulder says he wants some insurance. on the fiber, not actual life insurance :( clyde was so excited to tell him the benefits of general mutual!!!

clyde is describing mulder being stalked by the killer sometime in the future, and all of a sudden scully’s up and asking him for more details like she believes it. awww. it’s sweet in a way. does she believe in psychics? no. is she still gonna take detailed notes when one says mulder is in any slight danger? yeah. and don't worry about that seeming to contradict her belief system. she is complicated beyond simple characterizations of skeptic or believer.

he seems to think that the killer will slit mulder’s throat at the investigation, but he doesn’t want to tell him. he DOES tell him that he will step on a pie before whatever happens to him, happens to him.

thank you to the subtitles for clarifying that clyde was imitating johnny carson because they reference would have been lost on me. i know, i’m uncultured, i’m sorry. i’ll google it though. okay, as i thought, he was a late night host. see? we get an exchange of knowledge on this blog, i learn about johnny carson's way of pronouncing the word "killer" and you can use sabrina brier's "oh" in conversation now.

it seems the killer sent clyde a letter saying he’ll kill him. and he’ll be dead before they can get him help :( noooo i like mr bruckman!!! :(

back to the killer. he’s getting a tarot reading and says he’s looking for a guy he’s gonna kill. the man doing the tarot reading smiles nervously, because what do you say in such a situation.

they seem to have bought clyde a pie after his earlier ramblings on the subject, and he kindly asks scully if she wants some, but she denies because she must study background checks instead of relying upon visions. he asks if she is jealous. a good banter between them.

back at the tarot place, the reader mentions a woman. MAYBE A REDHEAD...? stay away from her…

clyde is going on about seeing himself in bed with scully. HELLO??? “it’s just a very special moment neither of us will ever forget” huh. laughs nervously. what the fuck. is she gonna find him dead or do we need to call HR.

(cries editing this, now that i know how the episode ends)

it seems the tarot card guy is about to get murdered. but back at the hotel room with clyde and scully, they’re playing cards and she’s talking about moby dick and macbeth misinterpreting prophecies...

but despite the denial, SHE ASKS HIM HOW SHE DIES??? he says “you don’t” and that is exactly what i like to hear <3

she seemed really serious about it too, like she didn’t want to admit that she was curious, initially deflecting. oh best believe i WILL psychoanalyze that.

LMAOOO okay so this is the episode where mulder says the “chantilly lace” line and she makes that face. he's referring to another thread found at a murder scene, but i saw it in a gif and i have been thinking about it since then.

she slaps his chest with the file and says good luck as he goes to babysit the old man psychic. it was very affectionate. do it again.

mulder is in bed. it’s sleepover time with the old man. “you’re not one of those people that turns everything into a sexual symbol, are you?”, clyde asks, seemingly self-conscious about revealing his recurring dream. mulder says no, but i’m unconvinced.

anyway, he talks about seeing himself dead, and how his body fades away. we see a cgi decomposing body and it’s quite gnarly. maybe it's clay? and all his skin faded away and he becomes bones. kinda gross tbh. but he says he feels at peace.

there’s been another murder, so another guy is gonna babysit our clyde, and i’m thinking noooo don’t trust this other guy!!

scully says she feels bad, that clyde has convinced himself he is a psychic and it’s taken all the joy out of his life :(

okay, the guy babysitting him seems to be telling him jokes. clyde says he won’t die of lung cancer so he lights up. and i'm thinking, buddy, he did not rule out emphysema.

hang on. that is a lighter we have seen before. in the hands of old lady who shall be eaten by dogs. now is this a mass produced object or are we about to witness the end of clyde!!!!

“don’t open that door for anybody”, says the babysitter, and clyde then immediately proceeds to do so. and who is it knocking but the psychic killer delivering their room service!!!

killer is asking clyde why he does these things and it’s “because you’re a homicidal maniac” well that would explain it! and then he stabs the babysitter. but clyde has delayed his fate by telling the murder he doesn’t kill him now. seems he believes him. clever thinking.

scully realizes that the killer is the bellhop at the hotel after seeing some more lace. which mulder describes as “woman’s intuition” yea <3

back at the hotel. mulder is in the kitchen. he sees the killer with the knife. it is all going down as clyde described it. now if there really is a pie do NOT BE DISTRACTED. OH there is a pie. and he knows he has to turn around, so he turns THE OTHER WAY. noooo!!!!!

they get in a struggle!!! mulder’s bleeding, and scully gets off the elevator just in time. she shoots the murderer. no hesitation on taking a life, she will kill a motherfucker for mulder. i love that about her. 

and scully only got there because she took the wrong elevator!!! more pondering on the meaning of fate!!!!!

i love when one of these bitches is on the floor in pain and the other comes over and comforts them. i think i need that in my life just once. it would heal me.

but the question is: where is bruckman?

they go to find him and they only find a dog tied to the door?? and a letter to scully. it’s the dog from before, the neighbor's pet. the letter from clyde says to take care of his neighbor's remains. and he asks if she wants a dog, and that you can’t blame him for the dog’s actions. so they go into the room.

BUT IT IS BRUCKMAN THAT IS DEAD IN THERE. it looks he took pills and suffocated himself. scully looks so so so so so sad.

AND OMG!!! SHE IS HOLDING HIS HAND WHILE HE IS IN BED AND CRYING. JUST LIKE HE SAID WOULD HAPPEN. WAIT THIS IS SO SAD. 

so that must be why he say a head in a bag at the start of the episode, it was his own death... and the killer was right, he did get to clyde before he was caught, he just didn't attack him. huh. funny how prophecies play out.

cutscene to her on the couch WITH THE DOG IN HER LAP. and an ad from the earlier eastern european psychic is on the tv. she throws the phone at him.

A DOG!!! a dog. okay, a lot to think about, but first and foremost we have scully with a dog <3 and it sits in her lap while she watches TV. and it MAY have tasted human flesh, which i feel is a hard thing to get past, but clearly she has done it. she has done the emotional labor of knowing that fuzzball knows what human meat feels like. and she has faith that this dog will not do the same to her. that is an awful lot of trust for a new dog. but we do know she loves animals. so perhaps she trusts the puppy.

i always pictured her with a big ol mutt from the pound. but a little dog can be just as good of a friend. and it WAS a rescue. that is important!

okay. back to the episode at hand, dog aside. even though it is a BIG deal to me and i'm honestly being so brave by not going on a monologue about what scully having a dog means to me. this episode was definitely comedic, and like the earlier comedic episode, i liked it a lot! but the ending made me so sad :( it was a pretty abrupt tone shift. 

still. the episode was SO good. i kept pausing every few seconds to write things down because they made me laugh or otherwise intrigued me (thinking of scully playing cards and explaining macbeth. or chantilly lace line. or "i can't take you anywhere". i will try not to think of mulder's potential death by choking himself for my own sanity)

and i liked clyde a lot. we get a lot of one time characters who we will never see again and so it’s good when those characters make an impact in the short amount of time we share with them. 

and i’m always gonna take a light-hearted episode, as light-hearted as a show where serial killing is a daily occurrence can be. it does go to show though that there wasn’t always a consistent tone throughout the story. and i do find that interesting. i am part of a generation where we typically get 6 hour long episodes of a tv show per season, and they’re so condensed there is very little time for exploration with genre or tone. in general, i have loathed this about modern television; the death of the filler episode has been lamented by people far more eloquent than myself.

the only thing i dislike about this format- doing a silly episode- is that if the next episode ends up being really dark it’s like, woah man, the whimsy, where did it go? last season we got humbug, which was SO fresh and funny, and then within the first 3 minutes of the next episode, a baby was killed by a train. so i lowkey got whiplash. but then again, i watched those episodes back to back, so maybe having a week between them seeing them air as they hit TV would have softened the blow. feel free to chime in with your theories on the nature of genre and how pacing of episode viewing effects that experience.

overall, a very good episode. i rank it up with humbug as one of my favorites, which is again funny, because i love the extreme angst and the silly. i paused to take so many notes because i liked so many things that i think i should someday rewatch it again and get a smoother experience haha

[thesmpisonfire]

I know we're in the middle of Mike lore, but I've watched Fuga Impossível (once without captions, and I've been watching it again with auto generated captions), and since I've only gotten a grasp on like, 20% of what's going on, I was wondering what sort of character nuances I was missing due to the language barrier because I actually really like what I've seen and want to know more about their characters (both the ones who are in QSMP, and the ones who aren't). (I won't be offended if you don't answer this, it's kinda a lot to ask)

So, I think a really important point is that Pac e Mike backstabbed each other but are fine about it. Pac got really into Cell when they first met because of the helping hand Cell offered, and the money. Cell calls both of them darlings. Mike never was too cool with trusting Cell

Pac often puts himself as the meek one, while Mike is the aggressive one. When JV appeared, Mike liked him better and trusted him a lot. JV had already tried to escape 3 times and Pac e Mike saw him getting captured again after the 4th try, and promised to them the 5th would be together

JV and Cell don't like each other (Exes <3) and JV always is loud on his disliking on Cell. Cell tells the boys JV isn't someone good to be trusted

Now, trust. It's a word that had a LOT of meaning to Cell. He is actually a very lonely person. His cellphone was a lie all this time, he doesn't has friends, only people that fear him. He saw on Pac e Mike as a new chance to make friends and have people to trust, which explains the breakdown he had when he found out they had betrayed him TWICE

JV is very smart, but also lonely in his plans. This loneliness causes his failures. He saw Pac e Mike as family, and they saw him as family as well. His death deeply shook him, specially the fact that he knew this would happen, and even after death guided him to Guaxinim

(Leg was eaten around this timestamp!)

Guaxinim also hates Cell. Something funny is that Guaxi is actually the only one that can make Cell shut up only with words. They have some sexual tension going on. He was like a muzzle on Cell. Guaxi and the boys pick up JV's backup plan, and this betrayal sent Cell on a rampage where he killed Felps and also half of the inmates of his cell block. In the chaos, he managed to catch on the other three to escape

The raft wasn't built for 4 ppl, only 3 max. So they stop at a small isle to choose who'll be left behind. Cell still has a soft spot for Pac, which means his betrayal cut even deeper, so he gave Mike a knife to stab Pac, and then started making Pac's mind that the others were planning to kill him. Pac almost actually believed him, but he talked with the others and calmed down

When Guaxinim's trap worked, Cell's first call was for Pac to save him, and Pac laughed at his face before the others joined him. They gave him the gun to kill himself and then dipped