#EX chairman whatever we know what i mean

[todayisafridaynight]

We rlly don’t need another majima game 😭 please give other characters a chance he already had the spotlight in 0😔

lord if i speak on goro majima.

[soobibabe]

only you chapter one

series masterlist / next chapter →

pairings: chairman's grandson Taehyun, ceo!reader trope/genres: enemies/academic rivals to lovers, fake dating, forced proximity (?), not arranged marriage but something close enough perhaps? warnings: none for this chapter wink wink

"Whichever one of you gets married first, gets the company" Never in Taehyun's 23 years of living had he ever heard something more ridiculous. "What do you mean marriage? You said I was the heir no questions asked the last time we spoke." he tried to keep his tone calm, but every fiber of his being was engulfed by utter betrayal. Marriage? First of all, he's only 23. Secondly, he had never openly been in a serious relationship before. All his life he put every effort into work and what he deemed beneficial for his career growth, his grandfather knew this didn't he? It's been established that Taehyun was a workaholic since he could speak. "Well, my boy, I'm 76 now. I won't be getting any younger any time soon and neither will you. Before I come to the culmination of my life, I'd like to send lineage off well. My daughters all have their own... pursuits. I'd like to see my grand follow an ever better path. For the four of you, I'd like to see you succeed beyond just work life."

Taehyun already knew all of this, his grandfather saw his kids' love lives crumble beyond his comprehension. Too caught up in work and greed that they neglected their partners. Yura (the eldest of the three) failed at three marriages altogether, Yuna (his mother, the middle child) was too busy with her corporations to tend to her husband or son, and Yejin (the youngest) was unsure if she was even attracted to many anymore after her ex-husband. What Taehyun didn't expect, or better yet underestimated, was his grandfather's determination to get him to open his heart to someone. It'd been written in stone that Taehyun would inherit the company, so is this some sort of bluff? Taehyun is the eldest grandchild, the smartest academically, most responsible, and more importantly, the chairman's favorite. "Whatever" Taehyun begins to walk off "We shall discuss this further at the next meeti-" his grandfather is cut off by a harsh slam of the door.

[one week later]

"You've sure got some sense of humor, Chairman Kang, but I'm afraid I'm lost. Why are we talking about this? I thought you came regarding last week's trade affairs?" he's not being serious, is he..? Oh but he is, Chairman Kang and my father have been business partners for as long as I've been conscious. However, right now, the man sounds absolutely unhinged. What does he mean by MARRY Kang Taehyun? As in my primary school, high school, and even university academic rival? I thought I was free of him since graduation. Like all enemies do, we promised to never willingly cross paths again outside of reunions, possible business endeavors, or events. Of course, to my father like many other things, this was a business opportunity. His daughter + possible heir of one of South Korea's biggest car companies = dollar signs beyond his imagination. Before I could say anything further, I was dismissed? ME? FROM MY OWN MEETING? Defeated, I make my way outside with my head facing the floor when the unthinkable happens. I bump head-first into the infamous Kang Taehyun. If that wasn't humiliating enough, he scoffs, pays me no mind, and walks off as though I wasn't there from the start. "fuck you too" I mumble to myself. "I'm sorry, can you repeat I didn't quite catch that" he's behind me. not just behind but pressed against me, my back to his chest. "Now you know how to say 'sorry' ?" "Yeah, your turn." "What?" "You heard me, say it." "Say what? sorry? why would I?" is he insane... "For one, you bumped into me. Two, you swore at me. and three, I'd say that was a pretty rude first impression after not seeing each other for so long, Ms. L/N" he hasn't changed one bit. "Goodbye, Kang Taehyun." I turn around, flipping him off in response, taking my leave. "I'll see you soon, y/n" huh? he'll see me soon? he's out of his mind.

It seems as though I am the only sane one here. And by here I mean in my Chairman Kangs house. In his living room. With papers held in front of me which read "marriage certificate", Kang Taehyuns signature at the very bottom. Allow me to elaborate, I was summoned here for another "meeting". This time I expected something out of the ordinary again, BUT NOT TO THIS EXTENT? Did I mention that Taehyun is here too? That's what the sly son of a bi- No. I should maintain my composure. "I'm sorry but isn't this a bit too soon chairman" I mutter through my teeth with the most unsettling smile I can muster.

"Your father and i have talked about it extensively, I assume he hasn't communicated it to you? the subject of the matter remains that Taehyun and you also uphold well-respected public images. The media would go feral if they found out there was something between you two and coincidentally, our companies launched a collaboration. What better PR than marriage?" he's got a good point, i guess. still, this is kang taehyun. i can't do that to myself? he's beautiful, sure but he's also insufferable. once was the bane of my existence. "y/n shall we continue this conversation privately?" there's a wide fake grin plastered across his face. "if we must, Mr. Kang" The chairman leaves, smirking to himself.

"You're actually following through with this Kang Taehyun?" this has to be another of his twisted games. "I don't doubt you've picked up on it already, yeah? My grandfather wants me married before he writes off his will. You're a smart girl, you understand how far I'll go for my work, right?" he's being... serious. "Still, what does that have to do with me?" "As far as my grandfather knows, you are the woman I've known more than half my life and happen to be one of his dear colleagues' only daughter. As ironic as the situation is to you and I, it makes total sense to him," Why does he always have to be so calculating "The marriage would benefit both parties and the people involved. Since we already established our relationship and views of each other, I don't have to pretend I love you to make this work and vice versa. So. what do you say?" "I say that you're an idiot. Unfortunately, my father is quite adamant about this and I'd have to put much more effort into changing his mind than what it would take to comply. Hence, I choose the latter." "That's all it took? i thought you'd put up more of a fight like the old days" "Some of us have matured, Kang Taehyun." "Anyhow, when's the wedding, Mrs. Kang" "Don't call me that. Furthermore, we have to discuss conditions first before any wedding discussion."

[2 weeks later] Kang Taehyun: We're going out tonight. You: that's how you ask a woman out? no wonder you're 23 and never had a girlfriend Kang Taehyun: How can we convince anyone that we're in love enough to get married if we've never once been spotted together? You: whatever. when and where? please say somewhere nearby I'm not interested in driving anywhere beyond the city. Kang Taehyun: Be ready by 7. Dont worry too much about the details, what kind of man would I be if I didn't pick my lady up? outgoing phone call... "7 pm Kang? Isn't that during your product launch event?" "My smart Fiancee's caught on," although his tone's condescending, the fiancee sounded almost endearing "You're my date. Wear something navy blue." he's never brought a date to any party, let alone a large event like this one. That's a lot of pressure to put on a woman.

"I'm gonna hold your hand on the entrance carpet where the photographers will be. Don't look too startled" Gee thanks for the heads up. what makes him think holding hands would make me falter? what am I, 13?

[the next day] timeline 432 new messages... 24 missed calls 1 new message from Kang Taehyun- Kang Taehyun: success ;)

A/N: I kid you not, this was only supposed to be pwp but then I got carried away and now I'm making a series... I'll be doing drabbles/requests for this story so feel free to send in ideas, I'll respond to ask many as I can!

© all rights reserved soobibabe on tumblr. do not cross-post, copy or translate etc.

[yeehawbvby]

Arven x Reader

Hi! I wanted to ask if you could make an Arven x reader story. Basically the readers reveals their original partner died and Arven comforts them. Feel free to change the details to whatever suits you, I just put some examples in there cause that’s how think I it would go down. Thank you

Short: Takes place after path of legends, arven asks the reader why they helped him and then confessed about their dead Pokémon partner

Long (and a bit specific) : A bit after Mabosstiff recovered, Arven asks the reader why they helped him. The reader opens up confess that they actually used to be a champion from the ____ (ex. Unova) region. They had a partner Pokémon ____(ex. Hydreigon) and had to give up the title after being unable to move on from their death because of an unfortunate battle accident (ex. Killed by rockslide). Reveals that they moved to Paldea trying to move on, and didn’t want to see the same thing happen to him. Reader reminisce and eventually breaks down about their dead partner, with Arven (and Mabosstiff!) to comfort them.

Whoa, I appreciate you adding all those extra details!! Really helps me get a better idea of what you want ^^ I hope you enjoy the outcome x

Loved and Lost (Arven x GN!Galarian!Reader)

Rating: G ? (Pokémon death) | WC: 1,362

“Why’d you do it?” 

You lift your view towards the curious voice. Arven’s face, riddled with mild concern, is beautifully lit by the campfire a few feet in front of him; his Mabosstiff snuggled up at his side, the Pokémon’s head consuming your friend’s lap.

“Do what?”

“Help us." He sighs, taking his eyes off you and focusing on the flames. 

It’s been weeks since you and Arven defeated the last of the Titan Pokémon together, thus saving his partner from the brink of death. You’re surprised that it’s been brought back up, honestly. You didn’t think it would still be on his mind.

“We’re best friends now, but back then… I was just some guy shoving my problems onto you.” Arven’s turquoise eyes raise back to yours, and he continues, “Why risk your life to help a complete stranger?”

It’s your turn to sigh. Your eyes scan his face as you realize it’s time to give him your own story. It feels like a Bind strangling your heart every time you recall it, but Arven deserves to know.

“I don’t tell a lot of people this,” you begin, your voice soft. “But before I came here, I was already the Champion in Galar.”

“Y-you– What? Seriously?”

You nod. “It’s not all it’s cracked up to be… Too much spotlight, too many people to please, too many expectations set on you to always give training and battling your absolute 100%. It makes sense on the surface, for a Champion to have a drive like that… but it was too much.

I had been having a rough time for months. Leon, the former Champion and my new boss, would’ve probably been more than willing to accommodate me had I needed a break, but I didn’t want to let him down. He and his little brother were my closest buds over there, we practically grew up together.”

A shaky breath racks you as you truck on. “But then, I let my partner down.” 

Tears well in your eyes as you peer at Arven, who’s lightly urging Mabosstiff off of his lap. The instant your friend noticed you beginning to cry, he wanted to be by your side to provide you solace. Your gaze follows him as he stands up, just to settle back down at your right, his large left hand brushing against your back for comfort.

“What do you mean?” he mutters, his irises locked onto yours. 

From the corner of your eye, you see a figure move. Mabosstiff rises from his spot, stretches, and settles to your left, now using your thighs as a pillow. You laugh beneath watery tear ducts as you begin to pet the giant dog Pokémon. 

Your view is still on Mabosstiff as you keep going. “My Cinderace – the first Pokémon I ever caught – died in battle.” You exhale, then describe how it happened. 

“It was during this tournament Leon hosted after he became Chairman of the League: The Galarian Star Tournament. It was a bracket-style thing, with double battles between Gym Leaders and Champions, current and former. Most of us were friends, so it was a fun change of pace from our usual League duties together.

I was paired up with Piers, another one of my closest buddies over there, who was the Dark-type Gym Leader. That title goes to his sister Marnie now. We were battling against Mustard, a Fighting-type specialist and former Champion, and Peony, another former Champion, who’s keen with Steel-type Pokémon.” 

A smile creeps up on you through your sniffles as you recall the beginning of the battle, lifting your face to see Arven’s. He’s still intently watching you as you recall that day. 

“Cinderace and I freakin’ destroyed Peony, right off the bat – type-matchups, and all.”

Arven grins too. “Hell yeah, Little Buddy.” He holds up a fist for you to bump, so you meet it with yours.

Dropping the hand back to Mabosstiff’s fluffy head, you get back to your spiel. “Piers was holding up well against Mustard in the meantime, surprisingly enough. I still wonder to this day if Mustard was going easy on him, since Piers doesn’t Dyna- or Gigantamax. Either way, it was practically a side-by-side single battle, up until Piers’ Obstagoon was downed.” 

“Then, it was my Dynamaxed Cinderace versus Mustard’s Gigantamaxed Water/Fighting Urshifu.” Getting to the hard part, your body begins to quiver and your voice cracks. “Urshifu used G-Max Rapid Flow, which is strong enough that it doesn’t need to hit to do monstrous amounts of damage… but I guess his paws slipped, or something.” Finally, a sob bubbles in your throat, and you break. “It hit Cinderace face-first.”

Arven wraps his arms around you, and you bury yourself in his chest. After whispering your name, he offers, “I’m so, so sorry.” 

You simply shake your head. You chose to recollect the story for him. It’s something you want Arven, and only Arven, to know about. 

Nemona would freak out over having befriended a Galarian Champion, as Galar’s League is seen as one of the most prestigious in the world. Definitely would’ve felt bad about Cinderace, but she’d probably had overdone it in trying to distract you from the situation, thus stressing you out more. You’d never be allowed to forget about it. She’d never let it go.

Penny, on the other hand, would probably be uncomfy, had she known so many details about your epic-to-tragic backstory. You’re close with her, but not that close.

And if word got out to the rest of Paldea… chances are, the Galarian League would creep its way back into your life. You plan to eventually take that beast on someday, but it’s far too soon.

As you soak your friend’s shirt, you start to wrap things up. “I know neither Mustard nor Urshifu meant for it to happen. They were at Cinderace’s side just as quickly as I was, checking to see if he was okay… but he’d never felt so cold, Arven.” 

You take a second to breathe before getting to your point. Basking in the soothing way he’s rubbing your back while pressing kisses against the crown of your head. Makes your heart flutter. You’re unsure if they’re platonic or romantic pecks, but you only have a split second to contemplate it before dread consumes you again.

“If I’d quit sooner, I probably wouldn’t have been in that tournament, and that wouldn’t have happened. So, I resigned as soon as I saw Leon again, and fled from Galar the following week, not even saying ‘goodbye’ to anyone. I was too terrified that they’d convince me to stay, and I’d be haunted by what happened there for good.” 

You pull away to see Arven’s face. He offers you his hands, and you take them. 

“Then, I met you. I-I’m not gonna lie to you, dude, but at first, you were a distraction,” you bashfully smile through the pain. He laughs, luckily. 

“But then, you introduced me to Mabosstiff, and I saw his tired eyes and weak breaths, and…” You release a palm from Arven’s and stroke the Pokémon’s fur. “A-and I knew I needed to keep helping you two. It didn’t matter what it took. It didn’t even matter that I barely knew you, at that point. All that mattered was that Mabosstiff would be okay, and that you would be okay. That you wouldn’t need to go through what I did.”

“That’s… wow,” Arven quietly replies. He leans his forehead to yours and closes his eyes. “I’ve thanked you plenty already…” his eyes flutter open, and he grins. “But seriously. Thank you. I don’t think I’ll ever really be able to repay you–”

“You already did,” you smile as his thumb strokes some tears from your face. Placing your hand on top of his, you explain, “Helping you two has helped me move on, in a way. It still hurts, and I don’t think I’ll ever truly be over what happened, but it feels like making sure you two are alive and well gave me some of the closure I needed.” 

You sigh, then slip out, “Plus, I got you out of it.”

[thatonegaybastard]

Noelle would definitely have a bunch of dark types I think idk they just have the dark type trainer vibes. They'd be perfect for the Asshole Rival role. Or maybe kinda like N's deal where they are a rival but also a major antagonist and one of the big bad guys.

Very long post under the cut

The first pokemon I thought for Noelle to have was Nickit/Thievul because I love Nickit and also it steals things much like Noelle does. Also it's a first route pokemon so if you were to have a hypothetical rival battle with them since most early fights with your rival they catch a route one pokemon that could be Noelle's. I'm just gonna put Noelle in the rival/antagonist role for this one

But also nickits a galar pokemon and I don't really want Noelle to be from galar? It'd be really funny if he was British but I don't feel like he'd be from galar. I don't really know actually where he lives tbh I'll have to ask my friend about where Noelle's killing game thing would have taken place would it have been Japan or America or what. So if not galar probably either unova or one of the regions inspired by japan

All the pokemon I'm thinking of are form galarjsjdndbd

Also I think Noelle would have some kind of cat pokemon and some kind of mouse pikemon because Noelle has a cat named Ferb. And Noelle also steals cheese very frequently it's like a major deal to them for reasons. So mosque. Because nice supposedly like cheese. Also it makes me think of the phrase like cat and mouse like cats hunting mice and toying with them which fits Noelle alot

The first pokemon I thought of that's a dark type cat was purrloin/liepard but I don't really want to give Noelle a lot of galar pokemon. Maybe Umbreon? That's kind of cat like idk it feels more like a dog or fox to me. And for the mouse I don't want. To use morpeko. It'd make perfect sense bc mouse, dark type and it's whole full mode hangry mode thing but I don't really like morpeko that much. it's cute but it's just kinda there? it never really stood out to me. The mkr ei type about why I don't want to do specootc things the more I feel like placing Noelle in galar and giving him a morpeko

I mean the most eveil thing we have in galar is team yell and chairman rose. I mean the worst things Noelle would do are probably not safe for pokemon games (ex: threatening people with guns only to reveal it was just a prank it was a fake gun get trolled. Actually that also feels a bit like something theyf do In the early episodes of the anime) so I guess if Noelle has to stay g rated then he'd be like Bedr. The little fucking asshole rival who bullies you and tries get lthe rpeoples attention. But otherwise if neolel was like Evil Team Member Guy for whatever reason then I think they'dso a lot more bad things

Noelle would probably be like "Hi Player! Fight me. Fight me. Fight me. No? Ok. Thievul use Beat Up. That's what I thought. pokemon battle time! "

Noelle is in a plot relevantconfrotnation wow! Threaten violence toget what he wants and to progress the plot.

Noelle is evil the entire time sorry guys they're just kind of a little shit . Theyre mostly evil for shits and giggles

actually my brain stopped working were at risk of me saying something extremely out of character and I'm also out of ideas I am going to stop this for now

[transpoettryinghisbest]

(Guess who just watched Turnabout Gold Medal and got hopelessly obsessed with a certain ship!! Trigger warnings are in the tags.)

The courtroom empties and I’m the last to leave. I stumble out into the empty hallway. I’m not sure where to go or what to do with myself now. I wonder what happened to Vice Chairman Nivantess. Ex-Vice Chairman. I suppose he’ll be put where all of the criminals go. He always told me not to worry myself with it, as it wasn't anything to do with me. Whatever happens to criminals after they face judgement isn’t my concern.

I’ve known Nivantess my whole life. He was a close business partner with my father and he practically raised me. He taught me everything I know, from small distinctions between law definitions, to the big things - the legal and moral building blocks that this country and I rely on. He’s always taught me right from wrong. How to behave. What to say. What to believe.

It all feels like a lie now.

I don’t know who I am anymore.

“Alright, Chairman?”

I jolt in surprise. There, coffee mug in hand, is Mr Godot. The prosecutor and head of the Judicial Olympics. I instinctively want to tell him everything that’s running through my mind. But all I can manage is:

“Yes.”

“Are you sure? You look like your mind’s been stirred up more than milk in coffee.”

“Oh.”

He glances down, then recoils. “Crowmack, you're bleeding.”

“I am?”

My right hand is indeed dripping blood from a cut on my palm. I hadn’t noticed until now.

“Come with me,” Mr Godot says.

He takes my upper arm and guides me in a particular direction. I follow.

“Where are we going?”

“To the medics. To get you patched up.”

“Okay.”

Once we get there, the medical office is empty, but Mr Godot sits me down anyway. He takes off my glove, which has been slashed and ruined, to reveal a cut running across the top of my palm. It's stinging slightly. Mr Godot finds some bandages and gently starts wrapping it around my hand.

“Is it too tight? Am I hurting you?”

“No.”

I didn't feel anything when it first happened. I think I was in some kind of shock, but the shock is wearing off now. I can feel the sensation of Nivantess’ cane against my chest, pushing me to the ground. I still hear his voice ringing in my ears. Feel his chin against my knuckles.

“You want to talk about what happened?” Mr Godot asks.

“I…”

I do and I don’t. I have so many rushing thoughts that I can’t get anything coherent out.

“It’s alright, take your time.”

“I don’t know,” I finally settle on.

I’m used to having decisions made for me, even little ones. It used to be a relief, less to worry about, but I know now that it was a small part of something more sinister. An attempt to change me. To silence me.

“I’m here if you ever want to talk,” Mr Godot says.

“It’s…hard to talk sometimes.”

“That’s okay.”

He finishes bandaging me and just sits quietly, sipping his coffee. He’s not staring at me, demanding I speak up. He’s not rushing to talk for me or talk over me. He’s very comfortable with silence, it seems. I feel the pressure ease a little.

“I didn't mean to punch him,” I say, eventually. “I didn't think. I just did it.”

“We all do things without thinking about them sometimes.”

“I shouldn't have done it.”

I don't want to be someone who solves problems with violence. Someone who can't control his fists. I don't want to lose sight of the morality and purpose of my actions.

“Do you regret it?” Mr Godot asks.

“I…”

All I remember is the rage. I went through so much fear and confusion that day. When I finally came face to face with my mentor, the man who betrayed me, I tried to speak some sense into him. Tell him that he'd gone too far. But my voice froze up. Like it is now. Like it always does.

He pointed the knife at me.

And something just overcame me.

“I don't know,” I say. “Do you think I should? Regret it?”

“I think it was cool.” He takes a sip. “But it's up to you.”

I think about the moment I saw that blade pointed in my face. I didn't know it at the time, but everything he'd done had lead up to this moment. Vice-Chairman Nivantess always vying for my father's position, always falling second best, but still pulling strings behind closed doors, claiming it was for the greater good. When I was born, he saw me as someone to shape for his own benefit. Someone to use for my authority. Someone he could dispose of at any time.

He meant everything to me. He was like a father and a teacher to me. But I meant nothing to him.

“It's been a crazy couple days for you, huh,” Mr Godot says.

“I don't…know what to do with myself. I…I can't stop…” I rub my forehead, as if trying to calm all of my racing thoughts.

“It's all good. Whatever you want to do now is your choice.”

I don't know if he means long term or just today. I don't know what I mean. I don't know what I want. I don't know how I feel. Am I angry at Nivantess? Am I angry at myself? Do I hate myself?

I think I'm too tired to be angry. Not physically tired, but emotionally. I'm scared. For the state of this country now. And for me. I have no family. I have no one.

And I miss my father.

I wonder what he'd think if he could see me now. He raised a strong leader, not a snivelling child. But he was betrayed by Nivantess too. And he'll never know that. Nivantess called him foolish and incompetent. Just like me. Just like my whole family and the legacy that ends with me. It's a heavy burden and for years it was unknowingly stolen from me. But now it's finally mine, I feel a duty to uphold it.

I just hope I'm strong enough to do so. I still feel so weak. Just a lonely child crying for his father.

“It's alright, Kitten.” Mr Godot gently strokes my upper back.

“K-kitten?”

“Yeah. Cos you're small and cute but you have claws. You can fight back, I've seen it.”

I lean into him and he strokes my hair. For a moment, I forget about my responsibility. I forget about Mr Godot's job and his impressive, elaborate schemes. I forget about everything and just focus on this moment.

This feels nice.

“I just want to make my father proud,” I whimper, eventually.

“I think you already have.”

“I…I have?”

“You know what injustice is and you stand against it. Even before you knew of Nivantess' schemes, when he tried to do something that didn't feel right, you fixed it.” He chuckles. “And you sure know how to make a point when you want to. I raise my mug to you, kid.”

“Thank you. I…I appreciate all of your help.”

He wipes the tears from my eyes very gently. “I couldn't have done it without you.”

He finishes what's in his mug and sets it down beside him.

“So, Chairman Crowmack. What do you say to a little coffee date?”

“Coffee date?”

“Just a chance to…” He lifts my chin up. “…get to know each other a little bit.”

“O-okay.”

He tuts, shaking his head.

“Okay is not an answer, Chairman. If you wish to, you have to give me a yes. And if you don't, a no. And whichever you choose, make sure it's your choice.”

Mr Godot makes me feel nervous. But everything makes me feel nervous. He makes me feel…a different kind of nervous. I don't dislike it. It makes me feel compelled to…be close to him.

“My answer is yes.”

He grins. “Alright. Then. Let's Olympic.”

[marshmallowprotection]

Yeah, I remember that line from the Chairman and WOW did that make me mad...it seems like almost no one realizes that Jumin has feelings, just because he expresses himself in a calmer "let me do what I can to find a solution, and fix it" sort of way

He feels and he cares so deeply about those close to him like the RFA and even to Saeran and MC who he only met recently! He just shows it a bit differently.

Throughout Saeran's AE, I've been thinking how good of a friend Jumin is to MC and how he does whatever he can to help us...Jumin deserves more appreciation for all he does for everyone.

Finally. Chairman Han slander and I love to see it. Jumin wants to think highly of his father because he believes in family and he wants his family to be the one that he's always imagined, but it's never at all going to be that way in his life. His mother was never a good parent and frankly, his father isn't a good parent, either. Just because you love your kid doesn't take away all of the mistakes that you've made in their lives. I've never been able to stand Chairman Han and seeing him in the AE just furthered that.

Chairman really said, "You're starting to sound human," to his son, Jumin. Jumin has been called robotic and fake his entire life. No, my friends, Jumin Han has layered trauma from people trying to force him to be someone he wasn't, from people trying to harass him and touch him, from people trying to make him say or believe in things that he could never agree with. Jumin Han isn't a robot whatsoever. He just shares his emotions quietly and only with those that he trusts deeply.

And, honestly, I don't blame him. He's seen what happened to someone who wears their heart on their sleeve. He's seen what happens when you trust someone without a second thought, that's his father's life with all of his ex-wives that have not only used the Chairman but have tried to hurt Jumin. Of course, he's wary of the people he's around. That doesn't mean that he doesn't share care to others, he's constantly trying to protect the RFA.

He tries to give them gifts, jobs, and all kinds of other things because he knows that they deserve it and they're good for it. It's a part of his love language because unless you're his MC, he's... he's had a hard time trying to show how he feels verbally. It's tough for him, but I think most people understand that by now.

Just, God, why would you call him a robot?

It's like you don't even understand your son, Chairman Han. Just because Jumin seems reserved doesn't mean he's a heartless man. You say you love your son, and you should know better than that. I cannot believe you every time you do these things to your son, and Jumin just lets it happen because he wishes that he could have a better relationship with him.

I doubt it'll ever get there because that father doesn't... doesn't understand Jumin at all. It's like he never tried. Just because he loves and cares about Jumin doesn't mean that he understands him in the slightest. I think Chairman Han loves Jumin, he truly loves his son, but he hasn't tried to actually get to know his son. If that makes any sense.

And you're right, Anon, that phone call where he talks about Jumin like that burned me. Try to understand your son and never speak like that to me again, oh my God. Jumin would never swoop in like that with MC after everything that just happened. Man, your dad really is a horrible wingman, Jumin. Well, we all knew that. Just look at Glam and Sarah.

We don't stand for Jumin Han slander, ever. That man gives everything in almost every route of this game and I appreciate him. It took me a long time to understand him at first, but God, once you see Jumin for the man that he is, you can never see him in any light but a good one. He's a good man and he deserves a good family.

He has the RFA, and I'm happy he does because at least they try to understand Jumin. Jumin says himself that he gave everything for Saeran and Saeyoung in the AE, and he KEEPS doing it. He could've stopped, but he didn't. He keeps protecting them because it's the fucking right thing to do. He doesn't care what it means for him in the long run, he will do the right thing and I respect the hell out of that because that takes courage and faith.

[eurydicees]

top 10 ouran manga-only arcs

this is going to be such a long post i apologize in advance. the ranking system has absolutely no criteria other than "does this pass my vibe check.” bonus points were awarded if i could think about tamakyo while reading it; points were also awarded every time tamaki did something cool. this was a delight to make. anyways, without further ado, here are my personal top ten favorites, and no i will not be taking criticism.

1. THE TAMAKI EXTRAVAGANZA

(vol 16 chp 73 - vol 18 chp 80)

PLOT:

So much happens here that I couldn’t think of an actual name, and uh does it count as a single arc? Probably not, but I’m counting it as one because it has a single thread: Tamaki. My beloved. So. First, Tamaki finally, finally, finally moves into Suoh mansion #1, but when he gets there, he gets told that he’s only allowed to study the Suoh business and go to school and nothing else— meaning he has to quit the host club. Shizue threatens to out Haruhi as a girl and ruin her reputation— possibly losing her the scholarship— if Tamaki doesn’t break off all ties with her.

The Host Club disbands. Kyoya begins an Investigation™ into Tamaki’s mother— she had been incredibly weak and unhealthy when Tamaki was a child, but when Kyoya met her, she was pretty healthy. After some sleuthing, the hosts minus Tamaki discover that she probably had Bisco Hatori’s fictional version of lupus, which was cured by a mysterious foundation— which they discover was run by the Grantaine family, funded by the Suoh corporation, and actually researched by the Ootori conglomerate. Literally everyone is in on it. It’s fucking wild. Like. Huge “holy fucking shit I need to stop and take a breath” moment.

This information is suddenly released to the public, and then the Suoh corporation all vote Shizue out of her position, saying that she’s no longer fit for the job. She locks herself in her room and refuses to speak to anyone, breaking Tamaki’s heart. But now that she’s no longer top dog, Anne-Sophie can come to Japan— Yuzuru is super hyped and expects Tamaki to be as well, not understanding that Tamaki’s family fantasy includes his grandmother. Tamaki stops going to school and plays piano every day in order to cheer up the house, eventually luring Shizue out to listen to him play their shared favorite songs from J-dramas.

They begin to bond and Shizue sees that he’s not a failure because of his parentage, but it’s too late because Anne-Sophie is about to fly back to France. All is hopeless.

EXCEPT THEN. All of the hosts and all of the clients realize what’s happening and rush to help him get to his mother. They all adore him so much, and give their all into getting Tamaki to the airport. Shizue finally encourages him to go, realizing— with the help of Haruhi— that she has been bitter and selfish and Tamaki deserves better. They rush to the airport, and through a series of shenanigans that are no match for the combined power of the hosts and every single girl at Ouran, Tamaki makes it to the airport. They make it there JUST in time, and Tamaki gets a five minute reunion with his mother. Haruhi finally confesses to Tamaki that she loves him.

WHY I LOVE IT:

oh my God oh my God oh my GOD. Like. This is just. So much. So Much. We all know that I’m like. The #1 Fan of Tamaki Suoh. Like. President, vice president, treasurer, and secretary of the fan club, all at once. I love him so much, and this just gives him so much development. There is so much opportunity for him to grow and you not only really see who he is as a character, but you also see how much he’s grown as a person from his first introduction. You also get more of a glimpse into the world of Rich People, and the way that all of their families interact with each other, and then also with the way that they interact within their families. It’s just such an intense arc and it’s so beautiful and I love it so much.

2. THE SPORTS COMPETITION

(vol 10 chp 46 - vol 11 chp 49)

PLOT:

This one is HARD to rank, because I love it, but it also Hurts. Like. I genuinely cried over this one, though that’s not actually saying much because I cry at everything. So. Here’s what’s up. Tamaki gets into this idea of a sports festival, and then Kuze wanders in to fight Kyoya again, so Tamaki suggests a competition between the two of them. This is a very Tamaki thing to do, but Kyoya gets fed up with it and refuses to participate— until Kuze accuses him of being “Suoh’s pet” and that he’ll always let Tamaki win, and then Kyoya gets fired the fuck up.

But he’s still bitter at Tamaki for starting this, so the two of them stop talking and my heart breaks. This does not stop Tamaki from having heart eyes for Kyoya 24/7. Hikaru and Kaoru are assigned to competing teams, and begin their Very Long Journey into not being so codependent— Hikaru is on the red team with Tamaki, Haruhi, and Kuze; Kaoru is on the white team with Kyoya and Honey.

Essentially, each team goes through rounds of races in different areas that are like. Complete bullshit games, but whatever. It’s Rich People World. The white team gets ahead; the red team performs a scene from a Shakespeare show to rally their losing team together and begins to win, until they’re on even footing. The final race is between Kyoya and Tamaki.

There’s a heartbreaking series of panels of Tamaki just… thinking about Kyoya. I cannot get enough of it. Then there’s an even more heartbreaking series of panels of Kyoya just… thinking about Tamaki. You realize, alongside the other hosts, that Tamaki pushed for this race not really for benefit or fun, but to give Kyoya a chance to compete in something for real, without having to set it up so that Tamaki wins (as we see in the race for the central salon). It’s a chance for him to win and not put his family first. Tamaki still tried his best, because Kyoya would hate him if he threw the race, but he lost because Kyoya fought with the intention of winning for HIMSELF, and not just playing support to Tamaki or impressing his father.

Finally, in the last panel, it’s revealed that the class trip will be to France.

WHY I LOVE IT:

God it burns so good. So Good. The Tamakyo, the Hikaru & Kaoru character growth, the Kyoya development, the Tamaki being so so so good, the Kyoya being so brilliant, everything oh my lord. This is really one of the biggest points of Kyoya’s character development, and it’s the first place I’m going to point to when thinking accurately about who he is as a person. It shows who he is, and who he believes he is, and who he wants to be, and who other people see him as. It’s also just a Tamakyo goldmine, even though they don’t ever actually talk. It’s so beautiful and it makes me cry.

3. THE ORIENTEERING RACE

(vol 14 chp 66 - vol 15 chp 68)

PLOT:

In an attempt to make Tamaki realize that the hosts all love him just as much as he loves them, the hosts sans Tamaki put together an orienteering race. There are six checkpoints, each one with a task to be completed in order to get an ingredient that will make the best meal at the end of the race.

Hikaru and Kaoru play the return of the “Which one is Hikaru?” game, knowing that Tamaki has been able to tell them apart for a while by now; Nekozawa’s checkpoint is a quiz on cursed items, knowing that Tamaki is familiar with Beelzenef; Honey’s checkpoint is a game of whack-a-mole with little mini Usa-chans, knowing that Tamaki isn’t afraid of making him upset over a game, though all the girls are; Mori’s is a sword slicing thing to show that Tamaki will never give up on something; Haruhi’s is a “tell the truth or never pass” kind of thing; and Kyoya’s is a crossword puzzle of all the answers made up of things from previous club themes.

Tamaki pairs up with Konoya— who is in love with him and is the “perfect Haruhi” trope— and realizes that she’s incredibly different from Haruhi, and that he loves Haruhi for who she is and not who he thought he wanted her to be. He also realizes that— because the hosts have gone through all of this for him— they do love him for who he is, no matter what, no matter the bad parts of his personality, and they’re never leaving him.

WHY I LOVE IT:

Look. We know that anything about Tamaki is gonna make me happy. I am a simple woman and so easy to please. This is literally just three chapters about how much all of the hosts love Tamaki and want him to be happy. I cannot express in words how rewarding it is to watch Tamaki realize how important he is and how much he’s loved— because he is loved, he’s so loved, he’s so so so loved. This is also the arc with the building block / building a home metaphor, and it destroyed me both physically and emotionally (vol 14 chp 66). This is where the found family is really solidified, and we all love a good dosage of found family.

4. RACE FOR THE CENTRAL SALON / THE SCHOOL FAIR

(vol 6 chp 22 - vol 6 chp 26)

PLOT:

This is where the anime diverges from the manga, and I have to say that this version of the school fair is just so much better than the anime version. Like. Just So Much Better. Basically, the club is setting up for the school fair, and the best spot to set up— essentially, the spot that will get the most foot traffic form the parents— is in the central salon. To figure out which club is going to get the spot, they all compete in a literal race, both mind games and physical games and it just slaps overall.

The b-plot is that the Host Club is getting threatening letters telling them to drop out of the race, alongside blank papers that are sent with the notes; the hosts have to figure out who is sending the notes and confront it. This is the arc that introduces both Kuze and Yuzuru Suoh for the first time. Kuze is captain of the football team and Kyoya’s rival and also definitely his secret ex-boyfriend. Chairman Suoh is… just. A lot. Just. That’s it. A Lot. He’s A Lot.

Anyways, part of the winning race is capturing this crown that’s hidden on campus, which turns out to be at a swimming pool. The football team gets there at the same time as Haruhi, and Kuze pushes her into the pool and goes for the crown. Kyoya and Tamaki reach her at the same time— Tamaki’s instinct is to go for Haruhi, but Kyoya tells him to get the crown and thus the glory of winning, while Kyoya rescues Haruhi.

Later, it turns out that Yuzuru was sending the blank papers with harmless messages written in invisible ink as a prank to emphasize the literal hate mail that the hosts were getting. The follow up to the race is the actual school fair, where we meet Yoshio and Shizue. Fuck Shizue, not even going to get into that right now because I WILL cry, but just know that it’s even worse than it is in the anime. Yoshio, though, is eons better in the manga than in the anime— he is genuinely proud of Kyoya and says that he actually wouldn’t mind appointing Kyoya as heir.

WHY I LOVE IT:

Volume 6 does SO MUCH for Kyoya and Tamaki and we all know that I’m ride or die for the two of them. Kyoya finally gets a chance to shine as team leader and it’s what he deserves! Tamaki takes a little more of a backseat, which I don’t even mind, because Kyoya does such a good job of pulling attention here. The scene at the swimming pool is just so good— it really shows the huge amount of trust between Tamaki and Kyoya, and does a good job of setting up the relationship they need to have as Rich People, outside of their friendship, which is something that we don’t see a lot of. Overall, it’s a very Kyoya-centric arc, and it does amazing things for the development of his character and personality. It’s one of the biggest insights into how he functions as a kind of mastermind for the club. We also finally get Tamaki’s full-ish backstory, which genuinely makes me cry every time.

5. THE HITACHIIN FAMILY

(vol 10 chp 45 / vol 11 chp 51 - vol 12 chp 53)

PLOT:

So this is technically two plot lines, but I’m going to count it as one because it’s all about the twins, my loves. In vol 10 chp 45, we get a little insight into the life of the Hitachiin family and why the twins are as fucked up as they are. Quick rundown— their parents can tell them apart but pretend not to for whatever godforsaken reason; Kaoru admits he’s in love with Haruhi for the first time and Hikaru remains oblivious; Kaoru begins to realize how unhealthy he and Hikaru’s relationship is and how, one day, they aren’t going to be able to have all of the same things; there’s a cookie metaphor; Tamaki gets lost in the Hitachiin manion; it’s all a good time.

In volumes 11 and 12, we begin the actual split between the twins, where they realize that they can’t stay the way that they are forever. They can’t be one person forever. They realize this in a fight over Haruhi, where Hikaru suggests they “share” her as a sister, and Kaoru rightfully thinks this is bullshit. They get in their first— and only— genuinely real argument. Hikaru breaks down in Mori’s house, Kaoru breaks down at Honey’s place, literally no one is happy and I am crying.

Kaoru asks Haruhi out on a date, and then ends the date by explaining that he could never date her knowing that it would be hurting Hikaru. Haruhi is, understandably, very confused by this whole thing, and no one is telling her anything.

Kaoru then makes up with Hikaru, saying that he’ll give up on trying to pursue Haruhi, but tells him that they actually do need to live separate lives at some point— and that point might as well be now. He wants to break apart entirely, but Hikaru explains that while they need to break apart in a lot of ways and find their own identities, they can never fully forget each other. They agree that they can influence and love each other without depending on each other for a personality.

They keep up the incest ACT at the club, though. Bisco Hatori couldn’t manage to write her way out of that one.

WHY I LOVE IT:

So this one just. Really hits home for me. It’s a genuinely heart wrenching arc, and the progression of the whole thing was just so slow and so steady and it was so well done. The twins are two of my favorite characters in the show/manga, and their relationship is something that I can analyze for days, and this arc is a huge part of why it’s so interesting. It does amazing things for both of them as developing characters, but it does even more amazing things for their character growth as people. It also provides a nice catalyst for the Hikaru/Tamaki/Haruhi love triangle. Anyways, it made me cry and apparently that’s my only criteria.

6. THE FRANCE ARC

(vol 10 chp 46 - vol 12 chp 56)

PLOT:

On the Ouran 2nd year school trip to France, Kyoya decides he’s going to spend the trip searching for Tamaki’s mother, rather than spending it with the other students. He works himself to death trying to find her— he ends up literally falling asleep on the ground because he’s so exhausted from searching and taking literally no breaks. Kyoya finds her eventually, and has a really nice conversation with her— she has a bunch of photos of Tamaki, and clearly is constantly thinking about him. When he gets back to Japan, he tells Tamaki about her— about how beautiful she is, about how she smiles, about how she thinks of her son every day.

We get more of Tamaki’s backstory, and his close relationship from his mother and how his mantra— living life in Japan to the fullest and being as happy as he can be every day— all comes from his mother. She told him that she’s happiest when he’s smiling, and so when he leaves her behind in France, he decides to be smiling every day and make everyone around him smile as well.

While Kyoya is in France, Tamaki stays behind in Japan— he gets closer to his father, who offers to begin to train him to take over the Suoh business. He visits Haruhi, and tells her a little bit about his life in France, and Haruhi’s love for Tamaki begins to make an appearance for the first time.

WHY I LOVE IT:

So I went into this list thinking that this would be my favorite plot, so it’s wild to me that it didn’t even make the top five. It’s kind of weird and I didn’t expect it, but I’m still satisfied with this list. Anyways, I really love this one, even if it’s not the top five. It’s like. The ultimate Tamakyo story, and there’s just. There’s just so much to unpack there. Like. We don’t have time for me to go through the whole thing and analyze every part of it because there’s just so much of it. It’s so good, and it makes my heart grow three sizes. It’s another brilliant development piece for Kyoya, and shows his softer side, as well as just how much he loves Tamaki.

7. MORI AND HONEY GRADUATE

(vol 15 chp 71 - vol 16 chp 72)

PLOT:

Honey and Mori announce that, after graduation, they’ll be splitting up and going to different universities. This proceeds to emotionally destroy literally everyone except for them. Mori is challenged to a series of duels at the Kendo club in which he has to fight every underclassman who wants the honor of fighting him before he graduates. He’s exhausted and worn down, and he loses to a second year, which is bad for like. Honor reasons. RIP. Anyways. He reveals that he’s just been really worried about something but before he can tell anyone, he has to duel Honey. It hurts.

They start preparing for the fight— which Kyoya is capitalizing off of via movie rights and betting rings— and scare everyone that they’re going to never speak again. When the fight comes, they fight on the Windswept Hill™ at Ouran (the same place that Chika and Honey fight on way back when). They go for it and pull no punches, until Honey tries to do a flying kick and Mori catches him and gently places him outside of the boundaries of the fighting ring, thus winning the duel.

Because he won, he pulls out a sheet of paper in which he’s written down all of the things that Honey needs to do in university because Mori isn’t going to be there to take care of him: brush his teeth, cut down the cake by 90%, and stop bringing Usa-chan to classes. Mori felt that he didn’t have the right to tell him these things until they were on equal level because he had won the duel.

They make up and everything is okay— they graduate, everyone cries, including me. Kasanoda gives Mori flowers, it’s all very cute. Haruhi makes cookies, and when Tamaki goes running down the hallway to find her, they bump into each other and drop all of the cookies. While they’re picking them up, they share the classic ~accidental kiss~.

WHY I LOVE IT:

This is one of the only Honey & Mori-centric plotlines that gets fully fleshed out and like. More than a chapter. It really does lovely things for their relationship, and it’s the end of an era. Even though it’s the end of an era, though, the resolution is incredibly satisfying— Honey and Mori’s stories are wrapping up, but it’s really well done. It’s sad, but it’s a really rewarding ending. They’re such sweet boys. Also, it’s not like they’re gone forever, so it’s all okay.

8. REIKO x HONEY

(vol 10 chp 41)

PLOT:

Reiko is part of the Black Magic Club, and falls in love with Honey when he gives her a hand in getting up after she trips over Usa-chan. However, she believes that falling in love with Honey is equivalent to him “stealing her soul,” and so she uses “curses” to steal his soul back. These curses are basically just love spells. 

In the end, Honey tells her to just, like, be herself. Talk about her interests. Get to know him. Be honest. Then she won’t need love spells to make him like her. Even if she messes up or is awkward or says something weird, he’ll still like her because she’s being true to herself. This is one of the only Honey-centric chapters, and Reiko is one of my favorite side characters.

WHY I LOVE IT:

They’re the OG goth x pastel couple. The blueprint for all other couples. Icons. I love them so much. This makes it on the list just because I love their relationships. I also love the whole Moral Of The Story, in that it’s important to be true to yourself. It’s so sweet it hurts.

9. HARUHI AND TAMAKI’S FIRST DATE

(vol 18 chp 81 - vol 18 chp 82)

PLOT:

So. Right after the two of them confess their love to each other, everyone expects them to get together and be a couple right away, but Haruhi is just kinda chilling. She’s not super stressed about dating, it’s just a relief to have said it out loud. Meanwhile, Tamaki is kind of a mess, stressing out over their first date and trying to make it as perfect as he possibly can. Seeing him so stressed, all of the hosts band together to help him out in planning a date. When Tamaki finally gets up the nerve to ask her out, he falls in the fountain and Haruhi has to fish him out. She’s then the one to ask him out to the amusement park.

In true Tamaki fashion, he gets incredibly stressed out again. He gets fashion advice from a series of unfashionable people. The hosts sneak around the amusement park and follow them around, finding out that it’s actually going really well, as long as they’re not interfering. After the Lobelia girls show up and try to sabotage the date, Tamaki and Haruhi run away— while Kyoya Handles™ the situation— and they go to her mother’s grave. There, it’s revealed that Haruhi will be going on an exchange program to America.

WHY I LOVE IT:

It’s just. So cute. Like. I’m Tamakyo for life, but I do adore them so much. It’s lower on the list because of the sheer amount of second hand embarrassment, but overall, I loved reading this one. Tamaki is just so genuine and earnest about everything he does, and I think these chapters do a lot to show why the two of them work as a couple. It also does lovely characterization points for Haruhi, and begins to wrap up the ending. Bonus points for a jealous and heartbroken Kyoya.

10. PRINCESS MICHELLE

(vol 9 chp 38 - vol 9 chp 39)

PLOT:

Princess Michelle comes to Ouran to do a week of school in Japan. After meeting her, Tamaki essentially puts him and the Host Club at her beck and call, doing anything that he can to make her happy, no matter how insanely extravagant her demands are. Everyone else finds this infuriating, until Kyoya points out that Michelle looks similar to Tamaki’s mother, saying that the last time Tamaki saw his mother, she was crying— and if he sees Michelle smile for real, it might help him picture his mother smiling again.

Overall, it’s just a very soft arc that begins to unfold Tamaki’s family-related trauma. It also kickstarts Tamaki’s realization that he’s in love with Haruhi and doesn’t actually have paternal feelings for her (that’s the whole next chapter, but make it funny rather than introspective); and it’s one of the moments that Haruhi realizes that Tamaki is genuinely just a good person.

WHY I LOVE IT:

I wasn’t sure that this one would make the list at all, but I do really love this story. It’s pretty short, just two chapters, but it’s overall really sweet. I like Michelle as a character a lot— she seems a bit like a bitch at the beginning, but she gets fleshed out and given an actual personality as the chapter goes on. It’s a really good example of Bisco Hatori’s writing.

HONORARY MENTIONS:

Mei (character): probably the most significant character in the manga that doesn’t appear at all in the anime, which is pretty tragic, but I think that the anime really wanted to emphasize that Haruhi doesn’t really have any female friends / friends outside of the hosts. But anyways, she’s Misuzu’s daughter and Haruhi’s friend; she’s lowkey transphobic but she’s getting better! Had a brief crush on Tamaki but she ends with being the #1 Tamaharu stan. Great friend to Haruhi.

The masquerade ball: Haruhi's going away party, and the reveal that she's a girl.

Haruhi gets kidnapped: Haruhi is kidnapped and held for ransom, the hosts find her and break down doors to get there.

[hayleyb100]

The Ribbon, Part 2

Part 1

❗️ Notes

-TRIGGERS INCLUDED: SCHOOL BULLYING AND ANGST WITH FAMILY -This is a dedicated story of the swap version of my OC Richard(Father of Raihan) and his granddaughter, the shipchild of Leon and Raihan called Ari. -The character Ari belongs to @weclownstoday​. Huge appreciations for letting me add her to the story!

An uncomfortable silence filled the whole room. Richard saw the girl scanning him from top to bottom, just like how he is doing the same. Without the girl having to explain, Richard could feel in his intuition that she is his granddaughter. She had the purple hair that looks so familiar to him: The unique hair color of the Former Champion of Galar, who got married to his son Raihan. It was on the news headline for years. On top of that, she also had the peculiar turquoise-colored eyes that are passed down in his Pendragon family.

As Richard's face frowned more from trying to investigate who the girl is, she fiddled with her wooden doll nervously. Richard's dragon glare is already scary as it is, so it was far worse for a child who is left alone with a stranger.

"Who are you?" why, that is such a sweet first question for a child.

"......." she only stared back at Richard, grabbing the doll closer.

"......." Richard stared her back, making the atmosphere even more awkward.

The girl finally made a move other than fiddling her doll. She hesitantly put her hand in a pocket, pulled out a slightly crumpled paper, and gave it to Richard.

Richard was pleading his intuition was wrong. A child that resembles him standing in front of a stranger's home in the middle of the night alone with a note to give him? It was obvious but he wished his intuition was wrong and silly for once. But his intuition was written precisely on the paper. Familiar handwriting of his son-in-law, the Champion, he sees as a Gym Leader was there. It claimed they can't care for the child anymore and sending her for his care.

That short message pushed Richard to the whole chaos of emotions. He first got extremely upset for them deciding this without a word of discussion with him. He was also confused on how to explain this situation to the child since it was obvious they didn't explain this to the child. There was no way a child can be so calm and collected when their parents dumped her in front of a stranger's door. Another wave of rage overwhelmed as Richard realized those two irresponsible parents tossed the hard part of the explanation to him. It was even more difficult since, it may sound ridiculous, but he didn't even know about his granddaughter's existence.

'What a beautiful first encounter for sure,' thought Richard.

'Normally, I expect this kind of the first encounter in the maternity ward, right after their birth, or at least right after they are discharged from the hospital.'

He inhaled deeply, asked the girl to stay here while he went to call alone in the room. The number he desperately wanted to call for decades but honestly scared not to.

"Hello?" a familiar woman's voice came.

"...Aliyah."

"Richard..." an awkward silence filled the whole atmosphere.

"Did she arrive there well?"

Richard sneered to suppress rage.

"So, the first thing you ask from getting a call from your ex-husband after decades is how is your abandoned granddaughter?" a clear snap with rage. Richard couldn't help it.

"It would have been nice of you to at least told me of her existence before doing something so reckless. What is all this?"

"Richard, please don't say that... We didn't have a choice."

"Oh? I heard the Chairman, your father, passed away three years ago. So who ordered you to do this now? Are you still the same old woman who can't decide anything on your own?"

"......." after a brief silence, Richard hears someone snatching the phone.

"Hello?"

Richard's heart drops, as the voice pierces into his ears and tears his heart in two.

"...Raihan."

"I'm surprised you remember my name, considering you abandoned me for your career as a Gym Leader."

Richard was lost for words.

"Is that what your mother told you?" even at Richard's shaky voice, Raihan interrupted.

"Doesn't matter who says what now, is it? You abandoned me, and that's the only fact here."

Richard falls into silence since it's true. No matter if it was his shitty father-in-law who threatened him, his wife wasn't cooperative, and the world turning a cold shoulder, he DID leave his son behind.

"Well? You did me wrong, so at least take care of my mistake."

"...Please do not tell me that you just addressed your daughter as a mistake."

"What? It's what you think of me, so can't I say the same? It's what I learned from you."

NO, RAIHAN, NO!! Richard nearly screamed, but something stopped him.

"I don't even know if I'll ever forgive you for caring about my mistake, but eh... Whatever." with that as of last, the long-overdue phone call ends.

Richard couldn't breathe from the pain. He thought he did what was right to protect his son, but he is now engraved in his son's heart as a horrible father and the butterfly effect from that is about to tear his grandchild's life apart. He started to question all his decisions and motives. His life is about to crumble down. But the grimmest thing of all is that he isn't even allowed to do that. He knew that girl needs a caretaker and there is no way he'll send her away somewhere else. Not after what happened to him and his son.

He stroked his face to calm down and went out to the living room where his granddaughter is.

________________________________

She was still fiddling her doll, showing a clear sign of anxiety. Richard took a sharp inhale and called her.

"Umm... Your name is?"

"Ari..." she said shortly, looking down at her tip of the toes.

"I see... Greetings. My name is Richard Pendragon."

He was as anxious as the girl, since judging from Raihan's attitude, it was obvious how Aliyah and his son described him to his daughter.

"...Ari. Please listen to me carefully." another inhale.

"From today onward, I will take care of you. You are staying here with me, your grandfather. Alright?"

Richard thought it would be better for Ari's sake to open everything up before she finds out everything later and gets more pain.

"O... Okay..." Ari said nervously. "For how long?"

Richard's throat got blocked with intense torment. How can he dare to just bluntly answer 'forever' when she has no idea that her parents abandoned her and she is solely believing her parents would get her later?

"For... as long as we have to." Richard ended up giving a vague answer where he didn't lie but wasn't clear either.

Richard had no idea what to do with a little girl, so he started by shopping the stuff for her like clothes and children's books. She came with a suitcase of clothes but that was not enough. He didn't know what's popular among girls these days so he bought a pink ribbon as an accessory. 

 Ari had no idea why her grandpa was buying so many clothes when she's just going to stay for a couple of days until her dads come to get her. But since she heard all the horrible and scary things about her grandpa from her father, she just listened and followed him around without arguing. Sooner or later, the old storage room next to Richard's room turned into a lovely room for a little girl. Ari still was in wonder, but just watched how things go. She realized her grandpa wasn't too awful like her father described. He cooked some delicious food for all three meals and although clumsy, he tried his best to tie her hair and dress her. He also registered her to the local trainer's school to get appropriate lessons.

But that's when Ari started to feel something's wrong.

If dad is coming to get her soon, why would her grandpa register her to a school?

________________________________

She still was in denial until days turned into months and months turned into years without any contact from her parents.

"Umm, s, sir?" Ari nervously called him.

"Yes, Ari?"

"Can I call my father?"

"............."

Richard hesitated. But in his head, he knew the answer. He can't hoard a secret like this. Look how keeping that secret from his son ruined the relationship between him and his son.

"Ari, umm... Your father will not come for you. Do you remember I said you will have to stay here as long as you have to? It means..." Richard just couldn't continue. The pain came back at his granddaughter's frowning face.

"N- no!" Ari shook her head in denial. But deep within, she already knows what her grandpa is telling her is true. She tumbled on the floor and started wailing.

"Dad! Father! I'm sorry, I won't be naughty again! Please come and get me!"

Ari's helpless tears brought Richard down to his knees too. He was so sorry for her, thinking everything that happened is because of his foolish choice.

[itsybitsylemonsqueezy]

*sigh* I love him... oh, hey there tumblr! It’s been awhile, sorry about that. Been drinking a big ol’ glass of Loving Kiryu juice tho so it’s time for some Kiryu Opinions with Lemon. Sit’ya down and gather close. 

I’ve recently been informed that writing Kiryu is hard. This came as a surprise to me because Kiryu is very intuitive for me to wield. Like, there’s a certain amount of pressure with writing any protag, especially one who so defines a series and a universe, even now. But I just... don’t struggle with him. All of his decisions are intuitively relatable for me. 

But hearing that Kiryu was deceptively complicated made me stop and thinking about what about him appeals to me, what I find easy to move with him. I don’t know about any of you, but when I struggle to write a character, it’s because I struggle to understand their motivations. (Note that I said understand, which doesn’t necessarily mean agree with.) If I can’t explain to myself why a character is Like That, how the hell am I going to explain it to anyone else? How will I move them believably if I don’t know why they’re moving? 

So this got me thinking about... why Kiryu is Like That. 

One of the important things for me, whenever I have Kiryu in a scene, is that Kiryu is always in the Present. This is not true for many, many characters. Many people are reliving the past or hoping for the future. But in any given scene, even if Kiryu should be thinking about other things, what he responds to is the present, the here and now. That is first and foremost what motivates him. Whatever is happening right in front of him takes precedence. Both past events and future consequences mean very little to him compared to that. 

This is drastically different, as I said, from characters like Majima, who is nearly always living in the past. A strange thing for me to say about a character as self-aware as him, but being self-aware and being in the Present are two different things. But I’m not here to talk about him today. 

This is not to say that Kiryu is ignorant or foolhardy or callous. Kiryu does not deny the past its meaning or charge in blindly without an awareness of the consequences. He knows consequences will come, he simply accepts them faster than you might expect. And Kiryu is deeply affected by the past and does spend a great deal of time thinking about the past. But that’s not how his decisions get made. Many people are so afraid of or so hurt by the past, that all of their present decisions are predetermined by what has happened to them before. And that makes sense, we all learn from experience and react to it. It’s just a matter of which pieces of information any one of us is choosing to evaluate per decision. And rather than looking to past pain and past failures, or past successes, Kiryu gives deference to the most recent information. Part of the reason for this is that the only pattern Kiryu sees in the past is his failures. If everything he did before failed, why the hell would he do that again? And part of the reason is because the past is dead to Kiryu. 

I said before some people live in the past. They play it out every day, trying to redeem themselves, hoping for a different ending. If they just do it right this time, things will be different, things will be better. Other people believe in do-overs. Kiryu doesn’t. Kiryu internalized when he was young that there are no do-overs. Sometimes you get one shot and you live with the consequences. That’s what Kiryu believes. When he entered the yakuza, that was the ethos instilled in him. If you make a call, you stand by it and you live with it, good, bad, or break even. Kiryu believes that, even to this day. And in his defense, many of the decisions he’s had to make were like that. Any time he made a bad call, the consequences were permanent. Any mistake he made, he could lose a friend, he could lose a war. And when he made that decision, he had to be ready for those consequences. That’s what he learned. So for him there are no do-overs. The past is dead. It’s not an active, dynamic thing that he could change, even if he wanted to. He can’t bring Nishiki back to life, he can’t save Tachibana, he can’t un-orphan Haruka. Those decisions are made and gone. 

He’s not a fool and he won’t torture himself thinking about what he could have done differently. He accepts that these are the consequences. Sometimes you’re wrong and sometimes there’s nothing you can do about it. In some ways, this helps Kiryu let go. It means he’s never trying to save someone who’s already dead. It means he doesn’t dwell in regret. This gives him the ability to move forward. If he couldn’t do this, he never would have gotten up from the end of Kiwami 1. But Nishiki’s dead and there’s nothing he can do about it. So he doesn’t try. That’s the downside. Kiryu never goes back. He never tries to make it better, even for himself. Because he doesn’t think there is a way. It’s too painful to even consider that. Who is there to forgive him? Who is there to let him try again? The dead don’t talk. Kiryu accepts that he cannot change the past. Instead he flees from it. 

This is an opposite defensive maneuver from trying to relive the past, he’s trying to outrun it. If he never has to make those decisions again, then he can never fuck up like that again. It’s why he refuses to be chairman, it’s why he hates being in Kamurocho. It’s all a constant reminder of his mistakes and how much they cost. And Kiryu’s defensive strategy is sometimes overactive, deciding that he can’t fix situations that haven’t yet burnt to the ground. He always assumes people won’t forgive him, that they don’t want him to try. He always assumes his failure is enough to ruin all the relationships he has. Why would you forgive someone who ruined your life? Kiryu doesn’t know why you would and doesn’t think you should. He’s paranoid about failing the people he loves and he believes that if he has failed you, you rightfully don’t love him anymore and wouldn’t want to see him. He sees his mistakes too big to know how small they are to you. So he runs from good relationships because he thinks he’s already failed them, he thinks he’s already made too many mistakes and he doesn’t deserve that relationship anymore. Maybe he never did. 

And the more faith people put in him the worse this is. People treat Kiryu like he’s a god, a savior. And every time it makes Kiryu’s heart sore. He’s not afraid of his own power; he’s actually fairly confident in his abilities and has a good grasp of their reach. But seeing how much people trust him... it makes every mistake cost more. Kiryu worries because he knows he is human. No matter what anyone else thinks, he’s still just a guy. He sees himself as just a guy, maybe better trained or more gifted than some, but just a normal, mortal, flawed human being like anyone else. He knows he makes mistakes. He knows he will make mistakes again. And what if he makes a mistake that affects you? What if he’s wrong and it fucks you over? And how betrayed your trust is, how your faith in him falters... then you’ll finally see he was never worthy of it to begin with. Then you’ll feel deceived because he couldn’t live up to your expectations. 

Kiryu doesn’t want to hurt you like that, hurt anyone like that. He takes the expectations on him very seriously. He knows you’re only asking because you do need help. He knows you’re very sincere. And he badly wants to do right by you. But if he... if he fucks up, that doesn’t hurt him, it hurts you. And sometimes he can’t bear that. He can’t bear failing people, being responsible for their disappointment and hurt and ruined situation. 

It’s not that Kiryu wants to be reassured that he’s doing okay. People who want reassurance want to do the job they have. Kiryu hates this job. He hates being in the position to save or damn people. He hates the potential of getting it wrong and it mattering so much. And he would rather not help than risk it sometimes. His heart aches every time he’s asked again because that means... there’s no one else. It means he’s still the best you’ve got. And you deserve better, you deserve more than what he is. He’s just some guy and he’s not sure he can be what you need. He doesn’t trust himself to do it right. He wants you to have someone who WILL be there every time, who CAN weather it all. He doesn’t think he can. 

He will still help, because there’s no one else, because he does understand that if he doesn’t worse things will happen. And he’ll become responsible by not having stepped in. But this is why he’s inconsistent, he doesn’t think he can do more, he doesn’t trust himself. And he gets scared of how much people believe in him. 

He really doesn’t think that people could still love him, knowing he’s just some guy. He’s scared that if he isn’t perfect, like he’s supposed to be, like everyone wants him to be... everyone will feel betrayed. So he runs away to Okinawa to do something entirely different. But even then he’s scared of fucking up. He’s taken on all these young lives who depend on him and he’s waiting, he’s just waiting, to have someone tell him he’s a bad father, that he’s failed them, that he’s fucking up. And when that happens, he runs away again, so he won’t hurt them anymore. And because he doesn’t deserve to have relationships that bring him comfort and joy, he doesn’t deserve to feel useful and good, because he isn’t. He’s always been a failure. 

Kiryu carries the pressure on him EXCEEDINGLY well. He almost never breaks down. But he has those break downs. He has anxiety. He worries about fucking up. His confidence curves towards stables, but when he hits a rocky point... he’s unmoored. He’s left without any reassurance that he does know what he’s doing, that he is doing okay, that he hasn’t failed every relationship he’s ever had. People still love him and forgive him and want to be with him. Want to help him try again. 

I might even go so far to say that Kiryu has Imposter Syndrome. He has ex-gifted kid syndrome. Brought up with high expectations and high standards, more talented than his peers, launched into the stratosphere when he was still young, all of his personality moorings ripped away... He’s constantly just trying to be a good person, the best he knows how. And he takes it very, very hard when he falls short of what he was told all his life he could be. He doesn’t believe he ever achieved it.

I love Kiryu. I hope this helped show why.

[imjeralee]

Comfort in Despair: Chapter 11 - It’s a TRAP!

Leon x F!Reader

Disclaimer: Do not own Pokemon

Summary:

Galar is rich in folklore and tales of the supernatural.

As a Pokemon Researcher who specialises in ghost types, this is a great opportunity for you to investigate and learn more about the paranormal.

Along the way, you meet Leon (in the most awkward way possible) who becomes embroiled in your adventures.

^ Basically this story is about ghosts :/

Rating: General/Teen

Extra Note: this is really my attempt in writing a big case, so shout out to the awesome @crikeygatormate, @alisakagi​ and @elisanice for their suggestions :) @marydragneell​ - here is the latest update

It's a TRAP!

…

…

[It is proposed that poltergeists are actually the emotions of troubled individuals – built up during times of stress. This theory, known as Spontaneous Recurring Psychokinesis suggests that this built-up stress then unconsciously projects outwards in the form of mental energy, which effects the physical environment and produces the phenomena attributed to poltergeists.] … …

The next day, you head to Wyndon Police Station to meet Graves.

You enter the busy establishment, glancing around. Inside, various policemen and women are seated at desks, busily serving people. You tell reception you’re here to see the Chief Inspector and they let you enter and you pass a young male officer of average height standing near the vending machine with a Grapploct, Growlithe and a Herdier in police hats and corresponding uniforms. He glances at you with a grin, chewing on a Lumiose Galette.

"Back again, kooky girl?" he says with a thick brogue, “Heard you solved the Giant’s Seat case. What kinda weird hoodoo did you do this time?”

You ignore him, heading to the Chief Inspector’s office and rap lightly on the door with your knuckles.

“Come in,” says a gruff and stern voice, and you subsequently enter the room.

Manectric sleeps in his basket near the coat stand whilst Arcanine sits in another corner, biting on a chew toy, and a disgruntled-looking Graves sits at his desk, going through some files. He swerves his eyes up to you when you step in and then returns to rifle through the papers before settling them down.

Graves' office is very bland but messy and as Chief Inspector, he is neck-deep with all sorts of cases so you are quite thankful he has made time for you this afternoon. You take the black leather seat opposite him and look at his desk, glancing at the Newton’s Cradle beside a small berry planter where all the leaves are dead and the soil is dried up. There is also a shiny gold plaque with his name and job title on it which thoroughly reminds you again of the authority he holds here.

He scans your face briefly before he says, “You okay, kid?” His mouth keeps moving as you nod in response. He must be chewing gum. “Did you bring it?”

“Yeah,” you delve a hand into your bag and lift out the Dusk ball with Froslass inside; you look at her capsule in your hands before hesitantly placing it on the desk. You are parting ways with her, and you wished you had more time to study and keep her. “...Promise me she won’t get hurt.”

Graves sighs as he takes the capsule and swivels round in his seat, dragging it over to a metal cabinet and pulling out one of the drawers in the middle, dropping it inside. “You know I can’t. There are rules for pokemon that kill, it's out of my jurisdiction.”

“Tell them it’s not her fault,” you protest and he slams the drawer shut, causing you to wince at the loud noise.

“We are not going to debate about this,” Graves grunts as he returns to his desk, the wheels rolling loudly, “You know the drill; the top’s asking for an explanation for the official report. I’m gonna say Leon got taken by a Froslass, you were in the vicinity and since you’re buddies with Leon, you and Charizard followed his trail, leading you to the den. That sound ‘bout right?”

“Yeah.”

Graves nods, picks up his pen and begins signing the forms one by one. “You are aware that you’re not going to get any credit for this, aren’t you?”

“I don’t want any credit.”

With eyebrows raised, Graves then says, “Magnolia gave me an earful the other day. And I should’ve known better too; I shouldn’t have given you that information. She doesn’t want you to work on these cases anymore and neither do I. And stop talking to that homeless guy.”

“That homeless guy is my mentor.”

“That homeless guy is an ex-convict who was charged with the murder of his wife and kid.”

“He didn’t kill anyone, a demon possessed-”

With that, Graves groans audibly with frustration, rubbing his temples, “Arceus, enough with this mumbo jumbo supernatural talk about ghosts and demons, you’re giving me a helluva headache.”

“You’re the one who let me help out with this case.”

“I know, and I bloody well regret it now. What was I thinking? Things are different, you could’ve died back there - both you and Leon, and then I’d have ten dead bodies on my hands, not eight. I’m serious. Just promise me you ain’t gonna do this anymore. Nobody asked you to and nobody expects you to. You’re just a kid. You should be doing the gym challenge or doing something young people are doing these days. Like doing makeup tutorial videos and posting them online. Anything but this.”

“But-"

He interrupts you hastily. “You ain’t one of us so stop acting like one of us. Stop pretending. You ain’t some private investigator and you ain’t some homicide detective. You don’t have the shiny badge, the gun or the right qualifications. If you really wanted to, you’d do it officially, sign up and take some exams or something. You'd get paid a hell lot more too.”

“Graves, I know what I’m doing and I know what I’m getting myself into. I don’t want to join the force and I don’t need to. ”

“Don’t you get it? One day you’re gonna end up dead. The next body we find is gonna be yours and I don’t want that.”

You sit in your seat with a frown, crossing your arms, “If you believed me those years ago, you and I won’t be sitting here having this conversation.”

“Don’t talk to me like that, I’m your goddamn godfather,” Graves barks, his thick brows knitting tightly, his annoyed gaze pinned on your weary form.

“If you had just listened to me all those years ago when I came to the police station then my mum and dad-“

“Goddamnit! How many times do I have to tell you? They’re dead!” he snaps at you, slamming his fist on the table and the papers fly and his pokemon look up.

Upon realization of his harsh tone and his acute frown, he stops, his expression clearing up and dissolving into a remorseful one. Graves plops backwards in his seat with an agitated sigh, fists loosening and his face becoming flushed as he sweeps a large palm through his messy hair before he emits an exhausted groan.

“Look, kid, I…I’m sorry, I ain’t good at these things…and I-I didn’t mean…you’re a good kid, I know you mean well but…this is dangerous, you know?”

“….They’re not dead,” you say quietly before you get up from your seat and head to the door.

As Graves lets out a helpless, exasperated sigh in response, your mind is hazy, filled with unspoken rage and before you know it, you have left Wyndon Police Station.

You’re in a foul mood yet you still have a meeting with Rose in an hour. Taking deep breaths, you head to Wyndon Café to buy an extra large coffee and attempt to cool off by sitting at the fountain and drowning yourself with copious amounts of caffeine.

It’s not often you have an argument with Graves but when you do, it’s usually about the questionable existence of your family.

Your wristwatch blips, indicating that it’s almost the time of the meeting so you quickly finish the rest of your drink and head to the Rose of the Rondelands, the glamorous five-star hotel to the left of Wyndon Stadium.

“This better be worth my time,” you grunt under your breath as you tiredly scrub your face with your hand.

You wonder what this meeting would encompass when you speak to reception and are directed to the tea lounge. Leon has said something to Rose about you. Couldn’t this have been done over email? Your mood improves after you're seated down on one of the plush, cosy red settees whilst being served an array of fancy tea and scones by the well-dressed waiting staff. A pianist plays the Wyndon City theme in an eloquent and tranquil pace whilst regular customers chat over their fancy three-tiered cake trays. The ambience is disturbed as footsteps approach you and you look up.

It’s Chairman Rose and Oleana.

“Good afternoon,” says Rose, who promptly looks at you from head to toe. He’s assessing you already, masquerading whatever opinion he’s already formed in his mind about you with a light smile on his face. He holds his hand out and you stand up and firmly shake hands, “Thank you for coming.”

You have only seen Rose on TV or when he’s in his civilian disguise so seeing him in person and so close is quite the surreal experience. He's shorter than you thought. His assistant is tall and beautiful, and commands an equally empowering presence with her slender frame, complete with a disciplined quietness you haven’t seen elsewhere. In fact, she seems almost…robotic.

They seat themselves down on the couch opposite yours after the formalities are over; Oleana has a designer briefcase with her, which she nestles behind her back. A waiter arrives shortly with a tray carrying a wine glass which he settles in front of Rose on the low coffee table.

Chairman Rose thanks him, picks up the glass and the meeting starts, “Leon’s told me so much about you, I had to meet you myself. First of all, I want to thank you for everything you have done.”

“You’re welcome, sir,” you reply, as Rose takes a sip whilst Oleana sits rigidly in her seat whilst keeping her monotone gaze pinned on your form. Her lips are tightly pursed together, so tiny, that they look like red dots on her face; she resembles those porcelain dolls.

“The work that you do has come to my attention, so I’ve asked you to meet me here today. I’d like to hear more about your experiences. I’m fully aware that you study ghost type pokemon and you deal with the paranormal.”

“Yes, that’s correct,” you reply, and you proceed to tell him briefly about yourself and what you do.

Rose nods as he listens, seemingly pleased with everything you’re saying, and his smile widens, “Wonderful, that’s exactly what I wanted to hear for I have a request. I’m about to open a brand new art gallery soon. The grand unveiling was delayed as it’s come to my attention that it may be ‘haunted’. The staff complain incessantly of hearing odd noises and seeing objects moving at night…I’d like you to investigate. Ghost or not, I want to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible."

This sounds right up your alley so you nod, “Of course.”

“Thank you, you will be rewarded handsomely. Oleana will handle this initial consulting fee, your remuneration and paperwork.”

“Paperwork?”

“Yes, we’ll need you to sign some papers.”

“Oh…okay.”

“Take all the time you need and you’re welcome to bring along any assistants as long as they sign the papers too.”

“No problem,” you reply, “I should be able to get it done in one night. When would you like me to start?”

“Today, if possible. I can’t afford to delay the deadline any further.”

“Understood.”

Rose smiles widely and you continue to engage in small talk such as The Pokemon League, the Giant's Seat Incidence, Leon, Macro Cosmos, before Rose checks his silver, expensive wristwatch for the current time. “I have another meeting at half four so I’ll take you to the gallery right now. Unfortunately I won’t be able to show you around for long."

“That’s fine,” you say and with a plan in mind, Rose and Oleana rise from their seats, gesturing and allowing you to exit first. You’re somewhat nervous and just before you leave the hotel, Oleana fishes out a white tracksuit, cap and sunglasses from the briefcase which Rose puts on quickly.

She nods after he thanks her but remains silent as Rose treks outside in his half-civilian disguise with you beside him. Regardless, the Chairman takes you around the back of the hotel that leads to a dirty and smelly alleyway which consists of a linear path straight ahead that connects to various buildings on the same street. There are a few smokers lurking outside but they don’t pay attention to you.

“This is the quickest route. Please excuse the smell,” Rose says with a chuckle; you’re stunned a man of his calibre is happy to walk through this trashy street in his expensive shoes.

The walk to the art gallery is relatively quick; it’s a few blocks from the hotel and once you have arrived at the steel door of a building that resembles the hotel, with the same red-brick exterior, Oleana takes over, fishes for the key in the briefcase and proceeds to unlock the huge door which opens with a low creak.

A long and narrow corridor with linoleum flooring lies ahead. It's a fire exit, you realise. Your group enters and Rose abandons his disguise and sweeps his fingers through his hair. “This way.”

He leads you through the corridor that splits off to another branching corridor that leads to various staffrooms and the basement, but Rose leads you directly up the stairs and finally, pushes another set of doors and you appear at the visitor’s hall which is a large and spacious, brightly-lit room. The windows are massive and the walls stretch high above your heads. It resembles the typical museum format and layout with many long and huge posters with Pikachus and pictures of legendary Pokemon outlining the various exhibits and a giant plastic Wailord hanging from the ceiling.

“Wow, this is amazing,” you say as you gawk at the Wailored display and Rose chuckles. The art gallery is beautiful...how could it be haunted?

“Thank you,” he says, and your group make their way towards the direction of the visitor’s desk where you see a member of staff manning the desk alongside a familiar figure who glances over at your direction.

You’re stunned to see that this familiar person is none other than Leon; you were getting used to seeing him in casual wear, in a thick woolly jumper or his black sweats. Donned in the tight Champion's shirt, white leggings and the majestic cape, Leon has turned into an entirely different person...

Whilst the receptionist bows her head at Rose, the Chairman looks surprised to see the Champion. “Leon? What are you doing here?”

Leon’s honey-coloured eyes settles on you briefly and you freeze on the spot, your heart begins thumping hard all over again and you inwardly kick yourself in a vain effort to stop. Luckily, Leon quickly averts his gaze to the Chairman and smiles warmly, “Hello Chairman Rose, I just wanted to stop by and make sure everything’s okay.”

“Thank you, Leon, that’s very generous of you. Everything’s fine, your friend here has agreed to help so I’m going to quickly show her around,” Rose says jovially in response; he's scrapped the introductions since he's aware you are both well-acquainted. “Well then, let’s begin, shall we?”

You wonder if Leon’s listening because he returns to stare at you and your heartbeat soars to an astronomical rate as you sneak a peek at him from the corner of your eye and you see that he has not stopped; your cheeks grows warm as you contemplate the fact that he is staring at you continuously but Rose and Oleana appear oblivious to this tension between you and the Champion.

Rose heads over to a set of double doors with the sign ‘Right Wing’ above them. You muster the bravery to fully glance at Leon briefly and when your gazes meet, his mouth moves a fraction but ultimately, he is silent, deciding it's best not to say much in the Chairman's presence especially because this is essentially, business. You cannot help but feel Leon is different once he dons the Champion cape and uniform.

He’s distant, painfully so.

Nevertheless, you follow Rose and Oleana inside the right wing with Leon trailing behind and Rose throws open the doors and it’s then you see the true extent of the art gallery’s size and the many treasures he has gathered over the years.

“We have an insect emporium, butterfly exhibit, gems display, antiques section and modern art exhibit,” Rose says proudly, and he continues rambling, going on about the other exhibits in the left wing but as you stare at your new surroundings, your chest clenches and your breathing grows laboured.

A darkness has settled within this very building.

Hoping no-one had noticed your change in demeanour (except Leon, because suddenly he appears worried for you), you turn to Rose and ask, “This is a brand new building?”

You’re aware Leon is watching you and your nerves soar through the roof, but you try your best to focus on the task at hand.

“Yes, but it’s actually smaller compared to other galleries such as the museum in Pewter City. It's only one floor."

“Did you have any problems during construction? For example, any accidents onsite?"

"Nothing that I'm aware of."

"And did you receive any warnings beforehand about the land you were building on?”

“None whatsoever. It went swimmingly,” Rose replies and you slide your gaze to the ground, to your feet.

At least Rose was smart and didn't build anything on top of ancient burial grounds. But that means there's nothing wrong with the building itself and it's to do with something inside. What is this...feeling? There's something...

Leon observes your reaction until you look up and spot a sign in the corner that says: ‘Dedicated to Edward Rose’.

“Who’s Edward Rose?”

“Excellent question, Edward Rose was one of my ancestors,” Rose says, “He was a lover of art and an avid treasure hunter himself, so the majority of these extravagant items on display were curated by him and I've decided to release them on display to the public. He was a great man."

You lift Rotom out to do an online search on Edward Rose to see what else comes up but there is limited information available.

Rose snaps his fingers and on cue, Oleana hands you several documents from the briefcase which you unfurl properly to study them carefully. It’s a map of the art gallery and several marketing leaflets containing all the exhibits. “Sir,” she says, “Your meeting will begin in fifteen minutes.”

“Thank you, Oleana. I’m afraid I’ll have to take my leave now,” Rose says, “I look forward to the results of your investigation.”

“Leave it to me," you assure them.

Rose and Oleana exit after you exchange goodbyes, leaving yourself and Leon in the right wing. Leon, having maintained a distance from you since you had arrived, finally walks up to you and stops by your side as you let your eyes wander over the papers before you fold them back up.

“What do you think?” Leon asks.

You wish he wouldn't ask you this question because you're actually not too sure. For certain, a distinct dark and foreboding presence lingers somewhere in the art gallery but you're not entirely sure where.

"Give me a minute," is all you say, before you begin to wander through the various displays and exhibits and Leon joins your side, falling in line with you, step by step. “The guards are right. There’s something here,” you utter as you glance around and he follows where you are looking but you are moving too fast for him so he has a hard time catching up.

You are purposely attempting not to look at him and he ends up following you through the right wing and all the way to the left wing, and back.

Unfortunately, you come to one drastic conclusion: “I can't tell right now. Entities are more active at night so I will need to come back when it's dark.”

Your brief investigation is over, so you and Leon exit the art gallery and onto the large stone steps. Once you’re outside with the Champion, you see that the art gallery is stationed on a cosy-looking street of Wyndon, far from the crowds. It’s more of a suburban area that is filled with quaint cafes and souvenir shops.

Glancing behind you to the building, the art gallery is very normal; it is a large and extravagant building in plain sight. A billboard stands to the left, just before the grand staircase, outlining the unveiling date and where to sign up for RSVP.

“How are you anyway?” you ask, as you stuff Rose's papers into your bag.

“I’m fine,” he murmurs, “How are you?”

“I’m good, thanks for asking.”

You don’t think it is wise to ask him why he didn’t reply to your message which you think he is aware of, because he looks sheepish all of a sudden.

“I met Ezra at the soup kitchen,” he adds and you quirk a brow, “he wanted me to give you this. He said it needs one more spirit and that you'll understand.”

He takes out the Odd Keystone from his pockets and hands you the smooth stone.

"Thanks.”

“Do you want me to go with you?” Leon asks quietly, but you shake your head and deposit the stone in your bag then scoop Rotom out, typing a quick message.

“There’s no need, I’ll ask Jace for help,” you utter under your breath.

“Jace…?” Leon murmurs, and he throws his gaze to the side.

He sounds hurt.

“Yeah, so…I better get ready for tonight. I don’t want to take up any more of your precious time either. Bye Leon,” you say quickly, before you hop down the stairs and towards the Corviknight taxi ranks.

“Ah, right…goodbye,” he says, but you didn’t hear.

You wonder if you had unintentionally made Leon feel bad.

…

It’s almost night-time and much preparation is needed for the case.

Although preparation in your books, is getting as much sleep as possible before you woke up later on in the evening to get ready and head out.

Along with the leaflets, Rose has sent you an extremely confidential pdf file that contains the list of all the displays and exhibits inside the gallery so you have an electronic copy. Overall, it’s a lot to go through, so you move onto the transcripts of the hauntings taken down by the terrified staff.

It’s the usual: doors opening and closing, knocking on the walls, grunting, growling and to top it all off, moving pieces of furniture.

Sounds like poltergeist activity which isn’t unusual in your books, and you finish packing your bag with your essentials.

You go through the papers Rose wants you to sign and it’s all legal affairs. If you are injured on premises, Rose and Macro Cosmos bear no liability. If you break anything in the art gallery, you’re also fully liable. No pokemon battles are allowed. If you steal, you will be prosecuted.

After skimming through the main points, you sign them and then send a copy to Jace to sign.

You’re meeting him at Wyndon at the agreed time and you’ve briefed him on the investigation. He is eager to accompany you and when you arrive, he hastily waves you over.

He insisted on matching outfits to make a statement, so here you are both dressed from head to toe in all manners of black clothing.

“Jace, thanks for doing this. What have you brought with you?” you ask, gawping at the black rucksack that’s hanging off his shoulders. He’s also got Joltik’s capsule stuck to his belt.

“Glad you asked!” he exclaims as he loops the bag off himself and unzips it after settling it on the ground. Jace reveals that he has packed a headlight, night vision and heat vision goggles, a tripod camera, heat detecting monocular, digital voice recorder and EMF recorder.

It's basically everything you don’t need and don’t use.

“At least take the headlight,” he moans when you tell him this.

“No thanks, I’m fine with my trusty torch. But you should definitely use those," you say, gesturing to all his equipment.

"Alright..." Jace pouts and packs his bag back up; he keeps his headlight on and EMF recorder in hand.

You’re supposed to meet Rose’s delegate at the ticketing booth, so you both head up the stairs, arriving at the main entrance where you and Leon stood a few hours ago in the daylight.

A security guard can be seen sitting in the booth along with a Clefki hanging from one of the hooks on the wall. You knock on the window and he looks up from his magazine.

“Oh, are you the pokemon researcher?”

“Yep, that’s me. And this is my assistant, Jace.”

“Hi.”

“Great,” says the security guard, “the more the merrier. Thanks for coming, I'll be your guide.”

“No problem.”

The security man leaves the booth along with Clefki before he grabs a flashlight from his pocket and switches it on. “Come with me.”

You and Jace trail after the man as he wanders to the front door with Clefki who promptly sticks one key inside and unlocks it.

The lights are switched off inside and you realise it’s worse when it’s dark, and as the man shuts the doors behind you, he beckons you to follow him once again.

“My name is Horace,” he says, “I called Ms. Oleana the other day and I didn’t think they would take me seriously, but it turns out I wasn’t the only one. The cleaners, the other security guards, they all came forth and said the same thing.”

“Which is what?” Jace asks.

“I’m pretty sure Mr Rose was warned, but there’s something evil in there,” Horace says with a slight shiver, and you’re aware that he is incredibly uncomfortable speaking about it, “He has a hell lotta old stuff and it’s all in there on display….I’m certain some of them are cursed or something so that’s where we need your help along with…uh, these guys.”

You see two young men standing at the visitor’s desk; the brunette is holding a camera whilst the blonde is tapping away on his phone.

“Rose wanted a second opinion so you’re not gonna be alone in this. He’s asked these guys for help too.”

You and Jace exchange incredulous glances before you settle your gazes on the two men.  You weren’t aware of this arrangement at all.

The blonde has a tattoo of a Machamp on his neck and the brunette has a thick beard and bandanna. Both are donned in warm coats and they’re both carrying rucksacks that rattles noisily with equipment.

“Oh, if it isn't the Witch of Wedgehurst,” says Machamp-tattoo man as he looks up and eyes you head to toe. You spot a red and black checkered shirt underneath his coat and a gold necklace around his neck.

"The what?" you say, stunned.

"You know that's what people call you, right? I know who you are, I recognise you; you're the ghost-type researcher."

"Yes, but I've never heard people calling me the Witch-"

"Oh, well, you have now," he says, and as you do a double take he adds, “I’m Tanner. This is my camera man, Cole.”

“Hi,” says the bearded one, as he balances the large and hulking, black camera on one shoulder as though it weighs nothing.

“We’re the Ghostbunkers,” Tanner says with a grin.

“Ghost…bunkers??”

“Yeah, have you heard of us?” he asks, and you shake your head. His eyes bulges with disbelief. “Have you been living under a rock?”

“Um…”

“Okay, okay, to fill you in, we visit allegedly haunted places and debunk it, okay? Ghosts? No, it’s just a pokemon or something,” Tanner says, “Most of the time, it’s ninety-nine per cent nothing to do with ghosts at all.”

“So what about the remaining one per cent?” Jace asks, and it’s a perfectly logical question but Tanner merely laughs.

“Well, that’s not our forte.”

“Fair enough.”

Tanner’s focus averts to you. “Well, this is the first time I’ve had to collaborate with someone without being told,” he then grumbles sourly. “Cole, remind me to double Rose’s rate.”

“Got it, T.”

“Rose didn’t tell you guys that we were coming either?” you ask, brow raised and Tanner nods. Pondering to yourself, you slip in a quick and polite, “Please excuse us.”

Whilst Horace the security guard and the duo look at you with unamused looks, you and Jace hurry to a corner.

"Jace, people call me a 'witch' behind my back," you murmur. You have to admit; you're not too surprised about this. You already get called a kook, what else? “This can’t be happening. Have we been played?”

“What do you mean?” Jace whispers back.

“I thought we would be the only ones here,” you reply, “And these guys? The Ghostbunkers??? What the hell?”

“He said his name was Tanner, right? And his BFF is Cole…” Jace says, before he pulls out his phone and begins searching online. “Aha! Found them…”

You both huddle over Rotom’s tiny screen where Jace has found Tanner’s ‘Ghostbunkers’ website. It appears they are also from Galar. The brief description mentions he has ten years of extensive experience of the supernatural and hunting ghosts but he created this channel one year ago.

“Arceus, ten years. That’s more than me,” you croak out whilst Jace rolls his eyes, “and he has his own channel... he has a theme song. He even gets fanart.”

Next, you see dozens and dozens of comments from his fans, declaring their support and love for him and his work.

Your blog hardly has any views, you only have a sparse number of followers, you rarely get comments and you've never received fanart. Your face falls with gloom at this thought; your esteem has being whittled away into nothingness in an instant.

“So what?” Jace is quick to cheer you up, but you give him an exasperated look and continue to look at the information provided.

Tanner’s videos channel received fifty thousand views on average. His most popular upload is a video with one million views where he spent one entire night in Lavender Tower. The next most popular upload is a video where he traversed through the Old Chateau in Eterna Forest. He’s debunked a lot of allegedly haunted places all over the world, attributing it to ghost-type pokemon.

“You gotta be kidding…he’s a skeptic, which is the last thing we need,” you grunt under your breath. “Damn, I should’ve known. I had this weird feeling about Rose, like it was too good to be true. This isn’t surprising of him at all.”

“Now what do we do?”

“Well, we’re already here…let’s see this through.”

Jace gulps. “Okay.”

You return to the men and the security guard briefs you on the recent happenings but the dynamic duo decide to set the camera rolling and before Horace can say anything, the camera is focusing on you.

“Hey, do you mind if we collaborate?” Tanner asks.

“I don’t really collaborate…”

“Suit yourself then,” Tanner looks mildly displeased with the rejection. “Well, we’re going to be filming anyway. You don’t mind, do you?”

“No.”

“Great!” Turning to Cole, he says, “Let’s begin.”

“Got it,” Cole replies, and he fixes the camera appropriately, a little red light goes on. You assume it’s recording now.

Tanner clears his throat and tidies his hair before he puts on a huge grin. “Hello fellow debunkers!! And welcome back to my channel. How are ya? Tanner here tonight, with another exciting ghost-bunking mission!” Tanner exclaims, and you can’t help but inwardly groan as you watch him. “Tonight, we’ve been invited to an art gallery that’s rumored to be haunted. As usual, it’s just me and my best friend Cole – but we actually have a few guests with us today.”

On cue, Cole swiftly navigates the camera to focus on Horace who blinks blankly at the duo. “Oh, uh…hello, hi.”

“This is Horace. Horace, do you mind telling us what you do and can you share a few words about this place and what’s been going on?”

“Yeah, so… I’m one of the security guards here. Last night…maybe around two am, I was making rounds and I heard this weird banging noise on the wall, in there-“

He points to the doors behind you, where you’re supposed to be investigating.

Horace says, “I went in and checked the whole area but nobody was there. It didn’t stop, it just grew louder and louder and it moved, like it started at the end of the hall and it came closer to me. Then a chair flew across the room. Whatever it is, it’s mean and angry."

Tanner thanks Horace for the introduction and the information, the camera still rolling.

“Well, this is where I’m supposed to leave you guys.” Horace adds, “I’m the only one on watch duty tonight but I’m going to be outside so I don’t bother your investigation. You can reach me using this walkie talkie so keep this on you at all times so you can contact me,” he proceeds to hand you and Tanner each a small and sleek black device. “I’ve kept it tuned to mine but if you’re worried, the channel is eighty-two, got it?”

“Things just got interesting, folks.” Tanner says to the camera with a wink.

“I need to keep the building locked though because we don’t wanna let anyone else in, you know, in case of burglars…some of the stuff here is worth millions...so let me know when you want to leave and I’ll unlock the doors for you.”

With that, Horace wishes you luck and excuses himself and you watch him pad towards the entrance with Clefki, watching the light of his torch gradually disappear and you and Jace and the Ghostbunkers are standing in darkness.

Cole stops recording and Tanner finally drops his smile, turns to you and says, “Are you really an exorcist?”

“I’m not an exorcist,” you reply with a shake of your head.

“What with Bob the Builder?” Tanner gestures to Jace and his getup.

“Bob the-?! What?! I’m her assistant,” Jace barks, pointing to himself.

Tanner focuses on you again. “Are you some kind of spirit medium? A clairvoyant?”

“No, I’m just a ghost-type researcher.”

“Oh good, at least we’re on the same page,” Tanner says, “It’s most likely a pokemon that’s behind this, don’t you think?”

“It’s too early to say.”

Tanner sighs audibly under his breath, “Well, the art gallery is pretty big. Cole and I can take the left wing and you and your friendo can take the right wing. That means we can get things done quicker. How does that sound?”

You nod. “That sounds alright.”

“As long as you two don’t get in our way, we’re good,” Tanner replies; despite the words, he delivers them with a rather crooked smile.

You and Jace exchange brief looks before you begin to head to the direction of the two double doors that will leads to the right wing.

Meanwhile, Cole focuses the camera on Tanner who eagerly begins speaking to the camera, outlining his steps and what equipment he has tonight with great detail and vigor whilst you and Jace stop at the doors.

“I have a bad feeling about those guys,” you whisper as you switch on your flashlight and unfurl the map.

“If this place is really haunted, I hope the ghost grabs them first,” Jace murmurs under his breath.

"Ready?" you ask.

"Ready," he confirms.

You push open the door; it swings open with a low creak and slowly swings on its hinges. You shine your torches into the dark abyss of the art gallery, your gaze sweeping over the many displays. You will be here for the remainder of the night.

"Good luck!" Tanner yells, a fraction before you step inside, "You're gonna need it."

[anangelicday-mrwolf]

Wolfsbane : Noblesse Fanfic (post-ending)

(previous chapter)

Chapter 44 – The Story Unbeknownst

“Welcome back. And thanks. We owe you so... Miss Lunark?”

Tao beckoned Lunark; he was outside, having watched the four teenagers leaving less than a minute ago.

He raised his arm halfway before he froze awkwardly, upon checking the composition of her face.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen at the KSA?”

“Oh, yes. Something did happen – something far from small. And for your information, this has nothing to do with the fact that you made me your substitute.”

Lunark foresaw what Tao will first and foremost forecast and barricaded his apology.

“Is everyone home now? I reckon this is something I gotta share with all of you.”

She directed her eyes towards Frankenstein’s house as she spoke.

Tao instantly understood what she was implying and in return nodded as he turned.

“This way, please. And I’m sorry, but could you please give Takio a few moments? He has yet to come back, and...”

“Forget it.”

“Pardon?”

Tao for a moment was appalled by the apparent distaste she has come to harbor for one of the founding members of RK, probably because of his connection to Yuigi, but soon enough he was told wrong.

“We don’t have time to wait until he makes it back. Call him. Use the video call feature on your phone.”

“What? I-is it that serious?”

Lunark did not issue a reply for him.

Which was more than enough for him to fathom the magnitude of the situation; Tao promptly led the way for the werewolf warrior, thumbing through his phone to scroll down his recent call records.

*****

The gathering was held for the second time, featuring Tao, M-21, Raizel, and Takio through a video call.

It was revealed Takio was at the other safehouse under Frankenstein’s ownership.

Yuigi had been made homeless, with the previous safehouse no more. So he was helping her to move in to her new residence, as well as installing and auditing the variety of defense kits devised by Tao, in order to prevent anything reminiscent of Kornel’s visit from taking place.

He was finished with his task by the time Tao’s name popped up upon his phone screen, so he was currently standing atop an empty building on his way back home.

And this time they were occupying the underground lab, originally Frankenstein’s possession now passed on to Tao.

If it were not for the essence of the situation, Lunark would have been completely mesmerized by the touches and traces of Frankenstein flaunting themselves in his lab.

“I got the item from the KSA – Yuhyung’s USB containing a security program developed by the man himself, along with its upgrade version from their doctor. But of course, that’s not what I requested this meeting for. It’s the researcher we have to talk about.”

The moment Yuhyung’s name came up, all men’s eyes glinted with nervousness as they flickered over Lunark’s face.

Keeping her facial muscles in control, despite knowing it would be no use once she is done talking, Lunark pulled out from her head the conversation she had at KSA.

*****

“...That’s what he told you?”

“What? What is it?”

“We beg your pardon, but could you reiterate for us exactly what he told you?”

“Hmm... He said... ‘The shock I received was too severe for me to return to work. I was half-forced to take off work, and I could return after much time was spent.’”

Taesik’s and doctor’s expressions were intensified with anxiety as they met each other in the eyes, holding something somewhat different from useless concern.

What their pupils were hinting were not meaningless concern; it was untainted apprehension, close to fear.

“If there is something going on between you two, I’d really appreciate it if you could share with me. Whatever it is that you know about him, I’m obliged to learn. He’s not the only one affiliated with the QuadraNet project.”

Lunark’s words were inquisitive, not imperative or exclamatory.

Albeit she could not help emitting a splinter of annoyance, she had no intention of telling them off.

Nevertheless, Taesik and the doctor grew much smaller in presence, like brothers whose parents figured out at last what they had done wrong and kept as secret so far.

“Listen carefully, Miss Lunark. About the reason why Yuhyung took off work in the past... It wasn’t a vacation or anything of the sort.”

“What are you talking about?”

“At least on his dossier, it is described as personal vacation. And that’s what all personnel and staff of KSA think regarding his temporary leave.”

“Are you saying in reality, he was momentarily kicked out or something?”

“That was not what we had in mind, but... I guess he’d say that was the case. Because he left not because of the assault you mentioned.”

“Strictly speaking, that assault is not completely unrelated to this matter, but in reality there’s a difference. This is partially why we can’t stop asking you if Yuhyung has troubled you in any way.”

Taesik solemnly clasped his hands upon his desk, and the doctor wound up his arms behind his back as he stood beside his boss.

“Do you know what Yuhyung majored in during... I mean, do you know what he used to specialize in before joining us?”

The doctor unfolded for Lunark almost the exact same thing Sangin and Yeonsu relayed to Rael on his first encounter with Yuhyung.

The fact that prior to the job offer from the doctor himself, Yuhyung majored in Bio And Brain Engineering at KAIST.

The fact that 6 years have passed ever since, and he is now the lead technological assistant and one of the lead researchers of KSA, making majestic contributions to bioengineering studies and developments.

The fact that he is almost solely responsible for the studies associated with artificial intelligence and brain and neurology.

“He had made names for himself during his time at KAIST for his creative-slash-bizarre imaginations and suggestions. Some would dub them as innovative and original, while others would dub as unrealistic and preposterous.”

“Really? But wouldn’t your folks consider those handy? You’d need to take your perspectives and imaginations way over human boundaries to struggle and survive against a bunch of people with supernatural, superhuman technology and knowledge.”

“You’re right. And we wouldn’t have stayed on the edge of our seats if Yuhyung had... Kept his limits, to say. Ever since the assault you mentioned, he was basically a ball of glass on the tip of a sword.”

Once again came up the assault Lunark laid on Korea along with Zarga and 8th Elder; nonetheless, this time Lunark did not even flinch.

She was too curious about the contents and conclusion of this mystery to care.

“Just a few days afterwards, Yuhyung visited us in private, to make scandalous proposals.”

“He proposed that KSA accepts the Union way.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Was he suggesting KSA should officially request Union to share its technology on body modification?”

“No. He meant it in a literal sense. He wanted us to adopt Union technology and methodology completely void of ethics or morals, treating humans as nothing more than shovels and garden trimmers in paving and shearing way towards goals.”

At this point, Lunark felt highly inclined to pause the current situation, to instead run over to Frankenstein’s house and book a full body exam on her auditory system.

She has witnessed countless examples of immorality and corruption throughout the past centuries. Even with such pre-exposure, she had been thoroughly disgusted at what Union could and would do.

And now that she has learned that the human so very timid and clumsy but meticulous and passionate in his job wanted his lot to copy and paste the Union’s manners, she felt positive that there must have been a mistake, much more strongly than she did with Adne’s potential betrayal.

Alas, just like with Adne, her suspicion was altogether blown away by Taesik and the doctor.

“After the assault you referred to, Yuhyung came to us and said... He said even though Korea’s history on modified humans is short, especially with Union watching, this was not supposed to happen. He said he couldn’t take that Korea’s modified humans could do nothing to defend their motherland, leaving everything to the modified humans in the ex-chairman’s team and creatures outside human classification. Which gave him nightmarish despair, making him question KSA’s existence and the purpose of studying body modification.”

“I remember how he appeared more agitated than usual. However, the sense of guilt, insecurity, and helplessness seething from his every vowel and consonant were neither exaggerated nor feigned.”

“And he urged us to remove all cautions and limits in studies, claiming that since our technology is an imitation of Union’s arts, there’s no reason for us to leave their ideology unimitated. He claimed that if we stick to rules unlike the Union, we will make no progress at all.”

“He even insisted on making it mandatory for incoming agents to go through body modification.”

Lunark could not even feel her lips parting. She was too busy suspecting whether the one they were designating was really Yuhyung Jang.

“Make body modification mandatory? That’s exactly the kind of thing Union would do, but not even Union went that far. Not that the Union kept the final line uncrossed – it was simply because their system did not need all of its human resources to pay at least one visit to the lab tank.”

“Is that so? Anyhow, this was what he had in mind – we are undoubtedly short of data on body modification, so reserving for ourselves more trials and errors in body modification would lead to natural collection of data, which will ultimately lead to progress.”

“Both of us vetoed the idea. No, there was no need to veto it. We never took into account his idea in the first place. I mean, force body modification? That’s just plain wrong.”

“Moreover, something was not right with Yuhyung back then. His mouth spoke of KSA’s progress, but his eyes were...”

Taesik and the doctor shuddered as they brought up the memories of the day.

“His eyes were shrieking vengeance and insecurity.”

“So the director gave him vacation, just to force him away from his lab. We figured we had to do something to separate his mind from such unreasonable thought.”

“Once he was back, he began to sort out and discard all his studies and creations on body modification, to instead shift his attention to artificial intelligence. So we figured he has come to his senses.”

“But listening to you, perhaps we were told wrong. Or are we being delusional here?”

Taesik and doctor stared at Lunark, as if imploring her to tell them they are being delusional.

But of course, she could not meet their demands.

*****

Tao, M-21, Raizel, and Takio beyond the phone could not even bat an eye, their bodies now entirely taken over by the danger alert that was growing increasingly cacophonous as they were listening.

The fact that the man of their interest did not outright deceive them but nevertheless led them to believe otherwise regarding the reason why he had to leave his job.

The revelation on his standing as a researcher, close to that of a mad scientist.

His specialization on artificial intelligence and brain, which ominously stood out for them as of now.

The raid by weapons against heads of noble clans that Rael and wolfkind suffered nearby Lukedonia and in their front lawn, respectively.

And the exhibition of changes in the weapons, indicated by the fact that they could now interact with each other and exercise strategies during battles.

For some very strange reason, it fatally dawned upon them that there must be a missing link in all of these.

However, none of them voiced their suspicion.

Things happened, but there was no evidence, material or immaterial.

More importantly, they knew that if they are to even pretend to point it out, the dam that has been remaining firm would finally break down, to result in something irreversible, inevitable.

“Now it’s your turn.”

“Uh... Sorry?”

“You said that something came up after hearing what I had, so you had to look into it. Doesn’t that mean now you have something new to tell me?”

“Uh... Uh, right!”

Tao spun in his seat, to race his chair towards the humongous desk plastered with a bunch of screens.

The rest followed suit, and Tao began to speak as he let his fingers dance.

(next chapter)

That’s right - Yuhyung had a secret. And guess what - there’s plenty more where that came from XD For now I don’t want to provide too much details about his past, as I do not want to spoil my own fic. Please stay tuned to find out more about Yuhyung!

[msjr0119]

Cordonian Wags

Part 19

In a world full of Professional footballers and their demanding wives- can their football team nicknamed the ‘Cordonian Apples’ succeed? An American female physiotherapist joins the club. Will this cause issues with the footballers wives?

Warnings: Swearing, Driley smut, Death

*This series is based on The Royal Romance characters who belong to Pixelberry - AU Plot switch*

Tags: @annekebbphotography @burnsoslow @drakesensworld @ladyangel70 @kingliam2019 @bbrandy2002 @butindeed @bascmve01 @drakewalker04 @pedudley @captain-kingliamsqueen @duchessemersynwalker @insideamirage @of-course-i-went-to-hartfeld @kozabaji @texaskitten30 @ibldw-main @kimmiedoo5 @nikkis1983 @dangerouseggseagleartisan @gnatbrain @walker7519 @lodberg @cmestrella @hopefulmoonobject @addictedtodrakefanfic @angi15h @liamxs-world @rafasgirl23415 @notoriouscs @whenyourheartskipsabeat @jovialyouthmusic @nz1091 @yukinagato2012 @indiacater @seriouslybadchoices @rainbowsinthestorm @cordonianroyalty @desiree-0816

******

Riley and Drake had spent the night wrapped up in each other- after hours of unprotected sex, they had a quick power nap before starting their day. This baby making was tiring.

Meeting up with Lindsey, Riley was nervous to inform her sister of her future plans with Drake. I’m an adult, I can make my own choices- I deserve happiness. Surely she will be happy that I’m happy with Drake and our future family?

Arriving at the restaurant, Lindsey had pre ordered a champagne brunch- she was smiling like the Cheshire Cat when she greeted her younger sister. Riley had decided to avoid alcohol and certain foods to help her have a chance at conceiving quickly.

“Why do you look so happy? Surely you should be upset about leaving Leo tomorrow?”

“Oh Riley. I’m not returning to New York. Leo has bought us a house and has asked me to move in....”

“What about Mom and Dads house? Have you even considered that?” Riley knew she sounded selfish, she should be happy for her sister- but for some reason she couldn’t figure out why she wasn’t.

“Yes, it’s up for sale.” Lindsey retrieved her phone out of her bag, showing Riley the advert. Tears ran down her face, before she forced the phone out of her view.

“Like hell it is! You are not selling our family home because you fancy getting your fanny wet!”

“Ri, Mom and Dad won’t mind. We will have all those special memories. It’s time to move on.”

“No. I won’t let you sell it.” Sounding like a spoilt brat, the waiters looked at the two women concerned.

“What other option do I have? Pay for it when it’s empty? You were the one who ran away to begin with.” Feeling guilty Lindsey was correct with what she had said. However, Riley did that to better herself, gain a career. Not forseeing what her bleak future in the UK would look like.

“I’ll have it. Sign it over to me.”

“What?” Lindsey knew Riley loved that house, but believed that Riley would want to stay in Cordonia for a lifetime- especially now she had met someone who loved her.

“You heard me Linz. I’ll move back to New York, I’ll keep it. Myself and Drake are trying for a baby. It’ll be good to bring the baby up in the home that I was brought up in.”

“No you are not trying for baby! Are you insane?”

“You know what Linz. Fuck you. Get the house off the market and put it in my name. You don’t have to control my life anymore. You sound like Xavier, I am a grown up.” Standing up from her chair, she abruptly left the building- not looking back.

*****

Drake headed over to Savannah and Bertrand’s. The couple were shocked when Drake had offered to take his nephew out for the day without any prompt required.

“So what’s with the doting uncle all of a sudden? I’m not complaining though.” Drake picked up Bartie, and slung the toddlers bag over his shoulder.

“Myself and Riley had a heart to heart yesterday. We are going to try to start a family.” He told his sister, unable to wipe the smile off his face. Savannah’s jaw was agape, deep down she was happy for her brother. She hadn’t seen him act like he did around a woman before, but she believed that he would have considered all options before jumping straight into something that was such an important life decision.

“I like Riley, I do. But my god are you both crazy? A baby isn’t just for Christmas.”

“That phrase is used for dogs Sav.” Drake responded sarcastically, not in the mood for a debate regarding his life.

“You know what I mean Drake. You have both had poor relationships, aren’t you rushing into it?”

“Like you can talk? This is my life. She isn’t Kiara. I can see a future with her, I can see me marrying her- having children. Teaching them what dad taught us.”

“Drake that’s really sweet. But I do think you need to think about it. Xavier is still around, and Kiara could turn up at any given point.”

“Whatever Sav. I’ll bring him back for tea time.” Leaving his sisters home, he couldn’t believe the hypocrisy of his sister. He was a grown man, and if Riley made him happy he had believed out of everyone that his sister would support him the most.

******

Meeting Drake at the cabin, her breath caught as she saw him playing with Bartie, watching the view in front of her- she was going to ignore Lindsey’s advise. Yes she had become a home wrecker when she had first arrived- he was still in a relationship with Kiara- but she didn’t deserve him. They both deserved happiness. Noticing her presence, he smiled at his girl.

“Hey! Come and join us.”

“Hey Bartie.” Bartie immediately ditched his uncle for Riley, jumping into her arms he snuggled into her embrace.

“I think he prefers his auntie to his uncle. Don’t worry I’m not offended.” Auntie. Shit. I will be his auntie.

“Or maybe he’s just had enough fun with you. He looks tired. What have you done to him?”

“Yeah, I’ll put him down in a bit. Nothing much, just been trying to teach him to become a great footballer like his sexy uncle. How was lunch?”

“Horrendous.” Sighing, she had hoped that Lindsey would have contacted her to apologise. Riley believed that she should have made the first move in fixing her relationship with her sister- but her stubborn mind refused to do it .

“Why?”

“Linz said we shouldn’t try for a baby. Then informed me that she’s put our childhood family home on the market. I asked her to sign it over to me.”

“Savannah said the same to me regarding the baby. But it’s our life not theirs. I’m with you every step of the way. I’ve got enough savings to retire early and live a happy life with you and our children.” Sitting behind her, he held her and Bartie protectively.

“Children?” She questioned, leaning her head on him.

“Well yeah, if everything goes to plan I’d like two - you’re part of two and so am I.”

“Excuse me Constantine is ringing me. I’ll be right back.” Drake stood up and carried Bartie to the bedroom, making him comfy- he wondered why the chairman would be ringing her. Answering the phone, she was hoping for good news for her- bad news for Drake.

Good afternoon, I’ve spoken to Bastien. If you want to commute from New York to Cordonia you’re more than welcome to as long as you come back for every match. Bastien will cover you for training, and will Skype you with any injury updates. Are you sure you want to do this Riley?

Yes Sir. I can’t let my parents house go. They worked so hard for it.

Couldn’t you just rent it out?

I wouldn’t trust anyone in it apart from myself or Lindsey. I’d like to thank you for giving me this opportunity this season but I will not be renewing my contract once it’s up.

I’ll be sad to see you, but that’s fine Riley. It’ll be held open if you change your mind. Have a good day. Keep in touch.

Hanging up, she was in a daze, not knowing how to break the news to Drake. Wondering how he would react. Would he end their relationship? Would he offer to go with her? “Hey, what did he want?”

“Drake, sit down. There’s something I need to tell you.”

*****

Constantine called Xavier and immediately ordered him to arrive at his office as soon as possible. Xavier has kept himself to himself after his ‘stunt’ with Drake.

“Come in.” Constantine bellowed.

“What’s the issue? I’m not due in today?” Sitting down, he wondered what the urgency was. Xavier was aware of the upcoming match being postponed, but his father could have called him regarding this matter.

“Have you got your passport on you?” Looking at his father confused, he wasn’t sure how much medication he was on due to his attack- wondering if this was affecting his random comments.

“Why?”

“Your ex wife, will be staying in New York Monday to Friday, and will be coming to Cordonia for match days. This is a way to win her back. But you have to promise that you will never hurt her again. Because it will be my neck on the line by all the team, knowing that I’m going behind all of their backs.”

“Why is she doing that? Has she split up with Walker?” A slight bit of hope had crossed his mind, hope that she had realised that Drake wasn’t her true love after all.

“Something about their family home? No she hasn’t split up with him as far as I’m aware, but you could win her back. This is a great opportunity for you both to rekindle. Bertrand can stand in whilst you are there with her. She is leaving tomorrow, but if you go the day after it won’t look suspicious. The match this weekend has been postponed as you know, so she will have nine days in New York on her own.” Both smirking at each other, Xavier was grateful for his father’s cunning plan. Appreciating him thinking about him, he gave him a hug- before walking out of the office.

Riley baby. I’m sorry for what I’ve done, but I’m getting you back. I’ll propose to you again, we can have a small ceremony on a beach somewhere- try again for another child. I promise I’ll be a better man, a better husband. I’ll change my ways. Please give me another chance! Xavier said to himself, getting in his car- he needed to get home quickly, book flights, pack and prove he could be the man that she once fell in love with.

*****

The day after Drake drove Riley to the airport, he was going to miss her immensely. Reality still hadn’t sunk in that she would be in New York during the week- neither wanted to split up, so until the end of the season they were going to give a long distance relationship a shot. She had promised that she would come back for more than the weekend sometimes or that Drake could join her. It was time. The time they both knew would come sooner or later but dreaded. Saying goodbye at the airport to the only person that both of them cared for, to the only person that they had both truly loved. How could they do that if they both feel like they have lost a part of them? In this short time, those times where they would just talk and make each other laugh. When they had both forgotten how to live, both lost faith in future relationships - they were drawn together by fate. In their past relationships they felt as if the world was falling apart around them and had accepted that that was now their life.

“I’m going to miss you so much. I hate Leo, and I hate Lindsey. But I understand why you couldn’t let your family home go.” Holding her tightly, he didn’t want to let go.

“Our family home now. I love you Drake Walker. I’ll FaceTime you when I land.”

“I love you too Riley Brooks. Safe flight. I’ve packed you an extra gift.” Opening her bag, she wished he had warned her before pulling the gift out. Smirking, he couldn’t help but laugh at her expression.

“Not as good as the real thing. But when I come back it’ll be worth the wait having you inside me...”

“Go before you miss your flight. I love you so much.”

*****

Riley arrived in New York, making her way over to her childhood home- she felt content, the sentimental feeling had taken over immediately even if she was missing her friends and Drake. FaceTiming Drake immediately, her heart sunk seeing his face.

“Hey baby. You look beautiful even if jet lagged.” Raising her eyebrows up, she knew he was lying to make her feel better. She knew she looked like shit as she felt it.

“You look so handsome! I miss you already. What are you doing?”

“Thinking about you.” Guiding his phone towards the bulge in his pants, he returned the phone to face. “What do you think? You make me this hard, even when you’re not with me.”

“I think you should get him out and show me. Tell me what you think about when you stroke yourself.” Following her instructions, he began to stroke his length- imagining it was her hands there instead. “You’re so big baby, are you thinking about me?”

“I always think about you when I masturbate. You’re my baby girl. I wouldn’t think about anything but you.”

“You’re making me so wet, I always think about your fingers and tongue pleasuring me.”

“Get the dildo out, I want to see you use it. ”

“What do you want to do to me Drake?” She questioned in a seductive manner, whilst stripping off her clothes- leaving her lacy underwear on show for him.

“I’d lay you down on the bed, If there are any obstacles such as clothes I’d remove them in a heartbeat. I’d remove your lacy bra and panties. I’d give you a slight back massage whilst kissing your gorgeous body- I’d grab that sexy ass before flipping you over. My hands would rub your inner thighs, whilst kissing your neck. Hopefully you’ll be wet for me, ready to scream my name. I’ll slowly move my lips from your neck to downstairs, eating you out- licking your folds. Then I’d insert my fingers, pumping them in and out fast- hoping to satisfy my baby girl. Then I’d let you choose what position we would do so I can fuck your brains out.”

“Oh Drake. I want you now. I’m so wet. Do you want to know what I’d do to you?”

“Yes baby. I’ve got my hands around my hard cock, imagining that they are yours.”

“I’m going to slowly trace my lips over yours. Then I’m going to kiss you from your lips, to your neck, then down to your muscled chest, finally coming down to your cock. I’ll lick my lips- but I’m not going to take it straight into my mouth. I’m going to keep kissing it until you beg me for more. Once I take it in my mouth, your cock will pulsate with pleasure- taking every inch in my mouth. I’d drain every bit of cum out of your cock, and swallow- before kissing you.”

“It’s a pity my hands aren’t as good as the real thing. I’m about to cum for you baby.” Riley could see him increase his speed, biting her lip- she couldn’t contain her own moans due to the gift he bought her. Closing her eyes, she imagined Drake on top of her.

“Good baby. I’m so horny right now, I’m missing you so much. I can’t wait to be in your arms again.”

Drake was slowly finishing himself off, his hand wrapped around his hard cock- before he could respond to Riley, his door swung open - nearly taken off its hinges.

“Jesus Max! Knock!”

“Oh hey little Walker.” Maxwell stared at Drakes erection, slightly jealous at his size and girth, before waving to Riley. “Hey, Ri. Nice dildo. Where did you get it from? I keep telling Hana to get one. But she won’t, she says all she needs is me. I must invest in one- you both look slightly flustered. It must work this long distant relationship shit. I should have sent Hana with ya Ri.” Riley remained frozen, not quite believing what had happened. It was as if they were making a live porno video for Maxwell. Realising that their friend was still gawking at the pair of them, she covered her body with her clothes that she threw on the floor.

“Jesus Christ Maxwell! Drake turn me off whilst I cover myself up.”

“Do you not know how to knock? How have you got into my house?”

“We all have each other’s keys- or did you forget? Bertrand is taking over Xavier for the mean time. Apparently the arsehole has to visit his sick mother in Spain. We have an emergency meeting at B’s. Clean yourself up and get ready. Quick quick! You’ve got nice tits by the way Riley!” Maxwell winked at Drake- who just scowled at his friend.

“Ri, I’ll ring you back I’ve got to go to Bertrands.” Feeling disappointed and embarrassed, he would much prefer to stay on FaceTime with Riley.

“Why?”

“Something about Xavier having to visit his sick mother. So Bertrand is stepping in and has organised a team meeting.”

“Drake?” Looking at her eyes, he noticed them widen- providing a concerned expression.

“Yeah?”

“His mother is dead. He has no family. I was his only family until the Rhys’s.”

“What the fuck? Where the fuck is he going? Shit! Riley.... I love you. I need to go. Stay safe!”

“I love you too.” Hanging up, he didn’t want to but something was suspicious. Storming into his open kitchen, he would kill Maxwell for raiding his fridge if this wasn’t an emergency. Maxwell was scoffing his face, until he noticed the sheer panic written across Drake’s face.

“Who’s at Bertrands?”

“Well there will be us; Liam, Leo, Bertrand, Bastien- Zeke can’t make it, something to do with the girls. But he said to text him anything important. Liv is tagging along as usual- you’d think she was a player rather than a wag. Why?”

“Max, Xavier’s going to New York. Get me to Bertrand’s now. We all have to stop him.”

*****

BREAKING NEWS!

Apples manager Xavier Lopez has been pronounced dead. After a car chase, his car collided with another car, a Ferrari. Mr Lopez’s body was found with stab wounds that were the possible reasoning for his premature death. Witnesses have stated that Mr Lopez was dragged out of his car after the crash and escorted to the side of the road before the group of people from the other car ran away.

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

I think this is nominally incomplete, but it’s from October and I’m never going to finish it, but I reread it and still enjoy some of the jokes in it so.... I figured other people might get some enjoyment out of it.

Summary: Some defense attorneys, prosecutors, and detectives get together and while drinking make poor conversational choices that vacillate wildly between commiserating over personal trauma and making bad jokes. So, the usual.

-

“You know,” Kay says, frowning in concentration as she attempts to affix a fourth paper umbrella in her hair, “what always bums me out about these big get-togethers is I always start thinking we should play some super-fun drinking games and then I realize that would be terrible, because, like, ‘Never Have I Ever’ always turns into weird sexscepade confessions and that’d be horrible enough if Mr. Edgeworth was just our boss, but he’s like, our dad, so we can’t do that.”

Everyone takes twenty seconds to absorb what she has said. “There are things I don’t want to know about any of you,” Apollo says. “Especially not Mr. Wright.”

“Because he’s our dad,” Athena adds. She is lying on the floor with her chin propped up on her arms. “Also it’d be mean to play drinking games with me here not being able to.” Her glare turns from Phoenix to Simon. “American drinking laws are stupid.”

“You say to a room full of prosecutors and detectives,” Apollo says.

“No no, she’s right,” Klavier says. “I got my badge in Europe and then came back and they would let me stand in court and prosecute a trial but not buy a beer.”

“Franziska complained all the time about that,” Edgeworth says, with a small smile that is almost fond as he contemplates the dregs at the bottom of his wine glass. “In the interest of full disclosure, she complained about everything in America. She still does, actually.”

“I can see why she would,” Athena says. “I liked Germany. I didn’t actually drink a lot there, though.”

“You are smarter than I,” Klavier says. “I lost about a month somewhere in Germany.”

Phoenix coughs and sets down his glass, which is pint-sized but filled with wine. The only condolence for Apollo, and from the expression on his face, Edgeworth as well, is that he isn’t drinking straight from a bottle. “A month?” he repeats incredulously.

Klavier nods. “I had just taken the bar; I had nothing to do but wait for my results. What else was I supposed to do?”

“Not that?” Phoenix asks. He looks somewhere between impressed and horrified, which is strange for Apollo to realize; he can’t usually read his boss’ emotions from his face. “Anything but that?”

Klavier shrugs. “Ja ja, but I never got arrested or woke up anywhere unfamiliar, so I think I did fine.”

“Did you wake up with that horrible accent, though?” Blackquill asks, smirking slightly, and without looking bats Athena’s hand away from his drink.

“Ooh!” Athena says, pushing herself up into a sitting position. “You know, that’s actually happened! There’s been cases where after a traumatic brain injury, a person has recovered to speak with an entirely different accent that they never had before. So you could have--”

“I’m sorry to dampen your excitement, Fraulien, but I have never had any traumatic brain injuries.” Ema mutters something and Klavier, staring at the glass in his hands, says, “Ach, we’ll pretend I didn’t hear that, and I will amend my statement to ‘not that I know’ because Kris could have dropped me down the stairs when we were young and I can never know for sure now, because what I am sure of is that even if the answer is no, if I asked him now, he would say he did.”

“You know, Kay, that this is realistically where ‘Never Have I Ever’ would end up,” Ema says. “The personal trauma shit, like ‘never have I ever had someone close to me turn out to be a murdering bastard.’” She doesn’t meet anyone’s eyes and instead stares at the floor. “Ah shit I can’t even say that. That one’s happened to me too. Fuck it.” She throws her head back and drains a third of her glass.

“Would that be a shot for each murdering bastard, or just one for all of them?” Klavier asks.

“At that point you just start drinking and don’t stop,” Phoenix says without lowering his glass from his lips, apparently taking his own advice.

“Define ‘close’,” Apollo says.

“We’re lawyers,” Sebastian says. “Why don’t we just all argue about the definition and never get anywhere with it?”

“He was your boss,” Klavier says brusquely. “That’s fuckin’ close enough.” The harshness of the words doesn’t match the way Klavier’s weight leans against Apollo’s shoulder or how his hand shakes just slightly, knuckles too white curled around his shot glass.

“Is ‘close’ in this case simply to be understood as figuratively referring to emotional connection,” Blackquill says, “or would a literal meaning as in physical proximity at length apply as well?”

“When you’re splitting hairs like that just join the rest of us in being drunk and depressed,” Ema says.

“Are we actually playing now?” Kay asks. “Because this is like a super fucked up way to play if we are.”

“Let’s not even bother with the ‘never have I ever had someone I loved be murdered’,” Apollo says. He hadn’t wanted to get drunk tonight, and instead just sit back and watch whatever unfolded, but he’s thinking he might want to change those plans.

“Everyone loses on that one,” Kay says, reaching over and gently patting Apollo’s head, which he thinks is a gesture of sympathy as best as she, pink-cheeked with unfocused eyes, can manage. And he thinks he is just tipsy enough that it actually feels like a comfort. “And the grand prize, ‘never have I ever had someone I loved be murdered by someone I was close to’, because that’s like… aw shit that’s me isn’t it.”

“Depending on how you define your proximity to Ms. Yew, or Shih-na, or whatever you should like to call her,” Edgeworth says, and it’s probably not coincidence that he is now finishing off his wine, after Kay has said those words. Everyone knows the story of von Karma.

“Again,” Blackquill says, his chin resting on his hands, his elbows on his knees, “how are we agreeing to define ‘close’ and does it apply retroactively, in that they only came in close literal proximity to you long after they committed the murder of that particular--” This time he is not quick enough to stop Athena from snatching away his glass and draining the contents.

“Gross!” Widget cries, and Athena sets the glass back in front of Blackquill with an expression of profound disgust twisting her features. “What the hell is that, anyway?” she asks.

“You were duly warned,” Blackquill replies.

“No,” Athena says. “You told me it was illegal, not that it was disgusting.”

Phoenix is laughing at her, his glass untouched on the floor for the past minute. Kay raises an eyebrow. “What, the unluckiest man in the world can’t drink to that?”

“I can’t, actually,” he says, “though not for lack of trying on my ex-girlfriend’s part.”

“Is trauma crossing over with sexscepades now?” Ema asks. “I’m gonna need to be super more drunk if it is.”

“Me too,” Apollo says, staring at the empty glass in front of him. He hadn’t wanted to refill. Now he thinks he needs it. Klavier offers him the remains of his drink. Apollo accepts it.

“It was not a… a…” Phoenix props his chin up on his hands. “Well, depends on how you’re defining it, and whether ‘my college girlfriend was actually twins, one of whom was evil and wanted me dead and tried to frame me for murder when her good twin, who’s a sweetheart other than having a dire blind spot where her sister is concerned, spent eight months trying to convince her not to kill me’ counts as such.”

“Wait,” Ema says, reaching for Kay’s drink, as Edgeworth stands and leaves the room, “you were dating both twins, and you thought they were the same person?”

“They fully intended to convince me they were the same person,” Phoenix says. “And it took me six years and an attempt on my best friend’s life to find out otherwise.”

“Why’d she -- they -- whoever -- try to kill Edgeworth?” Sebastian asks.

Phoenix coughs. “Erm -- my other best friend, Maya. It’s a long fucked-up story that’s incoherent enough when I try to tell it sober but it ended with me cross-examining a dead woman and the prosecution indicted on the murder charges that had been leveled against my client.”

“What,” Athena says.

“I was there and can corroborate,” Edgeworth says, reentering with a new glass of wine.

“Wait,” Klavier says. “When was this?”

“It’s…” Phoenix frowns, staring at Edgeworth. “It was February, so… nine years now.”

“Was that prosecutor Coffee Dude?” Klavier asks.

“Coffee dude?” Apollo repeats. Klavier’s accent has been slipping in and out all night but hearing him utter the word dude is still absolutely jarring.

“Eloquent as ever, Gavin-dono,” Blackquill says dryly.

“I don’t remember his name because I was a self-absorbed piece of shit who’d just joined the office but: Eine, I remember the news article, and Zwei, I remember him taking the pot out of the coffee machine in the break room and drinking directly from the pot.”

“Oh yeah that’d be him,” Phoenix says.

Blackquill frowns. “This prosecutor you speak of -- about my height, white hair, blind, and able to be convinced to punch another inmate for the price of half a cup of sludgewater prison coffee?”

“Oh my god,” Phoenix says.

“Simon,” Athena sighs.

“I did not say that it was I who convinced him to do such. For all you know I may have been the victim of the punching. You assume the worst of me, Athena.”

Apollo snorts at that. Phoenix is rolling his eyes and Edgeworth coughs.

“You met him in prison?” Edgeworth asks, sitting back down next to Phoenix. “I suppose you must have, if you know him, because he was arrested in February and you joined the office in -- May?”

“April,” Athena corrects.

“Right when everything went to shit,” Klavier says.

“In February a prosecutor was arraigned on charges of murder; in March, another prosecutor committed murder in the office, and the chairman of the Investigatorial Committee was convicted on counts of murder and forging evidence since he was Chief Prosecutor -- you forget, again, that in no point in our lifetimes has ours been a functioning legal system.”

Something about the way Blackquill says it, and the way that Klavier responds with “Bleh,” makes Apollo think it’s a conversation they’ve had before.

Sebastian is staring at his hands.

“And that’s when Mr. Edgeworth gave up his badge for two days and I fell off a building and got amnesia,” Kay adds. “And then we caused another international incident. Not totally in that order.”

“What,” Apollo says.

“Oh god I remember half of that,” Ema says.

“You left out the part with the assassins,” Sebastian says.

“I’ve always believed if you’re not in court it’s sometimes better to leave out details in the retellings, and nothing here is dissuading me of this notion,” Phoenix says.

“So what did you leave out of your little sexscepade story?” Kay asks

“Kay,” Sebastian says, “I am begging you to stop saying that word. I will pay you.”

“Hey Chief, I think that’s Prosecutor Debeste saying I should get a salary raise.”

Edgeworth places his face in his hands.

“I left out the part where I fell off a bridge, my murderous ex-girlfriend was my best friend’s cousin, and Edgeworth --”

“Continue leaving out any further part of this involving me,” Edgeworth interrupts.

“Fine.”

“Boss, how are you still alive?” Athena asks.

“That’s a case that’s going to go forever unsolved,” Phoenix replies.

“Can we do ‘never have I ever had a near-death experience’?” Athena says. “Or any significant physical injury on the job. How many shots would you have to take for that one, Boss?” Phoenix is muttering under his breath as he starts counting on his fingers. Apollo can’t make out the words but Athena almost immediately objects -- “Wait, did you say tazed?”

“Tazed, blunt force head trauma from a fire extinguisher, fell off a bridge, that one thing from before I was a lawyer doesn’t count because you said ‘on the job’, hit by a car doesn’t really count under that definition either -- I think that’s it.” He stares absently into space. “Actually, no, it was sort of related to the job so in hindsight, add ‘getting smashed with the man who got me disbarred’.”

“Take another shot for tonight, then,” Klavier says.

Phoenix rolls his eyes. “Klavier, shut up,” he says, and Klavier recoils in surprise, blinking a few times. “I mean the one with ill intentions and a penchant for poisoning people. God there’s so many ways that could’ve ended with me dead over a bowl of borscht in that hell restaurant.” His eyes go unfocused staring at some point over Apollo’s head. “You know what’s another one of the super fucked up parts about that?” He doesn’t wait for anyone to ask before he continues, “I don’t even like borscht.”

Klavier coughs, or at least Apollo thinks it’s a cough, but it also sounds like a laugh and a sob intermingled.

“You exasperate me,” Edgeworth says to Phoenix. Phoenix flops over into his lap like a particularly boneless cat.

“Here’s ‘take a shot if your older sibling is or has ever been in jail,” Ema says dryly, emptying her glass and then laying backwards on the floor. “Welcome to the shit club, boys.”

“I think Herr Samurai and I need more alcohol for this one,” Klavier says.

“Then go get us some,” Blackquill says.

“Sometimes I feel like I am the only one doing the work in this relationship,” Klavier says.

Athena chokes on air.

Edgeworth sighs. “You both know what I am going to say.”

The response comes in near-unison from the three other prosecutors and two detectives. “Dollar in the jar!”

[werewolf-scamander]

Lorcan sat on the couch, the Chairman curled up beside him as he read through the latest report they’d received from the pack upstate. No sighting of Marcus but rumors of a rogue vampire were almost more worrisome. Marcus was weaker without Christian by his side and that was probably the best thing they could hold onto for the time being. It worried him to think how the father would react when news would get back to him whenever the Clave carried out, or should he say Lysander would carry out, Christian’s death sentence. They’d have to be prepared for retaliation of some level and something in the pit of his stomach worried him to think what would happen if word ever got out it had been Lysander who was going to do it, not Tristan. The pack always came first and putting their safety slightly in the hands of the Angels was unnerving. He trusted James would make sure no harm came to the pack but even he couldn’t control what Marcus might do.

The Chairman moved closer, stretching out with a soft meow before he pushed himself under Lorcan’s arm. “You’re just like your father, I swear. Always looking for attention.” There was a soft laugh from behind him, causing the wolf to jump, ready to transform if he had to but as he turned his head, the fear disappeared as disbelief settled in. “Tell me what you really think, Wolf Pup.” Lorcan’s breath caught as he stood up and moved from the couch over to where Magnus was standing. The Chairman quickly moved towards his real owner, rubbing against Magnus’ leg. “Is...is this really you or some illusion from hell?” He asked, still not believing the other was there. “It’s me. Turns out, hunting down your father’s debtors earns you get out of hell free card after the 100th return.” He said with that always perfectly cocky smile. Lorcan couldn’t stop before moving forward, arms wrapping around his ex. It was complicated but he and Magnus had been friends before and he had missed the other in the capacity, especially after knowing he hadn’t stayed after he’d been rescued from the Seelies. 

“You look well, Lorcan. Concerned but happy. Please don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet after sending me that invitation.” Magnus asked as he hugged the other back, kissing the wolf’s curls once they let go. “Not about the wedding. My brother being the one to kill Christian and a rogue vampire, yeah, you could say I’m concerned.” He said with a soft, worried smile. Magnus gave a small nod as he suddenly realized he had much to catch up on. “Sounds like I need to have a discussion with your brother before the next council meeting then.” Lorcan looked slightly confused as he took in those words. “So you’re back, back?” He asked, figuring this had been a temporary release from hell. “Back, back. I hope you don’t mind that means I’d like to take the Chairman home then.” He shook his head, knowing this was supposed to be temporary. “Of course, he’s yours after all. I think I was more interested in you being at the council meeting? You’ll be high warlock again?” He asked as he moved to lean against the back of the sofa. “Katrina knew it was temporary. So, I’ll get caught up and we will ease your perfect mind of those issues.” Magnus said as he took a step closer, a finger playing with one of the curls on his ex’s head. “It does make me feel a bit better knowing you’re back.” Magnus was powerful and could be one more ally they knew they could depend on. 

There was a slight pause and Magnus waved his hand and two drinks appeared, both their favorites in the appropriate glasses. “So...you’re really marrying James then?” He asked as he handed Lorcan his drink. “I am. One week.” Lorcan said, eyes dropping to his drink before bringing it to his lips. What if this ruined the two of them? It was already hard enough to be exes, knowing there was still love there and it would always be there somewhere deep down. “I’m happy for you, Pup.” Magnus said softly. “You deserve someone who’s going to give you everything...he can.” James could give him marriage, give him a promise for their lives. There wouldn’t be any fights over immortality or history of all the past lovers coming up randomly. "Yeah, he can.” He said as he took one more long sip from his glass. “And you’re going to be alright working with my future husband?” Magnus paused as he continued to drink. “As long as he doesn’t give me a reason to not trust him, of course. He and I will both want the best for downworlders, for you. It’s a strong common cause.” Magnus said easily. Lorcan set down his glass and pushed himself back towards Magnus. “It...It means a lot to have you there. We’ve both accepted that you’ll be around, in our lives. I know that’s not easy but having you there really is what I needed.” It meant that Magnus did support them. It meant they could all co-exist without a problem. Magnus downed the rest of his drink, desperate for that burn from the alcohol. He leaned down, picked up the Chairman before he leaned forward, pressing a long kiss to Lorcan’s cheek. “Anything for you, Lorcan Scamander...always.” He said softly before he pulled back. “If you need me, for whatever reason, you know where I live.” With that, he snapped his fingers and he, the Chairman, and all the cat’s accessories disappeared from the apartment. Lorcan quickly finished off his own drink before he jumped back over the couch and stared up at the ceiling. One more week...

[welpyoun]

New Thoughts On The Sense8 Finale, aka The More I Think About It The Less I Like It

This is a very long text that probably nobody is gonna read, but its 2 am here and I felt like posting it anyways. Also, if you're happy about the episode anddont want to ruin that vibe, pls dont read it. That’s by no means my intent.

And, obviously, SPOILERS

First of all, I’d like to explain the reason why I liked Sense8 so much in the first place, to the point where it became by far my favourite show, was the compelling characters and their connection with each other. Each of them was so different from the other and had their own problems and dilemmas that they couldn’t overcome by themselves. Their connection allowed them to learn from each other and help each other to overcome these problems, with each different personality and background adding something new to the other’s lives.  Perhaps the Homo Sensorium explanation and the BPO hunting them down were necessary for some more plot unity and contextualization (tbh I couldn’t care less about those plot points, but I get their role in the story as a whole), but the core of the show was the characters and their connection.  Tl;dr, what mattered was the characters and the connection itself, not what it was or how it happened.

Now, let’s go back to the episode at hand.

 Back when the show started, it was planned to be four or five seasons long. After the abrupt cancellation and subsequent announcement of the special, Lana Wachowski had to compress those remaining two or three seasons into a two-and-a-half-hour long episode, which is a huge challenge all on itself. The problem is that I don’t think she succeeded. There were too many subplots and too little time to develop each one of them, which meant that they either lost much of their impact or were too confusing to be understood.

For example:

a) There were two Ocean’s 11 style heists/rescues (Wolfgang’s rescue and Whisper’s capture) that happened one right after the other, complete with car chases and  narrow escapes from BPO agents. I mean, come on guys, two heists? Wolfgang’s rescue was exciting, but by the time they got to the second one, I had already lost interest. Those were clearly supposed to be set seasons apart, but were hastily squeezed together. Btw, that part where all the secondary characters were injured one after the other looked so forced and predictable. Felix was shot but we KNEW he was gonna make it, and by the time the scene cut to Mun it was pretty obvious what was going to happen. And wtf was Kala’s scene??? At first I genuinely thought she might die, but then Wolfgang embraces her as if she’s dead and DOESN’T EVEN CHECK FOR A PULSE!!! WOLFGANG!! THE MAN WHO’S FAMILY WAS IN THE GERMAN MAFIA, AND WHO HAS PROBABLY SEEN MORE GUNSHOT WOUNDS THAN HE CAN COUNT!!!! SHE HAD TO LITERALLY TELL HIM, WHILE SHE WAS DYING, TO FUCKING HET HIS SHIT TOGETHER  AND DO THE LOGICAL THING THAT IS CHECKING IF SHE’S ACTUALLY DEAD!!!

2) They introduced a whole new villain, the Chairman, who I assume was supposed to be a Wispers level threat, but as he gets very little build up and almost no screen time, the effect was completely lost. His name is mentioned a couple of times and he gets one menacing scene with Wolfgang, and that’s barely it. And then they try to make the reveal of his identity as a big plot twist, but the reaction I got when he took off his mask was “who the fuck was he again?” I think this was also supposed to be another one of those things developed in a whole season, with the big revelation as the shocking finale. But since we barely knew who he was and Angelica’s plan was being revealed almost simultaneously with his identity, that shock effect was lost.

3) Dr. El-Saadawi’s daughter showed up almost out of nowhere and acted as a Deus Ex-machina with, again, barely any build up. The subsequent chase was also very confusing, I mean, Mr. Hoy was about to be captured when that old lady that I didn’t even remember existed showed up out of nowhere to give him the blocker and tell him not to give up??? And when we see him again he’s completely fine??? And offers no explanation to wtf happened to him??

4) What was Lila’s plan?? She killed the Chairman’s proxy and kidnapped Whispers only to deliver him to the Chairman herself?? Why?? What did she gain by that??

5) I don’t even know what to say about the Sanctuary thing, or whatever that’s called. You caN’T INTRODUCE SOME WEIRD SHIT OUT OF NOWHERE WITH A HALF-ASS EXPLANATION, LANA. THAT’S NOT HOW STORIES WORK.

 In the end, there was barely any time to cover all of this, much less to focus on the characters and the relationships, which, again, were the core of the show.

Both Capheus’s and Lito’s stories were barely even mentioned at all. Sun’s story got the same treatment, with the exception of her romance with Det. Mun, which, btw, was one of the only things that I actually liked about the episode.

And Wolfgang, with that fUCKING BOMB dropped about his past, that was BARELY DISCUSSED AT ALL, I mean, THAT’S SOME MAJOR SHIT, YOU CAN’T PUT THAT THERE IF YOU’RE NOT GONNA DEDICATE AT LEAST AN ENTIRE EPISODE TO THAT ALONE. And yeah, I know that’s not possible, but if you’re not gonna do it right then DON’T DO IT AT ALL. “Hey, btw, Wolfgang’s dad was an incestuous monster and his wife was actually his daughter so Wolfgang’s his sister’s son, but now let’s get back to two hours of rescue plans”. JUST. NO.

And what about Kala? Whose main dilemma was that she didn’t actually love her husband? Like, her narrative was built around the fact that she was marrying out of duty to a man that, even though she logically knew would be the perfect husband; she couldn’t bring herself to love. Last episode she was relieved that circumstances had separated them and was making plans to move in with the guy she actually loved, but now suddenly she’s looking at Rajan lovingly and calling him “my husband” and the three of them are gonna be together forever????? Hmmm, excuse me, Lana, I think I missed something bc this made no FUCKING SENSE???

So, in the end, the episode was basically two seasons compressed into two hours, and that made it completely lose it’s effect. I mean, if she knew she was going to have such a short ending, why did she introduce so many things?? Imo, it would’ve been so much better if she had just simplified the plot and given proper closure to the character’s stories, that were the core of the show in the first place.

(I’ll give it that though: the wedding was absolutely beautiful and Nomi and Amanita’s story had a perfect ending)

[yoolee]

If lee wrote otome | #2 - Boss

The Heroine (MC)

CEO MC: Never gets enough sleep, which makes her sarcastic but is also semi her own fault given the amount of caffeine she consumes. Sort of obsessive about long-term planning, unwaveringly believes that a company’s value comes from its employees and will choose them over shareholder dividends every time. Determined to run an ethical company even if it means it’s not the most profitable company. Super duper Type A – aggressive and fearless because she has to be. Sometimes really just wants a cupcake in her hand and a cat in her lap, but then she’s bored and goes back to business planning. Creative risk-taker, decent negotiator. Smart enough to know where she needs help and hire people who can do the things she can’t (or, more to the point, doesn’t want to do). Gets back up every time. Will definitely fight you. Might feel bad about it later but only if someone reminds her it happened.

Love Interests

The BARISTA: Peppy, optimist (or so MC thinks) but it turns out they actually switch up their personality depending on who they’re serving (sometimes they are the chill, hipster philosopher, sometimes they are the rude New York get-it-done eye roller, etc.) actually somewhere in the middle of it all – but really IS an optimist despite themselves. Kind of slippery and hard to pin down. Big family, used to being what their other siblings/parents need from them. Fairly certain CEO MC is headed for an early heart attack with the amount of espresso she imbibes. Probably an author. Maybe an ex-broadway personjust because. IDK.

The PR LAWYER: Worked-three-jobs-put-self-through-college story. Patience, tact, good at calming people down. Detail oriented, a little fussy about appearances. Perennially exasperated by CEO (Please don’t promise to have a cure for cancer In the next three years with no data to back it up. No, you can’t punch the reporter for being a dick. Look, I know you WANT to donate 100% of proceeds to charity but please pick a friendlier one than ‘punch reporters in the face foundation’ that’s not gonna fly) never gets enough sleep. Has a key to MC’s house so they can come yell at her for making their life difficult at whatever hour of the night she insists on doing so. Is on MC’s speed-dial, which means they also get called to DD, though they’d rather not.

FLAKY MODEL(s?): Trust fund kid? Pretty face? Floats through life? The sort of person who will get on the wrong subway train and then just ride it all day people-watching never mind that they had an appointment six hours ago. Pose with a boa constrictor? Sure, as long as it’s being treated humanely. Tarantula on the face? Awwww, it’s fuzzyyyyy. No filter, no worries. Probably drags CEO MC along on a Caribbean shoot and PR Lawyer has to call and yell because that does not look good, okay? And poor MC is like, I thought we were getting a drink and model is like WE ARE we are getting tropical coconut water from the SOURCE here oh wait I don’t know how to drink out of a coconut…who knows why they are attracted to CEO MC, probably because she’s there and sticks around and no one else does. Human puppy dog.

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD: young hotshot venture capitalist, thinks CEO MC is a bleeding heart (your employees do not need that many sick days, lost productivity blah blah blah why do we need a daycare onsite that’s a waste of shareholder money), kind of a math whiz, naturally lucky, doesn’t get along with family (gambling problem in the fam – which manifests in him in investment risks and unresolved issues) butts heads constantly with MC, frequently tries to get her fired – in part because his attempts to do so get her fired up and she does great things, which ultimately is better for the company than when she’s just doing her normal ‘good’ job. She is going to be royally ticked when she figures that out. Manipulative, but relatively benign under it all. The sort of person who smirks instead of smiles. All the time.

CHEF FROM HER FAVORITE RESTAURANT: Also a CEO though on smaller scale, because, running a restaurant IS running a business. Probably under the impression CEO MC is actually like, a graduate student with no money because she tends to get takeout at weird hours. Gruff, grumpy, abrupt, but heart of gold. Basically—will grumble about you coming in late but will add extra veggies to your pasta because you’re looking a little pale and need the nutrients and if you call them on it will snarl that they had to be used up they were going bad and he wasn’t going to waste extra, expensive, PROTEIN on you. (MC asks them out and then realizes the only nice restaurant she knows is the one the chef owns)

PRESCHOOL TEACHER: JUST A DECENTLY NICE PERSON. Checks in to make sure MC has eaten regularly, staying hydrated, needs anything fixed around the house (she can do her own plumbing but doesn’t like the electrical and hey it’s nice to have company). Good with kids. Maybe divorced and wanted them but ex-spouse didn’t? idk. Calm, not easily ruffled, sweet as pie, except when he’s playing video games and suddenly MC understands how he can get through the day without any aggression – he unleashes it on fictional zombies. Blissfully normal, all things considered.

PERSONAL TRAINER: “fine, whatever, EAT THE DANG CHEESE if you’re just going to ignore my nutritional advice we’re doing ten more reps” athletic, happiest when DOING versus saying or reading or sitting. Not as impulsive as you’d guess at first glance, because they tend to use working out as a meditative time to make decisions. Didn’t finish college because they realized they just didn’t enjoy it, but they did enjoy working with student athletes, which is how they got into training. Enviably fit. Wants to expand the gym so wheedles business advice out of MC in exchange for not harassing her about her tendency to drink coffee instead of water (she insists it has water IN it, it should count) not particularly intimidated by her, which is a pleasant change of pace.

Supporting Cast (non LIs)

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT: Keeps MC sane, has her back, schedules everything. Good at details, even better at smiling at angry people and making them not-angry through sheer force of sunny personality (actually a ruse, MC is convinced she’s actually the most delightfully evil person ever, but like some kind of fairy tale where when you acknowledge the thing it goes away, refuses to ever dive into figuring out). Older than the MC because we need to stop making middle aged women invisible in stories?? Sometimes has to remind MC of how much she does by holding silent protests (in part why MC thinks she is secretly a supervillain in the making) which are always, always successful.

PARENT COMPANY ADMIN ASSISTANT: Bane of MC’s existence. Smarmy, smily pain in the tush.

CFO: We have put in an official request with the company credit card management to start declining purchases at that coffee shop you go to, no this is not negotiable, it’s not in the budget anymore drink so darn water woman. Completely willing to go toe-to-toe with MC, meetings often involve a lot of yelling, but they’re always productive and no hard feelings.

CIO: Serpent-y, but not in a bad way. Just a very cool-tempered person, very contained, very guarded, very introverted. Never happy when she has to do presentations, so super willing to share knowledge with MC so she does it instead (she is not a great teacher, kind of judgey and shows her frustration when MC doesn’t ‘get’ it right away, but very brilliant, and there’s no malice in the judgement, just no filter). Extremely logic-oriented and process-oriented over people-oriented. Picks up and assess tech very quickly, and good at finding affordable, fast solutions.

RANDOM MARKETING EMPLOYEE:  Set up to be a villain but is actually like gung-ho on MC’s side. Literally an ex pageant queen, went to college on scholarship from it. Out of the workforce for awhile as a stay at home mom when her kids were young, but picks up the new trends fast. Now a single mother, so will literally fight the chairman if he tries to take away the company daycare. Some days uses the ‘people see a pretty face and assume no brain’ to her advantage, some days it wears her out. Unofficially drinking buddy with MC, even though they both feel weird about it given the fact MC is technically boss’s boss’s boss.

BARTENDER: also an ex-girlfriend maybe? Current best friend? Who she turns to when the barista cuts her off from coffee and the chef’s restaurant is already closed. Sharp-tongued, bristly, generally disgusted with MC’s six inch heels and slacks in her leather-jacket, cigar smoke bar. Like lady, you’re lost. Probably on the mob payroll at some point in her life.

ROUTE PLOTS:

(Chairman route?) MERGER – company has just bought another company, which is a major risk move for CEO (can only be one, so do you keep the old one on as a VP? Do you let them go? Will they be bitter/try to sabotage you?) you have to fend off internal sabotage, get everything running smoothly without either company falling apart in the process.  

(PR Lawyer route?) Parent company did something massively shady and it’s tainting your company’s name too, so you have to scrounge to avoid having to fire half your employees and keep the company alive.

(Model route?) New product launch – hence why models are entering the picture. It’s a new business venture in the sense it’s targeted at a completely new audience your company hasn’t catered to before.

(Personal Trainer route?) Company is in its infancy, hugely risky time, and you’re doing everything you can to ensure it’s a success  (maybe including putting your own salary back into it, which means you can’t afford PT so they agree to work with you as long as you give them business advice)

FROM @han-pan- they keep trying to buy new retail space for the gym and MC keeps buying it instead because it’s SUCH GOOD PROPERTY and they sort of exasperatedly are like ugh fine whatever you owe me since you keep swiping prime spots out from under my nose

See the rest here