#I forgot to put signatures on my art after a while but now i kinda have to because some assholes are reposting without asking beforehand >:

[skullzy20]

Thinkin about,,,, , them,,

[baeshijima]

𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫!𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐞𝐝𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫!𝐲/𝐧

A/N : i have nothing to say other than the fact there will be an excessive amount of twitch slang bc why tf not + just,,, heavy streamer!albedo brainrot ;-;

masterlist

AIGHT

streamer albedo

…

pog—

so before we get into him being whipped for u, let’s go over the type of strimmer mr Kreideprinz is

fun fact that’s his twitch name—

albedo would be the type to do lots of variety streams of different games, but also the occasional art one if he wants to have a chill stream with his chat !!

speaking of chat… they’re an odd mix of wholesome supporters, KAPPA + POGGERS + catJAM (bc he always has some bangers on in the bg like yes u bless our ears my guy) + KEKW + EZ Clap + his own emotes spammers, mr albedo’s very own shrimps (me, ahEm—), and ppl who just appreciate his voice + gameplay

if there’s a troll he just bans them OMEGALUL

omg he has lots of emotes (which he made in some of his art streams so his viewers could choose some) for every scenario but we’ll get into the popular ones in a bit 👁👁

he’s most definitely one of the bigger, well-known streamers but with a smaller group of friends

his discord server has,,, a lot of ppl,,, 70k+ ppl big,,, rip notifs if ur in it ;-;

he has it muted tho 🐥 like, sir, that’s ur server pay the goddamn price smh

wait i forgot to mention this but he has his webcam on when streaming

so u can bet ur chickens that when ppl come to visit his stream bc of whatever category he has on, they stay for his visuals and voice <33

his twt 🤡 mans gets 1k+ likes, rts, comments within the first 5-10 mins

omg he gets soft when he receives sm support from his community 🥺🥺

gifts so many subs when hitting milestones, chat is wholesome or just whenever really HJKSDHKL 

also doesn’t swear much unless he gets played by his own game and/or someone is being incredibly annoying <//3

he also just,,, eats on stream

albedo straight up takes his webcam with him to show him cooking if his viewers ask for it

or he just orders food then and there and eats while chatting to everyone or watching youtube with his chat 🥺

nOW ONTO HIM BEING WHIPPED FOR U AS A GENSHIN STREAMER

this AR55 man 👩‍🦯

he can literally produce content from anything

from artifact farming, to spiral abyss, to running around mindlessly, to building characters he would normally never build, to him seeing how high up is considered too high to dive

and everyone eats it up bc it’s albedo <3

also !! he’s the type who includes the story quests in his streams so his reaction and thoughts on everything is just,,, there

now when u were first introduced in the prologue (yes ur one of the ogs + involved in the dvalin fight <33) he blanked and all his viewers could see was u on screen with him staring blankly in the bottom right of the screen

this man straight up saw u in a cutscene for one second and fell in love

his chat went wild omfg

he immediately made an emote for u and that’s his most popular one 😌

but i kid u not, the moment u appeared in that cutscene (one in which he will forever treasure in the crevices of his heart) was the moment he asked this exact question ;

“ so (y/n) banner when? ” 

and mihoyo heard his pleas and answered with ur event banner 

except it was like,, 4 months later 

at least ur finally here tho :’)

now he can have his lil science-y moments with ur voicelines ;-;

yes, ur the chief alchemist but ✨ 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 ✨

. . .

shut up

n e who

when he saw the notification from mihoyo’s official forums that u will be a playable character in the new update — along with new characters, region, events & a domain — i shit u not he did a rt, his own tweet, an announcement on the community feature on youtube, and made constant reminders to his viewers on twitch abt how he will be a (y/n) haver no matter what

he even added future (y/n) haver in his twt display name

what a shrimp—

the 1.2 update stream 🐥 he was there waiting for it to go live with like,,, 19k viewers spamming his chat abt predictions and obv ur official release + showcase

and when i say this man fell even more in love while watching ur trailer and character showcase 🥺 he wouldn’t stop smiling or being in awe bc ur just??? so stunning???

mihoyo clearly has a favourite child and it’s u

chat was spamming ur exclusive emote like crazy oml

u can bet it was also flooded with lots of POGs and POGGERS 

overall it was a very fun, chaotic stream filled with lots of (y/n) appreciation and love <33

also a very memorable stream for all his viewers bc of the side of albedo they rarely see unless ur involved

the day ur banner was to go live tho 🐥

the streams leading up to the fateful day consisted of him farming ur mats 

that’s it

boss runs, local specialties, hero wits, talent books, the mats needed for ur weapon he was inevitably going to pull for (only the best for the best, afterall) and many domain runs

many painful domain runs

all of it was worth it tho bc ur worth everything :’)

an actual quote said by him—

at least he can get u and ur weapon to lvl 90 right off the bat with all the artifacts tailored for u ;-;

and get u to that point he did HJSDKJF

once ur banner dropped? immediately started wishing

2 multis in and he gets u 😣

albedo nearly cried and was the literal embodiment of head in hands

wHEN I SAY HIS CHAT BLEW TF UP AND HIS MODS JOINED IN

modCheck has left the chat

everyone’s rooting for him :’)

pulled for ur weapon and got it in 1 multi

sir give me ur luck pls and ty

but yes he nearly choked on the gASP he let out while chat screamed even more

he blanked for a bit, i won’t lie ;-;

but when he realised this was real, he immediately went to his party set up and put u in

can we all get an f in the chat for his lvl 10 tartaglia 😔💔👊

his chat usually rages at him to build him but if he’s being honest, he cba

ur vl when he put u in the party tho <333

now he’s just spent half an hour running around with u, letting u do ur idle animations (will always be grateful for mihoyo creating u like this), reading ur very limited (for now—) character story and going through ur voicelines 

ur morning & about us (when he unlocks it) voiceline >>>>> his heart be running laps rn i swear

eventually he does begin to build u after much admiration on his end and at lvl 1 with lvl 20 artifacts, u already have 1.6k atk 🐥

now after he levels u and ur weapon to lvl 90, u have 2.8k atk 🐥

rip mobs <//3

he now plays u as his main dps 😌

the kit initially designed for u is meant to be more for support?? kinda like the whole ganyu or zhongli debate abt them being a dps or a support/sub dps ;-;

except ur more utility like venti or bennett

and even though the majority said at the beginning (aka, mihoyo, pretty much any other streamer and the larger part of the fanbase) that ur meant for support, he said fuck that and built u as his main dps

and i won’t lie, u do more damage than any of his characters, and ppl who co op with him

ur his pride and joy :’)

he went to take a look at ur consts to see if they were worth the rng suffering and, lo-and-behold,

they were

so now he’s using all his saved primos for u to try and get ur c6 const, along with making ur weapon r5 :’)

his chat gets a free view of him internally suffering when the gold light doesn’t come, and his external suffering when he loses the 50/50

in the end, he decided to whale for u <33

after nearly an hour, he has u to c6 and ur weapon to r5 ;-;

now all he’s been doing the whole stream is running around with u in open world, doing his daily farming, doing more domain and boss runs, exploring the new region (dragonspine) + ur story quest

he’s saving the event quest for another stream bc ✨content✨ 

in ur quest, he had multiple heart attacks and now has many, many screenshots <3

he now has a zoomed in pic of ur face as his twt pfp <33

okay so i also feel like he’s not all that bothered abt getting characters to friendship level 10 immediately and would rather let it happen through time

but obv ur not any other character *proceeds to debby ryan at u*

even if ur not fit for a particular domain or boss, he still puts u in the party so when collecting the blossom/rewards, u can get the friendship exp ;-;

he just wants ur name card so he can show off okay 🥺

when he lets his viewers pick out the playlist, 98% of the songs are from ur character demo theme 

they just know him so well 😩

they also just wanna see the way he smiles when he hears it play but shhhhhh

now he just has his in-game avatar as u, and ur namecard too <33

also his signature is just ;

“ (y/n)’s favourite streamer ”

[sleepingrenjun]

nervous | ML

the gorgeous banner was made by the one and only @hyuckiebabie

Genre ♡ angst, badboy!Mark Lee 

Length ♡ 16.9k

Pairing ♡ Mark Lee x reader

Warnings ♡ character death, violence, making out, mild swearing, mild alcohol consumption, kinda mafia, uhh shitty parents? Basically just angsty badboy!Mark, it’s rather tragic I do apologise.

Playlist ♡ nervous playlist

Summary ♡ You find yourself falling deeper and deeper into Mark’s fiery touch despite the dislike you once felt for him. But Mark Lee is dangerous and nefarious despite his gentle desire to love and protect you; the two of you are star-crossed and you will forever be damned into the very pits of hell.

-

Your clothes were beginning to stick to your skin, the rain blurring each and every neon sign into one big mess of colour against the onyx canopy of the sky above the city. The faint sound of cars screeching along distant streets could only just be heard over the music blaring through your earphones. You stumbled ever so slightly against the sudden outcry of wind as you rounded a corner and looked up through your lashes to see the refreshingly familiar street which housed your favourite late night coffee shop. You looked down again in order to give your cloudy eyes a break, eyeing your slightly scuffed, and now very soggy converse as you trudged a little further until you made it to the door of your beloved safe haven.

 You used your right shoulder to help you push the heavy door open, relieved to see that the lights were still on. You pulled your earphones out, shoving them into your tote bag unceremoniously.  

 “Oh hey, y/n,” you looked up to see Donghyuck smiling sleepily at you from his position behind the counter as he raised his golden hand in a small wave.

 “Hi Hyuck,” you threw a lopsided smile in his direction before carefully drying the soles of your shoes on the mat which lay before you.

 “It’s a little late for you, is everything okay?”

 “Yeah, yeah, I just got caught up with uni work, I guess,” you tell him as you take your phone out of your soaking wet hoodie pocket, before tapping on the screen, thus confirming that it was indeed later than you had realised, 10:53pm. He hummed in understanding as he continued to steam-clean the tea cups which sat on the polished granite in front of him.

 Donghyuck studied at the same university as you and so he understood that sometimes the workload would cause you to spend hours on end in the dusty, old university library situated on the top floor of the main building. His major was in English literature, and if he wasn’t in the coffee shop working then he could often be found studying with his nose buried deep in a coffee-stained book with his exhausted round glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. Donghyuck was lovely, in every sense of the word. His strawberry blonde hair looked gorgeous against his honey-stained skin. He was warm and flamboyant and just, quite simply, alluring. His raspberry-stained lips were soft and full, just as his cheeks were. Donghyuck was the type to wear tight black jeans paired with an eccentric, ill-fitting jumper and a pair of beaten up doc martens, yet he wore it so well.

 You weren’t exactly friends, but you had a sort of routine. You confided in eachother more often than you liked to admit, but only inside the safe environment of his workplace, you didn’t really speak at any other time. Every Thursday, without fail, you would stop by to order a latte from the lonely coffee shop that he worked at. You were studying fine art, which meant you had to spend a lot of time at the university, whether it was using the studios for various workshops, or losing yourself in copious amounts of books in the library in order to help you write extended essay after extended essay. With that said, it was usually between 7 and 8pm when you stopped by to order your coffee on your way home, hence Donghyucks concern.

 “The usual?” he spoke up after a moment of tranquility.

 “Mmm, please,” you hummed in response as you fiddled with the slippery metal of the rings on your fingers while you waited for the coffee you had been looking forward to for several hours prior. You took out your money and left the correct amount by the till and then proceeded to make your way quietly over to your usual round table before flopping down languidly, the table was situated by the window, allowing you to watch the world outside go by peacefully as you tapped your nails along the surface of your phone screen restlessly.

 The coffee shop was warm and cozy, the smell of coffee beans welcoming anyone into the glowing space. Your weekly visits were something that you looked forward to now, although you did sometimes make an appearance at other times, Saturdays, for example. Occasionally you popped in for a cup of tea in the morning and engaged in polite conversation with Taeyong, the owner of the place. Taeyong was delightful, in a different way to Donghyuck, though. He was sharper and had a witty sense of humour to match the bubblegum shade of his hair. He was kind and wise beyond his years and so much more – but you didn’t have the same unspoken understanding with him that you had with Hyuck. Perhaps that’s why you looked forward to Thursdays, Donghyuck understood you without even trying, as did you with him.

 Donghyuck slid the disposable cup onto the table in front of you, snapping you out of your daze.

 “Thanks,” you smiled up at him before you realised that he was, in fact, now sitting opposite you at the table, with a coffee of his own in hand.

 “What’s on your mind, princess?” he asked you with a cheeky smile as he leaned back into the chair before sipping a little of his coffee. You chuckled at the nickname and hummed as you thought of how to reply.

 “I’m just exhausted, Hyuck,” you said as you let your head flop softly onto the rough wooden surface of the table before closing your eyes gently.

“Uni deadlines are exasperating; my parents are driving me mad and I just really need to sleep” you breathed out drowsily as you peered up at the boy through half closed eyes.

 “Yeah, I feel the same. Uni has me really stressed too,” he cupped his steaming coffee with both hands and leaned across the table, “what’s up with your parents, though?” he squinted at you, genuine curiosity adorning his friendly face.

 “Just the usual, you know,” you sighed after taking a long gulp of coffee, not feeling up to explaining everything to him at 11pm on a Thursday. Donghyuck vaguely knew about your relationship with your parents, if you could even call it that, although you liked to avoid bringing your friends into that side of your life; you weren’t proud of it.

 “Care to elaborate, princess?“ Your reply was soon cut off by the sound of the front door opening suddenly and the fierceness of the storm outside immediately filled the peaceful room, the sound of the ‘open’ sign hitting against the wall alerting you to the fact that you were no longer alone in the coffee shop.

 You looked up in surprise and proceeded to try to fix your composure at the realization that the person who had entered the premises was none other than Donghyucks best friend; Mark Lee. The two were polar opposites. While Donghyuck was late nights by a crackling fire and cups of steaming hot chocolate, lazy afternoons spent surrounded by blankets and makeshift pillow-forts and summer evenings spent reading during the golden hour. Mark Lee was everything that Donghyucks general aura protested against – he was burning hot embers and cigarettes, sunrises and motorbikes screeching along empty streets at 4am. Mark Lee was cold yet hotheaded and harsh and a lot to take in. You had only seen him from a distance, picking Donghyuck up from the university on the back of his bike. The two were so different but they were the best of friends and it baffled you.  

 “Hyuck, what the fuck is taking you so long? Let’s go-,” he voiced as he ran his hand through his damp hair and shook his head a little, completely ignoring your presence. He was clearly irked about something, his eyes were dark, black almost, and he was clutching his bike helmet under his arm tightly. Hyuck looked across the room to the vintage clock which was perched just above the coffee machine behind the counter, before muttering a profanity to himself and looking up at you with apologetic eyes.

 “Shit sorry y/n, I completely forgot, I was meant to close up 10 minutes ago,” it was nearing 11:15pm now.

 “Oh yeah, it’s fine, I should probably get back home anyways” you offered in acceptance before tearing your eyes away from the two boys in front of you to look out of the window at the storm you would have to brave once more. Mark cleared his throat as he made eye contact with you for the first time,

 “are you two done now or…?”

 Mark opened the door, a subtle hint that he was leaving and that Donghyuck should hurry up if he wanted to accompany him to wherever the two were off to at this hour. You scoffed as you took in his appearance, his damp, jet black hair was falling into his eyes in soft curls, his tanned skin was wet, and the neon yellow hoodie he wore under his signature leather jacket had darkened by at least two shades from the rain, as had the black skinny jeans which were tightly clinging to his legs.

 “Will you be okay to get home?” Hyuck asked you as he turned off the coffee machine and motioned towards the door with a light tilt of his head. You nodded and replied with a “yeah” as you swiftly picked up your takeaway coffee cup and headed out the door which mark hadn’t managed to hold open for you. Hyuck followed you out after turning the lights off and grabbing his own helmet, locking the doors behind you. You nodded towards Donghyuck, turning away from the boys you clutched your arms around yourself in an attempt to keep warm as you walked in the direction of your shared apartment.

 “See you, y/n.”

 You turned your head and waved in return at Donghyuck who was smiling at you as he put his jet-black helmet on whilst he leaned on the back of Marks motorcycle. Mark offered you a smirk as he took a long drag from his cigarette before dropping it to the floor and putting out the glowing stick with a swift movement of his foot, his tattered black converse catching your eye. You continued forward in the torrential rain and not a minute later you could hear the revving of the engine as Mark and Donghyuck pulled away and sped past you, Mark deliberately not avoiding the growing pool of floodwater on the street next to you, splashing dirty water at you in the process. “Fucking fantastic,” you groaned in exasperation.

 -

 It was the following Tuesday when you next saw Donghyuck with his best friend in tow. You were packing up your things after a long day in the library, sneezing and sniffling every so often; you had managed to catch a rather bad cold after walking home in the pouring rain last Thursday. You had just turned around after placing your last book in your beaten-up bag when you heard Donghyucks contagious laughter coming from your left, he and Mark were walking towards you and away from a small group of three boys you often saw Hyuck hanging around with between classes, you weren’t sure of their names. Mark was once again holding on tightly to his helmet as he mumbled something to the velvety boy beside him and ran his other hand through his disheveled hair.

 You fished your phone out of your pocket and turned it off airplane mode before stuffing it back into your pocket and looking up, just in time to hear your name being spoken from a few feet away.

 “Hey! y/n!”, Donghyuck exclaimed, looking surprised to see you, “you got home okay then? On Thursday?” he queried, stopping before you, causing Mark to roll his eyes at his friends genuine concern.

 “Yeah thanks, Hyuck. What are you guys doing here?” you chuckled in reply, it wasn’t unusual for you to greet him in the library as you both spent a fair bit of time there, Marks appearance, however, was a little less common.

 He was obviously there to pick Donghyuck up, probably just to take him home or to a party or something; what was unusual was that he didn’t usually come inside. If you ever saw him at the university, he would be leaning against the outside wall, by the doors, often holding a cigarette in one hand and his phone in the other. He was a couple of years older than you, only a year older than Donghyuck, and although you knew that he had graduated from the same institution that you attended, you didn’t know what his major was, not that you particularly cared. Your train of thought was interrupted by Donghyucks reply,

 “Oh, Mark just needed to talk to Jaemin about something,” he gestured towards his friend, who was clearly already bored with your conversation.

 Just as you were about to speak, your phone started ringing. You took a deep breath once you saw the caller ID, before picking it up and holding it to your ear.

 “Dad?” you breathed out, his timing could not have been worse. You had a complicated relationship with your parents; your father was controlling to say the least, and it frustrated you to no end.

 “So, you finally decided to pick up the phone then?”, he greeted you harshly. “I’m sorry, I’m in the library, my phone was off,” you offered him an apology, hoping it would suffice. You looked down at your shoes and wrapped your free hand around your waist, turning away from the two boys who were waiting patiently before you, hoping to gain some privacy for what would most likely not be an enjoyable conversation with your father.

 “You’re always sorry, it’s not good enough y/n,” he complained, “anyway, I called because I need to ask a favour from you.” He only ever called you when he needed something, and he certainly wasn’t one for pleasantries, he always found a way to try and make you feel bad about yourself – although you’d grown a sort of immunity to it now that you knew what he was trying to do. You remained silent, signaling for him to go on, “your mother and I are hosting a dinner party tonight” you place your hand on the back of the chair in front of you, “and we expect you to attend, can you be at the hotel for 7pm?”

 Your grip on the chair tightened to the point that your knuckles were beginning to turn white, you looked at your watch and groaned softly so that he wouldn’t hear, it was already 6:47pm. “Dad I don’t think-“ you started, knowing perfectly well that you wouldn’t be there on time – it was nearly a 40 minute walk to your parents’ hotel from the library.

 “Great! See you then, don’t be late!” he cut you off, not allowing you the time to tell him that you wouldn’t make it for 7 before he ended the call. “Jesus Christ,” you exclaimed as you let your iron grip on the chair go, moving the same hand to push your hair out of your face.

 “Is everything okay?” you turned around to see Donghyuck and Mark both staring at you in confusion.

 Your parents frustrated you a lot. They could never be bothered to make time for you but the second they had the opportunity to use you to their advantage, they would milk it. Your father loved to patronize you and put you down while your mother loved to brag about all the wonderful things you were supposedly doing, she loved to make you sound like their perfect child, when really, they were nothing but disappointed in you. They were disappointed in your art major and disappointed that you chose not to intern at your fathers’ company – you wanted as little to do with his illegal activities as possible - so disappointed that they actually felt the need to lie about practically everything you did.

 “Oh, yeah I just-,” you paused, trying to clear your head and come up with a way of fixing the mess you were about to get into, “sorry but I have to go, I have to be somewhere in like 10 minutes and it’s a 40 minute walk so-,” you rushed out, panicking as you grabbed your bag, flung it over your shoulder and proceeded to walk quickly down the hall towards the staircase. You didn’t make it very far however, as Donghyuck managed to grab your wrist and turn you around.

 “Hey, wait!” he exhaled deeply, “do you need a lift? Mark can give you a lift, right?” he suggested, turning to his friend in question.

 Mark looked as horrified as you felt at the thought of being perched on the back of his bike, “yeah, not happening,” he exclaimed, “she doesn’t even have a helmet or anything-” Donghyuck cut him off by thrusting his own helmet into your arms unceremoniously “now she does!” he retorted cheekily, throwing a smug smile in Marks direction.

 “No, Hyuck really-” you started, the idea of being in such close proximity to the stranger not sitting right in your stomach.

 “Donghyuck, what the fuck?” Mark exclaimed in obvious annoyance at the lively boy who had seemingly already made the decision for you both as he sauntered off down the hall, leaving you alone with his best friend.

 -

 Mark didn’t speak to you as you made your way down the stairs side by side. You felt your heartbeat speed up as you walked through the automatic doors and saw the back of his motorcycle come into view. The model was sleek and rather elegant, the matte black of the main body suited Marks nefarious persona perfectly and the egg-yolk yellow accents made it all the more beautifully daunting.

 “Ever ridden a bike before?” Mark exhaled at you, already knowing the answer to his foolish question.

 You shook your head, “I haven’t. But you already knew that”.

 Mark nodded his head in response before putting his helmet on and climbing onto the bike in front of you. You mirrored his actions and secured Donghyucks helmet into place with shaky hands; the jet-black helmet was a little big for you, but you managed to fight against the strap until it was tight enough that you felt somewhat protected. You shuffled into the small space behind Mark and had barely just lifted your feet off the ground when he revved the engine and kicked off, sending you surging forward into his firm back in order to not fall off.

 Mark snickered at your immediate reaction, “you might want to hold on, sweetheart,” he told you in amusement as he turned his head towards you slightly. “I’m gonna need directions,” he announced as he turned back to the road and pulled out of the university car park, the sudden acceleration encouraging you to grab onto his shoulders firmly in an attempt to balance yourself.

 “Yeah, okay. Continue down here for a bit and then take a left just before the gym.” You instructed as you assessed the road before you.

 “Alright,” he responded casually, veering off to the right to overtake a car, causing you to stiffen even more.

 Sitting on the back of Marks bike was rather unnerving, but it was also thrilling and rather freeing. You could feel the wind in your hair and you were able to let yourself go a little. You closed your eyes for a moment and embraced the carelessness you felt bubbling up in your stomach; if your parents ever found out that you’d been on the back of a boys motorbike they would be livid, but in that moment, you couldn’t bring yourself to care. You leant forward and informed Mark about the next turn he needed to make, to which he responded with an okay and as if sensing your sudden carefree nature, he applied a sudden pump of pressure on the gas and sped up even more. He was trying to scare you, to irritate you, and it was working. The wind in your hair suddenly felt too cold, too loud, and the traffic surrounding you too fast.

 “Mark,” you warned him as you moved your hands from his shoulders to wrap them tightly around his waist. “Hey, slow down!” you shouted in his ear once you realised that he wasn’t letting up.

 “Relax, baby. You’re alright,” he chuckled over his shoulder, sounding completely unbothered.

 You tightened your grip around him and closed your eyes as you tried to calm down, no longer finding the experience enjoyable. You could feel the soft flesh of his toned stomach through his shirt; the vibrations of Marks laughter as he felt your grip tighten and your forehead press softly into his shoulder. He was warm and deadly and you could feel your hot blood rushing through your veins. You breathed him in slowly; his aroma was cigarette smoke and peppermint; his shirt stained with the faint scent of his cologne and cinnamon. You hated to admit it, but Mark Lee smelled heavenly despite being the embodiment of Hades himself, and it was intoxicating.

 “Sweetheart, you need to look so you can direct me,” he said blatantly, you opened your eyes briefly before closing them again with a shake of your head.

“Take the next right and then pull up on the left just before the hotel,” you breathed out.

 Mark was soon slowing to a halt and you let out a breath you didn’t realise you were holding in. “Thank fuck that’s over” you exclaimed before releasing your grip around the devilish boy in front of you, feeling slightly embarrassed that you’d been holding him so tightly. You swiftly removed your helmet and thrust it into Marks arms with a mumbled thank you before turning on your heel and heading towards the front door of the building. You faintly heard Mark calling your name, but you weren’t really listening as when you reached the door you felt your stomach drop, your dad was waiting for you and he was furious.

 Ten minutes later, you were seated next to your mother and opposite to your father, you were trying to settle the growing pit of nerves in your stomach as you knew you would be confronted by your dad soon enough. Around an hour into the meal, one of your parents’ guests decided to ask your mum about how you were getting on at uni, they were trying to make polite conversation, although your mothers response irked you rather.

 “She’s doing great! She’s loving her classes, aren’t you honey?” she directed at you with a knowing look in her eye. You simply nodded and replied a polite “yes, it’s great.”

 The same guest then went on to ask what it was you were studying, to which your parents simultaneously responded with ‘law’, as if rehearsed, which it most likely was. You knew your parents had never been happy with your decision to study fine art, and you couldn’t say you were surprised to hear that they were lying about your major, but it pissed you off, nevertheless. You clenched a fist underneath the table as they continued to brag about how well you were supposedly doing at law school. The evening continued like that for the next hour; your parents telling their ‘business partners’ about all the achievements you had made and how proud of you they were. Your family was built on a mound of lies.

 You knew that they were careful about what they told you about their business, but you were alert enough to be aware of the fact that the deals they made were not what might be expected of a typical hotel chain. They lied in front of you to try and cover the illegal activity that was going on, and while you weren’t entirely sure what that involved, you had an idea.

 Your parents walked with you to the entrance of the hotel when the dreadful dinner party was over, and you braced yourself for what you knew was coming.

 “You’ll never guess how our y/n arrived here earlier, love.” Your dad gestured to you while speaking to your mum.

 You looked down at your feet and fiddled with the hem of your jumper in anticipation. Your dad was business suits and stainless steel while your mother was sterile surfaces and fake smiles and you hated it, you hated them and the stupid lifestyle they had dragged you into. Nothing about it was real, nothing about it was fair.

 “She arrived on the back of a boy’s motorcycle,” he informed her with disgust evident in the tone of his voice, his facial expression unsettlingly straight. Your mother gasped in horror and you had to hold back from rolling your eyes at her dramatic reaction. “y/n what the hell were you thinking?” she asked you with a raised voice, anger evident.

 “I needed a ride, it’s a forty-minute walk otherwise!” you responded honestly. You weren’t going to let them manipulate you into apologizing to them.

 “Imagine what the guests would have thought if they’d seen you arrive in such a bedraggled way!” she screeched at you, to which you just responded with a shrug; not having the energy to argue with her.

 “You will reply when your mother addresses you, y/n.” Your father seethed through his teeth at you, anger taking over his stout features. You turned away from them in an attempt at getting away from their suffocating presence, talking back to them was not going to get you anywhere. But before you could walk through the now half open door, he grabbed onto your wrist harshly, “if you pull another stunt like this, there will be consequences, y/n, and stay away from that boy, he’s bad news.” He spat the coarse words into your left ear no louder than a whisper.

 You could feel your eyes beginning to water a little, “don’t touch me.” You breathed bitterly before yanking your wrist out of his forceful grip and slamming the glass door behind you.

 You finally let yourself go once you were outside, the tears flowing freely and silently down your cheeks. You were tired, exhausted even, of trying to mask how much their actions hurt you. Nobody at your university had a clue, not your roommate, Lisa, none of your art class acquaintances, not even Donghyuck, who you often found yourself confiding in when things got a bit too much and you found yourself on the verge of a breakdown.

 You were looking forward to getting home, your apartment was cozy and warm and just what you needed after dealing with your exasperating family. Your parents had bought you a 2 bed flat on the top floor of a crumbling apartment building, which you had the pleasure of choosing. After being brought up in a mansion-like house that didn’t even look lived in, you opted for something small and homely so that you weren’t rattling around in it. Two weeks after moving in, it still felt a little empty to you and so you advertised for a roommate – that was when Lisa came into your life. The two of you had your differences but you loved each other, you supposed she was probably your best friend, not that you were one to give people titles. Lisa was away on a two-week trip to Florence with a few of the people from her major, meaning you had the place to yourself; you weren’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

 “Dinner party went well then?”

 You turned around and were met with the sight of Mark leaning against the wall next to the door of the hotel, he was somewhat hidden from view, his dark clothes melting in to the ebony of the sky. He held a cigarette between his lips and a lighter in his left hand, he took a long, slow drag before plucking it from his lips with his free hand and blowing the smoke in your direction.

 You stifled a cough and rolled your eyes at his actions before continuing in the direction of your apartment, “why are you still here, Mark?” you asked him as you lifted a hand to wipe the tears away from your rosy cheeks, curious as to why he’d hung around for you.

“I thought you’d want a ride home,” he shrugged as he caught up with you, lifting the cigarette again and this time leaving it hanging from his pink lips, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jacket.

 “The last thing I need is for my parents to see me on the back of your fucking bike, again.”

 Mark chuckled dryly in response, “did your dad give you a hard time?” he cooed, clearly finding your upset state funny. When you didn’t show any signs of amusement, his cheeky smile turned into something more sincere.

 “I heard what they said to you, you know,” he gave you a pitiful look, “I’m sorry that they treat you like that.”

 You raised your eyebrows and bit back a laugh, “cut the crap, Mark.” He looked a little taken-aback by your curt response, giving you a questioning look as he slowed to a stop beside you. “Don’t act like you suddenly care,” you sighed at his obliviousness, turning to face him.

 Mark Lee was not known for his kindness, caring nature. He was known for being cold and troublesome, he was like a snake; constantly shedding his skin and becoming a different version of himself. One minute he was dangerous and sinful and all things devilish and red, yet the next, he was soft like the feathery wings of an angel with kind eyes; and it was impossible to tell which version of himself he would present to you each time you met.

 You looked at him, really looked at him and took in his appearance. His soft dark hair was falling in his eyes with a slight parting in the middle, his sun-kissed skin rich and deep under the soft, golden light of the street lights you were bathing in. Your gaze fell to his cherry-stained lips and to the glowing stick he held between them, soft clouds of smoke occasionally leaving his lips as he exhaled. The heartbreaking truth was that Mark was attractive, you found him attractive and you didn’t know how to stop the way your breath hitched when you looked into his dark eyes. He was looking at you, observing you in the same way you had been observing him, and it was unnerving. His eyes flitted between your own and your lips briefly before he pulled his gaze away from you and towards the now-familiar motorbike which was sat just a few feet away from where you were stood.

 “Come on, let me take you home.”

 You didn’t talk to Mark as he drove you home aside from directing him to your apartment, it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, though. You were exhausted, and you found yourself feeling a little numb as you clutched Marks waist tightly and pressed a cheek into his back as you closed your eyes. You couldn’t find the energy to think about your father seeing you on the back of Marks bike. If he saw you, then so be it. You were utterly sick to your stomach of the way they pried and warped you into what they thought was the perfect child, the child that their fellow businessmen and women would want to hear about. They objectified you and they underestimated you and it royally pissed you off.

 You found yourself almost enjoying the feeling of betraying them, perhaps you’d take it up as a hobby. Perhaps you’d befriend Mark just to get under their skin, you’d undoubtedly relish in that feeling if you were a little more like the boy who you currently had wrapped in your tight embrace. But you weren’t like that, you were good and caring and you had so much love to give yet nobody to give it to. You couldn’t intentionally play someone like that, it wasn’t within your capability, nor was it your true desire. You didn’t want to use Mark, no matter how perfect it would be or how much it would irritate your parents. So, you pushed your delirious thoughts aside and tightened your hold on Mark as if to thank him for not asking too many questions or rubbing in your ill-fated situation. In response you felt a tight squeeze on your left thigh as he reached back to comfort you subtly, and that was all that was needed for you to begin to feel a little better.

 Mark pulled up outside your apartment building after what felt like forever. You heaved your heavy body off the padded seat behind him, your worn shoes scuffing against the edge of the pavement as you did so, causing you to stumble forward briefly before a strong hand gripped at your waist and pulled you back. You turned around at the sudden feeling of Marks arm wrapping around you, only to notice that you were standing a lot closer to the raven-haired boy than you’d anticipated. He had leaned off his bike a little in order to reach you and you now found yourself brushing up against his jean clad thigh.

 “Easy there, princess,” you could feel his hot breath on your cotton-candy stained cheeks and you struggled to appropriately place your gaze. You’d never been this close to him, face to face anyway, and you found it unsurprisingly intimidating. You observed and noticed his perfectly placed eyebrow piercing, the two silver balls gleaming even in the dark of the night. Marks eyes were deep and dark, black almost, a heavenly contrast to his honey-stained skin. They were half lidded and verging on sultry as he blinked and brought his eyes to meet with yours, his tongue briefly darting out to wet his lips before he gently brought the hand which wasn’t wrapped around your waist up to eye level. He hesitated briefly before he lifted his hand and started to unfasten the strap on the helmet you had borrowed from Donghyuck, “here, let me get that-”.

 Your breath caught in your throat as his hand brushed against your soft skin, the rough texture of his calloused hands contradicting your own smooth, milky complexion. You looked into his eyes as they were concentrated on removing the heavy helmet; he looked so innocent like this, so pure and refined. It was almost like the fire inside him had been dampened momentarily and the ice around his heart was beginning to melt, of course that wouldn’t last. You knew that the next time you saw him, it would be like this hadn’t happened. He would go back to smirking at you or blanking you entirely. It would have been a moment of utter serenity if it weren’t for your caged heart beating at ninety to the dozen inside your chest. You were nervous. Mark made you nervous.

 Once he’d lifted the helmet off, he realised he was still holding you and quickly moved his hand from your waist to rub the back of his neck, you became suddenly all too aware of your close proximity and took a small step back, clearing your throat and crossing your arms in the process. He roughly planted said helmet into your arms with an “I’ll see you around” before he kicked off and left you standing by the side of the road, looking a little flustered.

 Needless to say, the second your head hit your pillow that night, you were out like a light.

 -

 You entered the coffee shop two days later, Thursday, at your normal time of 7:15pm. Only this time you had more of a purpose; you, of course, were looking forward to your latte, but you had also brought Donghyucks helmet since Mark had left it with you.

 “Donghyuck!” you greeted the familiar face as you made your way towards his position behind the counter. “Here” you lifted the heavy black helmet onto the counter for him to take. He thanked you as he took it from you and went to put it in the back room.

You took the chance to look around the room, noticing a few familiar faces, mostly students huddled over their laptops or buried in a pile of dog-eared books. You spotted your usual round table and smiled at the site of the empty chair sat by it. You would soon be just like most of the other customers in the coffee shop, head down and engulfed in a heap of Gustav Klimt books, your chosen artist for this semester.

 “Hey, have you seen Mark around?” you were brought out of your thoughts by the return of the radiant boy in front of you, who was now busying himself with making your coffee.

 “Not since Tuesday, why?”

 “I haven’t seen him since then either, he normally drops me off for my shift today, but he didn’t show,” he replied sounding a little concerned for his troublesome friend. “I’m sure it’s nothing,” you hummed in response.

 You thanked Donghyuck with a warm smile as you paid him for your coffee before taking it over to your table and getting your notebook and a couple of books out of your scruffy bag. The next hour went by relatively quickly, you alternated between writing notes and actually annotating the books in front of you; you had a bad habit of defacing books. Whether it was folding pages or actually drawing on the pristine pages, you enjoyed making them look used and a little haggard.

 You had been so engrossed in your work that you hadn’t noticed Mark’s brief appearance in the cozy coffee shop, he was only present for about 30 seconds before Donghyuck excused himself and stepped outside to talk to his friend. You had your head down when you left through the heavy doors, you weren’t listening as they hushed their conversation at the sight of you, and you didn’t notice when Mark, who was sporting a bruised cheek and a bloody lip, cast his gaze over to you from behind his friends’ shoulder.

 You were living in your head as you walked home that evening, thinking up your future, where you wanted to live, and what you wanted to be doing. You’d just decided that you liked the idea of settling in Paris or somewhere similar when you felt the first sign of rain hit your cheek. You cursed to yourself as you pulled your hood up over your head in an attempt to shelter yourself from the inevitable downpour. You were never prepared when it rained, you usually just wore a hoodie and jeans to uni and you had never got into the habit of carrying a jacket or an umbrella around, you should probably change that, though; it rained a lot in your city.

 Not even two minutes after the rain started, you heard the screeching of tires on the wet road as a familiar looking bike skidded to a stop alongside where you were walking.

 “y/n get on!” Mark yelled over the deafening downpour surrounding you, taking his helmet off as you jogged over to him.

 You weren’t sure why you decided to listen to him, especially after he tried to scare you the last time. Perhaps it was because you knew you’d be home in a fraction of the time if he took you, walking would be at least another twenty minutes. Or maybe part of you actually liked the idea; somewhere deep down in the burning embers of your soul, you quite enjoyed the cryptic boys’ presence. He was everything you had stayed away from up until now, and although you would never admit it aloud, you found yourself reveling in the risk of it all.

 You tried to refuse his helmet, saying that he needed it more, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. “Just put the damn thing on,” he argued, only moving off once you were sat behind him with his helmet sat snugly on your head.

 Your arms curled around him in the same way you had recently become accustomed to. He was soaked through to the bone and cold, so cold, it seemed Mark wasn’t one for dressing according to the weather either. While you were at least wearing a hoodie, he was only wearing a t-shirt, a white one at that. His muscular back suddenly became painstakingly obvious through his soaked shirt and you tried to focus on the road ahead as you rested your chin on his left shoulder.

 Not even 10 minutes later, you had arrived at your apartment building.

 You jumped off the bike as soon as it had stopped moving, keen to get inside and rid yourself of your drenched clothes as soon as possible; a hot shower sounded absolutely wonderful right now. You expressed your thanks and looked up at Mark to return his helmet to him once you’d wrestled to get your wet hair untangled from the strap, only to see that he had his head hung low and turned away from you.

 “Hey, Mark?” he hummed in response, seeming somewhat distracted. “You good?”

 “Huh? Yeah, I should really go-”

 “Why won’t you look at me?” you hesitantly reach across and hear a sharp intake of breath from him when you grip at his jaw, turning his head to face you for the first time that night. Your breathing faltered at the sight of his black and blue cheekbone and your eyes scanned the rest of his face to discover that his lip was also rather swollen and coated with dry blood.

 “Mark…” you whispered as you ghosted your hand over the tender skin, blinking down at him as his hand gripped at your wrist.

 “It’s fine, y/n,” he gritted his teeth, still not looking up at you.

 “Who did this to you?” you thumbed at his puffy lip gently, the question more rhetorical than anything else.  

 You had never seen the boy before you look so worn out. In fact, you weren’t sure if you had ever witnessed someone being hurt like this before. You blinked twice and moved your hand away from him in order to brush your own disheveled hair out of your eyelashes as you realised that the rain was only becoming heavier.

 “Come inside,” you said unexpectedly, surprising both yourself and the bloodied boy sat before you. You tugged at his sleeve, “just let me help you, as a thank you of sorts”.

 “I really shouldn’t, I-,” you didn’t let him finish, you instead found yourself dragging him away from his beloved black and yellow bike and into shelter.

 He followed you up the stairs until you were on the top floor, you had your key in one hand and his bike helmet in the other. He didn’t speak as you walked up the five flights of stairs, the only sounds were your sopping wet shoes squelching each time you took a step and the shaky breathing coming from the pair of you.

 You stepped into your small apartment with Mark in tow, switching on the lights as soon as you were in the door. You placed your stuff down alongside Marks helmet on the long wooden coffee table in your little living room before disappearing into Lisa’s room to find something for Mark to change out of his wet clothes into. When you walked back into the living room, he was still standing there, hands clasped together and rocking back and forth on his toes lightly.

 “Here, I think this stuff should fit you.”

 Lisa sometimes had boys over, usually they were just one-off flings but sometimes they’d come often enough that she had managed to accumulate a growing pile of their clothes. You’d found a pair of loose black shorts and a large light-grey hoodie that looked around Marks size.

 You directed him to the bathroom so he could change, before turning to your own room and stripping off your drenched clothes, changing into a pair of sweats and a loose fitting shirt as quickly as you could. You grabbed some wet cotton wool and a bag of frozen peas to help take down the swelling, you didn’t have a first aid kit in your apartment, so this would have to suffice. You found Mark sitting on your sofa when you returned, his head leaning on one of his hands whilst he texted someone on his phone with the other. He heard your fluffy sock-clad feed padding against the hard wood floor as you neared him, looking up and instantly turning his phone off and placing it next to him once he realised you had reappeared.

 You knelt down in front of him, placing the frozen bag on the floor beside you and turning your attention to the injured boy.

 “Stay still,” you could feel Marks eyes following your every move. You dabbed at his wounded lip, trying to help take the edge off the sting he must be feeling. You steadied yourself by placing your free hand on his shoulder, causing him to turn his attention to you rather than whatever he found so interesting behind you.

 “Where’d you get the clothes from?” he gestured to the hoodie he was now wearing.

 “Oh, they’re from Lisa’s- my roommate’s ex, I think,” he nodded at your reply.

 “Don’t move,” you whispered as you held his head still and wiped away the remainder of the blood. “It’s not like they’d be from my ex, given that I don’t have one. Or a current boyfriend, for that matter.” Your weak attempt at a joke fell flat as you suddenly realised the implications of what you had just said. Your eyes grew wide, “that was stupid, I don’t know why I said that. I just-”

 Your ramblings were cut short when Mark gripped your arm and took the bloody cotton wool from your hand, dropping it to the floor while keeping his half-lidded gaze on you. He moved your hand to hover just above his heart, resting it there. You kept your eyes on his hand as it covered yours, not daring to look up at him for fear that you may crumble. You felt like putty in his hands and all he was doing was touching your hand. Your face flushed as your hands began to tremble subtly.

 “Do you feel that?” you did. You could feel his heart beating rapidly, just as yours was. “Baby?”

 You dragged your eyes up to meet his and nodded delicately as you let yourself tug at his hoodie a bit, trying to cease the nerves rising up from the pit of your stomach to the very tips of your fingers. Mark lowered his head until his forehead was brushing against yours from his elevated position on the sofa. You could smell the faint scent of cigarette smoke coming from his lips, which were now barely three inches from yours.

“What are you-,” he rubbed his nose against yours and murmured a barely-there “shh,” as his eyes fluttered shut.

 Mark pressed a kiss to the corner of your lips and moved his soft grip from your hand to angle your face up towards him, bringing his other hand up to cup your jaw before moving to plant a slow peck on your plump lips. “y/n?” you hummed when he pulled back a couple of inches, keeping your eyes closed. You didn’t want him to stop and you hated yourself for it. You tugged at his hoodie again, hoping he would understand your signal for him to continue. You didn’t have confidence in words, opting to not say anything and instead moving your left hand up further to reach the nape of his neck, pulling him into you.

 The feeling of having another’s lips pressed against yours was unfamiliar and yet, strangely addictive. Your breathing was getting heavier in sync with his as he left long, drawn out kisses on your lips, alternating between your bottom lip and your top. You found the angle was getting a little awkward and so, with the help of Mark, you sat up on your knees, only staying like that for a moment before you found yourself situated on his lap with your legs on either side of him.

He barely paused for breath before capturing your lips again, this time prodding at your entrance with his slick tongue. The sensation was effortless with him, your lips slotting together over and over again with such ease and precision. His tongue massaged against yours as he relocated his calloused hands to rest around your waist, squeezing the soft flesh as your shirt rode up slightly.

 You let out a soft whimper as his cold hands touched your hot skin and you threaded your fingers through the damp locks of hair at the back of his head, your other hand clenching and unclenching, taking fistfuls of his hoodie as you tried to make the feelings in your chest evaporate. The air was hot and sticky, and you gasped into each-others open mouths, you couldn’t get enough of him.

 Kissing Mark Lee made you feel more alive than you had ever thought possible, it was both heavenly and sinful, and he took all your breath away as if it was nothing. He tasted sweet and smoky and he was enthralling for he was the devils incarnate, yet the most celestial being you had ever laid eyes on. You hated him, you wanted to hate him. But he was radiant and god-like and you couldn’t bring yourself to pull away, for Mark Lee was magnetic and you will forever be drawn to his sacrilegious self.

 You were panting and breathless as you took his lower lip between your teeth and looked into his amorous eyes, but he winced, and you found yourself pulling away from his swollen lips as a coppery taste lathered your tongue. You were flush against him; your immediate proximity making you blush, given the circumstances. “Sorry, I forgot- about your lip I mean,” you stammered out, feeling rather flustered.

 “I’m fine, don’t worry about it,” Mark leant forward to press his lips to yours again messily as he dragged his hands along your thighs, he couldn’t seem to sit still.

 “Mark,” you tried to pull away again, you knew he was using this situation as a distraction. He hummed as he ran one hand up your side until he was cupping your jaw, trailing his wet lips down the side of your neck. “Mark, stop.” You said firmly just as he nipped softly at the flesh under your ear, pushing him tenderly by his shoulders until he was far enough that you could look at him properly.

 “Did I do something?”, his panicked eyes searched your own for an answer.

 You sighed, “no,” as you slid off his lap and made yourself comfortable on the sofa next to him. “I just- why?”

 “Why what, baby?”

 “What did you do to deserve this?” you asked him tenderly as you crossed your legs and turned to face him, tracing your fingers from his harsh eyebrow piercing to the soft skin of his cheekbone. Under the soft light of the lamps in your living room his bruises were faint and indistinct, but they were still there. The black and blue painted on his skin somehow looked pretty, it was a deep contrast to his normal warm tone, but it didn’t exactly look bad – just sore.

 “Can we not talk about this, please?” he groaned as he dropped his head into his hands.

 “Just tell me what happened!” You argued, your voice raised a little in exasperation. You didn’t understand why he was so reluctant to talk to you about it. Everyone knew about Marks reputation, he was known for sporting the odd black eye and not holding his tongue when he should. But as you were sat next to him, you realised that you didn’t actually know why.

 “I can’t-“

 “You can, please-”

 “No, you’re staying out of this y/n,” Marks voice was deep and hoarse as he spoke loudly to you, letting you know that his decision was final.

 “Why won’t you talk to me? Doesn’t this mean anything to you?” you breathed out, as you covered your face with your hands in frustration, letting your elbows rest on your knees, you looked up at the boy before you. “Is this an act of pity or something? Did you only come in because you felt sorry for me?”

 “What? No I-,” his phone ringing cut him off before he could speak further. Mark cursed once he saw who was calling him, “I’m sorry, I have to go, I’ll see you around.” He grabbed his stuff from the table before rushing out the door to answer the phone, leaving you alone and bathing in the now strangely silent room to process everything that had just happened.

 -

  “So, tell me about Florence!”

 Lisa was finally home from her time in Italy, and she’d somehow managed to persuade you that catching up over a drink or two was a good idea. You’d never been the type to drink to get drunk, not that you hadn’t been drunk; it just didn’t happen very often. You were more of a coffee lover, that’s where you and Lisa were different. While you would spend your free time slaving over a book with a steaming mug of coffee, she would spend hers sharing secrets with strangers over a bottle of beer.  You supposed your dynamic wasn’t so different to Donghyuck and Mark, like earth versus fire, air versus water; you were somewhat dependent on eachother, the perfect contradiction.

 “It was incredible, the architecture was phenomenal, as was the art and gosh you would’ve loved the culture!” She gushed excitedly after taking a long gulp of her fruity cocktail.

 If you didn’t know her personally, you might have been jealous of Lisa. Upfront, she seemed unmistakably perfect, her hair was thick and shiny, her skin was clear, and she flourished in social settings. But you did know her, well enough to know that her happy exterior wasn’t always genuine and that she too found life to be rather stressful at times, she was just better at relieving that stress than you were; hence her tendency to party and pick up boys every now and then.

 The two of you talked back and forth about her time in Florence and your time without her, although you failed to mention anything involving Mark, the last thing you needed was Lisa breathing down your neck about something that you weren’t entirely sure about yourself. She raved about the museums and galleries she’d visited and made sure to recite each and every individual piece of art that she’d enjoyed; yes, you were jealous. You were jealous of her freedom and you were jealous of her carefree nature, you wished you could be like that. Perhaps if it weren’t for your family, you would be a little more like Lisa. You thought back to a few days prior when you were sitting behind Mark, clinging to him tightly as the two of you rode through the rain; that was the most unburdened you had felt in a long time.

 You were snapped out of your train of thought by Lisa standing up from her seat next to you at the bar, “I’ll be back in a minute,” she signaled to the bathroom before traipsing away from you, leaving you with your thoughts and a half empty glass of vodka and lemonade.  

 As you waited you found yourself casting your gaze around the busy room; the bar seemed to be teeming with students like you, apart from the odd older guy. You spent a lot of your time observing people and their actions, it was almost like a hobby, being a bystander. There were booths filled with youngsters, chanting and laughing and having the time of their lives, there were bar stools filled with friends downing shots and getting plastered, and then there was you. You, who would rather be at home, curled up and watching a movie with a bowl of shitty popcorn. So, when you were approached by a sleazy looking man who seemed to be rather under the influence, you were somewhat bewildered.

 “Two shots for this lovely lady and I!” He hollered to the barman over the blaring music as he gestured roughly towards you. He reeked of alcohol and sweat, a rather nasty combination which could absolutely not be considered attractive.

 “Oh, no I was just leaving-”

 “C’mon, just one drink!” he interrupted you, sending a ratty smile in your direction.

 “No really, I’d rather not” you raised yourself off the tall stool you had been perched on, reaching for your bag as you desperately tried to remove yourself from the situation. This was why you didn’t like going out, you were terrified of exactly what appeared to be happening right now. You felt vulnerable as soon as he appeared next to you, your instincts quickly telling you that the man before you was bad news.

 He grabbed your wrist firmly, making you wince at the abrupt action. “Don’t touch me,” you seethed as you tried to pry away his painful grip on your wrist.

 “You’re a fair handful,” he slurred as he moved closer to you, moving his other hand to clutch around your waist under your shirt, making you feel uneasy. You could feel tears of panic begin to sting at the corner of your eyes as you looked around frantically in exasperation at the fact that nobody seemed to be aware of what was going on. He pressed himself against you and you were struggling to get away from him as you felt him begin to trail his hand to your backside.

 “Get your fucking hands off her,” a familiar voice threatened from beside you, although you couldn’t quite figure out who it belonged to.

 He didn’t comply. You felt sick.

 He was suddenly ripped away from you as a large hand grasped at the neck of his shirt and a swift punch was thrown, and then another two. “I warned you,” your eyes widened at the scene which was playing out before you.

 “Mark, stop!” you shouted as soon as you recognised the dark mop of hair that you were now well-acquainted with. Of course, he didn’t listen to you.

 The drunk man tried to retaliate but was soon rendered defenseless as he took one final hit to the face and staggered backwards with blood dripping down his chin, “sorry man, didn’t realise she was yours,” he laughed as he spat blood onto the floor and disappeared into the crowd.

 You looked away from the man who was swaying away from you and, sure enough, standing before you was Mark Lee in all his grandeur. He was dressed from head to toe in black and his bruised cheek was mostly faded now, barely visible unless you were really looking for it. His knuckles looked red and sore as he splayed his hand out to check for any broken skin.

 Your devilish savior ignored his distasteful comment as he diverted his attention to you, “are you alright?”

 You shook your head, “I just need to get out of here”. You felt claustrophobic, like you couldn’t breathe. And, god, you were itching to shower and scrub off the feeling of that man’s grimy hands on your body.

 You pulled your gaze away from Mark for a second, just long enough to see Lisa walking your way from the bathroom. “Y/n? What’s going on?” she asked as she looked between you and Mark, who was standing so close that you could feel his hot breath on your neck.

 She undoubtedly knew who Mark was, everybody at your university did. He was striking in both appearance and in demeanor, although not always for the right reasons. And so, she would most likely be wondering what someone like him would be doing speaking to someone like you. The two of you were so drastically different; if he was the devil then you were the purest sinner to walk this earth. He was dripping in warning signs, he radiated bad news, yet you found yourself being drawn to him like a moth to a flame, and it would appear that he too found himself unable to shake you from his mind.

 “Nothing, it’s fine.”

 “Why is he here?” she nodded to the boy standing behind you, sending you a look of questioning.

 You heard Mark scoff under his breath as you glanced round to him, trying to think up an excuse to leave the bar that wouldn’t lead to a lengthy conversation with Lisa later.

 “Something came up, I’m sorry. I can’t stay,” you offered her with pleading eyes, praying she would understand your need to leave, even if she didn’t know the reason behind it.

 “Alright, be safe,” she responded with a sigh and a quick hug, and with that, you turned on your heel and walked quickly out the door.

 You could feel Marks presence behind you as you walked along the pavement with your head hung low, your feet dragging and scuffing along the stone as you sifted through the multitude of thoughts that had gathered in your head. The two of you walked in a comfortable silence for a while, you breathed in the cold city air and exhaled heavily through your mouth as you tilted your head to gaze up at the dark sky which was faintly painted with the warm glow of the city lights.

 You could breathe clearly out in the fresh air, the sticky heat of the bar finally cooling on your skin; it wasn’t a particularly nice feeling but it was better than being coated in the sensation of a strangers touch.

 Your phone buzzed, pulling you out of your trance-like state, you reached into your pocket and fished it out, stopping dead in your tracks as you read the message on your lit-up screen.

 [dad]

One of my business associates just saw you leaving a bar with that boy, remember what I told you, y/n.

 You rushed to turn around as you looked back along the long stretch of street in search of someone looking at the two of you, but you saw no one. You were nearing the canal just to the west of the city centre and the street lighting was limited, not giving you the best view of the road you’d just walked down. Mark looked at you in confusion as he lifted his hands to rest on your shoulders and looked into your fiery eyes, “is everything okay?”

 You shook your head and shrugged off his hold on you, already beginning to walk again, more hurriedly this time. “You have to leave, Mark,” you told him firmly as you breathed in shakily.

 “What, why?” he questioned as he crept up beside you, easily matching your determined stride.

 “Please just- it’s for your own safety, I can’t be seen with you,” you told him truthfully, knowing that it sounded a little harsh. Your dad was, however, a powerful man, and you didn’t doubt for a second that he would do whatever he deemed necessary to get what he wanted; and if he wanted you to stop seeing Mark, then he would not hesitate to dispose of him in some way. All for his stupid business and riches. All your parents seemed to care about was their reputation, as long as their names, yours included, were untarnished, the company would keep raking in stacks of money and numerous money-making deals. And they would do whatever they had to, get rid of whoever they had to, in order to keep it that way. They’d been like this for as long as you could remember and there was no part of you that would ever be able to challenge your father’s threats. Because that’s what they were; threats. And he meant every word that he said.

 “Y/n, what the hell are you talking about? If this is about the bar or the other night then I’m sorry I-,” he shut up when you turned to face him once more and gripped both his hands in yours, lacing them together intimately. His brows furrowed as he looked down to your interlaced fingers and then back up to your eyes.

 “Please, Mark.”

 “I don’t understand?”

 You sighed up at the dangerous boy before you, trying to think of an appropriate way of telling him that your father probably wanted to kill him just for being near you. “My dad doesn’t – he doesn’t like you”

 “Your dad? I haven’t ever met him, though?” his face twists as he processes the information, struggling to fathom how your father could possibly have an opinion on someone who he’d never even spoken to before.

 “That doesn’t matter, you don’t exactly-,” you paused and chewed at your bottom lip, tilting your head to look at your feet and lowering your voice to a whisper, “- have the best reputation.”

 He squeezed your intertwined hands comfortingly as he sighed, dragging your hands up to rest around his neck gently before circling his arms around your waist and pulling you close to him.

 Mark wasn’t particularly proud of his not-so-perfect character, he knew that people talked about him, he knew that he didn’t do himself any favours by consistently sporting some form of bruising or blemish and getting himself into fights. But Mark was soft, too. He had a heart of gold when it mattered; he was like the purest form of oxygen in a smoky room, he never failed to show his good side when his loved ones were in need.

 “I’m not all bad, you know, princess” he chuckled soothingly, his breath tickling against your face.  

 Your fingers played with the soft tufts of hair at the nape of his neck, “I don’t want you to get hurt-,” you started, stopping to think quickly. You weren’t sure where these feelings were coming from. You’d barely known Mark until a couple of weeks ago, the two of you having never payed eachother any great amount of attention before, but Donghyuck had introduced him into your life and now you couldn’t seem to shake him from your mind.

 “-because for some reason, I care about whether you get hurt or not,” you laughed breathlessly, rolling your eyes as you looked up to the sky once more, perhaps searching for the answers to all the questions swimming around in your head at the moment.

 “Can I kiss you?”

 You shook your head, chuckling nervously at his question, it was so very Mark. He managed to completely ignore your concern, instead opting to act on his own thoughts. “Have you listened to anything I’ve said?” you said in exasperation, feeling somewhat frustrated.

 “Yes, I have, but I don’t care, y/n. I’m not going to leave, your dad doesn’t scare me, and you make my heart beat far faster than I’d ever care to admit - I know you feel it too. So please, y/n, let me just have this,” he pulled you closer by your waist as he let himself wear his heart on his sleeve momentarily, pleadingly looking into your eyes.

 “He’ll kill you, you know,” you warned faintly.

 “I can take care of myself.”

 “I know I just- I think you’re underestimating this. He’s powerful and he warned me to stay away from you. Hell, you barely even know me, Mark, I’m really not worth this-,” you gasped as you felt one of his large hands squeeze your waist and he used the opportunity to shut you up completely, mumbling a soft “stop talking,” before pressing his lips to yours in one swift motion.

 You stayed like that for a moment, your body flushed against Marks chest as he held you tightly to him, as if he were afraid that you would disappear if he wasn’t too careful. He soon pulled back just far enough to rest his forehead against yours, his eyes still closed. You admired his dark lashes fluttering against his satin skin and the way his lips were full and wet from your kiss, he was breathtaking. You couldn’t deny your attraction to him, your heart practically begging to be released from its cage whenever he was close to you like this; he knew exactly what he was doing to you.

 “This is dangerous,” you whispered, encouraging him to open his doe eyes as he parted his lips a little in thought.

 “You look so good right now, I just- I can’t,” he stumbled over his words, his voice breaking under your gaze. “God, I like you so much.”

 You would have giggled at how he sounded like a schoolboy if he hadn’t kissed you again, gliding his right hand up your body until he was cupping your velvety skin and pulling you closer still. He kissed you with so much feeling and emotion, you barely recognised him as the boy you had first met anymore. His cold, harsh exterior completely melting away under your gentle touch. He let himself groan as you kissed him back with just as much ardour, letting your tongue gently pry his lips apart as you tried to convey your feelings for him. You let yourself momentarily forget the posing threat from your dad, enjoying Marks successful attempt at distracting you from it.

 His touch was fiery-hot, his hands leaving a burning trail in their wake as he touched you delicately, as though you were a doll who might break if you fell into the wrong hands. He pulled away once more and grasped your hand in his before leading you away from the canal and towards his home.

 -

 Your eyes fluttered open at the sound of a hushed voice nearby, propping yourself up with one hand and rubbing the sleep out of your eyes with the other. You blinked groggily several times before you managed to keep your eyes open for long enough to sit up with your legs dangling off the side of the unfamiliar mattress, the cool air of the room making your hairs stand on end. You looked down at your cold legs and noticed that you were only wearing an oversized shirt with your underwear – the shirt, you recalled, was Mark’s.

 He’d brought you back home with him last night, you didn’t really feel like going home and explaining the events of the night to Lisa. Your brain was still half asleep and hazy as you tried to recall all that had happened yesterday; you could remember Mark offering to sleep on the sofa, but you also recounted that you’d asked him if he could stay with you, his presence alone helping you feel at-ease. He made sure to keep his distance, to keep to his side of the bed, even if he was itching to reach across the sea of sheets to hold you. He made you feel warm and safe and at-ease and that scared you a little – how quickly he’d earned your trust, if that’s what you could call it.

 You couldn’t make out the muffled voice coming from next door, but you imagined he was probably just on the phone to someone. You stifled a yawn as you reached for your phone, which had been thrown onto the carpeted floor by the mattress in haste before you knocked out fast asleep last night. The time was only just gone 7am, you wondered who Mark could be speaking to this early, a friend possibly? A parent? It was when you thought about things like this that you realised just how little you really knew about him. You knew that he liked living more dangerously than most, that he had an unhealthy love for driving his motorcycle too fast, too late, and too often, you also knew of his friendship with Donghyuck; but after that, you struggled to find anything you could add to the list. You barely knew the boy.

 “Sorry, did I wake you?” he called from the doorway, startling you out of your tired thoughts. You looked up and felt the air leave your lungs as you saw him; he looked ethereal. He was leaning with his left shoulder against the flakily-painted frame, his navy-blue hoodie was too big and his honey-coloured collarbones were only half hidden by the drooping neck of his bed-attire. His boxers were fitted to his thighs and you had to pull your gaze away to stop the inevitable blush that would otherwise creep up your neck. He’d probably already noticed your staring, anyway.

 “Yeah, but it’s okay,” you said groggily as you stretched your arms back to relieve your aching shoulder-blades – you must have slept on them funny.

 You made the effort to stand up but were swiftly turned back around as Mark placed his warm hand on the small of your back and guided you back to the plush mess of bedding and blankets. You lay back down on your side, with your head facing the door and your back to Marks side of the bed. The sheets smelled of him, you realised. A little musky perhaps, like cinnamon and spice. His aroma was warm and comforting as you pulled the duvet up to rest just beneath your chin to try and keep out the chill of the room, your hands clasping together just below the covers. You felt the bed dip as he sunk into the pillows beside you, his breathing was shallow and yet you could somehow still just make it out over the quiet sounds of the city outside waking up.

 “Do you mind if I- can I lay with you?” he asked you, sounding unusually shy, although maybe it was just his lack of sleep.

 “You lay with me last night, Mark” you chuckled.

 “No, I mean-,” he cut himself off, shuffling around behind you until you felt his arm reach around your waist tenderly. His chest was radiating his body heat, just a couple of centimeters from touching yours. “Like this,” he whispered in your ear, softly pressing a kiss to the shell of your ear as he grasped your clasped hands in his blindly.

 “Oh” you replied, barely there. He made your brain go mushy and you were still so tired, having not gone to sleep until late. You wiggled yourself backwards a little, just enough so that you could feel his heartbeat on your clothed back as arm tightened around you. “Let’s just stay like this forever, it’s so nice,” you murmured, letting your eyes fall shut as you basked in Marks warm embrace.

 A few hours later, you find yourself back in your apartment. You’re nestled into the warmth of your sofa with your legs tucked into your chest and a pillow hugged tight to your chest. Lisa was sat next to you, in an equally relaxed position, her fluffy socks tickling at your side faintly.

 “He gave you a ride? Twice? On his bike?” she repeated fragments of what you’d told her back to you. You’d told her more than that, but her eyes grew wide the second you had mentioned Marks name. You nodded in response, “yes?”

 She breathed out heavily, “he’s hot too, do you know what you’re getting into?” she wiggled her eyebrows at you, making you laugh and throw the pillow you were hugging at her. She shrugged, “hey! I’m just saying, the attractive ones always cause the most trouble”.

 You didn’t reply, instead you placed your head in your hands and lulled to the side, looking up at her and sighing like a lovesick puppy. “I really like him, Lisa,” you mumbled, the atmosphere turning more serious, “I just don’t wanna get hurt”.

 “You have to see past that. Live a little, y/n, let yourself loose for a bit,” she told you. You knew that she was probably right, and that she was only encouraging you to do what she knew best. It was easy for Lisa to say that, she was renowned for her extroverted, care-free personality, and you did sometimes envy that. But maybe it was time to take a leaf from her book, you didn’t know what would happen with Mark, you just knew that there was a strong connection between you two that you couldn’t ignore anymore. You couldn’t keep fighting against it. No matter how much you willed yourself to hate him, you never could. He was so much softer than you thought, there was more substance to him.

 He was bright and full and carefree, almost the exact opposite to you. He was a little similar to Lisa, actually, just more devious. More devilish. You could see that his harsh front was beginning to melt around you, though. You seemed to have some kind of effect on him, and he hated that. You loved it. You found yourself wanting to get to know the boy hidden beneath all those layers of toughened-up skin. “Maybe I will,” you replied, with a knowing smile on your face.

 -

 Your lips parted as you panted, out of breath as you pulled back for air, throwing a quick glance to your buzzing phone, signaling yet another call from your father; you ignored it. Marks lips trailed lazily down your neck as he kissed faint flowering bruises into your soft skin, his teeth occasionally nipping and biting at the juncture of your neck. You closed your eyes in bliss and threaded your fingers through his curly, raven hair, tugging at it to signal your enjoyment.

 Your father had been texting you and leaving you voicemail messages frequently over the past week. At first you were concerned for Marks safety, but it seemed that his threats were empty as nothing had come of them yet. And so, you found yourself seated in Marks lap for the third time that week. He let out a low groan as you tugged at his hair once more and shifted slightly in his lap, “stop moving, baby,” he mumbled into the crook of your neck, wrapping his arms around your waist tightly as he squeezed you into his embrace.

 A knock at the door of Marks small, one-bed apartment stilled the pair of you. He lifted his head up to look at you with a cheeky smile, “what?” you looked down at him with wide eyes.

 “You’ll see,” he replied as he placed a soft kiss on your plump lips before picking you up off his lap and placing you down on the warm blanket-covered sofa, you crossed your legs and looked up to him in anticipation.

 He padded over to the front door, just out of your line of sight, you heard him open the door and engage in conversation with the visitor. You glanced around the room and took in your surroundings, observing, as you always did. You’d been in Marks apartment two or three times by now, he seemed to keep it relatively clean, everything seemed to have its place.  You squinted as you noticed a sliver of silver on the bookshelf in the corner of the room, it seemed to be an expensive looking watch, a rolex, perhaps. It looked to be of that sort of style. You wondered briefly how Mark would come by such an expensive watch but didn’t think much of it, perhaps it was a family heirloom?

 Your gaze trailed down as you noticed a hard, black case protruding from its space under the shelf. It didn’t look like a briefcase, in fact it looked to be rather heavy-duty and you wondered what on earth Mark would have one for, you’d only ever seen things like that when people were housing weapons or something similar. You knew this because your father liked to keep cases full of handguns around your house, not that you were supposed to know, you were merely a curious child who went snooping where you shouldn’t have.

 “Hey, so pepperoni or cheese?” you snapped your gaze from the case over to Mark who was just emerging from the hallway to the front door, two greasy pizza boxes in hand. A warm smile lit up your face as the delicious smell of pizza filled the room, “you ordered pizza?”

 “Yeah, I figured you’d be hungry, you do like pizza, right?”

 “Of course,” you hummed, shuffling over to make room for Mark to sit next to you.

 You spent the next two hours sharing the food between you and talking, laughing like normal youngsters should. It felt good to finally be in each other’s company without watching your back or worrying about the future. You had the television on in the background, it was playing an old black and white film that you weren’t really paying attention to, and you felt at home.

 Mark placed the empty boxes on the coffee table once you’d finished with them, pulling you into him and tangling his legs with yours as you rested your head on his chest and listened to his quickened heartbeat. “What do you do? You know, when you’re not causing trouble”

 He visibly tensed at your question and looked away from you as he thought of what to reply “I work for a company, just running errands. It’s nothing special,” he shrugged, pressing a kiss to your forehead. “You mind if I smoke?” you shook your head.

 “That sounds a bit boring,” you yawned into his chest, feeling the vibrations of his chest as he let out a soft laugh. He leaned over you momentarily to reach for his pack of cigarettes before leaning back again and fishing his lighter from his pocket.

 “Yeah, I guess it is,” he replied as he caught a cigarette between his lips and brought his lighter up to encase the stick in a flame, leaving behind a glowing tip. He took a long drag, letting his eyes flutter shut in bliss for a second before blowing the smoke out, angling his head up so as to not blow it in your direction.

 “Why don’t you quit?” you coughed a little, fanning away the smoke that had snaked its way down to you.

 “Smoking or work?”

 “Work,” you chuckled, glancing up at him and tracing a finger along his jawline. Admiring the way his jaw flexed as he exhaled another plume of smoke.

“It pays well”

 “You get paid well for running errands?” you raised an eyebrow at him, not quite believing his reasoning.

 “Yes?”

 Before you can say anything else, Marks phone rings from its place on the floor by the empty pizza boxes. “Shit I better get that-,” he lifted the cigarette from his lips and stubbed it out in the ashtray on the table after taking a final, lengthy drag from the glowing stick.

 “It’s okay, I should probably head home anyway,” you cut him off, it was getting late and you didn’t plan on staying the night, you had a 9am lecture the next morning.

 “Alright, baby. Get home safe,” he stood up, pulling you up with him and pulling you in to press a peck on your supple lips, and then another slightly more drawn out kiss before you dragged yourself away from him, not wanting to get carried away. He tasted like wispy smoke and peppermint again and you could so easily get lost in his lips, the effort to pull away proving to be gallant.

 “I’ll see you later,” you blushed up at him, fiddling with the sleeves of your jumper. You turned your back and walked towards the exit, hearing him pick up his phone and answer the incessant ringing. His voice was muffled through the thin wall of his main corridor, and although you knew it was wrong, you found yourself listening.

 “Hey, Sicheng. What’s up?”

 “No, not yet. Hey, can we talk about this later? Now’s not a good time, man.”

 You could picture Mark furrowing his brows in frustration as he ran a hand through his hair in frustration, smiling softly to yourself as you slipped on your shoes.

 “Yeah, y/n just left, actually”

 “Yes, Sicheng. I know”

 “I’ll do it soon, I swear”

 Your ears perked up at the mention of your name and you suddenly felt like you were invading his privacy by staying and listening to this conversation. You didn’t feel comfortable hearing information you probably shouldn’t have been privy to. And so, you slipped out of Marks warm apartment as quietly as you could and walked home at a brisk pace, eager to jump into the comfort of your own bed and fall asleep.

 -

 “That’s all for today, don’t forget your deadline next week!” you stood up from your seat in the lecture hall and stuffed your laptop and notebook into your scruffy bag before walking down the stairs to the exit. You’d just finished a two-hour lecture on the history of fine art, the one part of your major that you didn’t absolutely love. It’s not that you didn’t find it interesting, you just felt that it dragged on sometimes; half an hour felt like twice as long in that class.

 You left the room as quickly as you could, already imagining how good your Thursday latte would taste once you made it to the coffee shop. You were too wrapped up in your own thoughts to notice the boy walking in your direction until you bumped into a firm structure, far broader and taller than your own.

 You looked up and smiled as your eyes were met with the pretty sight of Mark’s curly black hair - messy as always, yet still so perfect. “Hi” you grimaced up at him through your lashes.

 “Hey, princess-” he chuckled, “-mind if I join you?” He didn’t give you time to reply as he took your hand in his and pulled you out of your lecture building. “I’m guessing you’re heading to Hyuck’s café?”

 “Yeah” you replied quietly as you glanced down at your intertwined hands, a rosy blush spreading its way up your neck and onto the apples of your cheeks, you tried not to smile too much. You hated the effect he had on you. He had the ability to turn you into a blushing mess at the drop of a hat, and he made it look so easy, it’s like he didn’t even have to try. You wiggled your way out of his grasp, remembering that you were in public. The last thing you wanted was for one of your dads associates to report something back to him, again.

 “How was your day?” he peered across to you, ignoring the way you had separated yourself from him.

 “It’s been alright, pretty standard. How did you know where to find me?” you replied in question, wiggling your eyebrows up at him, “stalker” you giggled, watching as he opened his mouth to respond, shutting it before he could say anything. He looked like a fish.

 “You mind if we take the bike?” he nodded his head towards the striking motorcycle just ahead of you, it wasn’t parked very carefully. He had obviously just pulled up and jumped off in a rush.

 “Oh, it’s okay I can just walk-”

 “Nonsense, baby. Hop on,” he picked up his helmet, placing it on your head and fastening the strap under your chin. “Perfect” he smiled once he was done, admiring how you looked in the soft light of the early evening for the first time. His smile was sad, though you didn’t really think anything of it.

 The two of you usually crossed paths when the sun had set, and the stars were visible for the night, it was nice to see Mark in the golden hour of the day for once. His skin was glowing as he bathed in the light, his black curly hair a stark contrast as his messy locks fell against his forehead and into his eyes. He looked breathtaking, although you supposed that shouldn’t really come as a surprise to you anymore; Mark always looked breathtaking, ethereal even. It was as if he was sculpted by the gods themselves, his beauty truly not of this world.

 You rode through the city, the warm air blowing your hair over your shoulders as your arms automatically wrapped themselves snugly around Marks toned core.

 You found yourself in a state of serenity when you were close to him like this. His warmth and his intoxicating aroma were the deadliest of all combinations. Truthfully, if Mark was an erupting volcano, you would most likely swim towards his lethal inferno. You didn’t understand why you felt this way; he had some unknown, invisible control over you and you were sure you were already addicted.

 “Oh, crap,” you heard under a hushed breath from in front of you. Mark was looking from side to side in a frantic motion, his sudden state of distress immediately alarming you.

 “Mark?” he muttered something that you didn’t quite catch, ignoring your questioning plea. The air around you turned static at the revving of an engine or two coming from right behind you. The hairs on the back of your neck raised into goosebumps and you called out his name once more.

 “It’s fine, baby- shit-” you heard a sharp intake of breath and you lifted your head slightly so that you could rest your forehead on Marks shoulder, letting your eyes screw tightly shut.

 The bike swerved violently to the right as you heard the first gun-shot ring out, it’s deafening sound leaving a painful ringing in your ears. “What the fuck was that? Was that a gun-shot? Holy crap, oh my God-” you stopped yourself and were now verging on terrified as you buried your face further into his warm body. “Mark? What’s going on?”

 “Just hold on real tight, okay?” he briefly glanced back to your quivering, hunched over figure, placing a reassuring hand on the lower part of your thigh, hoping to send you some form of comfort – it didn’t really work. “We’re gonna be fine”

 He seemed determined to get you both out of this mess unscathed, urging his bike to reach dangerous speeds as he steered you both through the bustling traffic of the city, weaving between cars and turning down backstreets, trying desperately to lose your unwanted companions. His entire body was tensed - you could feel it. The adrenaline that was rushing through his blood was causing his veins to pulsate and protrude and his arms were firm with concentration, his grip on the handles of his motorcycle never wavering.

 Another shot rang out. The bike juddered speedily along a small one-way street as you both felt the impact of a bullet nestling itself into the framework; luckily not hindering your getaway speed. “For fucks sake” he cursed as he noted the damage to his precious motorcycle.

 You were muttering a mantra under your breath as you prayed to the Gods that you didn’t believe in; you prayed to Ares and Dionysus and Hades. You chanted and begged to Marks Godlike entity, willing the gunfire to end and for you to be able to have him in piece. You just wanted to be with Mark. That was all. You wanted to enjoy his presence without constantly feeling the watchful gaze of someone lurking in the shadows. You’d been on edge about it ever since you’d received that text, maybe this was your punishment. Perhaps you’d have to endure this as your comeuppance, your retribution for disobeying your fathers’ wishes. What you didn’t realise, however, was that your father wasn’t your greatest threat.

 The wind only grew colder as you sped along the quiet streets, it seemed that Mark was leading you out of the city and away from the bustling streets. The cloud of polluted air covering the city faded until you could only smell fresh, salty air and the never-ending traffic blurred into the soft sound of waves crashing against the sand of the nearby beach. Mark had brought you to the sea.

 “They’re gone” he called over his shoulder as you slowed to a halt at the empty end of the beach. You didn’t dare move from your place behind him, holding him so tightly you feared you may be suffocating him, but he didn’t complain. He instead hung his head low and released his grip on the handlebars, opting to drop his head into his hands and let out the breath he’d been holding in for the past fifteen minutes. “C’mon”.

 You took the hand that Mark offered you once he’d stepped onto the rotting wood of the boardwalk next to you, letting him help your shaking form stand up. You looked up at him with fearful eyes, you didn’t know what to think. Who were they? Had your dad sent them after Mark? After you? You weren’t sure if you wanted to know, you were just glad to be standing back on your own two feet and by the safety of the ocean. You felt safe with Mark, regardless.

You let him guide you down the grassy dunes and onto the soft white sand, neither of you exchanging any words for quite some time. You were in shock, perhaps. You weren’t really sure where to begin. The two of you took your time drinking in the lengthy stretch of sand before you, hands loosely linked together in an attempt to reassure one another that you were both okay.

 It was Mark who spoke up first. He let out a shaky sigh after you’d been walking aimlessly along the beach for several painfully silent minutes. “I guess I should probably start talking, right?” he let out a nervous laugh and lifted his free hand to rub at the back of his neck, something you’d picked up on as a nervous habit of his.

 You looked up at him, the look in your eyes enough to tell him that he should explain himself.

 “The company I work for, the errands I run aren’t exactly legal” he started, not even able to look you in the eye as he spoke. “I’m so sorry you’re caught up in this, y/n,” his voice breaking as he spoke.

 “What do you mean? I’m not caught up in anything. We lost them, Mark. We’re alright.” You stopped walking, tugging on his hand until he turned around and stood in front of you. The almighty, Godlike figure you’d first met suddenly looked like a trembling mess, his tough gaze breaking under your scrutiny.

 “God, I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with you.” Mark whispered softly as he looked into your eyes, his pupils flitting around your face, he seemed uneasy. You weren’t entirely sure you’d heard him correctly, though. Mark loved you. He loved you, and you were too stupid to see it. “Why did it have to be you?”

 As you looked up at the raven-haired boy, you realised something. Or rather, you understood something. You understood what it felt like to have something that you never wanted to lose. In the few fleeting weeks you’d known Mark, you’d grown to care for him. His towering frame made you feel small and helpless but being in his presence somehow also made you feel powerful and free. When you were with him, it felt like nothing else mattered, he was everything; he was the air that you breathed, the drug that you were addicted to, the celestial being that you didn’t know you craved so badly until he’d first kissed you. You needed him, and perhaps you did love him, even after only a short time, you’d grown so attached.

 He plucked his phone from his pocket and looked at the text he’d seemingly just received, swiftly putting it back in his pocket before you could see, “Not now, God. Not yet.” He muttered frantically, he was manic, the look in his eyes unlike anything he’d ever expressed to you before.

 “This wasn’t the plan, this wasn’t meant to happen. I’ve fucked this all up and I cannot express how sorry I truly am-,” he cut his rambling off when you reached up to cup his face in the smooth palms of your hands, stroking your thumbs lovingly over his cheeks. He was a wreck, a trembling cage of beauty in your hands, and you wanted nothing more than to kiss his fears away.

 “They gave me an assignment and I don’t know what I was thinking when I accepted it,” he searched your eyes in panic, lifting his own large palms to cover your dainty hands, pulling your hands down to rest on his broad chest. “They’ll kill me if I don’t deliver, I always complete my missions, I-” he heaved out a deep breath and gave himself a moment to think. “I’m such a fucking idiot.”

 “Baby, it’s okay. We can figure this out together, alright?” you were calm as you spoke, although your heart was racing ninety to the dozen. You were scared, yes. But Mark made you feel safe, you had nothing to fear when you were with him, that much you were sure of now.

 You grasped his hands tightly in yours as he held them against his own chest, the thundering beat of his heart hard to miss. “I love you.”

 “Let me love you, Mark,” you trained your eyes on his lips and leaned into him, melting into his embrace completely the second your lips met his. You kissed him so delicately, letting your feelings mold into every fibre of his being with each and every peck, each time your lips met becoming more and more heavenly. He wrapped you up in his arms and you couldn’t possibly be any closer to one another no matter how hard you tried; your chests were pressed flush against each other, your hands touching every inch of skin as your tongues met in a passionate dance.

 “Don’t shut me out any longer,” you gasped as you broke away for air momentarily, before reattaching your lips to his in a drawn-out kiss. “I can’t get enough of you, Mark,” you panted, digging your fingertips into his shoulders in utter, blown-out bliss.

 Marks hands travelled from yours to meet around your waist, your lower back, your hips, your neck. He was touching you everywhere, like it was the last time he would touch you, kiss you, like this. His lips sucked on yours and his kisses were feverish and open mouthed, his thigh propped between your legs as he tried to keep you both steady. He finally settled one of his hands to rest between your ear and your jaw, pulling away to admire your wind-swept state in the heat of the moment. “You’re beautiful, y/n. You know that?” you could see tears beginning to form in the corners of the gorgeous, doe eyes you’d fallen into so deeply, his gaze leering so heavily into your own.

 He pressed a final, barely-there kiss to your supple lips before dropping his head into the crook of your neck languidly. His hot breath stuttered against your neck, your hairs standing on end as you bathed in his being. His hold on you felt like molten lava against your skin, his very touch burning hot onto your sensitive skin, leaving red trails wherever his fingertips travelled.

 “I love you, please forgive me,” he sounded distraught.

 You felt a shiver run down your spine at his words, and another shiver once you felt the cold metal come between your bodies, although you didn’t have time to react before you felt it, before you heard it. The sound in itself would have been enough to make you faint, it was piercing and deadly and you were gone. The gun between you fell to the floor as Mark shook violently in horror at your now limp body, which had now fallen, crumbled lifelessly into his arms. Your heart. He’d shot you straight through your heart, he’d put a bullet through all your love for him.

 “I’m so sorry,” he was hysterical, yet unnervingly tranquil at the same time.  

 “They told me I had to kill you. Your fathers’ company is our biggest threat and I-,” he paused, shaking his head as the tears began to cascade silently down his cheeks. “I had to do it. I had to make him vulnerable, I had to put work first.”

 “I didn’t have a choice, I’m so fucking sorry, y/n,” he lowered himself to the ground and sobbed as his arms thrashed into your unmoving body, his fists clenching at your blood-soaked clothes. The colour drained from your skin and in turn, Marks face paled in trepidation, his heart felt heavy, yet so incredibly empty. He loves you, but he’d shot you. You were dead.

[voldemorthatesnose96]

COLORS IN SILENCE

As an only child of one of the most famous painter in the world, Sander Driesen is also expected to be as big as his father. But life takes turn when he sees a Deaf florist boy whose silence could speak a thousand of meanings.

Disclaimer : if there’s any mistake or misintepretation of my Deaf character, PLEASE feel free to dm me to correct it❤️it means a lot to me. Thank you!❤️

Prelude

“You know exactly what to do, right?”

I want to scream “NO!” to his face but I can’t. It’s always the same question for every single time I want to create something on the blank canvas. WHY does he have to think that I always know what to do, when in fact I don’t?! Unknowingly, I grip my pencil too hard.

“Sander?”

“Yes, Dad. I know.” I say with gritted teeth and start to sketch.

My hand always slightly trembles whenever it touches the paper—scared and doubtful. But unfortunately my Dad and many people think that it’s my ‘signature’ move.

What the fuck is that, actually? Are they blind, oblivious or simply stupid?

At first, I’m not sure whether to sketch a silhoutte or a bouquet of flowers but then I remember the dream I had last night about an abandoned castle and the dancing trees which surrounds its ground; of course it’s weird but somehow I feel so entertain when I wake up and that even bring a tiny smile to my face; which is a very rare thing to happen for these past 4 years. So yeah, I’m going to sketch my dream instead.

“Sander, focus!”

“I’m already focused.”

Dad shakes his head, “you curved this line too hard,” he points to the twigs. ”Fix it.”

Trying hard not to roll my eyes at him, I do what I’m told. I’ve never been the kind of person who could remember the tiniest bit of their dream but weirdly enough, I can recall almost everything that happened last night. How I suddenly walked in this forest which grass were humming melodiously everytime I stepped on it, the wind was breezy and peaceful and the abandoned castle was not as scary as it sound. In fact, the interior was still as good as new but the hallway was the most attractive of all—it filled with many beautiful and famous paintings all around the world from van Gogh to Frida Kahlo. All I can think of is magical.

If only my life is just the same.

For almost 7 years now, I create something that hopefully could transport people’s imagination to somewhere else, almost like escapism from their own cages. Wish they could expand their views just by looking at my arts. Sadly, this little world—little happy bubble I create for another humans, I can’t even go there, not anymore. Day by day, I feel like a robot. Sure as hell my Dad isn’t the right person for me to talk to about my worries and stuff—he won’t understand, he doesn’t want to understand. He’s a famous oil-painter and his arts are frequently exhibited in the most popular art galleries in the world. He was taking a break for 2 years when Mum died; I was 3 that time. Funny, I never feel sad whenever I think of her. For me, she’s just a distant memory that I could never grasp.

“Stop.”

My Dad’s voice startles me and my hand stops instantly.

“What now?” I genuinely ask.

“I think you should take a rest.”

Okay. This is weird.

“But I’m not tired.”

My Dad sighs. His brows furrows, “just do it, son. You can continue later. For now, rest.” And without saying another word, he walks out from the room and closes the door behind him while I just stand there.

I have no fucking idea why he suddenly acts like that. This is the first time since many years ago and I can’t help but feeling curious. Dad is never a warm person around me. All he cares about is to carve me to be someone just like him, to be the perfect artist, to be... everything he were and I used to be so supportive of his ideas, without questioning a single thing; like a good son should be. It all changed though.

For almost 3 years now, I constantly feel hollow and unsatisfy about my arts. Whatever I do to make it right, whenever I try to fix it, these feelings are still there; lingering, waiting for me to collapse at last. Know what? I almost relent. For whatever reason.

If I believe in miracle, maybe this is how it works because I’m still here and doing what I’m supposed to do. But right now, Dad’s right. I need a rest. Maybe even some sleep.

Our art room have a tiny bed in the corner and I sleep there more often that I did in my own room. I used to locked myself in this room for hours just to finish the new art I’m making and Dad never asked if I’m okay or not. Maybe it’s normal for him. The way artist should behave, I guess.

I plop myself on the bed while staring at the white ceiling, waiting for the sleep to take me away. It doesn’t take long for me to finally give in and once again, for so many nights, my heart screams “help...”

————————

School isn’t that hard today. In fact, I enjoy what I learnt. Cubism isn’t my favorite style because it’s too... rigid? I don’t know how to describe it. But the new professor was very clear and creative about it and she made me not wanted to get out of the class and eat in the cafetaria instead. The class dismiss before I know it. Wow. That’s fast.

“Yo, Sandy!”

Without looking I already know who that is because there’s only one person in this world that would call me with the name SANDY and that is Hugo Mulligan; my only friend in the entire school since the day we met as the Freshmen.

“Not in the mood, Mulligan,” I mutter under my breath as I pack stuffs in my red duffel bag. “go away!”

He scoffs, “you’re no fun.”

“And since when Sander Driesen is a fun person to be with?” I retort.

“For once in my life, I agree with you.”

I roll my eyes and he laughs.

“Actually I want to ask you a favour. If you’re not busy today.”

“No. What’s that?”

“I need to go to the bakery and the flower shop.”

“What for?”

Hugo sighs, “today is Violet’s birthday. I told you many times before.”

Oh yeah. His girlfriend’s birthday. An exchanged student from Boston a year ago. Since Hugo met her, he literally never stops talking about how cute and pretty she is—the perfect girl for his dark world, he said, which I thought is bullshit because Hugo’s world is far from dark. I know because I met his family couple times and they’re all lovely, caring and hilarious. Dad as a lawyer, Mum as a chef and two incredibly beautiful male twins who’s not yet 3 years old—Hugo loves them all and it’s clearly seen. So yeah, no ‘dark’ for him at all.

“Earth to Driesen!”

I blink, “yeah, sure. I’ll come.”

“Your Dad is okay with it?”

“He’s in Florence and won’t be back until two days later. It’s fine.”

Hugo claps his hands like a little kid who just got a flashy new toy. A bit overreacted but I never really mind about it. Being friends with someone like him is tiring at some point because his energy seems to never put out but I gradually getting use to it.

“Cool! I’ll drive!”

I never really like to drive my own car. Dad often insists me to use it instead of taking a bus everyday to school and I tell him many times that I don’t want to; probably the only thing that I still hold on against my Dad and I have no regrets, at all.

When me and Hugo finally on the road, he talks about the dinner plan he’s been working on for this past week and my dumbass brain can’t think of anything so I just nod and say “that’s great” as a response. I’m glad he’s too happy about Violet to notices my reaction.

“.... I think it’ll be the perfect opportunity to ask her on a mini getaway for 2 weeks. What do you think?”

“Perfect.”

“I was thinking about Santorini or Lake Como. Which one do you think is more suitable for her?”

I nearly scoff but hold myself back, “you can take her to Sahara desert and she’s still gonna love you.”

Hugo smiles at my witty remarks, “guess you’re right.” And then he starts to sing loudly to The Weeknd.

We arrive at the bakery not long after. I remember this place is kinda new because it used to be an Italian restaurant. Strange how small detail could take space in your memory, even for an useless information like this.

Though I have to admit that their decoration and cakes are visually pleasing. I even intrigue to try their paris-brest.

“Take whatever you want, Sandy. It’s on me.” Hugo said as he waits in the queue and even gives a smirk when he catches me almost drooling.

“I’ll just take that paris-brest.”

“How many?”

“Two.”

Hugo nods, “sure. Take a seat and wait for me, would you? I won’t be long.”

But of course there isn’t any empty seat left because this place is full. So I go outside and wait there, a bit annoyed that I didn’t bring cigarette with me today.

I watch people passing by and mentally sketching their silhouttes to kill some time but the more I try to make it vivid, the more blur it is in my mind—so I give up. My hands trembles for an unknown reason but obviously not because of the spring breeze.

“I’m done. Let’s go!”

I follow Hugo back to his car and luckily my hands are alright now. The last thing I want Hugo to see was the tremble. I don’t want him to look at me weirdly or worse, concerned.

“Here’s your cake, Sandy.”

If I’m in the mood, I’ll smack his head with my bag for calling me that but today I have no energy.

“Thanks. Gonna eat these at home.”

“You can gobble ‘em up here if you want. I don’t mind.”

I smile, “I’ll save these guys for tonight. Best thing always come late.”

“If you say so,” then Hugo looks at his watch and mutters. “Shit.”

“What?”

“I completely forgot that the flower shop will closed in 20 minutes! God, I’m so dumb!”

“Is it still far away?”

“About 10 minutes but not with THIS traffic.”

I examine the road and realise that there’s a car crash. The ambulance already there and one of the car is wrecked almost thoroughly. I hope there are no children involved. What a terrifying sight to see.

“Stop looking, Sander,” Hugo says, his tone is always serious whenever he calls me by my real name. “It’s no good.”

“I just hope they’re alright.”

Hugo doesn’t say anything but his hands on the wheel go rigid. I notice that immediately but doesn’t say anything. For more than 2 years we’ve been friends, this is the first time I witness him being like this.

“They’ll be alright. They have to.” His voice sounds icy cold but worries at the same time.

His sudden remark startles me, “I hope so too.”

After that, none of us talk to each other until his car stop near the flower shop. I think there’s nothing special or extravagant about this place, considering how Hugo loves being surrounded by something over the top sometimes. Well, maybe he does have layers that I don’t know yet—especially after what happened earlier.

“You stay?”

“I’ll go with you.”

Because it’s boring to wait alone again rather than curious of what’s inside, to be honest.

“I’m lucky the shop isn’t closed yet,” Hugo says with a shaky breath. “Violet would be pleased, right?”

I smile genuinely, “Don’t put too much pressure on yourself, pal. Relax. She’ll love you no matter what.”

He gives me a nervous smile as a response.

When I enter the shop, I’m not surprised how simple but clean this place is. Lots of different scent from each flowers catches my nose almost instantly, all at once and I can’t help but sneezes twice.

“Excuse me.” I say while wiping my mouth with a handkerchief.

“Robbie, my man!”

Hugo half-shouting voice make me jump and I follow his gaze; it’s the shop clerk, a guy around my age with unruly brown hair and a pair of eyes like Bambi, wears a green sweatshirt which a little too big for him.

“Cute.”

Shit.

Did I just say ‘cute’ that loud?

“Huh? What did you say?”

“Cute,” I say a little too quickly. “The flowers. They’re cute.”

I force myself to past a glance to that brown-haired guy and he seems doesn’t catch what I just said about him. Thank God. Even though Hugo still looks at me with bemused expression. He’s the first person who knows that I’m a Pansexual and probably the only person in this world—and I’m not definitely not gonna come out to Dad anytime soon. There’s no use.

“Can we hurry? I’m hungry.” I try to change the subject.

It works. Hugo turns his head again to the cute guy and made some gestures I don’t understand.

Wait...

Gestures?

Can it be... that guy...

“Robbie,” he mouths while doing all he can to communicates using sign languages. “My flowers for Violet, please.”

The guy named Robbie smile and nod then later went to the back to get Hugo’s order.

“Hugo, does he...”

“Deaf. Yes.”

“Robbie. That’s his real name?”

“No, it’s Robbe but I call him Robbie just like I love to call you Sandy.”

I roll my eyes to my brain, “fuck you, man. You can’t just changed someone else’s name.”

Hugo gives me a smirk, “I just did, Sandy.”

Before I can say anything, Robbe comes back with HUGE bouquet which consists with any kind of red flowers from rose to tulip. I almost sneeze again but successfully hold myself back.

“Don’t you dare sneeze on my precious bouquet, Driesen!”

“I wasn’t.” I retort but give him my most smug face.

“You’re funny.”

“Sorry?”

“Robbie said you’re funny.”

I look at Robbe and there’s a smile appeared on his face—deadass looking at me in the eyes too. Seems like this guy is very straight-forward and unapologetic.

“Uh... thanks, I guess?”

Robbe shrugs but still smiling. Then he writes something on a piece of paper and gives it to me : “would you like some flowers too? It’s on me.”

I look up, perplex and say, “why?”

He writes again : “because I think you need one :)”

This is interesting.

“Well, okay then. Thank you. What will you give to me?”

Why do I sound more flirty than curious? For God’s sake, he’s a stranger! STRANGER! And I dare to sound like THAT? The fuck is wrong with me?

Hugo snorts beside me. He’s clearly been enjoying himself. But again, I also laughed too hard when he told me the story about him been slipping and falling in front of everybody at his family’s business private party; so yeah, I guess I deserve that snort.

Robbe comes back from the back of the room holding a simple bouquet; there were two Eglantines, one Iris and three Larkspurs. I didn’t speak flowers so I’m not sure why he gives me those but when he hands it to me, I accept it wholeheartedly and say thank you. Robbe smiles and makes some sign that I’m sure it’s meant for “you’re welcome”.

My ears catch a girl’s voice entering the shop. She’s also around my age; with blue eyes, auburn hair and very pretty. Her eyes twinkled like the sun is shining on them.

“Afternoon, everybody,” she says cheerfully and then walks toward Robbe and pecks his lips. “Hey babe! Glad you made new friends.”

Ouch!

So he’s already have a girlfriend and that realisation stings me a little. And I DARED to ‘flirt’ with her boyfriend earlier!

But of course he is. I shouldn’t be surprised. Beside, they looks nice together.

Hugo nudges my arm, “you ready to go?”

I nod and and without saying another word again, I force myself to get out from there. Damn. I should say something to Robbe but I just can’t.

“You okay?”

“Fine. Can we go home now? I’m tired.”

“Sure.”

Ever since I broke up with my ex around a year ago because she cheated, my heart always told me not to trust any kind of affection towards other people. I keep questioning myself what did I do wrong, about her and about us—and whenever I ask her about that, she says “it’s not you, it’s ME. I’m sorry. So sorry, Sander!” . But it only took a month for me to forgave her and know what? We’re friends now, even though she moves to another city with her new boyfriend. Sometimes life can be very strange. I thought she’s unforgivable but seem like I can’t hold grudges for too long—Hugo told me that it’s a bad thing but... I don’t know, part of me doesn’t agree with him for an unknown reason.

“He meant well, you know?”

My thoughts bursts like a bubble, “what?”

“Robbe,” Hugo mutters. “With those flowers.”

I look at my new given bouquet, “you know the meaning of these guys?”

“Well, I coincidentally understand the meaning of those,” Hugo says. “You see, my Mum often bring back Iris home to tell the whole house that good news is coming, Larkspur is my Dad’s favorite because it meant “lightness” and you’re gonna find a vase full of them in his study and the last one which is Eglantine is literally speaks for “I wound to heal” , it was my Grandma’s favorite because it reminded her of her childhood home. And that’s that.”

Now I understand why Robbe ‘said’ that I need some of his flowers but the most surprising part was he seems to understand what I feel just by a single glance.

But it can’t be, can it? It can be just a coincidence that he picks those flowers for me. Maybe they’re the most best-seller kinds there and he thought I might like them too.

And I do. I really, really do.

[edorazzi]

Well, here we are again! Twitter said yes to a review post for a Miraculous magazine that suddenly showed up in my local area. ‘Tis the season after all, and by that I mean someone bought it for me as a joke birthday gift and I was way too happy about that.

I’ve done previous reviews of the Miraculous Christmas calendar, Easter egg set, superhero fashion dolls and action figures, so let’s dive into the unknown world of merchandising yet again!

(As always, if you enjoy my posts, please consider checking out my Twitter page or supporting me on Patreon for lots of bonus content!)

4 FREE GIFTS! PACKED WITH ACTIVITIES! MEET THE KWAMIS! PRANKS & LOLS! CUT-OUT MEMES! FANGIRL ALERT! NAIL ART! 100% OFFICIAL! I’m overwhelmed! It feels like I’m having a seizure just from the packaging!!! 

I should preface this by saying I haven’t bought a magazine like this in years. Possibly ever. I read things like the Beano, Animals & You and the odd Disney Princess zine when I was a kid but I have no idea what to expect from a free-gift-packed kiddie magazine in 2019. If the outside is anything to go by we’re in for a wild ride.

I’m noticing that it says “Miraculous #20″ on the back. Does this mean I’ve missed 19 previous issues? I’m genuinely a little upset by that. My local area is a complete dry zone for Miraculous so I haven’t had the chance to pick these up.

First step: let’s separate everything out and get a look at these freeeee giftssss. Except they aren’t free, because this magazine was like £3.99. This does seem to be the current trend - it’s kinda rare to see any kids’ zines without the excess packaging crammed with ‘free’ stuff. Is it really too expensive to just produce the magazine? Probably, in this economy.

Chat Noir is revealed on the cover! He was on the back of the plastic jacket, but it’s still nice to see the kids as a front-cover duo. Apparently we’re going to learn to draw Pollen, too, which sounds fun. I’m actually liking the look of the gifts as well, but we’ll get into those in a minute.

This hairbrush............. is adorable. Oh my god. It’s pretty cheap and flimsy but it functions the way it’s supposed to, and the Ladybug design has been taken into account in a better way than “it’s red/black, that counts” (lest we forget the UTTER BULLSHIT of the Christmas calendar, and YES I’m still mad about that). I don’t know how well I expect the outer sticker to last, but if it can take a bit of wear and tear this would be an adorable little travel brush. Nicely done, lads!

These nail stickers? Also adorable. They remind me of the kiddie makeup sets I had when I was little, back in the early 00s when plastic stick-on nails and decals were all the rage. Are they still a thing? That’s nice to know.

There are 13 designs (that I can count) - a Queen Bee mask, Chat Noir pawprint cake, macaron, cupcake, heart-print cookie, Ladybug stud, flower, lightning bolt, love heart, Marinette heart, bee, fox tail and star. The majority are directly related to the show and that makes them feel special. No Carapace though? :(

I’ve put a little Marinette heart on my furthest finger. At the time of typing this up (about a day later) it’s still firmly in place. I haven’t really knocked it around, granted, but it’s not flimsy enough to fall off after five minutes either. It’s also really cute to look at. Guess I’m still a decal-loving 2004 girl at heart......

These stickers though!!! Wow! They’re those holographic and slightly-puffy kind and they feel like pretty good quality, and the designs are so cute! I can’t fault these, they’re absolutely adorable. I immediately want to stick them everywhere.

So I’ve stuck them everywhere. I’m especially proud of the light switch pun. My room looks GREAT.

I saved these “mystery stickers” for last because I’m weak for the thrill of mystery bags, and there wasn’t anything on the packaging to indicate what kind of designs to expect. And OH!!!! OH, IT’S MY BOY!!!! Look at him!!!! 

I made jokes with the Christmas calendar about all the Chat Noir items being stolen ahead of time, but that’s definitely NOT the case with this magazine. I have been SPOILED with the presence of my cat son.

These stickers are similar to the sticker sheet (and the Chillin’ Out design is reprinted), but they’re puffier and non-holographic. I’m deeply allured by the “decorate your phone or tablet” suggestion on the packet, but I’m going to see how the previous stickers withstand the wear-and-tear of my laptop lid before adding any more. If I damage these beautiful Adrien stickers I’ll be devastated.

Those are our free gifts! They’re actually very fun and cute, I’m really happy with them! I guess now it’s time to get into the magazine itself...........

I genuinely almost forgot the magazine was the main part of this package. I figured I was done, but we’ve barely even started! Here’s a splash page of the kwami. Kwami with a capital K? Kwamis? I still feel like it should be singular-lower-case-k-kwami. I’ve never been happy about this “miraculouses” business either.

But is that--

It IS!!!! It’s Nino!!! 

I guess this is the new flavour of Miraculous tie-ins. Now they’ve broadened out to a full team we’re seeing a lot more of Adrien alongside the girls, and Nino is the elusive hero who shows up once in a blue moon. At least this time his name isn’t in the title of the gotdam show.......

Anyway, I can see I’m supposed to draw my “fave Kwami”. Better get to it.

Felix just wants a break. Just one break. But not in this magazine.

Speaking of seeing more of Adrien (and, tragically, less of Nino), this is the kind of splash page I want to see! Both kids are here! The banner themed with Marinette’s signature flowers is a nice touch too; that’s associated with her arts ‘n’ crafts in the show already and it makes sense to apply it to the creative portion of this magazine too.

I LOVE the promotion of Chat Noir nails as something the little girls buying this magazine will definitely want to try. I’d expect them to do Marinette vs Ladybug nails, but instead we get a boyish option! Hell yeah!

I’m a little confused by the Queen Bee masks apparently going on the Chat Noir nails though. I guess they’re friends? Is this secret AdriChlo confirmation? Watch out, Marinette, Kagami’s not the one to be worried about.

SURE WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE SOME TURTLE STICKERS FOR AN ALL-BOYS THEME BUT I GUESS NOT HUH

Next up is a short merch catalogue (why would you put the big bold arrow pointing right to the underoos.....). Would those Chat Noir socks come in my size? Asking for me.

Then there’s......... this page. FANGIRL ALERT. God. It’s like the Ladyblog, if only the Ladyblog ever gave a heck about reporting what Chat Noir’s up to.

THE SPELL WAS BROKEN AND THE FANDOM IMPLODED WITH JOY.

I really have to wonder what age range this is meant for. Do kids know what a “fandom” is? Do little girls consider themselves “fangirls”? I guess most kids have enough internet access to figure it out these days (all the hashtags and LOLs and memes speak volumes), but I can’t imagine being young enough to fit the target range of this magazine while also knowing these terms. I dunno.

(Also, the definition of ‘implosion’ is ‘an instance of something collapsing violently inwards’, so I’m not sure that’s the word they’re looking for. Unless the return to the status quo in Dark Cupid and the continuing stagnation of the love square was enough to make people quit in frustration? Probably.)

I’m filling it in, of course. Because I must.

I gave up on the pre-approved ratings system pretty much right away, but I think this is an accurate rating of my LadyNoir opinions. 

I might be kinda cynical about it here, but I am actually pretty fond of how this magazine sells Ladybug and Chat Noir as a couple. The show’s portraying it as very onesided lately, with Chat pining over Ladybug who has absolutely no interest in him (Glaciator was a TERRIBLE episode and I’m still hurting from it), but reading this zine I’d guess they were already dating. It’s cheesy, but in a nice way.

I have to laugh at “the most amazing thing about this super duo is that they always look out for and protect each other” though. Chat’s usually pretty focused on LB, sure, but there are endless instances of LB using Chat as cannon fodder and just generally abandoning him to get mauled by akuma while she carries out her personal private plan to save the day. Maybe we’re just focusing on the better-written episodes, huh?

Moving ahead. I’ve been dreading this page since reading “Plaggs Pranks & LOLs” on the back of the packaging. I feel hatred in my very bones just looking at it.

I like that there’s ONE instance of the term “ladybird” in the joke column. This is a UK-based magazine and that IS the word we tend to use over here - “ladybug” is an Americanism - but it’s like they’re worried kids could have got to the middle of this magazine about a superhero named Ladybug and then not understand the bug jokes. Maybe whoever was writing this page slipped up?

OH NOOOOO. MARINETTE, NOOOOOOOOOO.

THIS IS WHY FELIX GOT RID OF YOU, PLAGG. THESE ARE ADRIEN’S PROBLEMS NOW.

(mmm whatcha saaaaay)

I mean........... YEAH, I guess, but we absolutely did see Plagg destroy Felix with an entire shelf of heavy books. I guess he’s nicer with Adrien. It’s all fun and games until someone has a nervous breakdown in the library.

I do love the concept of Tikki getting glitter-bombed by Plagg through the mail. She just curiously opens up the little letter which got slipped into Marinette’s purse, and-- WOOSH. One entire wall of Mari’s room is glittery except for a little Tikki-shaped silhouette. 

Next up is a two-page comic which is absolutely adorable! Look at those little chibis! The warm and soft colour palette! This is nicer than most of the official Miraculous comic book art I’ve seen, I hope they keep giving this artist work.

Nino’s here too (and he looks great!), and I like the touch of Marinette and Adrien playing as each other’s superhero characters. Adrien even wins the match, though I guess there’s something to be said about Ladybug beating Chat Noir (again)...... 

It does raise the question yet again of where this tie-in merchandise is coming from! They’ve had action figures, a movie, music video features, now an arcade game... Who’s getting the royalties here? Who’s profiting? Is this how Fu can afford to buy all those rare ingredients for the magic potions?

Over the page we have an activity to Design your Secret Lair! Right away I love the Marinette theme of the page, the soft pink and flowers, and the drawing space looking like a page in a binder with marker tabs and everything.

I have to design my secret lair, of course: 

What do you think? I’m very creative. I’ll need an adult to send in the drawing of my hideout but I think I’ve really got a shot at those unicorn headphones.

Now we’re on to puzzles and character pages. I don’t know what ol’ Gabe is doing trying to meet a 13 year old girl in the dead of night without telling anyone, you’d think if he’s got that much free time on his hands he could be spending it with his son.

I don’t know how those points in Ladybug’s power profile are awarded or what they mean, but you can tell this is a fan magazine. Official sources would have put her at a 10.

Standard House of Villains page! Most of these were good episodes but I’m deeply offended Riposte isn’t on here. Maybe her motives weren’t dramatic and cartoonish enough to be up in the ranks with Glaciator and Gorizilla?

“Cat Noir’s dad is also the evil Hawk Moth”, huh? I mean that’s not WRONG, but is it really something to put in his power profile when Adrien doesn’t even know yet??? Feels like we’re kinda jumping the gun on the poor boy. What if he picks up this magazine?

Apparently he’s one point weaker than Ladybug (seriously???), two points faster, equally as agile, one point less skilled and two points less cool. Despite all those lesses he still comes out at an equal 9, which is a relief! These kids are a team, putting either of them below the other would have been a big no.

I did the colouring page too, naturally. Je suis un artiste.

Now we’ve got a page fresh from the Ladyblog, a Miraculous quiz! Not a lot of excitement, but it’s nice to see Alya getting her own section.

I like that the qualifications of “you could be Ladybug herself!” are knowing what city Marinette lives in and what school she goes to. Well done, Mari! You’re doing your best!!!

TEACHER I AM SO HUNGRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

I gotta say, I’m not so sure about decorating donuts with fondant. I’ve never tried it so I could be wrong, but it feels like rolled icing instead of frosting(?) would be too heavy for an entire donut. The texture is totally different.

I mean I guess if you’re going to load your kids up on sugar you might as well go all the way. They’re going to look like they’ve eaten something horrible with all that black fondant, but they’ll have fun. Adrien would love these.

WHERE’S NINO. THIS IS JUST UNFAIR. You’ll have four out of five heroes, then a double of Marinette and Tikki? Maybe this just goes to show how little memorable dialogue Carapace has.

Though if “Spots On!” is Marinette’s dialogue and not Ladybug’s, why are the other transformation phrases attributed to Rena Rouge and Queen Bee instead of Alya and Chloé? Surely they could have picked something better for Marinette to justify having her on this list twice instead of Nino.

The next page brings us one of those flowchart quizzes! And ouch, yet again the absence of the other heroes is obvious. I can understand not including Chloé here since she’s technically not a “friendly” character yet, but no Nino? Alya and Marinette are close friends, but Adrien doesn’t really hang out with them without Nino around. Having the three of them together just seems strange.

I do like the little fashion page! They’re all cute and affordable and easy to find on the high street here. I’d love to see how other issues of this magazine are structured; is there a different fashion spot every time? Styles to channel each individual hero would be adorable.

Moving on to a tutorial for a Ladybug notebook! I would have made this, but I didn’t have the time nor a notebook to stick it to.

Between this and the donuts, it seems weird that these designs are based on, like... an actual beetle, eyes and antennae and all. Shouldn’t it be Ladybug’s symbol? These come across more like “fun animals” arts ‘n’ crafts instead of themed after Miraculous specifically. I think if I made this (or decorated the donuts) I’d miss out the head and match the spot pattern to Ladybug’s symbol. 

The hidden message design is adorable though. I can see this being a craft kids are super proud of.

Another activity page! I didn’t have a go at these but they’re pretty standard. It’s cute that the coded message designs are the same as the stickers and nail decals!

Also, apparently Ladybug’s ‘secret’ is “LB mask + heart + CN mask”, which was (somehow) stolen by Volpina. Is that the secret Hawk Moth was talking about earlier in the magazine? Is he blackmailing Ladybug with revealing she has a crush on Chat Noir? How did Volpina ‘steal’ this secret? Is LadyNoir finally reciprocated???? THIS IS A WHOLE EPISODE IN ITSELF, I NEED ANSWERS--

Next page we have an ad for another girly magazine (Quizzes! LOLs! Celebs! Cringes! Puzzles!). I think I’ll pass, no matter how appealing that giant microphone pen is. 

And a “Miraculous Identity” quiz! Tikki’s apparently super fickle with her wielders, three seasons of relentlessly praising Marinette and now she’s telling us we’re the Chosen Ones. You can’t fool me with those big ol’ eyes.

My inner superhero is Marvellous Fox, by the way. Though yet again I’m noticing we don’t have turtle options...................

And on the back cover... the memes. Oh, sweet lord, the memes. They’re hashtag-SoRelatable! And I can cut them out to keep! Oh boy!!!

Is this what kids do when they have limited internet access? Cut fresh memes out of magazines and carry them around? I need to know.

That’s a very sinister Ladybug at the bottom of the page though. What’s-- What’s she going to do to me if I don’t cut out and keep these memes. Ladybug what are you going to do if I d--

Well that brings us to the end of the magazine! And yet again I’m surprised by how much time it takes to just put a bunch of photos together and write about them.

This is a neat little magazine all in all! The ‘free gifts’ are pretty nice, there’s a fair amount of content and the whole thing is pretty cute for young fans of the show. I could see myself buying this again - if it ever shows up on shelves, Miraculous is so scarce around here that I fully expect it to disappear again after this one issue - just for the free junk, but it would be interesting to see how they’d structure different issues too!

I notice we never did get that promised tutorial on how to draw Pollen; the one advertised on the cover. Was the “draw your favourite Kwami” activity supposed to cover that? I’m not sure that really counts.

If you got this far, thanks for joining me on this Miraculous journey! We’ll meet again whenever I get another piece of weird ML merch to cover. Bien joué!

[xnekorux]

Can't Just Do That (K/DA Universe)

Can’t Just Do That (Akali x Evelynn)

“Thank you, everyone! For coming here to see K/DA!” Ahri thanked the crowd as she stepped forward and placed herself at the front of the stage, merely a few steps away from the fans reaching out to her. She gave them flying kisses, driving all the spectators crazier for her than before.

Kai'Sa let out a cheer as she waved both of her hands at the huge audience before them, a wide and open smile on her face as she excitedly took in all the cheers and applause from hundreds of their fans. Maybe even thousands.

“We did this for all of you! We love you!” Kai'Sa called out, fueling the energy in the stadium even more than before.

Akali gave a few poses towards the people, laughing into the mic hooked on her right ear once she felt like she looked silly with all the faces she was making underneath the black face mask she was wearing. Kai'Sa gave her hip a light bump, which she returned almost instantly. Out of all of them, they were the most excited and energetic about the performance they just gave. Of course they couldn’t help but feel like they’re on cloud nine.

Beside the rapper out of the four-member band, the diva of the group merely presented her signature smirk, slipped her glasses on and waved a hand at their roaring fans. Despite the soundless gesture, it seemed to be enough for the people, who increased their cheers in return.

For a moment, Akali took her gaze away from the fans in front of them and directed it to the flying strands of magenta. Amaranth magenta, to be utterly specific. They were dancing in the wind as the night air blew against them. Her eyes traced the airborne tresses until she found herself looking at round and tinted glasses, which was pulled down by its wearer enough for a pair of stunning amber eyes to be unveiled only for her to see.

With just that gaze, Evelynn’s voice rang in Akali’s head as if the rambunctious crowd was not there to deafen their ears. A simple wordless question within those striking orbs and Akali was momentarily down for the count.

Her azure eyes darted back to the cheering fans, while she thankfully succeeded in preventing her entire body from visibly stiffening. The rich and spicy scent of sandalwood invaded Akali’s sense of smell the second Evelynn held her by her shoulders from behind and perched her chin on her right shoulder. She wanted to ask why the said female suddenly became physical with her, but two things stopped her.

One, right at their left, Ahri and Kai'Sa can be seen having one arm slung around each other’s shoulders as they thanked and spoke to their audience. It would probably be considered rude and somewhat appalling for Akali to reject Evelynn’s show of camaraderie, especially since they’re now together in one group and will probably be for a long time.

Two, Akali honestly did not want Evelynn to step away in the first place. In fact, she was hoping the much more experienced artist would lean in closer and increase more of the physical contact between their clothed bodies.

“Let us not forget about how much energy this one put out.”

The purr-like words reached Akali’s ears clearer than what the people heard through the speakers spread around the concert area. While Ahri and Kai'Sa vocally agreed with Evelynn’s words, Akali silently thanked the Gods and Goddesses above that she was able to hide her blushing face underneath her mask.

“We’re the K/DA! Good night!”

It was supposed to end there, but no. Apparently, Evelynn didn’t want to cut it that way. The rapper she practically has her claws on visibly jumped when her dark purple, matte-painted lips landed a quick smooch on the younger artist’s right cheek, half of which wasn’t concealed with the glow-in-the-dark face wear.

Squeals had erupted the second the fleeting moment transpired. It was a predictable action, honestly. What’s a tad bit surprising was the way Akali’s hands shot up to cover her already concealed mouth, which became agape underneath the black cloth, as she looked over to Evelynn, who now had her attention to their fans and was waving at them as she started down the path leading to their exit.

Composing herself within exactly three seconds, Akali tried playing off her shock with her own version of flustered laughter and a feeble dismissal wave towards the crowd’s squealing. She quickly trailed after Kai'Sa, who was practically skipping after Evelynn. She gave a couple of fist-bump gestures at the audience before she slipped behind the coverage of the sidelines, letting out a huge breath once she was out of sight from their fans.

She removed the mask from her face, shoving it inside of the black pouch latched on the back of her pants. As she moved along with her bandmates, she couldn’t stop her eyes from searching for the person that’s wholly responsible why she lost all of her composure onstage.

The more they approached the limousine waiting for them at one of the entrances of the stadium, the more she felt nervous about what was going to happen. Being in an enclosed space such as a limo will surely spark up more than one conversation in their group. Akali asked herself so many questions as they neared the stretched vehicle.

Would Evelynn bring up the kiss?

Would she tell them the meaning behind it?

Was it her way of showing fellowship?

Was it done with no intention other than friendly?

Little did Akali know, disappointment was the only thing she’ll experience once the ride to their new home is through.

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

True to her wordless promise, Evelynn indeed left Akali to wallow in a small inner pit of disappointment. The leader of the group spoke to the claw-wearing female throughout the car ride. Heck, Ahri had Evelynn’s attention the entire trip. Sure, Ahri would bring up topics that would give Akali and Kai'Sa the opportunity to participate in, but as it goes on and on, it eventually leads to Ahri and Evelynn speaking among themselves yet again.

Akali tried to bring it up to Kai'Sa as casually as she could, but the dancer merely waved it off and said, “They’ve been celebrities far longer than us. It’s kinda expected, right?”

Throughout their ride to the building where they’re staying at, Akali was engaged with a conversation with Kai'Sa. Not that she minded or anything. Talking with the dreamer of the group was nice and has never failed bringing a smile on her face, but right now, she was yearning to speak with a different member.

Walking into the tall structure and riding the elevator up to the top floor, where their luxurious penthouse is waiting for them to occupy, Akali tried not to appear so down, especially since Kai'Sa looked like a bundle of energy and excitement about to burst. She didn’t want to be the party-pooper.

“Alright, girls.” Ahri began as they stepped into their penthouse suite. “From now on, we will be staying here together.”

“Wait, you’re serious?” Kai'Sa asked, eyes wide with wonder as she dashed into the unit and looked around like a little kid in a candy store. “This whole space is ours?”

“Yes indeed.” Evelynn answered, slipping her glasses off. “Ahri made sure we have the best of the best.”

“Whoa…” Akali’s silent disappointment diminished when she allowed herself to become distracted with the place she’ll be calling her home for the time being. Unlike Kai'Sa, who zipped and zoomed all over the place, Akali wandered around the vast unit like an adventurer in a jungle. A very rich and prestige-looking jungle.

Climbing up the white stairs leading to the second floor of the suite, Akali found a pair of short and narrow halls leading to two rooms. Taking only a few quick peeks inside, Akali discovered they were bedrooms. Both sleeping quarters were as grand as the other and furnished completely with expensive-looking furniture and a lavish California king bed each.

‘Okay, I found two bedrooms…’ Akali thought to herself as she looked around for any more hallways that may lead to another pair of chambers. ‘Where are the other two?’

Five minutes later, all Akali found was a private pool and hot tub area. She also found a room filled with various consoles, specifically video games. She’s quite sure Ahri’s the one responsible for all of the gaming consoles and state of the art technology in that room.

“Uhh, Ahri?” Akali called out as she leaned slightly over the glass railing outlined with a cool silver steel.

“Hmm?” Came the hummed response of their band leader.

“Where are the other bedrooms?”

“Oh! I totally forgot to tell all of you about that!” Ahri laughed at her little blunder, shaking her head as she did. “None of you mind sharing a room with another, right?”

“Sharing a room?” Akali repeated, blinking.

“Mm-hm. You see, out of all the choices I had, this particular penthouse was the most beautiful and breathtaking. I just thought, maybe sharing a bed with a friend won’t be so bad.”

“It isn’t!” Kai'Sa quipped from the kitchen before anyone else could say anything. “Who’s going to be my bedmate?”

Ahri was about to respond to the question, but she was cut off by the low hiss of a soda can being opened and the sound of someone clearing their throat, which came from the mini bar found at one side of the first floor of their unit. Evelynn was perched on the counter top, legs crossed and can of cola hovering a few inches away from her lips.

“I wish to keep my beauty sleep every single day.” She stressed out her point before she drank a small amount of soda. Who knows what Ahri would do to her if she drank an alcoholic drink at the first few minutes of their arrival at their new home. Evelynn is no alcoholic, so she certainly did not want to come off as one.

Ahri playfully rolled her eyes at what Evelynn meant with what she said. With Kai'Sa always bringing the energy in their group, of course the young female would be expectedly upbeat and hyper at night.

“That would be me, Kai'Sa!” Ahri called back to their group’s lead dancer before she looked up towards their rapper. “Akali, you wouldn’t mind sharing a room with our sweet diva, would you?”

Akali stared back down to Ahri with those wide eyes of hers, which risked a look towards her soon-to-be roommate of hers. Azure met amber and damn it, she failed to resist that alluring charm that made nearly everyone’s knees go weak. Evelynn does not go by sweet at all. Seductive and bewitching would be far more befitting for the magenta-haired celebrity.

“Would you?” Evelynn prodded, quirking an eyebrow at her as she took another sip from her beverage.

Successfully, Akali suppressed the flushing of her cheeks and was able to provide an appropriate and seemingly normal reply. “No, ‘course not. We’re a group and well… we’re going to get used to each other soon anyway, right?”

Ahri beamed at her. “That’s the spirit, Akali! You and Eve here have the most synergy out of the group, so this’ll be nothing but bonding between the two of you.”

Feeling brave once again, or maybe foolish would be the correct term, Akali chose to spare another look at Evelynn, who of course was actually waiting for her gaze to connect with hers. She showed a smile that was supposed to be reinforced with confidence, only for it to appear somewhat nervous and unsure, which made her feel a bit idiotic for being so affected by the other female.

In return to her little expression, Evelynn gave her a kiss-like gesture with those perfect lips of hers. The action purged Akali’s self-control. Next thing she knew, her cheeks were completely red and Evelynn was laughing at her flushed face.

“S-Shut up!” She called out before turning around and making her way to one of the bedrooms, specifically the one with a black and gold bed.

“I didn’t even say anything, darling!” Evelynn retorted teasingly, her smile being carried out by the tone of her voice.

“Anyone want pizza?” Came Kai'Sa’s offer.

“Ooh! Call Birdio’s and have them deliver a pair of their ‘Pizza of the Week’!” Ahri’s excited response was the last thing Akali heard before she stepped inside the bedroom she’ll be sharing with Evelynn, closing the door behind her.

She flopped onto the bed face first, rolling on her back when she was getting suffocated with the lack of air she was taking. Her cap slipped off her head as she shifted and looked up to the pristine ceiling of the room. She released a breath before pushing her back off the sheets and propping her hands behind her, eyes surveying the space she’ll be sharing with the so called ‘sweet diva’.

The bed was the biggest one she has ever seen in her entire life, so she was somewhat thankful of that. She can probably make a wall of pillows between them once Evelynn is asleep. Akali was never used to sleeping on a plush bed, after all. She usually slept on futons. Not that she minded though.

The loud and stressed groan echoed in the room, the origin of it rubbing the back of her neck as she asked herself why she was making such a big deal out of this whole ‘sharing a room’issue. It shouldn’t even be labeled an issue in the first place! Akali’s pretty sure she’s the only one who sees it that way. What, with Kai'Sa being all giddy in having a roommate and Ahri being so willing to room with such a hyperactive dancer, of course this was supposed to be no issue.

Maybe Akali’s issue was the fact that there’s something getting between her and Evelynn that she can’t decipher. Just by envisioning herself laying beside Evelynn wearing nothing but her usual nightwear, which consists of an oversize shirt and some standard panties, it was making her face as warm as the heater of their penthouse.

“What the hell is wrong with me?” Akali muttered under her breath, pulling on her hair out of self-irritation.

Her dark hair fell over her back and was stuck out in all directions, it being naturally unruly. She scratched her head as she stood up, cap being tossed onto a nearby chair in the process, and made her way to the bathroom. 

Maybe a quick shower will ease the tension she felt.

Meanwhile, downstairs…

Two pairs of eyes, one bright amber and the other honey gold, watched as Kai'Sa bounded up the stairs and went to check out the entertainment room the group’s leader told her about. The dancer told the two that she’ll be back soon after she’s finished with her little exploration. Once Kai'Sa was up at the second floor, Ahri turned to Evelynn.

“I know and have seen the reason why you’re called a diva,” Ahri began as she occupied one of stools near Evelynn, who’s still seated on the bar counter. “but maybe you could try to play nice with Akali. I wasn’t lying when I said you two are the most in sync in the group. It would be a waste if you two didn’t get along.”

Evelynn chuckled and placed her drink down. “Oh Ahri, I won’t eat the poor girl alive.”

Ahri half-heartedly narrowed her eyes. “Now don’t you dare do something to upset her.”

“Darling, I was the one who encouraged her to write her little rap, wasn’t I?”

“I know that. I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t have been able to finish it without your support.”

“Then, what’s with all these doubts?” Evelynn asked in a tone that implied there’s certainly something Ahri should concern herself with.

The pointed look she got from the face of FOXY cosmetics nearly made her laugh. “Eve, please. Don’t you dare toy with her.”

“No promises, little gumiho.”

Pouting once she heard her friend use one of her two nicknames, Ahri gave Evelynn an ‘I’m watching you’ gesture before she climbed up the stairs to follow after Kai'Sa. Probably to make sure the spirited dancer didn’t break anything.

Ahri had just arrived at the top of the stairs when the entire unit was suddenly booming with a music full of bass and would certainly coax any dancer to move along with its tune. Evelynn laughed quietly to herself as she saw Ahri jump in surprise at the sudden drop of the beat and attempt to shout through the high-volumed music. Kai'Sa must’ve discovered the controls of the sound system wired all around the penthouse.

Evelynn hopped off the counter and made her way up the stairs. It was already late, so she thought about turning in early. She’s rather confident that the walls will be enough to muffle the booming music Kai'Sa was playing through the speakers.

A warm shower is surely on top of her to-do list once she gets to her shared quarters.

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

The sound of the relieved sigh Akali gave bounced around the walls of the wide bathroom, its echo fading more and more with each second that ticked away. She knew that a nice little shower would do her good. Here she was, feeling completely relaxed and stress-free. It gave her an opportunity to think about the so called tension between her and Evelynn with a much clearer head.

She made plans already. With all of her efforts, she’ll attempt to socialize with Evelynn much more often and maybe find more common ground with the diva. After all, out of everyone in the group, it was that beguiling siren that gave her the right amount of push to be confident with the lyrics she incorporated in their song.

They didn’t record the music video together and were nearly separated from one another throughout the duration of the filming. Although, she and Evelynn did feature in a fair share of scenes together. But even before all that, when they were still writing and recording the song itself at the studio, Akali was the most unsure out of all of them.

Ahri and Evelynn were clearly used to everything that usually happens in the music industry, and a couple of months ago, Kai'Sa participated in Hong Kong’s famous TV show Can You Dance and won the televised dance competition, but Akali? Well, she’s the newest of the new in this industry.

The confidence she shows in her public performances must be admirable, but when it came to the big deal, she found herself feeling a bit intimidated by the other famous rappers out there. Who was she to level with them?

Of course what she didn’t expect was the encouragement Evelynn gave her. She honestly thought the siren-like celebrity would be the last one to act like some sort of supportive friend, but apparently, life is full of surprises. Evelynn didn���t lie in their interview with PopRox.

In fact, maybe it was Akali that hid more of the truth.

Evelynn had literally told her she would work with nothing and no one but the best. That would certainly mean that Evelynn thought of her as the best rapper she had known. How could Akali feel so little if such a successful and talented artist like Evelynn thought of her so highly?

The fact that Evelynn is massively gorgeous and has the strongest sex appeal Akali had ever seen in her whole life may be the needed last drop of fuel that drove her to pen down the lyrics for her rap. She honestly didn’t know the reason why the older artist would waste time with her, other than them being bandmates. Maybe she just didn’t want her to let the group down with her amateur skills?

Even if that’s the case, Akali had created a rap she secretly dedicated to Evelynn. Her part in their song practically says everything. Those words were for none other than the renowned diva, but it wasn’t really a surprise when the latter didn’t take notice and said not a single word about it.

Akali was so glad that she usually performed that rap alongside Evelynn as part of the choreography Kai'Sa orchestrated. If not, then she’s sure the others would notice how she would give glances towards Evelynn’s direction during her rap, or every time it was the amber-eyed vocalist’s turn to sing her own part, which came after Akali’s.

Maybe she was in denial?

Denial of what though?

Akali huffed as she turned the shower off and reached outside of the stall, retrieving the towel she left on the hook nearby. She briefly scrubbed her hair and wiped her entire form before she wound the towel around her naked body. The door of the shower stall slid open soundlessly as Akali pushed it aside and stepped out, the scent of the mint shampoo and lavender body wash flooding out with her.

A yawn overtook her when she was in the middle of exiting the stall, prompting her to close her eyes and stretch back. As she did, she forgot the clothes she was wearing earlier, which she had discarded on the floor before she hopped in and under the shower.

A high-pitched squeak emitted once her right foot slipped on her abandoned jacket and her left grazed against the moistened tiles. A flash of magenta, amber and black was the last thing she laid eyes on before her eyes clamped shut as she mentally prepared herself for her crash landing on the floor. In the process of it, her right hand, which was stretched upward thanks to her yawn, made a desperate yet blind attempt to grab hold into something.

Unfortunately, all she was able to grab was a black towel, which was pulled off and away from its place the second her fingers grasped onto it.

Thud!

Teeth as clenched as her eyes, Akali shook her head at her clumsiness. “Ow…”

As the pain in her butt became numb, she shook her head again and completely pulled the black towel that ended up draping over her head. Blinking and steadying her gaze, Akali found herself looking at a pair of long legs that every man could only dream that would wrap around their waist.

Gulping nervously, Akali slowly raised her head. While she did, she prayed that whoever the owner of these heart-quickening legs are was clad with at least something.

…..

…..

…..

But then she saw what was completely exposed between those perfectly shaped thighs.

“Gah!” Akali snapped her head downward and refused to look up, using the black towel she was holding to cover her entire self. It succeeded in cloaking her but only just a little bit. “Gomenasai!” (I’m sorry!)

Evelynn stood in front of Akali, left arm wound around her torso just beneath her breasts and right hand tapping a finger against the smirk on her lips. Despite her state of dress, she seems to be unaffected that Akali had 'brazenly’ disrobed her.

“That’s exactly what happens when you leave your dirty clothes on the floor.” Evelynn said in a feigned scolding manner, her tone contradicting with the curve on her lips. “Although undressing someone so boldly in the middle of it isn’t a common happening.”

Akali’s let out a squeak-like reaction underneath the towel, which she was honestly contemplating if she should give it to Evelynn or just rush out of the bathroom like how a ninja would do.

“Once you’re finished using my towel as a shield, maybe you’d kindly hang it on the hook near the stall.” Evelynn said, stepping over Akali and slipping inside the shower as if nothing awkward-worthy happened.

The second Akali heard the shower stall’s door slide shut, she practically bursted out of her little hiding place. She hurriedly hung the towel on the mentioned hook before she hastily collected her clothes on the floor, tossing them in the hamper beside the sink before making a mad dash out of the room, slamming the bathroom door shut once she was in their sleeping chambers.

Like a human whirlwind, Akali messily rummaged through the walk-in closet connected to their bedroom for her clothes. Much to her misfortune, it seems like Ahri did not stock her side of the closet with any oversize shirts. She took a quick peek at Evelynn’s area of clothes and found a few nightshirts that would be a fitting alternative for an oversize shirt of her preference, but once she caught sight of the lined up lingerie on display in the multiple glass drawers, she abandoned the idea of borrowing anything.

Due to the lack of choices she has, Akali was forced to settle with a black shirt and a pair of green standard panties. She was looking for some shorts, or maybe sweatpants, when she found a dragon onesie. It was green and was adorned with harmless purple spikes.

The full body clothing may not be what she was originally looking for, but Akali thought it would be perfect for her to use as some sort of cocoon to hide from Evelynn. She slipped it on before she left the walk-in closet, grabbing the hair dryer from the vanity table as she did. She sat on the polished floor at the bed’s left side and plugged the hair dryer to a nearby electrical socket.

Soon, the bedroom was filled with the loud sound of the hair dryer. Akali busied herself with the task of drying her hair and tried to remain distracted with the view the large window in front of her offered. The city lights and the act of hair drying wasn’t enough though, since she felt her whole body stiffen underneath her onesie once she heard the bathroom door open and quiet footsteps of her fellow bandmate. The playful humming also reached her ears, despite the roaring of the hair dryer she was using and the loud but muffled beats of the music Kai'Sa was playing outside.

When Akali felt like her hair was dry enough, she quickly unplugged the dryer and placed it on the bedside table. Taking a quick look and seeing that Evelynn had yet to come out of the closet, which is where she could heard the humming originating from, Akali chose to leave the room for now. As quietly as she could, she took her leave and closed the door behind her.

As soon as the door closed though, Evelynn peeked from inside their walk-in closet, chuckling to herself before returning her focus in dressing herself.

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

“Pizza’s here!”

Akali glanced at where Kai'Sa’s voice came from before she proceeded into the living room area, where she found Ahri lowering the volume of the speakers through the tablet she had in hand. She gave a wave and a smile at the leader, who broke out her own smile once she caught sight of Akali’s silly attire.

“I see you found the dragon I stored in your closet.” Ahri said, lightly chuckling.

Akali let out a little laugh and scratched the back of her head over the onesie. “It looked cool when I saw it. Couldn’t help myself.”

She propped herself on a purple bean bag, watching as Kai'Sa came in with two boxes of pizza, one being opened already. The dancer had a slice held with her other hand, which she took a bite out of before she laid the pair of boxes on the center of the round coffee table.

“The delivery girl was cute.” Kai'Sa commented through the pizza she was chewing in her mouth. “Performing live on stage, getting a new home and ordering pizza from Birdio’s, only for the delivery girl to be a cutie, all in one night? This must be a lucky day for me.”

“Now, now, Kai'Sa,” Ahri tutted at her. “Don’t be too harsh on those pizzas. You need to keep yourself fit and…-”

“She dances all the time, Ahri.” Came Evelynn’s voice, the speaker climbing down the stairs with semi-dry hair and body donning a black set of lingerie uselessly covered with a matching lace robe that reached half above her thighs. “I’m quite sure Bokkie won’t be losing that figure anytime soon.”

While Ahri changed into a much casual set of clothes, mainly just a plain white shirt and a pair of black and white jogging shorts, Kai'Sa was still clad in her K/DA outfit. The leader couldn’t really tell the dancer to at least change clothes first, since the said female was already busy getting another slice of pizza from the open box.

For at least an hour, Akali forgot about what happened between her and Evelynn in the bathroom. Despite being distracted every now and then by the view Evelynn offered with her lace-covered body, Akali still succeeded in listening to Kai'Sa, who was telling stories about her time participating at Can You Dance which captured the interest of the other two as well.

Surprisingly though, mainly for Akali, Evelynn was the first to excuse herself from the group, mentioning a few things about how she needs her beauty sleep. Ahri and Kai'Sa called out good nights to the diva with smiles on their faces, while Akali feebly gave her own bid. Her actions weren’t noticed by the two though, who were back to talking about the televised competition.

Thirty minutes later, Akali finished her fifth slice of pizza and was headed to the kitchen to wash her hands. After she cleaned the oil from her palms, she said good night to the pair still conversing in the living room as she made her way up the stairs. She’s sure that Evelynn must be asleep by now. The last thing she heard from Kai'Sa and Ahri’s conversation was the dancer shifting topics and was now intently describing how cute the pizza delivery girl was.

The music was already lowered in a reasonable volume, so Akali didn’t worry about waking up Evelynn when she opened the bedroom door and stepped inside the room. Just as she expected, she found the diva tucked under a warm blanket and seemingly slumbering peacefully at the right side of the bed. She took a few minutes to go to the bathroom and brush her teeth before she decided on finally sleeping and joining Evelynn in the state of dreamland.

Tiptoeing to her own side, Akali carefully slid herself under the covers. She quietly sighed as she laid on the mattress that welcomed her body with its immensely soothing and comforting softness. Akali thought she’d easily fall asleep, and she was supposed to, actually.

Until Evelynn suddenly shifted on the bed and spun around to face her side.

Akali nearly jumped when she felt an arm wound around her stomach. She attempted to turn away and pull herself farther, but it only gave the opportunity for Evelynn to pull her in and press her chest against her back. “Took you long enough to join me in bed.” Evelynn murmured, clearly not asleep.

“E-Evelynn?” Akali stuttered, suddenly feeling like the onesie is too warm for comfort. “You’re still awake?”

A hum. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

“Is…” Akali flinched as she forced herself to continue. “Is this about what happened at the bathroom?”

“Hmm, not quit…-”

Akali spun around in Evelynn’s grasp to face her, eyes closed as she clasped her hands together in front of her face as she said, “Gomenasai! I didn’t mean to pull your towel off of you! It was a complete accident! I promise!”

The amusement on Evelynn’s face was rather hard to miss. If only Akali opened her eyes to see it before the vocalist shook her head and laughed at her frantic apology.

“That’s not exactly what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Eh?” Akali opened her eyes and bing-bada-boom, her cheeks went red. Her face was literally so hot that she felt like Evelynn could feel its heat radiating from her.

“Ever since this little group was formed, you’ve been skulking around like a little mouse whenever I’m around.” Evelynn said, recalling about how Akali would revert from hyped and rambunctious to quiet and timid when she pops up. “I think we should address the elephant in the room before this issue between us becomes a nuisance.”

“I don’t mean to be like a little mouse.” Akali muttered, unknowingly pouting as she looked away.

“Believe me when I say I don’t mind,” It was obvious that Evelynn loved it whenever Akali folds up whenever she’s around, but she didn’t want it to be like that because of a bad reasoning. “but my presence clearly bothers you.”

“It’s not your presence exactly.” As Akali said this, her eyes unintentionally trailed down and landed on Evelynn’s cleavage.

An eyebrow was raised. “Are my breasts the ones at fault?”

Akali was now sure her face was going to explode. She just knows it.

“N-No!” She tried turning around and slipping out of Evelynn’s hold, only for the latter to pull her closer and firmer against her. Her eyes were directly looking into Evelynn’s, who gave her a look that challenged her to defy her.

“I won’t be letting you go until everything is resolved.”

'Is it bad that I kinda don’t want whatever’s happening to be resolved?’ Akali momentarily thought to herself before another part of hers gave her a slap on the back of the head.

“There’s no issue, alright?” Akali tried persuading Evelynn, and even herself. “It’s just that… I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but…”

“But what?”

Akali was contemplating if she should tell Evelynn that her rap was actually written for her. The shy and timid side of hers, which is supposedly close to nonexistent, stopped her from doing so though. Her heart was beating wildly in her chest and she felt a bit embarrassed at the possibility of Evelynn hearing it.

“…I guess, I… Maybe I’m just intimidated?”

“By what? Me?”

“A bit of you, yes,” Akali admitted. She’d be lying if she said that she wasn’t intimidated by Evelynn’s skill and reputation. “but mainly because of everyone out there? The other rappers, they’re more skilled than I could ever be.”

“What does the skill of others have to do with me?” Evelynn asked, feeling a tad bit confused. “I understand your point about the intimidation my skill inflicts onto you, but your second reason doesn’t relate to me at all. I don’t even rap.”

“It’s not that.” A deep sigh left her as she finally voiced out her thoughts. “The fact that you of all people believed in me even when I didn’t believe in myself is the issue. You’re such an accomplished artist and I’m just some girl that went viral because of a random rap battle. I don’t know why, but ever since you supported me, I couldn’t get you out of my head. To the point of me ending up writing…-”

“-a rap for me?” Evelynn completed for her, a knowing glint in her eyes.

Akali stared wide-eyed at other female. “You knew?”

“That your rap was for me?”

She wordlessly nodded.

Evelynn chuckled. “Well, not exactly. I had a hunch that you wrote it for me, but of course that could possibly be my diva-side talking. I did not want to come off as assuming, which is why I didn’t comment much about it.”

“What do you think about it, then?” The look in Akali’s eyes were far from flustered. She looked so serious and anxious in hearing Evelynn’s personal opinion about the rap people went crazy about.

“Tell me first, little ninja.” Evelynn gently held Akali’s chin with her fingers, leaning closer to her as she spoke. “What was the matter that you could not bear? Was it too much that it even caused you your sleep?”

“This isn’t fair. I asked first.” Akali muttered as she gradually returned to her flushed state, shoulders bunching as she tried to sink herself in her onesie’s coverage.

“Answer me first, then I’ll tell you what I think about your lyrics.”

…..

…..

…..

…..

…..

Akali huffed, averting her gaze. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”

“Oh?”

“After you talked to me when we were recording, there’s this feeling inside me that won’t allow me to get you out of my head. I couldn’t sleep because I kept thinking about what you want.”

“What do you mean?”

Akali defeated her cowardly side and turned to make eye contact with Evelynn again.“I wanted to know why you encouraged me in the first place. Was it because you genuinely believed in me? Or was it because I might bring the group down with my mistakes?”

For a moment, Evelynn’s surprised gaze was met with Akali’s determined azures. The diva was honestly surprised with the answers and the questions she was receiving from the youngest member of their pop group.

As for Akali, her heart was becoming mad with its pace of beating, while her cheeks couldn’t get warmer than it already was. Even though she was blushing like crazy, she’s still adamant in finding out the meaning behind Evelynn’s encouragements.

……

……

……

“You’ll survive in this industry far better than others.” Evelynn said before smiling. “Of course I believed in you. Now it’s time for you to believe in me.”

Akali could not stop the gasp that left her once she felt Evelynn’s lips touch the tip of her nose, drawing more blood to rush to her cheeks.

“Oh, and I absolutely love the lyrics you made.”

Once that was said, Evelynn released her and rolled back to her respective space on the bed. Akali started sputtering incoherent words as she sat up and stared at Evelynn’s back, her feathers suddenly ruffled completely.

“W-W-Wait!” She called out, a look of desperation for answers on her face. “What was that for!?”

“What was what for?” Evelynn asked in an innocent tone, not even bothering in looking over her shoulder.

“That…! That kiss!” Akali replied, throwing her hands in the air as if the other could see her gesture. Well, she’s quite sure the shadow of her gesture was in the singer’s line of vision. “You can’t just do that!”

“And why not?” Finally, Evelynn turned her head enough for hers and Akali’s eyes to reconnect gazes.

“Because! It’s…! It’s wrong!”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah! And that’s why you can’t just…-!”

“Watch me do it again.”

An audible poof! sounded the second Akali’s head crashed back on her pillow, while Evelynn had her cheeks in her hands and was silencing her through the act of mashing her lips against her own. Akali wanted to thrash against the weight of the body pinning her down, but she found herself frozen and her attention single-mindedly focused on the feeling of Evelynn’s soft lips on her dryer ones.

Her lips were pursed tightly and her entire body was as stiff as a stone statue the moment Evelynn pulled away and hovered her smiling face above Akali’s wide-eyed one.

“You might have forgotten that they call me a 'bad girl’. Oh, and,” Evelynn gave her lips a little peck before continuing, “I advise you to apply lip balm on your lips. It would be such a waste to have them dry up like that.”

“Y-You…! You…!” Akali couldn’t bring herself to finish her point. She felt like she was about to have a heart attack, felt like she had just won the lottery and felt like she just died at the same fucking time. The rapper honestly didn’t know how to handle the emotions that sprouted from the unforeseen kiss.

“Although I would not mind making sure they’re moist when needed.”

The smirk on Evelynn’s face was surely capable of making the entire K/DA fan base faint in excitement. Hell, Akali felt like she was so close to doing that right now.

Evelynn planted a parting kiss on her nose again, softly saying, “Good night, Rogue.” before pulling away and returning to her place on the bed. The last thing Akali heard from the diva was her signature teasing chuckle, which echoed inside her mind, while the feeling of her lips on hers haunted her heart and body.

After what seemed like hours of just staring at the ceiling, Akali’s hands shot up to cover her lips as she tried her best not to tingle with excitement and uncharacteristically swoon at what just happened.

“You…” Her voice was quiet. A whisper. “You can’t just… do that…”

And as if her mind knew the response to that, Evelynn’s voice rang in her head.

'Watch me do it again.’

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Author’s Note: Heyyy~! This is my first time posting on Tumblr, so uh, hi there! The fan arts of Akali and Evelynn here are just too much! The universe was literally telling me to just write a goddamn K/DA story, which explains this little piece. I became an absolute supporter of this ship thanks to all the fan arts, so thank you to all those who created such beautiful images. ^3^

Anyway, I just wanted to share this story to everyone here, since there aren’t much K/DA stories out there. :P

For those who didn’t notice, Evelynn somewhat quoted the lyrics of Akali’s rap. So! I’m quite sure you readers saw a hinted Kai'Sa x Sivir here (or at least Kai'Sa mentioned Pizza Delivery Sivir in passing), which I also have a one-shot story about. It was inspired by an artist here in Tumblr: ichiroartosaki

This piece will be having a continuation, which will probably be uploaded soon. ^^

(This was originally uploaded in my FF and Wattpad account)

[kiyoitsukikage]

First Databook Character Sheets

Yoshi! @silalcarin asked me to do Hinata's concept art + Masashi-sensei's inteview (which, I discovered, is not really an interview, but a description of the pictures).

To be honest, I might have misinterpreted your request (maybe you just wanted the part regarding Hinata), but the interview was very interesting and I got carried away (especially after I saw that there was also something about Jiraiya). So...

Some terms you’ll meet in this interview:

- 設定 settei. I translated it with “setting”, “creation”, “design”, “character sheet” and so forth. Basically, it’s a character’s or a place’s concept art, to be used as a reference (it can be both for the artist’s staff, for the animators or for the artist himself, for later uses).

- 先生 sensei. It obviously means ‘teacher’, but it’s also the form you use when you speak to artists who became famous in their field: when they say sensei here, they mean Masashi Kishimoto.

- イメージ ime-ji. I often translated it with ‘mental image’. It’s a loanword from the English ‘image’, sometimes used as a verb meaning ‘visualise’. It has mostly to do with the author’s imagery of the world.

- 世界観 sekaikan. Literally, the ‘vision of the world’ (I translated it with various words). It’s the outlook of the fictional world, how the world of Naruto looks like. In this interview, it’s mostly used with the expression ‘slightly off’ (when Masashi-sensei decided to discard an idea because it would sound inconsistent/weird in the Narutoverse).

- 読切 yomikiri. ‘Non-serialised story’ (though I should have translated it as ‘one-shot’ or ‘pilot’ probably), as opposed to the Naruto serialisation. I guess they’re referring to this one. I think that’s something a newbie artist draws for manga editors, a sort of let’s-try-and-see-if-the-readers-like-the-story.

- 打合わせ uchiawase. I translated it as “preparatory meeting”, I guess that’s something the artist and the producers do before publishing stuff. It can also mean “previous arrangement”.

- 担当 tantou. Translated it with “the ones in charge”, maybe I should have gone with “supervisor” or something. But, ah, you get the idea.

There. The numbers correspond to the pictures. Anything between square brackets is something I added up to clarify my translation.

[Sideband:] Character sheets

The Nine-Tailed Mythological Fox Spirit

1

“This is the non-serialised Naruto”

The non-serialised Naruto had the appearance of a human, but he was a fox inside.

Though in the present setting the mythological fox spirit is sealed inside Naruto…

Before the serialisation was decided, I changed it in a preparatory meeting with the ones in charge of it.

The demon fox is intense, they said.

No matter if he takes a human shape, he’s a fox really, then the readers won’t be able to sympathise with Naruto… they said.

And I also ended up thinking something like… “that’s pretty true” (laugh).

2

“This is the Nine-Tails drawn for the first time”

This is the Nine-Tailed Mythological Fox Spirit I drew in the spur of the moment as the image expanded [in my mind].

And then, since I was pleased with it, I used it as it is also in the main event [as opposed to preparatory sketch].

I traced it with a lightbox (laugh).

For this reason, I drew nothing but that after all, the Nine-Tails (laugh).

However, also the appearance of the present world of “Naruto” spread from it in some respects. Of course, also things like the creation of the characters and the development of the story expanded.

So it’s like the concept art drawn in order to transmit the story and the setting to the staff, when you make a movie.

 [I always rejoice internally when I see an awesome artist being a lazy bum. Because retracing a previous painting is something I’d totally do.]

The faces on the Hokage Rock [lit: the Hokage Face Rock, though I couldn’t find a corresponding term in English – it’s only called the ‘Hokage Rock’]

1

“There was a dog”

That’s the only thing that could upset the present appearance of the “Naruto” world from the root (laugh).

As a matter of fact, the Third Hokage was a dog, at the beginning.

He was the dog the Second Hokage had, an exceptionally awesome dog, so I tried to make him elected as Hokage in the setting.

Though I thought “It’d be interesting if a dog stood at the summit of the village, what would happen…”

However, in the end I thought that it would be slightly off with the appearance of the world, and I gave it up.

That’s why the present Third was supposed to be a dog.

So I changed it right before the serialisation, erased only the face of the dog in a hurry and it disappeared in the trash (laugh). I used the other parts as they were though.

Hokage

[Actually I’ve read a post long ago in Tumblr where they answered exactly that question, and my greatest regret is that I haven’t saved it and now I can’t add a link here, because it was freaking hilarious]

2

“There’s a heinous face (laugh)”

My mental image of the Hokage wasn’t quite settled at first. The first and the Second… I had put an x-mark on the First, but they haven’t changed much from now since the mental image in relation to these two was good enough; however, the Third and the Fourth Hokage are impressively different.

The Fourth had a rather heinous face (laugh).

Well, I had various things going on in my mind.

Design sketches 

1

“The Grass Nin looked like a troop”

The Grass Nin looked like a troop but they couldn’t convince me and I changed them. So, I drew them again, but… this guy (on the bottom right) suddenly turned into Orochimaru, so… finally I was pleased with it and made up my mind about various things (laugh).

2

“Lovable pugs”

They are the ninja dogs I thought about when Kakashi uses the Earth Release: Tracking Fang Technique. There’s also Pakkun. I like pugs, because they’re cute (laugh). When I drew him, while I made them chat about various things in my imagination I expanded the character’s personality.

3

“The mental image had almost settled”

The jōnin I thought about before the serialisation began… I mean, the design sketch of the sensei and others. If you look at them, it’s already clear who was going to become which character. Well, if the mental image came clearly, I kinda made up my mind in one shot (laugh).

4

“I just drew it out of fun”

That’s just what I drew out of fun, right (laugh). This was what I drew once to convey my mental image of Hinata to my assistant though. I intended to draw it being aware of the appearance of the world, but… it turned into a more modern-style girl (laugh).

Discard

1

“The huge guy was deleted…”

He reached the level of rough sketch, but the just huge and unattractive guy was likely to be deleted from the moment he appeared already. In the preparatory meeting with the people in charge, we ended up saying “he doesn’t make your heart throb from a reader’s point of view, right?”.

Moreover, it was the scene that shows Gaara’s first battle, so I resolutely drew it again.

[In the first caption, it says 金太郎とペットのポチ Kintarou to petto no Pochi. I’m unsure about the meaning, I guess it’s the ‘pet called Kintarou’. Apparently, petto no Pochi is  something like ‘Spotty the pet’ (pet with a ridiculously common name).]

2

“I planned to use it in the Land of Waves volume”

Originally, there wasn’t Zabuza and I had planned to use this character. But I gave it up for the same reason of the discarded character of the page before. (Ah! It’s the character I had made earlier, haha…) I think just about the fact of making the enemy characters entry on stage, that is, how they’re likely to hurt the protagonists. [Twisted sentence here: I guess he means that when he creates villains, he also need to think how they’ll look appearing on the scene and the impact on the protagonists.]

3

“Serious taste…”

Naruto had just graduated from school so I thought it was okay even if I made him act in a funny way. However, it had turned completely like a story set in a school [学園もの gakuenmono I think it’s intended as a manga genre]… I had forgot about the whole “ninja” thing.

Sound effects lettering

Appearance pattern

1

“That’s incredibly unskilful”

That’s sound effects lettering practice. They’ve been incredibly poor from the time of the non-serialised story (laugh). I often practiced using various comic strips as a reference. Well, even now they’re not my strong suit really (laugh).

2

“Having a mental image of moving pictures”

It’s the thing in which I drew some pattern of the production of the scene where a ninja appears, or the scene where they disappear, having a mental image of moving pictures. Once inside your head, the action turns into a moving picture. Then, you draw thinking about the composition you cut out from there.

Signature

[The pictures in which he practiced his signature say (in this order): Masashi (with the ma and sa character written as one), Masashi (all linked together), Kishimoto Masashi (stand-alone characters), Kishimoto (above) Masashi (below, ma and sa together), Kishimoto Masashi (current signature).]

3

“That’s Naruto’s face together with the signature”

When I write my signature, I put the face of the protagonists. Well, that looks like the practice of that. The Naruto I drew here are all smiling, but I often thought what kind of expression I should do.

4

“I decided on the spot”

When the serialisation was decided, some friends came and saw me. So, make us an autograph, they said. That time, I ended up saying “Crap… I haven’t thought about my signature!” (laugh). I decided on the spot. Saying “Which should I choose, let’s do this” with my friends.

Jiraiya

1

“At the beginning, [I decided to] make a fatty middle-aged man”

I had decided from before the serialisation that Jiraiya would certainly appear even in “Naruto”, because of his fame in various ninja legends. At the beginning, I decided that I’d make him a fatty middle-aged man… that he’d transform in an unattractive-faced middle-aged man (like the picture at the very top) when he got angry or excited seeing pretty girls. That that’s why he got stronger when he transformed, but not good-looking. However, I thought that drawing him differently would have been troublesome (laugh). Though he was also supposed to use frogs that are carried on both his shoulders, in the same illustration.

Once, I made them do a two-man comedy act in the character sheet called “Husband and Wife Frog” (laugh).

However, it was difficult from the prospective of the design, so I also give it up…

  [I love how he dug out his old ideas, years later, to create Fukasaku and Shima and Jiraiya’s Sage Mode.]

Summoning Animals

2

“The oriental dragons and western dragons are different” [Actually, it’s “dragons and dragons are different”, with the first being ドラゴン doragon, the transliterated English word dragon, and the second being 竜 tatsu, the Chinese dragon]

This is the dragon I drew thinking that I’d make it Naruto’s summoning. In my mental image, Chinese dragons have a thin body. And western dragons are chubby and have big feet. So, that is an overly fat Chinese dragon (laugh). It became fat and looks like a western dragon…

3

“Speaking of ninjas, there’s the mental image of frogs”

That’s Gamabunta’s first design. But in the preparatory meeting, since he’s a toad I added warts and made him a toad. Then, I also decided to make him express himself in the Hiroshima dialect. So, I said “I come from the Okayama prefecture, near Hiroshima, so leave it to me” (laugh).

Frontispiece

1

“It’s a compilation of ideas”

Before the serialization, I drew some reasonable ideas for the frontispiece. I’ve almost never used them though (laugh). However, the picture in which [Naruto] is gardening appears (JC vol.3 pag.86).

2

“Imagining Naruto that makes graffiti”

That’s what I drew while thinking in what way I could make Naruto paint graffiti on the Hokage Rock.

It’s also the picture I thought I’d use in the first chapter, yes.

3

“I discarded it myself”

I drew it to use as the first chapter’s frontispiece, but when I thought that to point Naruto’s gaze towards the readers it became unnatural, so I discarded it. It was also slightly off with the appearance of the world (laugh).

Clouds

“Anyway, I love clouds”

That’s the thing in which I just drew Naruto and clouds imagining a moving picture, not to use or not use it.

I’ve liked clouds since I was a child, and also the sky (laugh). That’s why I love things like comics where there are clouds and the sky, and fantasy in which the clouds are whirly like the “Neverending Story” (laugh). I think I want to draw something like that once, too, though. It’d be nice one more whole chapter, a story in which they fly among the clouds (laugh).

...phew, that was long. But very interesting (artistically speaking)~

EDIT (CLARIFYING TRANSLATION)

So, @silalcarin asked me to include in this post something we've discussed about.

Her question was: Were Ibiki, Iruka, Kakashi, Hinata, Anko, etc., were all of these character sketches the earliest concept art? Were these characters the earliest characters Kishimoto created after Naruto himself?

(Apparently, there's a dispute about whether Sakura was created before Hinata or not. Silalcarin also provided me with a translation, made by Koshej back in 2013, which you can read here)

My answer: First of all: yes, they are early sketches. The first line of the paragraph says 連載が始まる前に, which is literally “before the serialization began”. I don’t know where that “I have designed the characters at a very early stage." comes from, to be honest: the Japanese raw of the title says イメージはほぼ決まってました, “the mental image had almost settled/I had almost made up my mind”. So, the other translation is not *wrong*, content-wise, but it’s not what the text says (more like a free interpretation of it). As for the order of creation, I admit I have no idea. The text doesn’t clearly say if they’re the very first characters, or if they’ve been created early in general. I think it’s difficult to say which characters he created first… because I remember I’ve seen other character sketches, which Kishimoto provided at the end of some Naruto chapters (I remember there were Iruka, Konohamaru, Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke as well), together with some other he discarded in the end. Long story short: 1) yes, Anko and co. are pre-serialized sketches, 2) Koshej’s translation is not wrong in general, but mine is closer to the original one (that’s why I had a hard time explaining the terms, and sometimes my translation is almost unreadable), 3) there’s no way to tell which character was created first after Naruto, unless you’re Kishimoto himself I guess (or at least, this databook doesn’t clarify it here).

So, uhmm, that's what I have to say on the matter. Silalcarin also gave me this link (in which you can read further thoughts on the matter)

Last but not least, I feel like to add a link to another interview I translated, from the fourth databook, in which they talk about character creation and such (unfortunately, the part about Sasuke's creation was too difficult for me to translate, so once again I can't give an answer to the question "were Hinata and company created before Sasuke and Sakura")

[cursebreaker-vahn]

Breaking and Taming

I had Annalise trained on the Cursebreaker, his whip immobilized by its own enchantment I had seized control of.

“Are you done? I’ve got other things to do, especially now with you.”

His eyes were filled with hatred as he half-spit his next words.

“If you’re so busy terrorizing people, monster, kill me and be done with it.”

I couldn’t refrain a short laugh at this brash affirmation.

“Dear Cursebreaker, if I had wanted you dead, we wouldn't be having this discussion. You don’t know how rare it is to find a blessed or a fiend to study outside of Ferely.”

“You want to… Study me?”

“You and your toy there. I had hoped for a Saint too, but I guess you’re a bit smarter than you look. But first, I’ll take back my acolytes.”

I went for the bag at his belt, but as I was approaching my hand from it, the bag, and the Planeswalker with it, disappeared in front of me. I activated my glove’s enchantment and plunged my hand through the aether trail. Inside the chaos of the Blind Eternities, I grasped the bag I went for, and firmed my grip. I felt enchantments surrendering to my glove, and suddenly, there wasn’t something to grip anymore, and my gloved hand got back in the same Plane as I was, a piece of leather torn from the bag in it.

Shit!

As I was considering following the Dekan into his territory, something plopped into existence near me. A brightly colored runed box with waning mana seals crashed down a few feet from me. There was no doubt to have regarding its content. I could have felt it from miles away.

Well, at least he doesn’t have them anymore…

I grinned. This would be interesting.

Two weeks later:

So, you DON’T want to get this box? Did they do something to you?

On the contrary, it’s so much easier than tracking down a Planeswalker. We know he’ll come for one of his boxes. And it’s so much work to bring an uncooperative ‘walker on plane.

But while you’re waiting for him to fall into your trap, he’s getting the others!

Well, I’ll get them back once I’ll have him here. If he’s not stupid he’ll have hid them somewhere but what would he do with them? If the Cursebreakers knew how to destroy them, they wouldn’t be here in the first place.

And I wouldn’t be here either.

What would I be?

As I was talking with her I was setting up the enchantment myself. I’d have sent someone, but it gave me a break, and I didn’t really trust anyone else with target-specific interdimensional traps anyway. I had gotten a pretty clear image of his aetheric signature during our last meeting, and had attuned a distance-trigger to him from the box, initiating a tracking magical-physical lock, while preventing others from approaching it. All things considered, it had been a good way to spend a morning practicing more classic, lasting enchantments.

A week and a half later:

I was working with one of the volunteers to make a fitting Mirror for them. It was long and tedious, but I had had the best results with more understanding of the subjects. When I’ll finally succeed in replicating the transfer process once, I’d be able to refine it. But for now, I was stuck discussing about one of the townsfolk’s life. From what my previous experiments told me, he shaped up to fit some sort of container… Go figure.

I was gonna ask Erlok (I finally got around to memorize the name of my new steward) to get him a pottery set, when a welcome interruption spread a characteristic shake through the leylines to one of the stones hanging from my neck. The Cursebreaker had triggered the trap. I cut the subject's babble short.

“Ask Erlok for some clay, you’re learning to make pots. Express yourself. I should be back soon.”

At these words, I disappeared from the room and planeswalked to the same plane I was on, near the enchantment I'd set up.

Five hours later:

I brought back the immobilized bright-armored man back to my domain, where I installed him in one of the currently empty experimentation rooms. While he was still trapped, I plunged my gloved hand through the wall and, quickly, but carefully, sealed the Cursebreaker in this room and from leylines. After that, and having dispossessed him of his whip, other weapons and ridiculous armor, I installed him at a table and left him some food and water. I sat in front of him, and  dispelled my enchantment.

He stared in shock, then went to panic followed by resignation as he probably realized he wasn’t getting out of this one. He uttered through his teeth half a:

"What do you want?"

"To try a few things. Like I said before you left me alone last time, finding a Blessed outside of Ferely is an unique occasion."

Even through the fog of my current condition, their qualification might have been audibly different for someone who knew me.

"I don't suppose I'm making it out of here, am I?"

I emphasized my next words by resting my hand on that incense burner of his.

"You'll probably get out, at some point. Who knows? Of course, I don't know if you'd still have the same body at this point."

He sighed and closed his eyes, before answering with anger seeping from his voice.

"So why are you bothering to talk to me then. To taunt me?"

"That, and to give you a chance to tell me where you've hidden your precious little boxes before I ask more convincingly. Some of my employees are still in those."

"They're gone. Freed the souls. You didn't need those, did you?"

He shrugged. At me. I’ll enjoy working on him.

"Not particularly, thanks to you I've also got a shortage of mortal elements. But I'm sure the people you stole would be grateful to be back. Oh well. You'll end up telling me the truth at some point."

I pointed to the meal in front of him.

"But for now, eat. We'll get to work later."

He eyed the meal suspiciously, before digging into it. His body didn’t eat anything for a day, after all.

"It's true. You aren't invincible. None of you are. Neither am I for that matter, I suppose. You can believe me, or not. Doesn't change what happened."

Eating seemed to affirm his smugness. I was tempted to extract it out of his head, but didn’t want to compromise his soul before analyzing everything. He’d lose hope soon enough.

“Oh, I know that. I just don't think you are able to destroy a Relic. If the Church knew how to do that, I wouldn't receive more employees every other week."

"I have help from my god to save your employees from theirs. The Church is still clueless. I haven't been back since Brother Marco tried to kill me."

"Your god? Someone hasn't been a good little soldier. Well, I'll find out if it is the truth sooner or later. But if you do end up having killed them all, even with help… Do you want a job? If you survive the coming weeks, of course. Or even if you don’t."

At that, he freezed for a second. As I was standing up to leave, he finally gave me an answer.

"A job from you? I have to say no."

"Consider it. Ruthless, driven, murderer... You fit all the necessary qualifications! And you've even already wielded a Relic, I assume. Should help do it again. Or be one, I guess, depending of how you end up."

"I suppose you have me there. Though the freed souls do get to go to paradise after simmering in the seventh layer a bit... not that you can understand what I'm talking about... the idea of making it somewhere heavenly isn't something a fiend can really process, is it? You can call me a murderer, or even kill me, I suppose. Doesn't change a thing."

He did get a laugh out of me, as I exited the room through the door. I didn't bother to lock it. I still had the matter of the recipient-subject to attend.

Was there a joke?

Not really, but he’s lecturing me on a heaven and his set of morals when he’s bound just as much as we are to avoid death.

Oh. Right. I guess it is kinda funny.

The funny part is what is probably going on in his head right now. Or when he’ll have realized that.

As I finished this conversation, I was back at the place I'd left the subject. I was greeted by the sight of a small clay pot and the volunteer examining it. Now, I know nothing about these arts, since my studies took me in other directions, but the subject's craft didn't look like something that was done by a first timer.

"Have you done that before?"

He jumped off his seat, startled, and I gestured him to sit back down.

"Oh, madam, you're back! I've never touched clay before, it's surprisingly easy!"

"No it isn't. We're on the right track... Probably."

“Probably? Aren’t we talking about my life?”

“Yes we are, and believe me, I’m doing my best to make this work.”

“But isn’t it the same thing you did for yourself?”

“Do you think I would give you clay and have you mold it if I already knew how this worked? You do have a point, it’s the same thing that was done to me… And you volunteered for that, so you deserve to know a bit more about it. But I don’t know how the first part was done. If I did, I would be able to do things way better than that. For once, you wouldn’t have to be in the same kind of body I am in, and neither would I. Nor would you have to sustain it constantly with magic. Do you know of a way to constantly use and sustain your body through magic?”

“I don’t, madam.”

“And I hope you’ll never have to learn.”

“I do too.”

“So, the next step. We’ll try to make this creation of yours a mirror of your soul.”

“Madam?”

“Magic stuff. Don’t worry, nothing too dangerous should happen to you right now. And as you’re lucky, I just came back with something that might allow me to get this part better.”

What I left out was that I’d make this part better by comparing how I did it currently with how an actual mirror looked. Any progress I’d make likely wouldn’t apply to him.

“Wonderful! What is the process like?”

“Long. Painless. Invisible. Sit here, and don’t move from this armchair unless I tell you to. Oh, I forgot. Use the restroom, then come back and sit here.”

As he was doing so, I took my inspection helmet I’d left in this laboratory, and put it on, switching a few of the lenses in front of my eyes to filter out exactly what kind of spell I was crafting, and soul I was mirroring.

It was a tedious work, and I was still at it a few hours later. Recreating every aspect, every facet of the man’s soul in this inanimate object. Making it live and shift in the exact same way its owner’s did. Weaving a web of intricate mana strings to connect each edge. Doing so while never perturbing the previous work. Every time I had made another layer, I switched the lenses of my helmet and got to work and correct another one.

It worked better than my previous tries in this direction. The support itself seemed to adapt what I was doing, integrate it, and correct my smallest mistakes that a year before would have made the whole thing fall apart upon use.

By the time I had finished, the subject was sleeping. I sealed the work by letting the shape I’d formed exprim its magic, as I infused it with the barest amount of mana, fixing the magic into an enchantment surrounding the soul. As I did, I looked for any sign that I had succeeded… Or failed. As usual with my last few experiments, I had no such sign. Be it with or without the lenses in front of my eyes. It didn’t even wake the person whose soul had hopefully been mirrored and linked.

Without a sound, I took off the helmet and with it under my arm and the newly crafted artificial Mirror in one hand, went back to the Cursebreaker’s room. He was sleeping when I entered. His Mirror was still on the table. Putting the two next to each other, I used the helmet and took some notes, trying to find any differences between an actual Mirror and what I had crafted. Most of them were things that could be put on the disparity between the souls. But the biggest one was probably that the spell was weaved into the soul in the divine Mirror, whereas it was encasing it in mine.

The fact that I had come as close as I had without any real point of comparison was already impressive. I had built from Relics, not Mirrors, where the mind and soul obscured the vision of a much more powerful spell. As I inspected the way they were fused, I had ideas on how to do the same… The only question was if I would be able to modify the Mirror I had made, without killing its owner, now that they were most likely linked. But at least, now, I had another to test it on. The subject didn’t do anything to deserve any unneeded pain.

I sent someone to bring back the subject’s Mirror to his room, while I worked out a first set of experiments I’d try on the Cursebreaker. Pretty early in the morning, I began the first. Widening my perceptions as much as possible with the helmet, I readied a chisel on the incense burner and tapped it with a hammer, lightly at first. I don’t know if it was from the sudden noise or the enchantment (I’d have to test that further in the future), but the man immediately woke up.

He looked around him before settling down on me and asking:

"What are you doing?"

I didn't bother to answer him, it's not like I was hiding anything. I hit the Mirror again, slightly harder this time.

"Feeling anything?"

He didn’t move, and answered me harshly.

"You're the scientist. You tell me."

I shifted a few lenses. I didn't see a thing, so I'd have to try some other spectrums before notching up the strength.

"You're right. And science needs repetition."

I hit as close to the last test as I could. A small hissing sound escaped his mouth, but I was focused on the object. I saw something this time I think. Very faintly. The reaction of the Cursebreaker only seemed to confirm it.

"Or, you know. You could tell me what you feel."

Another hit, stronger, to be sure. I definitely saw something. I focused the lenses on the correct source. He physically moved on this one, and breathed a little harder, with his angry but resigned glare fixed on my hands and tools.

"It feels like a jolt of.... discomfort? Seems to hurt."

I'd check him later for bruises, those took a while to appear, but for now I put down the chisel and hammer.

"Good. The threshold for piercing damage seems to be rather low. You're cooperating and I'm not a monster, so I'll let you choose the next test. Cutting..."

I put down my hand on the knife I'd prepared.

"... Or something less physical?"

His eyes went from the knife to me while he was making his choice. I played with the knife’s hilt, and was gonna take it when I finally heard his voice.

"Less physical."

With a thought, I channeled my right glove's magic, and passing it through the physical object in front of me. I grabbed a thread of the spell-soul, careful to not do anything with it yet.

"Tell me if something happens. If we'll be working together, can I know your name? Calling you Cursebreaker will get old fast. Especially if you aren't one anymore.”

"I'm Vahn."

His stare is fixated on the Mirror now, as I can see sweat forming on his head. Back to the enchantment, I tugged on the magic thread, but it took a lot of strength to finally make it move out of alignment...  Which lighted it in all directions. Nearly instantly, a thick fog slipped between my fingers and the magic as it was returning in place.

"Uh. How was that for you, Vahn?"

The color seemed to have drained from his face and he looks distressed. He tried to say something, but what came out was probably not what he had intended.

"That..... I.... bad."

So the spell was defending and correcting itself... It wouldn't be easy to remake the boy's, if this was how it reacted, too. At least, it meant I was less likely to damage it permanently.

"Really? I merely tugged at it. And now?"

I stuck a finger in the spell, where it could not simply lose contact. Nearly immediately, a force tried to push me out, but between my strength and a little help from Annalise, I kept it in place. It now twirled around madly, and I was even able to see it drain something from the Cursebreaker to sustain its effort.

Vahn put a hand on his chest. He didn’t say a word, but his anguish was readable on his face, as it tensed into a pained grin. At least I knew a way to make him squirm. I removed my intruding finger. That would require further tests, but I didn't want Vahn to die too soon.

"I guess that's a thing. How about a five minute break, then we'll try the knife!"

Vahn just breathed heavily and stared at me, out of breath. Maybe he was beginning to understand what was gonna happen to him.

[lady-red-9-9]

Chapter2

I am so going to get myself killed helping them

that was the one thought that ran through my head as I pulled up to the two of them outside the mall." Need a ride?" I asked they were a bit shocked but got in and I started driving."Where are we going?"

"Camp Lehigh New Jersey," Steve said as I nodded.

"How did you know where to find us, Rose?"The woman asked putting her feet on the dash as Steve told her to put them down from the back.

I smirked lightly."1. I never got your name Red, and 2, you aren't the only one with tricks up there sleeve."

"Natasha Romanoff," she said and we fell into a comfortable silence for a bit before she piped up again." Alright, I have a question for you, although you do not have to answer. I feel like if you don't answer though you are still answering."

"What?" Steve said in a firm tone.

She smirked at him and says"Was that your first kiss since 1945?"

"That bad huh?"

"No, I didn't say that ."

"Well, it kinda sounded like that's what you were saying."

"No, I didn't I was just wondering how much practice you've had."

"You don't need practice."

"Everyone needs practice."

"Not my first kiss since 1945."He declared"I'm 95 not dead."

"Nobodys special then."

They continued like this and I soon tuned them out. My eyes were focused on the road and then my vision started going funny I was on a dirt road instead of paved and an older style car interior and 1940s music was playing it was a clear night with the full moon visible along with the stars, I looked at the rearview mirror seeing a necklace dangling. I shook my head as my vision returned to the paved road and busy street and the chit-chat of Steve and Natasha in my ear. I pulled into the Camp and got out with the other two, they both confirmed the coordinates before we headed in.

"Change much?"Natasha asked while she scanned the area with her spy tool

"A little," Steve said as he looked like he was remembering something.

"This is a dead-end zero heat signatures, zero waves, not even radio. Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off."

"Hey, That building is in the wrong place," I started pointing to the building.

"What do you mean?"Natasha asked

"Army regulations forbid storing munitions within 500 yards of the barracks," Steve told her as he broke open the door with his shield

"What he said, "I told her as well and head in and turn on the lights.

"Well its S.h.e.i.l.d."

"Maybe where it started," Steve said as we all looked around. Steve entered the office first then me then Natasha.

"hmm, And there's Starks father," Natasha spoke

Though my eyes went to the woman on his right, my head started to hurt looking at her picture, so I walked away deeper into the room, then I could hear a sharp whistle from the bookcase."Hey, Steve come to help me!"I shouted as they came over, Steve pulled back the bookcase.

"If you work in a secret lab why hide the elevator?"Steve questioned as Natasha used her spy gadget and got the elevator open as we got in and started heading down I got a sinking feeling like I was walking into my tomb. When we were let out of the elevator the lights started coming on, motion sensor. With the lights now on I saw a lot of outdated technology, looking around confused Natasha says"This can't be the data point. This technology is ancient."  

"Now that depends to steve this could be state of the art."I said as a joke before something on the desk caught my eye."That's not." Natasha looked at what caught my eye and plugged the drive into the port.

As she did that the computers started turning on all at once as the camera on top of the monitor turned on, on the screen, it asked if we wanted to initiate the system and I typed in yes.

"Shall we play a game?"Natasha asked as a joke but neither of me or steve laughed, "I-its from a-"

"I know I've seen it" He interrupted

A chillingly familiar voice filled my ears as a face made its way onto the screen, "Rogers, Steven. born 1918. Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna, born 1984. Hendriks, Elizabeth born 1915."

My eyes went widen and confused at what he said but I took mental note of the name.

"It's some kind of recording," Natasha said a little put-off.

"I am not a recording, Fraeulein. I may not be the man I was when the captain or the doctor took me, prisoner, in 1945 but I am. " Zola said

"You two know this thing?" Natasha looked at us and I looked at both of them just as confused

"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years." Steve stated as he walked around.

"The first correction, I am swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive in 1972 I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body. My mind, however, was worth saving. on 200,00 feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain."

"How the hell did you get in."

"He was invited in after the war shield brought in some of the scientists to work for shied, and while he was at S.h.e.i.l.d he worked on his agenda," I answered for them.

"HYDRA died with the Red Skull. " Steve said fully believing what he said.

"Smart as ever doctor. I wonder why HYDRA let you go or did they? and oh steven cut off one head two more will grow back."

"Prove it," Steve said

"Accessing Archives. "Zola said as an old video started playing."HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with their own freedom. What we did not realize was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much, humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly, after the war Sheild was founded and I and the doctor were recruit-"

"I don't know you my name is Rose stop calling me the doctor. Or I will personally torch this place. You were recruited and helped plant the seeds of HYDRA in Sheild secretly feeding your own agendas." I finished what he was saying but he didn't even reply

"And when they did not want to make history, history was changed. HYDRA has created a world so chaotic that humanity is ready to surrender its freedom to gain its security and once the purification process is complete HYDRA's new world order will begin."He said as he showed many different historical events and zoomed in on HYDRA members  

Steve smashed the screen with his Sheild and Zola just reappeared on another "What's on the drive."Steve demanded to know

"Project insight requires insight so I wrote an algorithm."

"What the hell do you mean?"I asked getting pissed at this point.

"Unfortunately doctor you all would be too dead to hear the answer to that question. "I turned to see the doors closing as Steve threw his shield to try to stop it but it just punched off.

"We have bogey short-ranged, 30 seconds tops," Nat said as she looked between me and Steve I looked around quickly before pulling the top of the great off and steve grabbed both me and nat and covered us as the Missle his and debris fell all around us it soon became hard to breath and dirt got into my eyes as my wold faded from me.....

(i forgot to title my last post as chapter 1 sorry)

[pinetree-in-hatchetfield]

At Last - A Spideychelle Fic

A/N: Major credit to my newfound twin @littlebastardinredtights They came up with the good ideas in this. Enjoy!

I. Tony Stark and Pepper Potts

Peter paced back and forth in front of a set of lockers. It shouldn't be this hard, it really shouldn't. He practiced it out in his head a million times. Besides, friends do favors for each other all the time. Why would this be any different? But it was. It was different. This wasn't just any favor. And this wasn't just anyone. It was all just so, gah.

"What are you doing, loser?" came a voice that pulled Peter from his thoughts. He whirled around to face the source of his stress. "Hey MJ. W-what's up?" She squinted at him while crossing her arms. She was trying to analyze him. "I asked you first." She answered.

Peter nodded, "Right. of course," he cleared his throat and stared at the floor. He fidgeted with his hands for a minute before saying, "I was wondering, it's just there's this thing, and it's supposed to be a big deal, and," Peter began speeding up as he went, "Mr. Stark invited me to this, uh, event. And he said I could bring a plus one, and then we talked and it turns out, funny thing, he thinks I have a girlfriend. Then funnier thing, he thinks that's you. Funniest thing, I didn't correct him." He was going a mile a minute now as he quickly looked her in the eye again. "AndIjustwantedtoknowifyouwantedtogowithme?" Nope. That look. The judging, contemplating, MJ look. He couldn't take that look. He focused his attention to the ground again.

"Did you just ask me out?" MJ finally asked after what seemed like an eternity. Peter whipped his head to look at her again, eyes wide in panic.

"What? No. I just-maybe? I didn't mean, unless you wanted to. But I was just-"

Sure."

"...What?"

"Sure, I'll help you impress your little crush." She smirked.

"I don't have a crush on Mr. Stark." Peter managed with a smile. MJ walked past him, messing with his hair on her way past, and said. "Whatever you say, Parker."

Eventually the time came, and Peter was taking MJ on their kind-of-sort-of-not-date to the wedding of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. During the reception the Parker Group sat at their own table. The group consisted of Peter, May, MJ, and May's girlfriend for no-one could really remember how long, Charlotte Smith. May and Charlotte were catching up about something, Peter couldn't tell what. He was still very distracted by the concept of everything. He was at Tony Stark's wedding. As a personal guest! There was also the matter of his recently realized girl of his dreams sitting next to him, agreeing to go with him, and it didn't help that she happened to look very nice in her dress.

MJ leaned closer to Peter and whispered, "I can't believe you brought me to the biggest event in Stark Industries recent history because you got flustered." she took a sip of her drink smirking.

"I don't get flustered." Peter stated. To which MJ raised an eyebrow and replied, "Oh really?" Peter nodded. "Hm, okay," she began, "Look at me and say that again." She dared.

Peter cleared his throat, "Done." He turned to repeat himself to her. Before he could speak, he noticed this situation as well. MJ had put more effort into looking better, which was saying a lot because damn MJ looked fantastic normally. But more importantly she was close. Like, really close. He could see all the little feature on her face, close.

He tried again to repeat himself but couldn't bring himself to even open his mouth. MJ slowly smiled, saying, "Sure. Never flustered." Peter gained a sudden major interest in the table cloth.

"Shut up." He managed to mumble. MJ fake gasped, placing a hand to her chest. In a mock offended tone she replies, "Peter Parker, that is no way to talk to your date." That comment made Peter both blush and smile in equal parts.

"I'm gonna go get a drink." he stated before standing and walking away from the table. This event was going to be the death of him. When he returned to the table he found out that Tony had stopped by and spent a solid few minutes trading embarrassing stories about Peter. May even interjected a few. 'Thanks guys.'  he thought to himself as he sat back down. MJ leaned over again whispering, "You forgot your drink there, Tiger." His eyes blew open wide as he looked to May quickly. She mouthed a 'Sorry.' She had told MJ and Tony Stark about the stuffed animal he had slept with until he was 12.

Peter groaned and thudded his head against the table. Yep. He was definitely going to die before he left today. He heard MJ laugh and felt her grab his arm as she stood up. He lifted his head slightly to look at her. "Come on loser, you're learning to dance." She stated. He didn't have a choice. And May mentioned he couldn't dance? What didn't she mention?

The rest of that night was spent with Peter trying not to freak because, OH MY GOD, he was touching her in places he normally wouldn't, and they were moving in such synchronicity, and AHH SHE WAS CLOSE AGAIN. WAS SHE CLOSER? AAHH! This was one of the times it really sucked to have a Spidey Sense. He could feel more than a normal person would, the whole thing was more intimate than it should've been. All the while MJ was correcting Peter's technique, seemingly unaware of his internal meltdown. Good.

II. May Parker and Charlotte Smith

Apparently the Stark wedding had a sort of ripple effect. Because a few weeks later Charlotte was buying a ring. A few months after that their wedding came. Before it did Peter was given an invitation, (May insisted. It was a principal thing.) and for some reason she had filled it out for him. And shockingly, she had checked the 'plus one' box. That's ridiculous. May of all people knew he wasn't dating anyone. The only person he'd-Oh, god. No. Nonononononononononono.

"May. I'm not asking her out." Peter declared through the closed door. May scoffed, "Oh yes you are."

"May, I can't."

"Sure you can."

"She'll say no."

Didn't she say yes last time?"

"That's not the same, she was helping me with Tony Stark."

May finally partially opened the door partially and stuck her head out, "Peter. I have watched you trip and fawn over this girl for...Well far too long. You will go out there and ask her out."

"May..." May sighed as she closed the door again.

Through the door she called out, "Ask her out or no more patrolling for a week."

"Are...are you threatening me to ask a girl out?"

"Go!"

"Alright, alright. Later May."

"Bye honey!"

Peter texted MJ to meet up with him at a park bench they would sit and talk at whenever, mostly at 3 am when neither could sleep. Once he did, he made his own way there. This was going to be fun. (Oh sarcasm font, where art thou?)

By the time MJ arrived at the bench Peter was sitting there, tapping his heel rapidly, and nervously twiddling his thumbs. "'Sup dork. Why'd you call a meeting?"

Peter took a breath and watched the grass ahead of him. "Remember Mr. Stark's wedding?"

MJ smirked, "Yeah. Why?"

"That was fun, right?" MJ made her way to the bench, sat next to Peter, and nodded. Peter gulped and continued, "You maybe wanna, ya know, do that again?"

MJ sat in silence for a moment, which made Peter panic. "It's fine if you don't. It just seemed like fun, and May really wanted me to invite you as my-" He stopped himself. He almost said date. "Plus one." he decided.

"Sure. sounds fun."

"Really?" Peter looked at her, "Like, you really wanna do this?" She nodded pulling her best nonchalant expression. An enormous smile slowly crawled it's way onto Peter's face. "Tha-that's. Cool, awesome, great." Peter was grinning now. MJ rolled her eyes, just barely hiding a smile.

"Stop being so smiley, dork. It's embarrassing."

Peter stood, "Right, no, okay, yeah, I uh, I'll see you later." Peter practically skipped away and MJ rolled her eyes again. What a loser.

The entire wedding ceremony was full of love and laughter. The reception even more so. Charlotte kept May dancing most of the night, which was the sight of the whole reception. Peter watched the dance floor, laughing, from beside the snack table. It seemed like the best place to hang around. Suddenly MJ slid next to him. "Ya know, it's kinda weird." She said, out of nowhere.

"What is?" MJ gestured to the dancing newly wed couple.

"Charlotte and May. They kind of act like us." Peter froze. He had no idea how to respond to that. Was she really comparing them to the two most couple-y people Peter knew? I mean, yeah they had been hanging out more lately, and yeah he would kill to be with her like that. And, wait. Did she like him? Like, like like him? God, it sounded so kindergarten, but it excited and terrified him. Was she admitting to that?

Peter cleared his throat and nodded numbly, "Yeah, I can see it."

After a while Peter insisted on getting a picture with everyone. Yeah, there were professional pictures already taken, but it wasn't the same. He wanted something more personal, for himself. (Plus Peter absolutely loved taking pictures and had been getting artsy shots of everything all night.) So Peter gathered everyone he cared about at the event for a nice and simple selfie. May and Charlotte stood in the very back, each with an arm around each other, and each happier than they had ever been. In front of them stood Tony Stark, complete with his signature sunglasses, and pose seemingly straight out of the cover of Time magazine. At the very front stood Peter and MJ. Peter was holding the camera and was giving a fake-surprised-but-happy sort of look and MJ was giving a smug smile straight to camera, resting her arm on Peter's left shoulder. Or at least, that's how they had posed. Right as the picture was being taken MJ decided to throw a wrench into the works.

Because as Peter hit the button to capture the moment Michelle Jones turned her head towards Peter's and kissed his cheek. Peter's expression quickly melted into real surprise. And even with her eyes closed and only the left side of her face visible, her smug smirk was very much present and noticeable.

This picture quickly became Peter's favorite and was almost immediately became his lockscreen. For a while after that he would look at that picture in times or distress or need. And it gave him the strength to ask MJ on their first official date a few weeks later. (His homescreen was a picture of him and Ned smiling like dorks. Later it would be changed to a group shot of himself, MJ, Ned, and Betty from their first double date. The lockscreen never changed.)

III. Ned Leeds and Betty Brant

A few years later when Betty and Ned had been dating for about 3 years, Peter and MJ for 4 or 5, and all of them were fresh out of college Ned finally proposed.

In the week leading up to the actual wedding MJ and Peter traded off comforting Betty and Ned. Both of them constantly worried about little details going wrong. And depending on the day and situation Ned or Betty would either need the unrelenting positivity of Peter or the supportive realistic view from MJ. On some rare occasions one of them would need both. But for the most part Peter and MJ worked out a pretty good trade off system.

The wedding itself went off without a hitch. Peter was grinning the entire time, consumed with pride and love for his best friend. Ned was of course thrilled, and Betty a slightly more controlled ecstatic. Even MJ was caught smiling some of the few times she let her guard down. Peter made MJ slow dance a few times, (He was more practiced this time) because this was a dream scenario for him.

After that was the photos. The formal ones of the bride and groom, then the fun group shots. After that was just a bunch of pictures of Peter and Ned in what must've been 50,000,000,000 different stupid poses. They took more photos together than Betty and Ned. MJ and Betty simply watched from the sidelines, laughing at how ridiculous their choices of partners were.

Soon after that they were off to their honeymoon, (Ned insisted on Hawaii. He said it was for the calm beach vibe. In reality it was because he wanted to feel like a super villain running an island lair.) and Peter and MJ were off to their apartment. MJ sat on their bed, reading the latest addition to her library. Eventually Peter came out of the shower in fresh pajamas and damp hair and sat next to her. He scrolled through his phone, killing time in whatever little ways he could, occasionally pretending not to watch her read. After maybe 20, 2 or 3 glances he asked, "You alright, MJ? You're pulling that intense thought face and you haven't left that page in 5 minutes." She placed her bookmark on the page with a sigh and closed the book itself. She placed it in her lap and stared at the cover.

"You think that'll ever be us?" She finally asked. Peter glanced at the cover of her book.

"Dead after angering a warlock?" He asked

"No, I mean w-" she stopped herself turning to give him a confused look, "That's not the plot." Peter shrugged and she laughed lightly kissing his forehead, "Such a dork." she mumbled. Her smile slowly died as she looked him in the eye, "I mean where Betty and Ned were today. You think we'll get there?"

Peter paused to think of a response that wouldn't make him look lame. "I mean, I sure hope so. I've been waiting for that since I was a kid."

MJ smirked, "So you were the wimp in elementary school?"

"I prefer passionate."

"Ugh. You're still that wimp." Peter grinned and gave her a light peck.

"You love it."

She placed her hand on his cheek and gazed deep into his eyes before quietly saying, "God, you're a loser." Peter's grin widened which made her smile. Her smile fell quickly again and her hand fell to rest on her book again. "You sure you're with the girl you'd want to do all that cheesy stuff with?" Peter's expression filled with worry as he sat up straighter.

"What? What are you talking about MJ?" He asked wrapping his arms around her. She shrugged looking  at the cover of her book again.

"Just, I know how you always dreamed about this fairy tale wedding and relationship and all that. I also know that I'm not the most conventional person." Peter's grip around her tightened and he sighed into her hair.

"Michelle Jones, you are the single most amazing person that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. It would be more than an honor to marry you." He reassured. MJ smiled slowly as she reached into her pocket.

"Good. Just making sure." She whispered as her hand reemerged and she rested it on her lap. Peter's eyebrows knitted in confusion before he looked down and saw what she held. It was a ring. "Peter Benjamin Parker, will y-" She didn't get the chance to finish her sentence before Peter held either side of her face and kissed her with all that he had. The force of Peter surging forward put MJ on her back, but that didn't stop them from not breaking the kiss for another 5-10 minutes.

"So, is that a yes, or?" MJ asked with a small smirk. Peter grinned and kissed her again.

When they finally finished Peter texted May and Ned about it. Both were excited beyond belief, giving lots of "Finally"s and every question imaginable. Ned was jealous he couldn't be there to celebrate. A few days after that Tony found out and gave them the same routine. Except Tony insisted on taking them out to the nicest restaurant he could think of to talk the details over.

IV. Peter Parker and Michelle Jones

The last wedding MJ and Peter attended was their own. They had all the corniest and lamest traditions there because MJ loved seeing how happy they made Peter. The security for the event was majorly beefed up because all the Avengers showed up. Because finally . They had been watching those 2 stumble around their feelings and each other for years. There was no way they were missing this. The team had to give fake names to a couple people, but they were not missing this for anything. May, Charlotte, Ned, and Betty were given a special seating section.

There was a secondary wedding as a cover so civilians wouldn't show up to the ceremony and see the Avengers walking around. This one was attended by May, Charlotte, Ned, Betty, Tony, the old Decathlon Team, (Yes even Flash, he got less insufferable after high school.) and the various members of MJ's family she was still in contact with. Both events were perfectly appropriate for Peter and MJ. Perfectly odd, but it totally works.

After their second round at getting married, and as they were getting ready for their honeymoon Peter stopped packing for a moment to watch his new wife as she fiddled with her hair in the mirror. (There was glitter at the second wedding and some of it had gotten on them. MJ wouldn't get all of it out of her hair until days later.) He smiled slowly and widely. She glanced at him, "What are you staring at, loser?" Peter's dopey smile grew slightly.

"Oh, you know. Just appreciating how lucky I am to have such a wonderful wife."

She smiled gently "You're so gross." He kept grinning. "Stop that. You're dorkiness is affecting the vibe of the room." He laughed lightly.

"Love you MJ." he called before returning to his suitcase. She mumbled something. "I'm sorry?" he asked. She made her way over to him and her turned to face her again. She gently placed her hands on his shoulders.

"I said." She began as she slowly wrapped her arms behind his neck. "Love you too, Tiger." His grin was back again at full force. "Ugh. Stop it." She said as she rested her forehead on his. Peter shook his head. "Then I'll make you." She declared as she leaned down to kiss him, strengthening Peter's grin and slowly spreading it to MJ as well. That night Peter thought to himself for another countless time, 'I am one lucky guy.'

And they lived happily ever after. The end.

[nikelyzed]

JSeries Festival 2017 Report

Jakarta, 9th December Upperroom Annex Building 10th Floor

First of all sorry this report was written on broken English because I do believe it’ll be a total fiasco if I wrote it in Indonesian, trust me Please forgive me if there’s any grammar / spelling mistakes (´;ㅿ;｀) Also, taking photos was strictly prohibited when the talk show started inside the venue, that’s why I only have 4 badly taken photos on the photo session for the report orzz

If you’re looking for certain guest artist report please just scroll down because it’s gonna be a poorly written long ass report LMAO

This is the shortest dead-lined trip I ever done in my life, like it’s less than 2 weeks & I almost surrender because of office deadlines were crammed up into 4 days Also my phone was broken when the announcement was out Jakarta is a complicated place & I’m hella afraid straying there all alone, but luckily I have some friends who offer me place to stay ｡ﾟ(ﾟ^o^ﾟ)ﾟ｡

Special thanks to Maya & Shadent who let me stay at their place [and I still feel bad kicking Maya from her bed LMAO I’m so sorry orzz]

December 8th 2017

So the day before I was going to Jakarta, I woke up at 4am to pack my stuff but still almost late for the train departure LOL The train supposed to depart at 7.35am & I just arrived at the station at 7.20am I was running around like an idiot I swear 😂

I arrived in Jakarta at 11am  went to the ticket venue as soon as I can I met with friends I already know & some new friends, which I forgot--😂 They even let me touch their bromide collection [& took photo of it gsxcvjgacxg]

I’m screeching like an idiot when I saw SatoKiyo bromide because-- do I need to explain this part???  ((유∀유|||))

After exchanging email reservation with the ticket & having lunch, we went to karaoke & I almost lost my voice in the process

At night I really want to bang my head because I’m contemplating whether I should draw a gift for Ogotan or not since there’s no announcement of gift box for guest artist & I forgot to ask the staff about it too orzz But I decided to draw art gift for him in the night yet unable to finish because I was too sleepy, exhausted, & nearly heat-stroked because Jakarta heat is never a joke to begin with If you’re weak against sun-heat like me please bring umbrella / hat & put as many sunscreen & sunblock as you can, I mean it

December 9th 2017

The next day I woke up at 4am sharp but was shocked to my spine because Maya was sleeping on the floor instead on the bed  (´･_･`) Since we both still sleepy we decided to continue sleeping again but now it’s my turn to sleep on the floor ofc

We woke up again at 7am & doing satan speed preparations because the traffic is gonna be nasty if we’re late for real

We managed to arrived on the venue at 9am something I took a shortcut to get to the empty spot because my bag is hecking heavy & I can’t wait to sit, this resulting to the gate-border-thing to snap & fall, sorry security-san I’m too eager orzz

After that we sit on the line until open gate time I spend my time rolling around back & forth to some friends while waiting I even can continue the gift for Ogotan & finished it on time Since we forgot to buy envelope for the fan letter I decided to sacrifice my red folder file to contain all the letter for Ogotan

I swear I was nervous as heck when people start staring at it like hjvghcvaxhjdvvf no I’m not cheating on Ryuji this is just a normal gift yet some people still teasing me about it until now ((유∀유|||))

Oh I also met friends from previous karaoke session Alchemilla, Caneera, Kuyo, Maya, Evelyn, Salfa, Shadent, Nopi, Ika, Nindita, Nadya, & idk the rest please remind me because my memory was as bad as Higekiri or even worse---  ┏( .-. ┏ ) ┓

2:45pm Open Gate

We’re running a little bit late from schedule but finally we entered the hall I got the first row seat on the middle wing, I sit on the left side right across to the press chair row on the left wing Never have I felt so blessed before, it’s so close to the stage I swear I can even jump over the fence if I want to, but of course I won’t do that la I still have some sanity intact

The rest of this report was based on my memory so please kindly tell me if I made any mistake over the schedule / what the artist said or do OK?  |ω･`)

The MC was Hiroaki Kato [the cool & kind oyaji] also a pretty lady who I failed to remember her name oops sorry  (´･_･`)

In the opening we have many dorama screenings, & if you’re curious the list of dorama can be found here 

Saso Yuki fangirl section

The first guest artist to appeared was Saso Yuki the P*cari Sweat girl on youtube I never think she will be this pretty up close I swear she’s prettier IRL, the photo / video you saw were nothing hvfkacvxgyuedf  (///﹏///).｡oஇ

She greets & introduces herself in Indonesian. The rest of talk show was about acting & stuff. She also talk about the making of P*cari Sweat TVC Yuki Saso hope Indo & Japan can have greater relationship in the near future

IDK if it’s just me, but when I was too busy gaping like a fish & stare at her for solid minutes, she look at my direction and waved and smiled so bright AND I JUST DIED HDVGSHHJVCSJBC I swear she’s sooooooooo sooooooooooooooo pretty that you could melt when she’s smiling LOL I forgot things she said since I was dumb-strucked by her beauty

After that we had another screening time

Nano fangirl section

The next guest artist to perform was Nano She’s also gorgeous up close & she’s very happy to perform in Indonesia since she was cancelling her previous concert in Jakarta due to some circumstances She also told us that the venue her concert supposed to be held was this exact venue we’re sitting on & we’re going “whoaaa” in unison

When Nano was going to sing, the sound system died--- The audience was very supportive & cheer her up with kind words The Nano support team was amazing, you guys rocks!  (≧∇≦ ) If I’m not mistaken Nano sing “Savior of Song” & “The Crossing” It was amazing performance, we stand & sing along together

Next we have another screening time

Isomura Hayato & Yahagi Honoka fangirl section

After screening time, there’s guest artist arrived & I scream on top of my lungs because I thought it was Ogotan But false alarm, It’s actually Isomura Hayato from Kamen Rider Ghost & I still screamed anyway  ( ´༎ຶㅂ༎ຶ`) This talk session was also attended by Yahagi Honoka-chan & I was dumb-strucked by another beauty LMAO Seriously she’s so cute up close  (灬ºωº灬)♡

Their first impression of Indonesia was it’s hot but they both like it since its freezing winter on Japan Both talk a lot of things, about acting & stuff. Both were asked if there’s drama collaboration with Indonesia will they interested or not but of course the fans said the deadpanned big big no since Indonesia soap opera quality is kinda-- well-- you decide la--😂

I don’t remember what they talk because I forgot to take notes of it But there’s this section when Hayato-kun asked why he become a Kamen Rider, he said it’s his dream to protect girls [he clearly said ‘Josei’ here] Hiroaki-san teases us “Who want to be protected by Hayato-kun?” And this dork whose name is Hayato-kun just casually stretch his hands out to audience direction while nodding, like offering a hug Of course the fangirls roars the signature “KYAAAAAAAA” including me Who don’t want to be protected by a handsome guy anyway??  (//∇//)

Another funny thing, when I was staring right into Hayato-kun [he’s so gorgeous IRL I swear] idk if he realized I was staring or he’s actually looking at the press which is right across my seat-- He look at my direction A LOT & I pretend to stare at Honoka-chan, this happened many many times it feels awkward LMAO o)-(;;; I keep chanting “Hayato-kun please don’t look over here, just lemme enjoy your gorgeous face peacefully”, but he keep looking at my direction once in a while Oh well, considered it blessings  ( ´༎ຶㅂ༎ຶ`)

When the times up we had another screening TADAAAAAH it’s YOWAPEDAAAAAAA I was soooooo prepared to see Ogotan but since I can see towards the backstage entrance it’s actually a female silhouette walking to the stage

AND DAFUQ IT’S ACTUALLY YUKI KATO LMAO  😂 😂 😂

Being a country field person I’m, I still scream because she was also one of my childhood fav actress on Heart movie since she’s so cute & relatable as duck LMAO

She talked a lot about acting, awards she won in Japan, & so on The funny part is, when she was asked what kind of movie she like to watch she gesture “mampus gue” with her lips which can be roughly translated as “sht I’m screwed” 😂   

No worries Yuki-chan, we understand that fangirl feeling, really 😂 😂 😂

After talk with Yuki-chan, the kameko-ninja-guy set some band property so I relax a little, thinking it was Rei performance

Never been I’d be so wrong in my life

Ogoe Yuuki massive fangirl section

When Hiroaki-san announce the next guest artist I nearly fell of my chair because FINALLY OGOTAN APPEARED HOLYDUCKXVHSVKVXHTXAKOZ

I wonder if I actually died on the spot because Ogotan look so gorgeous & cute & pure & angelic idk man I’m wheezing my life out  (´×ω×`) He wore a suit which has the same color as my attire & I got teased again orzz

First he was greeting us with a broken Indonesian along with a sheepish smile His jumbled face when he ask Hiroaki-san how to read the Indonesian language, it was soooo so cute, so pure, so angelic, so fluffy hhhnnnggghhhhhhh He continue the gibberish Indonesian greetings cutely which we all failed to understand, the audience went “???” & he also went a little “???”  😂 

Its okay Ogotan, we still love you 😂 

His first impression of Indonesia was it’s extremely hot ofc Hiroaki-san offered if he had any intention to bike around while in Indo But of course the Ogotan support team won’t let him, giving him the no gestures and chanting “dame-dame-dame” together  😂  We don’t want Ogotan to bike in these messy road & of course Indonesian sun is unhealthy for his flawless skin so NOPE  ლ(ಠ益ಠლ WE SHALL PROTECT OGOTAN AT ANY COST!! - said someone

He talked about acting, dorama, and also butai. He explained to us the differences between dorama & butai, their specialty & so on For example is when he’s on Yowapeda butai he only use bike handle, while in dorama he need to bike for real

Between the talk he sends lots lots of heart gestures, both Korean heart finger sign & full fledged love hand sign toward the audience & there goes the audible “KYAAAAA” signature roaring from back to the front including me LMAO

He keep smiling & shooting heart & sending loves & waving & idk man

I feel so attacked when he look at a folder file I was carrying earlier I decided to showed it to him when he’s looking & making “it’s for you” hand gestures He smiled at me, HE SMILED AT ME FOR DUCK SAKE & SEND ME A FULL FLEDGET HEART SIGN WITH BOTH HAND & I JUST MELT IN THE NAME OF LORD I WAS NEARLY DIED LMAO  ｡ﾟ( ﾟஇωஇﾟ)ﾟ｡

It’s hecking embarrassing so I just cover my face with the folder file but Ogotan seems to know I was a weakling & he keep shooting me heart sign & tilt his head cutely & I died again & again LMAO OGOTAN STOPPP I CAN’T HANDLE IT GXBXCHSGLGBLTFXGKHS

[I need to apologize to Ryuji later I swear]

He talks about a lot of stuff but I barely remember what he talk on stage since what I heard & remember were just "KYAAA KYAAA KYAA” from start to the end I kinda feel bad for Hiroaki-san because his translations were drowned between sea of fangirl screams  ( ；∀；)

When the talk session time is up, there goes another fangirl scream, the saddest one you’ll ever heard, it feels like you just kicked a kitten / puppy

I was also started crying without I realize because I always cry when fangirling By I mean crying was rolling literal tears from my eyes because I’m a weakling to every people I adore including actors, singers, whatever

Here comes the angst I’m so so sad because we only can see him for about 15 minutes & after that idk when will we can see him again so I started crying for real but inaudible one ofc

By the end of the talk, Ogotan said something like : “Thank you for loving me. It was my motivation & it supports me to keep going on. Thank you very much & please take care of me too in the future”

I don’t remember the exact thing he said but he does say ‘Aisarete’ something something & on here my friend who understand Japanese better was already bawling  ｡ﾟ(ﾟ´Д｀ﾟ)ﾟ ｡

AND CAN YOU GUESS WHAT?? HE LOOK AT MY DIRECTION AGAIN & SEND ME ANOTHER HEART SIGN & OF COURSE I WAS CRYING EVEN MORE LA OMFG WHAT A WRONG MOVE OGOTAN LMAOOO CRYYYYYYYYYYY  .˚‧º·(ฅдฅ｡)‧º·˚. He also kindly send me a “nakanaide” gesture with his lips & I’m sending him an OK sign while wiping my tears LMAO what am I doing with my life, really I started thinking if I’m being delusional & Ogotan never did any of these but please, just let me be 😂💖

After that Ogotan fangirl time was over & I’m still crying LMAO HAHHAHAH He keep shooting hearts & smiles so bright it can light up the whole universe The audience finally fall silent after he return to the backstage

After Ogotan talk is over, it’s Rei turn to perform At that time my soul was still flying & can’t even process what’s happening because my head hurts so much from too many screaming & crying LMAO

BUT TADAAHHHH there’s a surprise attack by the end of the event LMAO.

There’s actually some envelope attached at the bottom of each audience chair Inside each of the envelope there’s a name of guest artist written, there’re 10 envelope in total

7 of the lucky audience will get a board which autographed by the guest The other 3 was the luckiest mustard ever existed on earth who got a chance to take a photo with the guest artist LIKE (ノ-_-)ノ~┻━┻ Since I’m bad in gambling of course I don’t get any la what do you expect

I can hear envy screeching from back to the front, in this segment finally we’re allowed to took some photos, & there’s a crowd photo from the stage too but IDK Press-san tachi, I’m waiting for the better photo here  ( ˘•ω•˘ ).｡oஇ

I’m unable to took more than 4 photos because I was squished to the gate from back & it’s hard balancing phone with one hand so here comes the blurry quality photos I managed to snap between the chaos

While taking photos we managed to catch Yuki Kato attention Being the good fangirl we’re, we keep gesturing her “THIS THING IS FOR OGOTAN” while pointing at Ogotan continuously LOL She replied with hand gestures “How should I tell him about it???”

Ogotan seems realizing what’s happening & smiles to us cutely And the front row died again LMAO

I swear Yuki Kato is a fangirl in crime, thank you for helping us Yuki-chan!  ヾ(｡>﹏<｡)ﾉﾞ✧*

Finally, the event end for real  ( ´༎ຶㅂ༎ຶ`) I was running around to find a way to give Ogotan’s gift art & apparently there’s a gift box [which actually is a gift desk] prepared for it by the staff

We part our ways & I’m recharging my flying soul with friends, eating Yoshin*ya while contemplating whether is it a real life or just a fantasy

After that I went to Shadent’s home for resting, we watch some Kamen Rider episodes before finally collapsing on bed in less than 5 minutes LMAO

It was really a fun day, I’m having a great experience & I’m gonna cherish this memory forever ever ever and ever!!  ｡✧*｡( ´∩•͈ω•͈∩` )✧*｡

Otsukaresamadesu JSeries Festival Jakarta!  See you next time!!  (｡•̀ᴗ-)و ̑̑✧

Please bring Ryuji in the next event, I beg you  ((유∀유|||))

[hannahchronism]

Now That’s What I Call Visual Character Development™  (pls full view)

I couldn’t stop thinking about that hair dye(ing) post I made and I couldn’t sleep so I was warming up with some sketches and.. then this happened. The focus was (obviously) on her hair but you can see some other changes as time moved and idk I just really like how this turned out??

Some (and by “some” I mean “a lot of”) thoughts & notes about the colors/styles under the cut!

1. This is (roughly) immediate post-escape, just her natural color but dull (and really it should be duller but..i love..bright colors) because she spent literally four years inside and didn’t exactly have good nutrition or a way to take of herself at all. It was probably kept around this length just to keep it from being intrusive (although she’s probably lucky they didn’t just shave it off tbh.)

2. The original Tech design, ladies and gentlemen. If you go find my dA (which like..pls don’t lmao) you can find evidence of my very early tablet days, and my very bad art of Tech with this hair. Speaking story-wise, this was Tech’s first steps into embracing that Killjoy Aesthetic, which happened about a month and a half after she hit the sand. It was when she was living with the traders -Keeper actually helped her dye it uwu- and so it was... sort of a right of passage? Her first hair dying was also right around when she picked up the name Magpie and it was all just very find-yourself-in-the-chaos kind of thing. This is also when she discovered makeup and had just no idea what to do with it. Lots of dark eyeliner and bright eye shadow happened in this phase. In copious amounts. (Also that sunburn, what a baby, she was a zone baby) This hair lasted for a good while until

3. The infamous, lasted-forever-beause-I-Kinda-forgot-I-did-it pink hair. It was actually an in-RP thing, where Tech was feeling restless and wanted to do something “crazy”  and well.. she sure did this. I don’t think I’d call it crazy, but she did it. While it was -obviously- impulsive I think it was kind of also a really neat thing because it sort of reflected a point of change for her (it wa actually roughly around the time I was really starting to RP with y’all instead of my old group -if you go find the post where she dyed it in the archive, you can see her introducing herself to Mouse on like the same day !) And after that it sort of entered limbo because I got so wrapped up in writing I low key forgot about it which leads to

4. The grown-out, faded pink. It was never a like, directly addressed thing, but I do know I intentionally grew her hair out here, and she probably didn’t keep re-doing the pink or dye over it, so it stands to reason she ended up with something like this which I think looks really cute. Hippie Tech. Again, it wasn’t so much of a totally intentional thing, but it’s neat because at this point she was kind of in a good gear of growth. She had a lot of support and was starting to strike out on her own. She made a lot of dumb mistakes but also she was learning from them. Starting to figure herself out, y’know? And all during this her hair was getting longer and showing her old (true) colors and.. I dunno, it’s just sort of a fun visual storytelling thing. And it probably stayed like this all the way up to until when I went evil and decided to dump her in reeducation.

5. The Re-Ed chop & dye, and the point where she lost those signature scars and..well, a good bit of her mind and a greater bit of all that growth. She was figuring herself out and they stripped it right out of her head and right off of her skin. I mean, speaks for itself, right?

6. the Muddy Green of Instability. This is a shade she went to..I wanna say about two, maybe three months after she got back out into the desert? I have a love/hate relationship with this hair. It’s really cool cause it’s a kind of callback/parallel to her first hair-escapade, where she found herself tossed into the chaos of desert life with so much confusion and newness and she just. was trying so hard to find her place in it. I hate it though because it’s not like, a choice choice of hers. It wasn’t about being bright or identifying herself it was just that she could not stand having the brown anymore. She dyed it literally the first color she could get her hands on, and I’m half convinced she only got ahold of it so easy because nobody else wanted it. It could arguably be the same brand/color she put in her hair the first time, too, but she was so impatient and out of it she really she dumped it on her head without prep, so it came out really muddled and dark and blegh.

7. Another fun parallel, she went pink again around the time she was working out all the ways her broken memories fit together. Like the first time, the pink was a time of growth (though, this time around, she did keep her hair on the shorter side.) It started to even back out and it didn’t look like the way BLI cut it but it wasn’t her old look either. Something both new and old as she tried to blend the trauma and the “old her” into something that felt right. This is also, as you might be able to see, when she got stupid drunk and let Viv peirce her nose.

8.Current (give or take a centimeter of roots) and she’s got it all pretty decently worked out, probably. In any case, she has her memory back, and she knows what she likes and who she loves, and that seems like a pretty solid foundation of an identity. She’ll figure the rest of it out eventually bit by bit (one silver flash drive at a time.)

[aftgonice]

11 questions tag

I was tagged by a lot of people, I kept this in the drafts for weeks and just kept adding questions since they’re always different, so thank you for tagging me and sorry if this post is long (I’ll just put it under keep reading).

Also it might be that I forgot or missed someone who tagged me so if that’s the case I’m sorry I’m not ignoring you I promise!

Rules: 1. Always post the rules 2. Answer the questions given by the person who tagged you 3. Write 11 questions of your own 4. Tag 11 people

Questions by @severeminx

You are hosting a dinner party and can invite 5 historical figures. Who would they be? Mozart, Da Ponte, Aristotle, Lucretius, Marie Skłodowska

What was your favorite cartoon as a kid? probably Pokémon!

What’s your signature drink when going out? Japanese ice tea

Do you have any tattoos? If not, would you like to? i don’t have any and i also don’t think i’ll ever find something that i want on my skin permanently, but we’ll see if we get there i guess

Who was your favourite classmate when you were 16? oh god...thank god this didn’t ask when i was 17 lmao...anyway my fav classmate was my then-BFF. there were also a couple of girls i really found interesting but i guess it wasn’t reciprocated so they always only hung out with a bigger group and being the shy person i am i couldn’t let myself try to be friends with them

How did you meet your best friend? we were in kindergarten together lol, but we didn’t talk (play??) much. then we were in different classes during elementary school but we got in the same class again in middle school and that’s where we became friends

Do you like going to museums? What is the art style you want to check out the most? okay i’m going to admit this here. i like museums, okay? but i’d rather see something like a natural history museum or something like that, honestly i’m a big science nerd and i don’t get as excited about art i guess. but i do go to art museums when visiting cities and i actually find them really interesting, but if i’m just in my town and there’s some temporary art exhibition i just don’t really care about going unless it’s something suuuuper famous :/// i feel like a lot of people will hate me for this buT LISTEN SCIENCE IS IMPORTANT GUYS

What feature or quality do you get complimented on the most? are we talking physically?? people like my hair and my nails I guess. If we’re talking personality-wise then idk, they tell me I’m good at listening (which I admit) and my bff told me he thinks I’m brave and I guess I understand why he said it but honestly I still don’t believe it

What is the most romantic place you have ever visited? I’m not sure because since watching YOI the only romantic place on earth for me is Barcelona and I haven’t been there yet lmao. The places I’ve been to aren’t exactly romantic so I don’t know

What would you define as ‘magical’? That thing that your mind does after 1 or 2am when it becomes more loose without needing drugs but it just gets high on lack of sleep and you’re suddenly really talkative and funny and you can have really deep conversations with people and your jokes are honestly on fucking point and you wish you were like that during the day

What is the most expensive item of clothing you have ever bought and was it worth it? I honestly don’t know oh my god. Probably the suit (pants + blazer) I bought a few years ago and that’s still good and whenever I have to be dressed in a “serious and elegant” way that’s what I go for. So yeah it was worth it.

Questions by @yakoucchu

 The piece of makeup that you always wear. i don’t always wear it but if i wanna put on a bit of something then it’s definitely gonna be mascara + lipstick (or colored lip balm) because I think they both make a ton of difference. Actually now in summer I almost always have colored lip balm from Lush because it’s too humid to be wearing mascara and I don’t feel like wearing a waterproof one lol

If you’re gonna be the author of your favorite series, what are you gonna change in it? well that would be a spoiler lmao but i guess i’d make someone who died in it live

There’s a fact that is happened to you and it makes you heart warming a lil bit when you think about it? you mean besides YOI and captive prince? cuz that’s all i can think about lol (there’s more but i’m being lazy with my answer sorry)

 Someone have ever done something that we can define crazy for you? yeah when my bf first came to visit me and we met for the first time (because we met online)

Do you like your current occupation? i’m unemployed but i’m “working” on being able to find a job soon but tbh i have food and a roof on my head and i’m needing this time of doing nothing but trying to take care of myself so i wouldn’t say i like this but it’s all i can do now

Smoothies, or Milkshakes? smoothies

What’s the thing that you love the most about yourself? hsrghsghshgshgsh most difficult question ever tbh. i like that i’m...rational? yeah rational 

The most strange thing that you ever tried to eat grossed you out? ummmmmmmmmm watch me get a lot of hate for this but....................................................sushi grosses me out and i almost puked when i tried it

Are you ever tried to write something, and after a while giving it up? Why? i did, a lot of things actually. i had an idea for a fic that i realized was going to do me more harm than good so i had to ditch the idea. there are things i know i could write but they’re too personal and still too raw so idk if i ever will write them. other WIPs are just there in my folder for no other reason that I either lost inspiration or that they’re honestly fucking hard to write and I still don’t have all the plot 

How do you feel right not? If I said to you “you’re doing great” it can change something? i’m struggling to keep my shit together. and yes, it changes something so thank you a lot for telling me that :) <3

What’s your favorite movie? idkkkkkk i rarely watch movies but of the latest ones i guess interstellar

Questions by @crescendotayuri 

1. what’s one thing you could never live without? my phone lmaoooooo so cliche

2. what’s your favorite part of your daily routine? probably right after managing to get out of bed, the moment i finally sit down for breakfast with a croissant and a cappuccino (typical italian breakfastTM)

3. what are you most passionate about? ...yuri on ice and captive prince and lgbt+ rights and the environment

4. what’s the best dream you’ve ever had? I don’t really know but sometimes I dream that I become internet-famous and it’s really sad that this is literally one of the best dreams I have lmao

5. happiest memory? I have a few but one of them is seeing Florence and the Machine live (i have others but they’re a bit too personal so idk)

6. are there any videos/jokes/etc that never fail to make you laugh? oh god yes........i’m so lame but like any meme will have me laugh tbh. kermit meme? i laugh. dude blinking meme? i laugh. spongebob meme? i laugh. i could go on lmao but i’ll stop embarrassing myself. there’s also a few comics that I have saved on my phone and they never fail to make me laugh but it’d be hard to explain them here

7. one talent you with you had/could perfect? it’s never been my wish to be able to draw but now that i’m into fandom i guess i would like to be able to do it at least a little. and i wish i could perfect my writing (or at least perfect my English at a native speaker level so it’d be easier)

8. a song you relate to the most? Help I’m alive - Metric

9. how do you take your coffee/tea? i only have cappuccino or latte macchiato and only rarely espresso. get american coffee out of my sight. tea is earl grey usually without milk bc i mostly use tea (without sugar) to stop me from wanting dessert lmao but if i’m feeling like it i’ll take it with milk bc it’s too good

10. what do you do to make yourself feel better when you’re sad or upset? i rewatch yoi or go on twitter and hope there’s some good memes but i trust my squad so yeah usually there’s something

11. what makes you proud of yourself? being a decent person despite everything

Questions by @pllsetskyonice:

1. What’s a song you can’t get enough of at the moment? AAAA it’s too hard to choose one! Just one yesterday by Fall Out Boy and literally every song from Lorde’s Melodrama

2. If someone asked you for a book recommendation, what’s the one book you would recommend? The question is trickyyyy because obviously not all books are for everyone especially if we’re talking about stuff with major trigger warnings etc etc but if I have to say I’ll just go with my fav trilogy Captive Prince (granted I’m talking to an adult) but I’ll leave it to them to decide if they’re up to reading it or not

3. Do you play any musical instruments? Nope :( used to play the piano and then stopped like the idiot I am, but I sing

4. Book or movie? Book

5. Do you ever wish you could turn back time? Eh. I guess.

6. Favourite subject in school? Science in whatever form it came (it was different things every school year but it doesn’t matter if it’s geology chemistry or w/e I’m just a huge science kid)

7. You’ve been given tickets to a concert for an artist you’ve always wanted to see live but never had the chance to. Who are you seeing? Maybe Marina and the Diamonds but there’s so many oh my god I also wouldn’t mind seeing Florence again but I’ve already seen her.......oh wait LORDE YES LORDE probably if I had to choose right at this very moment

8. Is there an accessory you don’t feel dressed without? Not really

9. Have you ever been to a festival? I’m not sure what kinda festival you mean but I think not

10. Have you read all of the original seven Harry Potter books? Yeah but still not in English oops

11. What’s the last film/TV show you watched? Last film was Beauty and the Beast when it came out lmao I’m not a huge movie person, last TV show mmmh let’s say that YOI counts for this yes? because it’s always YOI and I don’t feel like watching anything else rip

My questions:

If you were a character in the last book you’ve read, what would be your role? Protagonist, side kick, villain...?

What’s your biggest pet peeve when reading a book or watching a show/anime/movie? (if you can’t only name one feel free to name a few)

Do you consider yourself to be a creative person?

Describe one person in your life you admire without mentioning the type of relationship you have with them

What’s one personality trait you’d give up immediately if you could?

Think of the farthest place you’ve traveled to and describe one culture shock you had while there (even something small)

What’s the one thing that always manages to motivate you?

What would you tell your 10 year old self?

What’s your favorite trope?

If your BFF tells you (lovingly) “why are you like this?” what are they referring to?

Are you scared of something right now? If you are, what’s one sentence you wish someone would tell you about the thing that scares you?

I tag: @betelxeuse @ilgattopatata @ehsocietypretendstoomuch @otayurl @argentoheart @nerily @janiedean @robb-greyjoy @laurent-rose @dotingdamen @venenix but obviously feel free not to do it (but if you do tag me bc I love reading your answers) fdklahrgag I hope I don’t get annoying with all these tags

[eyedelater]

post about the rest of the ajin anime (seasons 1 and 2)

(nothing special, just a liveblog post)

ajin episode 6

i see that the animation budget saved by doing CGI was instead spent on the fluttery shifty effects of the black ghosts

so satou's ghost is also anvil-headed

right, nagai doesn't have much empathy... hmm... hmm... that doesn't excuse his being an asshole at times

tosaki sure is eager to jump to conclusions as to why satou didn't bring out his ghost

ohh, ghost-to-ghost head collisions can bump some memories back and forth, interesting, i forgot about that...

huh, what is eriko calling kei "onii-chan" for at a time like this? she called him "nii-san" to his face and i think in front of everyone who talked to her about him, right? was that her way of expressing worry about him...?

episode 7

tosaki's gotta get that dekai kane

right, of course he's motivated by comatose fiance. doesn't excuse any of the shit he's done

episode 8

nakano kou. do we seriously have a kei, a kai, and a kou? sounds like a bit of a natural OT3 tbh

episode 9

there we go, nagai kei finally being an indisputable asshole

oh, right, big pharma makes an appearance as an antagonist

sokabe has a very silly face.

i already forgot what IBM stands for and can only come up with IBM he company or ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) without the C

right, ogura's distinguishing feature was not only smoking cigarettes, but being unreasonably dedicated to his brand of smokes in particular. so dumb

episode 10

ogura says a black ghost can only be used once or twice a day, but didn't nagai kei whip em out one after another like it was no thing? is that his special protagonist power that makes him differentiated enough to be the protagonist?

kei's ghost learned how to fell a tree from minecraft

do they really have huge screens up in cities complete with booming audio? the screens are nothing new, but the audio seems unusual to me

episode 11

oh, tosaki finally learned satou's name. from satou's video.

yamanaka-san bought him an oPhone8

"life and money are synonymous" sounds like your typical CEO

omfg satou rode the sinking tower and had a great time

sokabe is still calling satou "hat guy." get with the picture

episode 12

this just in: does satou sometimes substitute a "sh" sound in for an "s" sound?

episode 13

kei demonstrates his shittiness by holding a knife to yamanaka-san's neck after getting sniped. what a dick. oh wait he made it work. well whatever

tosaki says nagai kei is not a fool and as such he probably already scouted out the area, but tosaki immediately also says nagai kei has probably exhausted his black ghost uses for the day, something a fool would do because only a fool doesn't know their own limits and try to use them tactically in such a situation

time for season 2 i guess, episode 2-1

this OP isn't bad i guess

these subs having sokabe say "it's normal for a subordinate to greet his senpai." listen, if you use "senpai," you gotta also use "kohai," and if you use "subordinate," you also gotta use "superior" you can't just pick and choose which words you want to translate

this ending song is horrible

ep 2-2

sakurai emerging from the airplane toilet clearly zipping up his fly out of frame and seeing satou and his eyebrows just turn on a fulcrum and then turn backward like they're pinball flippers

ep 2-3

ah. i was musing over what must be the most popular ship for ajin, thinking maybe kei/kai or kei/kou or tosaki/ogura, but i've had a bit of a realization, and if i know the hearts of the BL community at all, their favorite ship is probably some sinful shit like tosaki/kei. i’ll find out soon enough whether i’m right (haven’t looked at any ajin pixiv tags yet)

ep 2-4

kotobuki, eh. seems like a charming character. oh, this bandanna delinquent is pulling the ol' pee-and-chat

kaito, everyone's favorite punching bag

for the record, i know i've read beyond this point in the manga, but i don't remember shit except that i left off around a chapter where we see shimomura's history.

kotobuki has a small head, maybe he just squeezed through some bars to escape

ah, i just realized the other anime this kinda reminds me of: zankyou no terror. it's got the police/government and the american government trying to intervene aspect to it.

carly meyers doesn't have any kind of american accent... i was kinda hoping she would

neither does doug here. i guess they didn't have voice actors who would have some fun doing a bad accent... or maybe they didn't see it as appropriate

holy FUCK, kaito executed a flying dropkick even though he wasn't on higher ground or anything, what the fuck

kotobuki asks kai what nagai kei is like and i earnestly half-expected him to reply "he's scum" like everyone else does

oh, so kotobuki's got a winged kuro-chan. lucky... 

i forgot to write about this in the episode where it was said, but that iowan ajin whose ghost was driving a tractor is such a perfect image i can't stop thinking about it

ep 2-5

so i guess satou's catchphrase is "sssshate" (bc he kinda does a "sha" instead of a "sa") (meaning "now, then.")

the first OP wasn't skippable but i find myself needing to skip this one

there's lots of "pulling up live television broadcasts via a non-television device" in this anime

kou calling shimomura "izumi-san" pls

i like how whoever is nearest the whiteboard is the one to cross the latest victim off the target list

ok, if tosaki is about to be fired (which, hasn't he been for a while now?), that made me think, why is he concerned about his job when he's doing this conspiring with ogura and nagai etc hidden from his superiors? is he concerned about stopping satou, or is he still only concerned about money for his fiancee...? is he getting hella paid for this even though he's less involved in the torture (the real moneymaking activity) than before?

i don't like this dynamic btwn american guy and carly meyers where he keeps correcting her gruffly and she keeps backing off and looking afraid/ashamed.

they had nakano put on a satou hat to be satou ;w;

did shimomura just plug a flash drive into her phone? what kind of compatibility we got in this time period?

how long do neck-stab sedatives take to kick in in real life?

carly meyers's kuro-chan has a gem-shaped head

why don't all ajins just keep a knife or something on them to cut their own throat whenever they get hurt

ep 2-6

tainaka yoko. yup, this is about where i left off in the manga, i believe

whoa there, tosaki just got tased right in the nib nob. that's dirty, american doug

i can't say i feel bad for tosaki getting tortured.

ep 2-7

shut your ungrateful mouth, tosaki, shimomura was LITERALLY just doing her job, which you TOLD HER WAS HER JOB: PROTECTING YOU

how in the fuck did satou get away with playing dead when the other side KNOWS it's ajins they're fighting

why isn't ogura, a native english speaker, the one writing an email to the defense department

ep 2-8

this new OP is ok

ep 2-10

(i spent all of 2-9 doing origami instead of typing)

tosaki don't relapse on your smoking habit :( that's not gonna do anyone any good.

ep 2-11

kai busts in with his signature move and saves the day and he's started calling kotobuki "senpai"

so kei's signature line to kai is "i really have to pee"

kai's like "you're wrong. he (kei) isn't an idiot." that's right, he's actually trash, ask anyone

i can't emphasize enough how bad this ending theme is

ep 2-12

well okuyama-kun has been kind of lovable so far, so if he and others decide to join tosaki's side, that would probably be good

isn't burying someone alive the worst way to try to contain them? because you can't see them directly. they could escape without you noticing

ep 2-13

no kabedonning shimomura >:(

wait wait is tanaka also wearing a satou hat? oh, it's just a baseball cap.

fuck off tanaka don't impale shimomura in the same way twice

oh, one of nagai's new ghost army said the thing that nagai said at the scene where he first saw a ghost :0 about the sick puppy. i like all these ghosts spouting quotes

oh, he cut off satou's head. well, that's the first head we've seen cut off. is he facing the right direction to meet his new self? he closed his eyes too soon for us to find out :\

helicopters are raining in bullets from above like in ghost in the shell (1995) (unless i’m completely misremembering. there were other things that were raining bullets in various directions in that scene so i’m not sure)

so now satou's in custody for the first time. 

so satou had an exposition dream

honestly i’m no longer sure where i even left off when i read the manga x years ago, i feel like i may have dropped it because i didn’t care for the boring military shit going on for quite a while, but i feel like i even distantly remember satou being beheaded in the manga...? but anyway i’m gonna (re?)read the whole manga now i guess. overall manga verdict: it had a distant, clammy feel to it, but not bad; the voice for nagai’s ghost was real good; they did a good job with the cgi animation, but it definitely lacks something compared to the art in the manga; the only good OP was the first one; and yeah idk my feeling toward this anime is pretty neutral.

[quonit-aceattorney]

2-2 Reaction

Rules:

Q = Me, Quonit.

BF = Bardic Feline, the friend that made me spend 30 dollars on the game and whom I am messaging

I don’t use those when I send the messages close enough my username doesn’t appear.

Any typos (unless they are funny and part of the conversation) will be fixed.

Index

—

Q: also I can't play more ace attorney because when I finished game 1 my brother wanted to play it so now I can't play more until he realizes in order to play through game two he'll have to delete my progress so he has to wait till im done with that

BF: Whaaat

There should be more than one save slot!

Q :We thought that too! That ended up with Alex thinking the second game thing was another save file for the first game

BF: Huh

Q: he brought me back DS I can play as work yaaaay

BF: Wooo!

Q: back to phoenix wright

Q: car ooo

who was drugged with sleeping pills

oh hello ghost dude

murdurer who's that black haired girl outside of the flaming car

ini?

i liked these new opening scenes they have a lot more art

oh no D: not Maya!

they don't even avoid the "it was a rainy day" cliche like

who this guy

Q: uhhh turner that wasn't very friendly

Q: "I AM UPSET"

this was a year ago??? what???

Q: I was working under Mia not Maya

Q: the timeline makes no sense

June??? June what year??? Is this set before the chapter I just played???

oh my god that kid doesn't look right what

(^and that was my first ever reaction to Pearl. I thought she looked like a long 3-year-old. a glimpse. Ridicule me.)

Q: In happy Maya is here at least

Q: “I wouldn't take a crazed killer as my client" Maya you just have to BELIEVE they're not a crazed killer

Q: I wanna get to the case with Juan i n it but for now I'll be happy that at the moment he is living

Q: May 2nd is my bros birthday

Q: This guy needs better glasses that won't fall down

Q: Anyone can be a saint when compared to lawyers

Q: Wonder if anyone is in the direction

SIDE ROOM

Q: OH MY GOD THAT IS A LOT OF CANDLES

Is that a mushroom afro or hat

Q: I work hard at blaming it on Maya she gave me hints on what to do next and stopped the verdict from being assigned/mean any thing

Q: I wonder why we can't tell anyone about Mia

Q: Who is calling me!!!

HI I REMEMBER YOU

How are you lotta!

Q :How would Lotta plan to take pictures

Q: DID SOMEBODY DIE IN THERE

Oh now the citizens !Alex sense

CUT-SCENE

I think we should break in but Morgan won't approve

Q: Why will anybody who possesses Maya not stop showing off their books

Q: Boobs

Q: Hi gumshoe

Q: Who are you you don't look like you're in the Fea family

Q: Hey look it's the kid again

I got the key!! Thanks Pearl!

Q: Hey I don't have the key

Q: Ugh I'm stuck

BF: hahahah always that point where you end up trying to figure out what to do next

Oh, apropos of nothing, but Ini's name is pronounced "Eenie"

and she had a sister (who you will find out about) named Mimi

BF: and their last name is pronounced Mine-ee

Therefore, they are Ini (Eenie) Mimi (Meenie) Miney!

and the next case features a guy named MOE

Q: alright!

Q: Talking with the kid YAY

Reasons why I dislike the kindle

If shipping me and Maya gets me that key then please continue

Ya I wanna help in Maya

Q :This because brings up the question of if Maya likes me because everyone in the village listens to get and seems to ship us... Though I bet it's just a misinterpretation on their end

BF: Only on Pearl’s end, really

Q: As suspected

She's cute though! I like Pearl :D

Hopefully the aunt won't come and get mad at me

Q: Sorry to disappoint you pearl but I went to lawyer school not channeling school

BF: Pearl is such a cutie

Q: She is! I feel bad about the first thing I said about her is that she looks weird

Yesss finally I have the key

BF: Oh there’s going to be multiple things about Pearl’s reading skills, and before you judge her as a total idiot, remember that in the original Japanese, it’s Kanji she’s struggling with haha

Q: Alright!

Pearl what if I phrase it like this: MYSTIC MAYA told me to give this to you

Q: Okay pearl you can follow me as long as you know your mom won't put my head on a pike soon after

Q: How would gumshoe NOT like kids

Q: How about we explain to Gummy about how she was possessed

I do indeed have a copy

Q: 

Gumshoe: The prosecutor is going to be Von Karma

WAIT WASN'T VAMPIRE ARRESTED

NO

I SWEAR IF I ACTUALLY HAVE TO FIGHT THAT ASS AGAIN

Q: Oh thank God he didn't actually get out prison or something

Q: First time we see edgy in the game I wonder how he is doing

Q: PHOENIX somebody is actually interested in your badge and you don't show it to them???

How could you!!!

Q: IT'S NOT A HOUSE KEY, IT'S A BICYCLE KEY!

Q: It's that weird redheaded girl I don't like again

Q: The frick am I hallucinating?

Q: Oh hey she's lying!!! Thank you pearl

Q: Uh I don't know if I should try or not

Oh ya still stuck with this girl

Wait what

I looked at the second newspaper clipping and it says she died what

Q: Sharing a last name okay

Yay I win

Q: Ini if that is what happened why do you still look so happy

Q: :goes to court: I KNOW YOU ARE LYING BECAUSE OF THIS MAGIC ROCK AN 8 YEAR OLD HAVE ME

Q: Pearl let me take you away from your home without a parents consent I have some candy with me

Hi mia!!!

Q: So I know she can't tell me much because the game wouldn't be fun but what is the in universe explanation

Mia how dare you lie to me I thought we were friends

Save point

Q: Pearly hi how did you leave without your mom noticing

strong pearly

Edgy is my objection buddy

Wait he actually quit D:

I am ready to hate this person just as much as I did the first vampire

Q: No I am not shocked you are a woman now I'm just wondering why we have not met up with another female prosecutor

Q: HEY DON'T HIT THE JUDGE

Q: I don't think she should be allowed to bring that anymore

Then how did manfred fail if you are all so perfect

Fool

Q :HEY SHE HIT GUMMY D:

Q: Ya but we heard two gunshots and you say there was just one

Q: Hey there is a bullet hole in it

Q: I can figure it out I know I can

Q: I would use the gun on the last statement because it was fired twice and has the victims fingerprints on it but that didn't work

Q: Why can't I find anything

Q: I am stuck :(

BF: Aaaah I'd help but I don't know which part of the cross exam your at so I don't know what you're trying to prove right now

Q: I'll type the thing why not

Q: "Sorry pal there is more evidence", "this is the costume masthead wearing", "it's covered is blood," " defendant killed the person who did not right back ".

BF: ....I'm not sure, but I THINK you can find some evidence to disprove the 'didn't fight back' thing by gesturing to the sleeve of her costume somehow

If I'm remembering that segment correctly.

Q: Back

Hey the costume did work thank you

Q: Somebody please take that whip away from her

BF: hhaha no problem

the whip is Franzy's signature item, though. lD

BF: Also, she's not the last prosecutor who will physically assault you during a trial and get away with it hahah

Q: How dare this game

But there is a bullet hole in the outfit he didn't miss

Q: Finally that other bullet hole contradicts something

Q: I'm not getting something it's why I keep saving

I should know at this point where Maya was

BF: If you are still on the first day of the trial, you actually don’t have enough info yet to know where in the room she was!

Q: Dangit

Q: Oh hey I do know what I am doing

Q: I'm sorry what kinda swear is that Phoenix

Q: Lotta please don't be annoying like last  time you were here

Oooo save point

Hi pearl I forgot about you

Q: See I'm not the only one annoyed by the whip!!!

How am I supposed to be happy when a Von Karma is around

How am I supposed to pretend we are all family

Q: Lotta there were two gunshots

Q: For now I don't think I can present any evidence

Q: Which is sad

Q: WHY DID YOU POSSES PEARL

at least your not showing off Boobs

Nevermind

Q: Von Karma I hate you

Q: FINALLY I can prove it wasn't Maya

Q: No morons that is Mia

Q: You know if was ready to hate this second vampire but she isn't nearly as bad as the first one so far

Q: I'm not a fool I'm just annoying

BF: Franziska really isn’t the straight up villain her dad was; she’s more like a more prickly Edgeworth

Q: Alright well that is better

I really wanna see pearl tell at her haha

Q: Ya edgy was fine after a while but being nice forced him to leave him job so

Q: Who is misty who are you trying to kill

Q: Not a movie but it is a game and anime so

Q: How did steel samurai merch get in here

Q: Aww a cute theme for pearl

Q: Don't worry pearl I won't tell your mom

Q: Hey Lotta if you don't want me to be chasing you then maybe you should stop being in the rooms I need to go to

Q: and that is why Phoenix doesn't date women Lotta.

Q: Lotta you're fine you're one of the more likable people in this game

Q: I dislike that girl so I'd be fine to say she's the killerI  mean it'd make sense

She is the sister of girl who was killed by the man who just died

BF: Indeed, she does have a motive!

Q :back to thing

Comic is going it is fun to draw

Q: yes please give me info

new place to go. Also why does Lotta not like giving me info

what is this place

Q: you don't look like a doctor

Q: well of course you aren't

BF: Hahaha oh man I forgot you hadn’t encountered that creep yet

back to ace attourny but this is a great AU

Q: phoenix started talking like the guy hahaha

oh no did Pearl's mom call the cops on me

crap

Q: Ya well I suspected she was as evil

Q :need to go again dangit

Q: I think it's funny how I'm the scary one in this game

Q: I think right now I don't know if like the redhead girl or Morgan more

Q: the more I find out i guess i like the redhead more

Q: I win >:D

if we were both asleep then maybe you were both drugged like how the opening said

what is she talking about

im scared

Q: how about you show her your damn police badge that'd be interesting to her

pearl come with meeee

Q: mia don't lie to me i have a magic rock

Q: one more lock.

I feel smart :D

oh so morgan and ini were the killers great

Q: well if she made it look like Maya killed him she could become the next master

Q :Pearl did you run here AGAIN???

oh god please don't bring morgan

pfft Maya she does this to you too?

Ohhh well I guess that makes sense... I mean, she would be really mad at me for saying her mom killed the guy

Q: I like Mia and (whats her name the second vampire) arguing it's funny

Q: morgan you are lying

Q: ya no you hated me there is no way you thought "good sir"

BF: haha Franziska!

Q: I'll call her Franz for short

I mean this testimony was in the opening so maybe it isn't entirely a lie

Q: what do you mean it wasn't strange???

Q: but there was blood on her outfit how did you not think it was strange!!!

Q: mini stop eating your hat

that personality change reminds me of the worst person ever ... April May

Q: no but really it isn't more subjective

Q: Pearl is being used as evidence why not

Q: Franz stop it let me question her

i wanna present the urn but morgan is watching

but you know what there is nothing else here so

Q:

Franz: Why do I feel like you’re going to ruin my beautiful day? Me: CUZ I AAAAAMMMM

also why is Ini's hat so stretchy

BUT IT WAS A LIE

JUST BECAUSE SHE TESTIFIED ABOUT IT DOESN'T MEAN SHE CAN'T AGAIN

LIES AND SLANDER

Q :IT'S NOT BASELESS ALSO YOUR DAD IS A PIECE OF SHIT

Q: CRIME SCENE

SCENE OF THE CRIME HMMMM

Q: I am angry i will use caps

Q :YOU WERE HIDING THE PLACE PHOENIX ALWAYS THINKS SOMEBODY IS HIDING BUT WILL NEVER CHECK NO MATTER WHAT I DO

wow there are a lot of holes in your hat when you strech it out

spinny hat

then how did lotta earlier isn't she bigger than you

when i first went into the room the box wasn't there and then later it was

BUG ON MY DESK KILL IT

KILL IT NOW

i think it's dead

i hope so

Q :the folding screen >:3

SHUT UP FRANZ

ugh that bug is making me left arm flinch a lot

revenge after your death how dare you

Q :im not foolish im just better than you

BETTER THAN YOUR ASSHOLE OF A FATHER

I COULD RAISE YOU

wait what did i just say wtf hahaha

Q: and that is why i think that MORGAN HELPED

Q: WAIT I WANNA LOOK AT THAT FRAME BY FRAME

Q: yesss good case

well I mean your dad did

also fuck your dad I hate him that is all

BF: hahahaha

Q: actually no im not done

but finishing it would include a lot of swear words

BF: This case is totally setting up for some things in Game 3, btw

Q: dammit

Well I have motives for both of them Franz I just need to know that Phoenix knows.

BF: what you are ultimately trying to prove is Ini's motive, then that she did it and how she did it with Morgan's help

Q: okay!

Q: I am much more confidence than phoenix but that may just be anger

and a save point

OH GREAT NOW WE HAVE TO TALK TO FRANZ OUT OF THE COURT GREEAAAT

Actually Maya I had everything to do with it and I am proud I gave his ass the death penalty

stop being mean to Maya you're dad already cost Edgy his job hey now I have another reason to hate vampire

back to cort

Q: I'm sad because you said there is a universally hated case in the second game and I figured there are only 4 and the first two aren't it and neither is the fourth so it has to be the third but then I realized that Edgy is on the cover of the game so he should be in at least half of it so he might reappear in the worse one and I am sad

back to game

Q: LIAR YOU DID HAVE YOUR LICENSE THAT IS HOW THEY RECONSTRUCTED YOUR FACE

Q: “newb”

now this sounds like 2016

Q: how do you NOT know what the UK is you s***ty excuse for a judge

I'm so mad i started being mean to the judge I should direct it to Franz for being a jerk

BF: hahaha don't worry so much about that. I'm not going to say how it plays out, but I think you'll be pleased.

Q: yessss

BF: and the third case is the one that people generally don't like: I personally think it's interesting, but it DOES have some issues.

Q: dangit

well hopefully I can like it

BF: I'm going to let you make up your own mind on it, yeah.

Q: aaalllirght

BF: I'll tell you afterwards what I actually LIKE about it, okay?

Q: alright!

Q: WAIT SO

MINI IS PRETENDING TO BE HER SISTER HUH...

Q: aw hi mimi

Q: Fanz let me explain this to you: The Von Karma family is full of assholes you all deserve to die before they cause as much suffering as your father did

ya I'm going to call the cops on your for physical assult

are we allowed to tell Maya that Mia has been possesing her a lot

Q: game you know what the date and time is  if you just don't want me to know tell me

So the games are just becoming more and more about magic huh

the end of the chapter this doesn't feel finished