#I need to go back and find the huge b roll video from years ago... it may be on my tumblr or youtube somewhere

[undeniablycandycane]

Thinking about how like 99% of Jed and Tavi's interactions with each other in the 3rd film are improve. Steve knew what he was doing when he said "Hold my hand," when he commented on Lance's "hypnotic blue eyes," and was relentlessly commenting on his looks ..

Owen knew what he was doing when he said "Mhm.." When he said "why don't you take a picture it'll last longer (a phrase commonly uttered by people who are kissing in movies)" When he gave that thousand yard tunnel vision stare at Oct, when he kept giving That Look any time Tavi said anything about Lance's beauty, when he said "I'll take that hand now"

It makes me just want to cry

[marauderundercover]

Taking Chances Ch. 27: Princess (Royal/medieval AU)

AO3

Prev

The shrill akuma alarm wakes Marinette up the next morning and she sighs, rubbing her head gently before grabbing the bottle of painkillers that Dick had left next to her on the table.

“Don’t leave yet!” A voice calls from the other room. Marinette frowns, but listens, quickly taking a couple painkillers and letting herself wake up. Dick rushes into the room, nearly falling as he slides across the floor in his socks. He rushes over to her and kneels in front of her, staring into her eyes. She frowns.

“What are you doing?” She asks, too tired to try and comprehend what’s wrong with her brother right now.

“Checking your eyes and seeing how bad your concussion is so I know if I need to call Adrien to keep a closer eye on you for this fight.” Dick says, frowning slightly at something he sees. He reaches out and gently pushes a spot on her head and she hisses in pain.

“Hey, ya big jerk, that hurts!” She complains, giving him her best ‘Damian’ glare. He just rolls his eyes.

“This is serious kid, you got seriously injured last night.” Dick reminds her. She purses her lips.

“I know, and I promise I’ll take it easy later, but right now I really need to go.” She pleads. Dick sighs, but nods, standing up.

“Go kick some butterfly butt.” He says with a small grin. Marinette grins back at him, quickly calling her transformations and portaling away to Paris. She blinks in the bright sunlight, trying hard to push away any disorientation she has from the stupid concussion. I can do this, she thinks, glancing around to assess the situation. She frowns at her surroundings. She knew she was technically in Paris, she could see the Eiffel tower and Kaalki never misled her before. Well, not during an attack anyway. But where the giant modern buildings should be, there were small stone buildings with thatch roofs. Glancing around, she also notices a huge, stone castle where her school used to be. That should be fun.

“I am the Dark Knight, and I will not rest until I have Chat Noir and Ladybug’s Miraculous!” A voice shouts out above the rest of the noise. Marinette creeps over and just blinks at the fashion atrocity before her. She was going to slap Hawkmoth twice when she found him. Once, for terrorizing Paris for over a year. And again for the awful wardrobe choices he made. Seriously. And the Dark Knight? Isn’t that name trademarked, or something?

“Hey Bugaboo, what’s the plan?” Chat asks, landing beside her and leaning on his baton. She frowns.

“I don’t actually have one yet. I just got here.” She says, and this time he’s the one confused.

“But you always rush over.” He says, careful not to include anything about Kaalki. You never know who might be listening.

“I’ll explain later. Any idea where the object might be?” She asks, scanning the akuma. It’s power didn’t seem too awful. It had changed most of the structure in Paris, and now it was changing people’s clothes too when they got hit by the orange light. Some citizens were in what Marinette could only assume was the height of fashion during the Renaissance, whereas some citizens were draped in obvious “peasant” outfits. But there didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for the difference. Just a difference.

“The satchel looks promising.” Chat says, and Marinette grins, a plan slowly taking hold in her mind. She’d just need two paper clips, a stick of gum and whatever her lucky charm was.

---

“Pound it.” Chat says holding out a fist. Marinette grins, returning the fist bump. “Did you have time to talk? You know, about why you were late?” Chat asks, and Marinette sighs but nods. They both recharge in an alley before swinging to sit on the top of the Eiffel tower.

“I fought an akuma alone, while you were out of town.” She says first, shrugging lightly. “I didn’t think about it, honest. I’d done it a million times before with Monsieur Pigeon. But the Bat got mad.” Marinette says, not wanting to risk calling him her dad while she’s masked in Paris. It just felt like it was asking for trouble.

“Cause you fought alone?” Chat asks, frowning.

“Well, that and I sort of jammed the Zeta tubes so that outsiders can’t come to Paris during an active akuma attack.” She mumbles under her breath, wincing at the noise Chat’s neck makes when he jerks around to stare at her dumbfoundedly.

“That’s insane. How’d you do it?” He asks and she simply grins.

“Spent enough time with Pegasus and Red Robin and Oracle. Add in a tiny bit of luck and boom. I win.” She smirks

“So you were late cause you’re grounded.” Chat says simply, a proud smile on his face as he thinks he cracked the code. Solved the mystery.

“Not quite,” Marinette says with a slight frown.

“Then what?” Chat asks. Marinette lets out a long sigh, glaring at Adrien to let him know she’s not happy about this situation, she does not want to talk to him about this. He’ll just get all worried.

“Well last night I was still benched from patrol because of the whole akuma attack thing but Tikki thought I should be ungrounded so I went out anyway and then the dude that stabbed me a couple months ago found me and the rest of the Batclan didn’t know that I was out so they couldn’t help me and I was all alone and then he knocked me out and I don’t really remember much except I woke up at Nightwing’s apartment and met Starfire and yeah that’s it.” She rambles, shooting him a smile and waving nonchalantly.

“I’m going to wrap you in bubble wrap. No, I’m going to make the Batclan do it.” Chat finally says, pulling out his baton.

“No, don’t! Batman doesn’t know. Neither does Hood or Red Robin. Only Nightwing and Robin know.” She says, swatting the baton out of his hand. The last thing she needed was for him to accidentally call her dad on her. She’d be in so much trouble.

“Geeze Bug.” Chat mutters under his breath, tugging her into a hug. She sighs and hugs him back, taking just a moment to relish being with her friend.

“I’m pretty sure Batman is narrowing down his Hawkmoth suspect list.” She mumbles, and Chat pulls back from her, staring into her face.

“Are you serious?” He asks, the relief on his face clear. Marinette nods, and Chat lets out a long sigh. One that Marinette could feel in her bones, because she was tired too. She also wanted to end this fight. Hopefully her dad would have a suspect soon.

---

Bruce Wayne was the world’s greatest detective. He had solved cases infinitely larger than this one, so he didn’t understand why he couldn’t find a damn lead on Hawkmoth. Actually, he understood perfectly. It was magic. God he hates magic. It’s unpredictable, and most of the time it’s more trouble than it’s worth. He sighs and sends a quick text to Dick, double checking that Marinette had made it back to his apartment okay. He knew his daughter was...upset with him for benching her and demanding she take someone with her to Paris. But they were all precautions, just to guarantee that nothing worse happened to her. She wasn’t invincible, no matter how much she seemed to think she was. He frowns at the text he receives back, quickly hitting call and waiting a few moments for Dick to pick up.

“Hel-”

“What do you mean she’s not at your place?” Bruce asks, not giving his eldest son a chance to talk.

“Well hi to you too, B.” Dick teases, and Bruce just knows he’s grinning. He lets out a sigh and pinches the bridge of his nose.

“Is she really not there? The akuma attack ended nearly twenty minutes ago and she’s not here either.” Bruce says, trying to think of where else she would go. Jason was even at the Manor, and hadn’t heard from her either.

“No, B, she’s not-” Dick pauses, then lets out a long sigh. “It’s B. He was wondering where you were.” He hears Dick say, and Bruce is surprised to hear his son’s tone. It was less carefree and more...like a father. He was a father, with Mar’i, but it was still odd to hear him use the tone on someone besides his granddaughter.

“I had to talk to Adrien.” He can barely hear her say and Bruce lets out a frustrated huff. Of course she was with the Agreste boy again. Honestly, he seemed nice enough until Selina pointed out the crushes that the two had on each other. Now, Bruce wanted nothing more than to lock him away. Far away.

“Can you please ask her if she’s coming home tonight?” Bruce finally says, listening to the silence on the other end. He wonders if they’d put the phone on mute or if Marinette was signing furiously the way he’d seen her do over a video call with Cass earlier in the week.

“We’re all coming. See you at dinner.” Dick says, hanging up almost fast enough for Bruce to not hear the protest from Marinette. Almost. Bruce walks to find Alfred, trying not to let the fact that his daughter doesn’t want to see him again get to him.

---

Marinette glares at her oldest brother as they walk into the manor. He just grins, acting as if he hadn’t practically forced her home. It’s not that she didn’t want to come home, but she knew she had a couple bruises and a lump on her head. She also knew that Damian was apparently barely holding himself back from hunting down Slade. She really didn’t need Tikki giving him any ideas.

“Welcome home, Miss Marinette. Would you like me to look at your injuries?” Alfred asks immediately walking towards her as he walks into the room. Marinette glances around, hoping her dad isn’t around before sighing.

“No thank you Alfred, I’m fine.” She reassures him, or she tries to. His face doesn’t look like he believes her.

“Yes, I’m certain a concussion is nothing to worry about. Especially since you’ve had so many.” He drawls, raising an eyebrow at her.

“Hey, whoa. You said this was your first concussion.” Dick says after urging Mar’i to fly off and find Jason or Damian or Tim. Marinette huffs.

“It is.” She says, crossing her arms.

“The concussions you sustain in the suit still count. Head injuries are not an exact science. Nor are they an exact magic cure, either. They often heal at an accelerated speed, but can still have long-lasting effects.” Alfred says and Marinette blinks. That was almost- Almost- information about the Miraculous. And only someone who knew about the Miraculous would know about the whole head injury thing. She blinks at him for a moment, running possibilities through her head. She sighs, realizing that if Alfred had been a holder, it was definitely for a Miraculous she didn’t have. She could just...feel it.

“I promise I’m fine, and if I start feeling any of those other concussion symptoms, I’ll come to you.” Marinette promises.

“And how did you get a concussion?” Her dad asks, practically materializing out of nowhere.

“Akuma attack. Miraculous cure can’t do a complete heal with concussions, it’s too, uh, dangerous. Not exact.” Marinette lies, trying hard not to do any of her tells. She doesn’t tense up, she doesn’t grin, she doesn’t look at someone else and giggle, nothing. She lies with a straight face, which honestly almost scares her more than getting yelled at by her dad. He just hums before nodding at her.

“Will you be staying here tonight? Most of us have patrol, but afterwards Tim suggested that we all watch a movie together.” Her dad says and Marinette tries hard to suppress her grin. There’s no way.

“Wow Tim, you really wanna have a full-family movie night?” She calls out, grinning at the surprised look on her brother’s face. Because of course her dad was the one to set it up, but of course he didn’t want anyone to know. “I think that’s super cool Tim. As long as we can watch some Disney princess movies.” She adds, laughing as Mar’i comes flying around the corner with wide eyes.

“Did someone say princess?” She squeals, flying straight into Marinette’s arms. Marinette grins at her niece and nods.

“Oh yes. Timmy has decided we’re gonna watch Disney princess movies as a family all night long!” She says, laughing as her niece cheers. She glances at her Dad and tries hard to hold back the snort that wants to come out at his exasperated look. Looks like it’s gonna be a Disney night for the Wayne household.

Next

Tag list:  @maribat-bdbwm @vixen-uchiha @stainedglassm @liquid-luck-00 @laurcad123 @waiting247 @jayjayspixiepop @mizzy-pop @jjmjjktth @trippingovermyfeet @queenz-z @thepaceperson @iloontjeboontje @toodaloo-kangaroo @ritacrow-blog @deathssilentapproach-blog @kittenmywaythrulife @nerd-nowandforever @tazanna-blythe @jaybird-and-co @jumpingjoy82 @lady-bee-fechin @corporeal-terrestrial

[jq37]

The Report Card – Fantasy High: The Seven Ep 5

Through a Glass, Darkly

Welcome back to the Temple of the Earth Defiant where the girls and their magical horses (and one pony!) have found refuge from the strange, twisted, fae creatures that have been chasing them. The statue of Asha Hammerheart that Ost animated last episode is still alive and wrecking house on the remaining harpies and beasts that are foolish enough to keep fighting and the rest soon get the hint and flee. 

Ost does some healing (boosted by the ambient Hallow effect of the temple which gives everyone a short rest) and then, seeing the damage to the temple caused by erosion, starts using Mending to fix things up. Her friends help out too with Sam and Yelle being most effective--Sam by repairing water damage and Yelle by creating tree cover and other druid-y tricks. But of course, we can’t overlook Katja’s crucial addition of carving “A Horse is a Home” into one of the walls of this sacred temple. 

Anyway, the girls are nesting super hard, the horses are having their scrapbooking reviewing club (an insane thing that was established last episode) and then Sam asks a question. Did y’all mention something about a photo of me going viral? Everyone’s like yeah, but don’t worry, you looked super hot. That’s not the part Sam was worried about. What she’s worried about and what all the girls except Zelda don’t really seem to know is that Sam doesn’t really have a social media presence. So like, 180k and climbing views (as decided by a dice roll) isn’t really what she wants. She scrolls through the comments really quick and sees that they’re not awful but one person is like, “Hey that girl looks a lot like that character from that old show”. Which Sam doesn’t love. She says that she’s fine but also that, even without an Insight check, she’s obviously not. 

Sam kind of looks to Zelda to bail her out and Zelda is like, “Hey, I’m gonna delete this video.” The other girls follow suit, even though they don’t quite know what’s happening. When they have to split up to investigate, Sam has Zelda kind of bail her out again and they split up to go check a nest outside--Zelda waving off Danielle when she wants to go with. Ant and Yelle decide to check out a cache of some treasure they saw earlier and Ost and Katja stay with the horses to keep fixing the temple up. Penny initially goes with Ant and Yelle but rushes back to be with Ost and Kat when Ost discovers a hidden lock while she’s fixing a wall.

So, the girls are split up, let’s run all these scenes.

Antiope and Yelle

Ant and Yelle go see the pile of treasure (near the statue of dwarven paladin Yvonna) which they learn is like a “take a penny leave a penny” situation for weapons and items. They were left by adventures who were similarly chased here and you can take what you need as long as you leave something to help others. Like, “Oh no I only have an ice sword and I need flaming arrows.” It doesn’t have to be equivalent exchange, you just need to leave something useful.

In this space, Yelle feels a weird melancholy and like they’re within the watch of something vast and powerful. She tries to check for TK’s presence but rolls low. Antiope leaves her Kalvaxus killing shortsword and takes some really nice, white feather fledged arrows with mirror tips and an ax Kat wants as a present for her dad. Danielle takes a bandolier of potions (3 healing and 2 mystery I believe) and leaves a bunch of mushrooms. Some of them are psychedelic and Ant takes one because this is probably a good time to be high, right?

It’s not messing with her competence obviously though because she rolls a 25 on Primeval Awareness and gets a weird sense, like something is closing in on this place. And like something very powerful is bleeding, which combined with the chaos of the mountains might explain the weird harpies and the cat/dogs. But she’s high so she explains this is a very spacey, stoner way. Probably a good thing she’s with Yelle.

Sam and Zelda

Sam can fly and Zelda can basically walk vertically with her goat legs so they check out the nest. Well, ostensibly that’s what they’re doing. Really they’re just having a heart to heart. Sam thanks Zelda for saving her ass and apologizes profusely for being so short with her. Zelda gives her a huge mid-air hug and says it’s not a big deal because she knows Sam is just lashing out because she’s hurting but Sam says it’s not a good enough excuse and she’s truly sorry. It’s been her coping mechanism for so long but she doesn’t want to be that way. She tells Zelda that the Everpetals are divorcing and that she’s living alone and Zelda says that any one of the girls would be happy to have her stay with them. Sam further explains that this is a big part of the reason she’s been so broken up about the possibility of their group splitting up and Zelda immediately takes out her crystal and texts her “I’m in” in the thread, breaking Sam again. 

Since they’re in heart to heart mode, Sam tells her that she talked to her bio-mom and an agent and she’s not sure what to do. Zelda says that she’s gonna be spectacular no matter what she does and she doesn’t have to do any of them but it’s cool doors are opening for her but also Antiope and Penny are gonna be PISSED that she’s out here making side plans after she gave them so much shit for theirs. Lol, well it’s a nice moment in the meantime and we cut to…

Penny, Ost, and Katja 

While Penny is lockpicking (and also trying to teach one of the horses to lockpick because sure) Katja and Ost go talk to the statue of Asha Hammerheart. It seems to be animated with at least some level of her true consciousness from beyond the grave and that she can kind of woge into her statue when she wants, which is cool. She’s been there for like 250 years so that’s a lot of history to see. 

Ost is maybe the most polite we’ve ever seen her talking to Asha (at least to begin with lol) and they ask her about TK. Asha says she saw TK show up 12 years ago but she never left, at least not through the front door. And then about 2 years ago (right around when they were in the crystals) that’s when the harpy queen showed up. At first they were normal and then they started mutating. Also, recently, Korra (one of the other statues/heroes) saw a woman in the mountains--not TK. 

Ost then takes a page from the book of one St. Kristen Applebees and asks, “Hey. What’s the deal with our god? He never talks to us, does he just suck?” Asha--who has never talked to him even though she’s a martyred hero and literally in dwarf heaven makes some excuses for the guy but Katja scoffs at them. “If people wanna take care of you, they do.” Ost then straight up asks if Logran Soulforger is even real which sets Asha off but Ost isn’t mad AT her, she’s mad FOR her. You go and do all this cool shit to the point where you have this cool ass statue, you fully DIE for him and he doesn’t even say hi? With a 21 Persuasion check, Asha admits that yeah, she would have liked some recognition. She decides she’s gonna go do some talking to some people and leaves after getting Ost’s number but before they can ask more about the woman Korra saw (who they think is Charity). 

OK, that’s all the small group stuff! Everyone comes back as Penny finishes up with the lock and they go down into this room that’s full of polished, precious stones. This is probably where people who were upkeeping the temple stayed. While everyone else is going down, Sam feels some powerful magical pull--much like her episode 1 Lightning Lure--calling her from the top of the stairs so she goes back up. We’ll get back to her in a bit. 

Penny rolls a high check to clock what’s going on down here. First off, she finds flintlock bullets and airship uniform scraps which makes it seem like there was a battle here involving some airship guys from the Baronies. Which is not just the place of origin of Riz’s imaginary Romance Partner. It’s a cluster of nations known for high rates of monarchical turnover and renaissance style intrigue. I’m picturing just a nation of [REDACTED]s from Crown of Candy. 

With all of this stuff, Penny finds an emblem of a billionaire airship mogul named Lord Talcidimir Tallbreeze who is a friend of her dad’s. Yelle is immediately like FUCK billionaires which isn’t plot relevant but it’s nice to know she’s always on brand. 

Oh also, Penny just casually finds the Legendarium so that’s neat. 

To be safe, Ost casts Protection from Energy on Ant (who is the one who knows how to use it) and brings out her Spirit Guardian (who is a combo of her mom, nona, and Asha, with her dad’s rings). Ant checks it out and sees that there are currently no A, B, or C quests in all of Spyre. While Penny cross references the bylaws to see if there’s a way to get around this, Yelle does some druid BS that I still do not understand to use the crystals in the cave to jailbreak this super powerful magical Artifact so they can just have copies on their crystals. While that’s happening, let’s check on Sam. 

Sam goes back up the staircase where she sees Ending who doesn’t look menacing at all, just extremely sad. She’s looking out the mouth of the cave and, when she turns, Sam can see she’s crying blood. 

“What’s wrong?” asks Sam, the acid-tongued but good-hearted. “Can I help you?”

With a 25 Persuasion check to get her to talk, Ending apologizes for scaring her and her friends before. She didn’t mean to. She sometimes forgets that her very nature can be frightening and dangerous to others. She says that when she escaped, she tried to rejoin her sisters but found their mirrors shattered and them gone. Sam thought they escaped but that doesn’t make sense to Ending. If they had, why wouldn’t they have freed her as well?

Sam asks who her sisters were and we finally get true names for Ending and her sisters:

Chrona, Terra, Pyrria, Nira, Zefira, Anima, and herself, Talura (which is what I’ll be calling her now that we know). Talura is the baby, the youngest. Sam realizes she’s talking about the Eidolons and Talura seems surprised and a bit pleased that Sam recognizes them. 

Sam asks if she can hug her and Talura hugs her tightly in a very cold embrace that doesn’t hurt. Downstairs, she hears her friends (Penny specifically) freaking about about the lack of quests but she doesn’t break the hug. 

“My own sisters are struggling right now but I’m gonna stay with you because you don’t know where yours are. But maybe we can find them.”

Talura clocks that the way that Sam is being is her true nature, not the bitchiness she often uses as a shield. Then she starts to talk about her history. That she and her sisters were sealed away when the gods were done with them (Sam can relate to being used and set aside) and the only way out was death. Talura has been crying and looking for her sisters to no avail. Her tears of blood leaking seems to be what caused the monsters to mutate which is in line with what Yelle and Ant were sensing. 

Talura doesn’t think anything could have destroyed her sisters so she’s very confused. Sam offers Talura her Mirror of the Past because it almost knocked out Sam to get god-tier information but Talura presumably won’t have that problem. Talura offers her a boon in exchange for this great kindness but Sam says she doesn’t need any quid pro quo. “This is just because you’re hurting.”

Talura is supremely touched and still wants to do something for her new...friend? Sam accepts the title and says that what she needs is some help on her GED quest. Once she explains what she means, Talura again recognizes Aguefort and is like, Oh, you need a quest? I can totally help with that! As we learned earlier, these guys are kinda genie connected so it’s not super surprising when Talura very happily goes full your wish is my command.

Downstairs, a Class A quest suddenly appears in Spyre on the screen. 

Back upstairs, Talura says that it’s been too long since she got to grant a wish and seems really happy about it. Sam gives her the mirror so she can check what happened to her sisters but when she does, she totally flips out and gets super angry--not at Sam, just at whatever she’s looking at. She can hardly believe it. Sam tries to figure out what’s wrong but she just gets super big and then disappears into a puff of smoke, leaving Sam's mirror on the ground, covered in frost. 

Downstairs, the Class A quest expands across the entire globe and then the Legendarium cracks. Ost’s spirit guardian disappears because of alarm bells ringing in the afterlife. And the girls learn that a Class A quest is a quest that affects the whole MULTIVERSE. Yikes!

So anyway, they girls go upstairs to check on Sam (on a bear that Penny makes because sure) and they see that something clearly just happened with Sam. Yelle asks if she’s good and Sam is like yeahhhh I don’t think ANYONE is good right now. Sam seems like she’s about to cry and Antiope instantly forgets all the petty bullshit going on between them and rushes to make sure she’s not hurt. 

Sam gives the girls a rundown of what happened and Yelle concretely puts together what I said earlier about Talura’s tears messing with nature. 

Sam wants to check her mirror to see what Talura saw and Brennan says she can do it the safe way with risk of failure of the surefire way with risk of personal harm. She, of course, picks door 2 and rolls a 13 on her con save which means she rises into the air like Storm from X-Men, eyes wide, and then instantly passes out and goes into shock. Antiope is there to catch her as she does. 

Also, she looks SUPER hot while falling on a 31. Honestly, it’s a shame she doesn’t allow herself a social media presence. 

Anyway, we’ll get to what she sees in a bit. Yelle and Ant make sure she’s OK (she is, but the has to be knocked out for this or she won’t be able to handle it). 

Penny tells them what she knows about each Eidolon from her earlier research which is what element each goes with:

Chrona: Time (Related to astral and elemental planes) 

Terra: Earth

Pyrria: Fire

Nira: Water

Zefira: Air

Anima: Life

Talura: Death 

They also talk about TK never leaving via the front door and all this airship stuff being around. Maybe she left out the top of the mountain on an airship? Katja has the hookup with this Tal guy (she’s met him when she was younger) so they decide they need to check it out once Sam is good. 

The girls fix the Legendarium and Ost, when she goes to pray for her spells for the night, doesn’t pray to her usual god. She prays to Asha. And not only does she get her spells, she also gets a new one--Commune. 

And now let’s get to what Sam is seeing in her Vision Coma. 

She was told by Talura that the only way out of the mirrors given to them by the gods was death. And what Talura saw that drove her to do whatever multiverse threatening thing that she did was every one of her sisters walking out of their mirrors and choosing death. I will specifically highlight that the oldest sister leaves almost immediately with a small, “Oh,” of realization and Anima, the closest sister to her seems terrified before coming to a joyful realization and leaving.

And that’s the end of the episode! Join us next week when apparently there is talk of a masquerade ball?????? Brennan, you shouldn’t have!   

Superlatives 

Sam: Most Likely to Accidently Snag a Brand Deal

Did you guys ever read the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche? Where Psyche was born so hot that it was basically a curse and she was miserable because she was so hot that Aphrodite hated her? That’s Sam. She is incapable of almost dying in a non-aesthetic way. It’s like a Pantene commercial every time. This is my favorite running gag.

Random Thoughts

Man, I have so many feelings about Sam. She’s such a BITCH in so many ways but it’s so obvious that she has a good heart. Every time she has an opportunity to be nice with no gain--helping Lola find her dog, magically turning the pages for the horses during book club, fully refusing a boon from Talura--she does. And I’m glad she gave Zelda such a sincere apology and didn’t let the extenuating circumstances absolve her because she said some pretty uncalled for things. But at her core she’s so kind and I want only good things for her. 

Also those of you who know me from my FH recaps know I’m a messy bitch for sister stuff so Talura and Sam both referring to the other maidens as her sister had me dead. You can tell when something in this show is f’ing me up when I just start directly quoting instead of paraphrasing. 

Katja being richer than Helio but having no idea what any of the brands Ost is mentioning are is peak comedy.  

As is Ant’s response to the take and penny leave a penny translation from Ost, “No, Penny didn’t come with us.”

Ost: I get service in the afterlife.

You could really tell which of the players watched Sophomore Year because the Baronies came up and all of them went into fight or flight immediately. 

Very Elsa vibes from Sam during the top of the scene with Talura. (Sam is, of course, a better sister but we simply do not have time to get into my feelings on Frozen 2 right now).

I was wondering why this season was called just “The Seven” when it dropped initially. Like, was it snappier? Did they not want to use the word “maiden”? But they still call themselves the Seven Maidens in the show so it’s probably not that. Now I’m wondering if it’s just to parallel the 7 of them w/ the 7 Eidolons. 

So it seems clear based on the reactions of the first and sixth sisters that they didn’t just “go gently into that good night” as Ant would say and ditch Talura. It seems like they figured something out. Also Brennan isn’t really a “and then they all died, the end” kind of DM, you know? Credit to my friend @camwritery for getting here before I did but the gods said the only way out was death and she is death so you know? Those def seem like puzzle pieces that go together. 

The only crit rolled this episode is a 1 by Penny which she gets to reroll as a halfling. 

[evermorehaikyuu]

Is it ok if I request a fluff song fic for a kenma x reader where the reader has had a crush on kenma when they were kids and the reader accidentally confesses their feeling for kenma with this song?

Title: Wishing

Note: Hello! Yep, of course! I hope you’re okay with me doing childhood friends to lovers, so let’s get started!

Song: Dandelions (Ruth B.)

-

Childhood memories were full of laughter, friends, summers full of playing and occasionally sleepovers. There was always one friend that you’d care about more than anyone else and that was the one friend you could count on and them on you. For Kenma, that person was Y/N. 

Y/N was his best friend since they were little. Kuroo had been his other best friend, but the one Kenma counted on when it came to video games was her. She always offered a good challenge and he couldn’t deny it when he said that he had fun with her. On the days where their breaks had started, they’d spend a lot of time together, enjoying each other’s company. 

Through the years, they changed but their friendship never once wavered. They had gone to Nekoma High School and Kenma was known to have Y/N hanging around him while he was just quiet. It was strange to a lot of people, but Y/N didn’t think anything of it. Kenma was her best friend. Who was she to leave him behind if someone said something bad about her? 

“Kenma, have you been fighting with Yamamoto again?” Y/N sighed as she sidled up next to him at lunch. She already had his food packed, seeing as he forgot it and she set it in front of him. “You need to eat.”

“He started it,” Kenma grumbled, thinking about the fight he had had with Yamamoto earlier. He was barely a first year and he was already on someone’s bad side.

Y/N picked at her food, thinking before laughing, “You two are going to give poor Fukunaga white hairs before he’s supposed to. You’re teammates, try to get along.”

With an expression of disbelief, Kenma replied, “Didn’t you get into a huge argument with Kuroo because he wasn’t doing what you told him to do?”

“In my defense, it was air hockey! How do you fail at air hockey?! I was just giving him tips, but he said he could do it himself and the idiot didn’t let me help him!” 

Kenma’s hair fell, shielding the side of his face from her. It was a good thing because he had a smile at the time. Kuroo and Y/N were friends but there were times where it was clear that they’d strangle each other if it wasn’t for Kenma. At least they tried. 

When Yamamoto had told him that he looked like the girl from the Ring with that dark hair of his, he resorted to dying to tips blond, making him look completely different. Going to Y/N’s house for their scheduled study session, she had screamed at the sight of him before quieting down when she realized it was just him. Trying to explain to her what had happened, Kenma knew that she was internally laughing and he was grumbling the entire time before they got down to studying. 

What Kenma didn’t know was that Y/N was slowly coming to the realization that she was having feelings for him. She was having feelings for her best friend and she wasn’t ready to face them up front. After all, if Kenma rejected her, they wouldn’t be able to go back to their friendship. That was the one thing she couldn’t bear to lose. Kenma was her best friend since forever and she wouldn’t allow her feelings to get in the way of that. 

In their second year, it was clear to Kuroo that Y/N had feelings for him. Instead of teasing her about it like he wanted, he decided to pull her aside after school. “Can we talk?”

“Whatever I did, it’s not my fault, you made me do it.”

Rolling his eyes, he waved Kenma forward, saying that he’d return Y/N afterwards. He led her to a secluded place and crossed his arms across his chest, raising an eyebrow at Y/N. “Do you have a crush on Kenma?”

Her heart dropped. It was that obvious? “No, definitely not--”

“You’re doing the thing where you’re lying.” Kuroo smiled gently at her, shrugging his shoulders. “I mean, with the friendship you two have had, I expected it. But how long ago did you realize?”

“First year. Just...don’t tell him. Please. I don’t want to lose him because of my feelings for him, I couldn’t bear to have that. Kuroo, please don’t tell him.”

“I won’t. But you never know, maybe he’s just good at hiding the mutual feelings.”

If he had feelings for her, he hid it better than anything. Kenma did have feelings for her and he decided to put it aside because of the same Y/N was sparing hers for him. They didn’t want to lose each other, not after so many years being inseparable. If the rejection was too much for both of them to handle, who knew what’d happen to the both of them. 

Wishes were made by the both of them, hoping that the other would return the feelings with some sort of miracle. Whenever one of them saw the other smiling, they’d feel much more comforted in the end. It was hard to hide it from other people, it was like everyone knew about their feelings for one another except them. They were friends for a long time so the affection they had for one another did not seem romantic whatsoever, it was only seen as platonic for the both of them.  

The years kept going by and now they were in college, Kenma rising to the top faster than ever. He was already preparing his new company and was a famous Youtuber as well as a professional gamer. It seemed like he had everything figured out. The one thing that never changed was Y/N. They were both still pining after one another and it was driving everyone around them insane to know that no matter what, they’d be so utterly oblivious to their discreet ways of showing romantic love to one another. 

The first strike was during Kenma’s stream. He had been playing a game and Y/N had gone to his house because she had a key for his place (Kuroo was on the verge of tears when he heard this, he couldn’t believe she didn’t know what that meant). Walking into his room, she asked, “Kenma, where’s the jacket?”

“Which jacket?” Kenma was focused on his game, but his mind was whirring as to try and figure out what she was talking about. “Yours or mine?”

“Mine, I’m pretty sure I left it here. I’m cold.”

“You can take one of my jackets--” Kenma paused at the sight of the screen’s comments going wild from the conversation. So many of them were asking if that was Kenma’s girlfriend, what her name was and others were just screaming about the revelation. “Guys, this isn’t my girlfriend, she’s just my best friend.”

Y/N’s heart froze at that sentence. He clearly didn’t see her as anything more than a friend. But it was also quite common because Kenma had always called her his best friend. So why did it hurt more now? However, she made sure not to let that hurt show as she tugged on one of Kenma’s hoodies, bringing up a chair next to him. “Can I stay?”

“Of course you can stay.” He paused at the sight of her in his hoodie, his own heart rate increasing and it was clear to everyone else that he was head over heels for her, except her. She didn’t notice. This drove the Nekoma team insane, considering they watched a lot of Kenma’s streams. Yamamoto literally said something along the lines of them to date already because no one wanted a 500k slowburn and if they did, they were masochistic. Luckily, the rest of the comments drowned out that one comment or else Kenma and Y/N would’ve sat in awkward silence. 

“Kenma, you’re going to lose!” Y/N said, gesturing at the screen. 

Quickly turning to his game, he continued talking and playing, all too aware of Y/N next to him in his hoodie. He decided to play with her in the next stream, seeing that a lot of the followers liked her. When he asked, she eagerly agreed and left with his hoodie on. Kenma sat in his gamer chair, staring at the wall. How could he find out if she shared the same feelings for him as he did for her without any consequences?

The day of reckoning arrived for Y/N. She decided to talk to him and tell him because it was already driving her insane to know that her feelings hadn’t faded away through the years at all, they just increased. Picnic dates were Kenma’s favorite thing to do with her, so she chose to take him to their favorite spot and confess there. 

Both of them were going to the place and before long, they were joking around and laughing like they did before. Y/N almost forgot the reason why she had invited him until Kenma asked, “Why’d you invite me here? I mean, I don’t mind but usually it’s because something big is coming up. Is something wrong?” He knew her better than anyone else and it made her glow internally. 

Staring at the landscape before them, covered with thousands of dandelions. The reason why it was Kenma’s favorite place was because of his quiet fondness for dandelions. When they were younger, Y/N and Kenma would make flower crowns of dandelions and put them on one another. He never got the hang of it, but he wore his crown the entire time and even kept it afterwards. He was always sad when they wilted away but she told him that she could make some more for him. That was when they found the hill with the scenery of dandelions. It became Kenma’s favorite place and he found it to be much better when Y/N was at his side.

Y/N gathered up all her courage to say the next words. “I brought you here because I wanted to tell you something. I don’t know how to say it subtly but I don’t think subtle will work here. I like you, Kenma. I have for a long time, I can’t even remember how long it’s been. Originally, I didn’t want to tell you because maybe we’d lose our friendship, yet it’s been years. I had to tell you at some point. But if you don’t return those feelings, it’s okay. We can try to go back to our friendship.”

Kenma could have combusted right then and there from the confession. She liked him. She liked him back. All this time, those times she had been affectionate with him, it wasn’t platonic. He had been blind to it and thought that it was like any other day. Reaching for her hand, he mumbled, “I didn’t want to tell you for the same reason, but I like you too. I have for a while now and I didn’t want to believe it when people told me about you.”

Y/N turned to face him and saw the small smile on Kenma’s face. She inhaled sharply as she stared at their entwined hands. It wasn’t a dream. It was real. Placing her head on his shoulder, she reached for his other hand and when she squeezed his hand, it gave him the answer he needed. Leaning his head on hers, he just barely turned to give her the smallest kiss on the side of her head, causing her heart to race as they both gazed at the yellow field before them. It was the happiest they had been and it was because of each other. 

“I think Kuroo’s going to scream when he finds out.” Y/N mumbled.

Kenma sighed, realizing that she was right. The entire team would lose their heads at the news. However, instead of thinking about that, he wrapped his arms around her and replied, “We’ll worry about that later.” His embrace made it clear that what he wanted to do more was stay in that moment with her. He loved her more than what he thought he did. Just being in that picturesque scene was enough for him to confirm it internally. It wasn’t time yet to say those three words, but within time, he’d be able to say it easily because it was her.  They felt safer with each other than with anyone else and they knew one another like the backs of their hands. It was enough for both of them.

No matter what would’ve happened, they would always choose each other. Kenma knew that he’d choose her over anyone and with that thought in mind, he let everything else disappear and only concentrated on her comforting warmth, finally feeling happy after a long time. 

[blossom-hwa]

Attach - MARK |Swing!|

I wrote 50k words in 10 days I think my brain is going to shut down

THANK YOU @deathbykpopboys​ FOR GIVING ME THE IDEA TO CONTINUE THIS FROM THE ORIGINAL DRABBLE (here). I LITERALLY OWE YOU MY LIFE. THIS STORY WOULDN’T EXIST WITHOUT YOU I SWEAR. THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME USE YOUR IDEAS, YOU DESERVE THE W O R L D

One more thing: a long time ago I promised @zhengtongue​ (fari love u) that all further Mark stories I wrote would be dedicated to her :) :) here’s the first Mark story I’ve written since then :) :) dedicated to you and @deathbykpopboys​ :D

Pairing: Mark x fem!reader

Genre: fluff, angst, Spiderman!au

Triggers: a lot of cursing, mild violence, some descriptions of sex (as in like. sex ed. no one actually does it), PANIC ATTACKS IN FUTURE CHAPTERS (I in no way meant to romanticize these triggers. If you feel I did, please let me know and I will fix it.)

Word Count: 9.2k

A disastrous field trip to OsCorp leaves you and Mark with two spider bites and a decision to make.

Attach >> Arc { 1 - Drifting Apart | 2 - Coming Home } 

NCT Masterlist | Swing! 

You wake up with a misplaced sense of excitement that makes you even grumpier than normal. It’s six in the fucking morning, finals and AP exams are in a month and a half, so what the hell is there to be excited about?

Then you open your eyes enough to see the permission slip sticking out the top of your bag and it clicks.

The field trip to OsCorp is today!

A grudging smile comes over your face. It might be six a.m., but you’re about to go on a field trip to one of the biggest biotech corporations in the world – you have a right to feel excited. You may be in high school, and some may say that getting excited over field trips is for little kids, but it’s OsCorp. Not Stark Industries, but still pretty damn close.

Quickly, you shower and dress, careful not to wake up your older brother. As you pass by his room, you feel a stab of guilt. Johnny worked another late shift last night, and he’ll probably have another one tomorrow. And here you are, taking a field trip.

Mood slightly dampened, you head out the door, locking it behind you with a quiet snick. In the lobby, you wait a few minutes for Mark to arrive. Exactly three minutes later, you hear his feet pounding down the stairs.

Any guilt you felt washes away at the sight of your best friend smiling behind his round glasses. Mark is what people might call a typical nerd – you’re a little too confrontational for that label – but you’ve known him for over ten years.

He’s so much more than that.

“Ready for OsCorp?” Mark pushes up his glasses, grinning widely.

You smile back just as eagerly. “Fuck yeah.”

The smiles stay throughout the train ride to school. Mark’s gets slightly smaller when Flash rolls through Midtown High’s gates and gives him that stupid smirk, but you distract him with talk about the labs you guys will get to see. The bus ride passes without fanfare – though Mark gets into a spat with your friend, Haechan, about the merits of computer science versus physics, fucking nerds – and soon enough, you’re is pulling into the huge parking lot at OsCorp.

Even Flash, who was griping about not getting to see Stark Industries and having to “settle for” OsCorp, is stunned by how immense the building actually is from the inside.

It’s fucking amazing. Pristine walls surround your classmates, while people in lab coats and business suits mill around beyond the huge lobby. Conference rooms with walls of glass let you see people giving presentations with complicated diagrams you’re itching to see.

Beside you, Mark catches his breath in delight. When you turn to him, he grins with so much excitement in his face that your heart melts for a moment.

He deserves a break. He deserves this excitement. With that, you link arms with him as a cheery intern starts the tour.

. . . . .

There’s nothing Mark would trade for being at OsCorp today. Even though he can’t go everywhere, the tour guide, Joy, makes the most of the places she has access to. With each new lab Mark enters, his wonder only heightens.

If this is OsCorp, he thinks, how cool is Stark Industries?

The tour ends with a video about what you all could do as future scientists and world leaders, and then Ms. Wilson herds the class back into the lobby to wait for the bus.

Mark has to use the bathroom. Though Wilson clearly isn’t happy about it, she lets him go with a stern warning to hurry.

He finds the bathroom quickly and starts to head back. But at some point, he takes a wrong turn or something because he’s now in a stark-white hallway that he hasn’t seen before.

Oh, come on. He doesn’t need Wilson to hate him any more than she already does. Confused, he looks around for someone to ask for directions, but there’s no one in the hall. In his frustration, he rolls his eyes towards the ceiling.

He barely suppresses a scream at the dangerous looking blue and red spider sitting up above him.

Normally, Mark just leaves spiders alone unless they get too close. He doesn’t have much love for insects or arachnids, but he doesn’t enjoy killing them. They just want to mind their own business, like he does.

This one, though, just oozes malicious intent.

Other spiders just want to do spin webs and eat bugs and stuff. Not this one.

Before he has time to yell, this one fucking leaps, silk tracing behind it, lands on his arm, and bites him.

A sharp sting races up his arm and the spot where the stupid arachnid bit him starts to throb. Belatedly, he starts shaking his arm to get rid of the thing, but it’s already climbing back up the wall and onto the ceiling.

For a moment, Mark just stares at the spider, clutching his arm.

“Mark?” Your voice jerks him out of his daze. Relief floods his veins, but terror and worry soon replace it. He opens his mouth to tell you to get away, but he can’t fucking speak. Then you turn down the hall.

Too late.

“Dude!” You jog forward, ignoring or misinterpreting Mark’s outstretched arm trying to push you away. “The bus is here! We need to –” You stop talking, finally realizing something’s wrong. Your eyes go to his arm, which is now bright red. “Mark? What’s –”

His vocal cords take that moment to start working. “Look up,” he whispers.

The spider leaps without warning, barely after a second after your eyes have even registered it. It settles on your arm quickly and you yelp.

It must have bitten you too.

Thankfully, you have more of a destructive instinct than Mark does. Your arm smashes against the wall with a resounding thud and the crushed spider drops to the ground. A spatter of liquid stains the white paint. You wipe your arm against the wall.

For a moment, you and Mark just stare at the spider’s corpse. Mark can feel the blood draining from his face.

“It bit you too?” you finally ask.

Mark nods tightly. “Yeah.”

You take a glance at your arm and blanch. Mark winces, seeing your skin already darkening with inflammation. With trembling fingers, you untie your jacket from around your waist. “Hide it,” you tell him when he looks at you questioningly. He numbly pushes the sleeves of his hoodie down.

Ms. Wilson yells at him a lot when he gets back, which he takes with a bowed head and many apologies. He barely hears it, though. The throbbing in his arm is almost overwhelming, and his mind is racing too fast to comprehend much of anything. When you all finally board the bus, you drag him to the back where the two of you sit, silent and scared.

That spider wasn’t from any lab he visited today, which means it was probably from some classified, secure experiment. Well, one that was supposed to be secure.

It was bright red and blue. It attacked without provocation.

Clearly, it wasn’t meant to have gotten loose.

Why was OsCorp even making these things?

Mark sneaks a glance at his throbbing arm. He doesn’t dare look under the hoodie sleeve for fear that someone else will see, but it hurts.

What effects will that bite have?

Can I even treat it?

Dread pools heavy in his stomach. Some spiders are extremely venomous.

Am I going to die?

Mark’s hand reaches over and grasps yours tightly. You try to give his hand a reassuring squeeze, but your hand is clammy and cold with anxiousness.

Any residual excitement from visiting OsCorp is gone. Only terror floods his veins.

. . . . .

The spider bite doesn’t go away for seven days, and with every hour that passes, the stupid thing only looks like it’s getting worse.

You try to ignore it at first. After all, you can’t exactly call in sick for a bug (or arachnid, whatever) bite. If you did, that would a) sound stupid and b) make your brother worry, which he really doesn’t need. So for the first three days, you grit your teeth, cover the bite with long sleeves even as the days begin to warm uncomfortably, and trudge to class.

The only thing that keeps you going is that you’re not alone. If anything, Mark is panicking a lot more than you. With every day that passes, he grows more and more outwardly concerned with the spread of red inflammation and the aches all over his body.

At least at first, you’d like to think that you hide your concern better than Mark. But by the third day, the inflamed part of your skin is about the size of your hand and hot to the touch, and you’re sure you don’t look much better than your best friend.

Mark comes over after school that day because Johnny’s working late and the two of you want to talk, alone. But at first, you don’t even speak – just lie on your bed and stare at the angry red spots on your arms.

“Are we going to die?” Mark finally mumbles, somehow sounding both panicked and resigned.

You want to reply with a ‘no, definitely not, stop overreacting,’ but the aches feel horrible and you have the strong urge to vomit. Neither of you have looked up your symptoms because the spider was clearly unnatural and WebMD will only make you feel worse, but you don’t need to be a genius to know that something is very wrong.

Nothing gets done that night, and it’s with a sinking feeling in your stomach that you hug Mark tightly before he walks up the several floors to his own apartment. Not wanting to eat for fear of it just coming back up, you messily scribble some answers to your homework and pass out.

You wake up the next morning and vomit all over the floor.

Johnny wakes up to the sound of crying and retching and immediately calls in sick for both of you when he opens the door to you trying to drag yourself to the bathroom, studiously avoiding the pool of sick on your floor.

Bleary-eyed and lightheaded, you text Mark and tell him you’re not going to school. He doesn’t reply until several hours later. He went to school but got picked up early after he threw up in class.

By day five, you have a high fever and Johnny has to take another day off. Luckily, it’s Saturday. You don’t have school. You hope you feel better by Monday.

But on day six, Sunday, you’re shivering and aching all over and the fear of death breaks you down. Tears stream down your face as you toss and turn in bed, intermittently yelling and muttering gibberish that Johnny can’t understand. At one point, you become aware of him sitting on the side of your bed, silently crying. With the last of your energy, you touch his fingers and squeeze lightly, tears still running down your cheeks.

You hope desperately that Mark feels better than you do.

On day seven, you feel slightly less disgusting. You stop vomiting sometime in the afternoon, and the redness of the spider bite has started to fade. The aches are still there, but they’ve concentrated in your stomach, back, and legs, so you don’t hurt everywhere anymore.

You wake up the next morning, already resigned to missing another day of school. But something immediately feels very, very wrong.

You don’t hurt. At all.

This makes you panic even more than when every part of you was in pain.

You roll out of bed with a frantic thud and practically rip off the blanket to check your arm. No redness. No heat. No sign of inflammation.

Your back doesn’t ache. Neither does your core. But wait, what the fuck - are you taller?

Everything’s clear, you realize. No blurriness from your near-sighted left eye, even without your glasses. You can see every leaf on the scraggly tree just outside your bedroom window.

You might have stopped vomiting, but this all still makes you feel like dry heaving. A hand goes to your stomach and you freeze.

Peeling up your shirt slowly, you look down and almost scream.

You have abs.

Abs.

With shaking fingers, you pull out your phone and dial Mark’s number. You know he’s fine enough to pick up – you and him were texting sporadically yesterday. He answers with a groggy, “Y/N, what the fuck.”

“Mark.” You try to breathe. “Do you hurt at all?”

Dead silence on his end.

“... No.”

“Is the bite still there?”

“... No.”

“Do you have fucking abs?”

“No – what the – Y/N, what the fuck is going on, what the fuck?”

He might be hyperventilating at this point. You can’t blame him. You think you’re about to vomit your guts out again.

“Meet me outside,” you snap, hastily changing your clothes. “I don’t know what the fuck is going on, but those spiders at OsCorp were... they weren’t fucking normal.”

That’s an understatement.

It takes ten minutes to convince Johnny you’re fine, you really are, you swear, you’re not vomiting and you can’t miss your French quiz today, you’ve already missed a week of school, yes you promise you’ll call him if you throw up again. When he finally lets you go, you race down the stairs faster than you’ve ever gone before.

Mark’s already there. For a minute, you two just stand outside the ratty apartment building with similar looks of shock and panic on your faces. Quickly, you tell Mark about what’s happened to you. He confirms it all.

“Are we like. Fucking. I don’t know.” You pull on your hair out of frustration. “Superhuman? Spider-people?”

On any other occasion, Mark, lovely logical intelligent Mark, would laugh and ask you if you were feeling all right. But now?

He shrugs, but you can tell he’s at least considering your words. “Maybe?” he replies in a very small voice, and then you realize he’s shaking.

The overwhelming need to protect your best friend rises up in you, but you can’t protect him from the spider venom in your veins. Frustration bubbles up in your chest and you clench your fist, but one look at the lost look on his face drains the panic from your body and you just envelop Mark in a hug that he immediately returns. “We’ll figure it out, Mark,” you mumble in his ear. “We’ll be fine. No matter what. Okay?”

“Okay,” he whispers in your ear.

“Good.”

Then you find that you can’t fucking detach yourself from him.

It’s not that you don’t want to. You literally can’t. Your fingers are somehow stuck to the back of his shirt and you have a feeling that if you yank hard enough to pull yourself away, a patch of cloth is going to come off with your hand.

“Mark? Try to let go of me.”

It turns out he can’t either.

“Mark, we have ten minutes before the next train leaves.”

Long story short, you miss the train. And as the two of you sheepishly walk in late to homeroom, you have a terrible feeling that you’re going to be missing many more trains in the future, too.

. . . . .

That first hug, sadly, does not bring an end to the adventures of Mark and Y/N sticking (literally) together.

Mark tries to be careful, he really does. He knows you’re trying too. But you’re both so used to linking arms, hugging, and holding hands that it’s difficult to remember that touching literally anything could result in a whole stupid fiasco.

You two are late to homeroom every. Single. Fucking. Day. Of. That. Week. Because neither of you can remember to keep your stupid hands to your stupid selves.

On Tuesday, it’s the hug.

On Wednesday, he grabs your arm to avoid a group of rushing passerby.

On Thursday, you playfully shove him.

On Friday, Mark wakes up praying for one day of peace, just one fucking day before he can bury his head in his pillow for two days straight and dream that this never happened.

And it would’ve been perfectly fine if you hadn’t fallen asleep on the train.

It’s not your fault, not at all. The night before, you were up so late trying to fix a bug in your computer science assignment that you almost fell asleep waiting for the train. Almost as soon as you board, you’re passed out.

Mark is stupid.

Normally when one of you falls asleep, the other will hold their hand or arm to keep them from slumping over completely. It’s basically instinct now, so when your head lolls onto his shoulder, Mark quickly grabs your hand and nudges you upright.

Then he realizes his mistake.

Fuck.

His slight jolt of realization shakes you awake. Mark’s heart sinks as your tired eyes open and immediately zero in on their linked hands.

You’re wide awake now.

You try to tug away. It doesn’t work.

“Fuck,” you say eloquently.

Mark winces. “Sorry. I swear I didn’t mean to, it’s just…” He winces again. “Habit?”

Honestly, after a week of this, Mark would have thought the two of you would get better at detaching from each other. But every morning, without fail, it’s been exactly like this – flailing limbs, anxious yanking, clothes threatening to rip.

The two of you stumble into the train station still stuck together. With his free hand, Mark checks his phone and groans.

“We have five minutes.”

Unsticking takes fifteen.

Mark is normally a pretty mild person. He can take a lot more of Flash’s shit than you can without batting an eye, and his teachers usually like him for his calm demeanor. But as he slips into his seat, face hot and ears undoubtedly bright red, he thinks he’s going to lose his mind.

Four late days in a row. Four fucking days.

He stifles a groan. If you two don’t figure out this sticking situation soon…

The bell for first period rings literally minutes after he sits down. With a sigh, he reaches down to pick up his bag, praying that he won’t stick to it, when Mr. Thomas, his homeroom teacher, calls for you and him to stay behind.

“Someone’s in trouble,” Flash sneers as he passes by.

Mark wants nothing more than to punch him in the face.

Thomas is a cool teacher, as far as Mark has known. He’s chill, likes to make jokes, and has two kids of his own – he knows and cares for his students. This knowledge just makes Mark feel so much worse, and as the two of you walk up to his teacher’s desk, he readies himself to make an apology.

“So, I’m sure you two know why I wanted to talk to you today.” Mr. Thomas’s mild voice contains a hint of reproach, and Mark winces. Next to him, he sees you do the same. He opens his mouth to apologize.

“I understand.”

Both of your heads snap up. How does he know?

“First love can be very overwhelming, especially at your age.”

Mark blinks. Then he blinks again.

His teacher just smiles benevolently. “Believe me, I would know. I met my wife when I was in high school, and we had some crazy memories. First love is a beautiful thing.”

Mark doesn’t want to hear anymore. He can already feel the redness creeping up his cheeks.

Please, Earth, just open up and swallow me whole.

“But let me give you some advice.” Mr. Thomas leans forward slightly, looking the two of you in your unwilling eyes. “Romantic rendezvous in the morning shouldn’t be more important than getting to school on time.”

A sort of strangled eep comes out of his throat just as you sputter, “Romantic rendezvous?!”

“You both are very intelligent and hardworking students, two of the best this school has ever seen, and I do think you two are a good fit for each other,” Mr. Thomas continues as if he hasn’t heard anything. “However, it’d be a shame for such good students to give up on your schooling for a boyfriend or girlfriend.”

“We’re – we’re not dating,” Mark protests. “Mr. Thomas, seriously –”

His teacher holds up a hand. “Mark, Y/N, if you two can’t control your… urges, you should at least be safe. I trust that you two both know that.”

There’s a stapler next to Mr. Thomas’s computer. Maybe he can staple his hand and go to the clinic. Or he could bash his head against the edge of the desk and knock himself out. Maybe grab those scissors in that cup of pens and just slit his throat right then and there.

Some sort of croaking noise leaves your throat. Mark doesn’t need to look at you to know how you’re feeling.

Mr. Thomas sighs. “But beyond that, school really should be your first priority.” He flashes a smile that Mark can’t find the presence of mind to return. “That’s all I wanted to say. I’ll give you two passes for next period. What do you have next?”

Passes in hand, the two of you stumble into the now-empty hall. Mr. Thomas’s parting words – “Remember my advice!” – rattle around in Mark’s mind.

That didn’t actually happen. There’s no way Mark’s homeroom teacher just gave the sex talk to him and his best friend who happens to be of the opposite gender. This is all just a really, really long nightmare, and Mark will wake up in a few minutes, wrapped in warm blankets.

He pinches himself. It hurts a lot.

Not a nightmare.

“That has to be illegal,” Mark mutters. “Fucking… what the fuck even was that?”

“I want to die,” you mumble.

There’s a bit of silence.

“Well…” You swallow hard, resolutely looking anywhere but Mark’s eyes. “I’ll be… going to class?”

He nods dumbly, then watches you disappear down the hall. The closing of the door jerks him out of his daze and he turns around, heading to his own class.

Head down, he hands the pass to his teacher and takes his seat, ignoring Flash’s smirk and Haechan’s look of worry. He grinds the heels of his hands into his eyes, trying to wake himself up from this real-life nightmare.

Could this day get any worse?

. . . . .

You honestly think, after leaving homeroom, that nothing could make this day even worse.

By third period, you’re cursing your naivete.

It’s like the stickiness is on tenfold today. Your fingers glue themselves to everything – textbook pages, the disgusting desks, pens, even a whiteboard marker from when you go up to solve a problem in calculus.

It takes a five-minute tugging match for Mr. Garcia to finally peel the marker off of your skin. The giggles of your classmates join the vestiges of Mr. Thomas’s “advice” in bouncing around your brain like a million vicious ping pong balls.

After that, you avoid raising your hand to answer questions at all.

By the time you meet back up with Mark, you two have come to a silent agreement to not touch each other whatsoever. You studiously ignore each other all throughout English, and at lunch, you sit across the table, not next to each other like normal. At the same table, your friends look like they want to remark on the situation, but they wisely keep their mouths shut.

When you get up to throw your trash away, Diana, a girl you know but don’t really talk to, walks up as well. “Hey, Y/N,” she greets.

“Hey.” You try to smile.

“Um, I just wanted to ask.” She bites her lip, looking sympathetic. “Did… did you and Mark break up?”

You can almost hear the Windows shutting-down noise as your brain short-circuits.

How could you have broken up if you were never dating in the first place.

With an effort, you turn to her and swallow. “We were never dating,” you enunciate carefully. “So we never broke up.”

Diana immediately flushes bright red. “Oh, fuck, sorry. It’s just, Flash told everyone the two of you were together? And you guys seemed super close and all so it really looked like you were. I really did think you guys were dating, you looked super sweet together. But you didn’t talk much today, and you two looked pretty worked up this morning, so people thought…”

You’re going to kill Flash. You’re going to beat him up behind the school and slit his throat with your own nails.

“Well, we’re not.” You smile as best as you can. “Um, yeah.”

It just doesn’t stop. Until now, you never realized this many people actually paid attention to your personal life. Five more people have come up to ask if you and Mark are okay by the time chemistry rolls around, and as you take your place behind the cramped lab table with the boy everyone thinks you’re dating, you can practically feel the steam billowing out of your ears. Mark doesn’t look nearly as angry as you, but he looks a lot more confused and annoyed.

You brush fingers a few times as Mark pours out the acid and you try to set up the buret for today’s titration. Thankfully, you don’t really stick this time.

But then Mark gets his hand stuck to the Erlenmeyer flask and you have to spend ten precious minutes trying to tug it off, causing you to almost not finish the lab and earning both of you another black mark in Ms. Wilson’s mental book.

You ignore anyone who tries to ask you or Mark anything as you all but run out of school, only relaxing once you’ve thrown yourself onto a seat on the train. Mark slides down next to you and puts his head in his hands.

“Tell me this is all a nightmare,” he mumbles.

You don’t have the heart to tell him the truth.

By the time you’ve walked up the stairs to your apartment, you think you’re going to pass out. It’s been a long day. You don’t care if you have homework or if Mark’s staying over for a bit – you just want to lie in your bed and sleep away the horrors of today.

Then Johnny opens the door before you even have the chance to unlock it and you just know from the glint in his eye that everything is about to get ten times worse.

“Y/N, Mark. What a lovely surprise!” Your older brother is all welcoming words and terrifying smiles. “I got a very interesting call today from a certain Mr. Thomas. Mei did too –” and at this, poor Mark looks like he’s going to faint right then and there – “but she couldn’t leave work, so she asked if I could come home early and give you both a talk.”

You think you’re going to vomit.

“Johnny, whatever Mr. Thomas told you, it isn’t true,” you plead. “I swear on my life –”

“So you two haven’t been late to school every day this week?” Johnny raises an eyebrow.

You think you’re going to die. “Well, yes, but –”

“Have a seat.” Johnny gestures grandly at the small kitchen table, where he’s pulled out two chairs. To your horror, it looks like he’s enjoying this. “Mei and I think it’s time we gave you The Talk.”

If your day was bad before, Johnny gleefully takes it straight to hell.

“So boys have appendages that are called penises,” he begins sagely, “and girls have vaginas. You may know these by more colloquial terms, but those are a bit crass for my household.”

Bullshit. Johnny calls his co-workers dicks and Ten an ass every other night.

“Both of these are integral to the process of sex, and thus, baby-making,” Johnny continues. “During sex, the male – or whatever they identify as – will put the penis inside their partner’s vagina. Of course, that’s traditional. Other forms of sex include oral and anal…”

You’re five seconds away from putting your hands over your ears and just screaming bloody murder. Mark is looking down, fists screwed into his shirt, and his face is so red that he looks like he might implode.

Meanwhile, your evil older brother is grinning like the Joker. It’s infuriating and terrifying. You really, really want to reach out and punch him and just brawl like when you were younger, but your feet feel rooted to the floor.

Johnny’s spiel pauses for a second as he takes a dramatic breath. Immediately, you’re on guard. Whenever Johnny wants to be dramatic, it’s never a good thing.

“So in anal sex,” Johnny starts, “the appendage goes in the –”

Oh my god.

“We’re not fucking!” you finally explode.

Mark breathes a sigh – you think it’s one of relief, but you can’t be sure – while your brother just blinks. “Pardon?”

Your face burns hot, but you grit your teeth and stare Johnny in the eye. “Mark and I are not fucking,” you repeat carefully.

“Who said anything about you and Mark?” Johnny raises one perfect eyebrow.

Oh, you want to punch him so badly.

“But thank you for bringing that up!” Johnny smiles benevolently like a teacher rewarding you for doing something good in class.

You groan, knowing you’ve just made things so much worse.

“You two are hormonal teenagers, so you’ve undoubtedly already started to feel those urges.” Johnny keeps smiling pleasantly, even as you’re having war flashbacks to this morning in homeroom. “That’s perfectly normal. So – and I’m not saying you’re fucking –” he gives you that look that means uh huh, I totally do not believe you, but I’ll drop it for now until you prove yourself wrong – “but if you do become sexually active, you should always get tested for STDs and STIs first, and take preventative measures such as using condoms and birth control.”

That’s it. You’re just going to die. Slit your own throat with, you don’t fucking know, the pencil lying by Johnny’s arm. Maybe you’ll just grab that piece of paper over there and cover yourself in tiny papercuts and bleed to death. That couldn’t possibly hurt as much as hearing Johnny talk right now.

“Now back to anal sex!” Johnny smiles.

Mark lets out a small groan and buries his face in his hands. If anything, Johnny’s smile grows wider. “Anal sex is when –”

“Jesus Christ, Johnny!” You grab the pencil you wanted to slit your throat with and hurl it at your brother. The blunt point pokes him harmlessly in the chest and falls to the floor. “I don’t know what the fuck Mr. Thomas told you, but I – we –” you gesture helplessly between you and Mark – “we’re not doing anything! And I know all of this, dude, I go to high school!”

Even after that excellent point, Johnny still goes on for another ten minutes before he allows you to drag Mark to your room and slam the door shut.

“I’m so fucking sorry,” you mumble into your pillow.

Mark just makes a little pained noise in his throat.

The two of you do end up passing out for the best part of an hour before spending the rest of the afternoon finishing homework. Mark can barely look Johnny in the eye when he says goodbye, and as soon as the door shuts, you round on your older brother.

“What the fuck did Mr. Thomas say on the phone?” you snap.

Johnny raises his hands in a gesture of surrender as he stirs pasta in a pot. “He just said you and Mark have been late to homeroom every day this entire week, and he was sure it wasn’t much because you are both stellar students, but he worried that the two of you were becoming distracted because this wasn’t normal behavior.” He scrunches his eyebrows. “He might’ve mentioned… romantic rendezvous?”

You sink to the floor with a groan.

“I was just messing with you earlier.” Johnny’s words make you open your eyes to catch his teasing smile. “Seriously. I think I know you and Mark well enough to trust you not to do anything stupid.”

Suddenly, you become very aware of the spot on your arm where the spider bit you, the stupid thing that caused this whole mess in the first place. “Uh huh.”

“But I do want you to be careful.” Johnny’s eyes turn serious. “Mark is still a teenage boy, and you’re still a teenage girl. I do trust you, but things can still happen, even if they’re unexpected.”

Internally, you gag. Outwardly, you just nod. “I know.”

“Good.” Johnny turns back to the pasta, then quickly looks back at you. “Doesn’t it look like Mark filled out a little?”

Your heart literally leaps into your throat. You hadn’t really thought about it before, but the spider venom has caused you both to pack on some muscle overnight.

Sure, part of you is worried that Johnny is catching on to something weird. But something else is also making you sweat.

A memory of your linked hands from the morning flashes through your mind. In it, you realize, Mark’s arms are bulkier. A lot more than before.

Heat rises in your cheeks. You want to fling yourself into the void. “Y-yeah,” you squeak.

“Y/N, dating your best friend isn’t anything embarrassing –”

“We’re not dating!” you protest.

Johnny just gives you The Look again as he pours the water out of the pasta. “Okay.”

For the umpteenth time that day, you will whatever god is listening to just smite you down right then and there.

. . . . .

There are a lot of things that come with being a sort of spider-person that neither you nor Mark realized would happen, but in hindsight, they kind of (not really) make sense.

. . .

One: the sticking thing. It does make sense. Spiders walk on walls and other vertical surfaces by sticking to them with the little setules on their legs. Mark hypothesizes that maybe there’s some sort of electrostatic force between your skin and objects around you that makes you stick. After a moment of thought, you agree.

Doesn’t matter. Mark never wants to go through that ordeal of the first week over again.

He used to idolize Johnny. Johnny was something between another parent and the older brother he never had, embarrassing but cool and kind and so, so strong. Even after your parents died and he had to drop out of university to take care of you, he always stayed strong.

But now? After that disastrous Friday, Mark knows what you mean when you complain about Johnny being a menace to your health and well-being.

And of course, that’s not the end of it. Aunt Mei just has to get her hands into it too. The literal day after The Talk, you walk up to his apartment to work on a research paper together for the lab you two volunteer in. When he takes your laptop to read something, the device somehow gets stuck to his skin.

Mei comes home early that evening and walks in on you practically straddling him, trying to yank your laptop away.

Even Mark knows that it definitely doesn’t look that way from her perspective.

But all she does is say, “Use protection,” and close the door behind her.

(You leave early that evening, rushing out of the apartment with a face hot with embarrassment and lowered eyes. Mark slinks out of his room at some point to get something to eat, and Mei just gives him a smirk.)

Thankfully, after a couple more weeks, the two of you more or less figure out how to stop sticking to every goddamn thing you touch. It’s more of a thing that happens when either of you are nervous or stressed, so as long as you two keep calm and purposely remind yourselves not to stick to stuff, you’re fine.

Mr. Thomas still gives you a few looks, but now that you’re coming in on time to homeroom, he doesn’t say anything.

Thank fucking God for that.

. . .

Two: both you and him somehow buffed up overnight. Well, probably during the time that you two were sick. That explains the aching muscles in his stomach and his back – he has abs, and he’s definitely taller. So are you.

Spiders are strong. Relatively. So the new muscles kind of makes sense, even though it’s hard for Mark to get used to at first.

What doesn’t make sense is how much strength these muscles actually contain.

The first casualty is Mark’s apartment doorknob. You go to open it one day after visiting the lab and it just… fucking… twists all the way around. Mark finds himself staring at a doorknob in your hand and an open door with a hole in it.

You squeeze your eyes shut and sigh heavily. Mark rubs a hand over his face. “Mei is going to kill me,” he groans.

The two of you spend five panicked hours fixing the doorknob instead of working on the research paper and Wilson’s lab report. When Mei comes home, she doesn’t notice anything (which really is a miracle), but from that day on, whenever the doorknob squeaks or stalls or does anything weird in his vicinity, Mark freezes.

A trail of broken things starts littering your paths. A stapler he pushed down too hard. His locker door, which now has a dent in it. One of your bedroom floorboards, though you hide the crack in the wood under a pile of clothes. Someone’s old MP3 player on the sidewalk literally shatters beneath his feet. Pens, pencils, and highlighters break in your hands. No one wants to lend either of you supplies anymore, so he becomes more vigilant about his own.

Oh, you also “accidentally” step on Flash’s calculus binder, flattening the metal rings and breaking the covers. But you don’t regret that.

It’s like he’s a toddler again, hiding broken toys or messily fixing them with scotch tape and glue. The only difference is now, he uses duct tape and superglue and is somehow even worse at hiding things than before.

Mark starts putting away all of his and Mei’s valuables into high-up cabinets with the excuse of keeping them safe from his clumsiness. He advises you to do the same. Eventually, you two learn to control your strength and the number of things you break slowly dwindles to zero.

Of course, there are accidents. One time in PE, you run the mile a little too fast (which is an understatement – you beat everyone else in your group, which has never happened before), and now Coach wants you to join the track team. Then Mark squeezes a glass buret a little too hard in chemistry one day and the thing just fucking shatters onto the table. While he hastily grabs the broom and starts sweeping up the pieces, you tell Ms. Wilson he accidentally dropped it while Flash keeps insisting that he saw Mark snap it with his bare hands.

Ms. Wilson might vehemently dislike you and Mark, but she now thinks Flash is insane. The one spot of joy Mark now finds in chemistry comes from Ms. Wilson narrowing her eyes at Flash whenever he says something remotely stupid, like she’s thinking of sending him to the school psychologist.

After all, who would accuse spindly, nerdy Mark of having the strength to shatter a reinforced glass tube in his palm?

He’s never particularly liked the stereotype people placed him in, but now he’s pretty thankful for it.

. . .

Three: he has reflexes sharper than he’s ever had before.

It’s not the same as, say, having his senses enhanced. They are enhanced – both of you can see clearly without glasses, he can hear things he’s never been able to before, and his nose wrinkles at smells no one else can detect. Sometimes it’s overwhelming and he has to duck into a quiet shop to escape the bustling noise of New York City.

But this new sixth sense reflex thing? It’s different.

It isn’t fake. Like, Mark could say he’s developed a sixth sense for when Flash wants to be a little shit, meaning he hears when Flash snorts or shuffles around in the back and knows to duck his head.

But this?

Mark first realizes it a few weeks after the spider bite. He’s minding his own business, talking with his friends before class, when Flash decides to be stupid and throw an apple at his head.

Mark doesn’t see Flash. He doesn’t see the apple. He doesn’t hear any swoosh of wind or feel anything in the air. But something in his head screams DANGER DANGER DANGER and he whips himself away from the apple, which smacks into his locker.

The hall falls awkwardly silent as Mark tries to process what just happened.

He didn’t even notice Flash’s arm or the apple. He didn’t see it, didn’t hear it, didn’t feel it. But somehow, he knew something was wrong. He knew to duck away.

You recover a few seconds later. “What the fuck, Flash?” Then you pick up the apple, throw it back with far more force, and the hall descends into its normal levels of chaos. You all go to class, but in his peripheral vision, Mark can see you raising an eyebrow at him.

“What was that with Flash?” you ask later, when you two have boarded the train home. “I know you didn’t see that apple coming. Your back aas completely to him.”

Mark shrugs. “I just felt… I don’t know, really. I didn’t see him or hear anything. Just, something in my brain screamed danger and I just kind of moved.”

You look around, making sure nobody is paying attention. “Spider thing again?” you whisper.

“Maybe?”

For the next week or so, nothing happens that would trigger whatever the hell that was again. Mark makes sure to keep everyone he talks in sight, not allowing anyone to get behind him or to surprise him. He only ducked away that first time, but is surprised again, he has a feeling that his reactions could be a lot worse the next time. Like more violent.

The two of you are walking home from the lab when you hear scuffling in a nearby alley. Common sense tells Mark to keep walking, but as you two pass by, he can’t help but look. You stop walking too.

It’s a mugging, but the muggers clearly don’t have a lot of experience. Sure, they’re in a mostly-empty place, but the sun’s barely gone down and they’re trying to get money from a teenage girl who probably doesn’t have much on her. But one of the two has a gun.

He should just walk past and ignore it. Things like this happen all the time. Cops would just escalate the situation, and he’s too weak to help much.

The realization hits him with a jolt. But he isn’t weak anymore.

Mark feels your gaze on him and he turns to meet it. You raise an eyebrow, cocking your head slightly toward the alley. He nods.

He’s always been light on his feet, but the spider bite seems to have made him almost soundless as he steps into the alley. The muggers don’t notice either of you at first, they’re too focused on their crying victim.

It happens quickly. You dart behind the unarmed man and pull him into a chokehold. His partner has fast reflexes though and immediately aims the gun at Mark.

DANGER DANGER DANGER DANGER –

Mark drops to the ground seconds before the bullet sinks into the wall behind him.

Together, you subdue the men, leaving them groaning by the side of the street. Under the blanket of darkness that’s now fallen, Mark crushes the gun with his shoe, hoping nobody is paying attention to the dark object under his feet or the cracking noises. The girl thanks you effusively and runs off, and the two of you head on home.

This is what gets him thinking. You two are strong now, sticky, and have a sort of sixth sense for imminent danger.

It terrifies him to think of it, but the more he does, the more it makes sense.

You guys could keep doing this. Patrol the city, help people get around safely. Everyone knows the NYPD and the justice system aren’t shit. They couldn’t charge the drunk kid with a rich daddy who killed your parents. They couldn’t find the thief who shot his uncle. People will keep committing crimes, and the NYPD won’t be able to stop them.

But maybe, just maybe, Mark thinks, you could.

. . . . .

Mark is the one who brings up using your newfound skills – you refuse to call them powers, that’s just a step too far – for the good of the neighborhood.

“Think about it,” he says, looking at his hands. His face is pale, but he keeps going. “We have these, uh, enhanced abilities. Remember how we helped that girl get away from the muggers? What if we could do that for more people?”

You’re usually the brash one in most situations, but here, you take a step back. “There’s a lot of things to think about if we want to do that, Mark.” You chew your lips, thinking. “We can’t get caught, or else we could get arrested too. We need to be able to get away quickly and without injury, or Johnny or Mei will find out. We can’t afford a lot of hospital bills, either. We would need to move fast. Really fast.”

Mark nods. “I know. It’s just…” He looks at his hands again. His fingers are just as slim and graceful as they used to be, but both of you know the strength that now lies within them. “I don’t feel right, being able to help people but not doing it. You know.” He looks at you, and though his face is pale and his voice a little shaky, he’s resolute. “You and I have always tried to help people whenever we could.”

There’s bitterness there and you echo it, remembering the inept, corrupt legal system that couldn’t even bring justice to your family. The same law enforcement that couldn’t bring justice to Mark’s.

You could help prevent that. You could prevent the crimes in the first place, find the criminals and tie them up for the police to put away. Help make sure no one else has to deal with what you and Mark went through.

“Okay.” You rest your chin on your fist. “All right. Let’s say we hypothetically do this. We need to be able to mask ourselves as much as possible, keep our DNA away from the scene. This can only happen when Johnny and Mei are doing late shifts, so they don’t catch on.”

“First aid,” Mark adds. “We’ll probably get into scrapes and things. But we’ll also need to be able to immobilize the criminals and get away fast…”

Silence falls as you start thinking. Ropes are bulky and get heavy. Chains are even worse. Carrying them around would slow you down, so there’s no point. What you need is something lightweight and sticky, but strong.

An idea begins to form in your mind. You and Mark volunteer in labs at a nearby university. Professor Wang in the organic chemistry lab is really chill and lets you perform experiments with polymers and stuff he doesn’t need anymore. Mark works in mechanical engineering with Professor Tuan, who lets him build things out of scrap plastic and metal.

Spider bites.

Spider webs.

You could create synthetic webs, while Mark could make something that lets you shoot them out. There’ll be a lot of test trials and you’ll need to find an empty space for that, but if it works?

It’ll be so worth it.

Your mind races with possibilities. You could immobilize criminals, stick them to walls or the ground. You could stopper guns, or at least slow bullets down. You could trip people up with webs on their legs, keep them from punching or shooting with some on their arms.

And you could swing from buildings, which solves the travel problem.

“I have an idea,” you say. Mark raises an eyebrow.

A smirk grows on your face. “But we’re going to need to work on your fear of heights first.”

. . . . .

Mark thinks he’s going to have a heart attack, and he’s not even the one jumping first.

The two of you have taken a day off to go to Central Park – not for fun or anything (well, you insist it’ll be fun. Mark has other opinions), but to test out the strength of your web fluid. You’ve already done some trial runs with inanimate objects and you think it’s strong enough to hold both yours and Mark’s body weights, but you need to check.

Mark wants to argue that you have the rest of summer break to check, but you insist on doing it as early as possible. “We need time to fix mistakes,” you point out. “Plus, the earlier we finish this, the earlier we can... start doing stuff.”

He can’t exactly argue with that.

The web shooters are working well, Mark is finally thankful to say. Every single time he remembers the first test trial, he wants the earth to just open up and accept him into the void.

(He didn’t realize just how strongly the shooter would actually eject your “webs.” He also didn’t know how to aim very well. Long story short, you got a glob of polymers right to the face and Mark consequently wanted to die right then and there. The ensuing purple bruise on the side of your face made you the subject of several kinky jokes on Flash’s end.

They stopped when you picked up his new calculus binder and hit him over the head with it.

At least you found out the webs were indeed sticky enough.)

“I’m going!” you yell, startling Mark from his thoughts. You’re at least twelve feet up in a tree in Central Park, looking determinedly at a sturdy branch poking out from another trunk around ten feet away. Mark’s heart flips when he sees how high up you are.

Jesus Christ. Twelve feet, and he already feels like he’s going to start screaming.

What’s going to happen when he possibly has to swing off a building?

With shaking hands, Mark holds up his phone, fingers poised over the record button on the camera app. For whatever reason, you’d insisted on recording each “trial” like it was an actual laboratory test. Mark just goes along with it.

“Ready?” he yells.

“Yeah!”

He presses the record button.

For a second, you stand on your branch, staring steadily ahead. Then you raise your right arm, shoot a line of webbing to the next tree trunk, and leap.

Mark’s breath catches.

A screeching yelp tears itself from your throat as you swing through the air, using your momentum to rise back up and land neatly on the tree branch. Mark holds his breath as you wobble back and forth slightly, then drop into a steadier crouch. He sighs in relief and stops the video.

“Holy shit!” You climb down the tree and run over. “Holy shit! That was so fucking cool, Mark!”

“I’m sure,” he replies in a faint voice, looking at the tree you leapt from.

Twelve feet. It’s just twelve fucking feet, not like the monstrosity that is Trump Tower. It’s not even as high as his apartment building.

And yet he still wants to die.

Fucking acrophobia. Mark squeezes his eyes shut and forces himself to take a breath.

Your hand goes to rest on his shoulder. “Hey, Mark.”

He looks at you.

“If you’re really not ready today, it’s fine.” The excitement in your eyes is gone, replaced by calm concern. “We can do this another day. Or we can figure out another option closer to the ground.”

God, what did Mark even do to deserve a friend like you? Even after all the work you put in to making the synthetic webs – a stroke of genius, by the way – you’re willing to put it all aside for him. Just for him.

He steels himself. “I’m good. I’m fine.” He flashes you something resembling a smile and starts hauling himself into the tree. “I can do this,” he mumbles once he’s on the branch.

Then he looks down and almost throws up.

Placing a hand on the tree trunk, he looks away and forces himself to take a deep breath. He’s fine. He’ll be fine. He trusts in his web shooter to be accurate. He trusts in your webs to be strong enough.

He trusts that even if he falls, you won’t let him get far. He trusts that you’ll keep him safe.

“Ready?” you yell. Mark looks down again to nod, but the world isn’t spinning anymore. He locks his eyes onto the tree you jumped into and aims his web shooter.

“Ready!” he yells back. Faintly, he hears the beeping noise that signals the start of the recording.

Thwip. Web fluid shoots out and latches onto the branch. Before he can lose his nerve, he jumps.

A yell rips from his throat as he hurtles to the ground. Air rushes past his face as he swings his body up, up, until the branch is in view and he can plant his feet against it, using the last of his momentum to pull himself up. He wobbles a bit, then plants his arm against the tree trunk to steady himself.

He gasps shakily. The ground still looks so small from here, but the drop feels a fraction less frightening than it used to be. He takes one more deep breath, then starts to slowly climb down the tree.

As soon as he reaches the ground, you race over and engulf him in a strong hug. “You did it, Mark!” you all but yell into his ear. “You did it!”

Despite himself, Mark lets out a trembling bout of laughter, hugging you as close as he can. “Holy shit,” he mumbles, drinking in the steadiness that you bring to him. “Holy fuck.”

The two of you spend the rest of the afternoon in the secluded spot, leaping from the tallest trees you can find for longer and longer distances. You take notes as Mark pulls the sticky but mostly solidified web fluid from the branches, analyzing how some of them seem to have solidified and cracked a little under stress. “They need a little more flexibility,” you tell him as the two of you pile the web fluid into a bag. You think you can recycle it to make more. “With the adjustments you make on the shooters, I think they’ll be even better next time.”

“Yeah.” It’s all Mark can say. As he sits down next to you on the subway, he suddenly feels so drained and tired that he automatically slumps and places his head on your shoulder.

A small, surprised laugh sounds next to his ear, and he feels your hand go up to pat his head. “You did great today,” you murmur.

He smiles. In that moment, while your hand continues stroking his hair, he feels like he could do anything.

Anything for the world.

Anything for you.

[sssuperbartola]

Head first Into Love

ok ok ok okokokokokOK, SO! Hear me out. There was this video on Instagram that had HUGE Inukag vibes, and I had to write something about it because come oooooon this is them, 100%.

So. I had this idea, right? Then it turned into a little one shot featuring our beloved OTP Inukag in that particular scenario and later on I decided to dedicate this as a late super incredibly God help me say how much I procrastinated on this bday gift for our beloved @keichanz aka Lusty, aka our Lady and Saviour The Queen Slut, and of cooooooouursssssee...I completely wasted 3 months into writing this thing AND LEMME TELL YA, it did took a lot of time, trying to find inspiration or just the will to live ya know?

BUT, it is finally finished!

And now everyone can finally indulge in some “best friends to lovers real quick” Inukag Modern!AU, featuring the come back of TikTok! YAAAAAAAY!

And again: HAPPY LATE BDAY @keichanz ! LOVE YA BELLA FENICE!

I’m outside

Kagome quickly sent the text on her phone and leaned back in her car seat. She made a point to turn off the car engine as soon as she parked right in front of her best friend’s house, already knowing he would not be ready on time, like usual. 

And people complain about women taking too much time to get ready! 

Obviously they never met Inuyasha. 

No matter how much effort he put into looking like “he just woke up like that”, that guy sure had his own beauty schedule - caring for his absurdly long silver hair and being on top of his list. Kagome had now learned every single trait about him, which only made it even easier for her to tease him whenever the occasion arose. Nothing wrong with a little self-care. Since his hair was such a huge part of his own persona it wasn’t unexpected from him; Kagome herself had lustrous hair to take care of. 

Still, she at least planned in advance, which he did not, and that was what she teased him about the  most. Speaking of which...

i hope u’re at least half way through ur hair, or i can just come back in 2 hours

She hit ‘send’ while biting her own lip in a futile attempt to restrain the shit-eating grin on her face. She could almost picture him, with a scowl on his face, and a long frown while looking at his phone. 

When he didn’t reply immediately she assumed he was indeed too preoccupied with his silver mane to answer her - or at least check for her message - which only further supported her theory. Really, Kagome couldn’t help but think about how much more comfortable they had become, to the point in which she could so openly joke with him and not fear him barking at her, like he did with other not-so-close friends.

Sure, it has never been that easy from the start. With them having almost completely opposite personalities their first meetings were mostly a back and forth of witty remarks. Primarily name calling - they were kids, what kinds of conversations were they supposed to have? - and generally, them ignoring the other’s presence. 

It wasn’t until a particular day, when both their parents were late to pick them up from Kindergarten, that they caved and spent some time talking to pass the time and to feel less lonely. Turns out, they weren’t all that bad, and were much better company than they had thought. The image they had for each other completely vanished and left in its place a friendship that still lasted to this day. 

Thinking back, Kagome couldn’t help the small smile that appeared on her face. The affection she held for that boy never ceased, but only grew stronger each moment they spent together, and Inuyasha never failed to remind her of the same. They had been together through thick and thin, talked each other up for important events, they confided in each other, had even their own arguments like everybody else… But in the end there was nothing that could break such strong bonds.

She sighed, absentmindedly looking around the nearby houses from her car window, once in a while glancing back at Inuyasha’s to see if the half-demon would appear at all. Of course, he was nowhere in sight, and that made her heavily sigh yet again, this time not just out of exasperation. 

Because there was still something Kagome had kept hidden from Inuyasha for quite some time now… And that was the huge crush she developed for her lifetime best friend. 

Clichè, true, but what can you really do about it? You can’t tell your heart who to fall in love with. 

To her credit, she did try dating a couple of guys already - with Inuyasha always there to encourage and support her, which only made her even more lovesick for the man. It left her unable to take things further with the guy she was seeing, because she only had one guy she truly cared about...And that was a certain stubborn, smug and - for quite a few years - devilishly handsome half-demon. 

She never found herself comfortable enough with other guys as she did with him, and while she did try to come to terms with it, thinking that it would never happen, something inside of her screamed to just come out with it already and be done. 

She couldn’t make these feelings fly away, so the least she could do was to put them on the table and see what happened. Because, let’s face it: Inuyasha had never been into “more than friends” - or at least that’s the vibe he went with for all these years - so she didn’t have that much to go with. Regardless, to be thoroughly done with this whole thing, Kagome had to act, and today was the day.

Looking back at Inuyasha’s house one more time to make sure she had time, she quickly unlocked her phone to open her latest discovery in technology: TikTok. 

Because if she had to blame anything for what was about to happen, that was this godforsaken app which, somehow, got her an idea on how to even do this whole confession thing better. After endlessly scrolling through the videos, she stumbled across a trend where people - ok, teenagers mostly - recorded their love confessions to their best friends and, from what she saw, most of them turned out pretty good. 

Everyone was happy and with their own happy ending and she would be lying if she said that she wasn’t a bit jealous of them. 

It looked so easy for them, and her heart beat faster each time she tried to imagine her and Inuyasha in one of those situations. And that’s where the idea came: ‘why don’t I record it?’ she thought. 

Because of course it wasn’t like he could’ve rejected her with a phone recording them, right? 

Nothing to be embarrassed about, right?? 

Best case scenario: she had the event saved and cherished on her phone forever, something she and Inuyasha could rewatch over and over. Worst case scenario: she would delete it and then shut herself in her room, never coming out again and remaining single forever. 

Yeah, that was a great plan.

She gripped the steering wheel and... she was shaking? ‘Oh great, anxiety is what I really need right now...’ Kagome mentally whined. 

What the hell was wrong with her today?! 

It’s Inuyasha we’re talking about! Her best friend. This was just a normal day off for them after a loaded week of work. They were going to take a stroll in the city, maybe grab some food, and eventually, she would force herself to finally tell the man she has known for more than a decade that she loved him. 

Who knows? 

It is just 4:30 pm on a Saturday - there are endless possibilities, right?

Suddenly, her phone buzzed, snapping her back to reality. It was a reply from Inuyasha. ‘At last, he’s alive’ she thought.

gimme more time woman, you came 2 early

Kagome snorted, rolling her eyes into the back of her head as if she could hear his half-assed gruff tone. She shot back:

i’m as punctual as i can b, now get ur hair done or we’ll b late

don’t tell my hair what to do

fine, ur butt then

don’t tell my butt what to do either :P

He was such a dumbass, and yet she was utterly, hopelessly, in love with him. Their little exchange did manage to calm her down a bit, but she couldn’t be too distracted right now. She needed to get herself together, damn it! She had a mission to complete. 

Kagome took a deep breath and prepared her phone. She opened the recording section on the TikTok app, put it on a holder, just above the AC and, as she saw a familiar white mane and a dashing carminic red t-shirt coming towards her, she pressed record, just before Inuyasha opened the car door and climbed in.

“Hey there,” he greeted with all the carefreeness in the world.

“About time, did you get your makeup done?” Kagome smirked.

“Dunno what ya talking about - I’m handsome by nature,” he shot back, a grin plastered on his face.

“Yeah, suuuure, I’ll pretend I didn’t have to wait for a full 30 minutes after we agreed to meet... Actually 30 minutes ago!” she replied sarcastically, shooting him a not-so-impressed look.

Inuyasha all but mimicked her expression. “Ya know you could’ve just come inside and waited for me there, right? It’s not like you’re relegated to the driveway.”

“Yeah? Well, ya know that...” and so they continued to get even more foolish and more ridiculous, to the point they busted out laughing, tears in their eyes. Even though they completely missed the whole point of their banter, Kagome couldn’t help but get happier and sillier every time she and her best friend engaged in roast wars. 

It was moments like this, when her chest was bursting with happiness, that she was reminded of how lucky she was to have met Inuyasha. 

It wasn’t until their laughter died and their breathing slowly evened that she remembered her phone was still recording. A quick glance to where it was discreetly hidden was enough to make her mind snap back to her original plan. 

The sudden moment of silence that followed forth was Kagome’s cue to act. 

It was her moment.

With one more furtive glance towards her phone, she felt her jaw set and her heartbeat furiously thunder in her chest. Then she turned to Inuyasha, first with her eyes, then with her whole head.

 She couldn’t have foresaw that Inuyasha was facing her as well, yet she could’ve sworn that he looked...nervous? Worried? 

She didn’t have time to process that.

It all happened in a blink of an eye, but it felt heavy as if in slow motion.

And then…

B O N K!

One second she was staring into those beautiful golden eyes...and the next she was holding her forehead with her hands in pain. Actually, her forehead and her nose, too, were throbbing with pain. She let out a long hiss in between her gritted teeth, already picturing a livid on her face next morning.

She held to them for dear life, trashing back and forth in her seat, and while she tried to regain some control, some violent shuffling on her right caught her attention, and after forcefully peering one eye open, she looked at her side.

And Inuyasha was there, face flushed red while his hands were tightly pressing on his nose, his whole body shaking because of...laughter? 

Was he laughing? 

Did she hit her head so hard she wasn’t seeing straight? ‘What’s wrong with-’

Then, something dawned on her. And she bursted out laughing too.

Because in the midst of her actions, to try and go for Inuyasha’s mouth, she hadn’t realized he had done the same thing. They synchronized their movement so well, that they ended up smashing their faces together, in a weird attempt to kiss each other.

The moment their eyes met, another fit of laughter overcame them, so strong that it had them both gasping for air, faces beetle red - both for the pain and the embarrassment - and completely trashed. A good while passed before they could even breathe enough air to make some sort of thoughts.

With tears in their eyes, it wasn’t long before they realized something incredible just happened.

“Did you just...tried to kiss me?” Inuyasha breathed, his chest still heaving as he tried to breathe. His expression was a good mix of awe and relief. Kagome took in his appearance, almost forgetting to answer the question.

 “W-ell, weren’t you also...trying to kiss me?” she timidly replied, unable to completely meet his gaze, but only managing to glance back and forth between him and her surroundings.

“That doesn’t answer my question, Ka-go-me” Inuyasha teased, the amusement in his voice barely hidden. 

Kagome finally swung her head so fast towards him, an expression of utter disbelief on her face. “Yeah well-! Y-you came onto me too! What does that mean then, Inu-ya-sha?” she all but sang to him, while also inching just a little bit towards him.

“I didn’t come onto you, I was leaning forward! You’re the one who smashed her face on mine!” “Oh, come on, it wasn’t that hard! You’re such a whiny baby!” she huffed.

“Correction: a whiny baby that you tried to kissssssss...” Inuyasha dragged out the words while never dropping his huge smirk. A smirk that Kagome wanted to wipe out of his face. Possibly with even more kisses- Anyway!

“Oh you! - wait... you were leaning towards me,” Kagome pondered out loud, her brows furrowed, “...you were... does that mean…?” she breathed the last part, chocolate eyes coming back to look at Inuyasha.

An impish smile tugs at his lips, “Keh!... I guess the cat’s out of the bag, uh?”. He set his eyes on her, his face still red as a tomato. Kagome searched through his eyes and could only see genuine tenderness in them, and it was enough to make her heart soar.

A stupid grin appeared on her face “...You really feel that way?”

Inuyasha can’t help but grin back at her. “Yeah, I do… And...I have for a long time, actually.”

Kagome couldn’t suppress the little gasp of surprise that came out of her as one small hand covered her mouth. There was a glint in her eye that made her whole face lit up even more, making her even more beautiful in Inuyasha’s eyes.

“I...me too” she murmured softly.

The hanyou chuckled, incredulous at her words. 

“Damn... all this time?”

She nodded. 

“Guess we’re both hopeless dorks.” 

He turned to face her fully, one of his hands making its way to tenderly hold her hand as they laid listlessly in her lap. He gently squeezed them, then tenderly whispered to her, “I don’t mind that in the least.”

Kagome squeezed his hands back, she felt as if her heart might escape her chest at any moment, the love she had for this man so strong.

Never in a million years could’ve she imagined that not only her best friend was indeed in love with her, but that he also had felt this way for such a long time.

She inched closer to him, firmly holding him in her gaze.

“Yeah, me neither.”

Golden orbs stared back at chocolate-brown ones, the silence between them never once awkward or too heavy. They basked in each other's presence, without the need of any futile comment or explanation.

Ignoring the soreness of their noses, they both leisurely leaned forward. One of Inuyasha’s hands snaked around Kagome’s neck, and his fingers wove into her long hair; she placed her hand on top of his smooth, solid chest - her fingers softly gripping his shirt. 

Soon their lips met in a delicate kiss, all the while Kagome’s phone silently recorded their magical moment.

[olderthannetfic]

Escapade Vid - The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty

Here’s my writeup of my vid, crossposted from DW.

This is one of my two vid premieres for Escapade Con 2021. It spoils all of The Sleuth of The Ming Dynasty, specifically anything involving Wang Zhi. The discussion below is similarly spoilery.

I fell hard for The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, harder than for The Untamed or anything else for ages. (Okay, that's a lie, I fell that hard for Kingdom, but I don't ship anything there.) I knew I wanted to vid it for the con because it's so beautiful and because I knew a lot of people wouldn't be familiar with my favorite character via osmosis.

Sleuth is a historical mystery series (no magic/fantasy) based on a danmei novel. It has three leads: the two halves of the book ship and my fave. Facepalm.

I got into the series by knowing it was new-ish, some kind of buddy mystery series, and that fans liked it. That's it. I glanced at a poster, but I hadn't properly osmosed that there were three leads, not just two, so when Wang Zhi showed up, I naturally assumed he'd turn out to be a villain. His introduction is him driving a man to suicide. Practically the first thing we find out about him is that he's a palace eunuch with a high political position whom the politicians fear, look down on, and hate.

Could there be a more stereotypical villain for a historical drama?

So I went through a rapid progression from thinking he'd be the smiling pseudo-ally they have to defeat later to loving him and being like "They'd better not make him a villain!" to realizing I'd completely misosmosed this series.

I had a lot of feelings.

Picking a song / How I got into BTS:

Finding a vidsong for Sleuth was tricky. I had other vid ideas I could have made. I was tempted to make three vids, one for each lead (though not all for Escapade). I was tempted to make an OT3 pimping vid. My problem was that I also have had a lot of feelings about BTS this past year, and I knew I wanted to use them for an Escapade vid, but that presented a problem.

BTS… man… How to explain…

I grew up not really listening to music. My mom was a music teacher and only listened to Classical. When I eventually got into popular music, it was Enya and Alice Cooper. (Yes, syrupy Celtic crooning in various languages + shock rock is a pretty good summary of teenage me, why do you ask?) Also Cat Stevens, who was even more of the wrong generation for anyone else to care. The first time I really gave a shit about music was when I was living in NYC in my 20s absorbing the taste of someone with strong and specific music interests. I would by no means call myself knowledgeable about music.

A year ago, I tried to learn a little about BTS before Escapade so I could pick some shippy vid and stick it in the dance party. I want people to be able to go to the party and feel like they've got their finger on the pulse of fanfic-adjacent fandom even if they aren't into all of those fandoms themselves. I've never been into idol music, and it's not for lack of exposure: many successive waves of jpop and kpop idol-loving friends have tried, and I've been immune. It's the soppy ballads. I cannot. Some of the bouncy stuff is fun, but it wasn't enough.

Unfortunately for me, BTS is fucking confusing, so there was no easy 101. The only way to know anything about the fandom dynamics and which ships are popular was to know a lot. And once I'd bought in that far, I was up for some fic reading because huge RPF fandoms always have tons of AUs that are practically original fic, and hey, that sounded fun… I tried their reality shows a little bit, but my allergy to idol music is second only to my allergy to reality shows. I'm bad at getting things done if I don't sit down and commit properly, so I made myself a spreadsheet of all of their albums, guest appearances, and side projects and sat down to listen to the lot via Youtube…

They blew me away.

I didn't know. No one told me! I would never have predicted what they actually sounded like. It's not that they're good. Lots of idol groups are good. It's that they can rap. Korea has plenty of good rappers, but they're not in idol groups! I cannot properly convey the level of shock I experienced or even how and why BTS are so good. I like hip hop, but I don't know enough to describe anything properly.

When I made it to Hip Hop Lover, it all made sense. Imagine my reaction as a much more confused and incoherent version of this youtube video. Of course RM is into Talib Kweli and everyone else like that. Of course he's into conscious hip hop, a lot of it from NYC. Everything about their dense lyrics and their choice of subject matter made perfect sense after looking at their self-described list of influences. But in a way that Monq can articulate and I cannot.

I love shit that requires buy-in. All nerds do. I swear, hip hop is the nerdiest damn music there is because it's so into referencing its influences and responding very directly to other artists and to current culture, assuming the audience will keep up if it cares to. BTS know far more than I do about hip hop from here, plus they're Korean and like puns in a language I don't speak, so understanding what the actual fuck is going on in some of their songs is an adventure involving multiple youtube explainers. But they also have enough goofy dance music and rap that just sounds awesome to keep me interested even when I don't get it.

Daechwita dropped in May 2020, and holy shit, can we have a fandom just for that video? Historical architecture, hot dudes with swords, be still my beating heart. This is totally why I ended up watching Kingdom. I was dying to start learning some Korean, but then I got distracted by more Chinese media. Damnit. How do I choose?

So Escapade 2021 was rolling around, and I knew I wanted to make my Untamed vidbunny from last March, but I also wanted to vid Sleuth, and I wanted to vid it to BTS. I was now presented with my problem:

BTS is a 7-member group, and most songs prominently highlight 3-5 of them if not all 7. One might be able to do this as aspects of one character's personality, but it's very hard to make it work for a two- or three-person ship. I started looking at the rap line's songs, which have just the three of them, but even then, you're stuck saying that Character A is singer X and so on. How do I divide up the Sleuth leads? Do I make the angry one the angry one and the sunshine one the sunshine one? But the sunshine one is not the bookworm in BTS, unlike in Sleuth, and that just feels wrong!

That was when I decided to do a character vid rather than a ship one, to pick Wang Zhi, and to choose something off of one of the rap line's solo side projects. And what combination could be more obvious than tiny, angry, beautiful Yoongi paired with tiny, angry, beautiful Wang Zhi?

In the end, I did not pick Daechwita because, much as I love it, it has that kind of monotonous, hypnotic flow, and I feared I'd end up making a boring vid. I went back to Agust D's first mixtape, which is much angrier, and picked a song I felt had more obvious internal structure. I picked it mostly based on sound, as I always do. I needed vocals that I felt conveyed Wang Zhi's personality. Once I had a song in mind, I looked up the lyrics… And kept looking.

This would probably have been helped by not making the vid in like 3 days, mostly after the deadline because my other premiere dragged on way longer than I expected. Doh. Someone said that the vids were great this year because everyone had been stuck indoors with nothing else to do. I can assure you that I was my usual disaster self and was still trying to pick songs like a week before the deadline. There's always next year. Sigh.

So while vidding, I had a couple of okay but not great translations of the lyrics and at least one line I straight up did not understand. My process for all vids is to make a spreadsheet and put the lyrics down one side with clip ideas in another column. If the song isn't in English or isn't straightforward, I have other columns on the lyrics: original writing system, transliteration, translation, notes. I often have a column for song structure (verse 1, chorus, verse 2, chorus version A, chorus version B, etc.), or I might do that part by color coding chunks of the lyrics/translation. In this case, I had a lot of different columns of translation bits that moved around, and I also color coded column A based on whether there was a significant English language lyric. Here's a screencap of part of my planning spreadsheet with colors changing to show song section breaks and some clip concepts I was considering written in. (I usually end up abandoning most of my content notes once I get into actually editing a section.)

I finally found a good translation of it the morning after the vidshow. Sheesh. It wouldn't have radically affected how I vidded that part because the lyrics are so fast that you can't hit every little thing with a relevant clip and still have your audience visually parse anything at all. I still wish I'd had a better translation beforehand.

I foolishly thought it wouldn't be a problem vidding something in Korean, but it turns out I have such a hard time understanding Korean phonology that it's very hard for me to tell which bit is which even with a phonetic transcription. On top of that, most of the translations swap clause order for no good reason--"Your mother will be sad when you lose your last asset, health" instead of "When you lose your last asset, health, your mother will be sad"--despite both working perfectly well in English.

For the purposes of making the vid, I only needed to understand well enough to know how I was matching the lyrics or not, but for posting, I had to come up with something a little more polished. In the end, half before vidding and half after (oops), I have gone through with like 4 different translations, google translate, and an online Korean dictionary to cobble together something that I think is a fairly accurate translation, with clauses in the order they fall in the song, and some attempt at idiomaticness and correct tone and level of informality in English.

Lyrics translation:

The best of the translations I found in terms of being annotated and fairly easy to understand in English is this one by Muish.

Here's my version:

They call me new thang The new recruit is here: take my bags Whole world, concert Not bad, Asiana Asia You could be my new thang Different from the guys who neglect their duties Insubordination from a celebrity Damn, only the strong can fuck with me Some say I made it too easy Fuck you, I'm a thorn in the side of those guys So far from success Honestly, "SSaihanuwar" is embarrassing1 Now, we sell half a million copies a year The k-pop category Ain't big enough to hold me, whoo! Right, go ahead Try booking first class My seat is business You're economy, forever behind me kissing my ass Next goal is Billboard Brazil to New York My passport gets no rest A to the G to the U to the STD I'm d boy because I'm from D I'm crazy, a lunatic on a beat My rap will blow your mind with2 My tongue technology A to the G to the U to the STD A to the G to the U to the STD A to the G to the U to the STD I'll blow your mind with My tongue technology I hunt down those who copy the copiers. Get 'em down no matter who the fuck they are. Doesn't matter if I'm a jerk or if I'm wack or fake, I'm the one who carves history across the field. Among boring rappers, I get the lion's share. I'm about to take your bread. Bros' jealousy making all this noise. Hey ho I don't give a fuck Keep shoveling shit I'll bury you alive in the grave You dug yourself Hey ho you can't handle me You wasted rappers should be grateful I'm an idol Cause I'm busy, I'm busy, 24/7, what rest? Latecomers, go play amongst yourselves. Jealous and childish you wail, Yet you don't know shit.3 Paris to New York, damn My non-stop schedule A to the G to the U to the STD I'm d boy because I'm from D I'm crazy, a lunatic on a beat My rap will blow your mind with My tongue technology A to the G to the U to the STD A to the G to the U to the STD A to the G to the U to the STD I'll blow your mind with My tongue technology I’m sorry. Honestly, I am. I'm sorry I took your daily bread, boy. I'm sorry. Don't be mad. When you lose your only asset, health, Your mom's going to be upset. I'm sorry. Change careers. Amazing how you keep digging, So change, boy. I’m sorry. Honestly, I am. That your rapping sucks compared to mine. A to the G to the U to the STD I'm d boy because I'm from D I'm crazy, a lunatic on a beat My rap will blow your mind with My tongue technology A to the G to the U to the STD A to the G to the U to the STD A to the G to the U to the STD I'll blow your mind with My tongue technology A to the G to the U to the STD I'm d boy because I'm from D I'm crazy, a lunatic on a beat My rap will blow your mind with My tongue technology A to the G to the U to the STD A to the G to the U to the STD A to the G to the U to the STD I'll blow your mind with My tongue technology

1. I straight up had no idea what the "SSaihanuwar" line is supposed to mean when I was making this vid. People said it was a pre-debut song, so I assumed he meant his skills had improved. What it actually refers to is that song bragging that they'd sold 30,000 copies, while as of this song, they were selling 500,000, so that childish bragging about a tiny past achievement is embarrassing now. Of course, as I type this, BTS sells like four million albums a year…

2. This is referencing a movie title, The Wailing, and then a famous line from the movie, which is said in dialect. I haven't seen the movie and nothing online explains the context in which "Important? You don't know what's important!" is used. If anybody's seen it, feel free to drop me a comment. Hopefully, it won't be something I'd radically change in the vid.

3. Literally 'take you to Hong Kong', which can be used like "blow your mind" in the regular sense, but is also used to mean "give you an orgasm", hence the italics on 'blow' above. Yes, it's an oral sex joke. Yes, he means it like that.

What the song means and what I did with it:

Okay, so now that we know the main lyric of this song is apparently "STD", what's it actually about?

Overall, this is a diss track. Like most BTS dis songs, the concept is: I may be an idol, but I'm still twice the man and twice the rapper you are.

I'm not the only one who was surprised to hear good rappers show up in an idol group: the underground rap scene that Suga comes out of thinks of idols as both inauthentic sellouts and as embarrassingly girly. They wear makeup and sparkly outfits. Laaaaaame.

This felt like an excellent parallel to the social position of eunuchs in The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty: Wang Zhi is one of the most competent and ruthless, yet loyal and honorable administrators we see in the entire series. If he were running the government, all of them would be better off. He's like that version of Lex Luthor or Emhyr var Emreis that astolat likes to write.

Throughout the series, politicians and generals see Wang Zhi as less than a man and thus not a worthy enemy or not worthy of his high position, but he's twice as worthy as any of them. He's not only better at being a ruthless badass, but he's better at keeping the body count low. Sure, he's introduced forcing a guy to commit suicide… But Wang Zhi promises him his family will be spared the same fate, where normally a traitor's entire family would be wiped out. The only reason things go poorly later is that the guy's son is too stupid to realize what a favor WZ did them.

Even Tang Fan is a complete asshole to him repeatedly. In this case, he doesn't treat WZ as lesser, but he's so naive and fixated on fluffy feelings that he assumes WZ is cold and cruel when he's pragmatic or that he has no feelings when he's clearly devastated but trying to fix the situation instead of breaking down about it. TF is the worst sort of idiot who values superficial virtue over practical results. It's a good thing he's so endearing!

There's this heartwarming bit at the end of the series about how WZ learned humanity from TF and SZ or something, but it's complete nonsense: him adopting child orphans and pretty much all of the rest of his behavior for the whole series was already merciful within the bounds of their society and the demands of his position.

On to my vidding process: I laid the song out on the timeline and put markers for the sections, color coded by what type of section they were and also made the spreadsheet seen above. That helped me see the structure of the vid. One of the first parts I tackled was the opening, which is long and slow and samples another song. It feels like it should have establishing shots, and it's long enough they could get boring. I realized it was an excellent opportunity to have some text on screen. I love typography, but I normally don't do it because there's no space in the song I've chosen, and I'm making the vid on the day of the deadline and have no time to think about fonts. Poking through all the confusingly-named Chinese fonts I have installed took as long as all the editing in this section.

I then had to figure out what to do with the chorus.

Yoongi's normal rapper name as part of BTS is 'Suga'. He's from Daegu and proud of it. So his solo rapper name is 'Agust D', which is 'DT Suga' backwards. A to the G to the U to the STD is just him repeating his own name. Aside from saying Agust D = Wang Zhi, I didn't have a lot of specific ideas here. Wang Zhi has a really hot mouth, but there isn't that much in canon that's an obvious oral sex joke.

I knew I didn't want to make the vid strictly a linear retelling of canon since the point was more conceptual. I also love the emotional impact of the Yang Fu stuff, both the times it's funny and the times it's upsetting for characters, but it's hard to communicate it in a vid without spending some time, so I decided to use the choruses entirely for Yang Fu. At the very end of the vid I had more story that needed to go somewhere and no more Yang Fu (and I wouldn't have ended on Yang Fu anyway), so I had to vary that pattern.

The final verse is a 2-part one that is slow and even more sneering than the rest of the song, so I picked WZ's most idiotic enemy for that. WZ literally took away his job by killing his father, which caused him to come home from the military and his brother to be fired from his job as an official. His mother is ill because of grief, and everyone keeps telling him to go look after his family instead of chasing WZ around and trying to start shit, so the lyrics are quite apt. This guy is just not up to WZ's weight class, and that's what this verse is about.

The first two verses required more thought. They have a 3-part structure and are fast. I looked for individual Wang Zhi plotlines that matched the specific lyrics of each section thematically. There are shittons of speed effects all over this vid for obvious reasons, but I still needed to pick footage that was naturally more dynamic. The show has a fair amount of talking heads, slow scenes, and cute and fluffy stuff that didn't fit the tone here, not to mention WZ being the least important of the three leads, so selecting the correct bits of WZ plot was essential.

I originally planned to use verse 1 for the horse market case, but there just isn't enough great footage to do the whole thing, so I did the first two thirds. Section 1 has military-sounding lyrics about a new recruit taking over from "hyungs" (older guys) who neglect their duties. This idol (a celebrity) is going to show the underground rappers how it's done. I had wanted to use the 'new thang' lyric with flashbacks to WZ first getting his position at the emperor's side, but that footage makes him look too meek and doesn't connect well to anything. 'You could be my new thang' I wanted for Jia Kui, but again, there isn't good footage that communicates their relationship visually.

The general from this arc has a similar thematic role: He's a ~real man~ who cares only about duty and is rude to the effete, useless official from the capital, while the other local powers fawn on him… Except Wang Zhi responds to this by being amused, showing up the others, and approving of General Chen. (By the end of the arc, Chen is all offended on his behalf that other dudes think he's merely a eunuch instead of a total hottie capable and honorable servant of the empire.) The first section is WZ on 'new thang' and Chen on 'my new thang'. This third ends with 'only the strong can fuck with me' as Chen joins the welcome feast. Out of all of the people in charge of border security, he's the only one who's strong.

The next third of the verse is about people thinking Suga got to his position too easily, which is also something basically every official feels about powerful eunuchs in Sleuth (and also in every single other historical drama with eunuchs because holy shit is this a common trope, and also in actual history, which is why). In this plotline, WZ is there to deal with the incompetent border guards and sort things out in ways they haven't been able to. He is certainly a thorn in their sides. For this part, I showed one of the obsequious officials smiling, WZ toasting them, and Chen being unamused.

This section finishes up with Suga saying his past bragging is embarrassing because he's so much more badass now, and k-pop isn't big enough for him (which I think is less about wanting to break out of kpop and more about definitions having to be readjusted to accommodate his awesomeness). The scenes from Sleuth are WZ suddenly revealing he speaks the local languages flawlessly--something no normal official from the capital does and that he's been hiding up till now as people insult him--and then WZ resolving the case with murder and smart political maneuvering that puts one of the local chieftains in his debt. The category of eunuch is certainly not enough to encompass Wang Zhi's political ambitions or abilities.

The final section of verse 1 is using a plane/flying metaphor to talk about Suga being ahead of everyone. It also has a particularly awesome lyric in English that I wanted to emphasize. This was the last part of the timeline I filled in, and I used a scene that is not one of the major enemies WZ cares about but where he is wonderfully bossy and in charge. The guy tries to pull rank on him, and he throws away his supposed police informant badge, being like I am the police.

The second verse has the really fast part in this song, so I wanted to show a lot of different cool shit WZ does. Section one is about Suga hunting down poseurs, whether they're new or long-established and powerful. Suga says he's going to take the other rappers' "rice bowl" (livelihood).  WZ similarly goes after all kinds of people, including very highly-placed politicians. The serial killer duke was supposedly untouchable, but WZ tells him he's an insect. He'll do the low-level dirty work (running around at night in ninja outfits) and the high level supervision (commanding men at the depot). The line ends by talking about other rappers' jealousy making noise. For this, I used Wang Zhi's trial where all of the politicians team up to wrongly accuse him of a laundry list of crimes.

The next line is about how Suga will bury other rappers alive in the grave they dug themselves, and they should be grateful he's an idol (because if he were a fellow underground rapper, they'd be shown up even worse). There's a suggestion in Suga's lyrics that part of the "wasting time" (digging/shoveling used as a metaphor) these other rappers have done is talking shit about him. They hurt their own reputations by doing it, and he had no desire to take them on until they forced the issue. I used WZ's introduction. That politician doomed himself by talking shit about the emperor's consort. Before he goes to meet with WZ, he talks shit about how eunuchs aren't actually powerful or scary to his drinking buddies. WZ spends the whole scene outlining how his downfall is his own damn fault.

The last section of the verse is about how busy Suga is. Losers should go bother each other, not him, because he has real shit to do. They have no idea what's important, unlike him. I opened with a quick shot of WZ's trial and then the silver case. WZ continually waves off concerns about the trial, even while he's in prison for a few days, because he's concerned about the actual problems occurring at the same time, namely that the entire government is about to go bankrupt and collapse. He's fending off assassins and getting people executed. Wan Tong's embarrassing attempt to mindfuck him in prison is laughable. They're just not on WZ's level.

I capped it off by showing the end of the plot and WZ winning. The three shots of his enemies looking upset are all from times he fucked with them earlier in the series. The final shot of him looking smug is from very early on when he'd just informed his chief rival, Shang Ming, about the suicide he caused in his intro. At the end of the vid, we're back at the beginning of the plot: Wang Zhi was always better. He would have worked with his rivals, but they just had to make it a contest. From the very beginning, they should have known they couldn't win.

The vid I’ve already posted to tumblr, but here’s the AO3 link again:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/29573175

[mistabullets]

can i please request a scenario? 🥺 i was thinking of something like 18-21 y/o kakyoin who gets a new, attractive older neighbor and he just keeps looking for excuses to be around her? (and then m a y b e she repays him for all his help?)

ok guess i’ll heard y’all loud and clear! have your milf hunter kakyoin :3

NOTE: all characters are aged up! cw includes age gap (think 5+ years tho), fem pronouns, afab reader, alcohol mention, drinking, eating out, fingering, vaginal sex, drunk sex, praising

Not SFW under cut ;

“Good grief, why are you always trying to get with old hags?” Jotaro questioned.

When Kakyoin first laid eyes on you, his new neighbor, discussing with the landlord about the terms and agreement, he was instantly captivated by your beauty. The redhead boy was eyeing you from outside his balcony, enjoying the pleasant spring afternoon and the view you had to offer. He noticed the way you batted your lashes and how well the red lipstick suited your plump lips. The dress you had been wearing that particular day showed off the swell of your ass along with a slight cleavage, a promising view of your bigger breasts. You had certainly made his day and you didn’t even know it.

**

Two weeks later, Kakyoin notices you were finally moving into the empty apartment right next to his. With no lewd intentions behind his generous offer, he introduces himself as your next-door neighbor and offers to carry some of the heavier boxes, up and down the stairs. You are truly relieved since had some slight aches and pains already from preparing and packing up for your new home all by yourself. The two of you begin unloading the rental truck, which took about a good hour or two. Not that the younger man minds, since each time he trailed behind you, ascending the stairs, he has a great view of your butt. The sway of your hips is almost similar to the swing of a pendulum, spellbinding, to the point he has to control his gaze and not be caught in hypnosis.

Finally, the work is all done and boxes are settled in corners, furniture in their designated spots. You decide to order some pizza and share with Kakyoin, as thanks for all his hard work, despite just having met today. You get to know your new neighbor and friend during dinner; he’s a college student who had explored a lot as a teenager, having seen most of the world. Now, he and his best friend of four years, Jotaro, are studying at the local university; he’s currently in his junior year and halfway through in receiving a bachelor’s in Game Design. You’re impressed by his passion, saying he must be smart to be able to learn the complicated knowledge of technology and the dedicated art skill needed for video games. And Kakyoin learns a bit about you as well. Apparently, you moved because of a recent job offer, already had a degree under your belt, and you were seven years his senior. You had even been married at one point but divorced the scum over half a year ago! The younger man is surprised when he realizes you are close to hitting your thirties, believing you were at least in your early to mid-twenties. You take it as a compliment though, lucky that you have no grey hair yet to appear, despite the stress that had accumulated.

Over the next few weeks, Kakyoin helps you settle into your home. He gives you directions to wherever you need to go, helps you unpack a variety of clothes, cooking utensils, shower curtains, the bed frame, and even more furniture. The man is even kind enough to help with laundry and help set up the new computer that you had purchased recently. In return, you begin cooking meals for your young neighbor and his roommate. You have tried to offer him some money before but he always declines it, saying it was just him lending a helping hand to someone who needs it. What a sweet boy, I wish my ex would have been so kind like him, you would think to yourself.

**

Eventually, the two of you became close friends. You would invite him over for drinks and dinner after work. Sometimes, Jotaro would be there too, but he had no interest in hanging out with older women, always muttering “good grief” when you would burst into a fit of laughter after the redhead would tell a cheesy joke.

Tonight is a repeat of that.

You let out a snort, doubling over, “O-Oh geez, that’s a good one, Kak-kun!”

It is you, Kakyoin, and Jotaro playing a new game on the Nintendo 64. However, alcohol is in the mix, and both you and the redhead man are a bit too tipsy. Jotaro, annoyed by his friends’ antics, leaves the party of three, saying he has to get up early in the morning. Jotaro wonders if it is a good idea to depart, knowing his friend has a huge crush on you and it could lead to something messy. But he concludes, after interacting with you for the past month, there’s always a glint in your eyes when Kakyoin is around. Jotaro’s curious to see where it would eventually lead to. He utters a simple bye before telling his roommate he will leave the door unlocked if anyone needs him.

The soft click of the door closing indicates the party of three just turned into a party of two. Now, it is just you and Kakyoin now, still giggling over whatever nonsense had you howling. Once you manage to gain a semblance of composure, you tell the redhead that you want to watch a new movie you had bought recently. You toss the box at him, to see the cover. The man is intrigued after reading the back of the VHS box. After stating his interest, he slips the cassette into the player. After making some adjustments to the TV settings and pressing the button to play the movie, Kakyoin curls up right beside you on the couch. For right now, his attention is on the television screen, anticipating the horror sequences for Silence of the Lambs. But after about halfway into the movie, he notices how with each jump scare or the buildup of a scene, you would scoot yourself, as if seeking some sort of protection. Eventually, the boy, with warm drunken courage, lazily wraps one of his arms around your frame, holding you tight when the suspension broke within each scene.

**

As the credits rolls, you look up at your fellow movie-goer, slightly less intoxicated and realize his hand had slipped down to your waist during the course of the movie. An idea comes forth from the remainder of your inebriated and primitive mind, eyeing the young man beside you. You register, that you like Kakyoin a lot more than you originally thought. He’s mature for his age, super smart, and you bet he had some youthful vigor to him, right? With a stupid yet dazzlingly grin spreading across your delicious lips, you reach out to touch one of Kakyoin’s cheeks, rubbing it tenderly, a heated blush already radiating.

“Y-Y/N? What is it?” he asks, slight confusion in his voice. He always assumed you were into older men, or at least someone your age.

With drunken stupor, you giggle, “Oh nothing Kak, just realized how cute you are… like, really cute.”

You could feel the blush burn the palm of your hand even more, “Oh, really now?” the boy prods, his lush thoughts spiking a nerve in him, finding a renowned boldness.

“Yeah, I… I don’t know, just kind of wanna kiss you. Would that be okay?” now you are flushing as you took note of how Kakyoin’s lavender orbs scan your body and the position you are currently in. The faint scent of beer from your breath tickles his nostrils and he finally sees just how inviting your pretty lips are, even without the lipstick applied on. Your eyes long from him, even in the darkness with the faint glow of the menu screen. Without any more hesitation, he seals you in an experimental kiss. You gasp into his mouth but soon welcome the taste of fermented booze and cherry-flavored chap-stick. Soon, his tongue slips into your mouth and he tastes even more of you; it is more intoxicating than the beer the both of you shared earlier. After a minute or two of this developing make-out session, his soft lips peels away from yours; both of you need to catch your breath, to process what was going on. But you could sense both of you wanted more, by how flushed your cheeks are and the lust dancing in his pupils. You decide to make the next move, being the more experienced one, by straddling his lap. You lock lips again.

One thing leads to another. Eventually, the redhead underneath you unbuttons your blouse, throwing it into some forgotten corner of your living room. Kisses and loves bites are littered on the side of your neck, down to your left breast. Wanting more of his touch, you reach from behind and unhook the bra hook, revealing your ample tits. Kakyoin allows himself a moment to admire the softness, how bouncy they look, and how delicious your nipples look. Experimentally, he reaches for one breast while he leans in and gives the unattended nipple a lick. You grab a hold of both shoulders as Kakyoin stops being experimental and more precise with technique. What was the last time you felt this good? And god, you feel your panties are already soaked as the young man pinches your hardening buds. “O-Oh god, Kak-kun, y-yes, good boy, you’re doing such a good job~”

Encouraged, the boy slides one of his hand from your chest, slithering his warm digits against your belly until he reaches your groin and the hem of your pants. He reaches further down, slipping his hand into your jeans and feeling to lacy undergarments you are wearing. You edge him to go further, wanting to feel his thick fingers inside of you already. “Right there, Kak~” you plead, as the boy peppers kisses into your neck and shoulder. He happily fulfills your request, exploring southward, passing your trimmed bush before being invited by the welcoming slit of your wet pussy. However, Kakyoin has an even better idea. Without warning, he grabs you by the waist and gently throws you onto the couch. Now he’s on top of you, gaining control.

You elicit a gasp, slightly taken aback by his boldness, “Oh my, Kakyoin…”He pulls down your jeans along with your panties, and now you’re fully naked before the younger man as he drinks in the sight of your sexy figure. He reaches for the hem of his shirt and throws it off. You can’t help but also admire the defined muscles of his abdomen, the heave of his chest from all the excitement, and the bulge growing more prominent with each passing moment. Your focus is turned back to Kakyoin, as he opens up your legs and nestles into the apex of your thighs. “Please, Y/N, call me Noriaki,” he says before dipping his face to your sex, spreading apart your pussy to reveal your glistening pussy and your needy clit. He admires it for a moment, before his tongue curiously laps over your exposed entrance, the tip of it probing at your sensitive nub. Instinctively, you reach to grab a hand fist full of crimson locks, particularly his side bang. “Noriaki, r-right there… lick my clit again, please…!”

And after a few more licks, he finally gets the hang of it all, your voice guidance to how to properly eat out a woman. Your ex would rarely go down on you despite how often he would demand blowjobs… and when he did go down, he would complain about how you needed to look good and clean yourself up. However, Kakyoin is obsessed with the musky, feminine scent of you and drinks your juices like a man who hasn’t had water in days. While he’s not exactly experienced compared to Jotaro, his eagerness to please makes up for it. He rests one hand on your inner thigh while he decides to further tease your entrance. He index and middle finger presses up against your core and sinks in. You let out a moan, not prepared for the intrusion but once they are adjusted, buried to the hilt, you begin to welcome the sturdy digits inside of you. And Kakyoin enjoys the wet warmth swallowing up his fingers, the velvety walls of your cunt hugging him tightly. Gently, he begins to scissor and curls the two fingers inside you, until he finds that one sweet spot that makes your back arch and you release a needy cry. Making a mental note to himself, he pumps his finger in and out of you while his lips suck at your clit. You scream his name, “N-Noriaki! O-Oh fuck, if you, nngh! K-Keep that up– I-I’ll cum!”

He gasps for air, but still relentlessly finger fucking your insides, “Then please, do cum for me, Y/N!”

And keep it up he does, eyeing your body and watching with satisfaction as you squirm and buck yourself into him; you want more of his mouth on your pink pearl and more of his thick fingers inside of you. Thinking you can handle it, Noriaki adds a third finger and continues his ministrations, wanting to bring you to your first climax of the evening. The pad of his fingers hits your g-spot one more time and coil in your abdomen uncurls, washing you with a wave of pleasure and your eyes rolling to the back of your head. After your orgasm settles down and you’re down gushing out your juice, the boy underneath you gently pulls out his fingers, admiring the slick wetness before popping it into his mouth. He can’t help it, you just taste so, so sweet to him. You relish in the afterglow of your climax before remember how hard your new lover must be.

Catching him off guard, you tackle the younger man back on the bed and start to unbuckle his belt. You then proceed to unzip his pants, pulling it and his boxer (with cherries on them of course) down to his ankles. You take a moment to examine his manhood, the length being long and having a decent amount of girth to it. You think the red tip is cute, matching hair color. While it looks appetizing, you want to get to the main course. Not wasting any more time, you mount your lover and begin to tease his dick, already leaking with precum. Kakyoin takes the time to appreciate your palpable body and how it radiates your lustful intentions. Your hair is already a mess, (e/c) eyes are wanting, and your shoulders and checks a subtle shade of red. He grabs your hips and helps you as you start to align your molten core with his bold erection, now slicker with your lewd fluids. Slowly, you begin to sink down, the tip of Kakyoin’s cock already filling you up. His nails bite into your waist, leaving crescent shape scars while his dick is buried to a hilt. “G-God, (Y/N), you feel absolutely amazing around me, p-please, I want more of your pussy–”

“N-Nori– mm, god, yes, I’ll fuck you, I-I want to thank you, oh god, you’re so big–” you babble, as you begin bouncing on him, taking control and placing your hands on his chest. You lean down for another passionate kiss, riding him until exhaustion before he takes the lead. Both of you go at it for hours…

Meanwhile, Jotaro can hear all of this. The walls are very thin but at least, so it seems, that the both of you are having fun. But it’s still annoying and your lewd noises will definitely wake up the cranky neighbors. “Yare yare daze,” the black-haired man groans to himself, rummaging through his drawer until he finds his handy dandy Walkman with his headphones already attached. He slips them on and presses the play button, blocking out the sultry moans and godawful dirty talks the both of you converse in. Finally, he can study in peace. He goes back to his desk and returns to his research for his marine zoology class. 

[saemi-the-writer]

Caretaker AU - AU writings and montages dump

Congratulations to @caretaker-au creators for finishing their story! (and they are more bonuses on the way, yeeeees~ )

I took the time to re-read it entirely and found some drafts about it (AU of an AU, same verse as this parody I did a while back) and more montages about with their comic in my folders. Oh dear! xD

 I am posting them all -in chronologically order of the events- undercut. It’s unfinished, but I MIGHT wrap it up if inspiration strikes again xD

Note: I WROTE THIS 4 YEARS AGO. I included some of my own headcanons in there, like Frisk’s full name, which is different from Caretaker AU’s canon.

-------------------------------------------------------

Chara re-winded the video for the umpteenth time, zooming on another zone to study their adoptive child’s attitude closely. After slowing significantly the speed of the video playback, they launched it again.

 Frisk was drawing quietly, sitting on a chair at some distance from them -Asriel, Chara and the new scientist- when the incident happened, when that clumsy assistant unwillingly created a potential destructive weapon with that huge (and heavy!) cylinder. The thing had taken off like a rocket and bounced back on the lab floor, then went to a wall only to rebound against it and then on another area and so on, creating panic inside; the image jumped as it happened, it was a miracle the security camera had not been destroyed during the incident. Their child startled at the commotion, then looked at the rocket with wide and frightened eyes before taking cover under a table -as Asriel and themselves had shouted them to while dodging the dangerous thing and trying to find shelter too- and stayed there a moment, their gaze following the cylinder in fear. Their gaze scanned around a moment and suddenly, Frisk’s expression passed from scared to resolute. The child got on their feet and got out of their hiding spot.

 Chara paused, went back a bit and de-zoomed to determine the cause of this abrupt change.

 The “rocket” was heading towards them. Chara had not noticed it at the time, too busy shouting at the staff to either stop that damn thing or evacuate everyone, whereas Asriel seemed to have seen it, given his expression.

 Play.

 Frisk had rushed to grasp a tool on the table; luckily a big one, like a baseball bat and placed themselves on the path, steadying their position. They had called out for Asriel then, as the rocket drew near, the child’s grasp on their makeshift weapon tightened and they swung with all their might. The hit sent the cylinder flying away however the impact casted Frisk backwards too. Fortunately, Chara had been there to catch them. The two had rolled on the ground while Asriel used his magic: plants grew in an accelerated manner under the tiling and grabbed the damn thing, slowing its mad race and their husband stood as if he were about to catch a baseball ball thrown at him. The impact had him slipping quite a distance backwards, but he did not lose his balance.

 Pause. Zoom.

 The damage on the cylinder… Frisk really did that.

Granted, the tool had been solid (fortunately for them all) but still. It was impressive. And they were only eleven.

Frisk had always been a child who had a tremendous energy and a strong will, also full of stamina, way sportier than them and Asriel together… which had forced the two of them to train harder to keep up with their little one but now was not the time to dwell on that.

 Chara went back again, paused at a precise moment and zoomed.

That look of determination.

Could it be?

 Chara had lost their ability to control time and shape the world about three years ago, which had been a great loss for them, they had to be even more careful with any decision. Maybe Frisk was now the one to hold on this power…

 But Frisk was their child.

 This happened because they had been in danger.

 Frisk had accomplished this in order to protect them, surely, they would have done the same for Asriel.

 And they were strong, oh so much stronger than Chara had thought.

 So much potential.

 Chara leaned back on their chair; a smile made its way to their face.

 “Time to start your training, dearest.”

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Convincing Asriel had been easier than they had anticipated, the human Prince did not even have to use their prepared speech.

“I understand. The sooner they will know how to defend themselves, the better.” Asriel had sighed when Chara announced him they intended to train Frisk to fight, taking them by surprise. “We don’t know what kind of human could fall next, and it could be sooner than we think… I don’t want Frisk to be unprepared in any case, I wish they will never have to use their skills into a fight but-“ he had then stared at his husband intensely. “Just like I said the day I gave you your knife: if it saves their life, it’s worth having it.”

Chara had felt their heart raced slightly at this declaration and planted a gentle kiss on their Prince’s cheek, both pleased and proud of how wise he had become.

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------

 “Frisk, you do not have any class in the afternoon today, do you?”

 Frisk looked at their mother and shook their head as they were chewing on their toast.

 “Today is Wednesday, we never have any class in the afternoon on Wednesdays.” they precised after swallowing. “But I have a training with my team from two to three, why?” the child seized their bowl of hot cocoa and started drinking from it, their eyes on their parent.

 “Three? Then you should be home around half past three.” Chara mused with a short hum. “Good.” They put their cup down to stare at Frisk with a smile. “Following the recent events in the laboratory, your father and I have taken an important decision.”

 The youngest Dreemur blinked, glancing from one of their parents to the other. This seemed serious. Worry raised in the child when they noticed how tensed their father seemed to be, almost grave. Was it because they had acted recklessly in the lab?

 “Am I in trouble?” they asked in a small voice.

 It was their mother’s turn to blink, Asriel and them exchanged confused looks.

 “No, not at all.” the two replied together.

 “Unless you have something to hide.” Chara added with a raised an eyebrow.

 “No, no!” Frisk quickly shook their head. “I thought you were mad because I put myself in danger when I tried to stop that rocket.”

 “Well, you certainly did.” The adult human remarked, joining their hands under their chin. “But you also successfully helped saving us all from it. Which leads to our point.”

 There was a short silence.

 “Frisk, you know Mom is the Caretaker of the Ruins, our protector against any potential evil humans.” Asriel gently patted his child’s head. “Well, someday, you will have to help them in their duty. And for that, you need to be trained.”

 Asriel gazed at their spouse, Frisk did the same.

 “We are going to teach you how to fight.” Chara straightened their back. “And I wish to give you your first lesson today.”

 “Fight?” Frisk repeated in a whisper, tensing slightly.

-------------------------------------

“This is not a game, Fragana.”

Frisk tensed. When their parents called their real name instead of the usual nickname, it was always in serious talks.

---------------------------------------------------------

(* insert timeskip*)

Frisk gasped at the clothes their parents were handing them.

“B-but, is that?...” they sputtered, their eyes going from Dad to Mom.

 “Take them and see for yourself.” Mom encouraged them with a nod of their head while Dad snorted.

Their hands shaking with expectation, the child took one of the garments and let it unfold.

It was a beautiful purplish-blue tunic on which the delta rune adorned the chest, with thin white stripes at the end of its short sleeves; it reached somewhere between their thigh and their knee. Frisk looked up from it and stared at the belt and legging Dad held proudly out to them.

“Surprise sweetie!” he beamed at them.

The child’s smile was still a bit shy as they took them, but they did not forget to kiss their father’s cheek with a thanks. Not sure what to say anymore, they turned to their mom.

 “You’ve proved you were ready during your training.” Chara smiled as they leaned in. “So from now on, you will come with me in the Ruins once per week and learn everything you need to know as their future caretaker.”

Frisk was now smiling widely and started bouncing excitedly. They had certainly not been expecting this! Not so soon! Mom and Dad had only started giving them fight lessons and the plans of the Ruins last year!

 “Really?” they cried out at last.

 “Yes, as long as you do not neglect your homework!” the two Regent Princes precised in a same voice, one holding out a finger in warning, the other with a laugh.

 “I promise I won’t! Thank you!!”

 Frisk rushed to their room to try their new outfit, so excited they did not notice that their grandparents had been recording the whole thing. They quickly put them on and admired their reflection in the mirror, both proud and moved.

 “Just like the two of them!” they chirped and twirled.

 A pair of boots Grandpa and Grandma had given them were matching just fine with this new ensemble; after putting them on Frisk smoothed their short hair and put small white elastic clasp on their longer hair strands -similar to their Mom’s- then the final touch: the pendant.

 Whereas Asriel and Chara’s pendants were silver, Frisk’s was gold and had a special shape: like a human soul outside with a smaller -and in a lighter gold- heart inside, like a monster’s. Two souls for one, human in appearance but a heart like a monster’s: full of love and hope. A “heart of gold”.

 After a last glance to their reflection, satisfied with it, Frisk pranced back to the living room where their family was waiting. Grandma immediately turned her camera on again at their arrival.

“Look at our little princess!” Grandpa exclaimed and held out his arms for them.

Frisk ran to him and laughed as the old King swung them up in his arms before going to their Dad who did the same but kept them against his chest, holding back tears.

“My baby angel is all grown up!” He whispered tearfully as he nuzzled their foreheads together. “You are so beautiful!”

Frisk kissed his cheek again before turning to their mother, who had their hands joined together in front of their mouth. They embraced them both before kissing the Princess’ forehead.

 “Oh Frisk, let me look at you.” They breathed.

 Asriel put the child down and watched with emotion Frisk standing at their full height and outstretching their arms so Chara could fully see how much the clothes fitted them. He could swear his spouse’s eyes were gleaming with repressed tears, which made him smile wider while Frisk spun happily, the hem of their tunic flowing as they did.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Wait Frisk, there is one last thing I must give you.”

Frisk turned back to their dad, who held out a small metal stick to them.

“What is it?” they asked in curiosity, inspecting the object.

“Please be careful!” Asriel held his two hands out, looking concerned. “First, push this button.”

The young princess blinked and did as told, then jumped as the small stick suddenly expanded -becoming as big as their baseball bat- with a discreet clink.

“Asriel?” Chara called out in disbelief. “Did you make this?”

“No, I had it made by one of the new engineers.” The monster Prince scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “Since Frisk is pretty good with a bat and at fighting with stick, I thought it would be best for them to have one when going to the Ruins. But a stick is not very discreet, so I had this idea and asked if it could be made…”

Frisk rotated their new weapon carefully and swung it like they had learnt to do it. It was well balanced and did not slip through their hands.

“It’s great! Thanks Dad!”

“Wait, it’s not all. Now, there is a smaller button underneath…” he gently seized his child’s hand, preventing them to push it at once. “But it’s only for emergencies, and by that, I mean for you to use it at very last resort! You shouldn’t have to use it since Mom will be going with you, but I asked for this addition, really just in case…”

The two humans exchanged a bewildered gaze, Asriel stepped asides and then Frisk cautiously pushed the odd button. The sound was not loud, but the shlink resonating teared the silence. Frisk’s eyes grew wide at the blade coming out from the opposite side of their weapon. They were now holding on a spear.

The child’s attention turned to their mother who had tried to muffle their gasp behind their hands, but while they did seem shock, it was nor fear or worry that glittered in their eyes. But Frisk could not tell what it was, too stunned.

“Oh Asriel!”

Frisk startled when their Mom pounced on their Dad to kiss him in a way they had never did in front of them. The child was now smiling sheepishly, quite astonished by their parents’ sudden public display of affection and binked in surprise when it was their turn to be embraced; and as Chara loudly kissed their cheek, they realized their mom was crying.

“You will do wonderfully, my dear. I am sure of it.” they beamed as their arms tightened around Frisk. “Freedom is near.”

[thebaddie96-blog]

Once In A Life Time

~ Chapter 4~

 “Shit! Shit, shit, shit. Fuck.” I jumped out of bed rolling over So-Eun and rush down the stairs. I can't believe I slept through my alarm; and on a day like this.

“ Woah! Jesus  Min-ho, why are you laying in front of the stairs?”  

“Mmmmm” he wines shooing me away. Ugh I don’t have time for this. Bussing it to the bathroom I wasted no time in discarding my clothes and stepping under the scalding hot water. “Finally” I release a deep breath. 

I knew going out with So-eun and Min-ho to “Network” was a bad idea as soon as we got into the first club. They just know how to get to me; or I guess I should say they know what's best for me. I knew they could see me over thinking about my meeting with Jay Park, I mean I’m sure anyone could; so when they kept bugging me about the club, lets just say they didn't need to twist my arm too much to get me out. But today is my very important meeting with AOMG and I just can’t be late, I despise being late. 

I’m definitely scared shitless, I’m not sure what deal Jay is going to offer me; I’m not even 100% sure if I'm gonna take it. It's just… the weight of everything finally sinking in. I just got to South Korea 5 Days ago. I'm supposed to be here to work with a completely different artist and... I can't help but think I'm in over my head and I should slow the breaks a bit. Taking another deep breath I stretch my arms in front of the marble wall letting the water soothe my aching muscles. ‘You got this B. You’ve got no reason to panic or over think. You wouldn't be in this position if you didn’t deserve it.

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

“안녕하세요, I have a meeting with Jay Park I mean Mr. Park J-”

“Bianca Queen?”  

“Hi, uh, yes, yes uh that's me.”  

Jesus B relax.

“Great, he’s expecting you. You can take the elevator to the 6th floor, his office is the last one all the way down. You can’t miss it.”  

“Ok Thank you!”

Here we go. I walk up to the elevator pressing the up button. At the same time the doors come flying open and none other than Loco comes stepping out. I’m not gonna lie out of everyone who is signed to AOMG Loco is my all time favorite; I could just see us being the closest. 

He stops in the doorway of the elevator staring at me. I smile watching his brows raise in confusion and curiosity.

“Excuse me.”

I don’t think he heard me because he didn’t move till the elevator doors started to push closed, slightly squashing him in between. He steps back inside the elevator letting me walk in. As soon as I’m inside he maneuvers exiting through the doors all the while not taking his eyes off me. I smile again, press 6 on the keypad and shoot him a slight wave before the doors close; he quickly shoots me one back. Yeah I can see us being great friends.

The walk to Jay’s office felt like an eternity, my legs just felt so heavy. When I finally made it down the hall I came face to face with yet another secretary.

“Hi, I'm here to see Jay Park.”

“Shut up! Shut up!” I stood there stunned. “Bianca Queen? The Bianca Queen in the flesh. I love your work when Jay first told me he was scouting you for AOMG I was like ‘umm hell yeah! You should; she is like amazing’ I’m Z by the way short for Zen’na.” Z is a cute Korean tattooed babe, her long blue hair was pulled up in a messy bun. She had a tattoo of a star on her left cheek bone. She has a unique personality. I sense nothing but positive vibes and energy from her, it's refreshing. Plus she’s a fan of my work.

“Nice to meet you Z. Thank you so much for enjoying my work. I never thought they would find their way to South Korea, but I really appreciate your support. We should grab a drink sometime. If your free”

“My shift ends at 6.”

“6 sounds great. Do you have a pen?”She pulls a red pen from her hair slamming it down in front of a mini notepad on her desk. I take the pen jotting down my number. “Shoot me a call when you're off.”

She takes the pad back, staring at the paper in awe.

“I thought you might be held up out here.” And there he is, the man I'm here to see, Jay Park. He stood in some loose jeans, a graphic-T and Jordans he was even rocking a Jordan snapback. lol can you say Seattle Nigga, the culture has definitely shown influence on his style. It works for him though; it's natural, not forced. “Z's always watching your videos when she should be working.”

“Ok you ain't really gotta be embarrassing me like that.”

“Yeah Alright. Did you check the messages like I asked you to.”

“Yes I checked the messages like you asked me to. I emailed them to your computer.”

“Thanks Z.  Bianca Come on in.”

“Bye Z. Give me a call.”

“Have a seat Bianca.”

His office was a soft green and black. Huge floor to ceiling windows that look out over Seoul. I dodge the chair he gestured to and stepped a little closer, gazing out the window. 

Beautiful.

“ You like the view?” Jay asked walking next to me.

“It’s amazing. Why the 6th floor, why not the top? I mean for a CEO.”

“Come on, you don’t know. I would think a fellow Tauren would know the answer to a question like that.”

“You checked up on me?”

“First rule of business. Always know who you're getting into bed with. Metaphorically speaking of course.”  He shoots me a smug smile walking to his desk. “Not that you're not a beautiful woman cause.” he paused, looking me up and down with a hint of lust. “ I brought you here for your talent. Come over here, have a seat.” 

Heh, he’s way more charming in person. Ok B, eyes up chin up.

When I finally take my seat he’s just looking at me, then to a file on his desk then back at me.

“Bianca I’m gonna be up front with you, I want to sign you to AOMG. How does a 3 year Contract sound?”

“What?”

“You would be the first Choreographer/Artist Director to be signed to our company and after doing all my research I just know you would be a great fit for AOMG. Not to mention the Artist we low-key already got lined up who really wanna work with you.”

Signed to a record label, this record label.This all feels so surreal. I mean all of it. Being in Korea, being at AOMG, Being in Jay Parks office. 

“You're hesitant. I can see it in your face. Why?”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m truly honored Jay, I would want nothing more than to work with AOMG I- I just, have a life a company back home as well I-”

“I don’t want you to leave your company or your life. If anything, think of it as an enhancement for both. We would definitely need you stationed here for the first year but after that  you can free flow.” Silence. I couldn’t speak “ Ok how about this? You're in Seoul for the next 6 months working with Hwasa correct. Let's do a trial contact; we have our 8 year anniversary in August, and I would like to hire you to do the show’s Artistic direction. After the show we can check in and if you're done with Seoul, that's that; at least you know.”

He even knows I’m working with Hwasa, he really did his research. Just then my mothers voice popped into my head. “Live your life for you Bianca. And live it to the fullest.” 

“Deal.”

“Yes! Alright cool dope. I’ll have Z send over a contract by the end of the day.”

“That quick?”

“I was hoping you’d say yes.”

“You knew I’d be hesitant?”

“No, I just knew you’d say yes.”

“Yeah sure. I’ll be looking out for the contract.” Getting up Jay walks me to his front door placing his hand on the handle.

“Oh there’s a black tie event on Saturday. I want you to come out and get a feel for the scene. I’m also gonna announce our collaboration.”  

Tomorrow?

“Black tie?”

“I’ll send something over.” he reaches out his hand towards me and I shake it with excitement.

“Ok.” he steps back, opening the door, sending Loco, Ugly Duck and Won Jae falling into the room collapsing on the floor.

“Nice guys. Bianca-”

““B, you can call me B.”  

“Alright B, I'll see you Saturday. I’ll be in touch” 

“I look forward to it.” I step over their legs walking out the door. “See ya later Z.”

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

I’m sitting in Hangang Park with a beer, I stare out over the lake taking in the calm.

‘It all starts here.’ I think. 

The next chapter of my life. 

Let's live it to the fullest B. 

[enterthesmosh]

You ain’t no plan b (You understand me): Shayne Topp

Word Count: 1848 Summary: Shayne unexpectedly shows up.

“Is that everything or do we need to go to another store?” Shayne asked as he approached his car. Courtney hummed from beside him while she rummaged through the shopping bags hanging off of her arms. Shayne, Courtney, and Damien had been sent on a shopping excursion to get some things for an upcoming video idea that Courtney had; but the ‘quick trip to Target’ turned into a multi store adventure and now both boys were hungry and irritable.

She looked up and opened the passenger door of Shayne’s car. “Nah, we’re good.”

“Thank god.” Damien said, climbing into the back. “I’m starving. Can we get lunch before we go back to the office.”

Shayne got into the driver’s seat and started the car, heaving a sigh of relief once the cool air conditioned air hit his face. The sudden heat wave that had come to Los Angeles was insane and even the short walk from the store to his car was brutal. “Yeah, we can grab something to eat.” he agreed, pulling up his phone to look at what was nearby.

A buzzing sound from the door well compartment on the passenger side. Courtney made a confused sound and patted around until she pulled out a cell phone that definitely did not belong to anyone in the car currently.

“Shayne, whose phone is this? It’s a cute case.” She said, turning it over in her hands.

It took a second for Shayne to comprehend exactly what she asked but when he looked up, he felt his heart beat a little faster. “Oh, damn.” He mumbled, reaching out to take it from her. The screen lit up and he saw messages that he had sent earlier in the day on display. “Damien, man, lunch is gonna have to wait a little while longer.” He said as he put the phone in a cupholder and putting on his seatbelt.

Damien audibly groaned from his spot in the backseat. 

Shayne pulled out of the parking lot and after a moment, feeling her stare, he glanced to look at Courtney. “What?” he asked.

“Where are we going? Whose phone do you mysteriously have in your car?”

Shayne sighed and lifted a hand to gently push the hat on his head back slightly. He hadn't intended to have this conversation like this. “It’s… it’s my girlfriend’s phone and she left it in here last night so we are going to give it back.” he explained in a rush, eyes staring straight at the road ahead of him.

Damien made a question sound, “I beg your unbelievable pardon?”

“Your what?” Courtney asked, voice slightly higher and usual.

He didn’t want to answer. Part of him was yelling at himself for even starting this, but he knew that if Y/N didn’t have her phone by the time lunch rolled around for her, she’d be a nervous wreck. “My girlfriend.” he said simply, shrugging one shoulder.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Courtney twisting in her seat to look back at Damien while both of them made incredulous sounds, trying to find the words they were looking for. It seemed, that Damien had regained his ability to speak faster than Courtney. He leaned forward and placed a hand on the side of Shayne’s seat, staring at his profile.

“Who is this girl? Why have you never mentioned her?”

Courtney reached over and slapped Shayne on the bicep with the back of her hand, “How long have you been dating?”

Shayne groaned as he pulled off the right exit, hands gripping the steering wheel harder. “I have mentioned her just… not in this context. You remember that girl I told you about? That I met at the gym? She was wearing the ‘Turning my small might into All Might’ tank top?” he started, catching Damien’s eyes in the rear view mirror. Damien nodded his head.

“Right, well, we always work out at the same times and we just kind of started talking and hanging out and… I don’t know. She’s sweet, and funny, and a huge fucking dork.” Shayne laughed in spite of himself.

Damien was quiet for just a moment, “You mentioned this girl months ago.”

“You’ve been dating her for months?!” Courtney exclaimed. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because you’d do this.” Shayne shot back. He sighed and shook his head. They were getting closer to where Y/N worked and he was starting to feel unbelievably anxious. “I liked having something private for a while. I was going to tell you, and introduce you, but we’re still getting to know each other and I wanted to wait before I threw Y/N to the lunatic wolves that are my friends.”

Courtney and Damien were quiet for a bit; Damien slid back and relaxed again in his seat. Shayne turned into a parking lot and sighed as he parked his car near the entrance of the building. “This is a preschool.” Courtney stated, leaning forward to read the sign above the door. Shayne nodded and shut off the car.

“She’s an after school teacher here during the school year, and she does camp during the summer.” he explained as he grabbed Y/N’s phone, shoving it into his pocket.

Before he could say or do anything else, both Courney and Damien had unbuckled their seat belts and were out of the car. Shayne closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and got out as well. He didn’t say a word but headed for the front door, his friends falling into step with him. At the door, Shayne pressed the doorbell button on the number pad. A loud clunking sound came from the double doors, signalling that they’d been unlocked.

Shayne opened the door and stepped into the front area of the building, smiling at the women seated behind the desk. “Hey, Shayne.” The taller of the two women greeted. Shayne nodded and grabbed a pen to sign in on the visitor’s log. “Hi, Kati. Hi, Jackie.” he replied, sliding the binder over and handing the pen to Damien.

“Does Y/N know you’re here?” Kati asked.

“No. She left something in my car and I’ve gotta give it to her. Is she in her room?” he asked.

Jackie looked up from her computer and shook her head, “No. Last I saw, they were headed outside.”

Shayne nodded and looked over to see Courtney finishing signing herself in. “Oh, this is Damien and Courtney. We’ll be quick.” he said. Courtney and Damien waved at the women who did the same in return. 

“Well, you know the way,” Kati said, going back to her work.

Taking a deep breath, Shayne nodded and motioned for his friends to follow him. He lead them through another set of double doors and down a hallway. Down the hall there were the sounds of babies crying, soft music playing, and adults talking. As they got closer to the door that leads to the playground that connected to Y/N’s classroom, they could hear children screaming.

Shayne pushed open the door and was immediately greeted by the sight of ten kids running around in their bathing suits. They had buckets and water balloons as they chased each other through the playground. He looked over and spotted Y/N in shorts and a tank top holding a hose and spraying the kids who got too close to her.

“She’s cute.” He heard Courtney say from behind him which just made him laugh.

One of the kids spotted them and stopped in their tracks, “Mr. Shayne!”

The call of his name caught Y/N’s attention and her head whipped around to see him standing there. A bright smile immediately found its place on her lips. “Hey, Ben, what’s up?” he laughed as he walked around the sidewalk towards the gate in the fence that closed off the playground. Y/N shook her head and stepped closer to the gate as well to greet him.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” She asked. She paused slightly, seeing the people behind Shayne. “Oh, Hi!”

“Hi, I’m Courtney, this is Damien.” Courtney introduced happily.

“Y/N. Nice to finally meet you.” Y/N smiled before looking back at Shayne.

He was staring at her for a moment, just taking her in. The smile on her face, the way the sun hit her, how she looked drenched in water but still so cute. He came back to the moment and leaned on the top of the fence with his arms. “You left your phone in my car so I brought it to you.” He answered, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the phone for her to see.

“Oh sh-shoot,” Y/N laughed. One of the kids ran up to her with an empty bucket, so she turned to fill it back up with the hose in her hand. “Thank you, Shayne.” She said, looking back at him with a wide smile that seemingly took up her whole face.

Shayne nodded, “I’ll put it in your closet in your room.”

“Thank you.” She said again before the kids grabbed her attention again.

Shayne, Damien, and Courtney stood there for a moment and just watched her run off with some of the kids, spraying them and laughing loudly. Suddenly, Shayne had an idea. “Hey, Jack,” Shayne called to one of the boys walking past. He had paid more than enough visits to learn the names of the summer campers and they all loved him dearly.

“Let me see your bucket.” He grinned. “I’m gonna dump it on Ms. Y/N.”

The boy didn’t need any more convincing and he immediately handed the bucket of water over to Shayne. He turned and handed his phone, as well as Y/N’s, over to Courtney. Both Damien and Courtney laughed softly as Shayne opened the gate and snuck into the playground. He crept up behind Y/N but one of the little girls spotted him.

“Ms. Y/N, look out!”

Y/N turned but was too slow and Shayne upended the water over her head. However, he wasn’t fast enough either and got hit in the chest with the hose. He let out one of his Shayne screams and wrapped his arms around Y/N in a hug before letting go and running off to rejoin his friends. “I’m going to get you back, Shayne!” Y/N shouted at him.

Shayne laughed and waved as he opened the back door to Y/N’s classroom and lead his friends inside. The cold A/C on his wet skin made him shiver but he made his way over to the closet and unlocked the door. Courtney handed him the phone and he placed it on a shelf with Y/N’s other belongings.

“So.” Damien started as Shayne shut the closet door. “She seems nice.”

Courtney laughed, “Yeah, for sure.”

Shayne took his hat off his head and ruffled his hair as they exited the room and made their way back up to the front. 

“Yeah… she’s pretty great.”

[xb-squaredx]

B-Squared’s Top 10 Games of 2020

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that having something to distract me from the genuine horrors unleashed during 2020 was vital to staying alive, and for me that means a lot of video games! I played…a lot of games last year, but I spent a lot of time playing older games, so I didn’t get a chance to check out a lot of high-profile games that launched this year. Still, I do want to shine a light on the games that managed to resonate with me even a little bit, that somehow managed to launch this year. So let’s get to it!

#10 – No Straight Roads

Rarely have I been struck by a single trailer for a game like I was for No Straight Roads. Produced by industry veterans under a new studio, this is a rare game that’s not quite an indie game from a studio full of newbies, but it’s also not produced with the same kind of budget and resources of a Triple-A project. What do we call this? A Double-A game? Single-A? Regardless, I have to give the team at Metronomik some props for delivering a super stylish game in the midst of a very challenging year. No Straight Roads is a rhythm-based action game where two up-and-coming musicians fight to bring back Rock and Roll to the people of Vinyl City. I absolutely adore this game’s presentation, with each major boss being visually unique and having their own feel that compliments the music they bring to battle. There’s some real energy in these animations with character designs that ooze personality, and being a game about music the soundtrack is great! All that being said though, I have to admit I wasn’t a huge fan of the gameplay when all was said and done. It leans way more on the rhythm side of the equation than I was hoping for, and the action felt very shallow. The fixed camera made some phases of some fights a real problem, and the Switch verison, which I played, is plagued with a lot of issues that really brought the game down for me. If the game interests you at all, give it a shot on PC or PS4; I hear those versions are a lot better. Still, I liked the potential I saw in this game and in this studio, so I can only hope they did well enough to continue on. This definitely feels like the kind of passion project that deserves more recognition.

#9 – Streets of Rage 4

OK, so full disclosure: I didn’t grow up with 2D beat-em-ups. I missed out on all of the greats of the genre back in the day. No Final Fight, no River City Ransom, no Double Dragon, and definitely no Streets of Rage. In more recent years I have tried to dip my toe in the genre, as I did in 2019 with River City Girls. However, I came away from that game a bit disappointed by the overall gameplay and wondered if 2D beat-em-ups were for me. Seeing so much praise heaped onto Streets of Rage 4 had me curious, so I knew I had to try it, if only to broaden my experience in the genre. In many ways, this game is the perfect sequel to a franchise that hasn’t seen any signs of new life in years. It retains what made the series beloved with satisfying combat and challenge, but with a modern touch. The overall art style of the game and music work out pretty well, and I found the act of comboing enemies to be really satisfying. It really doesn’t overstay its welcome either, which is very appreciated in an age of endless timesinks. I also struggled a fair bit with the game, even on Normal, and well after some patches that seemed designed for more casual fans like me. Had this game not had online co-op as an option, I don’t know if I could have beaten the final levels. So my time with this game was pretty rough but despite that I can still see this was a game made with care, and if this game DOES do something for you, there’s plenty of reasons to keep playing on higher difficulties, unlocking more characters and even playing online with friends. Let me put it this way; I’m not all that sure I like the genre and I still liked this game, so I think that counts for something!

#8 – The Wonderful 101: Remastered

…this one is kind of cheating, I’ll admit! I had a lot of trouble thinking up ten games that really stood out to me this year, honestly. That said, I’ll definitely use loopholes to plug one of my favorite games from years ago. Seven years ago, PlatinumGames launched The Wonderful 101 on the ill-fated Wii U, where it bombed harder than just about anything on the system. For those that gave the game a shot, however, they were quick to discover a deep, complex, and charming action game that plays like nothing else out there. Controlling a team of 100 heroes at once, players form weapons out of the various Wonderful One’s bodies, smacking around giant robots and aliens far larger than them with the power of teamwork! How could you not love that, right?! Now, years later, PlatinumGames is aiming to become more independent and their first act was launching a Kickstarter as a way to get this game on newer platforms. While we may never know why Nintendo gave Platinum their blessing to release this game on non-Nintendo platforms (being as this is still, as far as I know, a Nintendo-owned IP), I’m just glad more people can have access to one of the most unique action games I’ve ever touched.

To sell it another way, this game combines the overall aesthetic of Viewtiful Joe with the shape-drawing action of Okami but with a bit of Bayonetta flair on the side. Basically, this is the culmination of everything director Hideki Kamiya has ever worked on. The Remastered version fixes some issues present from the game’s original release, and while I do think they could have gone a bit further with some changes, it is likely the best way to play the game for many. All those sections that made heavy use of the Wii U GamePad are a tad awkward though, but that held true even back on the Wii U anyway…d-don’t worry so much about that, though! I’d still recommend this game to anyone looking for the type of over-the-top action that only Platinum (and occasionally Capcom) can provide! So please consider joining the Wonderful Ones and Unite Up!

#7 – Paper Mario: The Origami King

Discourse around the Paper Mario series is…more than a little rough, honestly! Many fans have been quite vocal about not liking the direction the series has been heading with the last few games, but I went into The Origami King with an open mind and ended up really enjoying the game for the most part! What the game lacked in a developed storyline, it made up for with some really strong character moments and memorable setpieces. Bobby and Olivia are among my favorite partners in ANY of the Mario RPGs, easily, and the entirety of the Great Sea section of the game was a really fun adventure. I love the highly-detailed paper-crafted enemies and locales, and the soundtrack really didn’t have to go as hard as it did. While the battles against common enemies didn’t quite click with me, the boss battles throughout the game constantly surprised me with interesting twists on the ring-based combat and are a real highlight for me. I know this game is pretty divisive amongst Paper Mario fans, but I think the franchise has a pretty bright future ahead of it!

#6 – DOOM Eternal

Fair warning here, but I haven’t quite managed to beat DOOM Eternal at the time of writing this, but what I’ve played so far tells me it definitely belongs here. I think Eternal is hands-down the most intense game I’ve played in a long time. It gets my blood pumping as I dash about, shooting and slicing through demons that are extremely eager to rip and tear me to pieces. I don’t play many shooters in general, so I knew I was going to be in for a rough time, but DOOM Eternal brings it to another level right away. In some respects, I don’t quite agree with various aspects of the core game design that makes the game harder than I think it needs to be at times. The scarcity of ammo, and thus the constant need to use the Chainsaw weapon in order to gain more ammo gets tiring, though that somewhat levels off as more weapons are acquired and players learn of more efficient ways to take out the hordes of Hell. The game’s fantastic soundtrack by Mick Gordon definitely elevates the experience, so it is a huge bummer knowing that he and ID Software had a falling out and he won’t be coming back. I really dig the game’s expansive levels and more focus being put on exploring every nook and cranny for secrets, and certain old-school touches like finding extra lives or cheat codes definitely makes the game feel like it was ripped out of a bygone era and given a modern paintjob at times. Doom is eternal, and with it, so is pulse-pounding shooting action!

#5 – Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition

Compared to the other re-release of an old game on this list, I think this particular title had a lot more time and care put into it…and it also happens to enhance one of my favorite games on Wii as a bonus! Xenoblade Chronicles on Wii was a game that almost passed me by but even years later, I still adored the characters and world it introduced, and I’ve been happy to see what started as game that was almost stuck in Japan eventually grow into a full franchise. I consider the first game to the best in the series, though it was held back by a few issues later games would iron out. Chief among the problems was the visuals, particularly the character models and…wow does ten years make a world of difference. The Definitive Edition does more than just clean up everyone’s faces, it also cleaned up the game’s cluttered UI, made it easier to track quests and materials for said quests, and added some fun optional challenge missions for veterans to tackle. The bow that adorns the top of this package, however, is the epilogue story Future Connected that serves to tie up some loose ends and gives a particular character some great closure. If you love massive worlds to explore, a compelling, at times over-the-top story, and a deep, rewarding combat system, I can’t recommend THIS version of THIS game enough. If you’re going to give the Xenoblade series a try, there’s no better place to start.

#4 – Ghost of Tsushima

When Ghost of Tsushima was first unveiled years ago, I didn’t exactly have a high opinion of it. It seemed like a game that put more emphasis on visuals over gameplay, and I was almost certain it would launch as a PS5 exclusive so why bother getting excited when I probably wasn’t going to be an early adopter of the system? To my great surprise, not only was this game confirmed for PS4, it wound up being one of the prettiest games on the platform and well-optimized to boot, even on my old slim PS4. Playing as lone samurai Jin Sakai, players try to repel the Mongel invasion of Japan, but are forced to adopt less-than-honorable tactics to take on this ruthless enemy. Usually when I play stealth games, I find myself frustrated. I feel weak, or limited, and often the games feel overly harsh. If you get caught once, game over and there’s little salvaging being seen. In Ghost of Tsushima however, there’s a great deal more care put into stealth, and at times I’d argue it’s almost too fun to pass up over the sword play. Very few missions in the game force you to go completely unseen, so stealth just because yet another tool rather than a limitation imposed on you.

Swordplay felt a bit less engaging against common enemies (typically just being Simon Says, switching to the appropriate stance for a given enemy), but the one-on-one duels throughout the game were fantastic and I almost wish the game was all about them instead. I can’t overstate how gorgeous this game is either, with a world that feels like it is breathing, as the wind whips through the tall grass, the moon penetrates fog overtaking a creepy forest, or seeing the smoke from an enemy camp wafting over the distance. Hands-down one of the best-looking games on the PS4, and I’m particularly happy that developer Sucker Punch managed to land a hit with a new IP, as those generally feel more risky as times go on. While I’d argue that Ghost of Tsushima doesn’t really redefine how open-world games should be designed, it is an extremely polished experience and manages to do it well, with plenty of opportunities to grow in a potential sequel.

#3 – Animal Crossing: New Horizons

If there’s any one game that people absolutely needed in 2020, it was Animal Crossing: New Horizons. While there are other games of this type, like Stardew Valley or the Harvest Moon (and later, Story of Seasons games), Animal Crossing is one of the few games that gets mainstream attention while simultaneously running counter to most mainstream gaming trends. No conflict, no combat, no overarching story really…just a game that lets you live your live, day by day on your own terms. I tried getting into the series before with New Leaf but just didn’t stick with it, but New Horizons launched at the perfect time in an imperfect world. Being able to escape the uncertainty and dread that enveloped the world as the pandemic spread for even a little while was a necessity, and thankfully New Horizons had plenty to do to keep idle hands busy. Changes like item crafting and eventually limited terraforming of your island paradise give players so much more agency in decorating their homes and building up something they can be proud of.

We all start as nothing but a small tent on a mostly-empty island, but seeing what people were able to do even in the first few weeks or so was nothing short of amazing. We need more unflinchingly wholesome games in the world, and I’m thankful for Animal Crossing for being there when we needed it, and considering how well it sold and how much post-launch content is expected to be added with time, it remains a sanctuary to return to even now. Just…please let us craft in bulk? Pretty please, Nintendo?

#2 – Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

Last year, Nintendo released Astral Chain, a game that no one knew about before release, which was revealed and released with very little gaps between them. It was a game I didn’t know I wanted until it was presented to me, and that trend continues this year with Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. The first Hyrule Warriors was a fun, surprising spin-off of the main Legend of Zelda series, and Breath of the Wild was a fantastic game that shook up the core of the Zelda franchise, so in hindsight it really does seem like a no-brainer to combine the two into one package. Age of Calamity, for my tastes at least, cuts down on the repetition and overall stressful atmosphere of the first Hyrule Warriors and instead focused on fleshing out it’s core combat and crafting more creative main storyline missions. It helps that the game reimagines iconic locales from Breath of the Wild from before their destruction, and really makes you feel like you’re fighting through actual places rather than just a collection of random keeps that most Warriors games use.

Bringing in aspects like the Sheikiah Slate and Elemental Rods allows players to control the flow of combat more directly on top of letting them be more creative. Freeze enemies standing over water with the Cryonis rune or burn some grass with the Fire Rod to distract certain enemies, among many other things. Each playable character is also very distinct, even in cases where I could have forgiven the developers for reusing some attacks or traits. For one, Link has different movesets for his Sword and Shield, Spear, and Two-Handed weapons, but none of his attack overlap with the other Champions who use similar weapons. Some people might be put off with certain aspects of this game’s story and ultimately not everyone likes the overall structure of the Warriors spinoffs anyway, but for my part, Age of Calamity was one of the best surprises of the year, unveiled right at the end of the year in the nick of time. Of course, there was one game this year that surprised me more than any other.

#1 – Hades

I’ve known of Supergiant Games for quite a while and very recently began looking through their catalogue of games. They’re known for well-crafted narratives and satisfying combat, and yet when I first saw Hades when it was released in Early Access I was tepid on it. It didn’t look bad or anything, but it didn’t exactly blow me away and even now, I think a random screenshot or quick clip of the game might not do the game justice in explaining the appeal. I already wrote about the game at-length (as my only real non-retrospective blog post of the year, oops!), which you can read here if you want more in-depth praise, but to summarize…Hades is the total package for me.

Playing as Prince Zagreus your end-goal is to escape the puts of Hell, and more specifically get away from your overbearing father, Hades. It’s a rogue-lite, meaning you’re expected to finish the game in one shot and if you die you lose any upgrades you picked up along the way and have to start from scratch…to a point. Hades does allow you to keep a fair amount of items you pick up which can towards small, permanent upgrades or even gifts for various NPCs that can deepen your bond with them. Unlike most other games of this type too, the story constantly moves forward, even after death. The game is about dying over and over and then dusting yourself off to try again, all the while other characters remark on your progress or lack thereof. I grew to really enjoy this cast of characters, a fun spin on the Greek pantheon, paired with excellent voice acting for the entire cast. From the imposing, if somewhat sultry Megaera, to the nervous wreck that is the maid, Dusa, to the pompous ass Theseus, I looked forward to each new run just to learn more about this world and those within it. For once, death wasn’t really a punishment, but a reward, and just part of the process.

Of course, incredibly satisfying combat is ALSO part of the process and it just gets…addicting; muttering “one more run” over and over as you try out different weapons and boons, discovering what works well together and what doesn’t. While at first beating the game felt like it would never happen, I grew from my failures, adapted and eventually overcame. Multiple times. If you want the “full” Hades experience, this game can really demand a lot of time out of you but at the same time it stays fresh, so I can’t really complain. With new gameplay mechanics unlocking as time goes on, to the Pacts of Punishment players can trigger if they want a bit more challenge (or a lot more), Hades is that rare game that just keeps giving and giving. Before I knew it, I had dumped well over 50 hours into it, and I STILL need to get back to the game if I want that epilogue.

Compared to every other game that came out this year, Hades is the one game that grabbed me from moment one and would not let go until I hit credits. When I wasn’t playing this game, I was counting down the minutes until I could play it again, and let me tell you that is rare for me these days. At this point, Hades is clearly the breakthrough hit for Supergiant and I couldn’t be happier. The fact that this game got to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with industry titans at The Game Awards is kind of surreal, but I can’t think of many who deserve that recognition more. It helps that Supergiant is a studio that actually takes care of its employees, which is way rarer than it should be. I don’t mean to hype this game up like it’s the cure for COVID or anything, but I mean it with all my heart that this was the best game I played this year, and I’d recommend it in a heartbeat. I couldn’t stop talking about it for months after playing it, just ask my friends! So yeah, it’s pretty OK I guess.

CONCLUSION

I’m sure my Top 10 List looks a lot different from most out there, but that’s what’s great about games! So much variety and so much quality no matter where you look! Every year, without fail, there’s always at least a small handful of games that come out that I don’t get to, and try as I might I’ll never trim that backlog down. I want to keep playing games for as long as I can, trying out so many different experiences and seeing what this wonderful pastime can offer. For a good chunk of 2020 I was more than a little down, not just because of…you know, but a lot of games that were coming out weren’t appealing to me. That said, seeing as this was the year of shadow drops and announcing things at the last minute, I ended up loving a bunch of games I hadn’t already spend months hyping myself up for, which definitely helped to lift me up this year. Already, 2021 has a lot of titles I’m anticipating though, so it’s sure to be an exciting year.

Happy Gaming.

-B

[archaeopter-ace]

1-3, 13, 16? (ps I will get back to ur message soon)

1. How long ago did you start reading fanfiction? Writing fanfiction?

I technically read my first fanfic when I was in middle school, I think – on Mugglenet, and then a little bit on Neopets, but I didn’t know it was called fanfiction and I didn’t pursue it further. I discovered fanfiction.net and had my fanfiction awakening in college, in 2008 (and then I lurked for like, a year, before making an account). I started putting effort into writing fanfiction in 2014, when The Flash fandom was just getting off the ground.

2. How do you spend your time when it comes to fanfiction? Are you primarily a fic reader, writer, or a perfect 50/50 split of both?

I skew very heavily towards being a fanfic reader. On average I read maybe 100k a week? Reading fanfic is probably how I spend most of my leisure time, if I ever measured it out

3. Are there any fics that inspired you to write what you do?

I would definitely have to cite Vathara’s works as an influence. I saw how she kept a very close POV and adjusted not only dialogue but also prose to reflect that character’s background, and how a person’s professional experience can be imprinted into situations and how they make sense of things. Also, one of the first authors I encountered who Showed Their Work when it comes to citing sources and incorporating research into fic.

13. Do you outline your fics? How much of a headache would someone get if they just looked at an outline of yours without reading the fic?

If it’s going to be multi-chaptered, I’ll make an outline as a way of getting my thoughts in order. Nothing so sophisticated as ‘rising action’, ‘climax’, etc., mapping the story structure, though some writing resources I’ve seen make some very compelling points for trying it that way. I structure my outlines a lot like I structure my essays, with a ‘thesis’ of a chapter arc and then topic sentence ‘scenes’ supporting that thesis.

What I find is that sometimes I’ll make a note that’s like ‘expand/flesh out this section,’ but then be unable to think of how that scene could be extended – and then I realize that the reason that I can’t think of a way to expand it is because I actually don’t have much to say about it. Maybe it isn’t as interesting as I thought it ought to be, or maybe it really is just transition to get from A to B. So then I demote it from a Scene to a transitional paragraph, maybe a time skip. So in this way I find outlines most useful for figuring out what to cut out ;D

In my current as-yet-unnamed WIP (the working title is Apoptosis, but I expect that will be too confusingly similar to Autoeponym to actually use, since both are unfamiliar polysyllabic words beginning with A), my most ambitious plot to date, I’m trying something new. This time I’ve got color-coded index cards and a huge board to pin them to. I’ve also got a whole bunch of post-it note sized squares of paper, where I wrote ‘things to include/keep track of’ waaaay back when I first conceived this fic last year. So now I’m sorting those out onto the index cards: orange is a story arc (I’ve got five of those), Lavender is a scene, Green is a plot point, Yellow is continuity note, and pink is a scene that could go one of two ways without changing the rest of the story.

So the difference between a plot point and scene: a plot point is like, the bits of conflict that make up the story, whereas scenes are the How. A plot point I have is ‘Claire finds out about NotEnrique,’ and this is resolved over multiple scenes.

Continuity notes are where I keep track of the passing of time. So like, ‘Jim’s Vespa is completed.’ I probably won’t write a scene with him completing his Vespa, but I find it useful to know whether it would be available to use at any given time.

I have yet to finish my outline with this method and move on to drafting, so it remains to be seen how useful it will be. Already it’s helped a lot with resolving certain plot points that I wasn’t sure what to do with.

16. Do you research for your fics? If so, how deep of a rabbit hole have you gone down by accident when researching?

Hooo boy, do I ever go down rabbit holes. My search history, I can’t even. Probably one of the worst offenders was when I was writing a Merlin x Flash crossover oneshot, and needed to research ‘interesting yet overlooked history things from the past 900 years,’ with an emphasis on jazz history and scientific invention. Oh, or the time I was writing a ghost story au (also for The Flash) and learned all sorts of interesting things about: Christina queen of Sweden, what kinds of records are public domain and how to access them – special focus on inquests and service records (and then trying to figure out whether the fictional files in question would have been lost in the 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center), how to do a walk-around of a B-25 bomber (WWII training videos are public domain!), how to operate a reel-to-reel player, and more!

Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever not fallen down a research rabbit-hole, even when I am deliberately challenging myself to writing without looking things up. We live in such an information age, I am constantly surprised by the specificity of information available. Like that time I found the wikipedia pages for when which syndicated shows were airing on TVLand or Nick at Nite, to determine what old show could conceivably be on tv in 2005 at 11:00 at night - and then I had to go and find episodes of the potential candidates to see which one would suit the characters.

Research is how I roll *pushes up sunglasses*

Fanfic Writer Ask Game

[thadelightfulone]

The ‘E’ Commandments - Calling On You (Switch)

Use Me (Intro)

Daddy’s Rules

Sunset

Velvet Rope/ Sequel

Lose It

Summary: Erik wants to teach his girl some thangs…

Pairing: Erik x Black!OC

Genre: SMUT…build up, cool down…there is always some SMUT.

Warning: BDSM heavy…so if that is not your thing, there are plenty of other BP fics for you to read. Since the chapter names include the kink, please feel free to bypass any one that is not your speed. Unless you’re curious and want to learn a few things for yourself…in that case, ENJOY!!!

A/N: I would like to thank the anon that hit me up with the request for this scene. I honestly figured I would probably not update this at all again (it’s been almost a year). But this request sparked something and I was able to get this out. As always I had to add that Delightful touch, but I definitely got what you wanted in here. ENJOY EVERYONE!!!

Imani missed Erik.

It has been a busy few weeks for both of them; they were lucky if they got a solid 30 minutes to talk or video chat. She looks down at her phone, at the last communication she sent to him, a 'Good Morning' text at around 9 am before her first of multiple meetings for the day. It was now 9 pm, and she was just noticing his 'Miss you' text from noon. She sighs deeply as she rolls her shoulders back, cracking them slightly. Imani sets her phone down, picks it up, opening the conversation again, and sends an 'Are you up' text.

She shakes her curls free of the top bun; she put up in the morning. She grabs her robe and pads across the floor of her apartment to her wine cabinet, pulling out her favorite merlot. Phone in hand, she settles on her couch with the bottle and a glass. She just turned to a Law & Order rerun when her phone chimes. She looks at it, hopeful that Erik has some time for her. She throws the phone down.

"Stupid work emails. I left an hour ago; there is no need to bother me anymore tonight." She groans aloud. "Fuck this." She looks at her calendar, takes a big gulp of her wine, and shoots off another text. Changing the channel to one of those all music networks, she lets some early 90s R&B sooth her as the wine takes hold of her.

Erik missed Imani.

For all the work he was putting in on this project, he felt like he was out on another overseas mission. His phone was useless for anything other than work, and frankly, he was over it. He was over everything that did not include having his baby girl in his arms, on his lap, in his bed, under him. He stares at the laptop on his legs. He is sitting up in bed, putting together the final touches to his weekly report and the presentation for tomorrow. His phone chimes; he looks over at it and groans — another work email.

He continues tapping away as his phone continues to go off. Okay, that can't just be work. He leans over to his nightstand and grabs the phone off the charger. His frown transforms when he sees Imani’s name on the screen. She must have just got off work and saw his text from earlier. He quickly scrolls through her messages and looks at the very last one, 'When are you free, Daddy? I need you.' He shakes his head. She knows what she is doing. He saves and closes the documents on his laptop screen; then sets it aside.  

Imani’s phone rings with a video call from Erik. She sets her glass down and accepts the call. “Hey Daddy!” She sings.

“How’s my pretty girl doing?”

“Better now that I have your attention.” She is moving so much that her robe falls off her shoulder.

“Is that all you want? My attention?” He smirks at her.

She feels herself responding to his voice. The wine has her feeling right, and her man is making Imani that much more aware of how long it has been since she has felt him or that masterful tongue. “Maybe,” she draws out, “I miss you.” She wraps the bottom of the robe around her fingers, “Among other things.”

“Oh? Like what? Tell Daddy.” He leans back on his headboard, moving the phone, displaying his studded chest allowing Imani to see the V leading to the top of his sweatpants. He watches her gulp deeply as she prepares her response to him.

"Well, I was thinking about us getting together for dinner," she licks her lips while ogling his body, "and dessert soon. It has been a while, Daddy." She lets the robe fall open and down her bare shoulders. Erik can just make out her hardening nipples.

"Oh, we can definitely do that. My place or yours." He winks at her, and she flushes.

“Your place. That’s where all the toys are.” Her eyes lower as she finishes her thought. Erik closes his eyes briefly as he exhales slowly.

“So, I take it you have something in mind for your,” he raises his eyebrows, “dessert.” She nods her head while looking at the phone. A chime goes off, and then her face drops. "What's wrong, baby?"

“Work. I’m gonna have to go in early to deal with this mess,” she groans. Exhaling her frustrations, “So, will Saturday work for you? I know you are wrapping up that major project.”

He glances at his laptop next to him, “Yeah, yeah. This week should be it. Saturday will be perfect. You gonna let me have my way with you?”

She smiles up at him, “When have you ever had to ask that Daddy? I am yours.”

“My girl! Now, why don’t you get some sleep and I will see you Saturday night." He blows her a kiss through the screen. She turns her cheek, so it lands there, and he laughs.

"Goodnight Daddy." She blows him a kiss; catching it, Erik places it on his chest. She giggles at him.

"That will have to do until Friday. Goodnight baby girl."

Imani jumps up, grabbing the wine to put away. She hums No Sleep by Janet on her way to the kitchen. Skipping back to her room, she takes off the robe and throws herself onto her bed. Three more days and she will be in his arms again.

Erik plugs his phone back up and grabs his laptop. They need to wrap this shit up before Friday. He has plans and does not want anything to go wrong.

--- Saturday Afternoon ---

Imani held a mini spa day at her place, pampering herself in preparation for what is about to go down tonight. She is sitting down on her bed, applying her favorite whipped shea butter that smells like cocoa to her skin from head to toe. She knows Erik loves it on her. She jumps almost dropping the container when her phone goes off. The volume was higher than she remembered setting it.

She reaches for the phone seeing Erik’s face on the screen. “Hey Daddy! Are you ready for me?” He is quiet on the line, and she looks at her phone to see if they disconnected. As the silence continues, she frowns up, “NO! NO! NO! Don’t do this to me.”

“I’m sorry baby girl. I wanted this, too. God, you have no idea. But the contractors called an emergency meeting. I am still here and knowing them; they will drag this shit out all weekend."

"All weekend?" She can hear him grumbling on the other end of the phone. She looks at her outfit laying on the bed.

“Yeah, we just broke for a late lunch.” He can hear her whimpering on the other end. “I promise to make this up to you baby girl. Please don’t be mad at me.”

Sniffling, she flops down on the bed, “I’m not mad at you. This just sucks.” He chuckles at her pouting.

"Once this is all over. I am all yours. I plan to take a few days off, and then we can get away. What do you say?" She can hear the desperation in his voice. He hates having to upset or deny her anything, but this can't be helped.

“Yeah, ok.” Rolling her eyes to keep the tears from falling down her face, “I gotta go. Bye E.”

“DAMNIT!” He slams his phone on the table after she hung up.

“You good Stevens?” One of his colleagues walked by his door.

Erik stands up, “Yeah, I just need some fresh air,” he brushes past him. “I’ll be back by the time we need to reconvene.”

“Okay, see you at 4.”

He makes his way to the elevator, pressing the button harder than necessary. “How can I make this up to her?”

--- Two Days Later ---

Imani took the day off from work. She was ready to snap off the heads of all her coworkers who decided that she didn’t have a life on the weekends. She wrapped up anything that could have waited until Monday before sending an email announcing her absence. Turning off the notifications on her emails, she put her phone away and fell into a peaceful sleep.

Monday morning came and went, Imani enjoyed sleeping in and a quiet phone. Took a long relaxing shower, prepared a lovely breakfast, enjoying the sun rising to its highest point of the morning from her balcony. Curled up in her chair, she looked out and thought about Erik. She was still disappointed about what happened to their plans on Saturday.

Imani rubbed her arms as the mid-morning breeze sent chills through her body. She definitely missed his touch. She suddenly stops and drops her legs to the ground. Standing up to stretch, a huge grin appears on her face, and she starts rubbing her hands together like Birdman. She collects her dishes and heads back inside to develop her plan.

It is late afternoon by the time she makes it over to his place. Imani lets herself in and immediately connects her phone up to his Bluetooth speakers. Her sensual R&B playlist begins to play throughout the apartment. She walks over to her bags and puts away all the grocery items. After leaving some long stem roses on the counter, she finds two of his tumbler glasses and places them in the freezer along with some fruit.

She picks up her small travel bag and takes it into the bedroom. She pulls out two outfits and lays them on the bed. Picking up one with a delicate lacy pattern, she grabs her scissors and starts to cut it up. Imani leaves the long stripes of lace from the waistline of the outfit intact. She grabs the scraps of the outfit from the bed, and takes them into the kitchen, leaving them on the counter next to the flowers.

Imani goes back into the room and her bag, grabbing her favorite lavender candles, and places them around the room. She goes into his closet for a hanger and puts her outfit outside the closet door. Taking one last look around, she checks her phone for the time. She goes into the bathroom and takes a shower to prepare herself for the night, and the role she is about to play.  

---

It's Monday night, and Erik is at this company dinner, celebrating his team for all their hard work on the project. This shit is finally over, and he can't wait to let Imani know.  

Erik looks at his phone. She has been short with him for the last two days, and he does not like it all. He has called, and she answers but doesn't stay on long. His texts get one or two-word responses. He hasn’t heard from her at all today, and that has him worried.

He knows that this is something they have to work through since it has never happened before. As a man of his word, he has been able to keep any date they set up, until now. Erik can't even say she is begging for punishment, because she is still in contact with him like he requested. But he knows that she is starving for attention and he plans to give her that in spades.  

Dinner wraps up, and Erik practically runs out of the restaurant to his car. He pulls his jacket off and loosens his tie. On the way home, he decides to drop by her place tonight after washing all this work off him. He opens the door to his apartment and hears music playing. He notices a trench coat on the floor, and a frosty glass of Henny on his countertop as he hangs up his keys.

Taking a moment, he looks his place over. The lights are dimly lit, which is why he wasn't alarmed when he walked in, the sensors kick in after sunset. Imani is here. Nodding his head to the beat, he finally recognizes the song, Calling on You by Jon B. He drops his briefcase and jacket by the door, slipping off his shoes and putting them in the closet. Erik picks up the glass and spots the handwritten note underneath it –

Daddy -

I couldn’t wait any longer. And I think we both need this.

When you are ready, follow the red & black road.

~ Your Pretty Girl

 He looks down and past the trench coat observing the wisps of black lace and red rose petals on the floor, leading a path to his bedroom. He takes a nice big sip of his drink and makes his way towards his room. Walking through his living room, he spots a pair of black and pink Adidas slides by his coffee table, a pair of dark blue denim jeans on the back of his couch and a black Strange Music t-shirt at the edge of his hallway. He grins as he picks up the bra hanging on the door of his bathroom, and laughs as he finds her lace panties on his bedroom doorknob.

Opening the door to his bedroom, Erik tucks the panties into his pocket and looks up to find Imani leaning up against his mirrored dresser. She looks up at him over her tumbler, barefoot in one of his long-sleeved button-down shirts. Imani smiles at him and puts her glass down as she finally speaks, “Have a seat and relax.”

“Well, isn’t this a pleasant surprise?” Erik looks around the room, noting the lit candles and the chair placed strategically in the center of the floor of his bedroom. He decides to play along and walks over to the chair. When he sits down, Imani walks over and stands in front of him.

He looks her up and down. His shirt stopped at her knees buttoned all the way to the top, and her hair in a high slick-backed ponytail with her curls in a big puff. He looks from her red pedicured toenails to her thick curvy hips and thighs, ending at her red painted lips pursed together watching him. When Erik finally makes eye contact with her, Imani takes a deep breath as his gaze penetrates her.

Imani knows that she must stay in control if this is to happen the way she wants. She matches Erik's gaze, not backing down from the intensity. He lifts his drink to his lips and winks at her. “You know what. I could use a refill.”

“I’m sure you could, but you won’t be getting one.” Erik raises his eyebrows at Imani’s response. “I only need one thing from you,” she walks around him and whispers into his ear, “Say Yes, E.” Floetry’s Say Yes begins flowing through the speakers. She walks out of the room, grabbing her glass along the way. Erik watches the sway of her hips as she pads across his hardwood floor.

Imani stops at the hallway closet and grabs a pair of black gladiator heels, taking a seat on the couch. Inhaling and exhaling, she tries to center herself. Feeling more relaxed and in control, she stands up after finishing with the stilettos. She continues to the kitchen and refills her glass of Hennessy.

Erik sits patiently in the chair; he hasn't moved since she walked out of the room. His index finger is slowly circling the rim of his now empty glass. Tapping his foot, he observes as Imani stalks back into the room, appearing much taller than when she left. He glances down to see her legs wrapped from knee to ankle with crisscrossed leather straps ending in a 5-inch stiletto heel.

Imani stands in front of him, wiggling her toes, and sipping from her refreshed drink. “Have anything to say?” He gives her a questioning glare, and she huffs at him. “I need an answer, Erik.”

"What's the question, Imani?" She shakes her head and walks over to the dresser, grabbing Erik's riding crop. Leaving her half-full glass there, she walks back over to Erik.

"Who?" Erik looks at the stern look on her face and tries not to laugh. Oh, she really wants to do this. She is now standing with her hip cocked to the left and tapping the riding crop on her open palm.

"Should I call you Miss or Madam?" His voice cracks on the last part, and Imani takes the riding crop and puts it under his chin, lifting his face to look her in the eyes.

"Miss will work just fine." She taps his chin on either side with the crop, "Now, try again."

“What is the question, Miss?”

“Good boy.” She smiles wickedly at him, and Erik feels himself harden at the sight of his innocent girl taking charge.

“Would you like to play with me tonight, Erik?”

“Yes, Miss.” Imani nods and takes the empty glass out of his hands. Erik reaches to take off his shirt, but her hand on his wrists stop him. “No, leave everything on. Keep your hands down by your sides.” She walks back over to the dresser, sets his glass and the crop down. Removing the clicker from his shirt pocket, she increases the volume and changes the song again.

The low rumbling sounds of Skin by Rihanna blare through the speakers. She slowly saunters back over to Erik, circling him as she starts singing the song directly into his ear. In front of him, she unbuttons his shirt as she starts a figure 8 roll of her hips while exposing a deep plunging neckline. Continuing down and mouthing the words to the song, she unveils a cranberry lace teddy adorning her glowing chocolate brown skin.

She maintains eye contact with him during the whole reveal, watching his breathe stutter as she continues her slow and sensual movements to the song. Imani drapes the shirt around Erik's shoulders and moves away from him just as quickly. She starts twisting her wrists at her hips as she rolls her body to the front. Pelvis gyrating in front of Erik, she laughs lowly, watching his hands curl into fists to keep from reaching out and touching her.  

Imani spins around and bends over, so Erik has a wonderful view of her uncovered ass. She slowly rolls back up and drops down to the ground. Looking back at Erik over her shoulder, she slowly twerks controlling the movement of each cheek in time to the song. Still bent at the knees, she turns around in a circle, so Erik has a view of her lace-covered kitty. She bounces up and down, opening and closing her legs.

She is looking up as Erik squirms trying to remain still in the chair. She stands up and pulls the lace teddy down one shoulder, followed by the other, leaving her heaving chest exposed to his hungry eyes. She continues peeling the teddy off her body as she rocks her body to the chorus of the song. Stepping out of the teddy, Imani strolls over to Erik twirling the teddy on her fingers and passes it across his face. She observes him inhale deeply and stops behind him.

Leaning over, she lets her naked breasts press into his back as she takes both the teddy and shirt away from him. As the ending guitar solo starts to play, Imani drags her body along his, lifting one leg over both of his to straddle his lap. She feels his shoulders tense up and grabs his hands, putting them on her waist as she grinds onto him. Erik holds her tight but loose enough for Imani to continue her dance on his lap. She leans back exposing her neck, chest, and tummy to Erik. She looks up when she hears him groan loudly underneath her, causing her entire body to vibrate in response.

As the song ends, Imani removes Erik’s hands from her ass where they fell during her slow grind. She unbuttons his shirt, removing it from his shoulders and letting it fall to the floor. She slides off of him, looking at the mess she made of his pants with her wet pussy, and the hard pole bulging against them. She grabs his loosened tie, standing him up and leads him to the bed. He sits down at the edge.

Putting her leg up onto his lap, “Take off my shoes.” Erik obediently honors her request, as she tries not to giggle at him following her directions, no questions asked. When he finishes with the left, she hands him her right leg to remove the other heel. As he reaches up to her knee to untie the heel, his fingers linger. "Did I say feel me up?"

Snapping back to attention, Erik looks up at Imani’s smirking stern face and tries badly to hide his grin, “Sorry Miss.” He speeds up his task and puts his hands on top of his thighs when he is done. Desire by Raheem Devaughn begins, as Imani steps back from the bed.

“Very well. Now, get in the center, head towards the headboard.” Erik does as directed, laying down in the center of his bed. Imani looks Erik over, lying still on the bed, hands by his sides, bare naked chest showing all of his scars and his tented work pants. Snickering to herself, she hops onto the bed and climbs over him.

Imani looks down at him, underneath her and smiles. She braces herself with both hands on his pecs and rubs her wet pussy along the scars on his stomach and chest. Forward and back, left and right, and infinity circles. Imani can feel Erik’s body tensing under him as she uses him for her pleasure. She continues moving forward until her pussy is right at his chin, “Open your mouth. Tongue out and no hands.” She lifts her hips, plants her feet and lowers herself onto his mouth, shifting around as his beard tickles her pussy lips.

Imani sets a slow pace as she lifts and lowers herself on Erik's long tongue. Letting her wetness drip into his mouth and down his throat. When she finds her rhythm, she begins bouncing with more force — a few quick up-downs and then a long seat before rising and repeating the cycle over again.

Erik knows that Imani is a creature of habit. Now that she found this pattern, she is going to stay there until she cums. His hands are still beside him, tapping along to the song playing. He can feel her pussy clenching as she drops it on him and gripping his tongue as she moves back up. The next time she sits her ass entirely on his face, he curls his tongue and moves it a bit inside of her. Imani shudders but doesn’t say anything.

He lets her repeat her rotation a few more times uninterrupted until she cums against his tongue. She continues to ride through her orgasm, commenting on him being such a good boy and how happy she is with him. She mistakenly takes a moment to sit on his face again, and he starts licking her slowly, dragging his tongue all along her folds.  

"ERIK!" Her knees buckle, and she drops to her knees, grabbing the headboard for support, mouth still on Erik's tongue. He takes full advantage of this new position and starts fucking her with his tongue. Poking in and out of her sopping wet center. Imani catches her breath and drags her pussy along his tongue when it pokes out and drops onto him when he pulls his tongue back. With a firm grasp on the headboard, Imani starts bouncing on his face again, faster and rougher than before. She stuns Erik, who adapts immediately by breathing in deep through his nose when she lifts up.

Imani is slapping her dripping wet pussy hard as hell on his face, and the sounds are bouncing off the walls in the room. They both are moaning and groaning from the intensity. Imani due to the orgasm creeping through her body again, starting from the depths of her stomach and moving out to her toes. Erik loving the sounds of Imani and her fucking his face. She clenches and shudders as her next orgasm rolls over her.

Erik makes his move and grips her hips, holding her down on his tongue as he curls and licks her into a mewling puddle on his face.

“FUCK YOU!” She screams out, as she is hit with back-to-back orgasms from his actions. She tries to ride it out as much as possible, but Erik is not making it easy. She tried to move away, but his hold did not give her any room to move away from his assault on her sensitive folds. "Let me go, boy."  

Erik releases his hold on Imani’s hips, and she dramatically rolls over to the side. While catching her breath, she isn’t paying any attention to Erik. Who moves off the bed, and over to the dresser. He takes a long sip of from her glass, watching as Imani closes her eyes and slowly drifts off. He takes that moment to slip the long lace strips off of her wrists and slides her to the edge of the bed on her back. He grabs her hands and ties them using the lace straps; he sets them on top of her stomach. Imani opens her eyes and looks up at Erik, who is smiling.

Imani squirms in her position, head hanging off the edge of the bed and hears Erik unzipping his pants. He leans down to look at Imani’s surprised face, kissing her lips, “You’re welcome, baby girl.”

“No, it’s not –“ Erik dropped his dick down her throat. He pulls it back and runs it along her face, cheeks, and lips then taps it against her mouth.

"Open your mouth and no hands." Imani pouts as he uses her own words against her, and meets Erik’s laughing eyes as he leans forward again, sticking her tongue out as his dick rests on her mouth. "Be a good girl now." He groans as she moves him around with her tongue and wraps her lips around the head of his dick.

Erik steps forward allowing Imani to open up wider and take him in as far as she can. Imani relaxes into the position and runs her tongue along his shaft before moving further up on his dick. Erik watches as Imani lathers his dick with her spit before squatting down and lowering his dick into her mouth.

With her head back and Erik moving further forward, Imani opens and closes her mouth around his dick as much as possible. Erik squats down, Imani inhales squeezing her throat around him. He lifts up, she licks and moves her tongue around his shaft, sucking on the head. Repeat. Erik starts slow, lowering his dick for a few seconds and then raising back up. Soon, he starts moving like he is completing a repetition of squats at the gym.

Imani squirms in place as she takes all Erik is giving to her. He pulls back, “Level Check.” He watches her as she catches her breath.

“One Daddy.” She huffs out.

“Good girl.” He lifts her up and walks her over to the chair, sitting her upright. “Open wide.”

Imani opens her mouth, and Erik shoves his dick in. She chokes up on it a bit, and he pulls back until only the tip is in her mouth. She swirls her tongue around his head and adjusts to taking him sitting up. Holding her mouth open, she takes it as he moves himself in and out. Slowly at first, and then increasingly faster. He does this a few times, and then stops with himself fully seated in her mouth.

“Hold it.” She inhales around him and through her nose, holding the position. He pats her head as he moves back out, letting her catch her breath as strings of her spit on his dick break.

Erik pulls completely out and slaps her face a few times with his dick. Then he starts again, slow strokes in and out of her mouth, gradually moving faster, then stopping fully inside of her. "Hold it." He keeps it in longer this time, watching her gag on his dick and then removing it. "Good girl."

Erik repeats this a few more times. Standing back, he looks down at Imani. Her eyes have teared up, causing her mascara to run. Her red lipstick is smeared across her face and his dick. Drool and spit dropping off her mouth and chin. He throbs harder, looking at the moaning mess that is his pretty girl. He grabs her by the back of the head and plunges deep again.

Holding Imani in place, she takes it all, “My pretty girl, go ahead and accept this thank you all down your throat.” She moans and chokes as Erik cums in her mouth. She swallows as much as she can as fast as she can, and whatever misses runs out of the sides of her mouth dropping onto her naked breasts. Erik finishes, and Imani is still licking all around his shaft, having swallowed everything he gave her.

Erik moves back to regain his balance. “Damn girl, I love you.” She looks up at him, smiling and licking her lips. He goes into his bathroom to grab a towel to wipe him and her off. He leans forward and wipes the makeup and cum residue off her face, before wiping himself down. He kisses her deeply before moving about again.

He picks her up and pulls back the comforter on his bed, tucking her in. He walks out to his kitchen and grabs some water and fruit from the fridge. Bringing them back into the room, he gets into bed beside her.

“You really did have dessert planned, huh?” She turns to face him and laughs.

“You know I burn hot after being with you. Frozen fruit is good for times like this.” He feeds her the fruit and has her drink some water.

"Thank you, Daddy."

"No, thank you, baby girl. Daddy really needed that tonight." She snuggles in next to him.

“Can we do that again soon?”

“What is that?”

"Me taking charge." He looks down at her. "It was entertaining." She giggles at his expression.

“We’ll see.”

“Don’t think I didn’t notice how you reacted to me?”

“Oh yeah,” he starts tickling her.

“Stop it, Daddy.”

“Or what?”

“You’ll make me pee.”

He pushes her away, “You better get outta my bed with that mess.”

“Then stop tickling me and give me cuddles,” she pouts. He pulls her back into his arms.

“I love you, Imani.”

"I love you, too, E."

A/A/N: I just used my current taglist for this story, so if you want to be removed, please let me know. I am open to taking requests for any scenes you want to see happen between this two. 

Taglist: @panthergoddessbast @myboyfriendgiriboy @wakanda-inspired @hearteyes-for-killmonger @thememoireeofme @muse-of-mbaku @youcantkillamutant @princessstevens @bakarilennox @msincognito67 @drsunshine97 @youreadthatright @amethyst1993 @dacosmicdame @killmongersaidheyauntie @killmongerdispussy @thatbish27 @inlovewithmakeupcomicsanimelove @ljstraightnochaser @mamipeachy @thickoreo @thiccdaddy-mbaku @heyauntieeee @laketaj24 @eemahnee @bidibidibombaclaat @wikiwakanda  @hidden-treasures21 @killmongersgurl @goddessofthundathighs @monizzle96 @ajspencer1892 @jayjaydrama @blackpinup22 @almostpurelysmut @wakanda4neva @theesotericqueen

[leisureleech767]

What is the purpose of a gaming website

On the web Gaming Weblog

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[procrastination-queenie]

Only You (Non-Idol Jungkook x Reader)

Note: 

Any gifs included are not mine.

This story is based on the movie “Only You” (1994)

Summary: Jungkook is Damon Bradley...Or isn’t he?

          LOVE .... hmmm !  It’s really weird! How it can push us to do great things, stupid they maybe but great! Which is why y/n was now boarding a plane from y/c (your country) to Venice, Italy in a mission to find the love of her life; even though, her wedding is to take place in a few days! Weird, right? And Stupid,too but to her ... it was great.

          Let me take you back to where it all started. 12 years ago from this exact moment, an 11 years old y/n was sitting in the dark and ice cold livingroom with her brother Larry playing Ouija with one question lingering her mind .... Who is my soulmate?.

          “Stop it.” She said hissing at her older brother. “I am not doing anything!” Larry said defending himself from y/n’s indirect accusation that he was moving the wooden piece, with a magnifying glass in the middle of it. “yes, you are!” now angered that Larry is trying to trick her, so they can move on to the next question. “No, I am not.” 

          There was nothing to do at this time of the night, specially with this kind of weather outside as it was raining cats and dogs. Well, of course there is always something to be done in the house, but with the level of excitement the kids needed, it seemed as if there was nothing exciting enough to do, except probably try and mess around with the hidden creatures that loomed this world, asking them questions about the future. Yup sounds like the kind of thing to do on a rainy night like this and unbearable silence looming all over the house; despite, horror movies advising against such doings.

          Suddenly .... a scream of excitement emitted from y/n as the wooden piece moved (or should I say that the spirit which was present did so) hers and her brother’s hand pointing at the answer to her question. “Huh! it’s spelling the name. I have to write it down.” Her brother not really a believer in fairy tails, love stories or any bullshit about the supernatural world, rolled his eyes at his pathetic sister, who is the total opposite of him, wanting to get it over with as she was the one who forced him to play in the first place. 

          D   A   M   O   N     B   R   A   D   L   E   Y   was scattered in a messy handwriting in a small rectangular notebook with pink and purple ponies on it’s cover fitting to the age of its owner. “Damon Bradley”  y/n whispered the name with such delicacy as if it was some sort of spell and all of a sudden the owner of this name would appear in front of her out of nowhere .... just like the fairytales. Of course the weather outside did not intend to pick up and move their house’s curtains to dance an angry and violent dance, giving y/n the feeling that whatever powers controlled this earth were agreeing to the answer as if telling her “Yes, yes my dear. Damon Bradley is your soulmate.” Of course I don’t need to tell you that y/n as a romantic person was taking all of this as some sort of sign, and it was only adding on to her beliefs of the fairy god mothers and the existence of creatures like Tinker Bell and Captain Hook.

          “ But how are you going to know that it’s him? You can pass him by down the street and go on with your life never knowing that it was him.” A glitch sound can be heard inside y/n’s head as her brother tried to Pop her bubble and pause the video playing inside her head. Not really phased by her brother’s “pessimistic attitude” she answered him back confidently “I’ll just know, and you should know it too when you meet yours.” As if born with the instinct of knowing one’s soulmate upon seeing them, y/n’s answer was based on such notion. Needless to say that it was fueled by soulmates bullshit that she has read about from God knows where on a Friday night with her friends over the phone, whom only encouraged the idea among eachother more and more. With nothing else to say upon the matter, her brother, who was trying not to show a cringe on his face for hearing such nonsense, moved on to the next question trying to forget what just happened .....

          A few months later after the Ouija incident. Unlike that night, it was already summer time, school was over and almost every kid in town was out enjoying the summer-y breeze during the night, and it was no different to y/n and Larry who were both out with their friends visiting a fair that was set up by the beginning of the summer.

          SPLASH .... “LARRY!” y/n’s scream could be heard from the top of the Ferris wheel on which her brother along with his friends were laughing so hard at the fact that y/n and her friends were going to be hit by a water balloon but missed. “LARRY STOP IT OR I SWEAR MUM WILL HEAR ABOUT THIS.” (Draco Mulfoy reacted love). Too engrossed in giving Larry a piece of her mind, y/n did not stop shouting until her back hit something ... or someone. Turning around she was faced by a tough looking women, probably in her fifties, tan skin, wide brown eyes, which were highlighted by a strong black eyeliner, and a nose piercing to complete her gipsy look. 

          “NEXT....” The gipsy shouted almost giving y/n a glare for colliding into her. Y/n looked up to see the words FORTUNE TELLER hung up on the mysterious looking tent which, in y/n’s opinion, looked as if it hid a whole different world inside it’s small form. Looking down at the entrance again, the gipsy was nowhere to be found. “I am gonna go.” y/n said turning to her friends. Katie, one of y/n’s friends and also happens to be not a huge believer in fortune telling, rolled her eyes at y/n. “It won’t take long.” y/n said trying to convince Katie. “Yeah, sure. Go ahead.”  Katie said not believing her but agreeing to wait for her anyway.

          Y/n entered the tent to be welcomed by darkness except the light that came from a crystal ball centered on a table in the middle of the tent. Moving towards the “guiding light” of the crystal ball that she believed would definitely lead her to some kind of big discovery; y/n was brought out of her daze when the gispy spoke with her coarse yet very capturing and mysterious voice. “What do you want to know?”

          Y/n looked up to find the gipsy’s face looming above the crystal ball with her eyes digging a hole in y/n’s face. “ Anything about my future, but I don’t want to know anything bad, if that’s okay!” y/n said sitting back in her chair, trying to distance herself from the lady’s piercing gaze. The fortune teller nodded rolling her eyes with a look of boredom. “Perhaps my love life...” y/n said specifying what she wanted to know about exactly with the name Damon Bradley lingering in the back of her mind.The fortune teller rolled her eyes, of course almost every girl that entered this tent was curious about her love life. Disappointed about the empty minds of the girls nowadays, she huffed raising her hands moving them over the crystal ball and moving her fingers to a weird rhythm while humming. While fishing for an answer, y/n kept looking around the tent with the feeling that it might swallow her into another world any moment now. “I am getting a name.” upon hearing this y/n immediately turned her head towards the gipsy and leaning over the table, more interested than ever. “David... no Daniel... no no no it’s .... “ y/n breath itched as she became more anxious by the second.

          “It’s Damon .... Damon Bradley.” The gipsy said opening her wide eyes and staring at y/n as if looking into her soul with a small smile drawn on the side of her lips. Gasping loudly while abruptly standing up almost knocking up the crystal ball on which the gipsy had her hands on, in fear of it breaking because of the foolish girl. “Damon Bradley ...” uttering his name in the same way she did on that rainy night, she quickly turned to leave so that she can tell Katie when suddenly she was pulled back by the lady who was starting to get angry. “Two dollars for the fortune telling.” y/n quickly fished out two dollars from her bag, giving it to the gipsy and ready to leave when yet she found herself being pulled back again. “Listen, dear ... no matter what, it is up to you; you are the one who decides your own future.” y/n looked at the woman as if she had grown a second pair of eyes on her face; she had only one thing on her mind and that was DAMON fuckin’ BRADLEY.  The gipsy, knowing exactly what’s going on in y/n’s mind, had a poker face with wide eyes rolling because obviously it was futile to try and knock some sense into the girls’ minds these days and tell them that love is not everything! Sighing in surrender the gipsy shooed y/n as if she was some kind of animal that she got frustrated with for not understanding her.

          Now fast forward those 12 years, exactly 10 days before the wedding. Now y/n is a grown up 23 years old woman, independent, has an apartment of her own and with the job of ... guess what? Yup there you’ve guessed it, an English literature teacher; it is no surprise since having such romantic thoughts and beliefs would only lead her to fall love with anything artistic that could fuel these thoughts and beliefs more; therefore, she ended up teaching what she loves the most .... literature.

          Y/n was now sat on the floor in her apartment in her future mother-in-law’s wedding dress with one sentence only ringing in her head over and over again. “Y/n dear, I want you to have this.” opening the huge white box to find inside said dress of which skirt is now pooling around y/n as she buttoned the glove of her left hand “I wore it, my daughter wore, and I want you to wear it,too. You can’t imagine how I felt when Dwayne said you’d wear it.” y/n couldn’t get her mother-in-law’s triumphant smile out of her head, also the fact that her so called fiance forget to mention this one little tini-tiny information that the dress that almost every girl in the entire world dreams of for almost most of their entire lives imagining it, collecting magazines, searching and maybe even writing notes on which fabric they should wear.... would simply be his mother’s dress. Well, that and many other things that she felt herself get infuriated everytime she thought about it; for example, how after he thought that their argument about the dress is over and her uncle was coming towards them to get a picture, he tried to “fix” her hair by putting a strand of her hair behind her ear; even though she argued that it’s supposed to look like that, he ignored her completely and put the strand behind her ear because to him that’s not a proper hairstyle! The audacity of this man! Whom she’s marrying after 10 days, might I add!!!

          “I am here.” Katie her best friend said as she entered y/n’s apartment. Katie is now married to the love of her life which turned out to be y/n’s brother with 2 children. Y/n thought it great to have her best friend as her sister-in-law, but honestly she just doesn’t know what her best friend saw in that moron of a man which she calls her brother. “DON’T LOOK!” y/n screamed, she didn’t want Katie to see her,yet; well not until she finally got up, perfected her pose in that dress to add a dramatic effect. “You can look now.” poor Katie, who almost freaked out when y/n screamed at her, turned around and immediately her eyes were tearing up out of happiness for her best friend. “Wooow” she said covering her nose and mouth. “ Great isn’t it ... I thought it romantic, you know? To wear the dress of the woman who bore your husband.” y/n said walking around in it trying to get the feel of it! “I mean maybe my daughter would wear it someday...or not!” standing in front of the mirror while Katie put on her veil; she felt as if she was trying to convince herself to wear the dress, when deep down she didn’t want to have anything to do with that dress. “If I had this dress, I would love to give it to someone!” Katie disagreed while holding the tail of the veil and followed y/n around as she practiced her “walk down the aisle” and humming it’s entry music that you would her in any wedding.

          Y/n huffed in annoyance as she sat on the nearest chair; Katie knowing exactly what she’s thinking said “Oh, don’t worry. We can fix it.” leaving the veil’s tail and reaching for the box that contained all the knitting and sewing devices. “Life is not like it is in the movies, right?” y/n said as she drank from her coke can.”No, it’s not” Katie replied sternly. “Even though everyone keeps on telling you so from the day you were born, how dreams would become real, the good guy always wins and everyone lives happily ever after... all that crap, then one day you just wake up and realise that your life should be .... different.”  Katie said sniffing trying so hard to hide the tears that would tell y/n immediately that there’s something going on between her and Larry, but of course y/n felt that days before this moment, she just knows Katie like the back of her hand. “Kate what’s wrong?” y/n said leaning forward to put her hand on Katie’s making Katie look at her and reveal her teary eyes. “I don’t know! Y/n there’s something I’ve got to tell you.” Katie said letting her tears fall freely now. “What?” y/n said looking sincerely at her knowing that sometimes her brother can be a handful and hard to deal with. “ Larry and I are....” Katie was interrupted by y/n’s telephone ringing. Y/n sighed still looking at Katie. “I have to answer this, Dwayne is having all his calls forwarded here.” y/n said apologetically. Katie nodded wiping her tears. 

          “Hello!” y/n said rolling the long veil around her hand so not to trip over it. “Dr. Dwayne Johnson please!” the voice said over the phone. “Oh, he’s not here at the moment. He’s doing an emergency surgery right now. can I take a message?”

“uhm, who’s this?” 

“This is y/n his fiancee, who’s this?” by now y/n was tossing and turning around herself searching for her notebook to take the message, making the phone’s wire snake around her restricting her movement.

“Oh, hi. I am his highschool buddy. Congratulations on your wedding!” y/n nodded her head as if the speaker on the other line can see her, now having her notebook and a pen in her hands ready to take the speaker’s message.

“Thanks” she said rolling her eyes at Katie which she instantly understood that someone on the line was congratulating her on the wedding.

“Well, I am gonna be in Europe, so I am gonna miss the wedding.” The speaker said apologetically.

“Well, that’s unfortunate.” y/n said fighting the veil that has now eaten her left arm. “Be careful!” Katie whispered trying to get the veil as y/n was not making it easier for herself or Katie by trying to move with the wire, which was almost suffocating her now, towards the table to be able to write down in the notebook properly.

“What’s your name?” she asked as Katie pulled the veil from her head only to be stopped abruptly because the tail was stuck to the dress by the wire like a belt.

“I can hardly hear you, can you spell it.” y/n raised her voice a little as the signal weakened and she wasn’t able to her the speaker’s name.

“D... A... M

“Yes..” writing down the first three letters, she waited to hear the rest.

“.... O... N    B... R... A” y/n hummed for him to go on.

“... D...L.... E...Y”. “Uhaa” y/n sighed triumphantly as she managed to write it down while almost being squeezed by the wire, when suddenly ....”What the...?” she whispered as her brain freaked out alarming her of that name. 

           Gasping loudly, the phone dropped as she tried to collect her thoughts. “What?” Katie asked worriedly.

“Hello, are you okay?”

“Hello!” 

“What’s going on?” Katie was almost going to put a hand on y/n’s shoulder when she suddenly screamed “IT’S HIM!”. Frantically she reached for the phone gasping for air as if she has ran the flight of stairs ten times non-stop. 

“DAMON BRADLEY!” she asked wanting to make sure that she heard him correctly. Katie hearing that name racked through her brain in hopes of finding any importance to why she should remember it.

“Yeah!!!” The poor guy now freaking out from her tone.

“WHERE ARE YOU?” she asked holding unto Katie in case she might pass out any moment now.

“I am at the airport, why?" He asked wondering why his whereabouts might be of any importance to his high school buddy’s fiancee.

          Gasping again loud, both of the girls; y/n for the fact that her soulmate might leave without reaching out to him and missing her chance of maybe getting to know him, and Katie because all of a sudden the name DAMON BRADLEY written in bulbes had lit up, lighting with it all the memories of young y/n and Katie spending hours on their telephones trying to guess whether y/n might end up meeting him for real or not?

“W- W- WHERE ARE YOU GOING?” 

“I am on my way to Venice.” Again, the poor guy freaked out when her heard her moan over the phone as if “Venice” is some sort of a new ice-cream flavour that she had tried and is expressing her delight of tasting it.

“Oooooh I loooovvee Venice.” y/n said in awe not able to control herself over the idea of maybe running away with him and where to? ... To Venice. What a terrific idea, again crazy but terrific!

Not really knowing how to answer back. Mr. Damon Bradley had said that he’s gotta run now and maybe they’ll talk about it when they all get together.

“But wait I....” 

too late now since Damon Bradley hung up the phone, proceeding on his way to the plan that would take him to Venice.

P.s : I am so sorry Jungkook did not appear in this chapter, but I promise he will appear ..... eventually!😂💖

But please, don’t hesitate to tell me your opinion.🌻✨