#I was debating which scene to draw. Decided to at least have Ran drawn because he wont be around much. same with laure

[deiaiko]

#17.3 Wind up

"Crocodile, come with me for a moment," Khun heard as Agni approached Rak.

Rak gave Agni a thoughtful look, but he agreed. They walked away until they were out of sight, though not too far since Khun could still feel Rak's presence.

Khun sat down on the ground next to Ran, legs spread to avoid cramps after the workout. He didn't expect Agni to be that powerful. His moves were calculated and precise enough that he could still last after sparring with everyone one-on-one for five minutes each. His attacks weren't too destructive but aimed to subdue, which meant that he was serious when he said that this was just a mock battle and not a way to eliminate them. Agni could see everyone's weak points and use it to his advantage, and Khun was sure that everyone had at least one thing they could improve after this.

One thing Khun could confirm was that Agni did live up to the rumors. He had proven himself to be an excellent lightbearer, spear bearer and a negotiator, and it was kind of scary that he was also a part of FUG.

Although, there was something about him that made Khun wonder. It was really subtle, but after analyzing his fights with everyone else, Khun realized that Agni seemed to be favoring his left leg. Upon a successful hit, Agni's reaction was just as expected of a normal regular, and there was little to no change to his attack speed. Though from the way he didn't notice the surprise attack itself, Khun had a suspicion that his mask-covered eye might be partially blind. But he had no proof to back it up, since Agni's eyes both looked functional.

Footsteps approached Khun from behind. Something cold touched his cheek, and Khun instinctively reached out for his knife, especially because it reminded him of Agni's ice and some unpleasant memories from his past.

"Here, drink up." Isu offered him a cold can of juice. "Ran, I got yogurt for you too."

Ran took it silently with a straight face, but his eyes showed satisfaction.

Fortunately for Shibisu, Khun was too drained to be mad and instead just took a long sip of the juice to cool off his head, only to realize how thirsty he was. "You will get yourself stabbed if you do that to me again."

Isu blinked, then raised both hands in surrender. "Sorry, I won't do that again."

From the other side of the field, Endorsi groaned loudly, "I'm going to kill him." She got up to her feet and dragged Anaak with her. "We're going to spar, c'mon."

Anaak also groaned in response, but surprisingly complied. They were the first two to challenge Agni, so they had the longest break already. Hatz and Ran joined them on the sparring field not long after.

Khun took out his lighthouse and did a quick search. "The fish earlier…he didn't lie that it might be dangerous for E-ranks since it can only be found on the 24th floor or higher."

Shibisu gulped.

"it's possible to tame one…" Khun read aloud as he skimmed through the article, "but it's not built for fighting or tracking, so it’s low in demand among animas, making the domesticated electric eel rare in the market."

"Huh." Shibisu knitted his eyebrows, "So: One, Agni has at least reached the 24th floor to get his hands on it. And two, considering that he's from the Khun family, he wasn't born an anima, and that should have limited his ability to control shinheuh. So it's likely that he specifically picked this species for its abilities. Which are–"

"The ability to stunning their enemies and hide their shinsu presence," Khun recited. "They're a good choice for defending against a surprise attack. The major downside is that they can only release an electrical shock once every few days before having to recharge."

"Yeah, no wonder they're low in demand," Shibisu muttered. "So he's planning to give it to me?"

"Maybe he saw you as the weakest and in need of extra protection."

Shibisu groaned, "You didn't have to call me out like that. But I guess…it's not a bad idea to have a secret card."

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[ihaveakoreanseoul]

Shoot Out Part III

Part I  Part II

Word Count~ 3.7

Warnings- None!

Hyunjin (Stray Kids) x Reader

Juyeon (The Boyz) x Reader

Mafia! AU; Werewolf! AU

I took a moment for myself, trying to only focus on the feeling of my breaths coming in and out of my body. After I felt steady enough to perform basic functions, I changed out of my sticky mess of a shirt and grabbed a replacement out of my closet. I washed off my face and pulled my hair into a bun, figuring that washing it would be a challenge that I would leave for a later time. I cracked open the door and scurried over to my brother’s room, grabbing a plain black t-shirt for the beautiful boy sitting in my kitchen to change into.

As I walked down the stairs, I mentally prepared myself to see his face again and ignore the pesky feelings that he caused to arise in me. He was sitting at the counter, his hair freshly slicked back, as if he had tried to wash it in the sink. He was hunched over a notebook of some sort, furiously dragging the pencil across the paper, as if he was sketching something. “Hey,” I said and he jerked up, slamming the notebook closed as if trying to hide something. “I brought this shirt for you to change into. We can stick your shirt in the washer when you’re done changing and I’ll get the brownies in the oven.” Once again he responded with a grunt of agreeance and I wondered what had changed. Gone was the boy who used every possible opportunity to fluster me with a flirty comment or cocky remark, he simply behaved like he didn’t know how to act around me anymore.

After I knew he had made it up the stairs and heard the sound of a door shutting, I tiptoed over to his notebook, curious of its contents that he seemed so desperate to hide from me. I opened it up and at first glance realized that it was indeed a sketchbook and also that Hyunjin was insanely talented. The first pages were all drawings of nature scenes of some sort, with a common theme of there being wolves in the sketches, either in the foreground or peering out from behind trees that looked so real that I could almost smell the fresh scent of pine.

Knowing that he would come down soon, I quickly flipped to the later pages, hoping to locate his work in progress. I was continually skimming the pages until I came to a halt upon a face that was oh so familiar but also looked like a face I had never seen before. It was my own face, deep in thought with a pencil pressed to my lower lip. I saw my eyes, my lips, my nose, the furrow in between my brows that formed when I was deep in concentration. I knew all these pieces were drawn to perfection but I could still hardly believe the sketch was of me because it was beautiful. I had never been what I considered severely insecure about my looks but I knew where I lied on the scale of beauty and it was not like this. The way he drew me felt like a caress on my face, his pencil lightly running over my features.

Wholeheartedly shocked by my discovery, I flipped past the first sketch to see drawing after drawing of me in various states. In most I was in class, either furiously scribbling down notes or with my hand raised high and eagerness to learn in my eyes. But in some I was with friends, smiling mischievously with a glint in my eyes or with my hands waving in front of me, caught up in the magic of storytelling. I finally came to the last sketch, which was rougher than the others, with the lines drawn in an almost frantic manner. If I had questioned that Hyunjin at least had some type of feelings towards me when I was looking at the previous drawings, all those doubts disappeared immediately when I saw this one. It was a moment that had occured only minutes ago, in the midst of the food fight. I was crouched on the ground, hands reached out in surrender and my head threw back as laughter wracked my body. Somehow with only the gray of the pencil he had made my eyes look like they were sparkling from within. I knew at that moment that he cared about me, much more than he would ever let on but the question I had was in what way did he care for me? Was it the joy of companionship that made him draw me? The tingle of new friendship? Or possibly something more?

With those thoughts shaking me back into reality, I realized that he would probably be down any moment. I slammed the notebook closed and ran over to hurriedly pour the brownie batter into the prepared pan, all while my mind spun out of control. I was debating what to do about what I had seen as I reached down to put the pan in the hot oven. As I slid the brownies onto the rack I was so caught up in thought that I didn’t notice my fingers coming into contact with the scalding metal rack until pain shot through my fingers.

I shot back, shaking my hand as if it would take away the pain as I heard a call of “(Y/N)” echo through the kitchen. I looked over to see Hyunjin running toward me and as he reached me he grabbed my hand to inspect my reddening fingers. Like a nagging mother he started on with “(Y/N) you have to be more careful next time. For christ’s sake you only have one set of fingers, they won’t regrow if you burn them off.”

As he mused, he placed a hand on my back and guided me towards the sink, where he turned on cool water and ran it over my fingers, still gingerly holding my hand in his. For the first time since he had come downstairs, I looked to him and our eyes met. In a low voice I said “Thank you for taking care of me Hyunin. I promise I will be more careful next time.” Instead of looking away, we both held the gaze for a few moments that felt like an eternity and I could feel my cheeks flush under his stare. He leaned in minutely for a moment and breathed in deep like his lungs were begging for air before he said “Be more careful from now on (Y/N) or you could get burned.” Somehow I knew that he didn’t mean that the oven would burn me.

Panic coursed through me as I struggled to come to terms with all the extraordinary events that had happened in the last hour. I yanked my hand out of his and I swear I saw pain flash in his eyes for a moment. “We had better get started on the project,” I said, trying to convince myself to focus on schoolwork instead of the feelings that I was drowning in.

I sat down at the kitchen counter, spreading all the class materials out in front of me. Looking down at the rubric for the project, I let out a deep sigh. Our english teacher was known for being a harsh grader, and I was worried that this project could drop my grade down to an A-. My parents have always been a major source of pressure when it comes to grades and I knew they would be displeased with a grade like that.

I heard the noise of the chair scraping across the floor as Hyunjin sat down next to me. I began to go over the basics of the project with him and then decided it was best to discuss the novel to see if we could agree on a theme to focus on. I was shocked that when I began to throw out ideas into the mix, he responded with eloquently spoken, well thought out responses and used examples from the novel to support his statements. A few minutes into our discussion I was stammering in surprise when I finally decided to voice my confusion.

“So Hyunjin, I’ve got a question for you.” He lifted his gaze to meet mine. “Yeah?”

“I thought you slept everyday in class, how do you know all of this?”

He immediately burst into laughter. “I’d already read these novels in my free time and I’d rather sleep than listen to our teacher try to explain the beauty out of the book.”

“So I’m not the only one who gets upset every time he brings up literary devices that I’m relatively sure the author never intended to mean anything?”

“Not at all. Do you remember one of the first days in class when he tried to say that Twilight was a modern day Romeo and Juliet and as such, should be treated with more respect? That’s the first day I fell asleep.”

“Okay I have to admit, I did question his sanity a bit at that point but he is the one who writes the tests so I still try to listen.”

“Fair enough.”

For the next few hours we worked in comfortable silence. I began making the powerpoint that was necessary for the project, while Hyunjin began searching for sources to cite. I did not realize how late it was getting until I heard the familiar sound of the garage door lifting, signaling that my mom was home from work. I let of an “Oh shit,” without thinking about it. Hyunjin looked up from his work. “What’s wrong?”

“Well I hope you’re ready to meet my mom.”

“Should I be worried?”

“No, she’s one of the kindest women to grace this earth.”

“Then what’s the issue?”

“Well… when she sees that you… look like you do, she’s going to you know, bug me about it.”

A knowing smirk appeared on his face. “You mean when she sees how devastatingly handsome I am she’ll want you to date me?”

A flush came upon my cheeks as I responded. “For lack of a better way to say that… sure. Whatever makes you feel good about yourself.”

“Well then I might just appreciate your mom’s help.”

“Help in what?”

“Dating you.”

As the words left his mouth my jaw dropped open and my heart began to race but as I was about to respond, I was interrupted by the sound of the garage door opening.

“Hi mom!” I called out.

“Hi sweetie!” She responded.

It was almost as if I could see her thought process as she walked in and her eyes fell upon Hyunjin. She was shocked at how attractive he was at first and my eyes jumped to his figure to see how he was feeling about the situation. Once again I was enraptured by his enigmatic aura and captivating eyes. When I glanced back at my mom, her eyes told me that she had not missed the way I had looked at Hyunjin and it made me nervous and embarrassed in an instant. Now that she had noticed my very obvious attraction to him, I knew she would try that much harder to get us together.  

I was surprised when Hyunjin confidently strode towards my mother and reached out his hand towards her.

“Hello ma’am, I’m Hyunjin. It’s nice to meet you.”

Instead of grabbing his outstretched hand, my mother pulled him into a warm hug. “Oh you are just too cute! It’s so nice to meet you.” I saw Hyunjin’s body immediately tense, before he relaxed into the hug and reached up to awkwardly pat my mom’s back. He looked shocked by the motherly affection I was used to having, and it was kind of sweet to see him interacting with arguably the most important person in my life. When she pulled away, she turned her head towards me and said, “Have you asked him if he wants to stay for dinner?”

“No, mom I haven’t.”

“I thought I had taught you better manners, (Y/N).” She scolded, but I knew she was not actually mad at me. “Hyunjin, would you like to stay for dinner? I’m making pasta.”

“Mom I’m pretty sure he’s busy-“

“I would love to ma’am, thank you.” Hyunjin said, interrupting me. I glared at him, upset that he was beginning to fully invade my life, but he took my glare and met it with a self-satisfied smirk.

“Oh, how wonderful! (Y/N) why don’t you two go and hang out for a while. But I’ll be vacuuming in the living room, so you’ll need to go to your room,” she said mischievously, sending me an extra conspicuous wink. “Mom…” I began, bothered by the forceful way she was trying to make me confront my own feelings. But then I felt a warm and comforting hand wrap around my own as Hyunjin said, “Let’s go (Y/N), your mother must be an extremely busy woman, we don’t want to distract her.” With a sigh, I let him pull me towards the stairs and when I peered over my shoulder, I could see my mom with a hand thrown across her mouth, her shoulders shaking with laughter.

As Hyunjin led me up the stairs, his warm hand still sending tingles through my body, I had mixed feelings about the situation, simultaneously feeling excitement course through my veins, as well as a distinct sense of anxiousness. I was becoming increasingly aware as time passed that I was quickly developing feelings for Hyunjin and feelings like these are truly unfamiliar territory for me. I have never been one to quickly fall in love, letting infatuation overtake my sensibilities. My sole focus has always been schoolwork and academic success, and everything else, including romantic relationships, has fallen to the wayside.

While I was in my practically catatonic trail of thoughts, Hyunjin looked back at me for direction. “(Y/N)... (Y/N),” he called, waving a hand in front of my face to snap me out of my own head. “Yeah?” I mumbled, still slightly dazed. “Where’s your room at?”

“Oh my room?” I questioned, a flush rising on my cheeks, “Oh umm yeah… it’s just right around the corner there.” As we walked over the threshold into my room I began to move around uncomfortably. I twiddled my thumbs and shifted my weight between my feet, not sure what to do with this Adonis of a man standing in my room. To my surprise, he fearlessly launched himself onto my bed and grabbed my TV remote from the bedside table. “Do you have Netflix? We can watch something,” he said, and then proceeded to pat the bed beside him, indicating that I should sit beside him. I nodded and hesitantly walked towards my bed, delicately seating myself on the very edge of the mattress.

Hyunjin looked over to my tense figure and chuckled. He began to scoot towards me, with a knowing smirk on his face. As he moved closer, I could barely remain seated on the bed. I was on the very edge of my precarious seat when, unexpectedly, he lunged towards me, sending me careening off the bed. In an attempt to keep myself from crashing to the ground in a heap, my hands reached out and grasped onto Hyunjin’s. Unfortunately, this did not prevent my fall but instead pulled the boy who began this along with me.

As my back hit the ground, I felt my breath leave my lungs in a rush of air. Before my body had time to fully register the impact, I felt a weight coming from above. As I cracked my eyes open I realized that Hyunjin had landed on top of me, his face only inches from mine. Before I could speak his hands were framing my face and tilting back and forth as if checking for any major injuries.

“(Y/N) are you okay? I’m so sorry I should have been more careful. Where are you hurt?” Instead of telling him that I had suffered no injuries, I became flustered by his nearness. He had not yet bothered to move, and my body was all too aware of his closeness. Afraid of what semi-coherent thoughts may come out of my mouth if I spoke, I bit down on my lip to keep these stray words from coming out and embarrassing me permanently.

When Hyunjin’s eyes landed on my lip in between my teeth, I could see his eyes darken and the temperature in the room felt like it skyrocketed. Our eyes made contact and I let my lip go from between my teeth with an audible pop. With a look of manic hunger in his eyes, Hyunjin let out a sigh and a barely decipherable “Fuck it,” before his lips fell on mine.

For a moment I was stunned into stillness. It was almost as if I had forgotten how to perform all of the major functions of my body. My heart stopped beating, my breaths stopped coming, and my lips had turned to stone. Frustrated with my lack of response, Hyunjin nipped at my bottom lip, trying to coax me into returning his affections. It worked, with my lips parting in a gasp, giving him a chance to kiss me deeper. I began to mirror his movements, falling into somewhat of a rhythm. As I gained confidence, I wound my arm up around his neck, running my fingers through his silky locks. His hand moved up to caress my face, making me feel cherished. While our lips continually met, he sat up, pulling me with him and onto his lap, so that I was straddling him. As we kissed, I fell deeper and deeper into the trap that was my feelings for Hyunjin. I knew at this point that there was no going back from what had happened tonight.

At some point I forgot where I was, how long we had been kissing, and my own name. It was just so easy to fall into the kiss and let my emotions run rampant. His kiss made me feel desired and wanted but never pressured to do anything further. As our breath ran out, we finally broke apart from the kiss. When we made eye contact an uncontrollable grin came on my face, a smile so wide, my cheeks strained. His face then reflected mine as he said, “My god, (Y/N), you put the brightest star in the sky to shame.” He stopped speaking but I could see in his eyes that there was more that he wanted to say. I reached up and pushed a stray hair out of his face. “What is it?”

He looked momentarily embarrassed, as if he was caught in the act of a crime. “I just… This might be too fast but… (Y/N), would you be my girlfriend?”

It felt like I had just won the lottery, a gold medal at the Olympics, and American Idol all at once. Even though I was overwhelmingly filled with joy at his question, there was still a whisper of doubt nagging at the back of my mind. I just couldn’t help but wonder why all this way happening. Why me and why now and why so quickly? Hyunjin could get pretty much any girl he wanted at our school, whether they were taken or not, and I was by no stretch of the word the prettiest girl at our school. I wanted so badly to just believe that Hyunjin truly liked me for me but that was a notion that I could barely wrap my head around. Gathering my courage, I decided to voice my concerns, instead of cutting myself off from him.

“I just was wondering something…” I mused, peering into his chocolatey eyes from my vantage spot on his lap. I could see that my comment made him nervous and I wanted to kiss away the little wrinkles that formed between his eyebrows while he worried. “Why me? I mean you could have practically any girl you wanted and I’m… I’m me. Nothing special, just your typical nerd but with possibly too much sarcasm. And I look like-” He cut me off in the middle of my self-deprecating rant.

“You look like the most extraordinarily attractive woman I have ever, and will ever, lay my eyes on. When you smile, my heart clenches and when we kissed… that’s a feeling that I will never grow tired of. But the most beautiful parts of you are the huge brain and heart you have. I have never met anyone as intelligent as you or as kind and loyal to your friends. The only fault I could ever find in you is that you don’t see all these beautiful things about yourself that I see. (Y/N) from the moment you woke me up in class and stomped all over my asshole front that I put up, I knew you would be someone I treasured forever, either as a friend or hopefully something more.”

My eyes began to well up with tears from his heartfelt confession. I had never felt so desired and treasured as I do now. It was at this moment that I knew I had my answer. “Hyunjin, I would be so honored to be your girlfriend,” I choked out before I burst into tears. He simply pulled me into his chest while I sobbed for all the insecurities that Hyunjin had begun to assuage.

Looking back at this moment, years later, I realize that this moment, along with the next year with Hyunjin, were the happiest times in my life. I lived in a state of constant bliss as I was showered with affection and reassurance.

The height of my happiness emphasized the severity of my heartbreak, when Hyunjin disappeared one night and in the past two years, has been gone from my life but never my heart.

[basketcase789]

Written in the Stars II

“Coincidences mean you're on the right path.”

- Simon Van Booy

Group: BTS

Member: RM

Genre: soulmate au

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

You weren’t even with your soulmate, and it was having a negative effect on your mental state. You were currently in the middle of doing your homework, reading the assigned material for one of your literature classes, and realized you’d just read the same paragraph for the fifth time in a row.

You groaned and put your book down. You were finding it harder and harder to focus on Charlotte Brontë and easier and easier for Namjoon to slip into your thoughts. Particularly his dimpled smile.

Your roommate had popped her head through the doorway at the sound of your frustrated cry. “You look like you could use a break,” she said.

“It’s only the beginning of the semester; a break is the last thing I need. For this upcoming week I still have three chapters of Jane Eyre to read, and I have to write an opinion piece on-“

“So,” she interrupted, drawing out the word, “what you’re saying is you still have a week to do all that. Why don’t you come out for dinner with me and some classmates and blow off some steam?”

“It’s a Sunday…”

“It’s not like we’re going out partying. Maybe just have a couple drinks with dinner. Come on, you need to get out more often, and that’s coming from me.”

You and your roommate had been a match made in heaven. Neither of you were big partiers, and you both took your grades very seriously. She was here on scholarship as well, and you considered her your best friend.

But you hadn’t told her that you’d found your soulmate. Yet. You hadn’t told a soul, in fact. You were too afraid that after telling someone word would eventually get back to the faculty, although you knew your roommate would never snitch on you.

But maybe going out with some friends would be enough to get Namjoon out of your mind.

“Alright. So where are we going?”

An hour later you were laughing with your roommate and some acquaintances over a pitcher of sangria. You’d all agreed on a pub on campus, one you knew that was a bit more relaxed and quiet. You’d only had one drink, and because you had a low alcohol tolerance you were happily buzzed at the moment.

That was, until a small group of men arrived at the pub. And Namjoon was among them.

It was probably the wine… yeah, it was definitely the wine that made your heart race at the sight of him. He was only wearing a casual striped polo shirt and black jeans, but you couldn’t help but steal glances at him throughout the rest of dinner. He looked effortlessly handsome, and your eyes were drawn to him with that magnetic attraction again. At one point he caught your eye as well, and that was when you reached over and poured yourself another glass of sangria.

“Another pitcher, please,” you said to the waitress after downing your second glass.

“I don’t think we can all finish another,” your roommate said. You detected a bit of worry in her voice, but the alcohol was starting to really kick in, so you couldn’t be certain. “We have class tomorrow, remember?”

You waved a hand through the air, “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.”

And take care of it you did. You weren’t sure at what point you lost self-control, the only thing you could think of was trying to get Namjoon out of your head. When one glass didn’t work you moved on to the next, and the next, until you’d finished the entire pitcher yourself.

The rest of the night was mostly a blur to you. You vaguely heard your friend say, “I think it’s time to get you home,” and then you were on your feet, although you couldn’t feel your feet. And then after that, nothing.

Your alarm sounded like a bomb blast as it rang the next morning. You groaned, clutching your forehead as you tried to fully wake up. You called for your roommate. “Why did you let me drink so much last night?”

“I tried to get you to stop but you were determined to keep drinking. I don’t know what came over you suddenly. You’d better hurry though, don’t you have class soon?”

You groaned again. “I’m never leaving our apartment for drinks again.”

You rode out a wave of nausea and then somehow managed to get up and get ready for class. Which class did you have this morning again? Oh yeah… poetry. With Namjoon. He was the very reason for your suffering right now.

You debated just skipping class altogether. You only needed eighty percent attendance after all - but what if you really needed the freebies later on in the semester? Namjoon was still your professor, and missing the second day of class was not a good first impression.

Ten minutes later you were sitting in class - on time. You mentally patted yourself on the back for making it here. Your stomach was still churning, but it was tolerable at least. Your headache was much worse - lights had never looked so bright before, and you struggled to stay focused and present.

Namjoon walked into the room looking like a million bucks, and despite your attempt to remain unaffected by him, your bond’s reaction was exactly the same as it had been on your first day of class. You just couldn’t pull your eyes away.

You were operating mostly on autopilot, imagining being back home in bed instead. You signed the attendance sheet with your signature once again instead of printing. Vaguely paid attention to the class discussion. Tried to take notes.

Namjoon took the attendance sheet after the last student had filled it out, and after glancing it over briefly he placed it on his desk.

“For the next twenty minutes I’d like you each to create a poem. It can be about anything at all, and there are no limits or restrictions. Poetry is all about practice, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do. At the end I’ll take a few volunteers to read aloud to the class to begin discussions, with points going toward your participation grade of course.”

You opened your notebook to a fresh page and began brainstorming. You weren’t going to produce anything grand in twenty minutes, that’s for sure. Especially in your current state. You decided to forego any kind of rhyming scheme and just wrote whatever came to mind.

“Time’s up,” Namjoon said. “Do we have any volunteers?”

You didn’t raise your arm, figuring you could get your participation points from discussing someone else’s poem instead, or from something else later on in the semester.

“No takers? Guess I’ll have to pick someone myself.” He reached for the attendance sheet and read over the list of names. You started doodling in your notebook, since there was no way he’d be able to read your signature-

He stated your first and last name, and then looked up to find where you were seated in the class.

You dropped your pen, and stood shakily. Had he looked up your name on the course list after last class? That was the only explanation you could think of for how he’d know your name. Your signature wasn’t exactly legible.

Why you?

His eyes lingered on you a moment, and you gulped. A look crossed his face - recognition? - before he smiled. “Would you read your poem for us?”

You nodded and lifted your notebook so you could read better. You cleared your throat.

“Ah, but first,” he said and leaned on his desk, arms folded across his chest. “Poetry is meant to be heard and read. Please write your poem on the board exactly as you’ve written it, so we can follow along.”

You felt all the blood drain from your face. You licked your lips as you tried to come up with an excuse not to, but none came to you. Your hands shook as you stepped away from the desk and toward the chalkboard at the front of the classroom.

Why did Namjoon have to be so old fashioned? Why couldn’t he use a projector with a computer document or something?

You picked up the chalk, but paused a moment. You had to think of a way out of this. Everyone had seen Namjoon’s writing by now - in fact his writing was there on the board, visible to everyone. The entire class would be able to see that your writing is exactly the same as his and know you were soulmates. Your heart began to pound. Then what would happen? One of you would have to leave the school to maintain the rule. You didn’t want it to be you because you’d have to start your academics all over again, as the courses were non-transferrable to other schools, and you didn’t want it to be Namjoon because that was just unfair-

You brought a hand up to cover your mouth, the combination of stress and the alcohol from last evening causing a wave of nausea to suddenly overtake you. You dropped your notebook as you ran out the classroom to the nearby washroom, before you made an even bigger scene than you just had. While you were occupied emptying your stomach of last night’s mistakes, you hoped your notebook wasn’t spread open on the floor for all to see.

[seti-fan]

I’ve been all over the place lately with work and family and stuff, but one of the pretty cool developments of all that is that as of this weekend, I am officially a Ghostbuster.

A while back, I worked on a really low-budget take on a proton pack for a convention and when I ran into our local chapter of the official GB costume club, they invited me to join. This weekend, I worked my first event at San Japan, an anime convention in San Antonio. We had a booth with a bunch of replica props and gear the team owns (a life-size Slimer to take pictures with, a Vigo poster, various packs and PKE meters). We had a raffle where you could win a bag with a shirt, a phone case, a Blu-Ray of the new movie, a printed script of the original, and Twinkies with green creme and some Hi-C Ecto Cooler. (Apparently they brought it back before the release of the new movie and they bought up a bunch.) We sold buttons and stuff to raise money for Meals on Wheels and just generally had a lot of fun taking pictures with other fans. A lot of parents who were there for their kids were so excited to see us because we were the only thing they actually recognized at the con.

Some stand out moments:

Some of the senior group members talked about getting to go to the LA premiere of the 2016 movie. Sony wanted an audience full of fans, so they told chapters of the club “If you can get here, we’ve got tickets for you.” A bunch of Texas fans found flights out and went together. They met tons of other fans and got to stand on the red carpet as the actresses were arriving. Their group was toward the end by the theatre door. They said Kristen was first so she got through with enough time that she was making an effort to sign something for everyone lining the carpet. But after that they were kind of being rushed through because interviews had taken longer than planned and they had to get started, so Leslie was in a hurry, but tried to sign things and when our chapter’s leader had a fanboy moment and just yelled, “Leslie, sign my shirt!” she actually backtracked to sign the shirt he was wearing. They said Kate and Melissa had to rush by and just waved because they had been waylaid longest, so they didn’t get to meet them, but it wasn’t the girls’ fault. And then they got to watch the movie at Mann’s Chinese Theatre with an audience of all fans, Paul Feig gave a little welcome at the beginning (they said he seemed so sweet and nervous about whether they would like it or not), and they went crazy loving the screening. If they ever do a sequel, I really hope they do that again. Lol

In the club it’s accepted not everyone is going to like every movie/show, but the members who weren’t crazy about the new movie (at least in our chapter) make an effort not to rain on the mood of those who do (and never let it show to fans coming up to the booth). The chapter leader only has two things he said he would change about it: 1. He would have it fit into the old universe somehow just so people would stop getting territorial about the two and it would end some of the griping they have to hear about. 2. He would re-edit Abby and Erin’s deleted scenes back in, because he felt their friendship was under-served by cutting all their “breakup” scenes. (Which, honestly, I agree with and I love that he was emotionally invested in them too.)

We had a couple of teenage/college-age fans come up (one trans, one nonbinary I learned as we chatted) and the girl who was trans was so excited about the new film. The nonbinary fan admitted sheepishly they hadn’t seen more than clips of the movie. The other turned to them, face serious, and said, “I have the movie on my phone. We’re watching it tonight.”

Got lots of love from fans. People wanted pictures with Slimer, yes, but lots of young women and little girls who had fallen in love with the new movie and wanted to get pictures. One really cool girl showed us pictures of her Holtzmann Halloween costume. She might be the first black Holtzmann I’ve seen (forgive me if I’ve just missed people’s pics) and she looked so awesome. I want her to come back in the costume at another con and get a pic with her.

Amazing group of friends did the Belcher family from Bob’s Burgers. The Linda was Spot. On. OMG that dude was perfect. Kept hearing that voice across the convention hall yelling, “Oh! Family photo! C’mere! Family photo!” and “Ah, my babies!” Hearing Linda’s voice say “Bustin’ makes me feel good” is a highlight of the con for me.

While overwhelmingly it was great, we did get one asshole who walked up to the booth (staffed at that point by me, one other woman, and one guy), turned directly to the male group member and started going into how he only liked the originals and hated the new one, how it was “girls trying to do what men do” and it was horrible and only got any attention because it was feminism and generally was being really misogynistic and insulting to the actresses. The other woman (who’s a veteran of these cons), just gestured me to kind of step away and not get involved because you don’t want to start a fight or anything where security has to step in, and let the guy at the booth steer the “fan” away. They said it’s not that common, but you do occasionally get people who want to start something or are a bit unstable themselves, and it’s better just to let it roll off. Though she did throw a middle finger and some nasty faces at him as he was leaving. :)

As if the world wanted to prove most fans aren’t like that, I had a Beautiful Con Moment afterward. In the vendor’s room later, I chatted with a couple of artists who were selling a cute drawing of the four girls (I’ll scan it and advertise their work later). They had a sign saying “Bring us Whataburger and you can have a free print” since they couldn’t leave their table. After debating my budget for a bit, I decided to go back and buy the drawing. A guy had apparently brought them their food by then and when I told them I’d decided to go ahead with it, the guy said, “Give it to her. I can’t pick, so that can be my free print.” And we all melted at the act of kindness and he said he had daughters and had mostly wanted to make sure the girls (well, possibly nonbinary individuals) at the booth had food more than score free art, and it was a sweet moment all around. (I then bought something else from their booth too because I wanted them to still make some money and support their art.)

The artist told me their girlfriend had actually drawn the piece and was going to do more art of the new team in the future. Later, they came running over and told me they texted the girlfriend and she was so psyched it went to a Ghostbuster.

Anyway, first official bust was a success! Looking forward to doing more in the future!