#Listen the lines she has with everyone are so cute and Sage sounds like she has a headache reminding her to stick to the plan lmao ))

[galaxythixf]

 @knifvd  said: ❛     i  told  you  that  you  cannot  keep  acting  FOOLISHLY   ,     ❜      bitter  woman  bites  out  like  FIRE  of  anger  still  lingers  on  her  TONGUE   :   but  know  that  it  comes  from  the  tightening  in  her  chest  ,   the  inevitable  FALL  she  cannot  stop   .  sage  to  PRESS  hands  closer  with  glowing  ,  healing  mint  HUE  ,  almost  looking  like  steam  comes  from  the  area  wounded  and  her  hand  touching  it  .      ❛     WHAT  happens  the  next  time  ,  and  i  am  not  here  ?   i  do  not  say  these  things  for  fun   ---  it  is  because  ---  because  i  WORRY  .     ❜     [   for  whoever  needs  a  healer  most  .  ]  

Tender wounds make the duelist wince even as the healer's gentle touch mends them, cooling the gash of skin that seems to find its way back together under Sage's touch. The soothing feeling that follows always pulls the same reaction out of Raze every single time, a relieved sigh and a second wind she knew she could count on. A small taste of guilt rests on her heart hearing the tone the other uses, having been no stranger to it. This isn't the first time she's been on the receiving end of a lecture for reckless behavior and the words were usually always the same even if the person giving it to her differed.

"I'd promise not to charge in like that again but I'm not sure I could keep it." She wasn't a liar by any means. Perhaps too straightforward for her own good but her intentions were just that, good. "Didn't expect to get hit by some of the debris in the process but it all worked out, right? Good thing I was there to take the brunt of all of that!" There's a grin that seems to dismiss the severity of the situation along with her wounds in response to what should have warranted concern but Raze was usually above acknowledging it so long as it was about herself. "A few gashes and scrapes are nothing if it means I did my job and kept you safe, chefinha." Her pride is only momentarily interrupted by the spike of pain she feels as the hands that heal her move from her fading headache to the throbbing in her side to care for it next. Scrapes and gashes aren't exactly what she suffers from, perhaps the biggest understatement she could make while she sat with bloody clothes and broken bones.

Headphones rest around her shoulders as she slumps against what's left of the city walls, exuding the same optimism despite the inappropriate circumstances that befell them. Paints splash the walls just a few feet away of her as the rest of Tokyo's walls decide whether to crumble as a result of her explosives or stand stubborn in protest. What remained of the defused spike rests untouched while her weapon lay beside her nearly forgotten. The only sounds that accompany fallen pebbles and soft whines are the bass tones from her headphones. The volume shot significantly to exchange a few words while she sat immobile, her playlist still beating along.

"I'm sorry for making you worry so much but look at us, ha! The city's still intact — mostly!" Raze beams as if this helps sell her point. "I knew I could count on you to have my back no matter what." There isn't a shred of doubt in her eyes, somehow seeking this opportunity to use her newly healed arm to gently pat the other's shoulder in attempt to ease her worries with reckless optimism and honesty. Truthfully, she had no regrets about her actions and wouldn't even if they were the last few she'd ever make. Raze had complete faith in her teammates but even if something went awry, she was content.

"You do so much already, the least I could do was wrap this up fast for you."

[queenofbaws]

top 5 favourite until dawn characters to WRITE vs top 5 favourite until dawn characters in general (if it's different)

it is such an important distinction med, and i thank you endlessly for letting me get into it 😏

WRITING

1. flamethrower guy/the stranger/jack: this one likely shocks no one. there's just. a joy. that comes with writing an unhinged, monster-hunting hermit. he kicks doors open. he lives in a burnt out hospital full of Creatures. he's larry fessenden. he's alive in canon for roughly 5 minutes. he's the light of my life. 2. mike: probably slightly more of a surprise because i don't write him OFTEN, but i love writing mike. lovelovelove writing him. mostly because, of the ud kids, i think he's the character who talks...the most...like i do irl??? similar speech patterns, i mean - same tendency to just. say things. that do not make sense. or things that did not need to be said. 3. EMILY: again, probably a surprise because i don't write her much, but my GOD there is a freedom to writing in emily's voice asldkfjdskf she's smart. she's mean. she always has at least three insults locked and loaded in the chamber. she's also the only character in the franchise to say "understand the palm of my hand, bitch." she contains multitudes. 4. dr. hill: gotta be honest here. i went through. a lot. of schooling for psychology. okay. like. however much you think that means? it was like. twice that. and i spent a lot of time - a lot of time - listening to professionals in the field talk in circles and say absolutely batshit things while sagely nodding and giving everyone around them knowing looks, and if i didn't have alan j. hill to channel all that lingering angst into, i might've exploded by now 😫 hehehehehe. i'm only sort of joking. 5. beth: what did supermassive give her? nothing. what does that mean? she can be anything i want, and i don't have to worry over whether or not it sounds believable in canon 😎 lmfao. in much the same way i looove writing jack because we get like. 10 lines and A Vibe from him, beth's a hoot to write for because, like. we know who her siblings are. we have an IDEA of what her home life must've been like...and everything else is up for debate!!!

JUST, LIKE, TO LOOK AT

1. ashley ashley ashley: they could never make me hate you bb. did she handle some things poorly? yes. does she make some questionable decisions? sure. would i give her the world if the opportunity presented itself? of course. look, i just think. she should get to do...whatever she wants. always. as a treat. :)c 2. matt: i am so. intrigued. by matt's whole deal. every second of it. he's a huge part of the prank but he's also hugely sympathetic. he has that incredibly cute moment with ashley right as they get to the lodge but seems pretty chilly (if not downright disinterested in) chris and josh, her best friends. he helps jess through the mines. he holds his own with emily. unless you play him a v certain way, he seems the most interested in smoothing things over between everybody. HE LEAVES. THE FUCKING. HATCHET. AT THE BASE. OF THE FIRE TOWER. i would love to live in his brain for just like...ten minutes. just really figure him out. (i need to write more with him too 😭 he has bewitched me, body and soul) 3. flamethrower guy/the stranger/jack: look. look i'm not subtle. i just. love that weird old man. i just love him so much. if supermassive said 'hey here's a dlc where you go through one (1) calendar day as jack fiddler, it costs $60 and is roughly 1 hour of gameplay,' i'd fold immediately. idk why. 4. josh: there is no one - NO ONE - in this, or any other, game who's so willing to commit so fully to the bit. my man had BLUEPRINTS. my guy had DEAD PIGS. bro sourced knockout gas and fake newspapers and real blood and made voice recordings and an alter ego and rigGED HIS WHOLE FAMILY'S VACATION HOME WITH BOOBY TRAPS, THREW A PARTY ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF HIS SISTERS' SUPPOSED DEATHS, AND EVERYONE STILL FUCKING SHOWED UP. say whatever else you want about him, josh had SOMETHING figured out, man. 5. jess: again. did she make some questionable decisions? sure. do i agree with everything she did? no. but after everything she goes through, after all the tragedy and agony and terror she is put through, this girl still has the wherewithal to grab a shovel and beam a guy in the head with it, and you know what? i respect that 🙏🏻 plus she wore hiphuggers to a party on a mountain in alberta in the dead of winter, and i just want to study her under a microscope.

[phoenixyfriend]

The Naruto/Frozen Crossover

So I was planning on just doing an image ID thing for this post, but apparently the formatting on desktop is such a mess that it’s easier to just make a new post that’s text only. I can also like. Bulletpoint it so that it can be a little neater. All ideas were made with @firebirdeternal​‘s help, because they are the most efficient enabler I have.

Also I added some bits at the end.

Under a cut, because it’s Long As Heck.

I originally had two options: either Mid-teens Elsa and Anna being transported to ninja land sometime pre-canon and running into Haku and Zabuza... or just like. Born as a Daimyou's daughters.

Spoiler alert, we’ve got nukenin and I’m a sucker for an intrusive crossover, so transported to ninja land it is.

Suggestion from Birdie:

Mechanism for crossover: Elsa ices over a Wishing Well by accident after having Wished for someone else who understood her, Anna and her fall in and get Ice Mirror Portaled to Ninjaland, falling out of an iced over pond near a shrine that Haku recently prayed at for similar lonely child reasons?

Which I like! They don’t end up there soon enough to run into Haku, because I want a dramatic chase first, but I like it.

Obviously, Anna is forced to learn about Elsa's powers because it's the only thing keeping them safe

Or at least alive

(Elsa will do ANYTHING to keep Anna safe, and if that means she has to get her hands dirty...)

...neither of them knows Japanese, so, you know. There’s that.

I'm thinking that they end up in/near Kiri at first

And they aren't FAST ENOUGH to get away so Elsa panic-enchants a giant reindeer made of snow to run away across the suddenly-frozen ocean.

She and Anna have to ride and Elsa is probably crying the whole time.

Oh shit this is like. RIGHT after their parents die, I forgot. So that’s a thing! They are in mourning and all that fun stuff.

Point is, they use the powers for a Self Defense thing and BBY Haku is just !!! "Master can we rescue them for Ice Cousin reasons?" Zabuza: Yes, and only for those practical reasons and not because I collect endangered children like people collect pokemon cards.

I imagine that maybe they track rumors of a Yuki-onna down, or the Giant Snow Reindeer rides by and Haku’s just like Wat

The girls just tag along with Zabuza because. Like.

Do they like him? No. Do they trust him? No. Do they enjoy the fact that he considers them pathetic civilians? No.

However, Haku is Baby.

Zabuza is REALLY annoyed at them being Useless Civilian Royals “but Haku likes them so I guess they can stay.”

Age at meeting, three years pre-canon:

Zabuza - 23

Elsa - 18

Anna - 15

Haku - 12

Elsa is 90% anxiety/depression master combo BUT if Zabzua protects her then she's WILDLY dangerous so like. Whatever

Elsa's bingo book nickname options, uninspired:

Winter Witch

Winter Queen

Ice Queen

Snow Queen

Something about a Yuki-Onna maybe

She's Very Stately and kinda breakable but Winter is her Bitch

I mean like, the fact that, if protected, she can shut down the agriculture of a fucking country? That's an S-rank even if she's not that useful in a fight.

She's like. Jinchuuriki-level destruction. Generally speaking she wouldn’t. But she could.

Elsa: What the fuck is a chakra? Elsa: my snow monsters are self-sustaining. Elsa: I'm gonna build us a house.

Zabuza has NO idea how her powers work and it is INCREDIBLY frustrating but “there’s no chakra cost to keep these things going and we have shelters on demand” is too convenient to question after a while.

Haku: Delicate, deadly, incredibly fast ninja work. Elsa: I can't dodge a kunai but watch me wreck your entire country's ecosystem in under a day.

Elsa is a siege weapon.

Meanwhile, Anna is really, really into the physicality of ninja practice.

She's clumsy and she's not very good at ninja stuff, but she sure is determined!

Anna also gets on Zabuza's nerves because she keeps insisting that Haku get to be a kid.

Anna: Let's make flower crowns! Zabuza: No, he needs to train, not- Anna: FLOWER CROWNS

Consider: Haku saying Elsa-nee-sama and Anna-hime.

Or just calling Elsa “onee-sama.”

Anna is also younger than Elsa and way more Fun so she probably gets adjusted to Anna-chan or Nee-chan.

If Zabuza calls Elsa “Hime-chan” or “Elsa-hime” or, Sage forbid, “Elsa-sama/dono” then he’s VERY MUCH making fun of her and he’s probably getting his soup frozen that night.

At one point, Elsa... tries to like. Convince herself to have a crush on Zabuza or Kakashi or something until Zabuza just puts a hand on her shoulder and asks "do you even like men?" "...that's an OPTION?"

Zabuza urging her to try and ask out a Cute Kunoichi and Elsa's like.... I can't decide if she's bright red and a useless lesbian or uncomfortable and ace.

I am SO invested in the siege weapon thing.

SHE IS THE SQUISHIEST WIZARD.

It's not her fault that every single other combatant on the continent is Massively Dangerous in melee! She took a very traditional back-line build!

Enemy: Doesn't it GRATE to protect someone so pathetic, Zabuza? Zabuza: She literally froze an entire castle of enemies to death because they harmed her sister, so. No.

Most Ninjas: Sharp Knife. S-Rank Mega Ninjas: Gun. Elsa: High Yield Explosive Rocket Launcher. Literally loses fights to the Knife People, because she can't bring her power to bear on that scale. But if you can give her Time and Prep? No contest.

Long distance AoE

Like  you know how Nagato is literally dying of starvation due to illness and can't walk, but he's also capable of leveling powerful villages more or less on his own?

Elsa is the same Vibe.

It’s like sealing a bijuu in a civilian.

She's honestly both more and less powerful? Like it'd be hard for her to kill everyone in Konoha in the snap of a finger? But also, she could starve out the Country of Fire in a summer.

She WOULDN'T, but she could.

I always read Elsa as gay or ace but my brain keeps trying to ship her with dude ninjas and I have to yank it back on a child leash.

People insinuate that Zabuza is interested in Elsa and he's just "What? Ew she's like five."

"I'm eighteen."

"Five."

BUT

Elsa! Might mistake trust and companionship for a crush!

I can see THAT happening despite gay/ace.

Also like. I don’t think Zabuza is straight.

So mlm/wlw solidarity?

And Haku is probs genderqueer.

So Anna is THE TOKEN STRAIGHT.

Anna is like, the Straight Friend who will go to the mat for her queer friends. Like vicious. In-your-face barking like a mean dog at people who were being bigots.

You know how Elsa in the second movie uses her powers to make toys for kids out of ice?

Okay, so her practicing by making things with Haku.

But yeah, Elsa can't really do "throws ice senbon," but she can do Delicate Geometry Things since she apparently, canonically studies math for fun and loves fractals.

Haku: I can trap you in a prison of ice mirrors, and you are at my mercy. Elsa: LOOK AT THIS CASTLE I MADE???

Haku wants to do Pretty Things like Elsa

OH.

Elsa makes... snow bunnies..

For the ninja distraction reasons but also because it's a Soft Thing that makes her feel better about, uh, everything. And Haku likes bunnies.

Zabuza still takes The Dirty Missions but Elsa gets upset when he does something that hurts innocents and Nobody wants Elsa upset. Even Zabuza doesn't want Elsa upset.

When Elsa gets upset, overnight accommodations are suddenly Very Uncomfortable for everyone except her and Haku.

And then Anna gets upset, which makes Elsa even MORE upset.

And then things just keep getting colder.

Zabuza doesn't want Elsa upset for many reasons, not limited to: "Is actually capable of killing me from outside of Sword Range if she's mad enough, even if it’s not that easy" and "the Small Children would be unbearably sad if she died and honestly so might I."

She's more of a friend than a ward and he's not entirely sure he's okay with that.

Zabuza: "Ew, friendship."

He has absolutely no idea how to have a social interaction with people he isn't Bullying, Raising, or Threatening to Kill.

Elsa and Anna have no trouble convincing people they're related, at least. Different coloration with almost identical bone structure.

A tendency to burst into song when they feel emotions.

Identical weird accent that nobody can place.

FOOD

The girls are royalty, they don't know how to COOK.

But they also want food from HOME.

It's a lot of trial and error.

More error than not, since they have both no knowledge and also a language barrier to overcome. It probably takes YEARS before they can describe things like Unfamiliar Flavors well enough for people to say "OH that sounds like spearmint."

When they run into something they know that’s familiar, it’s life-changing.

Chocolate is more common in the elemental nations than in Arandelle and Anna may or may not cry about it.

Anna is loudly bossy, even at Zabuza.

Zabuza is gruffly commanding, to everyone.

Elsa doesn't actually like being in charge, but when she talks, people LISTEN.

(Haku is just happy to be here.)

Elsa radiates two things: Anxiety, and Natural Command, and she basically just fluctuates between those.

"I don't want to be in charge but also I'm vetoing this."

So, obviously, the main reasons that Zabuza keeps the girls around is that Elsa is a living siege weapon and he thinks she could be convinced to help him run a revolution in Kiri, and also that the Ice Queen schtick is like. Really good for Haku and Zabuza can’t really say no to the kid.

HOWEVER, Anna is clumsy and messy and all that, so Zabuza starts training her in Ninja stuff. Elsa joins in on the “I need to know how to Run Fast to get away from fights I don’t want to have in the first place,” but Anna’s the one that’s like “TEACH ME HOW TO SWORD.”

It’s honestly not that hard to teach her, she’s just really, really, REALLY enthusiastic.

Once or twice someone asks why she’s so bad at this yet running around with an A-rank nukenin and Zabuza’s just like “I’ve only had her for a year and a half, shut up!” because it’s not that he’s a bad teacher, it’s that she was a very pampered civilian until like a week before he met her.

He should get a MEDAL for even getting her to low Chuunin.

Zabuza: I'm taking a job from Gato Elsa, who has Training in economics and politics and bureaucracy: I have a better idea.

This is actually not entirely what I’d do but I wanted to make the joke first ANYWAY here’s an actual plot or something.

Oh, also by this point everyone is Canon Ages so Elsa’s 21 and Anna’s 18 and Zabuza’s 26 and Haku’s 15.

Elsa is getting paid to keep the water from interfering with construction, by way of....

ICE COFFERDAM

Elsa with Haku as her Guard while Zabuza is off running his own mission? Which Anna begged to go on because Cool.

Elsa also kind of keeps her involvement on the ice front semi-secret by claiming she’s there as an engineering consultant.

LISTEN canon made her like geometry, I can ENTIRELY believe she’d be excited about the bridge-building.

Gato has hired someone else on the danger level of Zabuza, who is Threatening to Team 7 + Haku? But then when things look bleak Anna and Zabuza arrive and then Scary Sword Man is on our side and oh dear that's a lot of blood.

Which, you know, fun!

Birdie suggested Raiga which I’m not feeling but I do feel the need to bring up as an option.

It’s also not Kisame BUT

Kisame: [giant lake dome filled with sharks]

Elsa: uhhhhhhhhhhh...

Giant lake dome: [is now a giant ice dome]

Anyway

Gato: I'm hiring an army. Elsa: [giant ice wall around his compound] Gato: ... these guys can walk up walls! Elsa: [adds snowman guards] Elsa: ... Elsa: [adds a ceiling]

Just puts Gato's entire mob in a fucking snow globe.

Zabuza shows up twenty minutes late with (Throwing) Star(buck)s just like "Oh, they dead? No? Want 'em to be? Okay cool I'm gonna go pick up Haku, I'll be back in like an hour."

Anna would... LOVE Naruto

ENERGETIC FRIENDLY GOOFBALL

"I found us a baby brother!" "No, we already have Haku." "BUT LOOK AT HIM."

Anna is only a year or two older than Itachi.

OH RIGHT

I wanted to make a joke about how Naruto also vibes with her because he's less judgmental that she can't really... talk properly.

Sasuke is Judgy and Kakashi is Paranoid and Sakura is Uncomfortable.

Meanwhile Naruto is just like "And I Shall Scream."

Anna, who learned Japanese from Zabuza (rude) and Haku (uber polite): WELL FUCK YOU, GOOD SIR Naruto: YEAH WELL FUCK YOU TOO, LADY Elsa, overly formal: I am... so very sorry.

Anyway, generic missing nin fights and all that.

Elsa gets injured in the process and after a variety of arguments, Naruto manages to convince them to take her to Konoha for medical attention.

Elsa is... usually the one getting injured.

Zabuza and Haku are FAST and Anna is at least learning (even if she’s only been doing it for three years), but Elsa is The Squishy Wizard.

If someone throws a kunai... she can’t... really dodge...

So yeah, gut wound.

Normally they find a nukenin medic to patch them up but Konoha is reasonably close and has some of the more skilled medics on the continent and they DID technically help the Konoha nin so like. Gah.

That’s Zabuza’s final thought. Gah.

Just “Fuck it, let’s save the ice queen.”

Elsa ends up in a half-literal-ice stasis state on the way there and it’s happened before (it is not the first time she’s been stabbed), but it’s always terrifying.

Especially to the Konoha genin who are just like WHAT THE HECK IS THAT.

So they get to Konoha, there’s a whole bunch of stuff about extradition treaties and “you are bringing a literal WMD of a woman into our town” and “we can’t just let MOMOCHI ZABUZA in.”

Anyway, it ends up being that Zabuza has to wait outside the village while Elsa is treated inside, and one of the Teenagers goes in. Obviously, it’s Anna, because Zabuza is INCREDIBLY UNCOMFORTABLE with letting Haku enter a village that’s known for having lots of bloodlines, and anyway, Anna’s the sister.

Bunch of stuff, she’s healing, etc, and then one day Anna comes in and is told “your sister had a bad reaction to the anesthetic, we couldn’t save her, I’m sorry, she’s gone.”

She flips out, gets shown the corpse, flips out MORE, gets escorted out to the village walls where Zabuza and Haku are waiting.

Horrified reactions

Zabuza doesn’t want to admit that it’s EMOTIONS because this is his FRIEND, he is clearly just upset about losing the living siege weapon.

Haku is just super confused and goes “But she’s not dead.”

“What.”

“She’s not dead, I can feel her, I can always feel her, it’s like sensing but just her, because we’re both ice. She’s alive, somewhere over... there?”

And points right in the direction of the Hokage Mountain, which for the purposes of this fic and also Drama is where ROOT headquarters is.

YEP we absolutely have that plot point.

Is Danzo overused as a plot device? Probably. Am I going to diabolus ex machina him anyway? Ye.

They kick up enough of a fuss that the Hokage gets called down.

He wouldn’t, normally, he’d leave it to a couple of skilled jounin and call it a day, except Naruto got involved so like. You can’t. Ignore that.

There’s lots of shouting.

Just like. A lot.

And then part of the mountain explodes!

AS ONE DOES

Elsa comes flying backwards out of the hole, catches herself on a spontaneous ice slide, gets to her feet.

Girl is swaying like MAD.

There are absolutely ANBU (both fake and real) coming after her.

At least one of them gets speared through by an ice spike.

Anna runs up to her, tries to hug her, gets batted away.

Elsa’s staring at her in sheer TERROR and starts muttering something about how Anna died years ago, this isn’t real, etc.

Nobody except Anna understands most of it, but Haku picks up enough to translate when Anna’s freaking out.

Elsa starts doing her Ice Castle thing in the middle of Konoha as a coping mechanism, mostly so she can get Up and Away and Shielded By Ice.

This is not a good look.

Especially because she’s singing, which Zabuza always thinks is a bad omen because it means shit is getting real and one or both of the girls are about to get a powerup or be beaten even harder than otherwise. When they start singing, things get More Dramatic And Extreme).

(Zabuza does not like Disney Musical Rules)

Danzo shows up.

There’s a bunch of arguing.

All the medics insist that nothing she was given at the hospital should have caused amnesia, psychosis, hallucinations, delusions, etc.

It’s. Not hard for Hiruzen to guess what happened.

Namely that Danzo, upon finding out that chakra dampeners didn’t do shit since none of Elsa’s powers come from chakra, decided to keep her drugged up and start using genjutsu to make her more malleable.

Because like. An injured WMD just showed up in your village. What are you supposed to do, not try to kidnap her and turn her to your side? Like, come on. What was he supposed to do?

Not that, Danzo. Literally Not That.

IDK how it gets resolved, probably Anna getting to her with the power of love, because Elsa is ultimately Super Disney.

I also don’t really know where to go from there other than “Maybe Jiraiya can get you home, but also I’m pretty sure Zabuza wants you all to get the hell out of here and take over Kiri” but who knows.

Also

IMAGINE ELSA MEETING GAI.

Imagine Ino getting a puppy crush on Elsa.

IDK that’s it for now.

[writethelifeyouwant]

Dive Bar, Ch. 1/?

Pairing: Dean x OFC (Dany) x Sam (brief), Dean x Sam (eventually)  Rating: 18+ Prompt/Summary: @spnkinkbingo square - Gay Panic (eventually, I don’t know how to write short things, so the gay panic comes later). Dany and Dean hit it off at a bar and Dean is confident it’s a sure thing. But Dean doesn’t know that Dany’s has a dare to complete, and he definitely didn’t imagine his night would end with his pull inviting his little brother to come home with them too.  WC: 3278 Tags: alcohol, cheesy flirting, tags will change next chapter 😉😏🍆 A/N: Okay, let’s be real. Anyone who knows me by now, knows I can’t fucking cut to the chase. Welcome to part one of who knows how many. If you want the smut quickly, I encourage begging 🤣(and so does Sam 😏) Ambience: Really want to set the mood? Welcome to a dive bar in Nowheresville, USA: Playlist and Ambience 

***

Sam told Dean he was crazy for even trying but Dean had a sense about these things; Sam didn’t. He was too considerate. Sam thought the fact she was out with her girlfriends meant she wasn’t interested, she wouldn’t want to be bothered, but Dean knew better. The ones who went up to get the next rounds were the ones who were looking to be bothered. They were separating themselves from the pack on purpose, to give guys the opportunity to pick them up and show them a good time. They wanted to prove to their friends that they were desirable. It wasn’t a bad confidence boost either, even if the guys that came on to them weren’t what they were after. 

So, when the girl with the flirty eyelashes that had been staring over at Sam and Dean’s table for the past half-hour spun off her stool and went to lean against the unpleasantly sticky bar, Dean knew his window had opened. 

“Watch and learn Sammy,” Dean smirked and slapped Sam’s shoulder as he sauntered over to his target, fixing his best smoulder in place. 

The girl felt movement behind her when Dean slid up and motioned to the bartender that he was after another round, and she turned with a coy but almost predatory twitch to her smile. She knew exactly who was behind her. 

“Hi there,” Dean was almost leering at the girl. 

*

Across the room, Sam was resisting the urge to put his head in his hands and pretend he’d never met his brother. This was gonna be a train wreck. At the very least, Dean was about to end up with one of those margaritas the bartender was laying down in front of her thrown in his face. 

Deciding to spare himself the second-hand embarrassment of watching Dean crash and burn with the coed he’d been eyeing since they arrived, Sam let his eyes wander the rest of the bar absentmindedly. He was nursing his second beer of the evening, after pounding back his first one with Dean in their stupid post-hunt ritual. 

It was new, their whole ‘who can down their beer the quickest’ routine. Before Stanford, Sam was lucky if his dad let him split a beer with them after a hunt, let alone chug one. But ever since he and Dean had been back on the road, it was like Dean was trying to make up for a bit of lost time, and things that absolutely smacked of immaturity were becoming part of how they lived their lives. Like how now, after a successful hunt, they always raced to the bottom of the first beer bottle, leaving the loser to buy the rounds for the rest of the night. 

When Dean started it, it was because he figured he obviously had the upper hand. He had years more drinking experience than Sammy, and there was no way the little geek had drunk that much at college.

What Dean didn’t know is that, for a while there, Sam and his friends had gone through a bit of a mental breakdown that manifested itself in endless parties, borderline alcoholism, and a very brief experimentation with some drugs on the ‘gateway’ end of the spectrum. Really, it was Sam’s best friend Brady pushing all of that, but with how he had grown up, Sam felt he was due some kind of breakdown, and it had felt good to let go for a little while. So, when Sam beat Dean in that first chugging contest, it became a whole different ball game. Now every time they did it, Dean was defending his honor. And he defended it about half the time but that night, Sam had won. 

Exhaling quietly in amusement at the absurdity of their routine, Sam spared a glance back towards Dean at the bar. He quickly ducked his head down when he realised Dean and the girl were looking over at him, like Dean was talking about him. Why would you spend time telling the girl you’re trying to bang about your weird kid brother? Maybe she had asked who Dean was there with, just making small talk. 

Yeah, that must be it, Sam thought to himself as he took another swig and realised he’d finished it on the sip before.

Torn between wanting another drink and not wanting to walk into the middle of a Dean Winchester flirt fest, Sam tried to quietly observe his brother again, hoping he would have struck out by now and it would be safe to approach. Peeking out from behind his hair Sam could see them leaning against the high wooden bar quite cozily, and laughing all nice and friendly-like. 

Damn. It looked like Dean was gonna be right about this chick; she was into him. Really, she shouldn’t be surprised. Everyone’s into Dean. And now he was gonna have to sleep in the Impala tonight. For once he’d like to just have a drink with his brother and go home (to the motel) and sleep in his own (motel) bed. Just perfect. 

*

When Dany turned around to acknowledge Dean, who had just sidled up behind her at the bar, she was very pleased with herself. 

Guys are just too simple, she mused. 

“Hi there,” Dean smiled down at her (he was considerably taller, despite her heels), charm turned on full blast. 

“Hey yourself,” she smiled back. She was friendly, but careful not to be too forward. Dean was the kind of guy that felt proud of winning the chase, she could just tell. And considering how forward she was planning on being after she made sure this guy wasn’t an axe-murderer, she figured playing coy for a little wouldn’t hurt. 

“So, this is kind of embarrassing,” Dean leaned down conspiratorially but still had to speak quite loudly to be heard above the noise of the bar. “My brother over there is a little shy.” Dean jerked his head behind him, to indicate where he had left Sam a moment before. 

Taken by surprise, Dany leaned back to look at Sam sitting alone at his high-top, who happened to look over at the two of them at the same time. Sam quickly ducked behind his bangs, trying very hard not to make eye contact. Dany giggled to herself. She had figured this guy was about to chat her up but he was over here asking for his brother who, based on his reaction a second ago, definitely was shy. How cute. 

“And,” Dean continued speaking and pulled Dany back from her thoughts of his shy and cute younger brother, “he wanted me to ask you for your number, so he knows how to get a hold of me tomorrow morning.” 

It took a second, but when the penny dropped Dany burst out laughing. Dean beamed, proud of his choice in pick-up lines, and let Dany get the giggles out of her system. “I know, I’m adorable.” Dean shrugged as if to say ‘what can you do?’ and leant back against the bar, bringing himself closer to Dany’s level. “I’m Dean.” He held out his hand and she took it, still stifling the last of her laughter. 

“Well, let me congratulate you on your originality Dean. I genuinely have not heard that one before.”

“Do I get a prize?” Dean’s eyebrows arched cheekily. 

“I don’t know,” Dany shrugged. “What do I get out of this deal?”

“Sweetheart, you get whatever you want.” 

“How about we start with a drink?” 

“Sure your friends won’t mind me taking up all your time?” 

Dany looked behind her to where she’d left her friends. They were all giggling and looking at her and Dean at the bar but trying to look like they weren’t paying attention to them at all. She shook her head despairingly at how unsubtle they were. Her friends were the worst. But she supposed they had more of a vested interest in how her night went than usual. Tonight was her dare night. 

“I think they can live without me for a little while.” 

*

“Wow, you’re really putting ‘em back sweetheart,” Dean laughed as Dany drained another beer. She was matching him round for round. 

“Well, I came out to have a good time tonight,” Dany shrugged, smiling mischievously. 

“How’s that working out for ya’ so far?”

“I’d say, so far so good, Dean.” 

Dean made finger guns at the empty glasses. “Get you another?” 

“Yeah, thanks,” she grinned as tucked her hair behind her ear. 

Dean rocked up to the bar and motioned to the haggard looking student behind it that he was after refills. When something brushed against his shoulder he jumped, reaching under his jacket until he realised it was just Sam. 

“Hey,” Dean drew out the ‘y’ on the end of his word. “Ma’ man Sam.” Dean smacked Sam’s shoulder and his brother tried to tamp down his bemused grimace. 

“How buzzed are you, dude?”

“Just the right amount Sammy,” Dean grinned wolfishly as he accepted the new beers from the bartender. The kid tried to take Sam’s order but Sam brushed him off. “Woah, you’re not tapping out?” Dean’s concern was almost comical. 

“Yeah, I’m just gonna go back to the motel. Grab some shut eye.” Sam tried to sound sage, like he was making this move because it was the smart, responsible thing to do, and not let on that it was his loneliness driving him home too early for Dean’s approval. 

“No, come on man, I’m not letting you be a sap tonight.” Dean waved over to the bartender for another beer, over Sam's objections. “N- listen. You’re gonna take this beer, bring it over to my table with Dany, and we’re gonna pick you out one of her friends.” Again, Sam tried to protest but there was a cold glass sloshing into his hand and a commanding grip on his shoulder and… he was always gonna follow Dean. “They’re all college chicks Sam. One of them has gotta be geeky enough for you.” 

When Sam got dragged to the edge of the table where Dean had left Dany a moment ago, something felt off. Sure he felt a little awkward becoming the third wheel while Dean sealed the deal on his sleeping arrangements for that evening but that wasn’t what he noticed the most. Dany looked far too happy to have the extra company at the table. Most girls with Dean in their tractor beams didn’t want anyone interfering, he’d been on that end of the stick one too many times to forget how it felt. But Dany was relaxed and smiling, beaming even, when Dean pushed Sam into a chair between them. 

Sam tried to settle into the easy conversation that Dany and Dean were having but he’s too preoccupied trying to suss Dany out to contribute much, despite Dany’s attempts to bring him into the discussion. 

“So Sam, Dean said you were the college goer in your family, what did you study?” Dany sipped her beer with her eyes trained on Sam. 

“Uh, pre-law,” Sam’s answer turned up at the end like a question. He wasn’t questioning what he studied at Stanford but he was questioning Dany’s motives in talking to him. Why wasn’t she just ignoring him and flirting with Dean? 

“Ah, smart guy. Interesting.” 

“What are you studying?” 

“Media and communications. I want to go into news or television.” 

“Well you definitely have the face for it,” Dean cut in smoothly. Dany flushed but she didn’t look embarrassed. She knew what she looked like. 

“Okay captain obvious,” Dany laughed. “You usually try this hard to get girls?”

Sam snorted into his beer, highly amused someone was calling Dean on his shit besides him. 

“Well I’m sitting here drinking with a beautiful woman. I don’t see any reason to pull punches,” Dean grinned. “Speaking of,” he leant forward craftily, “you got any other beautiful friends we can hook him up with?” Dean jerked his thumb towards his little brother. “I feel bad leaving him high and dry for the night.” 

“Dean!” Sam objected loudly, rolling his eyes. Dany just giggled. 

“Yeah I think I can help with that.” She drained her remaining drink and stood up. “Let me grab us one more round.” 

“Sounds great sweetheart,” Dean swatted at her ass as she passed him on the way back to the bar, ignoring Sam’s further objections to Dean’s new-found mission to get him laid. 

“Dude what are you doing?” 

“Helping you!”

“I don’t want your help!”

“Well trust me, you need it.”

“Do not!”

Sam’s objections were cut short when Dany returned with three beers and three shots on a tray; one clear and two amber. Dean reached for the drinks to help her unload. “What are we celebrating sweetheart?” He nodded to the shots. 

“We’ll find out soon,” Dany hedged, without giving up any more details. “So Sam, what’s your type?” 

Sam nearly choked on his beer. “Look Dany, ignore Dean please, I don’t need-” 

“No, come on, I’m invested now. What are you into? Boobs? Ass? Both?” Dany’s questions were curious but clinical. None of the teasing that Dean usually injected into the conversation when he tried to get Sam to open up about his sex life. Something in her tone was compelling. 

“Are we actually having this conversation?” Sam glanced between Dean and Dany astonishedly. “Did you slip something in my drink?” 

Dany laughed at Sam’s attempts to deflect but she could also see something in his face twitch, like his brows tugged up the corners of his lips. Something in him wanted to answer the question, wanted to open up to her. So she pushed. 

“Well?” 

Sam chuckled once ruefully, more to himself. Cracked his neck and settled back in his chair. Dany could tell he’d made up his mind, he was playing now. 

“Both,” Sam smirked. He was invested now too, and he wanted to see where Dany was taking this. Plus, it had been ages since he’d gotten any. 

“Okay,” Dany nodded and processed the information, deciding how that affected her line of questioning. Dean was keeping to himself in his corner, but he was having trouble hiding his grin behind his beer. This was already more than he’d ever been able to tease out of Sam. 

“Okay, so, not specific about body type, what about attitude? Feisty and forward?” Dany leant forward and trailed her finger down Sam’s arm. He smirked. “Or shy, and sweet?” She withdrew her hand, and ducked behind her hair. 

“Okay, why do I feel like I’m getting shut out here?” Dean laughed from his over his drink, not sounding as cocky as he hoped he did. 

“Don’t worry Dean, I’m not letting you go anywhere,” Dany smirked. “I’m just doing what you asked, making sure Sam here is sorted out for the night too.” Dany turned her smile back to Sam. “So which one? You like feeling in charge? Or you like getting a little roughed up like Dean over here?”

Now it was Dean’s turn to choke on his beer. “Excuse me sweetheart, what makes you think-”  

“Come on Dean,” Dany batted her eyes back in his direction. “I know what you’re after. I know you’re a boob man, that’s why you picked me. Your pick up lines and bravado, they’re looking for validation. You’re looking after your little brother, trying to make sure he’s happy, taken care of… you want someone to do the same thing for you.” 

Sam and Dean were both a little speechless. Dany reached past her empty beer and grabbed the shot glass with the clear liquor. 

“You sure you don’t actually study psychology or something?” Sam drained the last of his beer, impressed. 

“I’m not a shrink,” Dany smiled and shrugged. “I’ve just spent some time with some people, I know what to look out for.” 

“So, who are you picking out for me then?” Sam leant forward, now profoundly interested in what Dany may have deduced about what he wants in the bedroom. 

“Come clean time,” Dany knocked back her shot with a grimace and let the courage that came from lower inhibitions bubble up. “My friends and me, we play a game most weeks, pick a dare out of a hat. This week mine… was ‘have a threesome.’” Dany peeked up from behind her hair to look at Dean, who looked like he had just won the lottery. Sam’s expression was cautious. 

“Okay, so who else we taking home with us sweetheart?” Dean rubbed his hands together and turned to look back at Dany’s group of friends.  

“Sam.” Dany answered simply. 

“Which one’s Sam?” Dean was still scanning the group of coeds. 

“Uh Dean, I think she means me…” 

“My dare was a threesome with two guys.” For the first time that evening, Dany’s grin was a little sheepish. “Look I uh- I’m not just doing this because of the dare, it’s not coercion or anything. I wouldn’t be asking you both back if I didn’t want it.” 

Dean hadn’t found his voice yet. He was just staring at Dany, mind clearly running a mile a minute, and resolutely not looking at Sam. Sam, on the other hand, couldn’t take his eyes off Dean. The only recognisable emotion on Sam’s face was the tinge of fear in his eyes, like he was waiting for the bomb to go off, and getting more and more anxious by the second the longer it didn’t. 

“Why don’t I give you guys a minute to talk,” Dany stood up and pushed the shots she had bought towards them, “and I’ll go grab my purse and meet you by the door?” 

“And by ‘you’, you’re speaking in the strictly plural sense?” Sam checked, fingering the whisky in front of him. 

“That’s up to you guys,” Dany smiled and rounded the table, dragging her fingers over Dean’s shoulders on her way back to her friends. That seemed to be enough to jumpstart Dean back into speaking.

“Dude what the hell?” Dean’s voice was so, so close to a squeak, Sam really had to hold in his laughter. 

“What?” Sam was good at poking the bear. 

“What do you mean what? What the fuck?” 

“Yeah, I think that’s what she wants Dean. She wants to fuck.” 

“Yeah with me and my little brother!” Sam could tell Dean wanted to be shouting but he was keeping his voice to a hiss as best he could. 

“Yeah, so?”

“So?!” 

God Dean was so easy to wind up, Sam grinned. “Dean, have you never had a threesome before?” 

“Uh, yeah, of course.” 

“You’re lying,” Sam was astonished. He figured of course Dean would have done this kind of thing before. “You’ve never done one before?” Sam had to double check. 

“What, like you have?” Dean defended angrily. 

“Uh, yeah,” Sam’s grin was an unusual combination of sheepish but proud. “I um- I have actually, yeah.” Sam reached back and rubbed his neck, at a loss of what to do with his hands right now. 

“What the fuck did you do at that college?” 

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me Dean.” 

“Okay, so what, you’re saying you’re okay with this?” 

“I’m saying, there’s a real pretty girl over there by the door that wants to have sex. And she wants it so much, she wants two dicks in the equation.” Sam fixed Dean with a firm, decided stare. And he was pretty sure that Dean’s uncertainty was about to evaporate. Dean finally met Sam’s eyes and Sam saw the fight melt out of him. 

“Son of a bitch,” Dean breathed, then downed his shot.

***

Tags: @negans-lucille-tblr @hawkerz12​ @akshi8278​ @babybrotherandthedemon​ @dylansbabygirl24​ @mineshinamary​ @popsensationnicole23​ @spn-problems​ @donthateme454​  @doyouknowsamw​ @peridottea91​ @delightfulbakeryaliendeputy​ @fictionallemons​

I tagged everyone who liked my ‘announcement’ post. If you want to be tagged or you want me to take you off tags, just lmk!  

[starshineandbooks]

Of ghosts and sons

Based almost entirley off of @lovelylogans‘s Gilmore girls AU - AO3 Tumblr

Read THIS on Ao3

Summary: Remus reflects back on his thoughts of his still living loved ones’ lives. Watching his teenager grow into a married man with a kid. 

        Also known as: An excuse to write soft dad! Remus and Son! Roman, and explore how a dead Remus feels about his son marrying an academically smart moron.

Word count: 2596

Pairing: Romantic Moxiety, Romantic Logince, familial lampr

Warnings: Dead character (Remus is a ghost kinda?), mild cursing, a few suggestive lines, Remus being Remus, weird food, sympathtic! Remus

Remus figured he achieved a pretty great death. Oh, sure, he misses things, but now he can float around behind people and be himself with free of judgement, which is, nice. Oddly nice. Don’t get him wrong, he’d had friends, ut, even Virgil and Isidora had been a little weirded out every once in a while.

And, he’s watched Virgil and Isidora, of course he did. They mattered to him. 

Remus is proud of Virgil, finding a good guy, even if he wasn’t a guy Remus would have chosen, to settle down with. Virgil and Patton, Remus think they’re a good match. He’d have loved to make Patton squirm though. Nothing personal, he liked to make everyone squirm. It was fun!

Patton is also fairly interesting, at first Remus just watched him after earth because he was a scandal. Patton, trans, sixteen year old run away, with a baby. Pretty interesting.

Then, Remus got invested. Oops.

Patton was kind, and  a good person. Remus could respect him. Remus isn't so sure that he and Patton would have been friends, but Remus had to admit, Patton was respectable.

Patton Sanders, the kid stood up for himself and his child. Patton befriended Virgil, which is hard enough, then made Virgil love him, which is even harder. Then Virgil fell for Patton romantically, which is a task to make happen. 

Patton raised a smart, ambitious kid. Logan. Remus is fond of Logan, but don’t tell anyone. Of course, Logan is also basically Virgil’s kid, which basically makes Remus Logan’s roundabout uncle in a weird way. 

Logan is smart, wickedly so in fact. The kid goes to Chilton, and is very ambitious. In a cutthroat manner almost. Yet, Logan is genuinely kind, and cares for Remus’ own child.

That’s another thing. Remus has a kid. A biological child he never met.

Isidora had been someone Remus genuinely loved. Not romantically, but he had loved her more than anything else, except maybe Virgil. But that was a different kind of love. 

Isidora, the five foot two latina had been a spitfire of a dancer when Remus knew her. Not much had changed, except, she had Roman not long after Remus died.

And Virgil, bless the man, had fought to be in Roman’s life.

Roman was a lot like his mom, loyal, kind, courageous. Roman was taller than his mother, but just as graceful.

Roman, Remus’ baby, shut up that’s Remus’ baby. His spawn. He’s allowed to be a little sappy.

Roman had grown from an over excited six year old kissing his best-friend-and-first-crush’s skinned knee better into a kind, loyal, selfless teenager who’s a dancer just like his mother.

Remus isn’t stupid. Crazy, inconsiderate, and crass? Sure. But Remus is not and has never been stupid.

He knows that Roman probably is better off for not having him around.

Remus is loud, disruptive, rude, disgusting, and generally the opposite of what is ‘socially acceptable’. Remus even revels in this fact.

But, It’s not always an easy life to lead. And Remus does want Roman to have an easy life where he knows how good he is.

But, on the other hand, he watched Roman struggle with a dad sized cut out hole in his life.

Remus had become something of a myth in Sideshire. Remus, the horror story author recluse, Isidora Prince’s best friend, Roman’s dad, died in a mysterious car crash.

No one really tells Roman much about Remus. So, Roman had a bit of doubt, which is natural.

And Remus is so incredibly proud of Roman. For everything.

Roman had graduated highschool with a solid three point four grade point average. The kid had started college on time and was happy. Roman worked as a dance instructor in the town he attends college in, teaching kids to dance. 

Roman ended up with a supportive boyfriend, Logan. And the two are a good couple, built off of friendship, love, trust, and respect. The stuff of fairytales, even if they do argue a little more than they’d admit.

Remus has learned he can in fact visit dreams, and talk to people that way, he’s had some conversations with Virgil and Isidora that way.

But, Remus thinks it might be time to visit his son. Especially since Virgil and Patton are finally engaged and Roman is thinking about proposing to Logan.

So, that’s how Remus finds himself sitting in Lucy’s diner opposite of his son and his son’s boyfriend. Apparently this is a shared dream between the couple. Works just as well, Remus supposes.

After all, Remus is fairly fond of Logan too.

“Excuse me,” Logan says looking up from his book and where his head had been resting on Roman’s shoulder, “Do we know you? You look very familiar, I regret to say I can not place you however.”

Remus grins wickedly, “You wouldn't I’m a ghost! My corpse is rotting six feet under you twerp!”

Roman looks up, startled, “D-dad?”

Logan tilts his head, “Oh, that makes more sense. Hello Remus. Virgil speaks fondly of you.”

“Dad,” Roman whispers again, grabbing Logan’s arm, “Logan, that’s my dad.”

“I know, I can see dear.” Logan says in an exasperated yet fond voice.

“Hello Roman, you really do have a lot of your mother in you. Izzydory, how is she?”

“Izzy- Mama’s okay, she- she misses you. I miss you- uh- Can I miss you? I never met you.”

“You can miss the idea of someone,” Logan chimes, “And you know very well what Virgil would say about dismissing feelings.”

“Yeah,” Roman nods, “I do.”

Remus hums, turning to Lucy when she comes to take his order, “Can I get a bacon shake with Sardines and coffee grounds?”

Lucy just nods and walks off.

“That’s-” Roman chokes, “That’s gross dad.”

Remus laughs delightedly, “That’s the point!”

“He does things for amusement, not because it is logical.”

“There’s no rhyme or reason to what I do kid, I just do a skiddly boo.” Remus smiles, “So, what’s life like for you in the Bronx kid?”

Roman just stares blankly at his father, “This can't be real, I’ve gotta be dreaming, Lo, darling, I’m dreaming right?”

Logan just sighs, “I had assumed I was, I don’t know Roman, one of us is for sure.”

“You both are, it’s a shared dream,” Remus nods sagely, “You guys could get up to some steamy things since you can share dreams-”

“And as Virgil would say, stop it, fam.” Logan drawls unsure, then signs, shaking his head, “Also, what in the world is that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, I just meant you two could use the dreams to have dream sex-”

“Please stop,” Logan groans, putting his face in his hands and making a distressed sound, “Why are you like this? That is your son.”

“I know!” Remus cheers, “So, Roman, any questions?”

Roman stares at Remus, “I- I had so many, but- I can’t remember them now.”

Logan turns and whispers something to Roman.

Roman nods, “That’s right, thanks specs!”

“What’s right kid?” Remus asks.

“Oh, I’ve just always wondered, am I- Am I doing the right thing? I mean, if you’re really Remus, you’ve not seen me my whole life, like, yeah i”m your kid but, I’m not raised by you. Did- Did I do okay? Have I made you proud at least?”

Logan looks rather upset from the question, Remus notes. If the dead man had to guess, he’d say it’s because Logan doesn't like that Roman doubts himself.

And Remus doesn't like it either.

No, he is not being sentimental, shut the hell your mouth.

Remus tilts his head, “I’ve been watching you Roman. You to Logan, but Ro, kid, mijo, you’ve done well.”

Roman’s face is almost comical to Remus, wide eyes, mouth quirked up, eyebrows drawn up. A twinge of relief in the breath Roman lets out. Remus thinks he looks like an overly excited puppy. But that’s Remus’ over excited puppy.

Logan smiles gently, hidden almost. Remus does think it’s interesting how similar Logan is to Virgil.

“Really?” Roman breathes out, sounding even more like an overly excited puppy.

“I very much doubt him to be lying Roman, your mother has never put up with liars before, I doubt she would have in the father of her child.” Logan says simply, well, simply for the eighteen year old genius.

“Really, kid. You graduated with a good GPA, you got out of Sideshire, you’re a dancer just like your mother, you’re brave, and just, and kind, but don’t tell anyone I said any of this sappyniess. And kid, Roman, you’re doing good.”

“Thank you,” Roman says softly.

“You should not thank him Ro,” Logan scoffs, “He said the truth, it’s not like he offered to walk you down the aisle at your wedding.”

“Our wedding,” Roman says quickly, “My wedding will be ours.”

Logan blinks, flushing steadily, “Uh-”

“Hopefully!” Roman chimes, “I mean to hopefully!”

“God you’re obnoxiously cute, you know that?” Remus rolls hie eyes, “I’m sure you’ll both be married forever to each other and have some sappy loving relationship.”

“Thanks? I think.” Logan sighs, shaking his head.

“Hey, dad?” Roman starts, “Uh, got any life advice?”

“Save time by putting toothpaste in your food, use bottle caps as orange holders, get a toilet seat and use it to put your plate on when you eat! And, don’t try to fight with Izzy unless whatever you're fighting about really matters, because she is a stubborn woman and you’ll be tired by the end of the argument, and probably have lost.”

“Uh-”

“The bit about your mom sounds accurate, but she’s nice and might listen?” Logan sighs, shaking his head.

“How do you use a toilet seat- never mind I don’t want to know.”

Lucy comes back, setting Remus’ abomination of a milk shake down.

Remus thanks her, turning his head to look at Roman.

“God, you really got your mama’s pretty, you know that? I mean, you look like me some, but god.”

“I- You thought mama was pretty?” Roman blinks, “I’d always thought you were gay, they always said-”

“Kid, I’m gay, not blind.” Remus chuckles, “But yeah, your mom’s pretty kid.”

“Yeah,” Roman sighs, she is.”

“You’re about to wake up because of an alarm you set because you, my friend, have an early shift today. I’m proud of you kid, you’re doing good. I’ll talk to you again, later. Okay?”

“Dad?” Roman blinks, “Are you really here?”

“I’m dead, but yeah, I’m here.”

“Thanks dad.”

“I love you kid,” Remus sighs, “Good luck on your test tomorrow!”

Roman blinks startled but fades from the dream, leaving just Logan.

Logan looks at Remus and snorts darkly, “This isn't at all awkward, you know, my boyfriend’s dead dad in Lucy’s diner. Not to mention that you’re Virgil’s best friend.”

“Yeah, probably word that I’m your uncle and your boyfriend’s dad,” Remus snorts, “But I like weird.”

“Uh, uncle?!”

“Yeah, you’re basically Virgil’s kid, meaning that since I’m basically his brother, that I’m basically your uncle!” Remus cackles, “I thought you were the smart one!”

“It depends on the kind of intelligence,” Logan sighs, “I’ll admit I lack some of the more, say, social knowledge. But, I have dad and Roman at least.”

“Yeah, well, you're a good kid to Logan.”

“Thanks.”

“Be good to my baby Logan,” Remus says darkly, “Be good to my baby or I’ll figure out how to ruin your entire life.”

Logan looks up to Remus, “If I were to be bad to Roman, I’d have ruined my life myself. Because, he is my everything, as stupid and sappy as that sounds.”

Remus nods, “Good. You’ll make it through you know you two will make it out together.”

“Good.” Logan hums, tilting his head, “You're an asshole though. You really hurt a lot of the people we both care for.”

“Ballsy,” Remus smirks, “Calling the dead father of your boyfriend that. I knew I liked you!”

“Very few people seem to,” Logan shrugs, “But the whole dying and destroying Ms. Prince and Virgil and leaving Roman to be in the dark is really my only complaint against you.”

“Y’know, I did regret not being able to be there for them, but Roman especially. He’s my baby Logan, I know you don’t have kids, but, there’s just something about them.”

“So I’ve been told.”

“Yeah, well, I should go.”

“Probably so. And Remus?”

“Yeah?”

“If you really can talk to people through dreams, don’t leave Roman alone, he’d like you to talk to him. And, maybe talk to Virgil and Ms.Prince some too.”

“Of course. Later dork. Dork means- You’re gone.”

Remus shakes his head as the dream dissolves around him, a bitter laugh leaving him.

Remus made sure to speak to his loved ones every so often, the first time he visited Isidora after Logan had told him too it had been ten years and she had cried a little when she woke up.

Virgil had insulted Remus the whole dream that Remus had visited the emo music loving man.

Remus watches Virgil and Patton’s wedding, glad to watch the entire thing and see his best friend happy. Remus notices that Roman is the best man for Virgil, but only because Logan was Patton’s best man. The younger couple gave a nice speech that called attention to the fact that this wedding has been a long time in the works.

Virgil and Patton’s first dance is sweet and too sappy for Remus’ taste but okay.

Remus nearly screams when Roman and Logan get engaged, because, like the dorks they are, they propose at the same time.

Logan and Roman got reneged on their fifth anniversary, in the gazebo, under the stars. Remus had proposed first, because this was his plan. But Roman pulled out his own ring and asked Logan.

Because the two are entirely too cute.

Remus gloated to them next time he spoke to them both, he called it after all.

Roman and Logan’s wedding is a year and a half later, over the summer between their junior and senior years in college. 

It’s a bigger affair than Virgil and Patton’s had been, but not the largest wedding.

The whole town came, along with Logan’s grandparents, and a few friends from the boys’ own colleges.

Roman and Logan had stared at each other sappily the whole vow giving, making stupid cow eyes.

But, Remus creamed the loudest cheer out of anyone at that wedding when the two kissed and sealed the deal. He caught Isidora and Virgil looking around, then sharing a glance and a bitter laugh, a mutter of Remus’ name.

Roman and Logan’s first dance, per Roman’s selection, was a stupidly sappy song, for a pair of stupidly sappy new husbands. Husbands, God, Roman was married now. To his highschool sweetheart no less, his small town highschool sweetheart.

Remus would say something arguably rude about the whole sappy ordeal, if it wasn’t Roman’s wedding.

A few years down the line, after Logan and Roman graduate, they buy a house in Sideshire, adopting a kid. And oh, Remus has a grandchild now.

Virgil and Patton went to family dinners on Fridays with Emilie and Richard Sanders, Logan and Roman going as well. And somehow, Remus is glad that his saps have each other.

As much as Remus misses his friends and his family, as much as he wishes he could be there for them in the flesh, he’s proud of them no matter what. Even if they are stupidly sappy.

But, Remus looks forward to reuniting with Isidora and Virgil, and officially meeting the rest. One day, but hopefully, not soon.

[consecotaleo]

BNHA Light Novel Vol. 3 – Eng Translation – Chapter 3: “Crisis” (Part Two)

T/N: Here’s Part Two of the Chinese > English translation for BNHA Light Novel Vol. 3, Chapter 3.

Make sure you read Part One first.

Other BNHA Light Novel Vol.3 Content

Chapter 1: “Cheers!” –> After UA home visits, the teachers go out for drinks.

Chapter 2: “Dramatic Makeover” –> Class 1-A moves into the Heights Alliance dorms. Todoroki-centric, interspersed with scenes from the other students.

Chapter 3: “Crisis” –> It’s an ordinary day at the 1-A dorms.

> Part One –> Class 1-A gets a surprise visitor.

> ***Part Two –> The game is on!

Fantasy AU, translated by aitaikimochi –> Dragon!Kirishima confirmed.

(Fan works relevant to the light novel)

Useful Manga References

Chapter 98-99

Class 1-A students

Class 1-B students

Chapter 3: “Crisis” (Part Two)

 (Part One recap: A surprise visitor comes to the 1-A dorms! It’s Class 1-B’s Monoma, who wants to explore the building and harass the 1-A students. Kendo, Tsunotori, and Tetsutetsu show up to drag him back. Just earlier, Monoma gripes about not being served some tea as a hospitality. Kirishima and Tetsutetsu continue to be Epic Bros.)

Soon after, Yaoyorozu and Satou return with translucent black tea and delicate cakes for Kendo and the others.

 Tetsutetsu and Tsunotori are amazed that Satou could produce such carefully hand-crafted cakes. Kendo dips her head. “Sorry to trouble you further. Monoma’s remark was out of line.”

 But Yaoyorozu is eager to serve the first guests to ever show up to the Class 1-A dorms and urges them to try everything.

 “Delicious!” “I usually don’t eat sweets, but this is excellent!” “The tea is superb as well!” Kendo, Tetsutetsu, and Tsunotori freely sing their praises.

 Meanwhile, Monoma looks a bit like he’s just swallowed a bug. “Ugh, don’t actually treat us hospitably.” Unable to come up with a single complaint, he glares at the offerings. But his hand reaches out for another cake.

 Still bitter from the 1-B boy’s scathing review earlier, Kaminari leaps at the chance to strike back. “Hah, so even the great Monoma is defeated by Satou’s sweets!”

 “As if I’m going to listen to someone with a room like that!” Monoma retorts.

 Kaminari fumes. “Sounds like your own room must be great, given your impeccable taste. If it’s painfully rustic and boring, I’ll fucking laugh in your face.”

 “Yeah?” Monoma challenges. “And if it’s not?”

 The bet is on. “I’ll boil water with my own electricity and serve you tea with it. No, I’ll heat up all of Class 1-B’s baths!”

 It’s on. Monoma whips out his phone, then shows Kaminari. “This is my room.”

 Kaminari stares at the photo, speechless.

 Ojiro and the others peer over to look as well. The room is silent.

 Hagakure finally manages to find her tongue. “Holy crap! What a European style!” She resumes staring.

 It’s barely recognizable as a dorm room. The walls have been repainted in soothing pastels. The standard dorm furnishings have been replaced with antique white furniture. The soft colors and elegant arrangement of furniture come together in perfect harmony. What a lovely French-style room! Looking at it, the viewers are filled with a sense of detachment and longing. It’s as if they could walk up to the window and be greeted with a magnificent view of the Eiffel Tower.

 “So cute,” Hagakure adds after a moment. Beside her, Yaoyorozu concurs. “That’s really a lovely room.”

 The girls clearly love it, and even Kaminari can’t find a single bad thing to say.  

 “So when are you going to come heat up that bath water?” Monoma fixes Kaminari with a beautific smile. “But oh dear, should I worry that you’re going to use your remaining reserves to electrocute us? Ooooh, how scary, how scary –”

 “Enough.” Kendo whacks Monoma extra hard. It seemed the stupid blonde would never change.

“Hey, what is Kendo’s room like?” Hakagure queries.

 Before Kendo can respond, Tsunotori pipes up. “Kendo’s room is super cool! Weathered wooden table, black metal furniture, pictures of motorcycles.”

 Tetsutetsu nods sagely. “Kendo’s room is manlier than all of ours.”

 Embarrassed, Kendo mutters, “Sorry, I can’t really relax if everything is super cute.”

 Hakagure barrels on. “And what about Tsunotori’s room?”

 “My room… Um, it’s like this.” Tsunotori shyly pulls out her phone. The room is filled with anime posters and figurines. “I love Japanese anime, it’s the coolest!”

 “Ah!” Hakagure sounds delighted. “I love that anime too!”

 Tsunotori and Hakagure start chattering animatedly, occasionally shouting out lines from the show.

 On the side, Iida and Todoroki notice Izuku staring intently at the photo of Tsunotori’s room. Iida furrows his brow. “What’s wrong, Midoriya? Your face is so close to the screen!”

 “Your eyes will go bad,” Todoroki chides.

 Ignoring them, Izuku looks up at Tsunotori with starstruck eyes. “This… this is the XXXX All Might figurine, not produced in Japan!”

 “Oh, indeed it is,” Tsunotori verifies. “Of course I also like All Might!”

  “Uwaa, amazing! Even though it’s available, it’d be terribly difficult to get it imported. Um… that is… next time, could you take some close-ups of it…!”

 “Of course!”

 “A-a-a-ah!” Izuku thanks Tsunotori profusely.

Seeing the Class 1-A and 1-B members happily intermingling, Monoma scowls. “We should probably head back. There’s no point staying any longer.”

 (During all this, Monoma has polished off all the tea snacks.)

 But Kaminari and Ojiro block his way to the door. “Hold it right there! You barge into our dorm, insult our rooms, eat all the cake, and now want to leave? You think you can just do whatever you want? Don’t even think about waltzing away like this!”

 “Oh no, I wasn’t degrading anyone!” Monoma replies coolly. “I was just being honest. ‘Tell it like it is’, you know?”

 “You were just being honest?! That’s even more insulting!” Ojiro looks ready to throttle Monoma.

 “Calm down, I never said normalcy was bad. ‘Normal’ is quite important. It’s the standard against which you compare everything else, you know…”

 (The tension mounts. Boys with bruised self-esteem? As dangerous as wounded beasts. Except the wounded beasts are actually kittens.)

 It’s evident that no one is going to drop the matter, and both sides are ready for a confrontation.

 “Hey, hey. What do you guys want to do then? I said I would leave, but you won’t allow that. So now what? You want a decisive winner? A clear decision on which side is the strongest?”

 The 1-A boys, usually strung along by Monoma, finally get the chance to be the ones to ensnare him.

 (The saying is usually ‘a little cute, a hundred times more annoying’ but somehow it seems more like ‘a little annoying, a hundred times more cute’…)

 Watching the events unfold, Kendo makes to separate them. But Monoma and the 1-A boys aren’t listening anymore.

 “Let’s have a showdown! Don’t run away!”

 “We’re the ones who are gonna win, so why would we run?”

 Iida steps forward to stop them, but Monoma won’t let him spoil an opportunity to win again Class 1-A. He quickly cries out the UA motto: “Plus Ultra!”

 Ah, so the competition is to practice and improve themselves. Even outside of class, they’re so devoted! Mollified, Iida stands down.

 Iida taken care of, Monoma continues. “So how will we do this? Whatever method is fine!”

 “Er…” Kaminari looks to Ojiro for help.

 Ojiro blinks, and eventually settles on a hesistant, “Arm wrestling?”

 “Arm wrestling again? Is this revenge for last time? So unimaginative,” Monoma sneers.

 ** This refers to BNHA Light Novel Vol. 2 Chapter 5, where Class 1-A and 1-B have an arm wrestling competition and Monoma sabotages it when it looks like 1-B is going to lose.

 “What about sumo?”

 Monoma sniffs. “Isn’t that along the same line as arm wrestling? Besides, why does it have to be a show of strength? That’s so brutish.”

 “You just said anything goes! But fine, you choose something then!”

 “Don’t just suddenly dump the decision on me! You’re the ones who wouldn’t let me leave and started the fight.”

 “I bet! You’re clearly the one who was trying to antagonize us first. You can’t think of anything either!”

 As they squabble and scramble to come up with something, Todoroki, who had been quietly watching from the sidelines, suddenly goes “Ah!”

 “What’s up, Todoroki-kun?”

 “Well, since no one seems to be able to decide, I do have something.” Todoroki goes up to his room, returning with a barrel-like toy.

 There are many slots along the barrel, but only one results in a pirate head popping up from the top. Everyone takes turns picking a slot to poke their toy sword into, and anyone who gets the pirate head loses. The game resets until there’s only one person left, and they’re the winner.

 ** This is Pop-up Pirate. Todoroki got this toy from Hatsume in Chapter 2

 “Wow, I didn’t expect Todoroki to have this,” Yaoyorozu says.

 “Someone gave it to me,” Todoroki explains.

 “But… was the barrel supposed to be this big?” Ojiro seems to recall the toy from his childhood being able to fit in one hand, but the one before him is as big as a basketball.

 “It’s probably just an advanced edition. Please, let’s just use this…”

 Finally they set the rules for their showdown. 1-A and 1-B will take turns picking slots, and the side that triggers the pirate head loses.

 Since 1-B’s side only has 2 girls and 2 boys present, 1-A has to choose 2 girls and 2 boys to represent themselves too:

Kaminari, who’s bitter about his room being insulted earlier,

Ojiro, who thinks it’ll be fun and wants to participate,

Hakagure, who cheerfully raises her hands,

Ashido, who’d just come out of the bath.

 When they do rock, paper, scissors to decide who will go first, Monoma wins against Kaminari. “Ahahaha, it looks like luck is on the side of Class 1-B!”

 The smug and confident Monoma decides to go first. “Then, let’s start. To the victory of Class 1-B, the first sword!”

He thrusts the sword in. A sudden loud crack… “BZZT ZZ ZZ ZZ ZZ ZZ”

 Electricity floods into Monoma, who’s quite literally stunned into silence. Everyone stares at this unexpected development.

 “Monoma? Are you okay?!” Tetsutetsu asks, alarmed. “Monoma? Get a hold of yourself!”

“I’m not dead yet.” The frazzled Monoma glares up at Kaminari. “You dare do this, huh?! To think you’d launch a sneak attack… you Class 1-A lot really have some nerve.”

 “Wait, it wasn’t me! Everyone saw, right?”

 Ojiro comes to the rescue, declaring that the electricity had come from the barrel itself. A debate starts up. The pirate head hasn’t popped out so Monoma technically hasn’t lost, but there must have been some tampering that triggered the electrical shock.  As everyone argues, Izuku turns to Todoroki next to him. “Won’t the instruction manual tell us something? Todoroki-kun, do you have a manual?”

 “No.” Todoroki’s response is as curt as always, but even he looks a little shaken. “This is from one of the members of 1-H, the Department of Support. I think her name is Hatsu-something? Because it was something she made, she wanted to know our thoughts after we tried playing it…”

 “… Eh??” Izuku and Iida immediately yell, both having been on the receiving end of Hatsume’s inventions before.

 Todoroki hadn’t anticipated anything like this happening. “I feel pretty bad though, sorry,” he says in a small voice.

 Izuku fears that Hatsume has done some nefarious things to the toy and proposes that they stop the game. Iida wholeheartedly agrees. But Monoma won’t have any of it. “Hahahaha! Are you kidding me? Just for such a trivial matter?”

 Kaminari points out, “But didn’t you get hurt pretty seriously?”

 Monoma aggressively tries to fix his hair as he taunts, “Running away?”

 “!”

 “So Class 1-A is going to back out on a silly game like this? Oh, I’m so sorry! I’ll just declare my win over you weak-hearted lot and let you go. You guys accepted earlier but were ready to bolt at any second, huh? Go on back to your rooms to have a good cry in bed.”

 “As if! The game must go on!” Though everyone is very worried, Kaminari blurts out the response without thinking. Now it’s too late to take the words back.

 Monoma’s provocations have hit their mark. He refuses to be the only victim here – it’s not about the physical pain, but rather the blow to his ego.

 Decision made, everyone agrees to see the game through until the end.

 “Then it’s Class 1-A’s turn,” Monoma proclaims. “Who will be the next victim?”

 “I’ll go.” Kaminari steps forward.

 Monoma protests. “Don’t you have resistance to electricity? Isn’t that a little too cunning?”

 “Hey, it’s not like I can do anything about having this quirk.”

 Come at me, I’ll take whatever you can give! With that thought, Kaminari shoves his sword into the barrel.

 But there’s no electricity this time. Perhaps the toy had just malfunctioned earlier? There’s a short moment of confusion. Then the toy partially transforms, suddenly crushing Kaminari’s extended fingers in a vice grip. He shrieks.

 Before everyone’s eyes, the toy silently returns to its original state.

 “I see!” Izuku blurts. “Hatsume designed this to combine the pirate pop-up game with elements of a batsu game.”

 ** i.e. Japanese punishment game.

 Knowing Hatsume, there’s no way electrocution and pinching are the only two punishments available… But they can’t stop now.

 .

–– End of Chapter 3, Part Two  ––

Chapter 3, Part Three

Additional Notes:

Hmmm

[amusewithaview]

Drunk-Dialing Wormholes (MCU/Tolkien crossover)

A/N: This is for @uru-viel who recently Did a Very Cool Thing.

As a general rule, Darcy was against drunk!science.

She was, in fact, usually the voice of reason that shouted down the drunk!science.  Darcy, as a general rule, tended to prefer drunk!dancing or drunk!marathons (preferably of B-level slasher films).  Darcy did not think that drunk and science should be in the same hemisphere, let alone the same lab.  The closest she had ever come to drunk!science was when she attempted to figure out the tip at Waffle House at 3:00AM on Thursday night.

Everyone made interesting decisions in college.

Today, she was making an exception to her general rule.  Today was a day for exceptions and skirting of rules and ignoring of guidelines.  Today was the day of Jane and Thor’s break-up.  Darcy would call it ‘the big break-up’ but, truth be told, the relationship ended with more of a whimper than a bang.  There was long distance and then there was long distance, she was honestly impressed that they’d managed to maintain the flame for the length of time that they did.

Just for the day, she was bending the rules.

“Wine and science,” Jane said, the lower half of her spine undulating side to side as if her core muscles had forgotten how to work.  “Wine and science,” she repeated, “is a marvelous combination.”

“I think there’s more wine than science.  And not enough whine.”

“I hate that I can hear the spelling change,” Jane muttered.

“You know me so well.”

“Too well.”

“Wounded,” Darcy said.  “I am hurt.”

“You are drunk,” Jane said, reaching over and gently pushing on her shoulder.

She obligingly swayed, tipping so far she almost unseated herself on the stool.  “I’m the drunk half of this drunk!science experiment,” she said sagely.  “Now go bring some more science into the party so I can bring more wine.”

“I...don’t think that’s how it works.”

“We gotta keep it equal!  Even!  Ish!”

Jane pondered that for a moment, then nodded and shrugged.  “I had... I had a thing I was going to do, with that - that-”

“The other thing?”

“Yeah.”

Darcy pulled a face.  “Now I’m sad, because I think I know which things you mean.  We spend... a lot of time together.  Maybe too much.”

Jane shot her a mournful look, “If we weren’t platonic besties-”

“We’d be the bestest girlfriends,” Darcy finished, holding out her fist for a bump.

Jane bumped back solemnly.  “In another life.”

“One without Thor.”

“Or Ian,” she added.

“Ugh,” Darcy said, grimacing.  “Don’t remind me.”

“Sorry, sorry... I’ll just,” she gestured vaguely towards the Bridge machine.  “I’ll just bring the science level up enough that we can open another bottle of wine.”

“I’ll need wine and whine if we’re talking about Ian.”

Jane poked at the machine, “I had an inkling the other day, but it was a weird one.  I think my inkling was on the right track.”

“Did you write it down?”

“I didn’t want to waste the ink if I was wrong.”

“Cute,” Darcy said.  “Maybe I should introduce you to Sam, he likes puns.”

“No men, not for at least... three months.  Mourning period.”

“Fair.  So...the inkling.  Need paper?”

“Nah, no paper.  Just a few adjustments, like-” Jane wrenched at the machine, turning it a quarter to the left and then hitting a few buttons out of Darcy’s line of sight.  “There, that might do it.”

“Might?”

She shrugged.  “The inkling was vague and now wine.  ‘Might’ is as good as it’s going to get tonight.”

“You want I should press the red button?”

Jane pursed her lips.  “Uh...maybe we should wait until tomorrow?”

Darcy gave her an exaggeratedly patient look.  “Jane.  Janey.  What is tonight?”

“Drunk!science night.”

“This night comes but once a relationship!”

“True, okay.  Push the button.”

Darcy swayed over, one hand clutching her wine glass, and slung her other arm over Jane’s shoulder.  She leaned in, pulling Jane along with her, until her hand could flatten over the big red button.  She locked eyes with the older woman and waggled her eyebrows until Jane started giggling, then and only then did she push the button.

It was difficult to say who was more surprised when it worked: Darcy or Jane.  But one moment they were cheerfully tipsy-slash-drunk in the lab and the next moment they were stumbling forward into a forest.

“This isn’t where I parked the bar,” Darcy said.

“Oh my god,” Jane breathed.  “It worked!”

“Your inkling worked.”

“It worked!”

“Jane...”

“I can’t believe-”

“Jane!”

“What?”

“You didn’t write down the inkling.”

“Well, no.”

“So nobody knows where we are and, unless they’re like, as smart and specialized as you, odds are they won’t figure out how we got here.”

“...oops?”

Darcy squeezed her eyes tightly shut for a moment.  “I’m too tipsy for this,” she muttered.  “Okay, so, here’s what we do.  We walk until we find people-”

“People?”

“Sentient beings, preferably ones we can communicate with, and then we ask them for help.  Your machine can only move people through space, right?  Not time and dimensions?”

“Theoretically, yes.”

“Well, ok then.”

“But if I’m wrong?”

“Panic, pain, the whole nine yards.  But first!  Optimism!”

“Fueled by wine.”

“That’s the best kind of optimism!”

Wine-fuelled optimism only got them about fifty feet further into the trees.  The forest was dark, slightly dank, and quiet enough to impress upon the women the need for both speed and silence.  The light, shaded by the overhanging branches and leaves, was dim enough to be confused with dusk.  The weather was just warm enough that they were comfortable, but both wondered how that might change once true night fell.

“It’s too quiet,” Darcy muttered.

“Don’t say that, you’ll freak me out.”

“Join me in my freak-out.  The water’s fine.”

“Ha ha,” Jane muttered, carefully clambering over a massive downed tree.

There was no clear pathway, but the trees were too large to grow too close together and they provided enough shade that the space between them largely empty of sun-craving foliage.  There were mushrooms and shrubs, unrecognizable to either woman, but those were easy to navigate.  It was, after all, very simple to travel through a forest when you have no clear destination.

Being neither accustomed to camping nor even remotely acquainted with woodcraft, both of them were utterly surprised to find themselves suddenly surrounded by people with bows and arrows and skin that glowed faintly in the dim forest’s light.

“Definitely not in Kansas anymore,” Darcy muttered.

One of the people stepped forward, lowering his bow.  He said something in a smooth language that seemed entirely comprised of L’s and R’s.  At their obvious incomprehension, he switched to something with more glottal stops.  Seeing their continued confusion, he scowled, stepping even closer, and studied them intently.

Darcy watched as his eyes skimmed over her and then stuttered to an obvious halt on Jane.  She barely kept herself from rolling her eyes.  Jane, for some reason unfathomable but utterly amusing, seemed to attract a certain type.  That type was blonds, usually affluent blonds, but it was true regardless of placement on the gender spectrum.  Darcy did not understand it, but after several years of friendship, including many nights at varying bars and/or restaurants, she felt quite comfortable making the broad, sweeping generalization that her friend was blond-nip.

He said something soft and quietly awed, then slowly slid his bow into a sheath on his back.  He reached out a hand to Jane and-

Jane reached back.

Darcy watched with wide eyes as her friend accepted the hand and allowed herself to be drawn closer to the stranger.  “Uh...what’s going on?”

“I...have no idea,” Jane said, never taking her eyes off of their new friend.  “But I’m strangely okay with it.  Can’t tell if that’s the wine talking or leftover thrill of success from the science.”

“Maybe both.”

“Probably both,” she agreed.  “But he’s...”

“Holy shit, he’s an elf!” Darcy squeaked as the stranger tilted his head to listen to them, long blond hair sweeping to one side to reveal a very pointy ear.

“He’s perfect,” Jane breathed.  There were stars in her eyes as she looked at him, and considering the woman’s hobbies, degrees, and life-long obsession, that was saying something.

It was, honestly, kind of adorable.  The strange man and Jane were just... standing there.  Gazing into one another’s eyes.  After a minute or so, another one of the strangers (elves!) sheathed their bow and glided over to the trio.  This one was a redhead and looked female, assuming that the elves subscribed to anything approaching human gender ideas.  The ginger elf said something to the blond in that first liquid-silver language, it sounded soft and curious.

The blond responded, sounding just as breathless as Jane.

Ginger elf made a face like she was having too many emotions to convey.  She turned smartly towards Darcy and made a broad gesture, obviously beckoning her closer.

“Hi, I have no idea what you’re saying but I’m totally not a threat,” Darcy said as she obeyed the unspoken command.

Ginger elf tilted her head to one side, looking amused.  She turned to the rest of the elves and said something hard and quick, head tilting to the left of where Darcy and Jane had been walking.  The others melted back into the foliage, though Darcy assumed that they were still there, and the elf turned back to her with a raised eyebrow as if to say, ‘Well?  You coming?’

“Well,” Darcy muttered, gamely following the elves and Jane, “we found sentient beings, now we just gotta work on the communication bits.”

It felt like hours later that they reached something approaching civilization.  In this case, ‘civilization’ came in the form of a fortress whose walls were made of living trees.  Darcy gave them props for sustainability and their obvious support of the environment, but she was feeling tired, grumpy, and slightly queasy at that point.  Wine and exercise were not a good combination.

Much like wine and science.

Darcy, who at this point wanted nothing more than to curl into a ball and sleep off what was sure to be an awful hangover, was a being made of regret.

Then she glanced over at the blond, who had introduced himself as ‘Legolas’ in the most adorable ‘Me Tarzan, you Jane,’ moment to ever make Darcy wish she had a functional camera, and her regret subsided.  Legolas and Jane kept sneaking glances at each other, and every time they locked eyes it was as if the world melted away.  And then either Tauriel, the redheaded elf, or Darcy would have to poke and prod them to get them moving again.

Darcy and Tauriel were well on their way to becoming friends in spite of the language barrier.  There was an entire code of raised eyebrows and exasperated half-smiles shared between them as they helped shepherd their friends onwards.

The tree-fortress had a very large tree-door that Darcy decided not to think about too hard because the door appeared to be made of living wood and that was some next-level horticulture right there.  Beyond the gates was a city, but a tree city.  It was everything Darcy had imagined as a child when people described ‘tree houses’ to her, like Swiss Family Robinson meets fairytale, and she was instantly enchanted and enraptured.

The rest of the elves from the original encounter had melted back out of the woodwork and formed up at their backs as an escort.  Darcy had a moment to feel wary before they were ushered into a very large tree-house-thing and into something that was obviously a receiving room.  The tip-off was the very large and intimidating chair at one end of the room.

There was another elf-man sitting in the throne (because what else could it be?), long-limbed and graceful even stationary.  He also had blond hair, and Darcy had a moment of worry as to whether or not there would be a blond-off for the favor of fair Jane.  Clearly the wine had yet to leave her system.

The new, somehow even blonder elf was staring at Legolas and Jane with a faint frown, then his eyes swept over to her and - oh.

Huh.

Well.  Shit.

His eyes were silvery, or maybe blue, it was difficult to tell with the distance between them but - oh.  He had risen and was rapidly closing that distance.  He stopped in front of her and reached out and, just like Jane, she reached back immediately.  His hand in hers felt like that swooping feeling when a roller coaster first starts its descent down a big hill, like fireworks and killer harmonies and she was soothed and exhilarated all at once.

“What the fuck, Jane,” Darcy breathed.

“With you, 100%,” she replied.

Legolas and her elf - shit, that was too possessive, that wasn’t, but it was?  Too confusing - started speaking in the flowing language.  After a moment, her elf nodded sharply, then lifted his free hand to press his palm to his chest.

“Thranduil,” he said.

“Darcy,” she replied, smiling helplessly.

She was feeling sightly better about the wine/science combo.

[buttonholedlife]

This Week’s Essential Releases: Cosmic Death Metal, Techno, Jazz and More

Welcome to Essential Releases, our weekly roundup of the best music on Bandcamp. Each week, we’ll recommend crucial new albums that were released between last Friday and this Friday, plus pick an older LP from the stacks that you may have missed.

Behavior Spirits & Embellishments

L.A. post-punk trio Behavior make deconstructed rock n’ roll, all odd angles, that fizzes with anxiety and burns with tension even in its most seemingly-languid, minimal moments. Take “Cheap Dive,” from their latest album, Spirits and Embellishments; a minor-key jangler in the vein of the ‘80s Boston suburban underground (think Native Tongue or Moving Targets), the track slowly breaks down to barely strummed guitar and abstract lyrics, only to gather up again and stutter to a stop. This is the group’s most playful work yet; sure, there’s plenty of their trademark bleakness to be found, but tracks like “Cute,” “Some Dear Sign,” and “Organic” have percussive shuffle and even, dare I say it, a little bit of pop’s cheeky charm (which has been peeking out from their sound for a while, but feels more fully acknowledged here). I’ve been fascinated by what Behavior do since their first album (the closest overall analog in my head is Swell Maps, which is a large compliment), and it’s a joy to me to watch them build a cohesive style and get comfortable within it across such broad, experimental terrain.

-Jes Skolnik

Jacques Greene Dawn Chorus

The list of collaborators on the latest album from Canadian producer Jacques Greene gives a quick indication of its breadth. Everyone from the rapper Cadence Weapon to cellist Oliver Coates to synth experimentalist Juliana Barwick turns up in the album’s credits, a suitably broad roster for an album that is relentlessly determined to pool out in every direction. Greene works from a general base of dance music, but the way he approaches it is almost defiant. The press line on this record is that he approached the songs as if he were working with a band, which would be nothing more than a clever hook if the music didn’t actually sound that way. But that rethink is clearly audible—mainly in the cavernous drums on songs like “Drop Location” and “Do It Without You,” which have a resonance that feels strikingly organic. Genre-wise, Greene is all over the map, from the ambient house of “Let Go,” where waterfalls of synth cascade down over Rochelle Jordan’s winding R&B-like melody, to the bright and blinking “Sibling,” where fat, twitchy synths seem to flirt with retrowave. The album is held together by a kind of gliding ambience—a soft fog of electronics that hangs over even rambunctious numbers like the album opening “Serenity.” Greene and co-producer Jonathan Ford of the techno duo Ford & Lopatin created and followed a specific production rule book while making the record; as a result, Dawn Chorus hangs together as a cohesive work, even when Greene is pushing genre omnivorousness to giddy new extremes.

-J. Edward Keyes

Laura Palmer’s DEATH PARADE Among Us All

Portland band Laura Palmer’s DEATH PARADE’s overlooked 2018 EP release, Among Us All, receives a cassette reissue on Seattle’s reliably cool Halfshell Records this month, giving dream pop aficionados a second chance to sink into the cloudy embrace of the band’s alternately sweet and doomy guitar pop. This band’s music is as spookily atmospheric and darkly insular as the mood conjured by the television show they so shamelessly reference both in their name and even sonically, but there’s so much depth and shape to these songs it’s impossible to get hung up on aesthetics—though they are, let’s face it, a huge part of the charm with this kind of music. But LPDP have something most dreampoppers don’t, which is soul. Laura Hopkins’ gorgeous, velvety voice winds in and out of her grief-stricken melodies, her yearning torch songs coated with soft shoegaze shimmer that only serves to make them feel even darker and more sad for being so pretty at the same time. The only thing this band needs to change is their name.

-Mariana Timony

Falon Sierra Damaged By System

Seattle-based R&B singer Falon Sierra is making music that transverses the line between soul and experimental. A self-proclaimed alt-R&B artist, her latest album, Damaged By System, is about self-definition and self-determination. On album opener, “What’s Wrong!?!?” Sierra sings, “I want to be adored,” to an uninterested lover over a piano-heavy beat with resounding synths. The track “CrazyInsane” sounds glitchy with light, airy electro pings that are expertly matched with Sierra’s syrupy vocals. On the hazy closer “Let Them [Sleep On You],” Sierra addresses listeners with a monologue about the struggles of making art in Seattle—a city undergoing immense and rapid gentrification. She’s clear about the weight of fighting to carve out a space for herself against the city’s current reality. The five songs on Damaged By System are a good introduction to Sierra’s sumptuous sound.

-Diamond Sharp

Vagabon Vagabon

The debut album from Laetitia Tamko, who records as Vagabon, was bare-bones and guitar-based, springing from the indie rock scene centered around the Brooklyn venue Silent Barn, which also nurtured artists like Long Neck, Fern Mayo, Waxahatchee, and others. But her new record—and first for the major indie Nonesuch—she leaves that rough-and-tumble sound behind, opting instead for sleek, synth-driven pop music that perfectly complements her stunning, haunting voice. The change of direction pays off from the outset: “Full Moon in Gemini” is a masterfully controlled narrative of love and longing that Tamko tells using vivid, specific details, and the way her voice rolls through the lush bed of strings and electronics is like fog rolling across the top of the water. On “Water Me Down,” she gingerly strings syllables together over sweetly piping keys. In our interview with her, Tamko cites Frank Ocean’s Blonde as a reference point, and while the two albums don’t quite sound alike—though both share a fondness for languid, luxuriant tempos—the primary area of overlap is in their unflinching intimacy. In “Home Soon,” as strings bend and sway in the background like trees in a breeze, Tamko repeats, “I give it all away/ but I’ll be home soon.” She sings it with a different inflection every time—first remote, then determined, then, finally sorrowful. The words are vague, but the feeling with which she sings them makes them clear she has a specific recipient in mind. There’s a subtle irony at work: there is a lazy critical shorthand that pegs underproduced guitar music—the kind Tamko used to make—as somehow inherently more “authentic” than other styles. To listen to Vagabon is to realize how foolish that thinking is.

-J. Edward Keyes

Xoth Interdimensional Invocations

Xoth’s Interdimensional Invocations, my penultimate Spooky Friday pick, is a searing homage to Lovecraftian horror: Cthulu’s cold, desolate universe pressed to wax so that we might witness its majesty without our heads exploding instantaneously on the spot, like grapefruits in a microwave, upon exposure. Xoth aren’t the first cosmic metal band to come along — not by a long shot — but they’re certainly the nastiest, their oozing riffs reinforced by maddening screams and live-wire solos redolent of early-’90s death metal. Exorbitant doomsday tales like “Plague Revival 20XX” and “The Ghost Hand Of God” are filled with lyrical references to space viruses and alien overlords, the stuff of Ancient Aliens wackiness — and yet, the instrumentally-grotesque, lyrically-perverse manner in which they’re presented is nothing short of terrifying.

-Zoe Camp

Back Catalog

Sensual World Feeling Wild

I’ve been waiting for the debut from Richmond dark punk band Sensual World (named for what I would say is an honestly underrated Kate Bush record) for a while now, and good lord, what a perfect album for the spooky month. Singer Julie Karr is possessed of a powerful voice, a country-soul howl that adds a particularly fascinating dimension to Sensual World’s sound. They’re clearly indebted to the Wipers (listen to those spindly, punchy Greg Sage-esque guitar lines, and the wash of reverb and delay over the entire album that makes it sound a bit like it’s transmitting from the bottom of a swampy lake), but Karr’s voice pushes them from a good band—enjoyable, smart songwriters, but not necessarily heads above the rest—to something ferocious and particular. When she recites “I’m coming, I’m coming, I’m coming,” at the end of “United States of Bullshit,” it is both a threat and a thrill.

-Jes Skolnik

This content was originally published here.

[bestillandremember]

It’s been almost three months since I left England and came back to Phoenix. I don’t think I’ve been able to process much. I essentially had to hit the ground running with my life in Arizona, which wasn’t a bad thing. I was looking forward to making changes, and creating a healthy environment for me here at home. Then I got home, and I coasted. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, and going over the significant moments before, during, and after England.

Before England, I was at the mercy of some pretty severe emotional extremes. My highs and lows would be peaks and valleys I could never predict or control. I could look at my life objectively, and see that I had everything I needed. I have a great family, a small group of close supportive, loving friends, a house with two incredible roommates, a job that I see growth in, a stupid cute dog, a reliable car. The list could go on. I knew what I have to be grateful for, yet I always felt like I was walking along the edge.

Arriving at Capernwray, I was finally able to experience a glimpse of what I think my heart was always searching for. Surrounded by like-minded people, all healing and seeking the Lord earnestly and honestly, in a place pretty close to heaven on earth for me. I don’t think I can really sum up my experience there, but I’ve chosen a few.

1. There’s an area called the loop, which is basically a mile and a half walk around the property. Capernwray, on all sides, is surrounded by green hills lined with sheep, cows, and the occasional horse. It’s removed from the world, a narrow one lane road leads to and away from it. Walking that circle provided some of the deepest peace I’ve ever felt. It was like seeing the world as God intended it, and on top of that, it was like He was telling me He was there. He got me here, a place He knew would speak to me on a level that would bring me closer to Him. With the sun shining, the wind enveloping me, and some of the most vibrant colors and smells every where I looked- He met me there.

2. I met a few women there- Alex, Kelly, Melissa, Selina, Helen, and Sue who were exactly what my heart needed while I was processing the things in my life. They helped me seeing myself differently. They helped me name my pain. Identify the abuse in my past, and release some of the self-blame I was harboring. They listened, they laughed, they invested, and they prayed for me. And over me. Every night. Something that hammered away at me, because it made me uncomfortable but it was something I desperately needed. These women helped me see outside myself, and look at the world around me more closely. But more on them later.

3. I learned that there’s room for opinion when it comes to religion, but there’s only room for relationship when it comes to God. I don’t have to listen to everyone that is 50+ years or older and take their word as law. Their race is not my race, their experience is not my experience. I can ask questions and I can voice my beliefs without fear, even if they differ from the teachers I respect as people. Or students I value as peers. My only responsibility is to myself and my Creator, and I owe it to Him to pursue answers on my own, not accept their words as His.

4. One of the speakers, probably the most unlikely teachers I would connect with, prayed over me. He asked me a lot of questions before. Heard my history and my painful past. He shared a word: Trust, and then shared an image. He told me I reminded him of a Pillsbury pastry can that you peel the label off and it pops open. That I was just waiting for someone to peel my label back so I can be myself openly. Then he prayed for me, and the words he said disappeared the minute he took my hand. His hands were huge, soft, and warm. And I know it’s crazy…but for a split second, I felt like it was my Heavenly Father holding my hand. It was quick, and faded fast, but I felt like He tried to make physical contact in a way he knew I needed.

To go back to #2- the absolute best part of Capernwray was the people. There were 100+ people that I can genuinely say impacted my life individually in some way, big or small. There were a few that I want to highlight individually and share with anyone that wants to get to know them too.

Alex- THIS GIRL. She’s adorably Irish, and has to be one of the most welcoming personalities I’ve met in a long time. People are drawn to how genuine and accepting she is, and I truly believe it is going to make her an exceptional doctor. Yeah, she’s 27 and a doctor. Needless to say, this girl is smart, capable, loving, compassionate, and a listener. I watched this girl listen to not only her two roommates, who occasionally literally talked her into a slumber, but make time for just about everyone in addition to driving many of us around. Patience incarnate, that’s Alex. I felt almost instantly comfortable being myself and sharing things with her in a confidence she often wordlessly established.

Kelly- Talk about a big heart. Kelly has a desire to know people and be known. It took ten weeks to fully understand the depths of just how much this girl cares about people, but by the end of school, I had a gained a bosom sister. For weeks, we talked, shared, laughed, cried, pizza’d, bonded over Jane Austen, and attended church together. This girl offered a genuine vulnerability I haven’t seen in a long time, in an effort to love me better every time. It wasn’t easy, but that’s what made it so real, she put everything she had into sharing herself with others as honestly as she could, even if it was painful. She did the same with her relationship with the Lord. Because that’s who she is, she wants to learn so she can love. She was brave. She was honest. She was genuine. She’s Kelly! And that’s just scratching the surface.

Melissa- BUMBLE BEE. Actually, she is more like a butterfly, full of life and joy. I still remember when she asked to sit next to me on the bus on our first Saturday trip, and I was fully prepared to put headphones in and zone out. Soon enough, we were talking about home, how her and her husband met, our family lives and exchanging sister stories. Then we spent all day together in Keswick, and I was officially sold on Mel. She wanted to get ice cream and take pictures, and it became clear that she love to live life to the fullest and she wanted to include as many people as she could in that. So began a beautiful and honest friendship. She is a trusted friend, and earned my confidence more quickly than almost anyone I’ve met. She’s an active listener, and provides sage and sound advice. Her faith is one I want to emulate, it’s open and engaged. It’s one of the first things you learn about her, and I respect that. That and her snack drawer ;)

Selina- This girl is a German firecracker. She has a laugh that is contagious, and loves to learn about other people and cultures. She would provide daily entertainment on her interpretations of English words, and she was always up for snacks and chats. She loved to pray and discuss important things, but she was big on fun. She loves her grandma, and has a heart for those who are non-believers. She’s got strong opinions that are rooted in an even more powerful faith. Women’s pastoral care is her passion, and she constantly wants to learn and grow so she can help others do the same. She wants to help others heal, and find God in their own story and lives, and I greatly respected the sweet soul she shared with people. And I loved having an excuse to sing Miss New Booty from across the campus, let’s be honest here. 

Helen- This friendship is one I never could have expected. Helen is a highly accomplished woman from Manchester that has been a social worker for years. She and her service dog Venice we our neighbors. Helen has cerebral palsy, with a story and perspective on life that humbled mine daily. Over the weeks, we talked in great detail about our lives before and after Jesus. The every day struggles we had. If anyone helped me process my pain the most, it was Helen. Even without knowing full details, she could see it, identify it, and looked me straight in the eye and said “It’s not your fault”. No prompting. This woman could see into people’s souls with an honesty that rivaled almost everyone I know. She was truthful, even if it came off blunt and brutal, it was in love and care that she offered her wisdom. She had a unique view of the world, and refused to play the victim or let anyone claim ignorance. She has an educator’s heart, and advocates for those she cares about. She was my safe space, someone I didn’t feel like I had to share every nitty gritty detail with to find peace.

Sue- This woman followed my journey since the very beginning. I had no clue as I was trying to get to Capernwray, that I had a woman like this campaigning for me. She was the registrar when I very first applied, years ago, and woman I stayed in contact with as I struggled to get there. Every roadblock I faced, she prayed, and then everything suddenly lined up. When I got to Capernwray, I had no doubt it was because of Sue. I was there to attend her final Spring school after decades of serving the students that came through its big wooden doors. Sue is a servant, it’s the best word to describe her. She is a force, with an incredible sense of humor and a heart this is 100% dedicated to others. She loves being a source for the female students and staff to come and drink tea, talk Jesus, and find safety in her office as we discussed some of the hardest things to voice. Doubt. Sadness. Confusion. Broken hearts and shattered plans. This woman had a direct connection to the Big Man upstairs, I swear. Every girl to pass through her doors felt seen, heard, and known with zero expectation. Which is a gift I can’t begin to explain.

I also want to talk about my family group for a second. Capernwray strung this group of people together that, although it was random, could not have been accidental. Our leaders Dino, Christian, and Sabine quickly became friends and mentors. Kelly, Alex, and I ended up in the same group with Daniel (Brazil), Jun (South Korea), Maddie (Canada), Jess (US), and Julie (France). These guys truly became siblings by the end of our 10 weeks. Daniel was the fiercely protective and thoughtful brother, with a wisdom beyond his years. Jun, while a bit of mystery, provided endless entertainment and a story I wanted to hear more about. Maddie and I bonded over Marvel comics and End Game, and her sense of humor was something I was constantly envious of. Jess…what a special girl. She had a connection to the Lord and a maturity that I have been searching for my entire life. Julie had a beauty about her, hard to describe but felt by everyone and even heard in her words (she once prayed for me and described me as a flower waiting to bloom, nearly brought me to tears).

Capernwray gave me family all over the world. It showed me that everyone is broken. That everyone doubts. That everyone is just trying the best version of themselves in a world trying it’s best to knock us down and lie to us about who that is. The craziest thing is that it’s nothing new. The Bible is riddled with stories of people the Lord chose and picked up out of the rubble of their lives and built a legacy that would display His glory for thousands of years. It was the first time I read the Bible and saw a chronological story. I was enraptured in a way I never had been before. I saw flaws and drama in the story of Moses, wanted to defend Joshua and his incredible leadership that followed, and laughed at how sassy Jesus was. 

One of the biggest steps I took at Capernwray was letting it become the place where I could say I was, in fact, in an abusive relationship that I let isolate me and continue to hurt me long after I took back control. I stopped minimizing the effect it had on me, so I could move past it. I stopped hiding it, so I could let others in and learned I wasn’t the only one. I identified a vicious cycle I had been drowning in for years. Most importantly, I started to heal. 

I knew Caperwray wasn’t going to be the glue that brought everything in my life back together. I knew I wouldn’t find every answer there. However I got closer to the Lord than I ever have been in my entire life there. I lived in ministry for as long as I could remember, but it took seeing God through international eyes to discover my story wasn’t special. I had an army of people who knew the same pain, confusion, and doubt I did and together we discovered the community He intended for His people. No perfection, pretenses, or deception. Honest, vulnerable exposure to the truth of the Bible and our calling.

For that, I am forever grateful. However, it did make it hard to go back. I wanted to make changes and set boundaries. I wanted to cut out toxicity and cling to prosperity. While I did a lot of that, it’s a lot easier said than done. I got home, dove into work and found routine again. That consistency left me feeling a numbness I didn’t expect. I wasn’t feeling the extreme highs and lows, but I also lost the urgency, the vitality that emotion brought. I don’t really know what it all means, but I know I’m not where I want to be, and that makes me sad. I want to change that, I just need the spark I had in England. I’m rededicating the dormant parts of myself to find it again.

To everyone reading this from Capernwray, know that if you’re not mentioned- you’re incredibly special. From day one running around London with Cieran, Jake, Ben, and Hayley. To talks at dinner with Lindsay and coffee dates with Maggie. To my sweet soul sisters from Arizona, Elizabeth and Maggie. To the beauty I saw in friendships between Jo and Samara, Izzy and Jess, Grace and Kerri and Chad. Julia W and her sweet heart and creativity. Travis, his genuine spirit and shared emotional trauma during End Game and much needed Office references.  Carson and Jonny dealing with Mel and I on trips. Dimona and Katharina and their constant patience and affection they showed everyone equally. Julia and Naomi, the lovliest and smiliest twins you’ll ever meet. I can go ON AND ON PEOPLE. I love you all. If you ever need affirmation that you MATTER, come find me. I’ll tell you how much you meant to me in those ten weeks, and still do. 

[leeknowsintrusivethots]

Take A Deeper Look - Pt. 3

{Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3}

Pairing: Jay Park/You, Simon D/You

Summary: AOMG’s newest producer has a lot to deal with including a flighty CEO who doesn’t understand the concept of “personal space” and feelings for yet another CEO who is so far beyond her reach she doesn’t even think she has a chance.

Content: [smut] d/s themes

Word Count: 5140

Notes: It’s here, and it only took 50+ years. <3

   To say your life had become insane, would be a major understatement. You had avoided Jay at all cost for the past two days and your work was suffering for it. On the outside of your studio door a “do not disturb” sign hung for all to see in bold print. It deterred most would be visitors from entering your studio with the exception of Kiseok. He had come and went multiple times and every time he came he questioned you about your progress and whether Jay had been giving you any more problems.

   Of course, you lied. You covered yourself by sharing the completely unnecessary tweaks you had made to the second track with him. He would usually never be fooled, but he had been so busy with his own work and his newly public 'official’ relationship with Soori that he simply let it go. The only thing he had for you was an invitation to Secret Society for an AOMG outing tomorrow. You didn’t even care to debate why Kiseok the Recluse was finally deciding to out and party. All you could focus on was your own dilemma.  

   The strangest thing was that everyone acted as if they had no inkling of what had transpired between you and Jay just a few days ago. Hyukwoo had to have said something. He wasn’t a big gossip or anything, but you had a feeling the Boss shoving his tongue down a producer’s throat would be too big of news to just let go. Not even Jay himself had come to harass you about it. He had sent you a simple text to let him know when you needed him back in the recording booth. As far as the world was concerned, it seemed the situation had never happened.

   “But I know it did,” you insisted angrily at the soundboard in front of you. Thinking about it made you more conflicted than you had ever been in your life. On one hand, you were mad as hell - on the other, you were simply curious. Why had you let it happen? Why had you not pushed him away the second it had happened? Why did your thighs instinctively rub together whenever you thought about the way his lips had felt on yours and his hands on your body?

   You didn’t want Jay. He was handsome enough, but you had eyes only for Kiseok since you had started working at AOMG. If you were going to tolerate anyone touching you like Jay had it would be Kiseok. It had always been Kiseok, but you weren’t oblivious. Just because you weren’t too fond of or used to skinship, it didn’t mean that you were ignorant when it came to sex. You knew things, and you knew why your body reacted the way it did to Jay. Admitting it was the hard part.

   “God, I really do hate him.” You slung back the rest of your coffee and began playing with the track open on your laptop. You had to at least pretend to be doing work, for your own sake. You couldn’t let Jay Park drive you crazy. You refused.

   Deep down, you knew you were slowly losing any willpower you had.

   Secret Society was wild like usual. Right in the center of Hongdae and owned by the notorious Vasco, the club attracted people from all walks of life. Music fans, underground artists, and tattooed hipsters mingled and danced together freely in the dim lighting as a bass heavy instrumental beat against the stone walls and the inebriated downed more alcohol than should be allowed.

   Even amongst the bustle, Park Jaebum could feel your eyes on him, boring holes into his back and catching him whenever he would try to steal his own glances. As you caught his gaze for what felt like the millionth time that night, Jay simply smirked at you. He was trying to act normal, to pretend like nothing had happened between the two of you, but it was almost impossible.

   The first time he had met you was when Kiseok had brought you to the office after forcing Jay to listen to almost every song you had produced over the course of your music career. Other than being damn good at what you did, Jay hadn’t thought much of you when he met you in person. You were cute, sure, but also quiet. The entire meeting you only talked when prompted by Kiseok and you had avoided eye contact with Jay at all cost.  

   When the details were figured out and the contract signed, Jay hardly glimpsed you at work for the first couple of months. He knew you were there from tales of how scary you were to work with from Hyukwoo, but he never got to see you himself. It was when he got to make a single with you for the first time that what Hyukwoo said had ringed true. You were nothing like his first meeting with you. Instead of avoiding even looking at him, you had stared him down and gave him the ‘what-for’ for being late. When you were working, your determination could destroy even the strongest of people, and Jay had found that more admirable than anything.

   Over the course of time, Jay discovered just how much he liked pushing your buttons. You were seemingly so put together that it gave him a rush to bother you, to break down the cool front you put on display. It made you more human and less ice queen than you led everyone to believe. He found himself delighted every time he could get a reaction - whether a glare or a reprimand.

   Little did he know his pranks would culminate in him more focused on when he had suddenly started enjoying getting you hot and bothered over the excitement of the club around him. You claimed you didn’t like touching - reprimanding him even for an accidental brush of his hand - but if Jay Park knew anything better than music it was women. Even accidentally straddling him had you flustered, and he was sure kissing you had completely wrecked you.

   He would have liked nothing more than to cross the club to you and drag you back to his place just to see exactly how worked up he could make you, but you were so volatile and anal about keeping control that Jay had decided to give you your space for now. Of course, that decision was proving harder to keep than ever with you constantly glaring at him from your spot at the bar with Sungmin and Changjoong from Just Music.

   “Jayyyyyyyy.” The whiny drunk voice of Hyukwoo called Jay back to his reality. “You should go get some more shots,” he declared with drunken fervor. Jukung seconded the motion next to him with a tipsy nod.

   “I think you guys have had one too many,” Kiseok drawled lazily from the other side of the table. Soori was sitting next to him, hanging onto his every word with adoration. She nodded discreetly in agreement.

   “Don’t be a party pooper, Kiseok!” Hyukwoo pouted.

   “Yeah. You may not know how to have fun, but we do,” Jukung agreed as sagely as a drunken person could.

   Jay was too distracted to pay them much mind as he got up from his chair and headed for the bar. He was doing his best to convince himself that he was going to the bar for the sole purpose of getting more drinks for the group - that was it. It had nothing to do with the fact that you were there - nothing at all. Yet when he sidled up next to the hardtop counter he found himself standing right next to your stool. The bartender was busy attending to others, so he knew he would be waiting for a minute. He did his best to casually join the conversation, but he found himself staring at the soft skin of your thighs that the rips in your jeans allowed him.

   He was about to just give in. Even rejection and slap to the face was worth the possibility of sating the desire that had begun to grow painfully in his groin, but before he could act you had grabbed him by his hand. He faintly registered you saying goodbye to the Just Music boys before he was being pulled to the hallway next to the bar. The cool night air of the alleyway outside hit his skin shortly after but Jay couldn’t feel the cold. All he could feel was the heat of your body pressing his into the brick wall at his back.

   Your chest was heaving and your eyes were locked on his lips. “I don’t like you”, you sighed without your usual conviction.

   Jay - shocked - and more turned on than humanly possible, took the moment to tease you. “We talked about this before, Y/N - you don’t-”

   He didn’t even get the chance to finish his sentence before your lips were smothering his. Your tongue easily slipped past his willing lips to battle with his. Your hands acted of their own violation as they traced a path down the lines of his jaw to rub absent circles on the hard panes of his covered stomach.

   “Let’s go somewhere else”, you husked when you finally manage to pull your lips away from Jay’s.

   Jay gulped, hard. He was sure of what he wanted, but he had no idea what was going on in your head and it was driving him crazy. You had proved to be a lot more unpredictable than he had ever thought you could be. “Are you sure?”

   “Yes, Jay”, you answered immediately. When he took a moment longer to study your face for any hesitation you spoke again. “Please.”

   The word had him groaning.   Combined with the hooded lust in your eyes and the way your hands gripped the front of his shirt, there had never been anything more appealing than you begging for him. “Let’s go.”

   The second the door to Jay’s apartment opened, the two of you were pressed back together. This time it was Jay who had you pinned against the wall. The length of his body pressed against yours allowing you to feel everything from the warmth of his chest to the hardness hidden beneath his jeans. His mouth was at your neck, trailing kisses along the smooth curve. He bit down on the sensitive skin, causing a shiver to course through you and a moan to sound through the room.

   “Mmmh, how do you sound so sweet?” Jay hummed against your skin as he began sucking lightly on the spot he had bitten. Even his words had your knees shaking, your entire body slacking into his.

   “No marks, Jay,” you managed to gasp right before he grazed his teeth along another spot and his free hand started pulling at the hem of your shirt. He pulled away from you for just enough time to slip your shirt over your head and then his mouth was back at the tender skin right under your earlobe.

   “Come on, Babygirl.” There that pet name was again, breathed against your skin in a hushed warmth that had every nerve in your body standing to attention and ready to do whatever this absolutely maddening man asked you to. Before you even had a chance to let him know as much, he was pulling away from you - leaving your body a shaken and confused mess in his wake.

   A protest was on the tip of your tongue, but when you met his eyes you knew things were far from over. They were dark, much darker than you had ever seen them and the intensity of his simple stare had you watching just as fiercely. He moved slowly, taking his time as he made his way to the black leather couch in the center of his living room. Before he sat down his shirt was discarded to leave every line and tattooed pane available to your hungry gaze. When he was seated he looked so casual and relaxed that if you didn’t know better you would think that you simply stopped by for a friendly chat and not to chase a repressed desire that you couldn’t ignore.

   “For tonight,” he started in an almost commanding yet silky voice. The smirk that you had come to love and hate was playing on his handsome features. “Let go. Let me be in control, Babygirl. I’ll take care of you.”

   The idea was tempting, yet also scary. You had one other partner in your life, and they definitely did not compare to the way Jay made you feel. He had the ability to get under your skin and make you do things that you ordinarily never would. You knew what he was asking of you, but did you trust him enough to go that far?

   It really wasn’t even a question. The way his eyes were gazing into yours as if he knew exactly what you were going to say and exactly how he made you feel had you wanting to take it even further. “Okay,” you managed to rasp out, your voice unsteady and cracking with nerves and desire.

   “Then strip,” he demanded, relaxing further into the couch in lazy confidence.

   The way you were willing to obey him without question was something you would have to ponder on sometime when you weren’t so focused on getting out of your jeans without looking like a clumsy fool. Your hands were shaky when you began fiddling with the hem of your plain panties. You could feel Jay’s eyes on you, watching you expectantly as you worked up the courage to take them off. When you managed, your bra followed suit.

   Completely bare with the cool air of the room hitting every inch of your skin, you finally chanced a glance at him with your teeth harshly holding your bottom lip hostage. His eyes were slowly raking their way up your body as if he were committing every inch of you to memory. He didn’t make a sound until they finally came to rest on yours.

   “Come here.”

   You went. Without question or complaint, you made your way to him. It was almost as if your body reacted to his commands without the assistance of any coherent thought. Your comfort zone was well behind you at this point - left behind in the pile with your clothes - and sure you were nervous. How could you not be when Jay Park was raking his eyes over everything you had to offer. He was devilishly handsome - unfairly so - and you were simply you.

   When you were in reaching distance of him, he reached out to you only to turn you around in the direction you came. For a mere second, you were afraid that you were being rejected because how could he want you, but then you were being pulled down into his lap to sit with your back resting against his chest and your legs spread by his.

   “If you want me to stop or you don’t like something, tell me okay?” he murmured against your ear. The heat of his breath combined with the feeling of his chest pressed into your bare back, the hardness that was now firmly pressing against your bottom and the revealing position you were in had all of your embarrassment washing away to be replaced excitement. Even his words had your body melting against him.

   “I will.” Immediately, Jay’s hands were on you.

   One wrapped around your middle and the other made its way between your legs. You felt yourself falling away as one lithe finger traced the length of your sex. You had become someone else entirely, someone shameless and erotic that would do anything to please and be pleased.

   “Ride it”, he grunted when his finger stilled its path and his entire hand covered your sex. The heel of his palm was against your clit, putting enough pressure to make your entire body flushed with need but it was not nearly enough. You moved your hips tentatively at first, side to side as much as you could in the position and whimpered in pleasure when you earned a grunt of approval from behind you as your ass rolled against his clothed cock. Your movements grew in confidence and became slow and steady, setting a pace that had your breath becoming shallow.

   “Watch yourself, Babygirl.” The demand had you looking around the room through heavily lidded eyes to find what he meant. When you landed on the window pane that looked out onto the cityscape of Seoul directly across the room from the two of you, you understood. Your reflection gazed back at you, spread wide on top of Jay with his hand covering your sex. You couldn’t stop the moan before it fell from your open lips. The idea of him watching you please yourself using his palm should have been embarrassing, but it only served to fuel the fire that had been building in your core.

   You felt a single finger push into your entrance. Your breath quickened and your body stilled while his palm stayed firmly pressed into your clit and his finger curled inside of you.

   “Jay...” his name came out as a moan as his finger toyed with you, pace torturously slow and your eyes meeting in your reflections across the room. You felt his groan vibrate his chest at your back as his finger began to move, brushing against your walls - torturing you as the fire between your thighs began to build to new heights. Your moans grew, filling the room with moaned curses as a second finger began to stretch you out for him all the while his palm ground into your most sensitive spot.

   “Do you want more?” he grunted from behind you. You meekly nodded your head, too embarrassed to actually voice your needs aloud, but Jay was not satisfied. “Tell me. Tell me what you want.”

   You whimpered in protest when his actions halted and you found a furrowed brow Jay Park staring at you with a controlled fervency in the reflection of the large glass panes. His lips were parted, and you realized his breathing was just as unsteady as yours.

   “I want you to...” You couldn’t put it into words. Not only was it embarrassing but your heart was racing and the blood in your body seemed to have pooled south. In its wake, your brain ceased to function. The only coherent thought you had was of finally finding your release after days of being entirely frustrated by the same man who now seemed intent on torturing you in an entirely different way.

   “What is it, baby? Tell me.” His fingers leaving you left an ache deep in your core. There was a certain greed that had been building alongside your pleasure all night, and him denying you did nothing to help alleviate either. Your hands moved of their own will, reaching for his to bring him back.

   "Not yet Kitten," he said evenly, giving your inner thigh a light smack in reprimand. "You haven't told me what you want yet." He slid you off him, your weak limbs folding easily into the couch. There was need in his eyes, but also humor. Leave it to Jay Park to enjoy making your life hell no matter the circumstance. He stood in front of you - still more relaxed than you could imagine -  and waited expectantly. When you didn't get the hint and instead focused on steadying your breath and regaining at least some of your senses, he chuckled darkly and gestured to the front of his ripped jeans. "They aren't going to take themselves off."

   If you weren't already so needy, you wouldn't have. The way he told you what to do was demeaning in a way, but as things stood it made your entire body heat even more. You clambered forward with as much grace as you could manage until your bare ass was perched on the edge of the couch. Your hands were shaky as you reached for the zipper of his pants. It was hard to focus under Jay's stare, but you managed as best as you could. When you started to tug them down, he had to assist you but soon he was standing in all of his glory in front of you with his pants and boxers lost in the rest of the clothes strewn across the room.

   "Suck it, Babygirl." The command was simple, and your body was willed into action yet again by his mere words. Your hand encircled around the base and your mouth hovered above the tip. You couldn't help the wave of satisfaction that coursed through when you noticed Jay Park wasn't nearly as unaffected as he seemed. You bent your head and licked the line of precum that had begun to leak down his length. You heard his breath hitch at the contact. It was intoxicating.  A girl like you - overlooked and nothing special - had Park Jaebum holding his breath and turned on beyond belief. It made you feel wanted and powerful. It was so foreign to you, but it was also one of the greatest things you had ever experienced.

   Growing bold and daring, you let your grip at his base tighten as you trailed your tongue along him before circling the tip lightly with your lips. He grunted and his hand came to wrap in the loose strands of your hair.

   "Don't tease me." His voice was gravely and constrained. You wanted to say something witty and tease him,  but even more so you wanted to please him. You took him into your mouth like he wanted, only stopping before he hit the back of your throat. Yet again Jay wasn't having hit, his hand tightened in your hair as he guided you to take more of him. Your eyes watered, but you let him use your mouth as he pleased. Your hands came to rest on the hard panes of his stomach as he pushed himself further. He set a steady relentless rhythm, hitting the back of your throat and pulling back only to do it all over. Your saliva already coated him, making it easier for you to slide right back down again.

   Despite being in dire need of a break, the small noises of pleasure you earned from him were reward enough. Even his hand tightening in your hair every time your nose hit is pelvic bone was enough for you. Just knowing you affected him, was all you needed to feel your own arousal dampen your inner thighs even as you eyes watered and you resisted the harsh urge to gag around his length.

   When you finally heard him let out a small earnest moan, you swore you almost came from the noise alone. The hand in your hair was now wrapped in the strands as tight as possible. You could feel the muscles under your hands heave as he took a moment to compose himself before his hands loosened in your hair and he finally let you up for some much-needed oxygen.

   You had barely a few seconds to get your breathing even before a sole finger reached out to your chin to tilt your face up. As you studied his handsome features, his thumb swiped along your lower lip - cleaning up part of the mess he had made. "You're cute like this too," he mumbled to himself. His finger trailed lower, down your throat, between your breasts, and stopped right above the spot where you wanted him most. "Ready,  Babygirl?" He asked, his perfect tongue coming out to lick along his bottom lip. You had seen what his fingers could do, and you suddenly wondered what his glorious mouth could. Maybe you would find out some other time, but you knew you wouldn't. This wouldn't happen again. It was a one-time thing only. Just one night to unleash all the tension that had been building, and one night - you decided - would have to be enough.

   "Answer me," he demanded suddenly when you didn't answer right away. His brows were knitted and his stare was focused on his finger that teased lazily at your hip. All you could manage was a single lazy nod. “Words, Kitten.” His gaze landed on your face, but his finger never halted. It had begun a tortuously slow descent down the full length of your heat. His touch was feather-light - barely even there - but it still sent shock waves to every inch of your body.

   “Fuck me, Jay,” you mewled, surprising yourself at your lewd words and voice. You didn’t dwell - couldn’t - because just as fast as the words had come out of your mouth he was hoisting you off the couch and lifting as if you weighed nothing. He carried you, giving you time to admire the veins that showed beautifully under the tattoos on his toned arms from the effort. Your admiration was brought to a halt when your back hit a wall and Jay used the opportunity to line himself at your entrance, and then he was in you. The sensation of being full had your toes curling behind his back and your eyes squeezing shut. His size allowed him to reach places you had no idea even existed.

   As you accommodated to him, he hummed in disapproval. “Eyes open, Babygirl, or you won’t get to cum.” Immediately, your eyes fluttered open to focus on his face. You wanted to scold him for threatening you, but you never had the chance. His hands were suddenly holding your hips and his own were pulling back. Your legs loosened around him, giving him room to move. When nothing but the head of his cock remained, he slammed back into you. You suddenly realized that Jay Park didn’t go lightly on anything he did in life, including you. His pace was punishing as his short nails dug into the skin of your hips. Your own had made their way to his back, making trails of imprints as far as you could reach.

   “Jay,” you breathed into the crook of his neck. Your whimpers had quickly started to form moans. You were almost there - hovering at the edge of what you knew without a doubt would be the greatest orgasm you had ever experienced in your inconsequential sex life - but it wasn’t happening fast enough. You moaned his name again in desperation for more - anything. You didn’t even know what you needed.

   His name tumbling from your lips in a moan had Jay’s grip tightening at your hips. You were sure there would be bruises there come morning but you found it hard to care as his teeth grazed your earlobe and his warm breath fanned across the hypersensitive skin of your neck. His pace never slowed or softened even as he started peppering gentle kisses along the smooth curve. The contrast had your body tensing and your hips seeking his against his hold. Your eyes fluttered shut despite Jay’s wishes and the curl of your toes tightened as trails of fire rippled through your body. Your lower muscles contracted, spasming around him as he did his best to keep himself together.

   “Yes, Babygirl. Cum for me,” Jay grunted. His sweet kisses had turned sinful as your body rode out it's high with his support. His lips were now harsh and accented with the occasional nip of his teeth. You were over stimulated at this point, but his attentions had your cooling sex heating up yet again. You barely even registered that he was carrying you, but when your bare ass hit the cold surface of a kitchen counter you whimpered in surprise. The noise had him biting his bottom lip.

“Lay back and relax, Kitten,” he murmured as he peppered a few last kisses down your neck only to untangled your legs from around his waist. You found yourself laying down as he told you to with him still pressing firmly against your inner walls the entire time. Your heated flesh pressed into the cold hard top and your hair spilled over the edge.

   He licked his lips again - something that seemed to be somewhat of a habit for him - as he stared down at you. It was odd - especially for you - but you didn’t feel self-conscious at all. It was something about the way he looked at you. Even if it was just for a moment, you suddenly felt beautiful, desirable even.

   He held your gaze, blown pupils keeping yours captive as he gripped your thighs and resumed his assault on your senses. His movements had become sloppy but no less arduous. You could tell he was close. His jaw was clenched and his eyes blown with his own arousal. His grip had become vice tight on your hips, and his small grunts had started to sound suspiciously like moans joining with your own. You found your body tightening all over again as you watched his composure crumble.

   “Fuck.” He cursed. He freed a hand from your thighs and brought it down your sweat covered stomach to roughly fondle your clit. It didn’t take long before you had found your high again. You screamed out a mess of obscenities peppered with his name as you tightened around him. Your back arched off the counter and your hands fumbled for support - eventually settling for the hard corners of the counter - as you squirmed in his unrelenting hold.

Just like before, he rode out your orgasm until your body had calmed and you were left feeling absolutely fucked out. As the waves of pleasure subsided, he pulled out. The empty feeling he left in his wake was almost unbearable, but you couldn't move. You entire focus had shifted to the devastatingly gorgeous man before you.

   Jay’s lower lip was held harshly between his teeth and his cock was held tightly in his hand. You watched his eyes flutter close as he pumped himself. A vein in his neck was visible under the tattooed stars, and his hair had become a mess of sweaty black ringlets in every direction. Even as he came on your stomach, leaving you feeling more gross and sticky than you already felt, all you could think of was how beautiful, yet infuriating of a man Park Jaebum was.

[witch-noob]

Hotpot Adventure #3

Jin calls for Sage from the back of the dorm and finishes putting his bag around his shoulders. Sage walks in, hair kind of messy from waking up from the nap earlier. Her stomach is growling loudly.

Jin: You ready?

Sage: Yep! Do you have a list of ingredients? I have a whole list of other stuff the guys asked for.

Jin: Yeah I have it saved on my phone. What do they want?

Sage: Random stuff. Namjoon wanted a coffee so we have to stop by that Cafe, and then the department store.

Jin: We are the errand duo today

Jin laughs after that. He leads the way to the car downstairs and opens the passenger door for Sage to get in first. He notices she isn't very bundled up and it's pretty cold today according to his phone.

Jin: Why aren't you wearing gloves or a scarf. You're gonna get sick Sage.

Sage looks down and furrows her brows.

Sage: Sorry I forgot honestly. Let me text Jimin, he might have another pair.

Jin: I think you left a scarf in the backseat from yesterday, let me get it.

Jin goes searching for her scarf and Sage takes out her phone. As she texts, Jin finds the scarf and wraps in wround her in an obnoxious way to cover her vision. She laughs.

Sage and Jin wait for Jimin. The elevator dings for the car garage and Jimin comes out with not just her gloves but a big coat with fur in the hood. Sages coat. That she forgot as well.

Jimin: Here.

He hands Sage her gloves and she puts them on. Jimin then helps her put on her coat.

Sage: I can do it myself too Jimin. [She laughs] I'm not a kid ya know.

Jimin: I know but I like helping you.

Jin: You like helping everyone, don't lie~

Sage: Tis is true

Jimin feins offence and raises his gloved hands. His hair is messy from the nap too.

Jimin: Should I apologize for being so great?

Sage: You sound like Jin

Jin: Stop copying me!

They all laugh together. Sage and Jin get in the car and Jimin waves goodbye as the elevator doors shut.

Jin proceeds to drive out of the garage and they get on the freeway, he puts on some music.

It's a quiet drive for the most part. Jin was always dependable while driving. And Sage liked to watch him too. She also knew how to drive, but the boys tended to like to drive her around. She didn't mind it, and she knew that if she asked to drive, they would let her.

They also had the option to hire a driver, and they did for special events, but when it's just Sage and the boys going out, they took their car instead. It's best not to forget how to drive after working so hard to get the license in the first place.

The song ended.

Jin: You want to pick one?

He handed her his phone and she changed apps from Melon to Spotify. Since that's what she's used too. Sage recently watched a movie with Tae and Jungkook. The song kept coming up in her head. It's was a great movie, everytime she talked to the other guys she told them to watch it. Sage played it for the rest of the way there on repeat and Jin didn't complain. Jin was happy to listen to things she liked. Sage tended to have good music tastes.

Sage sang some of the lyrics. Some out of key but it was really cute anyway. Jin knew she didn't really know the words. He wouldn't know either, they are in English after all and he's not as fluent as he wanted to be yet.

Eventually Jin parked the car in the lot outside of the mall. He grabbed his baseball cap and mask and slipped them on. His mask had a cute bear mouth print on it.

Sage put her dark purple mask on as well. They both left the car and made their way for the mall.

Sage: Let's go to the department store first, then food, then Cafe. Sound good?

Jin agreed and they entered, letting the warm air blast them in the face.

Sage grabbed the batteries and hangars she needed and headed toward the check out. Jin following along. He took the stuff from her hands as they waited in line for check out.

Jin: Let me hold them.

Sage: This is why my arms are noodles. You guys always do this.

Jin just smiled.

Jin: You skip arm day. I bet if you really wanted to, you could get ripped enough to take down Jungkookie in a arm wrestling match.

Sage bellowed out a laugh.

Sage: HA! Yeah right! He'd break my arm in half. Haven't you seen those videos on YouTube?

Jin: What? no.

Sage: If you did, you would probably never arm wrestle JK ever again.

Jin thinks about it for a moment.

Jin: Show me when we get home.

Sage laughs and agrees. This might scar him for life.

Jin grabs a chocolate bar and throws it in with the stuff.

After this they head to the grocery store and begin the hunt for the ingredients for hotpot. Jin shows Sage the list but it doesn't do much for her since she can't see how they'll end up making a hotpot. She just thought you through everything in a pot and warm it up on the stove. Maybe add some seasoning of some sort. She didn't know.

She not very good at cooking. Jin tries to help her understand the order of how things are gonna be done later tonight but she doesn't really get it still. Sage figures she'll learn later. They continue the hunt!

They spend about 2 hours shopping and the cart is full of food. They spend their time telling eachother jokes and showing funny videos as they browse. Jin finally places 2 beer cases on the bottom of the cart.

Jin: I think that's it. Can you text Hoseok if we have any onions in the fridge?

Sage: Didn't we use them for the stir fry a couple of days ago?

Jin: We did but we need two for tonight. I don't know if we had extras left over.

Sage took out her phone.

Sage: Okay I'll ask.

<>

Back at home Hoseok is on his laptop, headphones in, taking notes on some choreography he filmed of himself earlier. He was really in the zone. Hoseok in the zone is not someone who should be reckoned with.

Hoseok: JIMIN!!!!

Jimin flopped over on the bed, he was on his phone. Nearly having a heart attack from his hyung screaming at him when he was 5 ft away.

Jimin: what the! What!?

Hoseok: CHECK IF WE HAVE ONIONS!! SAGE WANTS TO KNOW!!

Hoseok does not budge his eyes from the screen as he yells. Jimin figures he can't tell how loud he's screaming.

Taehyung runs in.

Tae: WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING ARE YOU OKAY WHAT'S WRONG???!

Jimin rolls over and faceplants in his pillow. Hoseok noticed the door slam open from Tae's entrance and freaks out, falling to the floor and almost bringing his laptop with him. Jungkook is behind Tae and is just cracking up.

JK: What's going on?? Hahahaha!

Taehyung looks very confused and Hoseok looks like he aged 3 years.

Hoseok: Sage wants to know if there are onions. Please go check.

Hoseok clutches his heart and calms himself down.

Tae: Oh is that it?

Jimin: I'll go check. Jesus.

Jimin escapes. JK goes to lay on Jimin's bed and Tae still looks confused but he ends up leaving to go back to the living room. Jimin returns shortly.

Jimin: There's only a half left, I don't know if that's gonna be enough for a huge pot.

Hoseok gets up from the floor and back to his seat.

Hosoek: I'll text her back then.

JK from behind his phone.

Jk: Haha no wonder Army think we're funny.

Jimin goes to lay next to Jungkook and they share songs.

<>

Sage: Okay so Hobi said that there's only half of one.

Jin: Kay we need more. I'll be back, watch the cart!

Jin runs off in his woddle way. Sage hears a ping from her phone.

Sage wondered what it was. It was probably why Hobi was acting so wierd. Knowing the boys.

Jin runs back with two onions. They both check out. Sage almost forgot about the tteokbokki for Yoongi but she got it in the end. They head out and load the back of the car with the bags. Then head back inside for the coffee.

Jin ends up getting an Americano as well. And Sage buys a White Mocha for Jimin, since he was the only one that didn't ask for anything. With the 3 coffees they head out to the car.

Jin immediately turns the heat on since it's getting colder as the sun is setting.

Jin plays a song he knew Sage liked to listen to and they both jam out as the car gets on the free way. Then she plays Ephipany after so that so that they can both sing along home.