#They were there for a the firsts of a lot of things haha

[seitmai]

Many thoughts

Hangman stretched, “Where’s your pilot?” He shrugged. “Phoenix isn’t a morning person.”

Fair, i get that

“Morning, sleeping beauty.” Hangman teased. “Shut the fuck up, Hangman. It’s too early for your bullshit.” She groaned, making the rest of them laugh. Only she would cuss like a sailor at five in the morning.

He was asking for it 🤷🏻‍♀️😅

“Why on earth would you guys want to do this?” Hangman chuckled, “Figured you of all people would like it. You look like you would’ve gotten your lunch money taken in Back to the Future.” That made Rooster let out a laugh heartily enough to capture the attention of the staff, and Bob rolled his eyes. But he couldn’t help the smile. Okay, fine. That one was good. More original than his usual quips.

Credit, where credit is due 🤭

With his heart beating out of his chest, he stammered, “B-bob. It’s just Bob.” He wished he could give another answer. He wished that his call sign wasn’t as simple as it was or that he had some sort of cool name like ‘Dagger’ or ‘Striker’... But he couldn’t even pretend like Bob didn’t fit him perfectly. She laughed. “I like it. I like it a lot.”

He never liked his callsign better than in this moment 🤭

 “Oh, so like a WSO?” She knew what that was? This conversation was just getting better and better, even with Hangman’s attempts to embarrass him.

Probably could not care less about Hangman’s antics rn

That wasn’t his call sign, and if it was, it would’ve been more embarrassing than just Bob. But having the beautiful waitress call him Baby? He could leap out of his skin. The massive blush that spread over his face was uncontrollable. 

Love a blushing man 🥰

“Jesus, Floyd. I’ve never seen you so whipped. And you usually are by most people.” Hangman smirked, leaning back. “And she matches your dorkiness,” Hangman added. Bob shook his head, but he had that feeling, too. Their interaction had been so limited, yet he had a feeling they’d get along perfectly. He was already completely and totally captivated by her. 

🥹🥰🤭

“You’re here before me, Phoenix?” He asked, confused. Phoenix chuckled even through tired eyes, “Couldn’t miss the Bob yearning show this morning.”

Worth the watch 🤭

Hangman, Rooster, and Phoenix would all watch him stumble and smile up at her. His face lit up like a Christmas tree. And they would all tease him or even subtly try to hype Bob up to her. The three noticed how she seemed to pay special interest to Bob, even though he remained oblivious. They noticed how she always complimented him or would point out his glasses. There were little things- like her making his paper plate of ketchup a winky face or a heart, while the rest got stars or smiley faces. The fact that she always addressed him as Baby was more than enough to convince them. It wasn’t Bob or Baby on Board. It was just Baby. But Bob was oblivious. He was completely convinced that she was just being friendly because she was being paid to be. He figured that a girl like that would already have a partner, and he didn’t want to be a creep. It wasn’t like him to hit on a girl while she was working. His mama taught him that it wasn’t appropriate. 

Oh sweet Bob 🥹🥰

“Jesus Christ, Bob, this is torture.” Rooster groaned, leaning his head back. He looked at him, confused with furrowed brows. “Look, Bob, I was a whole proponent of the whole don’t ask her out at work thing, but this is getting ridiculous,” Phoenix said, grabbing her menu.

Haha they're not wrong

Phoenix exchanged a look with Hangman… That couldn’t be good. Those two could barely stand each other, so if they were joining forces, something was up. Bob saw their stares. “What-what are you guys doing?” Bob asked. Phoenix turned to him, “If you don’t ask her out, I’m gonna have Hangman kill us in every dogfight this week. 200 push-ups each.”

 Phoenix and Hangman ganging up on Bob? They really mean business

Walking out, Bob’s legs felt like jelly. It was like he was on the aircraft carrier for the first time, and he couldn’t get his bearings. He fully wore the bashful smile now, unable to resist it. 

He took a deep breath before spitting out, “I was just wondering if you’d like to… go out sometime. I- I know this isn’t appropriate when you’re working and all, but-” “I’d love to.” Her face was the brightest he had seen it. It didn’t seem like forced hospitality. She seemed genuinely enthusiastic. “God, Bob, I was waiting for you to ask.” He blinked and shook his head in disbelief, “You were?”

Finally 🥳🥰

So cute 😍

B-A-B-Y (Bob Floyd x Reader)

DESCRIPTION: On a Monday morning, Rooster and Hangman bring Bob and Phoenix to a local diner, and Bob’s instantly smitten with the waitress singing along to the jukebox. Next thing he knows, “Diner Mondays” become a squad tradition… and so does watching Bob fall harder every week while the rest of the Daggers try to get him to finally ask her out. WORD COUNT: 2.7k WARNINGS: Fluff. Tooth rotting fluff. Reader wears glasses. NOTES: Yes. Like Baby Driver. MY MASTERLIST - READ ON AO3!

It was an early Monday morning, and Bob was awake and ready earlier than he would’ve anticipated. He always woke up early for work, and on the weekend, out of habit. But that day, he had to wake up even earlier. Rooster and Hangman insisted on going to this diner with Phoenix and him. Bob wasn’t gonna turn down the idea of a real proper breakfast before their shifts, though he knew Phoenix was gonna be grumbling the whole time. 

He pulled up in his baby blue truck to Dot’s and Joe’s, a stout metal and red building not too far from base. The sun was just rising, and it painted the sky that sleepy light blue. Spotting Rooster’s Ford Bronco and Hangman’s Jeep, he pulled up next to them right as they were getting out. 

“Mornin’ Bob,” Rooster said. They were all dressed in their khaki uniforms, knowing they would change into flight suits once they arrived at training anyway.

Bob nodded with a small smile. “Mornin’ guys.”

Hangman stretched, “Where’s your pilot?”

He shrugged. “Phoenix isn’t a morning person.”

As if on cue, her black version of Rooster’s Ford Bronco pulled up and parked next to Bob’s truck. They watched as she got out of the car, grumbling and rubbing her eyes.

“Morning, sleeping beauty.” Hangman teased.

“Shut the fuck up, Hangman. It’s too early for your bullshit.” She groaned, making the rest of them laugh. Only she would cuss like a sailor at five in the morning. “Why on earth would you guys want to do this?”

Rooster started walking towards the doors of the place, and the rest followed. “They’ve got quite literally the best pancakes I’ve ever had. It’ll be worth it.”

They all walked in, and Bob looked around the interior. It was like they had hopped into a time machine. The classic 60s look was clean and colorful, even if the outside of the building seemed a little worn down. Red leather seats and silver table tops. Warm fluorescents wrapped around a countertop bar. Old movie posters and pin-up art hung up on every wall while a jukebox played oldies by the kitchen door.

Rooster and Hangman led them to a nearby booth, and they scooched in. 

“It’s nice,” Bob said, nodding with a small smile.

Hangman chuckled, “Figured you of all people would like it. You look like you would’ve gotten your lunch money taken in Back to the Future.”

That made Rooster let out a laugh heartily enough to capture the attention of the staff, and Bob rolled his eyes. But he couldn’t help the smile. Okay, fine. That one was good. More original than his usual quips.

At the sound of Rooster’s laugh, the kitchen door swung open by the jukebox. A soft voice rang out. It was quiet enough for almost nobody in the diner to notice… But Bob sure did. A beautiful voice sang along to a song he didn’t recognize playing on the juke.

“B-A-B-Y. Baby. B-A-B-Y. Baby.” 

His head turned over to see a waitress in a pink uniform and a little paper hat. In most cases, he’d just see the waitress and be excited to dig into some food. But for some reason, at the sight of her, his heart flipped in his chest. She was beautiful. In knee-high socks and glasses that were similar to his, though they weren’t nearly as big and awful-looking as his own. She swayed her head to the song without a care in the world as she held a notepad and pencil. 

He didn’t even notice the rest of the squadron trying not to laugh at Bob’s obvious gawking. 

“See something you like, Floyd?” Phoenix asked with a smirk.

Bob’s head whipped back around. “What? What do you mean?” He asked quickly, making the rest of them laugh harder.

When the waitress spotted the table, she smiled and walked over. 

“You two again.” She said, stopping by and looking at Hangman and Rooster, “And you’ve brought friends.” She smiled at him, and Phoenix and Bob could’ve sworn his heart stopped. 

“Yeah, well, we had to share how good this place was,” Hangman said casually.

Bob looked at the nametag pinned on her top. Y/n. God, he was practically melting, and he was trying to resist the wiggly Charlie Brown smile that wanted to appear.

She tapped her pencil. “What were your call signs again? I remember thinking they were cool, but I can’t for the life of me remember what they were.”

Rooster nodded and pointed to himself first. “Rooster. Hangman. Then those guys over there are Phoenix and Bob.”

She tilted her head with a smile as her eyes landed on Bob properly. “It’s Bob? What’s your real name then?”

With his heart beating out of his chest, he stammered, “B-bob. It’s just Bob.” He wished he could give another answer. He wished that his call sign wasn’t as simple as it was or that he had some sort of cool name like ‘Dagger’ or ‘Striker’... But he couldn’t even pretend like Bob didn’t fit him perfectly.

She laughed. “I like it. I like it a lot.” 

She liked his name.

Hangman cut in, “We’ve made it stand for Baby on Board. He’s a backseater.”

“Oh, so like a WSO?” 

She knew what that was? This conversation was just getting better and better, even with Hangman’s attempts to embarrass him.

Bob nodded, barely able to speak.

“That’s pretty awesome. My dad was Navy, so I like seeing ya’ll pop up here since we’re so close to North Island.” She explained, “Well, Rooster, Hangman, Phoenix, and Baby, what can I get started for ya?”

That wasn’t his call sign, and if it was, it would’ve been more embarrassing than just Bob. But having the beautiful waitress call him Baby? He could leap out of his skin. The massive blush that spread over his face was uncontrollable. 

“Just four hot coffees to get us started, will ya, Y/n?” Hangman said

She didn’t even write it down. “Simple enough. I’ll be back.”

Bob watched her walk away, completely mesmerized. Especially as she jumped back into the song.

“Just one look- in your eye. And my temperature goes sky hi-” And the kitchen door swung closed. 

There was a silence as the three pilots watched Bob, surprised as he sat there with a dreamy look on his face. 

“Jesus, Floyd. I’ve never seen you so whipped. And you usually are by most people.” Hangman smirked, leaning back.

Once again, he was sadly snapped back to reality by Hangman. A common occurrence. “N-no. No, I’m not. She was nice.” He cleared his throat, pretending to look over the menu, “Really nice.” 

Rooster made a little ‘Aw’-ing noise. “Buddy, it’s okay! I get it. She’s super cute.” He said, trying to be supportive, but Bob quickly shushed him, horrified at the prospect she might overhear.

“And she matches your dorkiness,” Hangman added

Bob shook his head, but he had that feeling, too. Their interaction had been so limited, yet he had a feeling they’d get along perfectly. He was already completely and totally captivated by her. 

They left the diner an hour later to make it to work on time, but Bob couldn’t shake the thoughts of her that graciously occupied his brain. The whole day, even as he was driving or flying or doing push-ups, he’d hear her calling him ‘baby’. Or he’d think about how, when he put in his order for strawberry french toast, she winked at him and said that was her favorite. It was both horrifying and the best distraction he could ever ask for.

Wanting to make it a tradition, Rooster dragged the three of them back to the diner the following Monday. It was a nice thought. Start the week out with a great breakfast and end it with a Friday night at The Hard Deck. 

Bob got out of his truck and looked over at Hangman, Rooster, and Phoenix, who were already there. 

“You’re here before me, Phoenix?” He asked, confused.

Phoenix chuckled even through tired eyes, “Couldn’t miss the Bob yearning show this morning.”

He practically choked on his own spit. “What?”

“Yeah, we’re surprised you weren’t the first one here to say hi to your little girlfriend.” Rooster teased.

He let out a little exasperated breath. “Can we go in now?”

Hangman walked towards the door, “Whatever you want, Baby.” He teased back, emphasizing the name the waitress had called him last time.

For the next few weeks, they had the same routine. They would sit down in their booth, and like clockwork, Y/n would strut out quietly singing along to whatever song was on the jukebox. It was like she had a Rolodex of 50s/'60s hits. The Supremes. Marvin Gaye. Aretha Franklin. Tom Jones. Even the songs he didn’t recognize sounded like his new favorite song coming from her.

Hangman, Rooster, and Phoenix would all watch him stumble and smile up at her. His face lit up like a Christmas tree. And they would all tease him or even subtly try to hype Bob up to her. The three noticed how she seemed to pay special interest to Bob, even though he remained oblivious. They noticed how she always complimented him or would point out his glasses. There were little things- like her making his paper plate of ketchup a winky face or a heart, while the rest got stars or smiley faces. The fact that she always addressed him as Baby was more than enough to convince them. It wasn’t Bob or Baby on Board. It was just Baby. 

But Bob was oblivious. He was completely convinced that she was just being friendly because she was being paid to be. He figured that a girl like that would already have a partner, and he didn’t want to be a creep. It wasn’t like him to hit on a girl while she was working. His mama taught him that it wasn’t appropriate. 

So even as the rest of them egged him on to ask her out, he didn’t. He stayed comfortable with the small talk and stammering banter he’d make with her on those Monday mornings. It got to a point where even the rest of the squadron knew about this. Fanboy, Payback, and Coyote wanted to come with and see for themselves, but for the first time- Bob vehemently rejected them from coming. It would be obvious if suddenly there was a crowd watching him try not to turn red in the face while talking. And she deserved better than that. 

One Monday, Y/n came back out singing that Carla Thomas song again. And when she reached the table, Bob couldn’t help himself.

“What’s that song playing? You’re always singing it.” He asked

Her eyes widened, “Oh goodness, I hope it’s not too cringy that I sing while working.” She said with a nervous smile.

All of them shook their heads, looking up at her. Rooster and Hangman went back to their menus with smirks while Phoenix looked down at her phone, as if they were all letting him have his moment. His favorite part of the week. 

“No. No. I- I like your voice. I’m just wondering what the song is.” He said with his typical bashful look.

Her nervous smile upturned to a genuine one. “Oh, well, it’s Baby by Carla Thomas, but the title is spelled out like B-A-B-Y… Hey, that’s like your call sign, isn’t it?” She asked excitedly.

Bob nodded. “Kinda. Kinda yeah.”

“Guess, I’ll be listening to this song even more then, Baby.” She said, which made Hangman and Rooster look at each other with raised brows that said ‘it’s so obvious’, “I’ll be right out with your guys’ coffee.”

As she walked away, he heard “Whenever the sun don’t shine.”

The kitchen door swung shut.

“Jesus Christ, Bob, this is torture.” Rooster groaned, leaning his head back.

He looked at him, confused with furrowed brows.

“Look, Bob, I was a whole proponent of the whole don’t ask her out at work thing, but this is getting ridiculous,” Phoenix said, grabbing her menu.

“I don’t know what you guys mean. She’s just being nice.” Bob said, looking around at his friend’s exasperated faces. 

Hangman dragged his hands down his face, “And calling you ‘baby’.” 

Bob shook his head. “She thinks that’s my call sign.”

“So… she’s going to ‘listen to the song with your call sign more now’ because…?” Rooster added. 

He couldn’t deny that. It was probably the most forward thing she had done besides smile and point out they were matching every Monday because of their glasses. 

Bob shook his head. “I shouldn’t.” 

Phoenix exchanged a look with Hangman… That couldn’t be good. Those two could barely stand each other, so if they were joining forces, something was up. Bob saw their stares. 

“What-what are you guys doing?” Bob asked.

Phoenix turned to him, “If you don’t ask her out, I’m gonna have Hangman kill us in every dogfight this week. 200 push-ups each.” 

He immediately groaned and put his head in his hands. The idea of that was pure torture. Not only did that mean he’d barely get to fly because he’d be tagged out every time they did, but 200 push-ups daily for a week. Look, Bob was strong… but his shoulders and biceps shivered at the thought. 

“You’re evil. You’re literally evil.” He said, looking over at Phoenix.

Rooster tapped the table. “You’ll thank us later.”

After they all paid, Rooster, Hangman, and Phoenix all walked out, leaving Bob still lingering behind inside. He felt awkward. Like he wasn’t supposed to be there anymore because it was outside of this routine. When Y/n came back out, his heart beat so hard he thought it might stop. It had gone from zero to sixty at just the sight of her. 

When she spotted him, her eyes brightened and she walked straight towards him. He swallowed anxiously.

“Hey, Baby! What are you still doing here? Need something?” She asked smiling

Oh god. Oh dear god.

“No, no, I was just uh, I was just-” Out of the corner of his eye, he could see his friends not so subtly watching him from outside the window. He scratched the back of his neck. “I just wanted to say thanks.” He nodded.

OH GOD WHAT WAS HE DOING? THANKS? A little confused, but still smiling, she nodded. “You’re welcome. Any time.”

He took a deep breath before spitting out, “I was just wondering if you’d like to… go out sometime. I- I know this isn’t appropriate when you’re working and all, but-”

“I’d love to.” Her face was the brightest he had seen it. It didn’t seem like forced hospitality. She seemed genuinely enthusiastic. “God, Bob, I was waiting for you to ask.”

He blinked and shook his head in disbelief, “You were?”

“I was worried you never would.” She said, “I’m free this weekend if you are.”

It felt like he was melting into the floor. “Yeah, yeah, I am. I’ll uh- here.”

He reached over to a table and grabbed a napkin, quickly scribbling his number on it. Handing it to her, he added, “And if you change your mind, I won’t be mad.”

She took it and folded it neatly before putting it in her pocket. “I would never.”

They stood there for a moment just looking at each other. She smiled, and Bob let out a nervous laugh. This felt like a dream, and he was still waiting to wake up. She didn’t have a boyfriend. She didn’t seem creeped out. And she had been waiting for him to ask her, despite being at work. 

“I’ll let you get back to work. I’ll see you.” He said, nodding.

“See ya soon, Baby.” She waved before going back into the kitchen.

Walking out, Bob���s legs felt like jelly. It was like he was on the aircraft carrier for the first time, and he couldn’t get his bearings. He fully wore the bashful smile now, unable to resist it. 

“So?” Phoenix asked, crossing her arms with a knowing smirk.

“She said yes.” He said breathlessly. 

[shinysobi]

love's labour lost (lee jihoon)

in the end, all he does is run away.

☆ lovers to strangers: lee jihoon x composer! reader ☆ w.c: 2.5k (shortest yet!) ☆ genres: idol au, angst, dissolution of a relationship, jihoon is an asshole here i'm sorry (or am i) based entirely on all my love ☆ written for bella's event !! thank you so much for letting me write this haha i had a lot of fun! ☆tagging: @bella-feed (bc it was her event) @mylovesstuffs (because she's the one who listens to me yap) @gyubakeries (my comrade in this mess) and @hannieoftheyear bc she loves a toxic romance masterlist

All my love has amounted to, is this. 

Jihoon doesn’t know where exactly he went wrong. He did the things that were expected of him, he said the right things, he went to the right places, met and schmoozed with the right people, and yet, at the end of the day, he was there, and they were not. 

Jihoon knows who he is, really. He knows he’s not the most expressive guy; knows he is a bit slow on the uptake, knows he comes off as intimidating and standoffish most of the time. He’s not the easiest guy to get close to, unfortunately. 

Which leaves him here, looking at the phone screen in dismay, rereading the final two texts he’s sent them. Even now, looking back at the relationship, he wants to ask, what happened? Where did he go wrong, where did they go wrong? There is nothing apparent within the texts; they’re meaningless, accounts of a bad day that Jihoon had been having, updates on his meals, everything that was mundane and bleak and yet, they contained so much of his heart. 

In the end, the conversation had petered out easily, like the final burst of a firework, there were no explosive arguments, no throwing things, no tears, nothing at all. No spark in his life, nothing that told him about the steady dissolution of something that went on for perhaps too long. Jihoon doesn’t know how to live life without them, and yet, somehow he does, muscle memory pulling him through the motions of the day with an accuracy that scares him at first. He wakes up, brushes his teeth, goes to the studio to write, and ends up staring at the blank pages of his diary for far longer than necessary. He goes to practise, goes through the motions of being a dancer with a degree of precision that scares him at first, but now, now he’s used to it. 

The rest of Seventeen leave him alone, whispering amongst themselves about how Jihoon has been pulling away from the world even more. Have you talked to him? They ask, and Jihoon has to use force to get Seungcheol out of his studio, an action that Cheol protests by sitting in front of his studio doors for an hour until they have schedules together. He’s supposed to be working on song lyrics for their upcoming album, but all he can think of is the last time he met her. It had been a hasty meeting, held in one of the many boardrooms at HYBE, and he kept avoiding her gaze as she tried to explain the new concepts that management wanted them to try out for the album. She had kept trying to meet his gaze, and he had kept avoiding her, feeling the weight of at least thirty pairs of eyes on his every reaction as she stumbled through her words and her scratch tracks. He had shook his head, trying to control his reactions as much as he could. She was a phenomenal writer, no doubt, but no one took her seriously, not in PLEDIS and HYBE, at least. When he stood up to present his work, with similar themes to hers, they all murmured compliments and nodded with positive affirmations. Out of the corner of his eye, Jihoon could see her shrink into her seat. She was never really someone who would speak up for herself, and Jihoon knew that. 

He doesn’t say anything, even when he knows he should. Instead, he sits back, and allows himself to take credit for her work, ignoring the sinking feeling in his stomach. Her eyes follow him for the whole day, a mix of sadness and something else entirely. Jihoon knows what that is, he just does nothing to change that look in them. 

She looks like a wounded animal, he realises that night at three a.m, sipping on coffee as he works on tracks sent by her on a single USB. the files always have the same names, nothing of note, nothing of importance. Just the name of the song she’s sending it in for, and the date and version of the file. There have been times where she’s sent in files with nothing but the name, Song Draft#1, or something like All My love, draft #2. He likes the way she writes these, likes the way her filenames leave nothing for him to question. On the other hand, Jihoon sends the producers and songwriters drafts named (very creatively) Vernon is being a bitch, or as on one single, memorable occasion, how do I kill Seokmin and bury his body without anyone knowing? They had looked at him like he was crazy, but really, Jihoon doesn’t mind. He likes being known as the crazy one, the problem child of the company. Jihoon remembers the one time he went on lockdown in the studio to make a whole album from scratch in a week, and the rest of the company gave him a wide berth, because really, no one wants to fuck with Lee Jihoon, the insufferable genius of Pledis. 

Which makes entire sense as to why she left him, of course. 

Jihoon is not a stranger to how awfully their relationship began. Even by his standards, the way he asked her out was shitty. They had been sitting in his studio, drinking coffee and working yet another late night, when he had turned to look at her, and said a single word, “chicken?”

“Huh?” she had asked, looking up from her laptop, “right now?”

“No, I mean later,” Jihoon had clarified, looking slightly exasperated at how slowly this was moving along, “chicken. Fried chicken. Do you want to get some with me?”

“Uh, sure.” She had turned back to her work, and Jihoon had nodded, murmuring, it’s a date, then. 

That was how it had begun. Jihoon knew he should not have begun a relationship, or even dated anyone like that, attaching himself to the first person who caught his eye after recovering from a breakup. He knows he should not do it, but he does it anyway. Watches as she gets grilled by higher-ups during meetings, watches as he opens his mouth to say something, but keeps quiet instead. Even his bandmates, people who barely knew her, tried to speak up when they could, but he kept his mouth shut. 

Why did he do that?

At first, it was to maintain distance, to maintain the farce that while they were professional colleagues during work hours, he was not pressing her up against the couch in his studio afterwards. A way to let himself know that the Lee Jihoon of Seventeen was a different person to producer Lee Jihoon, who was a different person to just Lee Jihoon, the man who was using a woman for his benefit. 

It all grew hot and cold, after a while. She stopped expecting things from him, he hadn’t been doing anything for her in the first place. Even with his growing guilt, Jihoon couldn’t stop going back to her day after day, taking whatever she gave, and leaving without giving anything in return. He had it down to a science, almost. 

They were caught once. Well, he was the one who was caught, and it was Seungkwan of all people, who had run into him one late night. Seungkwan was there for practice, and Jihoon was there because he wanted to unwind fuck in peace. They ran into each other in the company elevator, and Seungkwan just stared at him for three seconds, before opening his mouth, “don’t do this, hyung.”

Jihoon stared at him, too. What the hell? “What do you mean,” He’d asked, but from the look on Seungkwan’s face, any explanation was unnecessary. 

“Don’t hurt someone just because you’re hurting too, hyung,” Seungkwan muttered, before getting out of the elevator, “She’s not someone you can hurt and leave when you want to. No one is.”

With that, he was gone, leaving behind Jihoon, still in the elevator, thinking. Hewas free to do whatever he wanted, Seungkwan and his fucking stupid moral policing be damned. And she was an adult. She knew what he wanted, she knew what they were getting into. There was nothing that Jihoon had not told her, so this line of thinking was irrelevant. 

—

Slowly, things start to change. Jihoon suspects Seungkwan’s involvement, but without any proper proof, he can’t even charge the man with anything. She becomes slightly more confident, slightly more outgoing. Earlier, when he called her after work, she came running, no matter how busy she was. Now, he found himself waiting for hours for a reply, and even then, it was all noncommittal, nothing more than yes, maybe, or sorry, no, I’m busy. He got the second text far more often than the first one. 

And then one day, Vernon came into the studio, visibly excited, and started talking about her, “did you know?” He said, “she’s composing the music for this new film.”

“She is?” Jihoon can’t even hide how much it rankles, the news that she’s moved on beyond him, that now she’s begun work as a film composer, “which movie?”

Vernon, who apparently got the news from her, says the name, “it’s going to be shown at Jeonju International Festival, and the lead actor came here today! They finished production on the film, and he came to congratulate her and take a look at her workspace and all.”

Ah, so that was why. Jihoon doesn’t say anything, gives a grunt and goes back to his work, a sign that Vernon interprets as get out. He leaves his studio an hour later to go to the cafeteria, and he sees her eating with another person. The actor; he thinks, and then turns around to leave before she catches his eye. If he saw her, she would come over to greet him, he knew her well enough for that. 

And, he’s never seen her laugh that way 

—

Unfortunately, somewhere between using her for his emotional benefit and discovering she had moved on without him knowing, Jihoon’s feelings had changed. He now looked for her in every meeting; her absence rankled in a place that was not quite familiar to him before. Hell, he even missed the way she ate her food, it was a trivial detail, but now he remembers the way she would carefully arrange everything on her plate and obsess over calories, insisting that she needed to have a certain amount to not keel over and faint. 

Then the conversation peters out entirely. Even when she was actively ignoring his texts outside of work, she would respond to his emails, send over USBs with the song files she was working on, sit in on meetings to workshop lyrics. Those stop too, and now he gets USBs through harried interns who don’t know who they are from, or gets his emails rerouted to another (usually higher) person in charge. Nothing non-professional, nothing he can fault her for. It’s annoying. It’s fucking annoying, how in the end of this twisted fucking mess, Jihoon is only one with mud on his skin. He’s still the terrible toddler, she’s the one whose reputation is pristine. Jihoon didn’t much care for his reputation either way, but if he was getting called an asshole, with rumors of him pursuing and abandoning an employee, he wishes she were affected too. It's selfish to be thinking about another person like this, but Jihoon does not care. He wants everyone to suffer along with him. 

It’s been about a month now. Within this time, he’s been the worst version of himself, locked Cheol out of the studio, ignored everyone’s calls and threatened to kill Seokmin on three separate occasions, but it’s been a month. A month since she stopped responding, a month since he’s had any sort of news from her. He knows he doesn’t deserve it, but he craves it anyway. 

He runs into Seungkwan on the way to the studio one morning, and the younger man takes one look at him and shakes his head. Jihoon doesn’t say anything. He walks into the studio and closes the door behind him. 

“She’s left.”

Jihoon turns. Seungkwan had walked into the studio, and was looking at him with a mix of pain and contempt, “she’s left PLEDIS. Left HYBE.”

“Wait, what?” It’s his turn to not believe his ears, “who did?”

“The girl you were actively trying to fuck over, hyung, she left,” Seungkwan sighs, “and one more thing, I think it’s a good thing she did.”

“What?”

“She’s now a fully-fledged film composer, hyung,” Seungkwan replies, not a hint of sarcasm in his voice, “she’s composing scores for two more upcoming films and one television drama. She no longer needs PLEDIS.”

The subtext is clear. 

Jihoon says nothing, just allows Seungkwan to leave. 

—

Three months later, her film premiered at Jeonju International Film Festival. Four of them go; make a show of it, as per Cheol’s orders. He wasn’t aware of what Jihoon did. If he knew, he wouldn’t have let Jihoon go. Anyway, the four of them go, in show of support for an ex-coworker. It’s too much, even for them, he thinks, who the hell organised this? 

He gets his answer before the show, when Vernon shakes her hand enthusiastically, grinning, “I knew you’d be a phenomenal film composer.”

She doesn’t even look at him. 

They take their seats, it’s refreshing to be in a crowd of cinephiles where no one cares about who the hell SEVENTEEN are. Jihoon settles down into his seat, and the starting credits roll. 

The score remains with him even after the film ends. Jihoon doesn’t care for movies, not like Vernon does anyway, so he focuses on the score; which is haunting, stretching like a yawning cat over the expanse of the film, occasionally baring its claws to let people know the genius of its composer. She had done well, and now he thinks the reason why everyone was so critical of her was because they were scared. Cheol claps enthusiastically, Seungkwan claps like he’s the person behind her success (with all his subterfuge, he might as well be) and Vernon even lets out a whoop to show her how much he’s enjoyed her work. Jihoon, out of all the four of them, doesn’t do anything, doesn’t clap, doesn’t smile. He can’t even think properly. So she left the company to do this. To be a film composer. Why did it matter? Why did it matter to him how she lived her life? He used her, she left him, in the end, it was his own actions that led him to be this way. She has always remained the pristine one, unbothered and unaffected of anything that happened in any space. In the end, Jihoon doesn’t even clap, because he’s afraid of tainting her. To be associated with me is the equivalent of throwing mud on yourself, he reasons, as they walk out of the theatre and into a waiting car, this is better. This way, she doesn’t have to remember me anymore. 

Now he knows what he feels, but it’s far too little, far too late. As always. In the end, the guy does not get the girl. In the end, Lee Jihoon remains where he has always been, waiting, a spectator in someone else’s curtain call. All his love has amounted to, is this. 

[therobotsarestuckinmyhead]

I think that if the Optimus from Transformers One were to ever meet a human, it would be perfect for him to have a child as a guide or companion on Earth — like Spike, Sari, Sam, and so on. Someone with the wonder and kindness of childhood, who wouldn’t be afraid of Optimus and would want to learn more about him. That gentleness could help rekindle the war-weary spark within Optimus. I just want to see him holding an adorable little boy in his hands 🥺🤲💙

☆ Optimus w/ a human child || drabble

funnily enough i'm already working on a request very similar to that haha. i do mostly Cybertronian reader but i'm not giving up on an idea i find intriguing. i jus gotta disagree with you on sam witwicky though cause he was... a very, very strange teenager but again, most humans in the bayverse are insane.

i get what you mean— Optimus in general is father material. no matter which continuity so i can definitely see TFO Optimus doing the same. it would be absolutely adorable to see him care for a human kid or even adopt one. also, i'm pretty sure he could because Star Saber has an adopted child in TF:Victory so its not a totally new idea to Transformers.

it would be the most wholesome father-child relationship ever. i can imagine Optimus learning more about humans through the kid, understanding human culture and what it means to be human. and i feel like Optimus would absolutely LOVE answering each and every question his little guide would have for him. the curiosity sort of reminds him of how he used to be back in the mines. ah, good(?) old times of being exploited by a treacherous Prime.

he's chuckling as they ask him what he adds to his petrol to make it taste better. but then panicking a little when he realizes the kid's tasted petrol before otherwise there's no way they would've known it tastes bad. they gotta explain themselves to him now.

also, i think the only group of people who wouldn't freak out when seeing a giant alien robot would be children; more specifically, children who are into mecha shows. so it would absolutely not feel very absurd to a kid. hence why i kinda like how its mostly kids who are a transformers human companion in most TF shows.

bonus if they make OP watch mecha anime with them. Optimus has a lot of questions. he'd first be so concerned and think its the Cybertronian equivalent of gore with how the mecha suits open up but then the kid explains it to him and he'd just go "oh.".

Optimus would definitely carry them around in his giant servos and show them around a Cybertronian Starship. he'd be too scared about the little kid being crushed by giant mechanical parts.

it would be a reminder to him that no matter how bleak the war gets, its all worth it because he's fighting for all sentient life, for all the good and innocence in this world. despite the harsh brutality of war, there's always innocence and goodness on the other side.

Optimus asking the child to stay put while he goes kick Decepticon aft while the kid peeks to watch the fight with absolute awe and wonder, it's just like the videogames. cue a slightly flustered Optimus feeling unsure on what to feel about a kid idolizing him and bombarding him with questions.

the wholesomeness would be diabetes inducing.

but it would be tragic too cause when Optimus finds out about human lifespans and how quickly we grow up as compared to a Transformer who can only grow up, mature in a mental sense which in and of itself takes thousands of years— it would be spark-breaking.

i also think that oppy would be very intrigued by the concept of childhood given Cybertronians don't exactly have a childhood. what is it like to be a child? to be innocent and free? Optimus will never know. closest thing he can imagine is how he used to be liked before finding out that his entire world was a lie, when he found out the truth about Sentinel Prime.

the concept of school would also be interesting for him but your classmates are more interested about the cool red truck which comes to pick you up from school because your parents are absent for plot reasons, imagine the kid flexing off Optimus' alt mode to all of their classmates like: "heh, yeah! this is my ride home." with the most smug smirk to have ever been smug.

i think at some point, for the safety of their guide, some of the other Autobots might make something similar to Coby-Bot from TF:Cybertron— a human piloted mecha suit so that the kid would walk around the Starship safely.

in short, Optimus is the dad who'd step up!!!

and i will die on that hill.

also, make sure to keep him away from the internet or else someday, he's going to ask what skibiddy toilet is

the funny part is that he wouldn't even realize he's being like a dad until someone points it out because again, Cybertronian don't exactly have parentage so they don't really have the concept of a dad, the closest i believe they would have to a 'father' in the traditional sense is a mentor.

anyway, that's just my thoughts though

[animatronicappreciation]

hi! i was talking about build a bear to a friend and just remembered they used to have animatronics (? if they count as those?) at the entrance (this article has an image: https://clarksvillenow.com/local/build-a-bear-workshop-comes-to-clarksville/ but you can just look up ‘build a bear entrance’ and find some, they simply move their arms a bit from what i remember)

i haven’t really seen any close up pictures or anyone documenting where they are now if they got rid of them all so i thought i’d ask around :o

Ok so funnily enough, I (Mod Possum) WORK at a Build-A-Bear Workshop, so this is right up my alley, lol!!

So, what anon is talking about is our little bear buddy (his name is Bearnard, not to be confused with another mascot of ours by the name of Bearemy) that sits in front of some of our store windows! Our store still has one, and he's still functional!

Here's a couple of pictures from outside of our store! Our store hasn't changed much since it opened, so we've still got what's called the "Heritage Store" look! Heritage Stores are the ones that look like we did back when we opened in '97-- a color scheme of primary colors, prominent theming to make you feel like you're really building a teddy bear (bear bins that look like spools of thread, stickers on bins that make it look like stitching, gears on the wall, et cetera), and so forth. It's a very cozy atmosphere compared to what many Build-A-Bears look like now.

This ^^^ is what our Discovery Stores look like. Not nearly as whimsical or fun as our Heritage Stores, right? It just feels cold and sterile in comparison, but that's just my opinion, haha!

Maxine Clark is the founder of BABW, and was the CEO for many years. However, she stepped down as CEO in 2013, and that was when the company's vision for our stores began to change. Sharon Price John took over as CEO, and her way of doing things was a lot more business-driven rather than fun-driven, at least in my personal opinion.

June 4th of 2015, only two years into Sharon Price John's tenure, was the first announcement of the Discovery Store that I could find online. There wasn't much to be said about it in the article I read since that wasn't the basis for the article, but it said that the first Discovery Store would be opening in Utah later that year.

Maxine Clark's way of operating her business was a lot more whimsical than Price John's, but it didn't really amount to a profitable business, focused more on bringing an experience to the world than being a true business. When Price John took over, the company became infinitely more corporate than it was under Clark's reign.

Over time, more and more of our stores have been converted to Discovery Stores, and although we're more profitable than we once were, I can't help but wonder at what expense. My opinon's not important to the topic at hand, I know, lol, but what that means is that the friendly little Bearnard animatronics have been disappearing one by one, since they don't reuse them for the Discovery Stores.

As to where they've all gone... I truly have no idea. I would assume it's a "destroy this prop as it will not be used again" situation. I've gotten some items from a former Heritage Store turned Discovery that they held onto for a while before our DM told the store to "get rid of them" (iirc he told the managers of that store that he didn't really care where they went as long as they were gone), so it's not out of the realm of possibility that some may have survived, but due to how unwieldy it would be to transport these figures, I also wouldn't be surprised if it was just easier to trash them.

The figures have VERY limited movement. With ours, he just tilts his head from side to side on repeat, all day, every day. Some stores, like pictured below, had two figures rather than our store's single figure, so I don't know what movement, if any, the bear in the tutu (presumably Bearnice, another of our characters, lol) has. I would guess that she also tilted her head back and forth, but I can't say for sure, since it's not clear in the photo and it's been quite a while since I have seen a store with two of the figures.

It's a shame that these figures are going the way of the dodo. They may be incredibly simplistic figures, but I do enjoy how whimsical they are!

If anyone has any more information about our little storefront friends, I would LOVE to hear it! I'll try and consult with my other employee friends (shoutout to the BAB subreddit for connecting us!) and see what they have to say. I'll report back if they have anything interesting to say!

-Mod Possum

[lightfromthelostland]

Okay, everyone, I went down the The Pitt to ER pipeline rabbit hole and I Need to talk about the Carter Family Dynamics and specifically the elements raised by Chase Carter. I'm gonna be calling Carter John even though it's weird because everyone in this post is a Carter, haha.

Firstly, the situation with Carter's parents is a lot. His mom's multi-episode arc clearly shows that she basically got trapped in the moment that Bobby died, and she seems to resent the fact that John didn't get stuck there too. "You were exactly where you've been my entire life - you were somewhere else" is brutal but apparently factually accurate if his parents couldn't be bothered to come see him for three weeks after he was literally almost murdered by a patient. Like, my parents have way fewer resources to work with and they would be there in absolute minimum amount of travel time were something like that to happen to me. I did see some comment the other day about it being sexist that John is more willing to forgive his dad's screwups than his mom's but, friends, "she was disappointed in you as a father and as a man" is a hell of a thing to say to your father about his recently deceased mother, if you have forgiven that man for his absentee parenting. I think the continued contact with his dad was more a feature of his father making a decision to at least try to change and continuing to show up, while his mother continued to do what she (they) had always done before, which is hiding from the feelings.

But. That thing John says to his dad comes after his grandmother skips right over his dad - and any other relatives who might have a claim - and leaves the entirety of the Carter family fortune (and the ancestral home) in John's control. Which brings me to my main point, which is - the Carter Family Dynamics are real weird, and nothing makes that clearer than the introduction of Chase Carter.

So. The Carter Family is super rich and they have a lot of built-in expectations with that, as rich people often do. For this reason, John has received a great deal of disapproval for his pursuit of a career in medicine, which is bizarre from the perspective of us normal people, for whom a doctor in the family would be something to be proud of. He gets cut off from the family money for a while because he wants to continue to pursue it without them holding anything over his head. His grandmother repeatedly tries to talk him out of it. Chase says he's pretty much the only family member with a career outside of the family holdings, and as such, he's something of the black sheep of the family - or is he?

When Chase shows up, he makes it very clear that John is the Anointed One. He's the one that John Carter Sr. has always wanted to take over when the time comes. And apparently, this is still the case despite his medicine based rebellion. And that's weird for a number of reasons.

Firstly, let's talk about the rest of the Carter family. As previously mentioned, John's dad is very much alive. Logically, he would be the first choice to take over, you'd think. But beyond that, John had an older brother. He has at least one cousin (Douglas) that we know for absolutely certain is older than him, and personally, I interpreted Chase as being older as well, though not by much. He also, maybe, has an older sister who we never met and who may or may not exist. (As far as I can remember from my binge watch, the only mention of her is when he tells Benton that his parents are visiting her for Thanksgiving, prior to Benton inviting him to his family dinner. My personal headcanon is that she doesn't actually exist and he was just covering the fact that his parents couldn't be bothered to be around for the holidays.) In a family dynasty like this, the older boys would seem like the prime candidates, and yet.

Also, this is a good time to talk about how these older boys make John's name kind of weird. Even if you ignore Chase and Douglas as not being in the Main Line, Bobby still exists! Why is the second born son the one that got The Third-ed? I saw something in a fic speculating that the choice was an attempt to curry favor by John's parents, which would make some sense, but also implies the presence of significant dysfunction in the family even before John was born, let alone before Bobby died. I have questions!

SO. It is strange that John would be the Chosen Grandson, purely from a dynastic standpoint. Now, on the other hand, I love John Truman Carter III with my whole heart, and he demonstrates throughout the show that he is a) very smart b) very capable of setting a difficult goal and following through on it even the face of opposition (ironic that this trait that makes him a desirable heir is Also the reason that they're frustrated with him) and c) able to turn on the social graces and charm the general public in the specific way that the family wants. I can see how they would focus on him based on personality but there is still his dad! Who even the younger generation (as spoken through Chase) is ignoring as a stepping stone at best and a non-candidate at worst for inheriting Head of the Family status.

And that's not even getting into the way John seems to have simply supplanted his father in his grandparents' affections. John has a room in the house and feels comfortable adding a home gym without discussing it with his grandmother. John is the one who has a giant portrait of him hanging in the foyer (yes I know from a Doylesian perspective this is for the giggles of Anna and Carol stumbling across it, but like, that painting is canonically there). John's parents stay in a hotel rather than at the house when they're in town for Senior's funeral. John is the one who handles Gamma's home care after her accident, and the one who goes for a drive with her after Senior's funeral, and the one she leaves all the money to. He's the one being recruited to hand out checks at benefits even though he still hasn't given up his day job. There's a lot going on!

Anyway, clearly I have a lot of feelings about this, TLDR: Carter family dynamics are seriously whack.

Please discuss.

[deathlakes]

This week i've had so many interruptions that i haven't been able to sit down and write, but here we go… !!!

The curious thing about Cupid's situation is that this GIRL KNOWS EVERYTHING. As if she were once a MH student, transferred to EAH, perhaps she has heard things about the PJO world, and who knows what other universes haha. But hey, love is everywhere in different ways, right?

The idea of having a crossover sounds great…. One more mission to the list for these demigods, In some ways it is one of the quietest missions. They are surprised, because even coming from a world where gods exist. It's so confusing for them the system of how magic works here so to speak, because for them they are just printed pages, stories they heard, movies among other things. It is similar to what happens with mythology for mortals, but now fairy tales are real too? As if Cinderella is a true story? REAL Grimm Brothers? That students in this school must follow a destiny? What?

They are impressed by the fact that. Then there's Cupid, who teaches them a little about the world at first, although it is the counterpart of Eros, Nico is equally VERY UNCOMFORTABLE, feels repulsion. “Like, your father traumatized me. I'll keep my distance just in case.” Lol. Later on, they may have a slightly closer relationship, but it will not become a deeper friendship.

At first they would be in the center of attention. EAH students know about Cupid, but they didn't expect there to be more of the same kind, like more guys from mythology. (Only in this case they are demigods.) It would be funny because many would interact with them, and the demigod guys would be like: ‘What do you mean we should follow our parents' destiny? No, thank you, really no.’ They make faces at each other; ‘What the hell is he telling us?’. But don't say anything to the EAH guys. They're really trying to see why Aphrodite would send them here and Cupid: ‘Please stop disappearing like that out of nowhere. We understand your desire for solve love problems, and you breathe for that, BUT GIVE US SOLUTIONS.’

The demigods obviously become rebels. Of course they don't agree with this shit, it's the stupidest thing. Most of the fairy tales here have macabre stories… (and the demigod guys are not spared either, but they are secret agents so they don't worry about that. In no way will they be forced to seal their fate. Thanks to Gods)

They begin to notice that, as you said, the rebels do nothing and it's something that has bothered me a lot since I was little. How if you don't like something, why not talk about it? Every time a student decided to be on a side, it was just like: Ooooh. She's a rebel. He's a Royal. And it stays there, they have their discussions on both sides, but that's all. And of course the rebels are proud of their decision, but… the Headmaster Grimm presses harder and harder. Raven lived frustrated (her way of rebelling was not to be evil like her mother), Cerise lived in fear for who her parents, Hunter&Ashley were really afraid of their relationship. Why doesn't anyone rebel and end this? They call themselves rebels, but they don't rebel at all.

The boys begin to work on putting an end to that propaganda, and proving that their story will not disappear (Believing what is the purpose of Aphrodite sending them to this world) And explaining that those same stories exist in their world. The thing about them sharing traumas works for me. Imagine the faces of the EAH students when Percy tells his storytime, or any of them. But hey, this isn't a competition for the most traumatized. Then this revolution begins to take more shape, Giles also helps with this, because he is also tired of his brother being the one doing this propaganda.

And with fate changed for Apple & Daring with Darling being the real charmer for Apple. Apple enters into crisis because, what is it supposed to do with its story now? Nothing is going as she expected, her supposed villain does not want to be a villain and who she grew up with, believing he was her prince charming, was a farce. She really enters into an identity crisis. Annabeth is the one who helps her, and makes her understand that she should not follow her destiny if she does not want to, her mother can't force her to be something and that should not be up to her mother's expectations nor anyone's. So she later supports the rebel movement. Briar who no longer wanted her destiny, but became a silent rebel, now she could leave anonymity. And more guys are joining this movement. They win their revolution, love triumphs and those who have been hiding come to light…

The friendships that demigods make. Cupid, O'Hair girls & Piper become so close that when Piper is sent back to her world, they keep in touch. She even sometimes comes to visit the school and spend time together. Also the girls have things in common, Piper being the daughter of Aphrodite, she has those areas. Love & Fashion. Briar & Ashley could also join, they liked this girl’s club, and shared thoughts. Jason helps Daring (as he is no longer as selfish as he was) try to be a better person and gives him advice. Even when he starts a relationship with Rosabella, there are some small crises, because it is still all new to him. The fact that Triton is basically Meesheel's grandfather and Percy's half-brother. So they have a lot to talk about. Meesheel's is like, ‘are you my uncle then?’. And Percy is so confused, because ‘she is somehow his niece?’ But he lets his confusion pass, because he won't have a headache thinking about it, no, thanks.

Of course it works that Leo and Sparrow are a troublemaking duo. Sparrow is the one who gives the ideas, and Leo is the one who makes them reality.

Melody and Will get along very well, due to their knowledge of music. As a son of Apollo, that is in him. Only now he can explore more of his musical side, rather than his healing side, thanks to the friendship he has with Melody. They even try to make mixes and of course they try a lot of things. So by the time Will arrives at camp, he introduces his brothers to his enhanced abilities. Kitty is fascinated with Nico due to the fact that he is able to travel in the shadows and similar to her power. Then they have a skills competition, under Will's watch (of course). But also with Hazel, because she mines gemstones and she likes shiny things. Lizzy sees them as her equals as heirs to a throne, and perhaps, talks about politics. Teatime is never missing, it becomes customary to be invited to Maddie's tea time and then Hazel and Nico in their world sometimes they say: let's have teatime and out of nowhere, a table is already set.

Darling shows great interest in Reyna being an Artemis Hunter, so she always has questions. Raven finds it innovative. So maybe Reyna will teach them something about her job as a hunter, and show them combat tricks. Frank, Hunter & Dexter, a great trio, Dexter, with Frank's help, becomes more skilled in his theme of heroism. How he has lived under his brother's shadow, giving him more self-confidence, even recounting his experience. Cerise and Thalia, I agree that they would be very competitive since their personality is like that.

I hope you like my vision haha. Maybe it's too little. But worse is nothing :D

Since I already talked about a possible EAH AU for PJO a month ago,what about a crossover? Greek mythology is real in Ever After High,after all Cupid was transferred there and there are a lot of reference to it. The main gang get sent there by Aphrodite (or Eros) because Cupid needs help (girl is probably sick about all the social barrier since she went to MH half of her life and can't stand their mentality anymore) and instead of them mixing with the students to go unnotice,trying to follow their destiny like the ever after kids,they just....sit down because what the hell is going on in this school?

Like,their parents had this other strange pocket world they never knew about,they just met one of their immortal relative which is directly related to Piper and is Eros (so the counterpart of Cupid for Nico's joy) adoptive daughter,and she is just filling them all in with how things works there.

The thing is,the demigods don't really understand where they fit in this whole "rebel vs royal" conflict,and Cupid can't really help because she isn't around much and she is a rebel,because she wants to help people find the love they want and not what they are told. They all know how most of their story ends,those are fairytales they heard since they were children after all,so they decide to stay neutral at the start and try to understand the situation better.

And then they started noticing all the weird things going on. Why are those kids aiming so hard to finish their story? Don't they know that most of them will have a sad/horrible life because of it? That some of them will die in gruesome ways? Also,why are most of the rebels not doing anything? If they want to really go against the system and stop their story,they needs to do more than just protesting or yelling their frustration and unfairness to the world. Where is the real plan at? Oh and look–most of their parents sucks too,they can bond on trauma sharing now. Something in common finally.

In the end they start a revolution,helping the students realize that 50% of them had been groomed ever since they were children to believe in something that was not set in stone,and that they can make and change; while the other 50% got feared for their entire life for just existing,and was also insolated because they wanted to not die/suffer in eternity.

Fuck propaganda.

Anyway,the revolution is a success and this actually help Cupid's job–making it more easy for her. Piper and her gets the occasion to bond over the sharing informations about their relationships,and Cupid give her some advice. The others bond with the other character too of course: Piper and Poppy are in tune with each other and they often spent time together,Holly most of the time is with them. Nico and Hazel are particularly fond of the Wonderland gang and their situarion (Kitty is their favorite but don't tell the others). Annabeth tried to help Apple realize that her mother's behavior was never ok,and that her story can change without her fearing for the worst. Similar to her,Jason does the same with Daring and he and Rosabelle become close friends. Percy and Marshall find themselves talking a lot about the difference in their underwater world/their parents palace and differences. Leo and Sparrow? They are best friends,the "always up to something not good" duo that cause chaos. Will and Melody bond over their intrest in music,and Melody even tried to teach Will how to play the clarinet. Reyna,Darling and Raven have strong personalities but they still find a middle ground and they understand each other,sometimes they spar with each other. Frank and Hunter more often than not share their opinions on their own archery skills and animals,sometimes Dexter join them and they all hung out together. Thalia actully enjoy herself with Cerise's company since they have a couple of things in common,they often challenge each other to the weirdest thing ever.

Little by little they help the students to understand that they can choose what and who they want to be,untill the social barriers are throw into the air and the headmaster is replaced. And all of this was possible only because a bunch of teenagers said "fuck it. Let's save them from their own fate with a revolution" and actually went through it.

@deathlakes you see my vision for this?

[poolseason]

[NINJAGELION AU]

i've had this Ninjago x Evangelion/Mecha crossover au brewing in my head for years now, felt like revisiting it

Long post under the cut: Backstories, design notes and character lore

Mechs:

Unit-01 (WIP) : Lloyd's mech, supposed to resemble an Oni. It's primarily a dark purple with glowing green panels and orange accents, with 2 horn like antannae. It's 4 eyes are actually an LCD display. Unit-01's color scheme the same as from the source material, bc purple green and gold are plot relevant colors for Lloyd specifically. The weapons this unit uses are short-swords, plasma blasters, and it's bare fists(lol). This mech is prone to going berserk a lot, possibly due to it's pilot's mental instability.

(In NGE, the mech's are possessed by a spirit of their parents or loved ones, I'm indecisive on if Garmadon is the ghost in Lloyd's mech or Misako. Last time I was thinking about this au, Misako was possessing it, but i'm sort of leaning towards Garmadon again. idk idk.....)

Unit-02 (WIP): Built to resemble a samurai with dragon like elements that glow red. This mech is built for but land and undersea combat, making it the most versatile machine on the force. It's equipped with a retractable sword and an acid blaster. It's possessed by a former scientist named Nyad.

Pilots (and Cole):

Cole is a captain, (looking to be promoted to major) and is the head of the New Ninjago City base's combat division. He sort of a silly dude and while he takes his job really seriously, he's also prone to unprofessionalism. He personally oversees the pilots training and coaches them during fights. When Commander Garmadon and Assistant Head Wu refuse to take Lloyd in when he arrives at NNC, Cole decides to take the kid in himself and be the parental figure he doesn't have. Cole's got a complicated relationship with his own family, especially after his mother died saving him the Second Impact 20 years ago, now he vows to destroy all the darkness monsters that are invading.

Zane is sort of a mysterious guy. He's an artifical lifeform created specifically to pilot any mech but he usually fights in the prototype, Unit-00. Unit-01 doesn't seem to like him, and never responds to him. His suit is mostly grayscale, white armor, and light blue accents. His neural interface comes with a visor to help him see better. His primary relationships are Cole, Dr Pixal Borg, who is his personal doctor and (almost) confidant, Wu, who he has a father-son esque relationship with, and Lloyd his first true friend. He doesn't see much value in himself because he can always be replaced with a different copy, but his time with his friends starts to teach him otherwise

Nya and her supervising officer Kai are from Ignacia and joined the NINJA-go battle mech program through their connection with their parents, who were officers of the organization. But after a terrible accident following the Second Impact, they were left orphaned. Kai was too old to qualify as a pilot, but Nya was the perfect candidate. She began training at age 13, and became the strongest fighter on the force. Now at nineteen, the darkness monsters are now attacking and she (and her brother) are transferred to the New Ninjago City base, which seems to be the epicenter of the attacks, and now the the former solo-flyer has to learn to be a part of a team. She's a bit arrogant and prickly and a kindhearted friend to the other pilots, and she's got a bit of a crush on Junior Technician Jay Walker. Nya's suit design is definitely the most personalized primarily blue with grey, and darker blue and red accents with white armor, actually she ended looking a little like D.Va lol.

Lloyd, is the youngest pilot on the team now, but he's still a minor so he has to deal with the joys of school alongside his new life as a mech fighter. Having been unexpectedly summoned to Ninjago City by his estranged Uncle Wu and pressured into fighting the invading monster, Lloyd is apprehensive about his new double life, but this responsibility bestowed on him now means he now has friends and people who care about him, a far cry from the abusive boarding school he was abandoned at. Lloyd's a moody kid, with some anger issues and unresolved trauma at something terrible he witnessed when he was a young child, but he's also an empathetic kid who's willing to help everyone he meets. Lloyd has a sibling like rivalry with Nya, big brother(teetering on fatherly) relationship with Cole and Kai, a crush on the girl from school who punched him Akita, and really strained relationship with his parents and uncle. Beyond that he has a friendship with his mysterious colleague Zane that he doesn't really understand. Lloyd's suit is the most simple of the pilot suits, mostly green with white armor and gold accents. He didn't really think too much about it, other than asking Jay to make it green. His neural interface is also pretty simple, since he has an bizarrely high natural sync rate with his mech, which resemble little horns.

MISC Lore:

The second impact was an event where humanity fucked around and found out on the Dark Island and and entity called the Overlord awakened from hibernation, causing a near apocalypse that left Ninjago in an eternal heatwave. 20 years later these dragon-like monsters have started attacking trying to get to something being held deep below Ninjago City (source dragon? FSM as a dragon? firstbourne?? some kind of Dragon is under the base)

Zane promised Lloyd that he'll bring snowy winters back for him, and even though Lloyd thinks that was a rare moment of cheesiness from his friend, little did he know that Zane was going to cause an Ice Age during the climax.

Only people born after the second impact are viable candidates to pilot the NINJA mechs. When Kai learned of this he was furious that he couldn't be the one to avenge his family, and had to watch his sister fight and train instead. But in spite of his anger he made it a personal mission to get power in the organization and uncover the conspiracy behind the Second Impact and the attacking monsters.

Unit-00 is a prototype mech and isn't equipped for most combat scenarios, so Zane is primarily a long-range fighter and sniper. Zane might be replaceable to the force but Unit-00 isn't. Unit-00 was originally designed by Dr. Julien, but the man went mad and under mysterious circumstances, he was found dead inside it's entry plug alongside Zane's original iteration, Echo. After that incident, testing began on it, the original test pilot was a 24 year old, Morro, who was personally recruited by Wu, but the synchronization failed and disaster struck again, ending with Unit-00 going berserk, and another casualty. A similar incident happened with Zane, and later Lloyd, though they survive. Wu just needs to learn that Unit-00 really hates new pilots, and Zane is the only successful pilot for it.

Unit-01 is also a very testy machine, it only likes Lloyd, and goes berserk if it feels that Lloyd is in danger. Otherwise it doesn't respond to anyone else.

Cole and Kai might have hooked up in grad school, no one really knows for certain.

Pixal is the second Borg to join the organization, her father Cyrus Borg was one of the original researchers, and the person who designed the Geofront system that allowed the inhabited buildings in New Ninjago City to safely go underground and become a fortress on the surface. Pixal is more interested in the actual NINJA mechs and combat division research more than the civilian safety r&d, and she becomes the Head Scientist by the time the story begins.

Pixal the second in command to Cole, and her assistant is 23 year old genius Jay Walker, fresh out of an engineering degree and landed himself in the most insane secret government organization. Skylor and Dareth are the two other lead technicians. But Dareth's not too amazing at his job, admittedly.

The NINJA mechs aren't just machines,, they're enormous building sized cyborgs, and are actually alive creatures being held under armor. Unit-00 and 02 are cloned only from the dragon held under the Ninjago City base, but Unit-01 is cloned from the Overlord and the Dragon, making it a hybrid.

Throughout the story Cole and Kai begin to uncover a conspiracy orchestrated by the Commander and (reluctant accomplice Wu) and a mysterious council, with plans to destroy to world and rewrite reality, and for some reason Zane and Lloyd are at the center of it.

[chanelle-lize]

I used to have a really hard time bringing up the fact that I graduated from high school a year late without feeling the need to explain why and insisting that it wasn't my fault while simultaneously kicking myself for how much I sounded like I was just making excuses for something I should take responsibility for.

Then I watched Dimension 20's "The Seven" and suddenly I could simply say that I was a super senior.

The first time I heard the phrase "super senior" was in reference to Antiope Jones, a Black girl who had been held back a year after getting kidnapped and imprisoned by members of a fundamentalist cult, and like, girl, same.

So, since then, instead of anxiously spinning out any time I tried to tell a personal high school anecdote, I could just say I was a super senior, and then my brain would auto complete that statement with "like Antiope Jones" and I'd feel good about myself because Antiope Jones Is That Bitch.

That's what the problem had been the whole time. I wasn't worried about how other people would perceive me; I had been struggling with how I perceived myself.

Thanks, Aabria.

[tayswizzlez]

i wasn't allowed to watch wrestling as a kid. i grew up in a very conservative christian household and my dad (to this day) hates wrestling. like... he sees an ad for it on tv and it makes him physically mad. so i didn't think of it too much.

as a teenager i had some awareness of who some of the bigger names were like stone cold, the rock and punk because i had friends who watched. but again, didn't really think about it much.

it wasn't until i was in my mid 20s and one of my friends who i was working with in theatre at the time was super into it, i decided to check it out. i'd watch matches on youtube but kind of felt overwhelmed on where to start actually watching - so i tried total divas because i like trashy reality tv and ...haha nope. my friend told me to just start watching shows and i'd pick up what was happening pretty quick.

this was in 2018. and at that point none of the plots really grabbed my attention quickly but one wrestler did - becky lynch. seeing becky prove how good she was but constantly be screwed over in favour of someone else just resonated with me a lot. i related so much to what becky felt and could see myself in her. i felt her frustration.

and then it was summerslam and this happened...

that was the moment it just clicked for me. that was the moment i want from kind of liking wrestling to being in love with it. the moment when i went HOLY SHIT THIS IS JUST EXTREME THEATRE THIS IS THE COOLEST THING EVER.

so yeah... my first wrestler i ever stanned was becky lynch. because she was and is the man (i miss that era lol).

since then i've also gotten into lucha and joshi wrestling, gone back and watched old matches and just really come to appreciate everything to do with it as a form of entertainment.

i've definitely have phases where i've been off wrestling for a bit because well... *gestures at certain people in the industry* but i always come back to it because it's really fucking awesome.

new game for my mootiewooties who’s the wrestler you stanned when you FIRST got into wwe (also tell me when you first got into it)

i’ll go first: i wish i could say mine was punk but it was jeff hardy and j*** c*** 💔

[mapicccc]

feel kinda bad for caring more about wardens at spawn than anything else that happened yesterday

[gingerpeachtea]

mikejakes wip is at 1.5k and steadily growing ohhhh yes it's all coming together

[doctahchang]

epic sims janeway moments (to be continued)

[seafoamsol]

Process gif for the [ last piece ]! It was a bit of a rough ride.

[hirazuki]

Day 2! Lots of fun with Kimblee, a surprising amount of people were really excited to see him XD (it's also kind of funny that the building fire that happened next door occurred while I was wearing him >.>)

Met up with a bunch of homunculi for some photos and then hung out at a bar for more photos food; Envy and Greed had a little worm!Envy with them and it was SO CUTE 😭😭😭

And then went as Zenos to the Final Fantasy concert -- I've been to Distant Worlds several times, but this was my first time going to A New World; it was soooo beautiful. The musicians and the conductor were clearly enjoying themselves so much too, their arrangements were gorgeous and their ending piece was hilarious.

I'm so used to seeing FFVII dominating the cosplay scene at these things, but there were so many FFXIV cosplayers at this one! Everyone looked amazing; Fandaniel nearly leaping over the seats once he spotted me way in the back made my evening 😂

[sysig]

Maybe something with Mousey being jealous of Hunter and Smoker for one reason or another? hehe

Day 7 - There might be a reason for that

Bonus:

[mer-se]

birthday specialness.