#Though I will say in this specific case I remember people being v confused and frustrated

[undyinglantern]

Dios mío (my goodness)

[patchesproblem]

formally requesting karl and joyce hcs once again 😌

though if you want things to be more specific,,,, maybe Thoughts about joyce's relationship with ein and tesla? or with karl in the AU for extra emotional damage

Writing this before I start writing the long paragraphs I have planned, so I'll update on my final 'what have I done' total soon.

To start off strong let's talk about Karl and Welt in the Main universe!

This is petty revenge for you reminding me of how hellish this game was last night Literally just a few minutes ago. </3 Don't worry, though. It's not too mind destroying. Yet.

Soon after Welt takes an L and 300,001 inhabitant of the HoR core I genuinely believe that Karl came looking for him. K

Not only because he was a new inhabitant of the core and might've been confused as to what was even happening, but because he wanted to meet him and thank him.

This'll sound weird, but hear me out. I assume Karl was aware of how much influence he had on Welt, and I assume he also knew what was happening outside to a certain degree. Because of his pure dad energy once Welt arrived he made himself known to him.

His reaction depends on whether or not he knew who Karl was (I don't remember if Einstein ever mentioned his name to him, idk), but once he realized I think he'd be terrified at first that he was there to beat his ass (as for why he'd be terrified, imagine your friends dead dad showing up as soon as you die. It isn't particularly comforting). Obviously, that's not the case, and instead Karl just tells him how proud he is of him.

He'd consider him his son, and would tell him that he was proud of everything he did, and how he managed to keep moving and how he never lost sight of his humanity. Would also say thank you for protecting everyone, and making sure that his daughter (Ein), her friend (Tes), and Emma were okay.

I feel like they'd talk with each other for awhile, and Welt would tell Karl about how far Einstein's come since he wasn't able to witness it for himself. He'd probably try to apologize for the eruption, but Karl wouldn't let him because he never blamed him. He views him as yet another innocent victim of the disaster, and never held anything against him. He'd pull out his psychology skills to try to help him realize that none of this was his fault, and that he couldn't have done anything to prevent it. He'd remind him that he's still a person no matter what his origins were. Even if he wasn't a human in the normal sense, he still had more compassion for others than most humans. He still fought to protect humanity despite their cruelty towards him, and Karl believes that he's done more than enough to prove himself to everyone.

Karl would basically become his dad at that point and would keep him company, and would probably introduce him to the other people within the core. I don't know. I just think that it'd be really sweet that even if Welt's life wasn't the best, the happiness he felt in the last few days of his short life continued beyond the grave. I want them to have their father son relationship even if they aren't technically alive anymore.

They'd bond over how much of a menace Einstein is and how she tormented them both at any chance she got. Though Karl would be terrified to learn that she's not still as bratty as ever, but that now she has an accomplice who's just as bad and that they actively make each other worse. Though he just loses his sanity upon hearing that not only do they make everyone's lives a living hell, they're also annoyingly gay and make everyone else suffer through it (He's very proud of her but is terrified. He already knows he'll lose his sanity once they're reunited again.)

Along with this I like to believe that Karl was with Welt all along. During his time as a lab rat I think he'd be there to comfort him and trying to make him feel better and to not give up. That's probably another reason that Welt was influenced by him the most due to him essentially being his 'inner voice' in a sense. I just think Karl would love him and consider him his son and be proud to say it. Living up to the Gustav name.

Also like to believe that Karl gave Welt the Gustav name, but he still kept Joyce in his name because he didn't want to lose the last remaining thing he had from Tesla. He either made it his middle name, or kept it has his last name and just has two last names.

He probably comforts Welt whenever he starts to miss Tesla and Einstein, and essentially gives him the therapy he desperately needed. He refuses to let him ever think that either of them hated him or blamed him for anything.

Anyways now for insanity and less depressing things.

I'll do what I did last time and section them these off based off of his relationships with Tesla and Einstein and then I'll do the entire trio because it'll be hellish otherwise.

Starting off with the besties who hate each other and want to throw each other off a roof but secretly care about each other more than anything and see each other as siblings but still want to kill each other.

Where do I even begin with these two.. They're terrible but I love them.

Starting off with a basic / kinda sad thing, they probably both understand each other on a basic level. Of course not completely, but they worry for each other. What I mean by this is mostly just because they both are clearly uh.. A bit.. Questionable mentally..

Tesla was worried about him when he first arrived (before she started threatening him over Einstein but hey a girls gotta have priorities ig.) Even at the end she was still worried about him and didn't want to see him hurting or in danger.

I feel like they'd silently help each other in a sense. Tesla silently forcing Welt to realize that he's cared about now and that he's not going to be hurt anymore (unless it's by her own hands). I've mentioned it before, but I feel like Tesla genuinely Does Care about him. She just doesn't like people getting close to her and she hates men just inherently doesn't trust people. Plus she afraid that she'd get sidelined by Einstein and pay more attention to him because she's a disaster but hey.

I like to think that even though it isn't shown much in the vn, I think that they hung out together often. I like to think she dragged him around often just to force him to see the light of day whenever Einstein was too busy ignoring both of them. I like to think that she also taught him a few sciencey-things and had him help her occasionally while working.

Welt's also Teslas rambling buddy. AKA he stays up to make sure she gets home alive at one in the morning when she's drunk and just listens to her ramble on and on when Einsteins asleep (which is always). Because of this rambling sessions he has learned the history of several different civilizations, philosophies, paintings / art works, weird space facts, alchemy things, and unfortunately enough for him, probably just how gay she is for her lab partner. Pray for him he just wants to read in peace. He's losing his sanity.

There's probably been a few times where she's just come home and started rambling on and on about how much she cares for the both of them and just threatens him until he says that he knows how much they care about him.

I think it'd be cute if they both secretly learn about the others interests in an attempt to be able to talk to each other about it even if they themselves are not interested. They're both questioning how the other just so happens to know so much about their interest but neither are smart enough to figure out what's really happening. Einstein is aware but she just doesn't say anything because it's funnier to watch them both get annoyed and get mad that they have 'such similar interests' despite the fact they're nothing alike.

I also think that after Tesla gave him his last name that he started reading works made by the author she took it from. I don't know why, I just think he knew the name must've had some sort of meaning to her and wanted to understand. I say this because she could've just made his last name "Dumbfuck" in a different language but she didn't.

This is going to go on the impression of 'Welt doesn't take an L within the first five seconds', but I think that once his birthday hits that she'd rope Einstein and Joachim in to throw him a party since he never got one before. Literally threatening everyone around her to make sure that it's perfect and then proceeds to deny having anything to do with it afterwards.

Also probably uses her salary to secretly buy him books and sneak them into his room without him knowing it.

This being said she still harasses him and bullies him half to death. She will continue her assault counter, and Einstein has a score board in their lab for how many times she's assaulted him.

Maybe she even has an 'assault jar' which is basically a swear jar but for assaults.

This is Einsteins feelings about the whole situation.

Moving on to Welt and Einstein. If you were expecting some sense of normalcy you are in for a surprise. She's just as bad as Tesla and we all know it. Though compared to Tesla and Welts friendship it's more kinda sane. Kinda. This sections probably going to be shorter than the other two just because I haven't really thought about them as much since their friendships explored more in the vn compared to the others. I'll throw a few of my misc. hc's at the end if I remember.

I'm not going to lie I think she was heavily interested in his existence and that's why he became their lab assistant specifically. Also wouldn't be surprised if Planck didn't play a part in getting him there. This is mainly just due to the fact yanno. Karl kinda took an L and Welt was the only remaining survivor. Obviously she wasn't interested in the 'I want to study your existence, lab rat' type of way, but more of a 'wow maybe I can finally figure out what happened and not have to suffer for the rest of my life not knowing what happened.'

Just like Tesla she relentlessly bullies him. This man can not get a break. Though the main difference is that because nobody can read her it's 30x more effective because it can either be a serious insult, or a joke, and you'll never know.

If he hadn't taken an L I think they would've been besties honestly. I know you asked for my hc's but I'm stealing your hc and you can not stop me (/lh). I think that she'd encourage him to get into astrology and probably help him out with it. Probably pull a few strings to help get him into university classes to get his degree so he can sit at the cool kids table (Teslas at the cool kids table just because she's too powerful and doesn't need a silly piece of paper). Also just miiight pull a few strings to get him a job just for the funsies. She's a bit questionable but hey, whatever works works yanno. Gotta do what you have to do sometimes.

Also they 100% just find the most random shit to do just to annoy and confuse Tesla to hell and back. The rock game was only the beginning, they will find the most obscure game or even make one up just for funsies. She will harass both of them equally. Have to keep balance somehow ig.

Now for the trio because dear god whoever thought putting these three together was a good idea just hates humanity.

Chaos trio. They're insane. They bully each other. They drive each other insane. 1/3 is homophobic only against the other two in particular. Gay rights for everyone except them.

Okay so it's hell on earth (/lh). They all get along and they're essentially those three friends who if you didn't know any better would think hated each other. They drag each other along for their shenanigans and support each other no matter what. They're ride or die, basically. Quite literally.

Einstein plays on both teams and will bully and harass them equally with no loyalties. The bullying is different between the two for obvious reasons, but it's bullying and harassment nonetheless.

I like to believe that Tes and Ein took Welt along with them whenever they were leaving to go investigate / study something (Under the assumption he lived for more than five seconds) just so he didn't have to stay alone.

Tesla drags them all along to go outside to spend time with each other under the guise of "I'm bored and want to talk to Lieserl. I guess you can come too" despite the fact she intentionally does it in front of him so she doesn't have to ask him herself and make it look like it's out of obligation.

All three of them basically full on become Joachims older siblings and treat him like he's their little sibling. They will spoil this child without any regrets or remorse. Though Welt's terrified of the other two watching him because they are the last people who should be near a kid.

OH AND Tesla continuously forces the three to take pictures together so that they can make a little photo album to keep.

Also they'd eventually get a cat just because. Hell on earth, truly.

Oh and none of them can cook. Nobody should be allowed near that kitchen yet somehow they are. Three walking disasters of human beings, truly.

I have so many more but I've been writing so long they've just. Escaped my mind and it's driving me insane. I'll remember them eventually and make another post but here's what I have rn

[whitestaghere]

Not your fault - Levi x reader

Just felt like it had been a while and came up with this. Hope ya'll enjoy reading!❤️

Warnings: none really. Mentions of death. Angst and a dash of fluff at the end.

Saying I was scared was an understatement. No, I was shook to the very brink of my existence. I hadn't expected it to be so nerve wracking as it was, now that I had finally joined the scout regiment.

I had expected this of course.

Who wouldn't? Specially when they were proned to fighting naked humans as tall as trees running at you like they were on their morning caffeine rush.

What was even worse was when the stoic captain of the special operations squad decides to pick you to be part of his squad. "I appreciate your skills," he said.

Well I guess there wasn't really much to fuss about that apart from the new mission we were setting up for and our very special rivalry.

Today, everything had gone smooth until that female titan had decided to come waltzing in.

She had managed to wipe out all of Levi squad and I felt my blood boil. My mind was in a blur, filled with thoughts of nothing but blood lust. Just from her.

Eren's screams played at the back of my mind and even as I caught sight of him shooting towards where I was, I couldn't find it in me to stop him.

As cruel as it sounded- I wanted her to feel the pain as I did.

I glanced down at Petra's body. The eyes that always greeted me with brightness were now looking at me blankly. Tasting the saltiness from the tears that streamed down my face unbeknownst to me- my cool demeanor finally broke. Snapping out of my trance I pushed myself off the branch I stood upon.

Shooting my hooks into the skin of the female titans shoulder, I zipped through the air screaming in anguish. I swung my blades over my head, aiming for the hand that covered her nape. If I could just cut through her wrist-

Just as planned, my blades sunk into the flesh of her wrist. Deep, but not deep enough.

If only I hadn't been distracted and just pushed away right then..

Her large hand came in contact with my body, swatting me off like as if I were some insect. Which in her case, I probably looked it. With a pained yelp, I was being thrown through the air.

"Y/N!" Eren.

My eyes shot open just when a bolt of lightning struck through the air. Ah.

I realised what was happening.

I tried to aim my grappling hooks at one of the trees before I probably fell to my death or by the slightest chances, fell straight into a titans mouth. But everything was in a blur and with the way the titan hit me, I couldn't quite direct my focus onto one thing. And before you know it, I had already inched closer to the ground, crashing straight into a tree. I doubled forward and my body slid down against the rough surface.

Cursing inwardly, I glanced down at my body; my lower half, sprawled out on the ground as I slumped against the tree.

I wanted to move, to assist Eren - but my body refused to respond. I couldn't budge and for a moment, I hoped I had died through impact because the thoughts that ran through my head were killing me.

My body felt limp almost like as if I was paralysed. I fought to keep my eyes open. The ground beneath me shook and my ears were filled with the sound of Eren's titan screaming. And with that, black filled my vision.

>>present<<

My body shot up at once and I winced at the sudden pain that shot through my body.

"You're awake."

That voice.

I snapped my head to my right and I was greeted by those steel eyes that belonged to none other than the captain. I had this urge to shrink and disappear out of existence under his icy gaze and-

Wait.

I was alive? Or no wait. Good Gods, please don't tell me he died too!

Without thinking, my hand shot out to grab his arm that was crossed over his chest. This took him by surprise and his eyes shifted between me and my hand with a hint of annoyance laced in his features. His body had tensed under my hold and I immediately pulled away with a gasp.

"I-I'm sorry sir. I just-"

"I found you not too far from the rest of the squad," he cut me off. My head lowered at the mention of the others. "I didn't think you were alive considering the amount of blood you lost. But that's when you coughed, splattering all your substances at me and well- you know the rest."

I didn't know what to say. Even if I did, I didn't have it in me to speak or make a snarky remark like I usually did. The thought of my fallen comrades made me sick to the stomach. But I couldn't cry either.

No. Just not with him here.

You remember how I said we had a special rivalry going on between us? Yeah.

Ever since Levi had asked me to join his squad- we'd always been at eachother's throats. Which I didn't quite expect considering how he picked me.

He'd say something sarcastic, I'd snap back at him and vice versa. It eventually came to the point that commander Erwin had to walk in one time, suggesting Levi that it would be best if I were switched to Mike's squad. But Levi had simply walked out of the room.

Just like that, Erwin asked me to make the choice and I said no. Why you ask?

I wanted Levi to accept me.

I couldn't even remember what started this rivalry to begin with and it was eating at me constantly. I had never seen him snap at people as easily as he did with me. Well he did occasionally, but this was on a daily basis and it made no sense at all.

Hanji said it was just his nature and that I'd understand him later. I realised that was she said was just ridiculous because this man, he didn't even dare to show me a little bit of respect. So I decided I'd leave him be and put up a mask whenever he'd target me but that's when things got worse. He always found reasons to argue with me and I caught up with it too.

Breaking down in front of him wasn't an option now.

Levi's chair scraped against the floor signalling that he was probably leaving.

"Thank you," I said quickly, making him stop in his tracks. I'd never said that to him before. But since he saved me, it was only right that I did.

His head turned around halfway and he eyed me narrowly. "For saving me," I finished. He clicked his tongue in response and left the room, shutting the door a little louder than I expected.

Cue the breakdown.

I flopped myself back on the bed. Grabbing the pillow that supported my head, I hugged it tightly as I screamed into it.

The tears didn't stop.

I couldn't save my comrades. Why did the captain even decide to pick me in the first place if I couldn't save my own comrades?

It was getting harder to breathe with my face stuffed in the pillow and the choked up tears didn't make it any easier. I felt so pathetic. But no matter how much I tried, it wouldn't stop. The guilt and hatred just kept coming back to me.

It felt like I had been crying for hours already as my body spasmed, signalling the next fresh batch of tears approaching.

The sound of the door opening and closing again made my body freeze.

I peeped up from my pillow and regretted it instantly seeing the captain standing at the foot of my bed, holding two cups in his hands. His eyes locked with mine again.

Maybe it was me just seeing things but his eyes widened and very slowly, he made his way upto the side of my bed.

"I brought you some tea," he said stoically. "Drink it before it gets cold."

I subtly wiped my eyes against the pillow and sat myself up on the bed like as if I hadn't been crying my eyes out just a few moments ago.

Avoiding eye contact, I thanked him silently and took the cup from his hand. Even though I wasn't looking at him, I could feel his gaze lingering on my face. Feeling too self conscious, I brought the cup up to my mouth only to wince as I burned my tongue. A weird sound came from me and I slapped my hand over my mouth.

"Tch. Be careful idiot. I didn't ask you to drink it that fast," Levi scolded. I face palmed inwardly, brushing it off with a sheepish grin. He cocked a brow and shifted his gaze outside the window.

Silence.

I didn't mind the silence, but with him sitting right there, it felt like my nerves were dancing. If that was even possible.

Eyeing him subtly, I noticed how his gaze seemed distant, longing. And that's when I realised. I was being selfish.

I wasn't the only one who had lost my comrades.

"C-captain-"

"Levi."

I tilted my head in confusion and nodded right after catching what he had meant. "Levi. I-I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"For everything."

"Be specific." I gulped. So he wanted a full on confession. Here it goes.

"Well for being.. for being a brat." He raised his brows and turned to look at me. I shifted my gaze to the floor at once, finding it easier to speak calmly that way.

"That wasn't a joke, I promise. I was being selfish. I didn't know how much pressure I might have been putting on you by always being snarky and uncooperative. And now too.. I was considering my own feelings without thinking about how you felt. I just- didn't understand why you hate me so much."

"I don't hate you," he said abruptly. I looked at him slowly but reluctantly.

"I-" he ran a hand through his hair, releasing a frustrated sigh. "I don't hate you. I was just worried."

"Worried?" I asked.

"Worried you'd end up like this. Or by the least, end up dead."

Ouch.

"You doubted my skills.. yet you picked me to be a part of your squad. I don't get it," I mumbled.

"Idiot. It's not like that," he barked. "I recall saying I respected your skills. I really do. It's just that you can be reckless at times."

I gasped in disbelief.

"Reckless?"

"Yes. Reckless."

"How could you-" he raised a brow and eyed my position on the bed. I followed his gaze and it dawned on me. Half of my body was wrapped in bandages and my arm was in a cast.

Yeah. Reckless.

"I had no doubt in your skills, keep that in mind brat. I picked you for my squad because I knew you'd be a good addition to it and-" He paused, looking like as if he were in thought before continuing.

"It was easier to keep an eye on you this way."

I shut my eyes tightly, guilt flooding through my veins little by little.

"But I failed." My eyes shot open hearing this.

"I failed you and I failed my squad."

"Levi-"

"No y/n. There's no denying it," he said. I noticed how his voice was beginning to shake and that just made my heart ache. I had never seen him this way. "I told you that I added you to keep an eye on you and look at you now. Even worse, I failed to protect the rest of my squad."

"Levi," I said softly. "You know, if I ever end up dying out there- I'd never blame you. I'd never say you failed to protect me. But what I would want you to do, is to give our sacrifices meaning. We devoted our lives. We chose to go down this path knowing the circumstances. Knowing that someday there could be a chance we wouldn't come back home. So just know, this is not your fault and they don't blame you either. Even if it is, we must make their sacrifices worth something."

Levi stared intently at me but this time, I didn't feel like shrinking away. I wanted the man in front of me to have reason to fight, to know he wasn't to blame. And that all of this- we were facing all of this together.

He didn't say a word. I didn't expect him to either and I didn't mind it.

His gaze was everywhere and for a second when his eyes met mine, I couldn't help my urge and slowly yet hesitantly- reached out for him.

"May I?" I asked.

He tilted his head, confused by what I was asking permission for. I opened my arms slightly for him and after a short while, he shockingly leaned in slowly (not before shifting awkwardly in his seat though). Wrapping one arm around his shoulders and one hand on his nape, I pulled him into my embrace gently.

I felt his fingers trace over my clothes slightly like as if he were contemplating what to do. After a few seconds, his body completely relaxed in my arms and I felt his hands slowly snake around my waist.

"It's okay Levi," I whispered and rubbed his back in attempt to comfort him. He tucked his head into the crook of my neck. That made a soft smile crawl up my face.

This man was a fighter but he was also human. A human with feelings no matter how stoic he could be. Hanji was right.

>>Third person's pov<<

It was at that moment, that a new friendship began to blossom between the two. A spark of hope and a reason to fight in their dark world.

Okay phew.

That came out a lot more angsty than I thought it would be haha. But I hope you all enjoyed reading it and have a wonderful day/night!❤️

[safertokiss]

Through a Different Lens

A/N: Well, well, well. Lookie what we have here. New content wowza. I’d say I’m surprised it’s been a while, but I simply am not. Luckily another fic swap has arrived to get my creative juices flowing once again. The gods have gifted me with another perfect opportunity to write sub spence because I was given @writing-in-april as my person yet again. Hooray! Anyways I hope you enjoy and thanks all you cool cats and kittens for the support (we almost to 1000 yeet skrrt). Also, it just happens to be my birthday today so as a gift to myself I thought about subby Spencer for a while.

Pairing: SPENCER x READER

Category: SMUT and can’t forget that fluff

Word Count: 3.2k

ENJOY:)

~~~

It all started completely by accident.

There was no possible way that she would’ve been able to predict just how much they would affect the poor kid. 

She could remember, clear as day, the first time she was forced to wear her glasses to the bureau due to her ongoing frustrations with the torture devices that were also referred to as contacts. There were only so many headaches and eye-waterings that she could take before the insecurity of wearing her frames to work shriveled below the point of caring anymore. 

But none of those previous insecurities held a flame to the amount of confusion she felt when she entered the bullpen and waltzed over to Spencer’s desk to say good morning with a shy smile adorning her face. Y/n hadn’t even been able to get a complete sentence out before the young doctor had turned to her and froze, his mouth hanging open like a fish, his eyes widening to the size of dinner plates, the harsh red blush she had seen before, just maybe not to this extent, engulfing his boyish features. 

Before she could even attempt to ask him what she had done to warrant such a response, he was spouting out a meager, “H-hey Y/n” whilst simultaneously scurrying off in the direction of the nearest bathroom.

Completely and utterly perplexed over what had happened, she had shrugged it off and made her way back to her desk, silently mulling over the interaction periodically throughout the rest of the day. 

It was a couple of the same type of interactions later that Y/n began to take notice of what was actually happening with the boy genius. The stiff and unnatural posture. The stuttering, granted that wasn’t something new, just much more frequent and severe. The audible heartbeat always accompanied by rosy cheeks and goosebumps. 

Spencer Reid was fucking turned on by the glasses.

And he didn’t even try to hide it. Or maybe he did and was just really, really bad at doing so.

Either way, Y/n quickly discovered just how much fun it was getting these reactions to pour out of the kid...so of course she kept wearing the glasses even after she was able to wear contacts again. He didn’t need to know that. 

It was so fucking easy too. 

She would just be sitting at her desk, occupied by some particularly troubling pages of a case file that makes her have to readjust her frames out of stress, when she’d hear a high pitched squeak across the bullpen, followed by the pattering of frantic footsteps she had familiarized herself with in former few weeks. 

While she felt some kind of guilt for putting him through this, it was nowhere near enough to overtake the genuine excitement and gratification that came with knowing she could have such an effect on the adorable doctor.

Of course she found him attractive...how could she not with his perfectly sculpted cheekbones and nerdy slicked back hair. Ultimately Y/n could understand his apparent infatuation with her wearing glasses as she had caught herself, on more than a couple occasions, openly ogling his own specs. 

Maybe they were both weirdos...the whole situation was almost as strange as the Converse kink that she secretly harbored for years. Although her intuition was quick to suggest that, just maybe, both of her unique infatuations stemmed from the same noodle-shaped source.

Perhaps her favorite reaction of his, though, came about during the little office birthday party that the entire team had thrown for him.

He looked so adorable in the gigantic birthday cake hat they had bestowed upon him, Y/n could hardly contain her giggles at the giddy smile adorning his face. She watched on in amusement as Spencer tried desperately to get the candles on his cake to extinguish, to no avail, at least until someone felt bad watching his struggles and decided to give him a hand.

“They’re trick candles Spence, they’re gonna come back on every time.”, JJ chuckled, subtly smirking at Morgan who was also enjoying Spencer’s ongoing struggles. 

A couple “happy birthdays” later and the rest of the team slowly began to disperse, leaving just Y/n and him alone in their own little space. He must’ve noticed this too because the blush that had already been present throughout the celebration beforehand seemed to deepen even further as he visibly swallowed down his nerves.

Slowly stalking towards the rouge kissed boy, she dragged a couple of her fingers across the surface of the desk, noting the way his eyes briefly flicked down to follow the movement before hesitantly returning his gaze to match her own. 

She also noted the way his knuckles were basically turning white from the amount of pressure he was using to grab the sides of the chair.

“You have a good birthday, Spence?”, Y/n drawled with a teasing smile, now standing directly before the trembling young man.

Seeming to snap out of whatever sort of trance he had been in, he hastily cleared out his throat before responding with a bit of trepidation. “Hmm...yeah-yes uh yes it was v-very good, than-thank you.”

She couldn’t even attempt to conceal the smirk that had made its way to her lips listening to the genius stutter through his words. Such a nervous, nervous boy. So adorable. So fucking hot. 

“Well that makes me happy. I’m glad you enjoyed yourself pretty boy.”, she paused her thoughts soaking in the little hitches in his breath surely from how close she was standing near him and the added nickname. Deciding to play a little bit dirty, she leaned over directly into his line of sight to reach for the cake set before him.

 “Now how about I take this away and cut it up for all of us to eat? Hmmm?”

His eyes darted immediately to the cleavage that was so graciously presented to him as she bent over to pick up the dessert, a sharp little gasp escaping his pretty, pink lips as his pupils dilated carelessly. 

Y/n inwardly smirked at his reaction and began walking towards the kitchenette, but only made it about three or four steps before being interrupted. 

“Did you know that in some instances birthday candles are safe for wax play?”, he exclaimed before seemingly realizing what had just escaped his lips, his hands flying up to cover his traitorous mouth. 

Bewildered, in the best of ways, by what had just been said, she slowly swiveled back around, facing him once again, before placing the cake on the desk beside her. 

“What was that Spencer?”, she grinned at the petrified man who hadn’t made a single noise since his unexpected declaration. The poor thing looked like a caged in animal with nowhere to escape. Perfect.

“N-nothing! I m-mean obviously it was um s-something, but j-just uh just forget what I s-said.”, he quickly explained while frantically shaking his hands as if he was hoping he could simply wipe your memory of the last minute or two away permanently.

“No, no please go on.”, she teased. “Now I’m intrigued. What did you mean by ‘in some instances’ Spence?”

She wasn’t expecting the look of confusion, however brief it was, that peeked its way through the overwhelming embarrassment that had been showcased on his face, as if he truly couldn’t fathom that someone was actually asking him to go into more detail about a topic. 

Still didn’t change the fact that he was completely mortified.

Clearing his throat, he hesitantly lifted his gaze back to Y/n’s, seemingly debating with himself over whether he could articulate the words to come out or not. 

“Um...well..usually many p-people who choose to e-engage in such act-activities will use specific types of c-candles that are uh more designed especially for pl-play.”, he paused and she drank up the way his Adam's apple bobbed along his throat. “Uh… basically depending on the t-type of candle that one u-uses, the amount of pain or um d-discomfort differs. B-birthday candles tend to b-be on the more painful side so only the couples who are in-into that kind of thing would ever really utilize t-them.”, he finished abruptly, his leg bouncing rapidly in her line of vision.

She still couldn’t really believe she had actually gotten him to say anything at all, nevermind an in depth analysis on wax play. In a weird way she was proud of him. Really proud. Sometime amidst her thoughts, she’d found herself standing directly behind his sitting figure, her hands resting on either side of him against the table, the goosebumps visible on his skin from the implications of the position they were currently in.

“That’s really intriguing Spencer. I’d love to find out someday just why it is you know so much about the subject, but I don’t want to make you go into cardiac rest anytime soon.”, she remarked, giggling at the shy smile that made its way to his mouth.

She didn’t even register reaching out to lightly touch his lips until she heard his sharp intake of breath. Until he turned his head so they were mere centimeters apart. Until she watched his puppy eyes dart between her lips and your frame covered gaze. Until the space between them seemed to be lessening with every sec-

“Hey pretty boy! Where’s my cake?”

Y/n grudgingly pulled back at the interruption, watching in amusement as Spencer’s body instinctively leaned forward as if his lips hadn’t gotten the memo and were still searching for hers. “It’s coming right up you lazy ass!” she yelled back with a grin on her face.

She looked back to the boy sitting before her and was almost mesmerized by the dazed look present on his face, the blush slowly retreating as he came back to his surroundings. She could tell there were words that he wanted to say, but they just didn’t seem to be forming fast enough to actually come out. Deciding to put their little moment on hold before he passed out, she walked back over to the neglected dessert and started heading towards the break room again.

“I’ll make sure to save you the biggest piece, Spence.”,she threw over her shoulder, chuckling at the bewildered look still that was still present on his face.

~~~

The day was a big success in her opinion. 

Spencer looked even more like a child than usual with the big shit eating grin that remained throughout the celebration and the bulky hat that he refused to take off. She could never understand how someone could have such an affinity for sugar as she watched him devour the huge slice of cake she had carved up for him.

But hours later, it was just her and Spencer left in the building. 

And she was not about to let that go to waste.

Y/n could see him from where she stood at the entrance to the kitchenette. She could see the way he slouched over his desk with his legs curled underneath him, criss cross applesauce, as he scribbled down whatever case file he was working on. She admired his determined work ethic, that’s for sure.

But now was simply not the time to work.

Spencer immediately froze as soon as her body situated itself to be leaning against his desk, painfully aware of her gaze on his tense form. 

“H-hey Y/n.”, he nervously murmured, the stutter once again making her giddy.

“Hey yourself doc. Wanna tell me why it is you’re still here working at such a late hour? Doesn’t the elusive Spencer Reid have better things to be entertaining himself with?”, she drawled, her piercing gaze making the poor kid squirm before her eyes.

“Oh um no...n-not really. I actually don’t mind working late. It’s k-kind of therapeutic in a way. But um...I’m happy t-that you’re here w-with me.”, he whispered the last part as if he was scared you wouldn’t appreciate his gratitude.

But she appreciated it more than he knew.

Noticing the little pencil holder situated amongst the file stacks on his desk, an idea popped into her mind that she just couldn’t shake, prompting her to pick it up and begin fiddling with it.

“Oh is that so pretty boy? Does my presence satisfy you?” Before he could even attempt an answer she “accidently” dropped the holder on the ground, the array of pens and pencils dispersing among the floor. “Oops my bad.”

Spencer immediately scrambled out of his seat and onto the floor to start collecting the colorful writing utensils, the perfect distraction needed for Y/n to situate herself on his desk with her legs spread open directly in front of his face. 

“D-don’t worry abou-”, his sentence cut off as he looked up and was met with the tantalizing sight of her white lace panties already damp with her excitement. She swore he could die happy with the way his eyes widened and cheeks flushed. She couldn’t help but chuckle lightly.

“See something you like baby?” Unable to even form words, the young doctor slowly nodded his head, eyes still locked on the obvious wet spot between her open legs.

“C-can I..can I um…”

“Use your words baby boy. Can you what?”, she spoke clearly, grasping his chin so he’d look her in the eyes.

“C-can I taste you?” She couldn't get over the desperate way he spoke as if he’d die of thirst if he didn’t get a drink from her.

“Of course you can sweet b-” Not even letting the words leave her mouth, his hands were eagerly pulling her panties down and off her legs, his lips instantly connecting with the heated flesh at the apex of her thighs. She swore his tongue and lips were enchanted with the way he was able to effortlessly maneuver his way around, easily picking up on what she loved. 

“Oh Spencer you’re such a good boy.” she couldn’t resist  threading her fingers through his silky hair and tugging slightly, an action she assumed he enjoyed based on the muffled whine she heard from between her thighs. 

It hadn’t even been more than a few minutes before she found herself already on the verge of letting go. No guy had ever been able to make her feel this good and just electric until now. He was quickly ruining her for anyone else in the future. She did not mind in the slightest.

“Baby I really wanna feel you inside me. Is that something you want sweetheart?”

He reluctantly pulled back after a few more kitten licks to her clit, wide eyes finding hers and whimpering out a broken “yes”. More than happy with his response she gently pulled him up by his hair and started undoing his belt, his oversized pants easily falling down without the extra support. Just another thing about him that she had come to adore. She was very pleased by the obvious bulge that protruded through his baby blue checkered boxers. 

Before she pulled those down too, though, she very gently reached up and cupped his cheeks, guiding his plump lips to her own, basking in the delighted whimpers that escaped his mouth at the soft but passionate contact. She released his lips with a slight nip and proceeded with his clothing removal, coaxing him to sit down in the swirly chair he had been previously residing in, before straddling his lap. 

“You ready sweet boy?”, she asked leaning forward to kiss his rouge forehead and cheeks.

“Mhmm I’m r-ready.”

Taking that as the go ahead, she cautiously positioned herself over his throbbing erection before slowly lowering herself inch by inch until he was completely enveloped by her tight, warm walls. 

“Oh-ohh my.”, he whimpered at the overwhelming feeling of being connected so intimately. Gently, she started to move a bit more, hesitantly lifting up before lowering herself back down, flush against his lap, one of her soft hands anchoring herself to his shoulder while the other caressed his flushed cheeks.

“I know baby, I know. You feel so good baby boy I don’t think I’m going to be able to last much longer.”

“M-me neither.”, he stuttered as the pace she had previously set seemed to increase in speed, the excitement and ecstasy getting to the both of them and subconsciously pushing the two of them closer to their shared release. 

The fire was quickly building within her body and she knew she was truly crumbling at the seams, but with the way his body was trembling and his dick was subtly twitching inside of her she knew he was right there too.

“It’s ok baby boy, it’s ok. Cum for me sweet boy. I want you to cum inside and fill up my pussy Spence.”, she muttered feeling the beginning of her end crash unexpectedly throughout her entire being, grasping onto the boy underneath her to tie herself to the earth. 

Overwhelmed by the utter euphoria of Y/n cumming around him, Spencer let himself get thrown off the edge, his hands tightening on her waist hard enough she was sure little bruises would form come tomorrow, not that she minded at all.

“Oh Y/n!” She watched on, obsessed with the way that his mouth fell open in a little o-shape as his eyes squeezed shut, the tell tale signs of pleasure coursing through his veins, the warm feeling that he left deep inside of her as she gently lifted herself from his shaking legs, reaching for her panties before the warmth was able to escape down her damp thighs.

Looking back at the trembling boy after cleaning herself and him up, she couldn’t help but melt at the lovesick, puppy dog eyes he was giving her, prompting her to lean forward and leave more little kisses on the top of his damp hair.

“That was incredible Spence. Really incredible. I’ve never felt anything like that before baby.”

She melted even further at the way he shyly dropped his head to somewhat hide the wide grin that had spread like wildfire across his face. There was a comfortable silence between the two of them before his head lifted with a questioning glance.

“How’d you-I mean uh how did you know that I liked you?” There was no way she could control the giggles that left her lips at his silly question.

“You weren’t exactly subtle with the whole glasses thing Spence.”

And then the only sound heard throughout the building was her full blown laughter at the mortification that speedily adorned his cherry cheeks.

Tag List: @hopebaker @pastathighs @psychedellic-phase @gloryekaterina @sleepysnapesnake @racharr @etherealgubler @furiouspartyrebelhoagie @andiebeaword @liaabsurd @cielo1984 @starkeybaby @victomizedbyreginageorge @rainsong01 @moonlight-jukebox @gretaamyk @httpnxtt @rachelxwayne @watermelonstyl @goldnratio @cheyxminds @kricketc29 @cupcake525 @pinkdiamond1016 @slutforthegubes @shadyladyperfection @emilysallysmith @babblingbrookex @legendaryanimeaestheticclou @sunstspidey @ashwarren32 @pixels-impulse @eviewildflower @spencerreider @awkwardsadaa @dirty-pan-goblin @ughgoaway @cromies90-blog @mightaswell247 @calm-and-doctor @golden-hoax @1mpvls3 @lonewolf471 @centiaaa @spencerspecifics

[sleepwellmyprince]

hey everyone! here’s that little drabble i had talked about! i think it’s really cute, and i did try to keep johnny in character- somewhat. but it’s hard to write gruff characters like himself, and avoid putting my softer personality onto him. but i did my best! i hope you enjoy it :>

edit: i completely forgot!!! this fanfic does contain spoilers for the beginning of the game!! it is also written from the perspective of a street kid. sorry i didn’t place this here before!

Are you gonna watch me sleep, or join me?

Johnny x V / GN Reader

Night City had been exceptionally rough on you today, as it usually was. It didn’t help that a man who’d been dead for half a century was on your ass for a majority of the time. That was likely going to be the case for a long fucking time.

You’d finally gotten back to your apartment at about two in the morning. You were completely beat after running around all day, tryouts not to find a way to stop, or at least delay the process of your doom.

The door to your apartment slid open once you arrived, the lights inside switching on. As the door closed behind you, the flickering of the rockerboy you’d been forced to become familiarized with appeared by your wardrobe. He had his usual pose: arms crossed, leaning against a wall, hair slipping into his face, sunglasses threatening to fall off his nose, and that stoic, almost annoyed expression.

He looked at you through the red tint of his sunglasses, not saying anything for a moment. And you hoped that he would remain silent, god you prayed that he would, but he never really showed himself without having something to say.

“So, how was work today, sweetie?” Johnny sarcastically asked. You rolled your eyes as a response, not giving him the satisfaction of a vocal reply. You kicked your shoes off, setting them down beside your closet. He watched you closely, and as you glanced back at him, you could tell he was waiting for a true response.

For now, you wouldn’t give him one. You walked over to the bathroom, starting to run the sink. The mirror switched on, helping you to start cleaning your face. There was a small silence between you two for a moment, the only sound in the small apartment being the sound of running water.

After you shut the water off, he pressed on. “Are you gonna answer me?”

You let out a heavy sigh, continuing to stare at yourself in the mirror. Soon enough, he would appear behind you, still in that same pose. “I’m really not in the mood tonight,” you answered, reaching your hands up to rub the dark bags under your eyes.

“I don’t think you have much of a choice, V.” Johnny stared at you through the mirror, taking his glasses off and playing with one of the temples between his metal fingertips.

You moved your hands away from your tired eyes, now looking down at the sink’s countertop. You reached over to grab one of the pill bottles that Misty had given you weeks ago, specifically the blue colored one. Shaking it with your hand, you looked up to Johnny through the mirror. The sound of pills rattling must have caught his attention, because he looked up from his glasses. Though, he didn’t look concerned.

“I think I do, actually. I’m pretty sure you remember the last time I popped one of these, and wherever you went when I did.” You eyed him in the mirror as you spoke, catching one of his eyebrows raising. You’d turn around, leaning back against the counter while continuing to hold up the bottle. “Now, I won’t hesitate to take some more of these, if you won’t calm down on your own. You understand?”

Johnny stood there for a moment, keeping his gaze on you for a while. He didn’t say a word, staring relentlessly with his deep brown eyes. You eventually decided to break the almost unbearable silence for him, deeming this his lack of speech was his answer.

You gently shook the bottle a final time, and placed it down on the edge of the sink. He stood still, no longer playing with his sunglasses. Eventually, you ripped your eyes away from his gaze, and proceeded to walk over to your bed. A light yawn escaped your lips as you stepped over to your bed. Johnny would reappear beside the bed, standing in the spot where you first met him in. Well, technically you first met him in... your mind? His mind? You weren’t all too sure. It was after the heist after so many people died. Including those you were close to. God, poor T-bug, and Jackie...

You fell back into the bed, your legs drifting over the side. You could feel Johnny’s eyes still on you, which frankly, might be a bit more unnerving than him talking about how he wants to take your body for himself.

Setting your arms underneath your neck to prop your head up, you look up at him. “Are you gonna just watch me sleep? Or are you gonna join me?” You asked sarcastically. This certainly caught his attention, making him let out a scoff of a chuckle.

“You’re really offering a dead guy to sleep with you? That’s pretty fucking pathetic,” he insulted, looking over you with a puzzled, yet amused expression.

“Yeah, yeah. Take it or leave it, dickhead.” You hadn’t exactly planned for this to be the actual outcome of your sarcasm, but you know what? Fuck it. Some actual human interaction after about 50 years could do the fucker some good.

You shifted your body to the side, moving to face the wall. This provided some space for Johnny, if he actually chose to lay down. Of course, you didn’t expect that to be the case, so you closed your eyes and tried to sleep.

And you would have fallen asleep, if not for a slight weight appearing beside you. Obviously, you knew it was him, but you glanced over your shoulder to look at him anyway.

He had been looking at your back however he looked up to your eyes once you glanced over. He seemed much calmer now, like he wasn’t concerned with being so big and scary anymore. Or at least, for the time being.

You weren’t exactly sure if you should say anything at all, but your curiosity tugged at your mind.

“Do you ever sleep?” You asked, slowly shifting to face him. “Do you even need to sleep?”

He didn’t answer for a moment, his brown, near black hair slowly slipping in front of his eyes due to gravity. “Whenever you sleep, I get that energy. So I guess not.” His eyes dashed down to the blankets, analyzing the fabric without any real purpose. “I haven’t tried actually sleeping since I was... revived, or whatever you want to call it.”

You let out a quiet hum and gave a small nod as a response. As much as this bitter man was an absolute pain in your ass, you still felt kind of bad for him. He was stuck with you completely, and would either be forced to live again through your body, or be killed for a second time. Frankly, you weren’t sure which outcome would be worse.

With a bit of hesitance, you reached forward to set your hand on top of his cold, metal one. It was strange, how you could feel him, and how he could still make small impacts on the world, in a sense. He could pick up objects, make floors creak underneath the weight of his body, and of course, touch and affect you.

The warmth of your hand caused him to look up from the blankets, and to your hand on his. He appeared confused at first, glancing to your eyes for a reply, or at least some sort of explanation.

It took you a moment to put together words that had actual substance to them, but you pulled them together eventually. “I’m sorry that you have to go through this crap. It must be a lot to process all at once.” You paused, seeing him scoff quietly. “I mean that, Johnny.”

He shook his head after that, letting out a quiet sigh. His lips parted, as if he was going to say something. However, he remained silent. He seemed to be stumped, unsure of whether or not to believe you. But why would you lie? You had no reason to.

“You shouldn’t be apologizing. Ain’t exactly your fault that we’re stuck together.” Johnny spoke quietly, avoiding eye contact with you once again. He flipped his arm over, his metal palm now meeting with your own. You thought about intertwining your fingers with his, but he would end up doing that for you. “I’m sorry, V.”

To hear an apology that sounded genuine from Johnny fucking Silverhand... It seemed to good to be true. But he didn’t have a reason to lie either, or at least, you didn’t think so. Instead, you chalked it up to him being tired, as were you.

You both laid there, staring down at each other’s hands. Your hand was smaller than his, but only just. Even though his arm was cold, it was still oddly comforting. You hoped that your own touch had that same effect.

You gently squeezed his hand, looking back up to give him a faint, gentle smile. “Get some sleep, Johnny. It sounds like you need it.” He gave a small chuckle to that, shifting onto his back, but still holding your hand. You remained on your side, watching as Johnny settled onto his back.

No other words were spoken that night, and no words were necessary, either. The silence between you two was peaceful, and it worked to quickly put you both to sleep. Arms still linked by your hands, a restful slumber was given to you both, which was certainly needed and deserved.

[ladyc0312]

A Jikook Guide to RunBTS: 66-80

Things in this batch start out a little slow, KM-wise, but seriously pick up around the Toronto episodes. It features the episodes where both RM and Jin ask if JK and JM are a couple, so it includes the giggly hand-push game that helped make me a jikook believer! 

As usual, let me know if I’ve missed anything or should take another look at something. :)

Ep 66 "BTS in a Comic Book Cafe Part 1" (Ep: 2 / KM: 1)

The one that I can’t help but feel would be more fun if I was more familiar with the comics involved, but the guys make it cute anyway

3:08 - This is a little hard to see because they use weird angles and cuts, but JK sings a piece of a theme song and JM catches his eye and sings with him.

9:23 - JK leans in over JM's shoulder to see how many people are on the comic book page

10:18 - JM does the same when it's JK's turn

BEHIND 10:29 - JM jokes around with JK and does the playful chest tap thing

Ep 67 "BTS in a Comic Book Cafe Part 2" (Ep: 3 / KM: 1)

None

BEHIND 7:28 - JM asks JK if there's a comic book he wants and says he'll buy it for him if so

Ep 68 "Heart Pang" (Ep: 1 / KM: 0)

The one where I can't for the life of me understand the board game they are playing

None. 

Ep 69 "BTS in Toronto Part 1" (Ep: 4 / KM: 5)

The Toronto one where Jikook wear matching denim shirts while going to Niagara Falls, getting lunch, and playing games

2:36 - RM says there are certain people who will struggle with the wake up challenge. JK and JM readily seem to admit it's them. 

6:29 - JM hangs back (to walk with JK?) when the rest of the group starts heading for the Falls.

8:06 - There's a "teleporting" moment where Jin is in between JM and JK, then the camera cuts away, then it comes back and jikook are next to each other. They stay next to each other as they walk on.

9:52 - You can see jikook interacting in the background.

12:25 - JM takes a photo of JK and gets him to giggle, then they huddle to look at the pic.

13:56 - JM puts his arm around JK and takes a selca in the background, causing RM to ask "what, are you a couple or something? Both wearing denim shirts?" He says it fairly seriously for a line that seems like it's supposed to be a joke and they don't laugh or say anything in response - it looks like JM looks away and flips his hair while JK shifts and awkwardly rubs his forehead. You can also see a quiet exchange after between RM and JM where RM says no to something, then nods at JK. Unclear if it's related, but including it just in case. 

15:25 - JK doesnn't try to distract JM while he did the staring contest like he did with Hobi. When Jimin passes, JK is the only one to clap. 

18:04 - Quick moment where you can see JK start to rub the arm of JM's shirt before the camera cuts away.

18:50 - JM laughs and touches JK's chest after JK loses the rocks paper scissor game, too.

19:53 - When the other five walk away and JK is doing something with his mic, we don't see where JM is.

22:02 - JK appears to help JM with something with his camera in the foreground.

BEHIND 4:12 - After JHope scolds JK for letting Suga pour everyone's water, JK goes to pour JM some water, then puts the pitcher down. JM seemingly tries to help him out by saying it's a new trend for the oldest to pour water. 

Ep 70 "BTS in Toronto Part 2" (Ep: 3 / KM: 5)

The Toronto one where the guys go shopping, pick beds, and play games

1:15 - JK slows down to walk side by side with JM.

2:00 - When JK messes up the game he was confident he'd win, JK laughs and playfully shoves at his chest.

7:23 - When JK loses a game and has to buy the others hoodies, JM sneaks a hat into the pile while JK has his back turned. RM rats him out.

8:01 - JM quietly puts the hat back in the pile, then walks over and hugs JK.

8:40 - JK walks over to Jimin to show him something (sunglasses he wanted?).

20:30 - When they're all joking around about whether they can fit four people on a bed, JK moves JM into an L-shape and then lays down nested with him.

BEHIND 0:09 - JK calls out "Jimin-ssi!" and tosses JM that hat he bought him.

4:49 - When the guys are all stretching and JM is in an inconvenient place, JK calls him "Jimin-ssi" again, essentially feels up his calf, and then pushes his upper thigh, all purportedly to get him to move over.

5:28 - JK kneels down behind JM, who's on all fours, and holds his hips to correct his position (I am literally just describing what happens in the clip, but I kind of feel like I'm writing porn, here...). JK then picks Jimin up to move him over a bit. Both giggle as JK starts to stand up and then the camera cuts away.  I can't even begin to think what exercising looks like for these two when there aren't cameras on them...

6:55 - JK reads out the words on the Jimin shirt they're all wearing, which happen to be, "BTS Park Jimin, I love you! I root for you! I'm ARMY!" with a huge grin on his face. Jimin laughs - no one else does - and then jokes that they should wear the shirts back to Korea, prompting JK to tell him "bye!" and wave while giggling. 

7:37 - Jimin shows the parts of the shirt design he would change by poking JK's chest, and then JK and JM share a fairly steamy look until RM interrupts. 

7:52 - JK folds up the shirt so JM's face looks weird and Jimin points to him doing it and laughs. No one else does.  Man, these two were really in their own world this whole Toronto trip, weren't they?

8:02 - JM tries to give JK some advice on the game he's about to play. Before starting, JK starts what seems like it's going to be a silly pose, but ends up being him dragging his fingers down his face, neck, and chest. Sadly for JK, JM wasn't looking. Happily for us, we can look as much as we want. 

8:18 - When JM wins a game, JK claps for him. You can probably guess by now that he's the only one who does. 

10:09 - JM steals a piece of steak, then JK does some cross-cut teleporting to come over and sink down into a chair next to him. JM overdoes making his eyes look big and innocent (perhaps hoping to get caught and scolded?).

10:35 - JM makes Jin move when he takes JM's seat next to JK I feel like just the Behind for this episode needs it's own jikook rating! And most of it is watching JK lead the guys in a workout. If you're going to watch just one Run Behind, consider making it this one!

Ep 71 "BTS in Toronto Part 3" (Ep: 3 / KM: 3)

The Toronto one where the guys have dinner, have breakfast, and play games

14:28 - Maybe nothing, but just to note it - in this and the next shot, you can see JM heading towards where JK is lying back on the couch after losing a game, then there's an abrupt cut and everyone is in a totally different position. 

29:20 - JK tells JM the "super-pancake" he made is for him since he has to do the penalties. 

BEHIND 6:59 - JM says that he thinks JK will want to eat and calls out for him.

Ep 72 "BTS and Mafia" (Ep: 3 / KM: 2)

The one in which we learn that BTS is so terrible at the Mafia game that it almost comes back around to being impressive 

3:10 - When Jin says JK is suspicious because he isn't talking, JM defends him, saying "you know he doesn't talk much." 

8:34 - JM seems to direct his appeal to be spared to JK.

18:16 - JK compliments how well Jimin is doing at the game.

20:13 - After Jimin says he's ARMY, JK asks, "do you like me that much?" Then there's a quick cut and Jin is doing a Jim Halpert face at the camera.

28:03 - Confusing maybe-moment - let me know if it's clearer to anyone else! - but after JH is sending finger heart guns, JM points gun fingers directly at JK for no apparent reason. 

BEHIND 2:39 - Before they start playing, JK predicts that JM and Jin will be good at the game.

Eps 73-76 “Run BTS Drama Parts 1-4″ (n/a)

The ones where BTS spend four episodes making a “comedic” skit

01:09 - After JK explains that he had a wisdom tooth taken out, Jimin adds the info that they had to take out the whole root.  09:10 - Even though V is the "director" of Jimin's scene, JK speaks up and takes over the role, saying that directors use informal language and repeating twice in informal language "Jimin, let's go!" He continues speaking informally when Jimin messes up and JK scolds him.  11:40 - When it's JK's turn to deliver a line and he gets nervous about remembering it, JM reads it out loud for him. He also says as soon as JK delivers the line that he did the best job and adds to Hobi, "he doesn't get embarassed, I told you."  16:26 - It's a little hard to see for sure, but it looks like Jimin votes for JK when it's time to choose who should be the skit's director. I'm going to be totally honest with you guys - I didn't rewatch these episodes past this. I first saw it months ago and remember being disappointed and fairly bored through most of it past the first half of the first episode - I don't find the skit funny and the behind-the-scenes stuff isn't amusing enough to make a four-part episode about. I’m sure there are others who completely disagree with me and no judgment if you don't share my opinion! But I'm doing this guide for fun and I don't want to spend two hours rewatching them. 

I don't recall a ton of jikook beyond the above - I think there's a moment in part 3 where JK is getting tired and Jimin offers to take over slating for him. So, anyone who is a fan and knows / finds more jikook moments, please let me know and I will update this guide to reflect that. Otherwise, let's happily move along. :)

Ep 77 “Food Guest Part 1″ (Ep: 4 / KM: 5)

The weirdly-named ones that are prob better translated as "food connoisseurs" but the specifics of the foods theme don't really matter because JIKOOK  

07:41 - When Jin says JK and JM will be competing in a palm-push game, JM says he's already lost (because JK is strong).

07:55 - I'm fairly certain that, if you're a jikook-er, you've seen this moment. It's so unabashedly flirty a description can't really do it justice.   JK and JM are supposed to be playing a game where they put their palms together and shove to see who can make the other lose their balance. JM shoves lightly at JK's chest before they even start the game, then both start giggling. Still giggly, JM asks if JK's ready and JK says he is. JM pushes at JK's palms and JK just swings his arms back as they look at each other and smile. Jin interrupts to ask, "are you a dating couple?" (that's the most direct translation - V app translation is "are you two together?"). JK and JM both laugh, the latter so hard that he spins around, thus losing the game. 

17:08 - JK is staring so intently at Jimin on his knees with a blow-pen in his mouth that he completely misses RM trying to give him a high five. Jin has to call for JK to please respond to RM before JK looks away and returns the high five, laughing and apologizing. He looks back immediately after. 

BEHIND 0:58 - JK gives JM a shoulder massage while holding his chest as JM makes satisfied noises. I've seen this clip in compilations before, but hadn't realized it was also from  this episode. It's really the gift that keeps on giving! 

4:29 - Just prior to the above palm-push game, JM reaches out to do something to JK's sleeve (I think?). The camera cuts before we see clearly.  

4:31 - Slightly different angle of JM and JK giggling at the start of the palm-push game.

7:11 - Reveals that RM actually tried to high five JK and was ignored TWICE before Jin called JK's attention away from JM on his knees with a blow-pen in his mouth. 

Ep 78 “Food Guest Part 2″ (Ep: 3 / KM: 3)

15:00 - JK jokingly asks what the answer is and Jimin giggles at him as the on-screen text says, "how adorable." Unsurprisingly, the others are less enamored. (JK's biggest fans = 1. Jimin  2. Run BTS on-screen text writers)

BEHIND 9:56 - JK watches JM dance playfully, then wiggles his own hips, seeming to want JM's attention. Jimin smiles and starts to say something that gets cut off. 

10:03 - JK films JM as JM dances and smiles while looking into the camera. Jimin is doing silly dance, but JK zooms in on his joyful face. He quickly licks his lips as he watches. 

[ot3-watch]

Episode 3: The Wedding Job

And so we begin the “The Network Fucked Up” saga with episode 7 which is SUPPOSED to be episode 3. 

Huge men drinking out of tiny teacups is hilarious and will never stop being so. 

Nate, stop being such a control freak. “I thought I pick the clients” DUDE CHILL

“No more, no less” honey you getting much more

“We’ll get back to you” FUCK YOU NATE

PARKER LOVES KIDS EPISODE 1

NATE IF YOU HAD FOUND THIS CASE YOU’D TAKE IT IN AN INSTANT YOU’RE JUST MAD YOU DIDN’T FIND IT

FBI!!! TAGGERT AND MCSWEETEN!! AHH OKAY I LOVE THEM

“They just need validation” BITCH ME TOO THE FUCK

TODAY IN THEY MAKE PEOPLE LOOK UNNECESSARILY STUPID

Hardison is so gregarious it’s so amazing to watch

“I don’t have to type anything right” oh my god

TAPES! “HARDISON HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO WALK OUT OF THE FBI OFFICES WITH A BOX FULL OF TAPES?” “pUNCH someBODY!” “oh I’m gonna PUNCH SOMEBODY” God i love them

Jersey Boys I can’t, it’s terrible guys. Do mobsters have no taste

Oh look, it’s that woman who’s in EVERYTHING

What is Parker wearing on her head

Everyone talks about bridezillas, but no one talks about mother of the bridezillas. 

WHY DIDN’T THEY HIRE A WEDDING PLANNER IN THE FIRST PLACE

SOPHIE FOCUSING ON HER PERSONAL PROBLEMS WITH NATE INSTEAD OF THE JOB EPISODE 1

ELIOT THE CHEF EPISODE 1

HOLY SHIT I LOVE HIM

ELIOT GETTING TOO ATTACHED TO HIS COVER STORY AND FORGETTING ABOUT THE JOB EPISODE 1

He’s so mad that she doesn’t like it I lovehim I LOVE HIM I FUCKING LOVE ELIOT SPENCER

“Imagine if we had bugs planted all over the house” WHY THE FUCK DON’T YOU

How the fuck is the dress so ugly? WHY IS THAT WHAT THEY WANT? WHO WEARS PINK RUCHED SATIN WITH BLUE FLOWERS

I mean, other than, like, me @6 years old. But really, no one should be wearing the clothes I wore at 6 years old. 

Also it’s just.. the worst length. Like if it was a long dress it might be better. 

Nate the pastor episode 1

God that future son in law seems like a dream guy I love him

Maria Moscone deserves better than her scumbag parents let’s be real

SOPHIE TAKING THINGS TOO PERSONALLY AND GETTING THE WAY OF THE JOB

THIS!!! THIS IS WHY THE NETWORK ORDER MAKES NO SENSE!!! THIS HERE’S AN AIMEE REFERENCE BUT IF THEY’D ALREADY DONE THE TWO HORSE JOB, HARDISON WOULD’VE KNOWN ABOUT HER AND NOT ASKED

“What did you do?” “Me? I liberated CROATIA!” *angry apple bite* i CAN’T I LOVE HIM

DO PEOPLE NOT KNOW PARKER ISN’T A BRIDESMAID? HOW IS THAT DRESS FOOLING ANYONE

Hardison in love with Parker is so pure

… Okay but shouldn’t maria and blonde n’ bitchy know that Parker isn’t a bridesmaid? Wouldn’t the other bridesmaids know? Why does no one in the wedding party question ANYTHING?

HARDISON’S SCARF THOUGH

WHY IS HER MOTHER WEARING WHITE?? WHO WEARS WHITE TO A WEDDING WTF

MARIA MOSCONE DESERVES BETTER

SOPHIE FUCK OFF!! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS RIGHT NOW?? THIS ISN’T IMPORTANT SOPHIE!! SOPHIE STOP IT!! SOPHIE SHUT UP!

M A R I A M O S C O N E D E S E R V E S B E T T E R

The Butcher of Kiev is the best subplot of this episode but HOW THE FUCK DID THEY ALL KNOW HE AND ELIOT HAD A PAST

Sophie is so fucking annoying in this episode I hate her right now

THESE PEACHES AREN’T GONNA POACH THEMSELVES PARKER

OH MY GOD NATE SHUT UP

NATE SHUT UP

NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR THIS NATE

SHUT THE FUCK UP NATE

THIS ISN’T ABOUT YOU NATE

“In my day, no one would do business at their daughter’s wedding” WELL THEN DON’T DO BUSINESS 

Parker’s face smushed against the glass is great

Ahh yes, you don’t get the money so you SHOOT THE BRIDE. Because THAT’s not gonna cause a scene and get you arrested. 

OK be honest is there anyone who was surprised by the wife being responsible? Bc I’m not

Eliot’s face is like “TFW the guy whose face you burned shows up at a wedding you’re supposed to be pretending to but actually are catering with a cleaver and backup and the overwhelming urge to kill you”

I know that’s super specific but that’s what it is

Parker’s really good at playing drunk

But also, why did they not question what she was doing behind the curtain

Like she just happened to appear after they were finished talking about VERY ILLEGAL THINGS and they aren’t at all suspicious?

Also, Parker using Hardison as a cover is just… I love it. 

You’re laughing. Eliot brought a whisk to a knife fight and you’re laughing. 

The saddest part is Eliot has any sort of cooking implement. You should be terrified right now

Okay so let me get this straight. A guy is StrANGLING you, you get your hands on a rolling pin, and your instinct isn’t, “hey, I can use this rolling pin to clobber him over the head,” the instinct is “Let me use this rolling pin to get my hands on the appetizers?” Like, yes, lemon juice, but also ROLLING PINS ARE HEAVY AND YOU COULD AT LEAST KNOCK THE GUY OUT

But no, let me shove fucking MUSHROOMS in his eyes because otherwise how else would we get the symmetry of the butcher yelling “IT BUUUURRRNNNNSS” both times he fights Eliot

And then he uses the fucking serving tray to bonk him on the head INSTEAD OF THE DUCKING ROLLING PIN

LIKE SERIOUSLY HAVE YOU EVER USED A ROLLING PIN AS A WEAPON

I’M NOT SAYING I HAVE BUT OUCH

Like, just… If I had a choice between being hit over the head with a thin sheet of metal or a log of wood with metal inside it, I’d pick the sheet, because at least that one has some give. 

“It’s the lemon juice” How does Eliot make that sound badass

“You just kill a guy with an appetizer?” How the FUCK WOULD YOU KNOW THAT??

WHY DOES NO ONE ASSUME A ROLLING PIN WOULD BE AN OKAY WEAPON

Or like LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE IN THAT KITCHEN. THERE ARE CAST IRON PANS IN THAT KITCHEN. Or just liek… regular pans. HAVE YOU EVER DROPPED A NONSTICK PAN ON YOUR FOOT? IT FUCKING HURTS?? WHY IS THE APPETIZER YOUR FIRST INSTINCT NATE

Also, he’s clearly not dead. What the fuck

“I don’t know, maybe” I KNOW AND tHE ANSWER IS NO YOU OBVIOUSLY DIDN”T

...who honeymoons in Kansas? Is that a thing? 

They are a very cute couple i’ve gotta be honest

“Exactly what denomination are you reverend?” He isn’t

“You’re not Mary Poppins, youre a bitch” Okay pot. Okay. 

LITERALLY THAT FUCKING HANDBAG WOULD AHVE MADE A BETTER WEAPON THAN THE MUSHROOMS

How does Hardison remember all those numbers? He didn’t even hear a bunch of them, but he takes the book out so slowly? DOES HARDISON HAVE AN EIDETIC MEMORY? WHY IS THAT NOT A PLOT POINT MORE OFTEN

Like I’m just saying, someone tries to tell me their phone number more than 3-4 numbers at a time and I get confused. But hardison just… remembers

What happened to the cash? The daughter gets the fucking wedding present she DESERVES for putting up with her awful parents that’s what

Hardison appreciating Eliot’s cooking is EVERYTHING

“I left him five dollars for socks” Well everyone needs socks. 

Okay wait I just had a thought

If Nate isn’t an actual Reverend, is that marriage even legal? Does Nate just happen to also be a legally ordained minister? Did they have to get him an online ordainment? WhY did we not see that scene? WHAT IF HE’S NOT AND THEY AREN’T ACTUALLY MARRIED

And today on “I clearly think far too much about these things”

PARKER WIth KIDS IS EVERYTHING

Eliot cooking for his family I love it

ELIOT IN A TANK TOP I LOVE IT

Was Eliot’s arms the most important part of this scene? Probably not

Is it the only thing I care about? ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY

I”M A SIMPLE GIRL AND HE HAS VERY NICE ARMS OKAY

Final thoughts: 9/10. I love this episode so much guys. Points off because really who the fuck wears white to a wedding. I know that’s the point but its very off putting. Also for the bridesmaid dresses because they were ugly as sin. Actual point off for the wife secretly being awful. Very predictable, ew. Extra points for Chef!Eliot. Extra points for Eliot’s arms. Points off for Nate and Sophie being completely insufferable. Extra points for Parker being great in this episode. Points off for the FUCKING ROLLING PIN YES I’M STILL ANGRY DONT @ ME. Extra points for Eliot killing a man with an appetizer because it’s still funny. Extra points for no IYS or Sam references THANK THE FUCKING LORD. Or, at least, if there was, i didn’t notice, meaning it wasn’t egregious so whatever. So yeah, anyway I really fucking love this episode. 

IYS Count: 2/3

Sam Count: 2/3  AND WE ARE ALL BETTER OFF FOR IT

[skvaderarts]

Hiraeth Chapter 64: Restful

Masterlist can be found Here!

Chapter Sixty-Four: Restful

Note: We’re on the cusp of taking the fight to Belial. There is literally just one thing they have to do first...

(-~-)

In the dim but all-encompassing light of the torches that lined each of the wall's pillars, the guardian in the Dark Slayer stood, observing the pedestal before them. The recess in the middle was a perfect fit for the blade's holder, a metal stand that stood just above it with two clasps that were purposely designed to house the instrument. He was not entirely sure how this device had been constructed, but it was admittedly fascinating. 

But not quite as fascinating as the reaction of the building continued to have to them, the strange sensation of nostalgia that had hit him like a freight truck still lingering in the air. He understood its purpose now. This was a ward of sorts, an ambient effect left behind by his father that was meant to drive away any who would do harm to the temple or what it housed. It instilled dread in those that did not belong here. It was a genius little bit of magic, something that his father had been quite good at if he remembered correctly. Even when he was not here, his work remained, and the legacy of the effort he had put into containing the evil around him was a testament to that. It was enough to make him reflect on his own life choices and feel... Discomfort. He could not undo what he had done, but this was surely a moment that he would look back on.

"So If I'm understanding you correctly the temple is reacting this way because… The blade was removed from the pillar, and it's doing this to ward off any demons that may take the opportunity to enter the premises?" The oldest son of the Dark Knight Sparda was not exactly confused so much as he was simply trying to confirm that he understood her explanation as to what was going on here. He was not familiar with the work that had gone into creating this building, and he had to admit that the technology that had built it was very advanced for the time that it had been created in. Would restoring the blade to its pedestal actually shut down the reaction, or was that just wishful thinking?

Lucia looked up from her place in front of the pedestal, her lovely eyes shimmering in the flames' reflection. She understood why he had asked that. This entire complex in of itself was probably slightly different than what he was used to. How interesting considering that he was the son of one of the people who was responsible for the purpose of the structure in the first place. It seemed that neither of the twins had been given the chance to learn about this during their youth. Pitty.

"You are correct. It seems that this will continue to grow in intensity until the blade is restored to its weight for resting place." She extended the blade to him, receiving a slightly raised eyebrow and a clearly questioning glance from him as she did so. He failed to see how this involved him directly. "If you'd like, you can place the blade in the receptacle. Then we may see for ourselves firsthand what will happen as a result."

Admittedly willing to go along with her request due to curiosity on his own part, he stepped forward and did just that, slotting the blade into its reciprocal and watching as the pedestal slowly opened and lowered it down into its cavity. For a few moments the only sound in the room was that of their own breathing and the stone sliding against itself, welcoming the blade back into the safe confines of its rightful resting place. An ingenious piece of engineering, one that would be more than sufficient to keep the blade safe. If the room appeared empty to the casual passer-by, then they would have no need to examine the pillar to see that it housed the blade in the first place. People tended to just keep going when they didn't see what they were looking for.

"We should return. I believe we've been gone just long enough for something to have potentially happened during our absence." He stepped back and out of the path of the pillar, ready to draw his blade if he needed to. He didn't so much have the feeling that something had gone wrong as he did that he simply needed to return. Something was amiss, but not in a manner that he could identify as dangerous. At least, not this far away from home. He wondered for a moment if distance was actually a factor in regards to this specific inborn gift.

Lucia gave him a slightly humored look. "I get the impression you don't have a lot of faith in your family's ability to stay out of trouble." She barely contained the smirk and small bit of laughter that ventured across her face. Admittedly, that's probably both of them at this point. He was right, they should head back. "But I agree. I'm ready when you are."

Nodding in agreement, Vergil unsheathed his blade and crisscrossed it through the air, opening a portal before them. It was best that they leave from their current location and save a bit of time and walking. She stepped forward with him and through the gate, her feet leaving the familiar stone floors of the temple, and landing on the wheel manicured pavement outside of V's home. The heat from the room they had been in was juxtaposed to the cool night air, a welcome respite. The flames had been quite hot.

Fresh air was something that he would take over the stale air of a stone temple any day, and despite it being something that he had had to readjust to after returning from the underworld, it was now something that he could say that he enjoyed with genuine truth. The air in the underworld was full of sulfur and ash, and it wore on the lungs of any who lingered in its general vicinity for long periods of time who were not born biologically accustomed to it. It was not something he could say he missed. And that was to say nothing of the smell of it.

"Do you ever get... I can't remember the name for it... Jet lag? From doing that, I mean."

He hadn't noticed until then that he'd been drifting off for a moment, his mind elsewhere. He didn't sense V's presents within the walls of the building, and as such, he didn't know where he was. He'd been there when he left. What had become of him during the time since? What would he do now that he knew he was not here? Should he go look for him? He didn't sense that he was in danger, but the fact that he was not within the safe confines of his home eluded to that.

"It… is just something that you become accustomed to after a while…" He drifted off, his attention elsewhere. They had not been gone for very long, and yet, when they had returned, things seemed to have changed quite drastically. Why did that always seem to happen?

Lucia looked at the house and then back at him after a moment, seemingly noticing the same thing that he had. She wasn't sure what to suggest they do, however, so she continued to consider their options for a moment before speaking, attempting to dig up a few that she hadn't actually registered before.

"They aren't here… "

He nodded. "No, I can't say that they… " He stopped. Not even a moment after he'd spoken, he could sense that that was no longer the case. His eyes drifted slowly towards the end of the block, and much to his surprise they came upon something he wasn't expecting to see. Both Nero and V rounded the corner a moment later, seemingly headed back to the house. He couldn't tell what it was, but he could instantly sense that something was different than it had been when he left. Perhaps it was just the air around them, but there was a certain difference that he couldn't pinpoint. The only thing he could say was that it wasn't negative this time. He couldn't say why, but of that he was sure. It was probably the only thing he was sure of at the moment. The rest was just pure conjecture and speculation.

Upon approaching the building and noticing that their father had returned, both of the youngest descendants of the Dark Knight Sparda stop dead when they're tracks, a look of total surprise on their faces. For a moment they both genuinely looked as though they had been caught sneaking out by their parents as teenagers before remembering the fact that that wasn't the case and approaching their father. At least this time they weren't being attacked by a demon with a scythe in the middle of the woods.

"Dad? Oh crap, V told me that you had just left a couple of hours ago. Everything good?" Nero said casually as they approached, holding the now closed umbrella that his sibling had brought along with him. He hadn't recalled him having a red umbrella, so he was going to assume that it wasn't originally his and that it probably belonged to Sirrus, but considering the fact that the young adjudicator was on bed rest right now and that V had his cane to deal with, he was happy to take it off his hands.

"Father… " V was genuinely too tired and emotionally exhausted at the moment to even begin to try and figure out how to talk to his father. In all honesty, he probably should have waited until morning to return. But as soon as their conversation ended, he felt an unmistakable desire to just be within the walls of his own home again and to crawl into his bed and rest. It had been a long day, and he had the feeling that tomorrow would be, too.

It was agreed upon that as soon as Sirrus showed signs of awakening that he would be alerted, and then he would return. But for now, he needed to rest, and the safest place for him to be besides the Ludwig estate was his own home. And despite the fact that he felt guilty for leaving even for a short while, he recognized the need to do so. He'd even left a note in case he didn't make it back in time. He just hoped that his friend would understand and be willing to hear him out, and knowing what he did about him, he was willing to bet that he would.

Realizing that they were more than likely just returning from somewhere, Vergil stepped back out of the way in order to give his sons the room they needed to properly pass him. He wasn't sure what had happened while he was gone, but he would wait until they were inside the house. And he was relatively sure that if he actually needed to know, they would just tell him. 

From what he understood, his children hadn't really made it a habit of actively lying to him. No, that wasn't something that they really had in them. Especially not Nero. He was more likely to tell you exactly what he was thinking whether you liked it or not than he was to sugarcoat literally anything. And V? While he was unlikely to say everything that was on his mind, he was likely to make his point known, especially if he had a stance on the matter at hand. It was good to see that in their own way the absolute bullheaded refusal to budge on most things ran in their family, at least with the exception of his oldest child. He had it in him when it came down to it, but he wasn't entirely unwilling to back down, either. It just depended on the circumstance. The ability to compromise was one of his best traits, actually. No, what he had in spades was an absolute refusal to give up, and they were going to need that now more than anything.

As soon as they unlocked and opened the door, they headed inside, more than willing to return to the warm confines of the building. It was like being swaddled by a warm blanket or basking in the comforting heat of a candle. More than anything right now, the young summoner just wanted to reside within the walls of his home and think quietly. He'd come to his declaration, but now he needed to understand the best way to act upon that virtue.

Moments later they were joined by Lucia and Vergil. The Dark Slayer locked the door behind them before joining Lucia as she shedded anything that she didn't feel like carrying around the house and left it near the door. They weren't going to need their weapons for the foreseeable future. It was late. The only thing they really needed was to go to sleep. Dante would be returning sometime tomorrow as soon as his venture was complete, and then they would act. 

Well, as soon as they knew what they needed to do and where they needed to do it. It wasn't quite as simple as just walking through to the underworld like he had previously. While that was possible, they needed a plan. The entirety of Belial's domain was inhospitable, so they needed to know what they were up against and how to best combat it before they ventured into it. Nothing good would come from going in blind. He'd learned that at least two separate times in recent memory of his own accord.

Upon entering the living room, Vergil couldn't help but notice the amicable silence between his two sons. Hero was making himself comfortable on one of the couches, and V had curled up on the chaise lounge next to the fireplace, seemingly slightly dozing off into something resembling sleep. It seemed that he was at that interesting stage where he couldn't quite make himself go up to bed, but was clearly tired enough to sleep. Always a dilemma, that one. 

But that wasn't what stood out to him. What he couldn't help but notice was the fact that something subtle had changed in both of them, and that something was different in both cases. He couldn't say that it was in their eyes or their demeanor, but it was just something he knew, even if he didn't understand it.

What on Earth had happened while he was gone for the last few hours? And for that matter, what was Nero even doing back on the mainland? Weren't the fairies closed by now? It was barely dawn. He would have had to fly or otherwise make a drastic choice to return to the mainland. He'd like to know the story behind that, but he was fully willing to assume that it was too late at night to get an agreeable answer from them. Still, perhaps it was worth attempting… 

"Am I correct to assume that the time since I have left has been eventful? It must have been to see you both returning so late at night." He looked around the room thoughtfully as he approached, taking in the quiet atmosphere. He imagined that if the rest of their house guests had been up, that they'd be down here drinking tea. But that being said, something had just occurred to him. Something was wrong here. "And for that matter, I believe we're missing someone. Is there a story there?"

"Correct on both accounts, father. I suspect It will be a short while before we are graced with Sirrus's presents again." V said with a slur that was entirely born of his need to sleep, the special way that he dragged his words only occurring during such a state. It was a tick unique to sleeplessness. "We encountered our uninvited guest from the train station again, and it ended in what I can only imagine was quite the fight. I had been thrown from the roof by that point, so I can't give you any details, but I was told that I would be informed if anything changed in his condition. He heals quickly. I'm hopeful that he shall awaken again soon."

Vergil's entire brain threatened to run out of his ear. V had been thrown from a roof? Did that mean that the young adjudicator was in a coma, or that he was just injured? And how did this situation involve Nero? It seemed that there was a lot more going on than he knew about, and he was willing to take a hint from his oldest son's demeanor and wait for morning to receive more details. Perhaps it was best that he only had to explain this once when Dante was present. He could tell that something about the situation weighed on him. It was just something in his demeanor that screamed it to him. Perhaps it was just too familiar to him on some sort of deep-seated personal level that he didn't want to confront… 

"Dante is going to return in a few hours. You can elaborate then. But for now…" He watched his Lucia politely waved at them before hitting up the stairs, both of his sons returning the favor. There didn't need to be any discourse between them. They just all seem to understand that they were tired and needed to rest. "I will occupy one of the spare rooms. Until then." He nodded quietly and then turned away, both Nero and V sort of looking surprised by his actions, but pleasantly surprised all the same.

"... Good night, father." V wasn't sure what led to him speaking those words out loud, but he had truly met them, even if he was half asleep. It seemed that he dropped his inhibitions when he was tired. At the end of the day, he actually did care about Vergil, even if he wasn’t always very good at expressing it or understanding the particular reasons that he couldn’t help but do so. He had long suspected that he would never be able to forgive his father for what he had done, but when it came down to it, he couldn’t summon the energy to be angry at him even if he wanted to.

Nero nodded, waving as Virgil appeared over his shoulder at the both of them. As soon as their father was out of earshot, he turned back to his older sibling, noticing that he was starting to curl up under the blanket that he kept on the couch. It seemed that Kyrie's gift had proved to had proven to be practical as well as sentimental.

"V you gotta get a TV or something so that we can watch movies together or whatever. I think all of us like to read, but nowhere near as much as you do." Nero left himself softly, rolling up under his coat on the couch. V had come quite a way since their conversation an hour or so ago, but he could tell that they were still some remnants of the same guilt that he felt at the house. That made sense. No one completely immediately shook off everything that was bothering them, but they both needed to sleep at some point tonight, and they were running out of time. He couldn't just go to sleep and no that he might need him, but maybe if he could just make him laugh first… "Hell, maybe I can get Nico to fix an old one. I bet Morrison knows a person that's got one they're trying to get rid of. He can find anything. Or we could "borrow" Dante's jukebox."

V smirked to himself. "I am open to that possibility. I hadn't honestly considered it before now." For a moment as he attempted to fight the urge to sleep just yet. The call of the void was just too enticing. How in the world had he forgotten to get an actual form of entertainment? It seemed that his love for poetry was all-consuming. "Joy and woe are woven fine, a clothing for the soul divine. Under every grief and pine runs a joy with silken twine."

Nero stretched his arms over his head and yawned, flopping over awkwardly onto the couch. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes playfully and laughed to himself slightly as he looked over at his older brother and registered his quote. Even at the cusp of sleep, V was unable to forget William Blake’s works. Now that was commitment. "Good, because I'm bored to tears, and I need a nap. And you need a new hobby."

(-~-)

Sorry if there are any major mistakes. I think I was a little sleepy when I edited this lol! I’ve been really enjoying these wholesome moments. I need them for what’s about to happen. See you in the comments and on Friday! I believe it’s finally time!

[plutoswrath]

i’m sorry to annoy you with this again. i just look up to your kpop mixed with astrology content. but lucas’s neptune contact with his mc is going to annoy the shit out of me until this is fixed. the cloudiness that neptune brings to his public image is something that i think possibly fuels these situations further. false accusations and mixed perceptions based off of them is exactly what makes these scandals to continue on and on. and i’m sick of it. both sides ignore what the other is saying and it gets nowhere. neptune, the malefic bastard.

Hello! I saw your recent asks and I appreciate your words regarding my content, thank you so much for the kind words! <3

I will touch on astrolgy under the cut, but before this happens, I want to leave a few words. There's a reason why I didn't answer the previous questions I received (not only yours op) regarding the Lucas situation so far. For several reasons I didn't want to feed into any sort of (perceived) sensationalism in regards to the Lucas situation, even though I'd really love to look at the situation from an astrological point of view. That people are divided on this topic is to be expected, but I think the way it has been handled by majority so far is very bad. I really want to elaborate on my reasoning why we should rethink the way we talk about/represent the Lucas situation right now, but as this topic is very kpop specific everything will be under the cut.

My reasoning for avoiding any questions about it until now:

1. People already don't take the situation seriously enough: Regardless of what your standpoint is, I'd like for people to consider looking at it from a more critical point of view for a second: The allegations are not about him being exposed as ‘just a f-boy’ as some people make it out to be, they are more serious than that. Lucas allegedly manipulated and used these women for his own emotional/sexual/financial needs and ego boost. The fact that he has money and allegedly still used other people to provide financially for him just demonstrates the power play underneath it all. He abused his position of power as an idol, the power dynamics between him and fans who idolize him are plain and simple just completely off. Please think about the fact, that he allegedly decided who to date on at fansigns. This alone gives no security to any fans that want to attend fansigns in the future. TW SV: he also talked one of these women into having sex with him + doing it unprotected, which is not only emotionally/sexually manipulative/coercive and can possibly be traumatic for them but also heightens the risk for transfering STD's as END TW he was supposedly seeing people at the same time/cheating. In general, the behavior he gets accused of leaves trauma and is abuse, to be more specific abuse of power on multiple levels and his social position makes it just easier to continue abusing that power. As you've mentioned yourself op, there is a huge back and forth about the allegations, and I know people like to take situations like the one of Taeyong as an example to justify that not every public apology is real and that allegations turn out to be false years later, but I believe it's different this time and that the allegations that came forward were real. Even his cbar closed, a fanbase that works closely with Label V (!), that alone shows that there is 'at least' some truth to the story, or else his hardcore fanbase wouldn't have decided to turn their back on him in matters of just days. Also, all the 'jokes' and the portrayal of 'juicy gossip' people make about the situation just downplays and ridicules the possible traumatic experiences of the people that were hurt by his actions. If anyone decides to not believe these allegations until SM gives a more specific statement, that's fine, but please do so without making fun of the people who were victims of his behavior, as there is already little to no sympathy for them online. It makes it just way harder for any survivors in the future to speak out on their experience. People say it's 'nothing illegal, just morally wrong' but given the fact that he is also a person in power, the line between 'just' morally wrong and illegal can be very thin in some cases. And please overthink arguments such as: 'this is typical boy behavior for someone in his 20's'/ 'he's just an f-boy' or 'boys will be boys' because they are deeply misogynistic and we shouldn't normalize behavior like that, thus making the root of the problem actually way deeper than most people think.

2. WayV's future: This mainly goes for people who are fans of WayV. I know not everyone probably likes to hear this, but another thing why wild speculations, sensationalism or even possible defence about this situation should be kept on the low is WayV's career. I want to be honest here, but I'm scared for their future, their comeback for october has been cancelled for now and they are put on a hiatus for several months as far as I know. They were on a good path of gaining more and more recognition and establishing themselves even better as a c-pop group, but now Luca's reputation in China (their target audience) is as good as gone and that pulls all of WayV down to rock bottom with him. People really need to try seeing the story out of the eyes of the korean and especially chinese fans as well, their perception of the allegations (especially after the Kris Wu situation!) are way different and more serious than the ones of i-fans and i-fans have to accept that. Also, we all know how companies (especially SM) handle these type of situations: keep the people on the low till the storm has calmed down. But will the storm ever calm down for Lucas when his public image is basically destroyed, and thus WayV as well? What I want people to understand is that this whole situation affects WayV and their career directly, actually on the biggest scale possible. All the work so far is at risk to be for good and I think a lot of fans tend to forget that, things look especially critical for HenXiaoYanKun if WayV would be to continue/redebute/fall apart. It doesn't matter if Lucas talking bad about the members/the companies/shows he works with/for was real or not in the end, because unfortunately damage is already done, WayV's image (WayV= family) is already tarnished and WayV as a group will suffer from this. You summed it up with malefic Neptune the best actually: We all don't know the full confirmed truth about the situation and will most likely never know it. (small astro insight here as well, but part of Neptune is to accept fantasy for what it is: fantasy, and thus turn to cold reality when you're in too deep)

3. What O'd advice the fandom to do right now: Regardless of your opinion on the situation, what we as a fandom can do best right now is staying on the low, wait things out, and stop adding more fire to the situation with our actions and wait how the situation actually developes, since a) we can not fasten the process and b) a lot of rumors, false information and unnecessary details get exposed to mudd the waters and to discredit the statement of the victims as well. I've seen some strong reactions from both sides, but as someone who's a big fan of nct in general I really just want to say that part of the fandom throwing a fit on the internet leads basically to nothing, it actually only reflects even worse on nctzens/weshennies and thus on WayV's (and also NCT as whole) image as well. Things right now are handled internal, not extern. Whatever gets through to the public will be half of the story anyway. A lot of people seem to forget, that we talk about SM and all they care for right now is saving themselves economically (think about the domino effect this situation has on the whole group/company), so we will have to see what their final decision is going to be, if anything will happen at all. For now, be patient, wait and see. Last words: It's okay to feel hurt/confused/angry/drained. Even though most of us are aware that we dont know any celebrity's character, it's still hard to swallow and to digest because you were a fan of that artist. Let it take time and vent. Take a break from it if it gets too much! Talking about it to process your emotions better is okay and very valid, but keep in mind that you should not worsen the situation by doing so - it's already absolute chaos.

Also: This statement is by no means a direct attack to anyone or me trying to push my opinion onto you, just my two cents in how to handle the situation best right now, because our hands are basically tied. Also: agree to disagree. If you don't like that I side with the victims (unless there is an official statement that Lucas is proven not guilty, which I doubt, unfortunately) then so be it, but don't start a war in my inbox for our opinions differing.

-------

Now, to astrology:

Disclaimer: This analysis will not be very light-hearted, but remember that it's just a theory and not me trying to confirm anything!

First of all op, sorry for just answering you know, but I neded some time to think through how to adress this without adding to the fire with my astrological analysis! Boy, does the birth time fit the shoe right now. To be fair as I did my short rising sign analysis about him recently, I cancelled out every other fire rising except for Leo, because I got stuck on the ego part a bit. Anything for me made sense, as long as it highlights his ego, which by itself doesn't have to be a bad thing automatically, but there's always two sides of the coin as we all know.

I looked into the transits the past week and added a few asteroids/mathematical points as well. An anon before pointed to the full moon happening in his tenth house, conjunct his sun, etc. (I deleted the ask because I didn't know what was going on at that time and thought it was just the 'usual' rumors that once in a while get spread around, but after looking more into it I decided this was not the right time to stirr the pot in any kind of way or treat it as funny, hot gos). But yeah a full Moon in Aquarius happening in his 10th house AND on top of that Saturn in Aquarius, conjuncting that Moon and his natal Uranus in the 10th! Talk about destrcution of any stable foundation and a change in a public image! Honestly, looking at astrologically the way his public image just got radically destroyed over night, with Saturn and the Moon having been in a conjunction (in his chart it was in the 10th house) is kinda eery even. Talk about collective consciousness - not only exposing quiet literally the feelings of the collective, but also doing so in the favor of others and gaining collective emotional consciousness. Take this with a grain of salt (!), because we're still in a tense situation, but I'm tapping into the darker, unfriendlier side of astrology now. Taking his confirmed birth time, he has Nessus in Sagittarius in his 8th house and as I saw that I could feel myself shifting into the surprised pikachu face. I am not saying that this prooves the allegations whatsoever, but as you seemed to be very interested in anaylzing the case in-depth as well, the allegations fit his Nessus - jumping from partner to partner, carelessness (regarding physical intimacy as well), making people share all their ressources with him/finacial gain, and basically the whole jist of gaining control/being in a power position in intimate connections. Keep in mind that this is only one interpretation of Nessus though, Nessus can also show the complete opposite to someone 'turning to their dark side'. On top of that, his Nessus was conjunct transit Phollus the past week, so if anything, we can see that a large event triggered him to 'open his eyes' and face anything of an 'obstacle' that hinders him from seeing the 'truth' to a larger picture and his own nature/destiny. Pholus can symbolize change that will alter your perception of the responsibility you have for yourself and others.

But my latest new interest with these two asteroids aside (asteroids just add a little more nuance to a situation after all), I want to touch on Lilith too, since you (op) have mentioned Lilith before in one of your asks!

He has his Lilith exactly conjunct his Descendant when we consider his confirmed birth time. What happened just now can be seen as 'backfiring' of his actions, either Lilith embodying the women who expose him now for his 'inappropriate' behavior, but also simply fans shaming him now for his alleged manipulative/imoral behavior, especially shaming him about who he chose to date and how. Next to that, you've mentioned Lilith opposite Moon and it just makes me think about him possibly feeling very indecisive and potentially in denial about what he actually needs to be fulfilled in order to be emotionally happy and thus leading to him appearing to have this 'second, dark side' to him now. BML is not necessarily opposite the Moon in my opinion, it's just the side of the subconscious we don't really like to deal with and all we're told not to express and desire because it can be conflicting in the eyes of others (thus BML also leading to a lot of recklessness on the negative side). I think if we take the allegations into consideration, regardless of how much of it is true of it, it can be a good example what happens, when an opposition gets out of balance, as it also manifests outwardly a lot! Lilith shows in his 'double life' aka what he allegedly did with fans. Lilith wanted an outlet and found one by working behind the scenes. If we take in his supposed Taurus rising, which his Lilith is in an exact opposition with, it's a good example of what can lurk underneath the surface.

And of course, last but not least, Neptune and Sun conjunct his MC. People are quiet literally blinded by him more than they would like to think. Also: Lucas was always known for his 'flirty & charismatic' nature, this is another reason why people think we shouldn't be surprised he 'turns out to be like that in real life'. I'm not analyzing this argument right now, but what I think is very interesting is how Sun conjunct MC literally ties a good amount of their personality to their career - they want to be accepted and shine for their personality/big part of their individuality. Idols play a role, no matter how transparent they appear to us, but it's really funny how this 'image' of him melts almost seemingly with parts of his personality (almost af if you were to quiet literally sell your self) and as you've mentioned: Neptune only adds to that, unfortunately.

[rainbowsky]

Final round-up of fan fic asks

I've gotten a few more interesting responses to the fan fic discussion so I'm going to round them all up here. This will be my final post on the topic until/unless there's a dramatic new development, or a particularly notable response I want to highlight. Thanks to everyone who brought their thoughts and experiences to the topic. I hope everyone at least feels heard.

The biggest piece of advice that I would like to offer is for everyone to focus on what they love rather than what they hate. If we all did that, the world would be a better place. Alongside that, I'd like to remind everyone to please support authors whose work you like. It's so important. Give them a kudos, give them a nice comment, recommend their work to others. You never know what kind of grief and harassment they are dealing with to bring you these great stories, and our support means a lot.

This is in reference to previous posts here and here.

Anonymous asked:

With regard to fandom and fan fic issue, my years of experience being part of very large fandoms has led me to believe that big accounts are v important in facilitating and enforcing the general consensus of the whole fandom. Unless there will be big accs who'll remind everyone of being respectful & just not being a dick over other's preferences, nothing will change.

This is also the reason why I think certain solo fandoms have adapted weird and twisted narratives as their general fandom story because no big acc has tried to police them & and say hey pls be rational. Whether we like it or not, in a place where how far voices, ideas, tweets, posts get heard is based on the number of followers you have, big accs will have the power and influence in creating/curating/shifting the narratives.

So, if you want to know why your/our fandom thinks like this in general, look at what big accs are tweeting/posting, look at what ideas & values they follow, look at their preferences or how strongly they react to certain situations. it's taxing and toxic for big accs given the nature of social media these days, but it's also the reality of system, the more followers/audience you have, the more influence you will have.

So to anyone reading this I hope we all practice more restraint and reflection before we post anything. Remember that words, no matter what medium you write it in, will always carry weight.

So true. It is easy - even for myself who spends a fair chunk of time answering people's asks - to forget that people can sometimes be impressionable and what we say can influence people whether that's our intent or not. I get used to thinking of myself as a regular guy just doing my own thing when sometimes my thoughts and words go well beyond where I initially posted them.

I think it's important for us to be careful what we say, and it's equally important to be careful what we take from what other people say. Especially when it comes to big claims. Always get a second, third, fourth opinion and don't be afraid to ask for clarification if something doesn't sit right or sounds confusing.

It's also important to reflect on how our words and actions might affect other people's experience of fandom, and err on the side of 'live and let live' wherever possible. It's great to have our own preferences and to champion them, but we should try to do so in a way that leaves space for other people and perspectives.

The more unique perspectives and the more friendly, open dialog there is, the healthier the community will be as a whole.

There's nothing wrong with encouraging and guiding growth in the particular areas we are interested in, as long as it doesn't step on, oppress or attack those who are peacefully enjoying something different.

Anonymous 2 asked: bjyx fans attacking gdgdbaby for including zsww/lsfy dynamics in an event named bjyx then turning right around and attacking the zsww/lsfy event organizer for excluding bjyx? god, can you hear my facepalm and sigh of resignation and incredulity from over there? im genuinely not surprised that they're trying to drive an entire part of the fandom out by disgusting them (and me) with these immature tactics. i believe what im about to say next will sound quite bait-y and i respect your decision 1/?

should you choose not to post this. but i do know that it is not only me, in fact there are many out there, that is of this opinion. we just dont talk about it on twitter to avoid the potential mess it will bring lol. okay, here goes nothing. (do note that im talking about the majority here, not every single person is like this) so bjyx fans tend to be cishet females whereas zsww/lsfy fans are more diverse in terms of age and gender, and most of them are part of the queer community too 2/?

i would like to clarify that most of these zsww/lsfy fans are not dynamic exclusive (in the sense that they are friendly and interact with all ggdd fans) they just prefer to "identify" themselves as zsww/lsfy fans (on twitter specifically) just to form a distinction from bjyx fans who mostly are dynamic exclusive (as in; they do not consume non-bjyx content, and straightup refuse to interact with non-bjyx fans, often blocking them). as a result, id say that the zsww/lsfy communiy is way more 3/?

mature and respectful (after all, they're mostly queer people talking about a queer ship) whereas many problems in this fandom, such as the homophobia, adamantly insisting on "drawing lines" between dynamics, stem from the bjyx exclusive fans, comprised of cishet females who "may not know better". so, it is of no surprise to me that they're resorting to these immature tactics of calling gg unsavory names, and organizing retaliatory events with controversial topics in an attempt to "purify". 4/4

I trust that you have arrived at that theory through your own experience and observation. I haven't personally spent much time immersed in this stuff so I can't claim to have any real insight or expertise. If you say that's your experience of it, then at the very least that's how you've seen things up to this point.

I just want to say that I think we should always be careful about making assumptions about people's age, gender/gender identity, etc.

There are plenty of good reasons to avoid doing that; because those assumptions could be very wrong, because those assumptions are often laced with ageism, sexism, etc., because those assumptions - even when correct - might not be an accurate basis for the conclusions we draw.

But the primary reason I recommend avoiding those type of assumptions is because anything that enables us to clump a group of people together in our minds like that will tend to make them easier to demonize and dehumanize. They are no longer individuals who are each responsible for their own unique perspectives, they are now 'the X group' who is known for 'A B C series of easily attackable ideas or behaviors'.

If we attribute undesirable traits and behaviors to a group of people we feel opposed to in some way, that makes us feel more righteous and justified in behaving unfairly toward them, dismissing their humanity and warring with them. It's just risky behavior to engage in, even when it's well-intentioned.

There might actually be some truth to what you're saying. It could very well be that most of these people are young, inexperienced, heteronormative, etc. but if that's the case then we should try to use those traits to better understand and empathize rather than to better dismiss and discredit.

Just my two cents on that.

It can be really frustrating dealing with what feels like other people attacking us, trying to oppress us, etc. - especially when there are more of them than there are of us. In my experience the best solutions to that sort of problem are generally the ones that focus on what we are doing and want to do rather than what they are doing that we don't want them to do.

As I am always preaching, we can't control what other people say, do or think. The only thing we have any control over is what we say, do and think (and how we respond to what they say, do and think).

I have found in my experience that the moment I step out of a conflict mindset and instead step into a problem-solving mindset, everything starts to come together. I feel better, my outlook is more positive, I can begin to see solutions and allies rather than problems and enemies, and most of all, I become more focused on what I am doing than what others are doing.

So I would recommend everyone who is invested in resolving these conflicts focus on that. "How can we best showcase and encourage the types of stories we enjoy?" instead of "How can we stop these other people from doing things we dislike?"

Anonymous 3 asked:

Hello again! It’s anon #3 from the fanfic post. I really do appreciate reading your thoughts on various issues like this, so thank you for always taking time to write in depth. As for supporting without going to war, the simplest way has always been to just show appreciation for the creators, hype them up. Kudos are the easiest way on ao3 but comments in addition are great. This goes for all content—art, fics, vids..etc. Creators love to see and read how people react to their content. Sharing is also great, fic recs are very helpful, just be cautious with art and reposting though. Hope this helps a bit!

Thanks so much, Anon. I think this is excellent advice. And it's true that appreciation is great, but helping to expand the audience is also great. Recommending stories, pointing people to the pages/websites of artists we like (as opposed to reposting), sharing our own ideas and approaches, encouraging people to try new things... all of this helps build healthier communities.

And here's another one: WRITE! DRAW! CREATE!

I urge anyone with creative interests or talents to bring their voices to the community because we all can benefit from hearing from you.

Thanks again everyone for sharing your thoughts on this issue. I hope that over time we can all work in positive ways to improve the situation.

I think this subject has been well-covered now so I'm going to retire it for the time being. If anyone still feels they want to discuss it further please feel free to message me privately. Thanks.

[mylittleredgirl]

Spending a lot of time trying to untangle Maquis plot confusion instead of just writing my Maquis fic but so far I’ve collected such collected topics as:

I knew Chakotay wasn’t from Dorvan V despite fanon consensus but I didn’t remember why I knew that until I just watched “Journey’s End” -- that planet was settled only ~21 years before “Caretaker” (and Chakotay left for the academy at age 15, so he wouldn’t even have lived there very long, if at all). In “Tattoo” Chakotay says his people colonized their world a few hundred years ago. The Dorvan V tribe left earth >200 years ago, but they spent the intervening years as space nomads -- and if they’d opted to make Chakotay a member of that tribe, that would’ve been a resonant backstory for a show about space nomads looking for home. 

Really unclear if the Maquis are Federation citizens or not. The Dorvan V colonists have to renounce their Federation citizenship in order to be allowed to stay in Cardassian territory, and Picard specifically tells them that any requests for help from the Federation will not be answered as a result. However, this seems like a unique case. In subsequent episodes, the Maquis are specifically called Federation citizens (by Admiral Necheyev in DS9′s “The Maquis” and by Picard in TNG’s “Preemptive Strike”). Based on something Kalita says about medical supplies in “Preemptive Strike” and the presence of a Starfleet liaison in the zone in “The Maquis”, it seems that the Federation is providing some limited supplies and support to the Federation colonies in the zone. (Stardate-wise, all these episodes take place in 2370.)

A year later, in DS9′s “For the Cause”, Eddington says that if Kasidy is a Maquis “she’s no longer a Federation citizen.” Sisko doesn’t correct him, but it seems unlikely to me that the Federation’s response to criminal activity would be to revoke citizenship (especially without due process), so I assume this comes from the other side -- that by 2372 the Maquis have taken a public stance of declaring themselves no longer citizens of the Federation. 

The question of civilian Maquis colonies is interesting. At the time Voyager leaves the Alpha Quadrant, it seems like the Maquis are a loosely organized militia with many of their members living in civilian Federation colonies with other occupations. The location that Ro infiltrates is called a “Maquis encampment.” The numbers seem to grow pretty fast. When B’Elanna hears the news that the Maquis have been destroyed, she says “there are thousands of us.” (Her info would have been accurate to “Caretaker” era - 2371.)

By the time we get to the later Eddington era (2373), there are full on Maquis colonies with a total population in the hundreds of thousands. I assume this means that some (or all) civilian Federation colonies in the zone are now identifying as Maquis. At one point, Eddington says that before being wiped out by the Dominion, the Maquis colonies were planning to declare themselves an independent nation. 

The destruction of the Maquis is just... horrifying. I hadn’t watched the last Maquis episode “Blaze of Glory” in a while, so I was going off the Voyager reports and assumed that the members of the paramilitary Maquis org had been wiped out -- but on DS9, Dukat’s message in “By Inferno’s Light” declares there won’t be a single Maquis colony left in the DMZ, and they just told us the previous episode that there are hundreds of thousands of people on Maquis colonies. In “Blaze of Glory”, we learn that there were 3 days of graphic reports coming in of the destruction happening in real time. I would hope those reports were coming from Federation ships trying to help evacuate the civilian population in the DMZ, but with Starfleet making a stand at DS9 during that exact time period and them not even throwing us a line of dialogue about relief missions, that’s just me hoping. 

I’m willing to just call this one a mistake: the date Chakotay gives for his resignation from Starfleet in that one with fake Starfleet Academy “In the Flesh” is in early 2368, a few years before the DMZ -- or the Maquis -- are formed. The armistice and ongoing treaty negotiations with Cardassia is a drawn-out process for the last 3 seasons of TNG, so it’s possible?? that Chakotay left Starfleet out of protest early on, and only later joined the Maquis (or helped create it), but I’m pretty sure somewhere it’s stated that he left specifically for the Maquis, or at least, to defend a colony which had been given to the Cardassians in the treaty (which doesn’t happen until 2370, though it’s certainly possible that the Cardassians were harassing colonists before then without jurisdiction). His name isn’t given, but Ro Laren is pretty clearly setting up Chakotay’s character when she talks about a respected Lieutenant Commander who instructed her in tactical training (in 2370) who was sympathetic to the Maquis and then resigned to join them... so I tend to go with that as making more sense, despite the date tossed in there later.

[bakagamieru]

Hi! I've been feeling really down, as well as frustrated and sad these past few days and I guess I'm here for a bit of reassurance maybe? Your blog was what opened my eyes to Ziam and also to the stunt ot4 v Zayn and all that, about a year ago, so I'm quite new. Your masterposts especially have been very informative! So basically I trust your judgement in this as someone who's been here a while and gone through it. Anyway, I completely believe in Ziam along with Larry now (been a Larrie (1)

(2) a long while) and I also believe all bbg's are fake etc. The thing I still get confused about/doubt sometimes, is the whole Harry&Louis & Zayn 'feud' thing. Most days I'm sure in my heart that all the twitter fights and post-interviews being mad at Z is all fake and part of a narrative. Zayn honestly even put lyrics to a song about a fight before actual fight for fucks sake?! Also it was all so ridiculous and public, childish, etc. it can't possibly have been real. Then his 'falling out

(3) with NB in the end. Also what ELSE (if not that 'fight') could they have been mad at him for? For 'leaving' because of his health (or whatever they said was the reason)? And after all this time still being mad/or at least bringing it up? Sounds very unlike H&L too doesn't it? Then I remember rbb/sbb, and this is something I've researched TOO MUCH honestly. Some people still refuse to even admit it was there or that it meant ANYTHING. But that goddamn yellow smiley was there several times

(4) after the 'twitter fight'. Why would that be the case? Also Ziam being together, and Louis being so close with Liam and hating on his man? It just doesn't add up anywhere. Sorry I know this is just me sounding very insecure about it all and atm I kinda am. I was having a discussion with a Larrie the other day. One of the bigger blogs with a big influence and lots of people reblogged and agreed with them, when I was trying to point out how I think 1D as a 'whole' are still being under some

(5) form of contract or image clause at the very least. They said the whole contract thing is fanfiction at this point (besides Louis essentially) and the other boys are all free to do whatever. They also don't believe in Ziam or that Zayn is friends with the boys at all. Mentioned how Harry is still 'salty' about him in interviews etc etc. They are so SURE of themselves. But yeah even though I mostly KNOW I still doubt on this because of the fucked up narratives. what if H&L / Zayn really did

(7) has been a stunt? Not saying they hang out as best friends these days maybe, what with their own lives and pandemic on top of it, but do you still think they're 'family'/ot5forever'? I honestly feel like I get gaslighted even by Larries these days and it's not much fun to follow them anymore :( Seeing Harry with Niall made me smile though! Gives me at least some hope that they still are close xx //This got very long, I'm so sorry. You can answer in tags if you wish :)

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

Number 6 never seems to have made it to my inbox.  Good job numbering them, though, because I never would have realized one was missing otherwise.

Anyway, I hate to say it, but talking to Larries is a fraught prospect.  Almost all of the people who still call themselves Larries don’t believe in Ziam and it’s because they’ve never bothered to actually look at the evidence.  They don’t treat all of the boys with the same respect or interest that they treat Harry and Louis, so any time you try to convince them of a stunt related to Liam, Zayn, or Niall, they’re likely going to make their decision based on nothing but bias and refuse to budge on it no matter how much evidence you have.  Taking their word on Louis being the only one still under contract/sabotaged when they clearly don’t pay any attention to what’s actually going on with the other boys would be foolish.  You can always try to change a Larrie’s mind and maybe there should always be people that do try, but from my perspective, it’s just a depressing and infuriating situation to put yourself in.  

At best, I would have those conversations privately, especially if the blog has a lot of influence.  A blog with a lot of influence has ulterior motives to not changing their views publicly because if they do, they may well lose followers.  You may have a chance of getting them to look at evidence if you’re talking in private though.

I know the whole 1D friendship thing is hard right now because it’s been more than 5 years since they’ve really interacted.  We’ve gotten some Niam, Nouis, and Lilo here and there, but most of that is just talk even, no pics.  Because we have no immediate evidence of their friendship in front of us, all we have to rely on is interviews which we KNOW are BS-narrative machines.  It’s hard to ignore them when it’s all we have, but we should ignore them anyway because past experience has taught us just how much interviews push stunt narratives.

I would actually say the whole Narry outing recently gives us more to believe in than anything else.  If Harry and Niall hung out completely in public and we only found out about it through a picture a week or two later that could easily have never been identified by a fan, then it’s pretty likely that all the boys have managed to hang out whenever they want without being noticed, right?  Especially if they went to each other’s houses instead of to a public hiking trail.  There’s so much going on behind the scenes that we don’t have access to or knowledge of.  Zayn could have hung out with any one of the boys at any time because we hardly know where he is.  He’s almost never even on social media, so there are huge chunks of time where he’s unaccounted for.

The hiatus is hard specifically because of a lack of new information and because the status quo (in terms of the BS narrative) has had no reason to change for a long time.  I’ve said it before, but with Zayn’s situation, the only time after hiatus started that it makes narrative and business sense to reverse the “feud” narrative is leading up to a reunion.  That means we most likely WILL NOT see any improvement until a reunion approaches and with the pandemic, that’s definitely not happening this year and probably not even next.  It sucks, but the status quo of BS being maintained is what we should expect right now and just because it IS being maintained isn’t a sign of anything having worsened.  It’s just logical.  If you want to use the hype of a reconciliation to get fans excited, to sell tickets, to earn money, etc., then you need to wait until a reunion so that you HAVE tickets to sell and money to earn.

I would say hold on to the logical conclusions you can come to from the time when we had a lot of information to go off of (the OTRA tour and just after) and try not to read into anything happening now because there’s just about NOTHING happening right now and there’s just not enough data to find patterns and draw conclusions about the reality behind the fakery. 

[btsandvmin]

Vmin - Winter Bear analysis

I had to make a full proper analysis of Winter Bear, and all the possible connections it can have to Vmin. It’s basically a continuation of my other Vmin song analysis. I think you could read this on it’s own and still find it interesting, but honestly if you want to know just how much this is an actual possibility I would suggest reading my post Vmin - Scenery, Promise and song connections. Because if you think this song is the only possible Vmin song, you are wrong. And the fact that they have done this AGAIN, is really interesting.

Credit to @momudub1210 on twitter.

This will be a long post, which is mostly Jimin’s fault. Please remember that it’s likely that not all of these things are done on purpose, but that the amount of connections is kind of too much for me to think they are all coincidence.

This is a long analysis on Winter Bear, the timeline and connections to Vmin and some of their other songs. It’s all based on my own theories and I have no way of knowing if any of these things have any particular meaning, or even if they are done on purpose at all. Still, I hope you enjoy reading my thoughts. I already wrote  a little bit about this in my post Some thoughts on Winter Bear so sorry if some of it is repeated.

It's funny, because the first time I heard the song and watched the video I didn’t think Winter Bear had any direct connections to Vmin, and having had literally ALL of their previous solo songs have possible connections I was like “Ok, well I shouldn’t have expected anything just because...”. But oh boy did Vmin prove me wrong just a few moments after thinking it.

Let’s start with the obvious, and that is Jimin showering this song with love and attention to the point where people now associate this song and more specifically the term “Baby Bear” with Jimin.

Again, Jimin always give support to the members when they do anything, but at least to me Winter Bear has been a very intense case of Jimin showing his support towards the song.

Let’s look at the timeline. First Taehyung posted the video.

And then the link to just the song. Which showed us the cover, with the two small bears.

He also tweeted a few picture from the “making of” with pictures from a park (not sure, but the park could also be another Vmin hint). I think these were taken during the Europe tour this summer, possibly in England (there are at least some very obvious shots in the MV from London.)

He mentions he got inspiration from a British film, but I’ll get back to that later.

Like I said, nothing a first glance that links to Jimin. But Taehyung uploaded this on the 10th of august, and people were pretty much just waiting for Jimin to say something, because he always does, showing support to all members. It took a while, but when Jimin finally posted on weverse, he actually did it around the time of 4 o’clock korean time. Just a bit interesting timing especially since it almost seems like he was waiting to post until that late, but it wasn’t exactly at 4 so who knows.

What he posted was Tae yawning from the MV with the caption “Winter Bear” and a purple heart.

But then 10 minutes later he changed the post and wrote “Baby Bear” in stead.

EDIT: @nihalley told me Jimin didn’t actually update the post, but rather posted twice. Who knows why. But that kind of makes the Winter Bear + Baby Bear thing even more interesting.

Also Baby Bear is a nickname Taehyung had when he was young.

I personally find it cute that Jimin used this old nickname. But let’s move on, because then Jimin also decided to tweet.

There are a few things about this tweet that are a bit odd in my opinion, because the text here “Say hello to me” is obviously part of the lyrics from Winter Bear. But the picture is of only Jimin, and he used the hashtag “Baby Bear” in stead of Winter Bear. I think it’s possible he used Baby Bear to reference Tae in stead of the usual “Taetae” or “V” but since it’s only Jimin in the picture a lot of fans started to associate the term with Jimin in stead (it actually started a lot of controversy amongst Tae stans that hate Jimin). Either way it is a bit odd that he isn’t referencing Tae or the song directly. He is basically just using parts of the song in a tweet about himself.

It’s also possible that Jimin actually is using the nickname to reference himself, but it’s impossible to know for sure. (I mean, he was supposed to be Baby J once upon a time right?)

Anyways, after this fans took to saying that Tae was “Winter Bear” (partly because of his birthday in december) and Jimin became “Baby Bear”. Especially since the cover of the song showed two bears fans had fun saying they were Vmin.

I thought that the Vmin connections might have ended there, but once again Jimin came in and connected the song even more to himself by using “Say hello to me” again as the title of his vlive the day “after” the release. (Fans, including me, seeing the title thought it would be Taehyung.) Let’s look at this vlive, because a lot happened. This is where this post might get a bit messy and I suggest watching the clips I talk about in full if you can.

The vlive starts with Jimin listening to and basically hyping the song. Nothing weirds, just a bit more than usual. (Which reminds me of him posting himself singing/miming to Scenery when it first released.)

He also bring up “Baby Bear” again, really connecting it to the song. He talks about Winter Bear and Baby Bear as two separate things, calling Baby Bear the subtitle, but I have no idea what he wants to say with that.

He talks about how he has missed ARMY, and that he got some time before the Lotte Family Concert rehearsal, so he wanted to talk. He also says “We also have a new song with V. I wanted to listen with you.” After a while Hobi shows up and Jimin decides to play Winter Bear again.

Hobi reveals he got to hear it before release and Jimin says he listens to the song every night. Then they sing along to it.

And then Tae shows up as well. We learn Hobi heard it after the Paris concert and Jimin says he loves the song.

Jimin starts telling us about when he first heard the song.

“I can’t remember which country. But a long time ago, we were both awake at 3 am. He was like “You should get some sleep!“. So I said “I’m sorry.” and he said “I did some mixing, do you want to check it out?“ He sent it to me. And I said “Ok, wait, I’ll give you feedback.” and I fell asleep right away. Humming Winter Bear.”

First I just find it very cute that Vmin text each other in the middle of the night during tour, like they meet each other every day and still stay up late writing and talking to each other. Also the fact that Jimin fell asleep listening to Tae’s song which is basically a lullaby about a sleeping person.

There is also another translation of this than the one on vlive, which I think makes more sense at least with the “I told him to sleep” from Jimin instead of from Tae. If so they might have mentioned 4 o’clock again. (Someone who knows for sure, feel free to reply and let us know.)

Then Tae talks about about making the song. Saying it took him a long time to make it.

Apparently the guide was completed around February (at least it sounds like that is what they meant). I am a bit confused by the timeline. But my guess is that Tae started writing the melody early this year and then got inspired to write the lyrics while they were in London, and then showed the result to Hobi while in Paris.

Either way it seems Jimin heard it earlier than Hobi, and he also heard the guide, and thought it was great. 

Hobi also asked “Why Winter Bear?” and Tae starts explaining how they all love the movie “About time” and that there is a scene in the movie where the guy proposes that impressed him and got a lot of words to pop into his head.

The scene actually doesn’t seem to have a lot in common with the lyrics except for the female lead sleeping. (Though you should all watch About Time if you haven’t, it’s great.). Though they do talk about the sleeping scene after just before mentioning the story about how Tae and Jimin talks late at night and about Jimin falling asleep to the song.

Also I don’t know, but Jimin kind of interrupts Tae by playing the flute. Not sure if it was some kind of distraction or if he was just being a bit rude. But Jimin keeps being distracting and seemingly keeping himself occupied not really listening while Tae talks, which seems a bit weird coming from him.

Tae also says he only talked to Hobi, Jimin and Namjoon about the song. Hobi because they shared the same car during tour, and obviously Namjoon helped him make the song, but he as they said earlier he also showed Jimin.

Then they talk about the release, and once again it seems they were both up late. Jimin reveals that Tae stayed up late to check the reactions. Mind you, Tae released the song at midnight, and Jimin wrote at 4 am.

And one part of this story I find a bit odd is how Jimin says “Taehyung said: Did you see it, Baby Bear?” This could just be weird translation though, but it sounds here like Tae referred to Jimin as Baby Bear...

I don’t know. Either that or he actually meant to say Winter Bear but used the wrong word for the title since he was talking about Baby Bear already.

Anyways, that is probably nothing, but it’s a bit funny how Tae and Jimin always have excuses for why they know things about each other. 

Then Hobi also brings up how Tae started with 4 o’clock and then has improved with Scenery and now Winter Bear (all songs that has connections to Jimin in various ways). Right after Jimin also brings up his own song Promise, once again connecting his song with Taehyung’s by bringing them up at the same time. I guess it could just be a natural transition of similar topics, but still.

I am not sure if this actually means anything, but it was still interesting that they brought up all these songs in one go. Then Jimin praises the song again and also mention how he thinks the yawning scene is the cutest part. The one he used in his weverse post. Tae then explains about making the video.

And once again it’s 4 o’ clock. But anyways, again I think it’s interesting how Jimin tells this story, how he saw Tae try hard and wake up early every day to film during the tour.

Then Hobi wants to leave which apparently means that Tae has to leave too. And Tae then says thanks to Jimin, making him confused.

Jimin gets really confused and then flustered by Tae’s statment and then relaxes at the mention of the gift. It’s funny because when fans learned about this, they jokingly said it would be the bears on the cover of the song. (Spoiler, they were right.)

Before the vlive ended Jimin also decided to play Promise again. Meaning the vlive starts with Winter Bear and ends with Promise. 

He also tells us that Taehyung took the pictures for Promise, giving us a reminder of one of the 100% sure connections between Vmin and Promise.

In short, this vlive of Jimin is called “Say hello to me” named after Tae’s song, they promote both Winter Bear and Promise, also mentioning two obvious connections between the songs and Vmin, which are the cover photos.

As we know Taehyung took the picture for Promise and we also learned that the two small bears in Winter Bear’s cover was a gift from Jimin.

Speaking of the bears, I want to talk a little bit about the run episode and some other things I found interesting. First Jimin seems a bit nervous about giving his gift, even to the point of his voice quivering.

Secondly he talks about it being hard finding a gift for only 30 000 won. 

And in fact those two bears alone were about 14 000 won a piece. They were also sold separately, so I have no idea why Jimin bought two. It really seems to be a weird thing to buy two of unless the bears are supposed to be a couple.

He could of course had other reasons, but to me it feels a bit strange to buy two. And there is another factor that makes me raise my eyebrows a bit, and that are the two mugs that Jimin also bought for Taehyung.

First it’s cute if Jimin didn’t think the bears were enough, but I think it’s possible that those two mugs weren’t supposed to be a gift for the manito game. Why I personally think so is for a few reasons. First, as I said the bears alone are already close to budget. And Jimin did state that it was difficult because of the low budget two times without mentioning going over budget.

Then when the mugs are revealed Jimin is at first surprised.

And then he explains that Tae is into ceramics/pottery these days before he keeps talking about the bears, kind of brushing the topic aside. So, I think the mugs weren’t supposed to be a gift for the show but rather Jimin bought them privately.

Later he seems to change the story, when they say it must have been over 30 000 won. Like I said, first he says it was hard because it was only 30 000 won, but then after the mugs are revealed and they ask about it he says there were other things and he asked if he could spend more.

The two mugs also kind of look like couple mugs, since they are of different colors but the same design. I don’t know but usually if you buy mugs as a gift wouldn’t you just get them one? Or two of the same color? Unless you want a pair for two people to match? It’s a bit of a stretch, but just a thought.

Another interesting fact is that Promise also was brought up again in the same episode, thanks to Hobi’s thoughtful gift to Jimin. It’s like Vmin’s songs are destined to come in pairs.

Moving on, Jimin had another Vlive only a few days after the first and in it once again he promotes and plays Winter Bear. (He plays a lot of the members’ songs but I will only focus on the Vmin related stuff).

He starts talking about how he slept well, and then he offhandedly mentions that he dreamt as well. Then he says that “that day, I talked a lot about Baby Bear.” and explains to how the song kept playing in his dream. Honestly, I think Jimin has used Baby Bear just as much as Winter Bear, and I don’t know what to make of that. If he simply uses it by mistake or if he just likes the term Baby Bear more…

He also talks specifically about the cover of the song.

This was before we learned the bears were from Jimin. He explains about the two bears on the cover, and then how the two bears were walking around in his dream while Winter Bear was playing as BGM. His own theory is that he talked about Winter Bear so much, and then also listened to it again so it also appeared in his dream. And apparently so did Taehyung. 

Then later in the live he starts talking about his earring, and then goes into a story of how he got his first piercings.

I just think it’s interesting that he tells us another story connected to Taehyung, and even uses the word promise in relation to him twice. It also shows us there are probably many many stories of them hanging out that we will never learn about.

Then he goes on to introduce his favorite song these days… And well…

So all in one go he let’s us know how much he loves Winter Bear, that he listens to it every day, that the MV is pretty too, that he is possessive about both songs and his friend that he wants to keep “secret” and that the friend is handsome and that he will be the only one who knows him. 

So Jimin and Tae both also talked about secrets in relation to each other in the vlives. Tae with the gift, and Jimin here with his joke. Which is also just an interesting detail. You can also look at the timeline for Scenery and Docskim’s post with “So the secret is out?“ as another instance, but again, this is probably all just a weird coincidence.

So yeah, it’s obviously a joke, but once again Jimin let’s us know that he likes to keep Taehyung to himself while also showering him with praise. He also looks a bit embarrassed, but it’s all really cute.

He also finishes the whole Vlive with a “I purple you.” which is obviously a phrase connected to Tae, even though all members have started to adopt it.

One would think this is already an overwhelming amount of Vmin and Jimin gushing about Winter Bear, but there is more. Yet another vlive. 

Most of it isn’t relevant to this post, but I thought it was interesting with Jimin’s recommended song Nervous by Gavin James. It’s three years old, but I guess he could have found it recently. The lyrics are just a bit interesting since they also contain possible references to Winter Bear, Promise and Spring Day.

I promise that I'll hold you when it's cold out When we loose our winter coats in the spring 'Cause lately I was thinking I never told you That every time I see you my heart sings

I really think this is a coincidence, but still, I wanted to mention it. It’s also a really good song.

Anyways, someone then requests for Jimin to play Winter Bear, so he plays it of course. Saying it’s the song that “dominated his dream” and that the MV is really great too. (He manages to squeeze in another I purple you too, probably reading a comment.)

Then there is the funny coincidence that the commercial playing happens to be Winter Bear.

He listens to the song and sings along, and once again changes a part of the lyrics to Baby Bear. In some cases he might just say Baby in stead of Winter accidentally, but here he clearly changes it as sings it over the original lyrics. I have no idea why he is pushing the Baby Bear things so much.

Then Namjoon comes, they talk and he leaves. But then in the end of the vlive he plays Promise again. Meaning in all three vlives he did recently he not only played Winter Bear, but in all of them also manage to bring up Promise. To me who has all these already existing possible connections between these songs in my head it almost feels like they want me to look closer and associate the songs with each other.

In short, Jimin has managed to promote Winter Bear as well as Promise, brought up a story about a promise to Taehyung and in a way therefor made people associate the songs with each other even more and even pointed out the covers of both songs.

He also ended with I purple you again.

And I am not sure if it’s also relevant, but��“So show me, I’ll show you.” is also kind of (?) a Vmin thing, and he did that too after the I purple you.

That’s already a lot of connections if you ask me, and I have no idea if they have a purpose for this, but considering their other songs having so many similar connections I doubt all of it can be coincidence.

Now let’s look at the lyrics of the song. 

I didn’t think any of these things were relevant or possible to connect to Jimin at first listen, and they still might not be, but I want to bring up a few things anyways just in case.

First the color Blue is a recurring theme for Vmin, which is a stretch but I still wanted to comment on it. It’s Jimin’s official color and also a color that Vmin has used to describe their relationship.

Q: What color describes your relationship?

Jimin: Blue. because we are same-aged friends, We're together the most often.

Tae: I also think it's blue! Blue is a very fresh color and our relationship is very fresh. Even through we often argue, we make up immediately; returning to our usual close relationship.

Jimin: We really do argue over the smallest things. "You danced wrong," No, you're the one that's wrong" etc (laughs).

The color was also referenced before in Tae’s 4 o’clock’s lyrics. 

Just like that movie, like the line (from the movie)  The entire world is blue inside the moonlight

(You can read some more on this in my posts Vmin - Pink, Blue and purple and Red + Blue = Vmin but it’s honestly far off topic from this post.)

This is something I personally doubt has any particular meaning, but there is another similarity between 4 o clock and WInter Bear with the reference to a bird, the blue parrot and the nameless bird. 

At a dusky park A nameless bird that sings

Another thing that I honestly don’t know if it’s just a lucky coincidence or not, is that Jimin had blue hair, while he also wore this jacket last year while they were touring in Europe, aka around the time when Tae seems to have started to write on the lyrics for Winter Bear.

I mean, “looks like a blue parrot” check with the hair. And then the bear like outfit too.

Then you have the lyrics about sleeping, and good night. Which is just interesting considering Jimin kept talking about how he sleeps to the song and even that he dreamt about it. Also Vmin sharing a story about them being up late at night scolding each other for not sleeping.

Then there is the Say hello to me that Jimin made himself connected to through both his tweet and his vlive. Meaning that most of the lyrics in the song has a possible connection to Jimin. But it could just be me looking for it, so who knows.

Moving on we also know that Tae got the inspiration for the song while he was in London after watching a British film.

The movie About Time also happens to be a movie that both Jimin and Taehyung loves. And funnily enough it was a movie I already associated with them thanks to Tae posting this picture and them both talking about it before.

(Jimin actually answers as well.) So Both of Vmin love About Time and Jimin has even talked about how it was Tae who showed it to him.

So in short because of Jimin’s vlives and because of earlier statments we can find quite a lot of possible references between Winter Bear and Vmin. The most interesting ones being:

- We have “blue”, “sleeping” and “say hello to me” as possible connections between Jimin and the lyrics. Especially Say hello to me, which Jimin used twice in relation to himself.

- Jimin making himself connected to the term Baby Bear that is actually not even in the song.

- Bringing up his own song Promise in relation to Taehyung, and at the same time as Winter Bear.

- Jimin reminding us of the cover of Promise being made by Tae and also talking about the cover for Winter Bear. Two things we know for certain makes them connected to each other songs, even if just in a small way.

- Jimin ending all three vlives with “I purple you”.

Anyways, these are the things I could think of. But of course not all of them have to be done on purpose, or any at all for that matter. Still, at least to me, looking at everything combined with their other songs and the things they have said and done it really does seem that they do want to connect the songs to each other to some degree.

I honestly think them doing this yet another time is really interesting and personally I am pretty sure they are doing this on purpose. You all of course don’t have to agree with me, and I know that some of the things I bring up are quite far-fetched. I doubt all of these things are meant to have deeper meaning, but it’s in the amount of possible clues I feel I can now say with confidence that Vmin’s songs are connected. Even if I can’t know why.

I know this post is quite messy and maybe a little too long. But I hope you could enjoy it anyway. Please let me know what you think and please like and reblog if you want me to make more of this kind of posts.

Thank you! I purple you!

[smallmediumproblems]

Life As We Know It

(Also on Ao3)

There is a place, you’ve heard, that people go to for help. It is the only place like it that you’ve heard of in this world. There are countless ways to find advice, information, knowledge, and secrets, but never help. The person who tells you this also tells you that you it’s not a place people should go. That when they do, they are very rarely heard from again. The things that live there are old and dangerous, though perhaps not as much of either as some others you’ve encountered. Most importantly, they are cunning. It’s what makes them dangerous, and what has allowed them to become old. The person who tells you this, who is not your friend, looks you up and down and admits that you might be fine. You, personally and specifically. Sometimes they take a liking to people like you.

You are reminded to be polite. The person who is not your friend suggests that you bring a gift. Music used to be a popular choice, little 45 records and cassette tapes, but it’s hard to know what they don’t have, anymore. If you can bake something, you should do so. If you can’t, then it’s rumored that one of them likes gin. Or was it sherry? You point out that there’s a substantial difference between the two. Your not-friend argues that you could say as much about the people they’re for.

You are not given an address. Instead, you are told which pub to go to, and whom to ask for directions when you get there.

“First time?” she asks. She looks too young for the knowing in her voice, the sympathy she has for you. She can’t know why you’re there. She must, however, know why people go looking for this place. Something in her smirk is unexpectedly sharp, not just with knowing, but with a secret.

It is your first time, so you tell her that. She nods, and pats you on the shoulder.

“Good. Don’t come back.” It’s not a rejection. Not a threat, or even a warning. It is a command, as matter-of-fact as if she were telling you which beer to order from the shabby chalkboard behind her.

The walk is longer than you expected, up steep cobbled roads and down alleyways you’re not sure were there the first time you looked. You are certain that you’ve gone in at least one circle, but nothing looks familiar. As you reach the last couple directions, you realize very abruptly that you are no longer being watched. You can’t remember the last time you felt that way. You can remember the first time, though. It feels like the first time you stayed awake past midnight, the first time you heard that very particular quiet that comes from a place where everyone except you is asleep. It is lonely. It is free.

It’s not midnight when you arrive at the small red-brick house. It is barely past noon. The front yard is also small, and painfully English, overflowing with flowers that you can smell before you step inside. Trestled archways lead back around the house, both so heavily weighed down by roses that they almost look unsafe to walk under. You ignore them. You were told not to wander. A single weathered loveseat is nestled amid an enormous bushel of lavender. There is no other garden furniture. Whatever lives here, you don’t suppose it entertains often.

You pause at the front door for a moment, your mind catching on something that looks out of place. Did the house have this many windows when you opened the front gate? Surely the door wasn’t this color before you took your eyes off it to look at the roses. You only looked away for a second. Something is unmistakably different. You remember, then, that you were told not to wander and not to linger too long without introducing yourself.

So you knock.

The man who opens the door was probably tall, once. His slouch looks intentional, like a petulant teenager. It contrasts with his shock of gray hair, almost white, kept long but not unkempt just around his jawline. He is wearing a green cable-knit sweater that doesn’t fit right and a pair of circular sunglasses, the kind with shields along the sides. They don’t go together even remotely well. The sweater has pulled back from his arm where he is holding the door open, and you can see a large, mottled scar around his hand.

“Alright then, who are you?” he demands.

You give him your name, and as brief an explanation as you can muster. You were told to answer any question you are asked. Hiding things will make it harder for them to help you. The man doesn’t seem to recognize anything he dislikes in you, so he gestures for you to follow him inside.

“You don’t need the lights, do you?” he asks. The inside of the house is in fact completely unlit, though it’s hardly pitch black with the sun streaming in across hardwood floors and thick, bright carpets. You suppose that you don’t, and you tell him as much. It occurs to you that most people don’t wear sunglasses inside. The thought sticks in your head until you notice a pair of white canes propped up next to a coat rack. A clock somewhere in the house strikes 12:15.

You are led to a dining room that is warm with sunlight and opens directly up into the kitchen. There is no music, but the sounds of birds and fountains and very distant cars drift through the open French doors, along with the smell of more flowers in the backyard. The room sounds alive. A second man is bustling around the kitchen, rifling through teabags as he waits impatiently for a kettle to finish heating. He is larger than the other one, though that’s not difficult, considering how thin the other one is. His sunglasses are clunky, unfashionable wraparounds that suit the soft curve of his face. He’s well put-together in a neat collared shirt and v-neck sweater. He is not young, but his curly blonde hair doesn’t yet have a touch of gray in it, and he has the kind of features that always stay a decade or so behind his actual age

“You’re here early,” he comments, with something that might be approval. “Go ahead and sit down, we’ll get started in a second.”

You are already sitting before you can think to respond. There is a low, polite noise at your elbow, and you look over to see very toothy dog smiling at you. You waste a few seconds trying to figure out what kind of dog, exactly, he is. The closest you get is some kind of bull terrier crossed with about five other things, one of which might have been a sofa. The combination is hideous and adorable. He is sitting just close enough that you could reach out to touch him. A tag on his collar reads HELLO MY NAME IS MACGUFFIN, with what you assume to be the same text spelled out in braille underneath.

“Don’t be a pest,” says the man in the green sweater to the dog. Macguffin looks briefly over his shoulder at him and lies down, still staring at you. “He thinks you have food.”

You remember that you do, and you bring out the tupperware container of cookies you made that morning. You explain that you usually put walnuts in, but you weren’t sure if they’d be allergic. They’re not, although the thinner man doesn’t much like them in cookies.

“Well, that’s very thoughtful,” says the man with the wraparound sunglasses. “You’d be surprised how many people bring store-bought stuff, really sort of defeats the purpose.”

“Or gin,” says the man in the green sweater, clearly confused. “I still haven’t figured out how that got started.”

The first man laughs. “I blame Melanie,” he says, “Of course she’s going to tell people to bring us gin if you keep giving it to her.”

The kettle is finished, so he sits down at the table across from you with three cups of tea. The other one, hearing him do so, sits as well.

You are asked to tell your story. You’ve met things that ask questions and pull answers like wings from a trapped insect, and these are not those things. This might be easier if they were. Your answer is slow, halting, and deliberate, tripping over itself and smattered with half-remembered details. The man in the green sweater is clearly impatient, but also silent, reaching for another cookie every time it looks like he wants to say something. After the third or fourth one, the other man quietly puts a hand over his and keeps it there. This seems to have the same effect as the cookies.

You tell them about something that looks back at you out of mirrors, something that has your face and is not you. It was friendly, at first. Saying that out loud sounds like an excuse, but it is true, so it is what you tell them. It was helpful, and when it asked you to do things for it, you wanted to help it back. You knew it was dangerous. That’s what you liked about it. But something happened. No, you did something, something so dark and frightening that you consider lying about it. You take a breath to consider this, and as you do so, you notice another scar on the thinner man’s neck. It is long, wide, and pockmarked, like whatever made it was blunt and jagged. The longer you look, the more scars you see, little crescents up over his jawline. He’s wearing long sleeves. Both of them are. You look at the other man, his head tilted very slightly at attention. You wonder what scars he has, or, if he doesn’t, what he had to do to avoid getting them.

You tell the nice old men about the awful thing you did. It is quiet as you wait for a reaction that does not come. The sound of the world outside continues.

The man with the wraparound sunglasses asks gently what you want to do about it. You want it to stop, to be over. He taps thoughtfully on the other man’s hand, still resting under his own.

“How badly do you want it?” he asks. “You have other options, y’know. What do you think, for the Stranger?”

This is apparently addressed to the other man, who doesn’t sound pleased about the answer he has. “This case? Flesh, maybe.”

“Mmm,” the first man agrees. “Where is Jared, these days?”

“Long gone,” says the second man. “Said he moved to Berlin, I think. Last time I tried to contact him, he said to talk to Marie.”

“Oh, I liked Marie,” the first man says pleasantly. “She fixed up Macguffin after that car accident. Didn’t she boy, didn’t she make you all good as new?”

The dog hastens over to be petted, and the second man makes a derisive noise. “After some negotiating to get the right number of limbs on him, yes.”

Seeing Macguffin move, you’re less sure that his indecipherable mixture of traits is something he was born with. He seems happy enough, either way. As nice as Marie sounds, you explain that that life is not for you. You don’t want to hide behind a different power. You want out. Completely.

More than anything you’ve said so far, this seems to throw them. They don’t exchange a nervous look, of course, but the man in the green sweater tightens his grip on the hand he is holding.

“Are you sure about this?” asks the man in the wraparound sunglasses. “These things have consequences. If it got round to the wrong people that we were passing this stuff out, it might get messy pretty quickly, and not just for us.”

You’re sure. Why wouldn’t you go through with it, anyway?

“It’s… Not pleasant,” says the man in the green sweater. “None of them are, but the Stranger’s is especially harsh.”

You want to know. You need to know. You can’t hurt anybody again, not like you did.

This answer seems to satisfy them. The noise from outside has gone away. You don’t know how long it’s been gone for, or if it will ever come back. The world pauses for these nice old men to tell you how to end your life as you know it. It is a simple thing, which only makes it more frightening. No time for doubts or second thoughts. It is a painful thing, and it would hurt until the end of your natural life if you were to do it. It is a terrible thing. It is not as terrible as what you have done.

You ask them if it’s worth it.

They smile. Each one has a different smile for an answer. The man in the green sweater has given this smile so often that it is etched into his face in creases and lines that you only now match to their source. His smile is tired and persistent, and the way his jaw moves around it, you can almost hear the words upon words that he has decided would not compare with how it makes him feel. His head turns slightly towards where he is holding someone’s hand, as if that might help him picture what it looks like. The man with the wraparound sunglasses is grinning so wide that it almost looks painful. He is getting away with something that he shouldn’t have done, and he is smug and triumphant and full of joy. It’s a private thing, surely meant only for himself, and it strikes you that it might as well be, since the only person that matters cannot see it.

“That’s up to you, isn’t it?” they tell you.

[rainymeadows]

okay so by popular demand (well, from @mewuniverse and @rexidot at least) here’s my overly detailed and possibly-self-indulgent plotline that I conjured up for a hypothetical sequel to PL vs PW

Putting it under the cut because this is LOOOOOOOOOOONG

Note: this is set 2 years after the first PL v PW (Layton is ~39, Luke is 15, Phoenix is 28, Trucy is 10)

The story opens with Professor Hershel Layton sitting on a bench at King's Cross station, reading over a letter he received recently from the Great Thief Yatagarasu, who seems to have blackmailed him into searching for a man who disappeared in the highland mountains of Scotland. Right as he finishes reading, he is met by Luke Triton, visiting from America and delighted to help his mentor solve another mystery. The two share a happy reunion before boarding the nearby train. Further down the platform, Phoenix Wright is listing off items on a luggage list to his daughter, Trucy. He chides her after she admits that she had left her toothbrush in their hotel, but he reassures her that he has a spare and jokingly warns her that her bad breath might scare away the spirits in the Scottish castles. Trucy then presents Phoenix with a hat she had knitted for him, which Phoenix praises and thanks her for. The pair board the train without noticing the Professor or Luke and vice versa. During the journey, after returning from the restroom, Luke asks about the book Layton is reading; Layton explains that he's reading The Phantom of the Opera and gives a brief overview of the plot and themes. As their conversation ends, Layton is approached by Trucy, who has mistaken him for a magician due to his hat and asks for help finding her dad. Layton and Luke agree and the search leads them to the freight car at the end of the train, where they find Phoenix not only handcuffed and blindfolded with his hat, but sitting beside the dead body of a security officer. After the corpse is covered, Trucy uses her lock-picking skill to free Phoenix, who is stunned to see the Professor again; Layton himself is pleasantly surprised at the revelation of who Trucy's father is. Before the reunion can properly go anywhere, another security guard bursts in and demands to know what's going on, and soon apprehends a young girl who had been stowing away in the cargo to arrest under suspicion of the murder in spite of the fact that she doesn't seem to know what's happening at all. The group protest upon seeing how distressed the girl is and Phoenix demands a fair trial. Said trial is quickly set up in the train's dining car, Layton acting as an impromptu judge with Phoenix on defence and Trucy as his co-counsel, though both are confused to see Prosecutor Flynch also on this train. Luke serves as a witness, testifying about the scene that he and Layton had come across when they arrived in the freight car. During this trial, Phoenix recalls that he had been knocked out while searching for the restroom and had woken up blindfolded and restrained; he recalls hearing two men talking and a gunshot followed by running footsteps, but can't be sure who fired. He requests that the suspect testify, but she breaks down crying on the stand and a recess is quickly called. During this recess, the girl finally speaks and explains that her extremely sensitive hearing caused her to be temporarily deafened when she heard the gunshot nearby. Once she's calmed down, she promises to testify properly and, upon beginning this testimony, introduces herself as Athena Cykes, analytical psychologist (followed by an argument with Flynch who points out that she's only twelve). Athena testifies that she didn't commit the murder, but didn't see it either. She does, however, remember the voices of the people she overheard and identifies the guard who had arrested her as the true culprit. Sure enough, after this guard is called to the stand, he is soon outed as not only the murderer, but a smuggler who had argued with and subsequently shot his accomplice. At first he boasts that there is no proof of his guilt, but Athena shuts him down by calling him out on his lying and gives a quick psycho-analysis to finish him off. Phoenix recommends Athena consider a career as a defence attorney and promises her employment should she pursue it, which Athena happily agrees to before the two part. Finally able to talk, Phoenix and Layton explain to each other their reasons for coming to Scotland, but Phoenix behaves distant and tries to duck out of the conversation, apparently not caring about anything Layton or Luke say. Trucy, however, demands that she and her dad accompany Layton and Luke on their pursuit of the missing person, which Phoenix reluctantly agrees to. The four board a bus, upon which Layton properly explains his reasons for coming to the highland mountains, leading to Trucy and Phoenix becoming far more invested after seeing the provided photo of the missing man, although Phoenix refuses to explain further than him being "acquainted" with him. Layton explains that they're heading to the isolated village of Fatargan, leading a fifth passenger to interject; he introduces himself as Bill Wallace, the new doctor posted to Fatargan's clinic who seems cynical, but cautiously optimistic about the village. Upon arrival, the group receive a rather cold welcome from the townsfolk, who are suspicious of the new arrivals and treat them with passive-aggressive disdain. Layton and Luke head for a cottage that Layton had arranged to rent while Phoenix and Trucy find room at the village inn, which is run by a cheerful if threatening young woman named Jack Hill. Soon after, Layton and Luke meet Hill's cousin, Henry Edwards, the local librarian and a fellow puzzle aficionado. They begin their investigation while Phoenix and Trucy have fun exploring the village in spite of the annoyed glares from the townspeople. During this time, Luke is approached by a strange little boy, Tim Chanter, who cryptically gives Luke a stone with a hole in it and promises that it will allow Luke to "see what's really there". That night, all four are awakened by the sound of a violin echoing through the village. Phoenix asks Hill what it is, but she refuses to explain any further than "the Minstrel" and Phoenix is alarmed when Psyche-Locks appear around her, but drops the subject when Hill threatens him with a spade and joins Trucy in listening to the mysterious music. Luke looks out the window through the stone Tim had given him and sees figures swarming the village. Layton reassures him that what he's seeing is the shadows of trees disturbed by wind, which he had thought were figures due to pareidolia. Luke happily accepts this explanation, but remains concerned by the bizarre figures and struggles to sleep that night, especially after Layton can't explain away the violin sounds and seems shaken after taking a look through the stone himself. The next morning sees the village buzzing; Dr Wallace has been accused of medical malpractice. Trucy quickly persuades Phoenix to take the case, even though he isn't a lawyer anymore - he dodges Layton's question as to why - and Phoenix concludes that in this short span of time, they couldn't have organised a proper trial, so it doesn't need a proper lawyer. He takes the case while Layton heads with Luke to the local clinic to investigate the claims. In this trial, Phoenix meets the mayor's daughter Michaela Skellig, who is acting as the prosecutor and is beloved by the townsfolk who consider her an "angel". Skellig behaves sweet and patient, but nonetheless goes out of her way in her pursuit of a guilty verdict for Dr Wallace. When it seems that Phoenix may be starting to lose, Layton arrives with his own information and together the four uncover that the patient, the local chicken farmer, was an addict who had switched the prescriptions himself to receive painkillers and had accidentally overdosed. He refuses to explain why he tried to frame Dr Wallace to Phoenix or Layton, but accepts his arrest and allows Dr Wallace to be cleared. After the trial, when Layton once again tries to probe Phoenix for information about his current state, the group are summoned to see Fatargan's mayor, Angela Skellig. She seems as friendly and approachable as her daughter, but neither Phoenix nor Layton can shake the feeling that her intentions are sinister, which allows the pair to finally have a real conversation after the meeting; specifically the fact that she had not-so-subtly hinted that they should all leave as soon as possible and brushed off Layton's questions pertaining to his investigation. During this meeting, Luke and Trucy head to the library, where they learn that the townspeople worship a deity known as the Painted King who dwells somewhere in the mountains, and that the nightly violin music is to soothe his ghostly Horde and prevent them from invading and destroying the town. Trucy is willing to believe, but Luke remains cautiously skeptical and explains pareidolia to Trucy, who then introduces him to her puppet, Mr Hat. When the pair are found by Phoenix and Layton, laughter erupts at Layton's resemblance to Mr Hat. Later that night, while Luke stays in the library trying to find information about the Painted King, Layton and Phoenix spend some time catching up at the inn, sharing stories about their various adventures. Layton is somewhat annoyed by Phoenix's refusal to explain his current disheveled state of living or where Trucy came from, but decides not to probe because the subject seems to make Phoenix uncomfortable. Trucy entertains her dad's friend with a few close-up magic tricks and is stunned when Layton figures them out and manages to emulate them, and Layton enjoys sharing puzzles with her. On his way back to the rented cottage, Layton comes across the corpse of the chicken farmer, but is found by local police before he can investigate and arrested on suspicion of the murder on the spot. He uses the station phone to call Luke, who alerts Phoenix and Trucy and the trio immediately begin their own investigation into the murder. Phoenix agrees to represent Layton, but seems suspicious and hesitant to believe the Professor's innocence; again, he refuses to admit why. Phoenix and the kids spend the rest of the night investigating, but are interrupted at several points by the figures Luke had seen the previous night; Phoenix and Trucy don't need a stone to see them and Phoenix concludes that Fatargan is haunted. Luke has no choice to agree because there's only so much that pareidolia can explain. The investigation fails to turn up sufficient evidence to prove Layton's innocence, but nor is there enough to prove his guilt, as the lack of blood at the scene shows that this was a body dump but no murder weapon can be found. Dr Wallace performs an autopsy and concludes that the cause of death was a stab wound to the neck, seemingly from a bayonet, and that the murder took place within the timeframe of Layton leaving the inn and being discovered by the police. Said police, twin officers Ray and Ven Poe, are unco-operative and refuse to provide information to Phoenix in spite of his protests, and Phoenix becomes determined to win the case almost purely out of spite. He remains unnerved by the violin music that plays all through the night. The next day sees the trial arriving with the entire town demanding Layton's head, but Prosecutor Skellig remains as calm and kind as always and effortlessly quiets the crowd. Dr Wallace testifies about his findings during the autopsy, but is forced to admit the lack of evidence implicating Layton after Phoenix points it out; this is countered by Skellig pointing out that neither is there any evidence of the true killer's identity and reminding Phoenix that the farmer's death happened after Layton had left the inn. Furthermore, she shows that Layton had a motive in defending the honour of Dr Wallace, leading Trucy to speculate that maybe the villagers just don't like outsiders. During a recess to gather their thoughts, Trucy hatches a plan in case her dad should fail to prove Layton's innocence, and Phoenix apologises for his hesitance in believing that innocence but refuses to acknowledge Layton's reassurance about it. Trucy cites "the day I met Daddy" as inspiration for her plan, leading to more curiosity from Layton and Luke. Sure enough, the trial goes downhill after that, thanks to the testimony of officers Ray and Ven on their discovery of the corpse and investigation into the murder. With the two witnesses banded together and seemingly reading each other's minds, Phoenix is unable to properly penetrate their arguments and feels annoyed and patronised by Prosecutor Skellig's seemingly insincere attempts to comfort him upon his defeat. When Layton is called to the stand to receive his verdict, however, he is confident and declares that he can't be convicted because he isn't there anymore. At that point, he vanishes into thin air. While Phoenix and Luke successfully feign ignorance, innkeeper Hill sees him fleeing across a bridge with Trucy, but when Ray and Ven catch up to her, they discover that Trucy is carrying Mr Hat, who is wearing Layton's coat and hat, and she uses their confusion to escape. She then reunites with Phoenix and Luke at the cottage Layton had rented, with Layton himself arriving soon after, having used a cave system to escape undetected. The group decide to lie low for a while and wait until evening in near-total silence. After the sun sets and the violin begins again, Luke decides that enough is enough and that they should investigate this music. Layton leads the way as they follow the music up a mountain and through another tunnel until they come across a cave opening set high up that mountain, in which stands a shrine where the violinist stands playing. They falter and stop upon hearing the group approach and stagger into view, revealing their identity to be that of the missing person Layton had been assigned to find: Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth. Phoenix and Trucy are horrified to discover this, as Edgeworth is dishevelled, unshaven and close to death from exposure and passes out almost as soon as they realise it's him. Layton quickly analyses his condition while Phoenix gives Edgeworth his jacket for warmth before packing away the violin he'd been playing. The group agree that they should take Edgeworth back to their cottage and Phoenix carries him there on his back, visibly shocked by this revelation and terrified for his friend. Once Edgeworth is safe, Dr Wallace is called for a proper examination and diagnoses him with hypothermia, severe fatigue, chilblains and the beginnings of frostbite, concluding that he would likely be dead if he hadn't been found. The doctor agrees to keep the "Minstrel" a secret and states that he doesn't believe in the Painted King; he only came to Fatargan for the peace and quiet. He also agrees not to snitch on Layton and Trucy as thanks for them clearing his name. That night, after the kids have gone to bed and with Edgeworth still unconscious, Layton is confused to find Phoenix standing outside in the snow and, when he asks what Phoenix is doing, Phoenix speculates the possibility of walking out into the mountains to die. This causes Layton to declare that enough is enough and he demands that Phoenix come back inside and tell him what happened to have put him in such a terrible state, and where on earth Trucy came from. Phoenix accepts a cup of tea and finally tells Layton what had happened to him: only a few months after their adventure in Labyrinthia, a seemingly everyday if confusing case soured when Phoenix presented evidence that turned out to be forged, which led to him getting disbarred, cast suspicion on all of his previous wins and caused many people he had befriended to turn against him. Not only that, but the client he was defending fled - the inspiration behind Trucy's scheme to save Layton - and abandoned his daughter, whom Phoenix took in and explains to be Trucy. Phoenix adds that he had been determined to find out the truth about how he was set up, but his investigation had hit a dead end over a year ago and he had since fallen into a deep depression, only kept going by his care for Trucy. He explains that this was why he was hesitant to speak to Layton and believes himself to be a terrible person because he doesn't want Edgeworth, one of his closest friends, to wake up if it means seeing Phoenix in such a sorry state. When he numbly wonders what Edgeworth would think of him, Layton assures Phoenix that he is still a good person and gives him a shoulder to cry on as Phoenix breaks down and begs Layton to believe his innocence. The next morning, Trucy breaks into her and Phoenix's room at the inn to retrieve a spare jacket, arriving home shortly before Edgeworth wakes up. Once confident that he's safe, Edgeworth explains that he had been visiting Fatargan to learn about how law is practised in rural locations isolated from the legal system, and that his car had fallen into a gorge and prevented him from leaving. Mayor Skellig had coerced him into playing the instrument he explains is called the Silver Violin every night at the mountaintop shrine so that the Painted King would stay asleep, and Layton and Luke deduce that this may have been a fruitless endeavour: an engraving on the violin case states that the Minstrel must be a willing player, so Edgeworth's coercion means his playing wouldn't have been as effective as if someone else had been doing it. "A saviour of the innocent and protector of the weak must play for the dance by their own hand." Layton is still skeptical about the existence of the Painted King or his horde and decides a more direct investigation is needed, but before they can go any further, Ray and Ven arrive to arrest Edgeworth. It's believed that since he had halted his playing the night before, he had allowed a spirit in to kill Mayor Skellig, who was found dead in her office with seemingly no cause. Now somewhat reinvigorated, Phoenix decides to take Edgeworth's case and speaks to him in detention, where Edgeworth has managed to shave and elaborates further on his suspicion of Mayor Skellig. When Phoenix investigates the mayor's office, he discovers a hidden safe, which he opens with help from Layton and they discover documents, pill bottles, a journal and a blood-stained ice pick: Mayor Skellig was the true killer of the chicken farmer and had framed Layton for the crime. Phoenix takes the bottles to be analysed by Dr Wallace while Layton has a read of the Mayor's journal, in which they discover she had fabricated the religion around the Painted King herself based on nearby archaeological findings and her own lust for control and power. With the night drawing in they return to the cottage, where Phoenix tries to unwind by playing the Silver Violin himself, including a short segment of Music of the Night inspired by seeing the Professor's book. He refuses to play after being discovered, but explains that he had taken lessons in college to impress his girlfriend and practiced on and off over the next few years, never wanting to let this skill fade. After Luke and Trucy have gone to bed, Layton enlists Phoenix to help him with an investigation: as he was passing through the caves during his escape from his trial, he had seen a mysterious door that seemed to be sealed with a puzzle lock and he wants to open it to see what's on the other side. Suspecting that it may relate to the Painted King, Phoenix agrees and they proceed to the cave. The pair combine their efforts to open the door, but can't get very far into this new segment before becoming too uncomfortable and concluding that a nighttime investigation might have been a bad idea. Fearing what might dwell inside the cave, Layton and Phoenix flee and emerge just in time to see the Aurora Borealis blossom across the sky. While returning to the cottage, they discuss the potential existence of a supernatural force not only in Fatargan, but in the surrounding cave systems: Layton remains unconvinced, but Phoenix is fully willing to believe that Fatargan is haunted and they wonder if this could have been the cause for the Painted King's religion. Layton also reveals he had already deduced that Phoenix had experience with violin playing, as he knew to loosen the bow strings while packing it away. The next morning sees Edgeworth and Phoenix preparing for the trial while Layton decides to take Luke to investigate the cave, with Trucy demanding to go with "Uncle Layton" because she's still in trouble for helping him escape. Taking an entrance near a pond dubbed the Sacred Well, the trio are almost caught, but evade capture thanks to Trucy disguising Layton as Mr Hat, much to his chagrin. When they descend into the cave that Phoenix had helped to open the night before, they discover a series of paintings detailing the history of the true Painted King and his people, although they are unable to linger because of unstable rock formations that cause Trucy to lose her hat and damage her cloak. The cave lets out on the far side of a mountain where stands a burial mound, which Layton concludes - thanks to the information already gathered - is the grave of the true Painted King. He then leads the kids back to the trial via a safer alternate route so that they can reveal their findings. Meanwhile, at the trial, Michaela Skellig has lost her sweet demeanor and is bitter about her mother's death, and more driven than ever before to see a conviction for Edgeworth, whom she holds responsible. Her behaviour leads Edgeworth to join Phoenix at the defence bench, much to his surprise, and together with Dr Wallace's autopsy report, they reveal that nothing had killed the mayor except her own epilepsy - one of the pill bottles in the safe was her medication. The other bottle was the painkillers from Dr Wallace's own case and the ice pick, one of Mayor Skellig's sculpting tools for her ice carving hobby, was indeed the murder weapon that had killed the farmer; it was his blood on the blade and her fingerprints on the handle. Phoenix and Edgeworth deduce that Mayor Skellig had exploited paranoia about the Painted King to gain power and had turned her people against newcomers and outsiders to keep her scheme under wraps. When Michaela demands the truth about the Painted King, Layton arrives to reveal the truth he's discovered. He explains that the Painted King was actually the chieftain of an ancient Pictish tribe and a habitual warmonger. His confidence in his victory in an upcoming battle had led him to arrange a grand celebration with music and dancing, but a surprise attack had wiped his tribe nearly to extinction, as depicted in the cave paintings and confirmed by the burial mound. However, Phoenix interjects that this doesn't mean the Painted King isn't still haunting the village: he, Luke and Trucy confirm that this place is extremely haunted by the Painted King's horde, forcing Layton to finally accept that ghosts are real. Layton speculates that the Sacred Well may be polluted with some hallucinogenic, but Dr Wallace shoots this down by stating that he had tested the water and found it to be pure; its properties are entirely supernatural. Before this can go any further, innkeeper Hill points out that the sun is setting and nobody has soothed the spirits with the Silver Violin in over a day, meaning that the Painted King's horde is sure to attack the village. Dr Wallace spurs the villagers to fight back against the horde while Phoenix decides to take the role of the Minstrel, providing Layton with his magatama to use as a seeing stone on the provision that Trucy and Edgeworth, who is still in no condition to fight, are kept safe. Phoenix rushes to the mountaintop shrine as the sunsets and begins to play (a Phantom of the Opera medley inspired again by Layton's book) as the Painted King's horde floods the town, combated by the townsfolk wielding tools forged with the Sacred Well's water. Dr Wallace spurs Michaela Skellig into joining the fight while Edgeworth is forced to become involved - using a stone provided to him by Tim Chanter - after one of the Horde tries to attack him and Trucy. However, when Phoenix's playing takes on a slower tune, the horde suddenly stop attacking and begin to move in a choreographed fashion, which Layton realises was the "dance" which the Painted King had wanted to hold. Towards the end of Phoenix's performance, the spirit of the Painted King himself emerges from the mountains, but he and all of his underlings are utterly annihilated by Phoenix's own psychic power amplified by the Silver Violin as he plays his song's climax. Having successfully "played for the dance" like the engraving on the violin case stipulated, Phoenix returns to the village. The Painted King, being the strongest of the spirits, lingers just long enough to thank Phoenix for his playing before finally passing on in peace. With everything resolved, Michaela apologises profusely to Edgeworth and his friends for their treatment by her mother's hand and promises to do better, and that Fatargan will be more welcoming to outsiders in the future now that they no longer have to live in fear of the Painted King. She also demands that Phoenix keep the Silver Violin and orders him not to sell it, which Phoenix agrees to on the condition that he never has to play in sub-zero temperatures again. With everything resolved, he and his friends return to Layton's cottage to rest before the bus arrives to take them home the next morning, where Layton praises Phoenix's performance and Phoenix thanks Layton for his help in uncovering the truth about the Painted King. Trucy laughs, Luke rolls his eyes and Edgeworth demands they get a room, to Layton and Phoenix's embarrassed confusion. On the bus ride to the station, Trucy orders her dad to keep in touch with Layton for the sake of his mental health, causing Phoenix to realise that was her plan all along. Layton assures Phoenix that he had no problem with this, with Luke pointing out that it led them on a fun adventure, although Edgeworth debates just how much fun can be had freezing to death on a mountain but nonetheless expresses admiration for Phoenix's playing. He reiterates that Phoenix should NOT sell the Silver Violin, which Phoenix hastily agrees to. Later, on the train while Edgeworth naps with Luke and Trucy, Phoenix tells Layton that he no longer wants to wallow in self hatred: this escapade has reinvigorated his desire for the truth and he vows not to let himself fall back into despair unless he can first find out who manipulated him into getting disbarred, even if it takes six months, five years or a century. Layton encourages this determination on the provision that Phoenix supports Trucy along the way and encourages her talent for magic. Some years later, while trying to tidy up in anticipation of a new employee arriving from Europe soon, Apollo Justice is confused to find a violin case in his boss' office. He asks Trucy about it, who explains that this is the Silver Violin and that it has the power to banish evil spirits. When Apollo is confused, Phoenix enters having just finished shaving and explains that the violin is his; Apollo deduces that he must have played recently because the case isn't dusty in the slightest. Phoenix offers to demonstrate his skill, which Apollo agrees to, although not as enthusiastically as Trucy who demands that her dad tell Polly about their adventure with Uncle Layton afterwards. Proud of how far he has come since then, Phoenix happily begins to play.

[prettylittleheartfilia]

The Color of Sound

I found this while looking for prompts and fell in love with the idea. Hope you enjoy ☺️

Lucy Heartfilia loved to read. Ever since she was a little girl, she would spend day and night in the Heartfilia Mansion library. She read books of romance, adventure, mythology, mystery, but her favorite books to read were memoirs. Specifically, memoirs of Bonded Souls: Two people who would be born with opposite defects and heal once they found each other. She longed for the moment when she would find her own soulmate to complete her, though sometimes she felt it was futile.

She could sense by the way people looked at her that everyone pitied her. She didn’t blame them, though. Most people met their soulmate by age eighteen, and Lucy was already twenty. Not to mention, she was a rare case. Most people were born without a left eye, or a right leg, and waited to meet someone without a right eye, or a left leg. However, Lucy was not missing a part of her body, but a sensation. What could possibly be the opposite of deafness? Lucy knew everyone around her believed her soulmate was dead, and she wondered about that too sometimes.

Nonetheless, there was one factor that didn’t let her hopes die: If her soulmate was dead, she would’ve gotten his defect. Aside from being deaf, there was nothing out of the ordinary with her body or senses. This meant there was a possibility her soulmate was still alive and just as anxious to meet her as she was to meet him. So, she kept hoping and praying that her fateful day would come soon.

“You are going to love this place, Lev. They have the best coffee.” Spoke Lucy in sign language as they approached Fairy Tail Cafe, a new coffee shop that just opened up a little outside of campus.

“I do hear a lot about it. Mira works here, right?” Said Levy, while using sign language.

“Yeah. Lisanna and Elfman too. Their grandpa owns the place.”

The family-owned business was really nice; a cozy little cafe bookstore that always seemed quite busy. Ever since its grand opening, Lucy would spend her afternoons reading books and drinking lattes in the corner.

The two girls sat down on a table after ordering drinks and started catching up. They had been best friends since middle school, but Levy studied in a different university thirty minutes away, which meant the girls couldn’t see each other as often as they’d like.

They had been talking for about an hour when the door opened. Lucy spotted a blue-furred (what?) dog. At first she wondered who would bring a dog in a cafe, until she looked up to see a tall man, about her age, with pink hair and sunglasses. Before she could even process, her stomach started feeling fluttery, and she could start to hear a distant cacophony that seemed to get closer by the second. It was annoying, and the blonde was starting to get a headache. After about thirty seconds, the sounds started dispersing, and her head felt lighter. It was then she realized that she could listen. She could hear the sound of the coffee machine, she could hear the sound of Mira’s voice as she stood behind the counter— She had a really sweet voice, and Lucy couldn’t believe she had never heard it before. She could hear the rustling of sheets as people reading books turned the pages. She could hear the soft pop music playing in the background, even though it was pretty low. She could hear the worried tone on Levy’s voice as she sat closer to Lucy to give her a hug.

“Lucy?” Levy was very confused. She had seen how Lucy suddenly covered her ears with the palms of her hands, and how she had started crying out of nowhere. “Is everything okay? Talk to me.” She spoke in sign language for Lucy.

“Y-yes.” She said hesitantly. “I can hear.” Her voice was a little incomprehensive. There were very few times where she had actually used it, after all. But she had been practicing her speech for about three years now, knowing that the time to meet her soulmate was possibly coming close. She knew how to say a fair amount of sentences, though she didn’t practice conversing with a lot of people, as she was self-conscious about her voice and let very few people hear her.

“You what!?” Levy stood up from her seat so fast the chair fell down, drawing people’s attention, including Mira’s, who looked over to them with concern. “Lucy can hear! She can hear!” She exclaimed in between sobs as Mira rushed to their table.

“She what!? Lucy, congrats! Who is it? Who’s the lucky man?”

But Lucy was too preoccupied looking at the pink haired man, who had taken off his glasses and looked at her with tears in his eyes. She stood up from her seat, walking over to him as he did the same. They stood there, staring at each other, for a while. Turns out the opposite of deafness was blindness, according to the universe. Neither party could believe it. She could listen. He could see. Finally, for the first time in their entire lives, they felt complete.

“Hi.” The guy finally said, with a grin that covered half of his face. Lucy decided she had never seen a more genuine and beautiful smile. “I’m Natsu.”

“Hi.” She beamed back. “I am Lucy.”

Natsu wondered why her speech was so peculiar for a split second, but then remembered how her friends were yelling about her being able to hear, so he guessed her defect was being deaf.

“Do you… want to get out of here?” He said, signaling to the door. “We can talk and get to know each other.” He talked while making gestures with his hands, hoping she understood.

Lucy nodded with a smile. She got back to her table to gather her things and say goodbye to her friends, who were smirking despite the tears in their eyes.

****

“You know sign language?” Asked Lucy while sitting next to Natsu on the bench in the park.

“I know a little bit. Do you understand people when they speak? Or would it be easier if I used gestures?” Natsu asked kindly, still trying his best to make comprehensive hand gestures.

“I read English. I understand a lot, but some things are confusing.”

Natsu nodded, and they stayed silent for a couple seconds until he had an idea.

“I know! What if I help you with your speech and you help me with different colors? I always wanted to know what they looked like.” He stated sheepishly.

****

“Yellow.” Said Lucy as she pointed to one of the throw pillows on her couch. After their fateful encounter, they had agreed on meeting the next day to start “coaching” each other. Lucy invited Natsu to her place for lunch and he had spent the entire afternoon teaching her new words and their pronunciation. Truth be told, he was learning words that he didn’t even know existed too.

After hours, they moved on to teach Natsu the different names for colors. He was fascinated to find out what the colors that he always heard people mention actually looked like. So far, he believed his favorite was red; it was vibrant, and never failed to catch his attention whenever he had seen it on his 28 hours of having vision.

“Wait, that’s the color of your hair.”

“Yeah! Oh, and pink.” She said as she pointed to his hair. “My favorite color.”

He always wondered what he looked like. His friends and family often described him and never forgot to tease him for his unusual hair color. He knew most people had brown, black, blonde, or red hair, so he didn’t know how to feel about his. When he saw himself on a mirror for the first time yesterday, he didn’t really like his hair color. But, suddenly, he didn’t think it was that bad anymore.

They spent hours every day teaching each other and hanging out, both really enjoying each other’s presence. They found out their favorite things to do were to watch television and walk around the lake, as these were experiences that they had never been able to enjoy to the fullest until now.

After a month of hanging out almost every single day, they decided to start dating. Even though they knew they were meant to be together, they wanted to take things slow and really get to know each other before making things official.

They couldn’t be happier. Lucy loved Natsu’s goofiness and happy-go-lucky personality. She also loved Happy, his guide dog, who really liked to mess with her and sometimes got on her nerves, but they shared a strong bond despite everything.

Natsu loved Lucy. There was no other way to describe it. In the short amount of time he had gotten to spend with her, he discovered how amazing she was. She was beautiful, and smart, and cheerful, and kind. He often wondered what he had done to deserve such a perfect soulmate, but he wasn’t complaining.

After a year of dating, Natsu had finally decided to pop the question.

“You ready, man?” Asked Gray, Natsu’s best friend… and worst enemy.

“As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.”

“You know she’s gonna say yes! What are you so worried about?”

“I don’t know! It’s just all so... nerve-racking. Didn’t you feel that way when you proposed to Juvia?”

“A little bit. But, I guess it was so unplanned I didn’t really have time to be nervous. You know I proposed a week after I met her.”

“Yeah.” Natsu chuckled at the memory. “I remember. I guess getting back your thumb really made you commit.”

“Hey.” Replied Gray with fake solemness. “Imagine living your whole life without a right thumb. It’s not pretty. She knew the struggle.”

Natsu chuckled as he adjusted his tie. The plan was to take Lucy to a fancy restaurant for a romantic, candlelit dinner. After that, he would drive them to their favorite lake where they would lay and stargaze for a while until he decided that it was finally time to propose.

****

After hours of getting ready, Lucy was finally satisfied with her look. Natsu always did random romantic things like these, but it never ceased to excite her. She wore a red satin v-neck dress with a skater skirt that reached just above her knees, paired with some open-toed silver heels. She was checking herself on the mirror when she heard her phone ring.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Luce! Whatcha doing?”

“Just finished getting ready. Are you on your way?”

“Yeah. I’m just a couple of blocks down. I’ll be there in two—”

Before he could finish the sentence, Lucy heard the sound of screeching tires and a loud, lingering beep noise.

“Natsu? Natsu!?” The call had disconnected, she knew that, but in her moment of panic she did not care for logic. “Please answer me, Natsu!” She sobbed into the phone fruitlessly.

After a while, she heard the sound of sirens passing by, but the noise started sounding farther and farther away as her vision got blurrier by the second, until all sound was gone, and all she could see were the shadows of things that were once full of color.

The world had turned dark once again.

@daydream-wannabewriter @theweiszguy