#We were given like 20 minutes of extra time just with singing and dancing

[keltherealone]

i just won an escape room with some friends but only because we were singing and dancing

[evelyne-am]

15th March 2023

15th March 2023 Day 2

That lack of sleep from the 4:30am cramps meant, I forgoed my want to be there when sir enters. I slept an extra 15 minutes and reached 8minutes before call time. Other than 2 of the boys everyone was already there warming up and I felt a bit shit. That extra 20 minutes early everyone comes, feels like a sign of community, setting up the room, warming up together, I told myself, unless I’m super sleep deprived, I won’t do it anymore.

By the way I haven’t mentioned yet. We are prepping a play to perform end May. we will be rehearsing morning till afternoon 6 days a week till the performance (with 5 days off for Eid,)  which will be 25 performances over 10-12 days! It seems a lot but trust me 2 months is Nothing, especially since we have miles to go. The day was super cloudy and so was Sir’s mood. I can feel the urgency to get the group synced but we are not. Not yet. One of the boys didn’t come, the shadow one, but nothing was said. First half we could sense sir’s frustration today that we all barely know each other and aren’t syncing. Today’s break I actually got. Sat on the roof (you saw my insta story with the transgender lady doing what my sister says is probably a tiktok (egula buzi na.)) I love Shilpakala, at any given time there are people singing, dancing, acting, there’s a jute fair downstairs, multiple events, in the evenings it is soo happening. However in the morning, there is this lovely inner circle calm around the scare people in the building. Only those who are the core team, or building their deep dedications are there at times like 8am. I feel amazing to be part of that. I started my career with western music and later did bangla music, I never really did the Dhaka route, of Shishu Academy, Chayanaot, Shilpokala. I’m the English medium girl who opened for Nemesis in Russian Cultural Centre, and later it was only through my choir Ghaashphoring and when I joined Mita Huqs Suurteertho that I got to do more traditional venues and events. I love it. My perspective of life is different, always has been. It’s not that my family isn’t Bengali enough, if you know them, you know that’s the opposite of true. But it’s that I was always different, I’ve always lived in my own world. A friend of mine, when told that im doing a play about 1971, instantly said, oh isn’t 1971 done to death already? And I felt like, not for me! I’ve never worked with it! I’ve never had that exposure to films/songs/events. Not because they don’t happen, it’s because I”ve never had my own connection to it. And so no, it’s not done to death! There are people like me, of my generation and younger who just know the basics from our class 4 textbooks, we’ve slept through 16 December and 26th March holidays. The English medium schooling system has  always had us not be as Bangali and aspire to be more Western, more “international” and sure that has helped me in some places, but be it Berklee or in my career, it is my connection to my roots that has gotten me places, and I am on a journey in Dhaka for the past 8 years to know all the things I missed. And I know for a fact there are many many like me, some who will never know, and some who are frustrated that they don’t. And yes there are aspects we get stuck on about 1971.. But the women’s side of the war, is the least talked about, least films, books, songs, museums, memorials. On top of that, it could be that this particular artist has not worked on a topic others have, just because others have I don’t feel like we should be limited exploring it. Anyway, Day 2 I still drooped during text reading, (diet coke didnt help, shall i try caffeine?), my left leg was slightly sprained from the fall; but we read M2, now we know all the 3 M stories. We were given some time to think about all 3 Ms and demonstrate some things about how we interpret all 3 M stories. I imagined one to be very forlorn and look out the window and as I did so to channel her, I saw something that I had been hunting for, just on the street of Segunbagicha (I’ll write later as certain peeps read the blog and I don’t want to give it away yet.) Despite the cloudiness of the morning vibes, overall day 2 in class went well, and we were assigned one each to work on for the actual “audition” and character development process.

If you are on my insta, you know I did a long walk through Ramna Park and DCL. Those are things I hope to have in my routine and write about as I explore more. I’m still struggling with time and sleep, this day too I could not get to my homework before it was 11pm, my remainder of the musical admin work is piling up too. I am trying to schedule my life, so I have less work hours outside this play, and still can afford my life. I will make it happen, some plans in the works. (Just need to wrap up some cocacola stuff :P ASAP)

[lightsovermonaco]

His Good Sweater: Chapter 10

Masterlist

Shoutout to my bestie @acollectionofficsandshit for all the drunk comments she made while betaing this one... Wish you guys could see them lol

Word Count: 4.8k

Recommended song: “Amnesia" by 5SOS

Pierre paces in his dinky trailer at the Circuit of the Americas and desperately tries to forget you exist. He had already taken down the pictures on the wall but the images were burned into his brain. He had shoved your shirt under his bed, having absolutely no idea how it had made its way halfway around the world to taunt him.

He was slowly unraveling like a spool of thread on a loom as you wove him irrevocably into the tapestry of your life.

The race in Austin started in less than two hours and you hadn't texted him. Not once in the handful of years he'd known you had you neglected to wish him luck before a race, even if it was 2 am your time or you had exams, you always took thirty seconds to warn him to be safe and finish well.

He was beginning to think you hated him for how he'd acted at the gala last weekend, jealous and possessive from afar. Talking to you would have been the better choice. But seeing you laugh and dance the night away had hurt too much. He’d slipped out early after Victoria assured him she could find a ride and sped home to fall apart.

He had only barely managed to piece himself together in time for the race.

Pierre checks his phone for the third time in as many minutes and swears under his breath. He didn't know why he expected it to ring and for your face to pop up at this point. Even if you called to tear into him, he'd still fall to his knees at the sound of your voice. He just wanted to hear you speak, didn't care what was said, only that he could latch onto your words and lose himself in them.

Hope sparks when his phone chimes but he nearly throws it across the trailer when he sees Charles' name.

Heard from her yet?

No. At this point I'm beginning to think I never will again.

Maybe she fell asleep early?

It's 5 pm in London. I'll bet you she's eating a bowl of takeout from the Chinese place down the street, not sleeping.

Its still possible. Don't dwell on it. This isn't the headspace you wanna be in before a race. Block it out. I don't wanna see my best friend wind up hurt today.

Pierre didn't reply, if only because Charles was right. Worrying would get him nowhere. After his shitty qualifying yesterday, he started thirteenth on the grid so he had his work cut out for him. Austin offered plenty of opportunity for overtakes; he could get the job done if his team made the right calls. 

And if he made it to the podium, you would have to text him.

The thin mattress groans when he sits to unlace his hastily tied race boots. He folds his legs to sit criss cross and places his palms on his knees. The familiar pose already has some of the tension leaving his shoulders as his eyes slide shut. He breathes in for ten seconds, reflecting on what ails him. He holds the breath for five seconds before releasing it slowly.

He repeats the process until he comes to terms with the fact that you won't be wishing him luck. That was your choice; there was nothing he could do about it and therefore no sense reading into it. He had done all he could to convince you to trust him. The ball was in your court; he had to be patient and wait for you to take a shot.

“Focus,” he murmurs to himself, forcing any erroneous thoughts from his head. “Walk through the track.”

The circuit at Austin was challenging, consisting of a mix of 20 sweeping corners and scattered hairpins. He was almost lucky in a way to be starting so far back on the grid because turn one was only a few hundred meters from pole and their tires would be slightly colder and less grippy upon arrival than his would be. The few extra seconds afforded to him by starting thirteenth could mean the opportunity to leap frog past his rivals in the first corner.

The counterclockwise circuit meant he would have to keep an eye on his front left tire too, as it would wear faster than the others. He'd change gears an average of 66 times per lap, higher than similar length tracks like Monaco. Pit stops cost an average of nineteen seconds, meaning he would need to build a significant gap to the driver chasing him in order to avoid the threat of any undercuts.

There were too many variables occupying space in his mind to afford you a sliver of it.

Some time later he decides that his four leaf clover tucked safely in the worn leather of his wallet will provide all the luck he needs and switches on his pre race playlist after popping in his ear buds.

"Sights on the podium," he murmurs to himself, hand on the doorknob. "Let's race."

The bass flows through him as his feet carry him to the Alpha Tauri garage on autopilot, through the back entrance and to his plain white driver room. The familiar beats are a numbing salve spread on his frayed nerves, his anticipation rising like a crimson wave in his veins. He leaves his clothes in a haphazard heap in the corner and changes into the white fireproofs hanging nearby, thoughts momentarily veering to you knocking on the door and stripping them right back off.

Shaking his head to clear his mind, he runs through his usual stretch sets until Pyry arrives to walk him through reflex exercises.

"How's your head?" Pyry asks, running him through more cool down stretches. "Do we need to take a minute and do some meditation?"

"Beat you to it," Pierre grunts out, pushing back against the hand on his head to work his neck. "I'm good."

"You sound better than you have all week, I'll give you that. Keep that focus, use it to propel yourself forward."

"Run me through the lineup again," Pierre requests, "I need something else to think about."

Because if he let his mind follow the path it wanted to, it would inevitably lead to you and undo the work he had done to avoid that. He needed to be empty of anything that wasn't racing, anything else was an unnecessary distraction that had the potential to end in disaster.

Pyry rattles off the grid in order of who Pierre needs to overtake, pausing between each name to give him time to recall their driving styles and potential chinks in their armor to exploit. He knew from tapes of previous years that Stroll often ran wide into turn one, giving Pierre the option to brake late and sweep up the inside. Vettel was half convinced the track was cursed, so his mind would work against him enough that Pierre could exploit it and get past at some point. He continued until he got to Hamilton and Max locking out the front row, where he would need a bit of luck to overtake.

"You got it?" Pyry asks, stepping back.

Pierre rolls his shoulders and nods. 

"Get shit done mate," Pyry says and bumps fists with his driver. He slips out to allow Pierre a moment to center himself before slipping into his race suit, leaving it half unzipped and tying it around his waist before following his trainer.

Pyry leads the way to where the matte navy and white car waits, mechanics swarming it like studious worker bees tending to their queen. No one talks to him save his engineer because words from anyone else threaten to break his carefully constructed race mentality. If they wanted him to bring home points, they knew to leave him alone once he was suited up.

His mind is blank of anything but statistics as he twists his ear buds in and pulls on his balaclava and helmet. As his vision narrows to the sliver of track he can see through his visor, so does his focus. With forty minutes to lights out, he's directed out onto the track. He rips the wheel to the right as he exits the garage, getting a decent powerslide for his efforts.

There was no doubt in his mind that he would land on the podium, if only to see the look on your face when he did.

**********

It took an unfathomable amount of restraint to keep yourself from calling Pierre to wish him luck.

You texted Max instead, wishing him a safe and comfortable podium a half hour before lights out. He hadn't responded, likely already in the garage with his trainer going through his pre race routine.

The pace Max had set the day before had awarded him pole position and the margin between him and Hamilton had been enough that you were confident in his ability to hold off the Mercedes for all fifty six laps.

If you were honest with yourself, you were disappointed that the Alpha Tauri you so desperately tried to ignore would be starting in thirteenth. You try not to think about it, instead queueing up SkySports and opening your laptop for pre race coverage. You avoid the interviews in favor of listening to the commentators analyze the grid.

"It should be an easy win for Max as long as he fends off Hamilton until the first round of pit stops. The undercut works well here, as Red Bull proved last year, and I'm sure they plan on doing the same thing this year."

You hum in agreement, gingerly sipping your steaming tea. You really ought to consider a career as a sportscaster at this point based on how often you came to the same conclusions they did.

"I think one of the biggest shakeups is Russell starting all the way up in eleventh after his amazing qualifying for Williams yesterday. Think he can hold onto that position?"

"He's got some fierce competition not far behind in the form of Alpha Tauri. Gasly starts thirteenth- surprisingly far back on the grid given the otherwise flawless performance he's shown this year. But it seems likely that he should be able to overtake-"

You flick the tv on mute, unable to stomach listening to them sing his praises. You numb your mind with social media until the Formula 1 theme plays on your laptop, alerting you that there's a few minutes until race start. Tire blankets are peeled off and the drivers weave their way through the formation lap with the exception of Kimi who takes his traditional straight line approach to warm up his supersoft tires. 

Most of the front runners are on ultrasofts, indicating a two stop strategy. It was Pirelli's recommended approach, and you were glad that Horner heeded their advice for once and let Max use the ultras in Q2. It would give Max the upper hand over Hamilton who starts on the yellow sidewall tire and thus slightly slower lap times.

Crofty and Brundle break down the notable turns as the cars line up on the grid, pointing out the sharp hairpin only a few hundred meters from pole position. If Max got away clean, he would be ahead of the cramped pack and have an even better edge over the silver arrows who would be forced to queue behind him.

The traditional "lights out and away we go" kicks off the grand prix, engines roaring into the first turn. Max does manage to get away clean and is awarded with an immediate advantage. Turn one proves tragic for the Alfa Romeo of Raikonnen and the Asthon Martin of Stroll who collide and cause Kimi to spin. They rejoin at the back of the pack, your eyes snagging on the navy and white of an Alpha Tauri as it streams past. 

Your heart spins in a similar fashion when the GAS driver tag leaps up two places in the timing table, suddenly in eleventh due to the incident. Your gaze snaps to the laptop humming on your legs before you remember its Max's driver cam you queued up. The Dutchman is silent as his engineer relays information about the incident and informs him of the widening gap between those chasing him. 

“Confirm received,” Gianpiero says calmly. No matter the situation or how heated Max got, he always kept his head. It was what made the duo such a good match and had likely kept Max from going off the rails on more than one occasion.

“Yeah,” Max says shortly, clearly pissed about how quickly Hamilton was approaching. “Let me know when I’ve got enough charge to get out of range.”

“Yep, will do. Just keep this pace and you’ll hold him at bay.”

Live coverage replays the incident between Stroll and Raikonnen from the view of onboard with Pierre. The instant the 10 on the halo appears in the center of your screen you suck in a breath. He yanks the wheel to avoid colliding with Ocon, who had to do the same to keep from hitting his teammate as they navigate through the carnage.

You chew on your lip and try to refocus on the battle between the front runners. Not much is happening in the midfield for the next thirty or so laps and Max just barely manages to build a solid enough gap between himself and Hamilton to dive into the pits comfortably without losing places. 

Your phone rings and you answer it without checking who it was as the only person you wouldn't answer was currently occupied.

"Hello?"

"Why the fuck didn't they pit Daniel?!"

You grin, noting the blistering beginning on his front left tire as SkySports switches to his onboard camera. "Because he's about to pass Charles," you tell Dan's girlfriend. She didn't call you often during races. It was likely that she knew you were nearing your wits end and this was her way of offering support.

"He won't be able to with those tires- oh." She breaks off when Daniel passes a DRS detection zone and his rear wing opens, allowing him to pass the Monegasque with ease. 

"Told you," you say with a touch of reprimand. "You're always too nervous about those things. Daniel knows how to drive, just trust him to get the job done and he'll bring home another trophy for your apartment."

"I don't live here," she points out and you roll your eyes. She had lived in London as long as you had known her, but she was almost always at Daniel's apartment whether he was in town or not. Daniel digs in as the camera follows him for a lap, highlighting the widening gap between the McLaren and the Ferrari.

"You basically do. At this point, you're paying rent for a dusty one bedroom apartment on the east side that you set foot in maybe once a month." She scoffs but you push on, "a waste of sterling if you ask me, when you're at Daniel's every time I ask you to do anything."

"You act like I never- there goes Pierre!"

His name sparks dread in your gut as your attention flicks back to the screen in time to see him overtake Bottas on the inside of turn one. He'd managed to claw up to fifth with the move, somehow gaining places while you weren't looking.

"Good for him," you croak, trying your best to be genuinely happy for him. He was pushing the car to the limit and you'd be amazed if he didn't wind up on the podium along with Dan and Max. Charles and Hamilton were the only ones in his way, and something told you Charles wouldn’t put up much of a fight when his mate reached his gearbox. Hamilton would prove a challenge but he had been making tiny mistakes all day. Nothing significant, though enough to add up to him barely holding onto second while Daniel rode his gearbox.

"He's got ten laps to get past those two," she murmurs as if momentarily forgetting you were on the phone. 

"Can we talk about literally anything else please?" You whisper, half tempted to shut off the race completely. 

"Babe, you have to face the music at some point. Either you never want to see him again or you love him, which is it?"

She never failed to be anything but brutally honest. You appreciate it because everyone else let you brush off your problems, but she called you on your bullshit. She would needle you about it until you folded.

"I think it's better for both of us if I pretend we never met, don't you?"

"Easier for you, yes," she agrees. "But it'll kill Pierre. You don't think you could keep in touch with him, just as friends?"

"I don't know if I can handle that. I can barely look at him without wanting to bawl my eyes out."

She sighs, pausing to contemplate what to say. Voice soft, she continues, "Why don't you just take him back? Clearly it's ruining both of you. Are you really gonna let the press wreck the best you ever had? I know its hard but-"

"I'm not like you," you cut in. "I can't just ignore the articles and the comments and pretend there aren't people out there that hate me for being with him. They came to my house, disrupted my family. Hell, Ben can't even go to school without being mobbed by his classmates demanding answers. If my suffering is what allows my family to go about their lives then so be it."

"If that's what you wanna believe."

You sigh, tangling your fingers in the hem of your shirt. "It is."

"Alright," she says, voice teetering on a knife's edge. "I know better than to try to change your mind when you're like this. He's on the podium by the way. Oh, and watch what you say to Max- Pierre will read into it."

She hangs up without a goodbye, leaving you to deal with the realization that the podium is indeed VER RIC GAS on your own. Your eyes are glued to the Red Bull and McLaren drivers, blatantly ignoring the one in the white suit as the anthems play and the champagne is sprayed, turning away to busy yourself with making coffee when Daniel hands his liquid filled race boot to third place.

You weren't quite sure how you were supposed to watch what you said to Max- there was no reason to in your mind. Max was your next closest friend on the grid and you had every right to congratulate him if you wanted to.

Resolute in your decision, you text Max and Daniel a quick congratulations before shutting off the TV and closing your laptop.

Max's insane custom ringtone he'd selected for himself nearly makes you jump out of your skin when it blares from your phone.

"Hey great race-"

"Did you see it? I wasn't sure if you'd watch it- did you see my move on Hamilton when he tried to get past me?" He was talking a mile a minute like he was still out on track. "I was like- and then Dan tried to overtake me on the final lap and I was like no way! And then-"

"Max," you chime in, dragging out the 'a' with a sing-song voice. "You're rambling."

"Oh right. Yeah but I made it! Led every lap and finished with another win."

"That's great." You force as much enthusiasm in the words as possible, trying to match his chaotic energy. "You did great. I know it probably doesn't mean much, but I'm proud to be your friend. You beat a world champ!"

"It means a lot-" 

"Who's that?"

You stiffen at the familiar cadence. You had assumed Max was back in the garage when he called, but he must have still been in the podium room. You could picture him in his race suit, smudges of grease and dirt staining the pristine white. Beads of sweat probably ran down his neck, begging to be brushed away by your tongue. 

"Uh, no one," Max says in a lame attempt to cover up his digression. "I gotta go," he whispers to you. 

"Let me talk-"

"Wait don't," you start, but the call ends abruptly and you blink. You stare down at your phone, completely dumbfounded. Of course his instinct would be to talk to you, to share the euphoria of a podium with you. It was the first victory in three years he wouldn't have you to celebrate with.

It was only a matter of time until his resolve popped like the cork on his champagne.

**********

Pierre's phone is in his hand as soon as Max hangs up. He hefts his trophy in the other, a wild grin on his sweaty face as he snaps a picture. He makes sure he's the only one in the frame, shamelessly wanting himself to be the center of your attention.

"Mate," Daniel pipes up, catching his eye, "you think that's a good idea?" 

Pierre sighs, cutting the Australian a glare. "I'm just trying to fill her in."

"Wasn't your plan to give her space?"

"It's been a week, isn't that long enough?"

"Take it from me, sometimes it takes months for someone to figure things out. Hell, you know how long it took me to sort through my feelings for-"

"I know," Pierre cuts in. "I know. I just- a snap can't hurt can it? C'mon, I just got a podium! If it goes bad I can blame it on the post race jitters."

Daniel holds up his hands and shrugs. "You're a grown man. Do what you want."

Pierre studies the photo, scrutinizing the way his hair was plastered to his head and the awkward way he'd posed to keep anyone but himself out of the frame. It's his genuine smile that he knows will do you in, and ultimately the reason he sends it.

His phone is a lead weight clutched in his grip as he winds through the paddock, constantly stopped by vips and team members congratulating him. None of what anyone says registers, he just tries his best to match their mood and sputter praises about his team's contributions to his podium. 

The snap you finally send back is only from the eyes up, but it's enough. He's surrounded by people in his driver room, but for ten seconds it might as well have just been him staring at a sliver of your face on a screen.

The tiny lines at the corners of your shining eyes tell him you're smiling, which is a step in the right direction even if you won't let him see your entire face. It's enough to reignite the hope that slumbered in his chest while waiting for you to pull the trigger and make a move.

He sends back a video of the people in the room, who cheer when they realize they're being filmed. 'Wish you were here,' is what he captions it and sends it without giving himself a chance to overthink.

Ten minutes pass with no reply.

The beer he’s already consumed have given him a pleasant buzz as well as an excuse to make a bad decision or two. He takes another video of the room to post to his Instagram story, 'Missing you' written in the lower left corner.

Fuck, he hopes you'll see it and regret leaving him on read. Instead all he gets is a text from Charles chastising him for stirring up drama.

Really Pierre?

Blame it on the alcohol, he texts back. 

I know you aren’t drunk. You can’t form a coherent sentence when you are.

Guess i gotta drink more then

Pierre doesn’t turn anyone bearing alcohol away. He's two celebratory shots deep when Daniel finds him sulking in a corner. "You've got my girl texting me freaking out over your story. I've seen it and I gotta agree with her. Was that really necessary?"

"She left me on read," Pierre says like that was enough explanation. His head was spinning and it was getting hard to keep the room upright. "And it's the truth. I miss her like hell. I want her here. She was supposed to come, you know? I was gonna have her fly in with me on the jet. She doesn't start class again until June. I had this whole week planned out. I was gonna show her Texas- she’s from New York and..." 

He trails off when he notes Dan’s pitying smile. Daniel sighs and runs a hand through his curls. "I know. I get it, okay? I know it's hard but you can't force it. You've gotta let her come back on her own, all you're doing now is pushing her away."

He was fucking clueless when it came to these things. He'd had you for a few precious moments and now that he'd lost you he didn't know how to act. His mind was running on hazy autopilot; he barely knew which way was up, let alone did he trust himself to make any sort of important decision.

He stares down at the shot he'd been handed at some point before throwing it back. The cheap whiskey burns his throat but he barely registers the sting. "Should I take it down?"

"She already saw it," Daniel says gently, as if he anticipates how bad the fuck up will hurt. And it does. It hits him like a tire wall at two hundred kph, knowing that you were probably ranting or crying on the phone with Daniel’s girlfriend. "But yeah, that's probably best. People are already wondering what happened between you two, no need to throw fuel on the fire."

"You're probably right-" Pierre cuts off when Charles arrives with a grimace on his face. He shakes his head and gives his friend’s shoulder a squeeze. 

"For once I'm not the dumb one."

"You're a dick, you know that right?" Daniel says, allowing Pierre to delete the post. It takes him a few tries before he gets it down, but undeniably rumors will be circulating in the morning if they weren’t already.

"Honestly what were you thinking?" Charles demands, edging towards full blown yelling. "I told you to leave her be. The gossip stemming from this isn’t gonna help.”

The last thing he needed was someone else telling him how stupid his decision had been. At least Daniel had the decency to show sympathy. 

"Honestly?" Pierre responds with the same intensity, his anger flaring. "Honestly, Charles, I was thinking that she was happy for me but was too afraid to take the leap. She haunts me. Every second I’m awake I have to force myself away from her. Even when I’m asleep I can’t get away from her. So I don’t know, maybe I wanted to haunt her too."

“This isn’t the way you win her back and you know it.”

“I know!” Pierre throws up his hands. “But what else am I supposed to do? She won’t talk to me. She has no problem talking to Max or Daniel but apparently she draws the line at me.”

“You know it’s not-” Daniel's eyes flick to his phone and he fights back a grin. All it does is remind Pierre that he lost the person that could bring that sort of smile to his own face. "Fellas I wish I could stay and help but I gotta get going. Charles, I think Pierre needs another drink." He slaps five American dollars in the Monegasque's hand. "First one is on me."

Pierre is too deep in a spiral to care when his friend drags him from the party to a bar just south of the circuit. Somehow it was within walking distance; the floor was sticky and the lighting was for shit but he didn't care.

Pierre's focus was on downing shot after shot, erasing the broken image of you his mind had conjured up. He never should have posted the story. It only served to feed into what the media had been speculating for the past week and dredged up more tension between you.

Pierre stops checking his phone two shots later. The liquor provides a wet blanket over his senses, dousing him in cold water and scrambling his brain. He could barely remember his own name, but yours still lived in the corner of his mind.

Even drunk, he refused to forget you.

Two hours and who knows how much alcohol later, Charles helps Pierre back to his hotel room.

Pierre falls asleep as soon as he hits the mattress, head too blurry to dredge up memories of you.

[naminethewriter]

Vacation

This is my entry for the @sandersidesbigbang! I had a lot of fun participating 🥰 Thanks to all the mods for organizing this! Also huge thanks to @just-a-pintrovert & @5-falsehoods-phonated for beta reading 💙 There is also some artwork also from @just-a-pintrovert here! They did a fantastic job and I highly recommend you check out her blog! And now, enjoy!

Here on Ao3

Characters: Patton, Virgil, Roman, Janus, Logan, Remus

Relationships: platonic Intrulogical, platonic Prinmoxiety, platonic Moceit

Rating: T

Words: 12,502

Summary:  Logan doesn't show up for breakfast one morning, leaving behind a letter declaring he's going on vacation. Unsure of its authenticity, Roman, Patton and Virgil go to look for him on Remus' side of the Imagination with a certain snake as their guide.

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

It started out like any other day. Patton entered the kitchen around 7 in the morning to prepare breakfast. Logan should join him soon, then Roman around an hour later and Virgil after that. When exactly was hard to say, the anxious side’s sleep schedule was the most inconsistent, but most of the time he was up last. Today Patton wanted to make an extra special breakfast since their discussion the day before had gotten a bit out of hand and nobody walked away from it happy. He just hoped all his kiddos would show up. 

Half an hour later that fear proves to be warranted. Logan still hasn’t come down. Patton had even checked the coffee machine to make sure he hadn’t missed him. But it was still as clean as he had left it yesterday. Nervously his eyes flicker from the stove to the clock and over to the stairs before he focuses on making breakfast again, but his eyes would stray every few seconds. 

Five minutes later he finally hears movement upstairs. Logan probably had been exhausted yesterday and stayed in bed a bit longer than usual. Someone was coming down the stairs now and Patton turns around with a big smile, expecting Logan but coming across Virgil instead. 

 

“Oh,” Patton says, his smile slipping. But he immediately catches the insecure look on Virgil’s face at his reaction. “Sorry, kiddo,” he laughs, trying his best to seem cheerful. “I thought you were Logan, but I’m happy to see you, too! It’s quite early for you though. Did you not sleep well?” Now that he takes a closer look, Patton can see the tiredness on Virgil’s face, who gives him a weak smile. 

 

“Morning, popstar. I just woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep so I figured might as well get up, y’know?” He moves over to the coffee machine, looking at it confused for a few seconds before he seems to realize what else Patton had said. “Logan wasn’t here yet?” 

 

“I don’t think so,” Patton shakes his head, his eyes now fixed on the stove so that Virgil doesn’t see the concern across his face. “I’m sorry there’s no coffee, you know I’m no good at making some.” He tries to play it off as a joke with a laugh but even he knows it’s not convincing. Virgil hovers at the coffee machine, unsure of what to do, how to comfort Patton. Instead, he moves to make the coffee himself and trying to cheer the other up with words. 

 

“It’s fine, Pat. I can do it and I’m sure Lo’s gonna��come down soon. We all had a lot to think about yesterday… Maybe he just needs some more time to think it through again this morning. But you know how he is, he’ll come down and act like it was nothing later. You’ll see.” At the end of his little ramble, the machine is in the process of brewing and Virgil gives Patton a short hug before moving to set the table. 

 

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Patton mumbles, more to himself than to Virgil and continues to work on breakfast. 

 

Around 20 minutes later, Roman arrives, a lot more energized than Virgil had been. “What a wondrous morrow! ‘Tis a day to sing and dance, I say!” Both Patton and Virgil chuckle at his boasting. 

 

“Good morning to you too, Roman,” Patton greets as he pulls him into a loose hug before going back to distribute their breakfast onto the plates Virgil had sat out. 

 

“I’m surprised to see you arrive before me, Doom-and-Gloom,” Roman says to Virgil while preparing his own mug of coffee. The other had taken seat on the counter after finishing his part of breakfast preparations and watched Patton work the rest of the time while slowly nursing his coffee (I say slowly but he is already working on his second mug). Virgil just shrugs. 

 

“Couldn’t get back to sleep.” Roman hums in acknowledgment and then silence falls over the kitchen, only Patton scurrying around is heard. Not long however before Patton cheerfully announces: “Breakfast is ready!” 

 

“Wonderful!” Roman exclaims loudly. “What a marvelous feast you prepared for us, padre!” Patton giggles. 

 

“Thank you for the compliment, my prince.” 

 

“My, of course! What kind of ruler would I be if I couldn’t appreciate my subjects!” 

 

“A pretty standard one,” Virgil adds with a small smile. Roman huffs. 

 

“Only more proof that I am exceptional.” 

 

“That you are, Roman,” Patton laughs, but he sobers up suddenly, now looking worried again. 

 

“What’s wrong, padre? Tell me your worries and I shall strike them down with my sword!” Roman proclaims loudly in hopes of banning that expression from Patton’s face. The other gives him a small smile before looking over to the stairs. 

 

“Logan still hasn’t come down. I’m sure it’s nothing, but I’m worried,” he explains. Roman quickly looks towards the stairs as well, this is the first he’s heard of their nerd not arriving this morning. It wasn’t unusual for Logan to go back upstairs after having his first cup of coffee, opting to get a bit more work done before the rest of them get up. But not coming down at all was rare. A glance towards Virgil shows him that the anxious side is worrying his bottom lip, eyeshadow a bit darker than normal. Roman places both his hands on Patton’s shoulders in a reaffirming grip and smiles at him. 

 

“I’m sure our nerd just got lost in a book or something. I shall go fetch him at once.” 

 

“Thank you,” Patton says with a small smile that Roman returns before he heads back up the stairs. Logan’s room was the one furthest away from the common area. He’d always reasoned that he didn’t want any of the noise to travel to his door and Roman could see his point. Logan was the only one of them that stuck to a regulated sleep schedule and was often the first one to retire back upstairs. And sometimes Patton, Virgil and himself could forget to be quiet afterwards so choosing the longer distance was reasonable. Roman finally arrives at the door to the logical side’s room and was about to knock when something catches his eye. Rather it is hard to overlook. Taped to the door is a thin, dark blue folder that stands out against the light brown wood of the door. On the front ‘To Patton, Roman and Virgil’ is written. With furrowed brows, Roman pulls the folder off the door and opens it, scanning the first page before hurrying back downstairs. 

 

“Guys!” he calls out, halfway down the stairs, apparently interrupting a conversation between the left-behind sides. They don’t look bothered by it however but rather concerned at his sudden re-entrance without the side he was supposed to get. 

 

“What’s wrong?” Patton asks, voice rising in concern. Roman just hands them the folder. Virgil takes it since Patton seems to be shaking from the nerves and flips it open. The first page was a simple, printed letter that read: 

 

Good morning fellow sides. 

 

After the conclusion of yesterday’s discussion, I have decided to finally 

follow through with something I had planned for a while now: 

 

I am going on vacation. 

 

In the last few months, following Janus’ acceptance and further involvement 

in our daily lives, the tension in our group has been rising and I must say, 

it figuratively suffocates me. Any attempts to resolve said tension has been 

disapproved of and you continue to disregard my contributions to various 

problems. I cannot work in this environment any longer. I have finished  

Thomas’ schedule for the next two weeks. I did my best to consider your 

and Janus’ previously given advice to ensure that it covers selfcare and  

productivity. If you want to make changes, go ahead but do not complain 

to me if it does not work out as you hoped. I have done my part now. I am 

not sure when I will return but I should not be gone longer than those two 

weeks. Do not summon me unless it is a life-or-death situation. I have  

prepared a place to stay and I am being provided for. I will continue to keep  

an eye on Thomas regardless but I do not see any need to appear in person. 

 

I wish you a pleasant time, 

Logan Logic Sanders 

 

Silence hung over the three for a few moments. 

 

“You think he’s pranking us?” Patton finally askes. Roman hums in consideration but Virgil scoffs. 

 

“Since when is Logan a prankster?” He pulls out the other sheets of paper from the folder. “These are definitely from him; I doubt even Deceit could fake them so accurately.” Truly, the schedule was color-coded and formatted in a manner that was very familiar. Roman pulls the papers out of Virgil’s grasp. He quickly scans it and whistles appreciatively. 

 

“This really is his best one yet, I must say.” 

 

“Where do you think he went?” Patton askes, his gaze fixed on the stairs. “He wrote he’s being provided for but what does that even mean?” The other two could immediately tell how worried he was. They exchange a quick glance and Roman puts a hand on Pat’s shoulder. 

 

“Well, there aren’t many places he could be... Him staying here in the mindscape would defeat the purpose of going on vacation. He could have gone to the dark side but I doubt that, it felt like he’s avoiding Deceit as well and if he’s in the imagination, I should be able to tell but I can’t feel him there...”  

 

“Where did you find this anyway?” Virgil askes and holds up the folder. 

 

“It was taped to his door.” 

 

“So you didn’t actually check his room, right?” Roman brightens. 

 

“I did not! Great idea, Hot Topic. Let’s go!” He runs back upstairs. 

 

“How does he have so much energy in the morning?” Virgil groans but he follows after him, Patton in tow. When they arrive upstairs, Logan’s door is wide open and Roman could be heard humming inside. Virgil immediately pales. 

 

“Princey, what the fu-” He glances at Patton. “-frick are you doing?” he hisses, not crossing the threshold. Roman, who was currently going through the papers on Logan’s desk, shoots him a look. 

 

“Searching for clues, like you suggested.” 

 

“I never said that!” 

 

“You said to check his room!” 

 

“I meant knock to see if he’s in here, not waltz in and go through his stuff!” 

 

“Why are you whisper-hissing? Logan’s not here, I already checked his bathroom, closet and under the bed.” 

 

“Why would you-? Ugh, never mind,” Virgil groans and does cautiously enter the room, followed by Patton who looks around curiously. 

 

“I haven’t really been in here for ages!” he gasps. Virgil furrows his brows. 

 

“You go to his room all the time though?” 

 

“Yeah, sure, to check on him. He doesn’t really invite me in though and I don’t wanna pry...” He takes another look around, this time more apprehensively. “It feels kinda wrong to be in here. Without his permission, I mean.” 

 

“That’s what I’m saying!” Virgil exclaims, biting at a nail nervously. “C’mon, we verified he’s not here, let’s go.” 

 

“Verified? Boy, the nerd’s room’s already getting to you, huh?” Roman scoffs and lays back a few papers he doesn’t find interesting. “And we haven’t found any clues yet, leaving would be a waste.” 

 

“Roman, we are not here to snoop through Logan’s stuff. We just wanted to confirm that he is not here.” Patton scolds, both he and Virgil are already back by the door. Roman rolls his eyes. 

 

“Hold on, I’m almost done. How is it that I’m the one who’s been in here the longest but I’m the least affected by the room?” he mumbles a bit loudly to not be intentional while checking around the desk. 

 

“No, Sherlock Homeinvader, we’re leaving,” Virgil insists, presses the folder he was still holding on to in Patton’s hands and goes over to him to drag him back himself as Roman dramatically gasps. 

 

“What do we have here?” he asks even more dramatically and bends down, grabbing something out of what appears to be Logan’s trash can. Virgil nose wrinkles. 

 

“Disgusting, dude.” 

 

“Relax, it’s just a bunch of paper. Well, paper and this!” He holds up a container. A very familiar container. Pickled Poo Logs, Remus’ favored snack. Easily recognizable by his face at the top, though there are dicks doodled over the rest of the label. Virgil immediately snatches it out of his hand. 

 

“Remus was here?” Patton hesitantly comes over to take a look himself. “Maybe Logan was just curious about it? He gets like that sometimes, you know?” His nervous tone sabotages his attempt at lightening the mood, especially since he doesn’t sound convincing, even to himself. 

 

“With dicks drawn all over it? No, Nerdy Wolverine would have asked for a clean one,” Roman comments and turns the case over in his hands, inspecting it. 

 

“You think Remus kidnapped him?” Virgil asks, panicked. 

 

“Considering the folder, unlikely. Oh, there’s the room’s effect!” Roman hums, pleased. “No, it is unlikely that Logan left involuntarily but he may have been tricked. Remus is an idiot but he’s not totally stupid. And he kind of fixated on our braincell after his introductory video.”  

 

“What has Remus done now?” calls an exasperated voice from the door. All three of them spin around to see Janus leaning against the doorframe, inspecting his gloved fingers with a small smirk on his lips. Virgil growls at him immediately and Janus rolls his eyes in response. “Oh, yes, please do keep acting like a guard dog, Virgil, it is so becoming of you.” Before he could snap back, Patton lays a hand on Virgil’s shoulder in an attempt to calm him. He continues glaring but falls silent.

“Hello Janus, what brings you here?” Patton asks, trying to sound cheerful but even to Roman and Virgil it sounds forced. It doesn’t fool Janus for even a second.

“I went to the kitchen to make my morning cup of tea and no one else was there as usual so I decided to come up here for no reason at all.” His smirk stays however he seems to eye Patton very carefully who laughs nervously in response.

“Oh, sorry about that. We didn’t mean to worry you.”

“Oh, I wasn’t worried, merely… curious. You lot seldomly break your morning routine, especially Logan, so seeing him in particular absent from this group despite us being all gathered here in his room, I do wonder what is going on. Care to enlighten me?”

“We don’t care to. This is none of your business, leave Deceit!” Virgil practically spits. Janus tuts and shakes his head.

“On the contrary, dear Virgil, if this does indeed involve Remus, it is entirely my business. He has been acknowledged by Thomas, not accepted. It is still a part of my duty to reign him in from time to time. To make sure he does not hurt Thomas’ mental health excessively.”

“Oh yeah, you did a great job of that before the wedding,” Roman scoffs. Janus glares at him.

“In that instance I let him looser than normal precisely to protect Thomas’ mental health in the long run. He was pushing himself too much, acknowledging Remus’ presence was supposed to help him clear his head a little,” he hisses and Virgil snorts.

“That worked out so well.”

“Sssssshhut up!”

“Kiddos! Please, let’s not fight, we have more pressing things to deal with right now!” Virgil and Roman grumble but don’t interject. Janus looks defensive, still glaring at the two of them. “Logan is missing,” Patton continues. “He left us this note but it’s so unlike him, we aren’t sure if we should trust it. While we checked his room, Roman found one of Remus’ deodorants, so we suspect he might be involved somehow.” Apparently deciding to abandon his staring match with Virgil, Janus walks over to Patton and lays a hand on his shoulder.

“I understand the situation. Could I look at the note and the deodorant, please?”

“Oh, sure,” Patton says with a light blush and hands over the folder. Janus quietly thanks him before thumbing through the pages. The letter he looks at last.

“Ah, yes. I did indeed warn him about his habit to overwork himself a few times recently. If he is taking a break, then I am more inclined to let him do so.”

“We don’t want to stop him from taking a break!” Patton hastily clarifies. “We’re just worried about the how. We don’t know where he is or what he’s doing. And if Remus is involved, I don’t know how much of a break he is really getting…” He trails off at the end, staring at his feet. Janus hums and quickly walks over to Roman to pluck the deodorant out of his hands.

“Hey!” The prince protests, but Janus doesn’t pay him any mind. Instead, he looks over the case in his hand. Once he was finished, he drops it back into Roman’s hands who squawks at him offendedly.

“From recent conversations, it did seem like Remus was getting rather attached to Logan and I don’t think they have a bad relationship. It might very well be that Logan asked the Duke for his help in this matter.”

“As if,” Virgil pouts, though he doesn’t sound entirely convinced of that himself. Janus ignores him.

“But if you feel like you need to check then I do have an idea where to look.” Patton beams at him.

“Really? Could you take us? Right now??”

“No way am I going anywhere with that snake!” Roman yells. “He might just be leading us into a trap!” Janus gives him an unimpressed look.

“And why would I do that? My job is to make sure Thomas’ mental health is in good shape. Getting all of you injured, or whatever you imagine I would want to do to you, would be nothing but counterproductive.”

“Like I believe that!”

“Regardless,” Janus says to brush off Roman’s protest who in turn only seems to get angrier, “I am afraid you do not have much of a choice. If the two are where I think they are, then you have no chance of getting there without a guide.”

“I can navigate Remus’ side of the Imagination just as well as my own, I do not need your help, Jack the Fibber!”

“I do not doubt that my prince. However, that place in particular is designed to keep unwanted visitors out. I doubt you would even find it, not to mention getting inside.”

“And what place would that be?” Virgil hisses before Roman can start yelling again.

“The library.”

“Remus… has a library?” Patton asks, doubt clear in his voice.

“No, he doesn’t. The fact that you do not know about it just proves my point. It is one of the most fortified buildings Remus has ever created. The layout constantly changes, there are traps and monsters roaming the halls.”

“If the layout changes, then why do you think you could take us there?” Patton interjects.

“Because there is one path that leads to the actual library within, and I mean only one path. Make one wrong turn or otherwise go off course and you will not find your way out easily. I got lost only once and I do not recommend it.”

“And why should we believe you?” Roman challenges, head raised high. Janus seems amused by his stubborn antagonism.

“I do not care if you believe me or not. You are the ones that want to check on Logan. I am only offering to take you since I had planned to go there soon anyway. And I need to see what Remus is doing from time to time. You can come along or not, it is totally. Up. To. You.” Janus emphasizes the last words by poking Roman lightly in the chest after each syllable, all the while smirking up at him. Roman continues to glare but he couldn’t quite repress the slight flush of his cheeks at Janus’ proximity. The snakelike side laughs lightly before making his way back to the door.

“I will leave after breakfast. You do what you think is right,” he calls over his shoulder before disappearing back down the hallway, leaving the others in silence.

“He has got to be tricking us, right?” Virgil growls after a few seconds. Roman nods in agreement but Patton looks thoughtful.

“I don’t think so. He has no reason to.”

“He’s Deceit, Patton. It’s all he knows.”

“Look, I know you both had your differences with him and I’m still adjusting too, but Janus is an integral part of Thomas, we cannot deny that anymore. I am sure he does not want anything truly bad to happen to any of us, so if this is a trick then it is probably only a small prank.” Virgil and Roman share a look of disbelief but Patton doesn’t stop there. “And besides, what other options do we have? Sit around and hope that Logan is truly okay? Or comb through Remus’ side on our own? Your powers barely work over there Roman, and the place is not small, right?”

“Right,” Roman admits with a sigh after a few seconds of silence. “And I am worried about Nerdy Wolverine, if we don’t do anything about this, I will go stir crazy, so I guess I can try and trust that snake for a bit.”

“Thank you, Ro!” Patton pulls him into a hug, beaming. Roman chuckles and pats his back.

“Yeah, yeah, anything for you, padre.” He turns to Virgil. “Are you going to come along?”  

“…Fine,” Virgil grumbles, still clearly unhappy about the situation. “But if it turns out that he’s up to something, I am totally going to tell you ‘I told you so’.” Roman rolls his eyes.

“Sure, whatever makes you happy, Emo Nightmare.”

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

The track through Remus’ side of the Imagination hadn’t been pleasant. The atmosphere was tense and Patton’s attempts to lighten the mood didn’t cheer anyone up. Roman and Virgil did their best to ignore Janus and the deceitful side himself accepted their stubbornness quietly. Only Patton really talked, though even he gave up after a while. Thankfully, they didn’t come across any of Remus’ monsters but the landscape they had to track through was nightmarish enough and won’t be discussed here. Now they stood before their apparent goal.

“This… is it?” Roman asks, doubtfully. The building in front of them is a rather cliché-looking mansion from horror games. It is a wide, stone structure with two floors that seems to have high ceilings. It’s dark and intimidating looking though on closer inspection, the construction style seems to change randomly. A different kind of stone here, another window frame there. Apparently, Remus stitched together different buildings and haphazardly added details wherever it pleased him. For example, the house of Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas is sticking out of the roof, completely intact but just… there.

What stands out most though, is the glass dome further back on the building. Not because it is the most impressive but because it’s the only thing that is illuminated, emitting a soft yellow glow. All the other windows are pitch black.

“Not satisfied, Roman?” Janus smirks.

“Well, yes. I expected more from my brother’s so-called masterpiece!”

“I definitely called it his masterpiece,” Janus says as he rolls his eyes. “And the interior is the more impressive part. The exterior Remus changes every so often when he gets new inspiration. I think the last remodeling came after Thomas researched that giant lady and the game she’s in.”

“You mean the one you stole your skirt look from?” Virgil smiles, mischievously.

“Yes, because my look wasn’t almost finished by the time Thomas found out about her!” Janus hisses at him with a glare. Virgil shows him his tongue.

“Kiddos, please stop. We’re here for Logan, let’s concentrate!” Patton tries to encourage teamwork but again is not really successful.

“Ugh, fine,” Virgil scoffs and glares at Janus one last time before turning back to the building in front of them.

“Let’s just get this over with. Remus’ side always gives me chills,” Roman complains.

“Very well.” Janus adjusts his gloves before clearing his throat. “Once we enter, as I haven’t told you before, there is one path we need to follow, so I need you to listen to my instructions carefully and let me take the lead. I know it’s very hard for you to go along with other people’s plan but trust me on this one, Roman.” He grins over at the prince whose face is turning red in anger. Before he can explode, Patton steps in.

“No provocation from you either, Janus! If we have to rely on you as you say, then make an effort to be reliable in return!” He leans close to Janus and pouts, giving him his best I’m-disappointed-in-you-and-I-know-you-can-do-better look.

“Alright, alright, I’ll stop as well.” Janus waves him off. “The instructions can be stupidly specific sometimes, at one point we will have to stick to one side of a corridor, for example, but there will also be traps, distractions and monsters. Though – and make sure to remember that – nothing truly dangerous can access the path. So even if something comes charging at us, I need you to stay calm and not run around like headless chickens. I will not save you from your own stupid decisions.”

“Oh yes, so trustworthy. Thank you greatly for your generosity.” Roman rolls his eyes and Patton shots him a slight glare, making him huff but refrain from further comments. Janus ignores him completely.

“Our goal is the dome and usually it should take not over half an hour to arrive there.” Now Roman looks sceptic for a different reason.

“If we just need to get to the dome then can’t we just climb the building and get in from the roof?”

“Oh yes, what a great plan, I can’t believe I have never thought of that before!” Janus exclaims, hand on his heart but quickly drops the act. “The interior and exterior aren’t connected like that. Since Remus shifts the inside around as much, no window or door – other than the main entrance – connect to a specific room. It will just drop you randomly somewhere in the mansion. And as I’ve stated before, that is not something you want to happen. So no, we can’t do this like a heist movie.” Roman looks angry again but doesn’t comment. Patton pats him on the shoulder (which only seems to sour his mood more) before addressing Janus.

“Alright, we will follow your lead.” he says with a smile. Janus nods at him stiffly before moving towards the front door without another word, the others following behind him with tense expressions (though Patton tries, and fails, to hide his).

The door to the mansion is made of a heavy, red wood that Janus pushes open without hesitation. Behind it lies… a rather normal looking entrance hall. There is a long carpet that leads to the grand staircase in the middle of the room. A chandelier hangs from the ceiling and the decoration is tasteful. Or rather, it used to be. As impressive as the hall is, it is rotting away. There’s dust everywhere, as well as spiderwebs and the air is thick and unpleasant.

“This place has so much potential if my brother bothered to take care of it,” Roman huffs as he looks around. Janus doesn’t respond but instead gives more instructions.

“Follow behind me in a line. And please do walk next to each other, that wouldn’t be risky at all.” After saying that, he moves toward the back of the hall, left of the staircase where a door is situated. “Behind here is where the dangerous path starts. Be. Very. Careful,” Janus stresses, looking back at the others who had followed him.

“Will do!” Patton responds, with faux cheerfulness. Roman and Virgil sigh but they do line up. Their marching order is Janus, Patton, Virgil and Roman in the back. The first few hallways and rooms they pass aren’t all that bad. They have a few disgusting gimmicks – bleeding walls, gooey carpets, a mirror that insults you when you stand before it – but nothing too severe. The first truly shocking room (though it really should have been expected, in hindsight) they come across is…

“Is this the playroom from Fifty Shades of Grey?” Virgil asks after they all simply stared at the contents of the room for a few moments.  

“Thomas hasn’t even seen that movie!” Roman exclaims, very red in the face. He is also holding Patton’s glasses to protect his purity while Virgil holds his hand while he is effectively blind. Janus shrugs his shoulders.

“The scene has been referenced in enough videos and interviews that we have a basic understanding of what happened in it. And that might have been where Remus got the idea from, but he definitely modified it to be more to his taste. It is a room for BDSM though.”

“How… How do you know that?” Roman asks, still very much embarrassed.

“… Just be grateful that there are no people in here today,” is all Janus is willing to admit before heading towards the door that allows them to continue. The corridor behind it is dimly lit and a few lights even flicker. Janus leads them on confidently, the others follow him back in line and with Patton’s glasses returned to their owner. However, the creepy feeling of the hallway has Patton continue to cling onto Virgil’s hand, who is the side of the group most comfortable with horror. Roman has one hand on his sheathed sword – that he had strapped to his side before they entered Remus’ side of the imagination – and the other has a tight grip on Virgil’s hoodie. The anxious side isn’t very happy about how the two clinging to him limits his movement, but he can understand their worries, so he lets it slide.

“Did you hear that?” Patton squeaks out and for a moment Virgil doesn’t know what he means before a thump echoes down the hallway. They freeze, bringing Roman to a stop behind them.

“What’s wro- “

“Shhhhhh!” The rumbling becomes louder and now Janus notices that they had stopped following. He, unlike Roman can guess as to why so he just waits ahead in slight annoyance. He had warned them before entering, he won’t tell them again. By now Roman had caught on and he grips the sword tightly, ready to draw.

Ahead of them, a monster comes around the corner. It has the body of a gorilla and walks on all fours, but its head is that of a snake and a pair of wings grow from its back. That would have been enough to scare Patton, maybe even Roman, but the most noticeable and gruesome attribute of the monster were its injuries. Maybe it was supposed to be a kind of zombie, since there are large chunks of flesh missing from its gorilla body, other patches lacked fur and again others ooze a liquid that may have been blood if it wasn’t so obviously sticky.  

The snake head isn’t fairing much better. It misses some scales and there are a few black spots that might have been burn marks. One of the wings seems undamaged though its partner looks all the worse for it. There are hardly any feathers left and the bones that are now left exposed seem broken in a few places and hang limply in a way that looks very, very wrong.

The monster spots them easily, makes a noise that sounds vaguely like a mix of a hiss and a roar and charges at them. Roman curses quietly and quickly pushes Virgil and Patton behind him. Janus looks unbothered, he is leaning against the wall and waits for it to be over. The monster gains more and more speed (considering the length of the corridor, it doesn’t make sense how long the charge takes), sprinting at them, until – oh so suddenly – it collides with something and crashes to the ground. Roman, Virgil and Patton stare at it with open mouths.

“I told you: as long as we stick to the path, nothing can hurt us,” Janus explains nonchalantly before resuming his way down the corridor, towards the beast that twitches on the ground. The others stare at it a moment longer before they hurry after Janus.

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

The next few corridors and rooms were not all that difficult. One hallway was filled with spike traps that they had to avoid, and they passed three different torture rooms, all with different equipment. Janus explained that Remus liked to separate them by era and country, so he had, for example, one room filled with torture instruments used in the witch hunts in Germany from 1550 to 1650. And while they weren’t nice to look at, the rooms were empty and so it was left to their own imaginations as to how the instruments might have been used.

The next impactful incident happens in a corridor with a ceiling that falls down and crushes everyone beneath it. To avoid it, Janus told them to stick as close to the right wall of the hallway as possible. Their pace is significantly slower this way but none of them wanted to be squished so they carefully set one foot in front of the other.

“We’re almost there,” Janus calls to the others. The passage isn’t all that long but with the literally looming threat, it sure feels like it.

“Pat, you’re not stepping right,” Virgil hisses and pulls him more to the side.

“Sorry!” the moral side squeaked. “I think my glasses are smudged a bit. It makes it hard to see.”

“Oh, sorry, padre. That might have been me when I held them for you,” Roman apologizes.

“It’s alright, kiddo. I do it myself all the time.”

“Well, better clean them before one of your feet get crushed. Everyone stop!” Virgil commands and though he seems annoyed, Janus complies. Patton gives them an apologetic smile before taking his glasses off to wipe them clean with his shirt as best as he can.

Unable to hold still, Roman shuffles a bit on the ground and that’s when he makes a mistake. One of his feet lands too far away and a click comes from the ceiling. With a whoosh and a bang, part of the ceiling comes down. Virgil startles so bad that he lunges forward a bit, upsetting Patton’s balance and sending him to the floor, taking Janus with him. Thankfully, they don’t trigger another trap, but Patton’s glasses fall to the ground and skitter down the hallway.

“Are you alright?” Virgil asks, frantically, moving to help Patton up.

“I’m fine, but my glasses…”

“Do not worry, I will get them back for you!” Roman proclaims before starting to climb over Virgil and Patton still on the floor to get to the front.

“Watch it, Prince Douche!”

“I am, Emo Bitch!”

“Language!”  

Roman manages to get past both of them and Janus before the latter grips his arm to stop him.

“Don’t!” he hisses. Roman eyes him skeptically.

“And why not, oh Great Deceiver?” he mocks.

“Because we need to make a right here! The glasses are off the path!” Understanding blooms on Roman’s face and he looks back towards the glasses, a few feet away from the crossing they need to take.

“I can’t just grab them real quick and come back?”

“No. Once you’re off the path you can’t just turn around. I doubt you’ll even be able to still see us then.”

“It’s okay,” Patton calls from the back. He and Virgil are back on their feet. “I have a spare pair in my room, if you guide me, I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“Again, I’m so sorry, Padre.”

“Please stop apologizing, it’s really fine, promise!” Patton smiles but his eyes are obviously not focusing on Roman and it’s apparent just how little he can see like this.

“Well, if you’re sure,” Virgil mumbles and leads him forward and into the crossing where they are safe from more falling ceilings.

“It’s not fine,” Janus suddenly speaks up. All eyes turn to him (or where Patton thinks he is). “We’re almost at the library but Remus, as charming as he is, of course made the last stretch the most annoying. Most of the time it’s a ladder we will need to climb with traps all over them to try and get you to fall over and over and over again. I can warn you about the ones I spot but if Patton can’t see them himself, he won’t be able to avoid them properly. We need to get his glasses somehow…”

The three with working eyes pondered for a bit before Roman speaks up.

“I think Virgil might be able to reach if he lays on the ground…”

“Why me?!”

“You’re the tallest.”

“By a few inches at best!”

“Well, those few inches might just be what we need here,” Janus chimes in and Virgil glares at him.

“C’mon, Beetlejuice, you want to get out of here, right? And we can’t leave Patton behind.”

“Really, kiddos, it’s fine! I’ll manage… somehow.”

“Yes, keep saying that, it’s sooo helpful!”

“Don’t take it out on him!”

“Just stop it!” Roman yells over the chaos. “Virgil please. I’ll hold on to your foot, it’ll be fine!” Virgil eyes him for a moment before he sighs.

“Fine but you use that,” he taps against Roman’s sash, “to secure my foot. I don’t trust your milky hands.”

“Milky?!”

“Ugh, just do it!” Janus groans and is met with two glares for his effort but both Roman and Virgil get to work. With the red band firmly bound around Virgil’s shoe and Roman’s hand, the former carefully lies on the floor. Just as he is about to start robbing over to the glasses, a door down the hallway opens and a figure emerges. Virgil stares at it in disbelief.

“Why Pyramid Head?!” Indeed, the creature now slowly making its way toward them, knife dragging across the floor, was the iconic monster from Silent Hill 2. Janus is the first to regain his composure.

“At least he’s slow! Quickly grab the glasses before he gets over there!”

“Easy for you to say- “

“Stop arguing, please,” Patton begs from his position against the wall of the next corridor they would traverse. Virgil grumbles under his breath but makes his way forward. And so does Pyramid Head.

It’s like watching a (very slow) head-to-head race toward the finish line. Robbing forward on his stomach, Virgil is about as fast as Pyramid Head’s walking speed. Inch by inch, Virgil gets closer to the reach of the gigantic knife still dragging along the floor. The creature doesn’t even need to get to him, just close enough to swing its weapon.

Virgil’s ankle leaves the path as he gets close enough to try and reach the glasses. And if Pyramid Head used its blade right now, it might have a chance to hit but still it moves forward, into a position where it is more likely to strike true.

Virgil’s fingertips hit the frame. Just a little bit more. Half of his foot is still within the barrier. Roman has a firm grip on the sash. Virgil’s hand closes around the glasses and Pyramid Head raises his knife to swing down.

“Got them!”

“Janus! Help me pull him back!” Roman calls as he holds Virgil’s shoe with his tied-up hand and places the other on his ankle. Immediately, the other is beside him, grabs onto his arms and pulls. And not a second too late. The knife lands where Virgil’s head had been moments before, and Roman and Janus fall onto their asses while Virgil is trying to catch his breath and to not go into a full-blown anxiety attack.

“What happened?? Are you okay?” Patton calls over, worriedly.

Roman lets out a breathless, unbelieving laugh and collapses onto his back, the adrenaline rushing through him. Which turned out to be good because as soon as his head hits the ground, a click comes from the ceiling once again.

“Shit-!” Quickly Roman rolls to the side before his head is flattened by the trap. He must’ve moved within its range by an inch. Janus stares at him in disbelief.

“How are you alive?”

“I’m too fabulous to die.” The ridiculous response got Virgil to laugh and forget his panic for long enough to calm down.

“Guys?” Again, Patton tries to get their attention.

“We’re all fine, Pat. And I’ve got your glasses, hold on.” Virgil climbs to his feet, wipes the lenses on his hoodie to clean them as best he could before heading over to Patton and pushing them onto his nose. “How’s that?” Patton doesn’t answer, just pulls him into a hug.

“Thanks, kiddo.”

“Um… Sure. No problem,” Virgil mumbles nervously. Patton gives him a smile before looking over to the other two that are in the process of standing up. On the other side of the barrier, Pyramid Head has lost interest and was now moving away again. The sides pay him no mind.

“Well, that wasn’t so bad, right?” Roman comes over to Virgil and Patton with a grin, Janus on his heels.

“Speak for yourself, princey. I’m so ready to get out of here.”

“I’m having so much fun with this. Let’s go, sadly, we’re almost there.” Janus takes the lead once again and the others follow. They pass through one more room, a laboratory of sorts with lots of blood on most of the surfaces (thankfully, the floor is mostly clean), before they enter what seems to be an elevator shaft. And indeed, the only way forward is a ladder.

“How surprising,” Janus mutters under his breath before turning back toward the others. “As I’ve said before, this part is not really dangerous, but pretty annoying. There will be traps to try and get you to fall but even if you do, you will fall slowly. Remus implemented this more as a prank than anything else. I’ll tell you about what I spot but we may need several tries.”

“Okay, we’ll trust you to not let us down,” Patton says with a wink. Janus stares at him with a blank look.

“That was terrible.” Then he starts to climb, Patton after him, then Virgil and Roman is in the back again.

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

They do indeed need more than five tries to get to the top. It was especially annoying that Patton fell for the same trap twice, requiring the rest to wait where they were until he climbed up again. Their arms are gonna be sore tomorrow for sure. But they had finally made it.

The ladder ended in another corridor but this one was clean and wonderfully decorated in greens and silver. Portraits line the walls, most of them of Remus himself, but there is one of Janus and one of both together. Most peculiar are two others however. One shows Remus grinning, arm out to the side, probably hugging someone but the other half of the painting is missing. The second is simply an empty frame.

“Self-centered much?” Roman scoffs.

“Oh yeah, like you don’t have at least a dozen different self-portraits in your castle, Prince of Narcissists,” Virgil retorts. Janus doesn’t pay any attention to the banter or the pictures for that matter. He strides ahead with purpose. Patton watches him in concern, but he feels like this isn’t a moment to pry.

At the end of the corridor is an enormous double door, also in green and silver. The handles, however, are made of gold.

“Does he have some sort of obsession with Slytherin or something?” Again, it’s Roman commenting. Janus hisses at him in disdain.

“For your information, he is a Gryffindor, same as you. And his second choice would be Ravenclaw. No, green and silver just happen to be his favorite colors.”

“Jeez, sorry.” Roman holds up his hands in surrender. “What made you so cranky?”

“Please, keep talking.” Janus rolls his eyes. “Let’s just get it over with.” He grabs the handle on one side and pushes, Patton quickly helps him with the other. Slowly the heavy material gives away and swings open. And suddenly their vision is filled with green.

In front of them is a jungle and as they take the first steps in, the humid air hits them. Birds can be heard singing somewhere but none of them are able to spot them. They stand in a clearing, although the tree line that surrounds them is only about ten feet from them. The trees themselves tower over them, their leaves lush and green, vines hanging between them. The ground is littered with bushes and plants and only one way seems to lead further inward, its stones wide and beautiful. As they look up into the sky, they can see the glass of the dome incasing them, the sun beaming down outside. Which was weird since when they had been in front of the building the weather had been quite dreary.

“Are we… really in the right place?” Patton asks, his voice hushed as if he was afraid of breaking the serenity of their surroundings by being too loud.

“Yes, we are. If you look closely, you can see a few shelves on the far side of the dome.” Janus points upward and the others follow his line of sight. Indeed, quite a ways away, they could see some brown structures following the curve of the dome.

“How are the books not falling?” Virgil questions, his eyes squinted to make out anything in the first place. Roman snorts.

“This is the imagination, Doubtful Central. Remus doesn’t want them to fall, so they don’t fall.” Virgil sticks out his tongue at the prince’s condescending tone. Patton lightly scolds them to stop fighting. Janus clears his throat.

“We need to track along the path for a bit until we reach a river. Behind it is the library.”

“And hopefully Logan,” Patton sighs. “I hope he’s okay.”

“I’m sure he is, padre. You know our nerd, he isn’t easy to beat,” Roman jokes, his hand squeezing Patton’s shoulder in support. Patton smiles at him.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“I’m always right!”

“You wish, princey.”

“Kiddos…” Patton almost sounds defeated and Janus pats him on the shoulder in sympathy.

“He used to be like that with Remus, too. It’ll be fine.” Patton nods and gives Janus a grateful smile. He, in turn, gives a nod in acknowledgment back and turns to back to the bickering two. “I hate to interrupt you but one more warning. Watch your feet in there. There are some books that have gone… wild.” The others stare at him a moment.

“He stole the Monster Book of Monsters, didn’t he?”

“… He created something similar at least.”

With a groan from Virgil, the group sets out and follows the path. Even though it is made of stone, there are still quite a few branches and vines to dodge. The jungle isn’t quiet either, various sounds resounding in the air. Rustling in the bushes, noises that might belong to a kind of monkey, the birds’ continuous songs. A collage of different sounds that is almost overwhelming.

Roman keeps one hand on the hilt of his sword in case one of the animals decide to come their way, his eyes scanning the trees continuously. Patton clutches one of Virgil’s hands in his own, both also checking their surroundings nervously. Meanwhile, Janus’ eyes are fixated on the ground.

After they had walked for a few minutes, the tension drops a bit. Most of the jungle’s inhabitants seem to go out of their way on their own without hostility. In that moment, a bush on the right side rustles suddenly, then one to the left and unbelievably quickly, two books shoot out of the greenery and try attacking the groups feet. Patton screams and jumps into Virgil’s arms whose eyeshadow turned a very deep black.  

“Just give them a good kick, that usually scares them off!” Janus calls over the ruckus Patton is making, mostly directed at Roman who had unsheathed his sword. He is trying to stab the books, but their binding is quite resistant, and he can’t really get a good hit in. As he hears the call however, he shoots a quick look over to Janus, who has taken a few steps away to protect himself, before swinging his leg with all his might, hitting one book directly into the spine and sending it flying into the canopy.

The second one snarls and turns its attention from Virgil, whose shoe it had been trying to chew through, to Roman, and (again quicker than you would expect from a thing with no legs) darts toward him, in a zig-zag pattern so it wouldn’t suffer the same fate as its companion.

“Shit,” Roman curses, earning a weak ‘Language!’ from Patton who was calming down now that the book wasn’t focused on him and Virgil anymore. Roman tries to land another hit but the book is too fast and lunges forward, most likely to bite him in the leg.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Virgil’s heel digs into the cover, throwing the book back down to the ground. It whimpers and quickly disappears back into the bushes. With heavy breaths does Virgil set his foot back down, Patton still in his arms. Roman whistles.

“Damn, Hot Topic! You’re stronger than I thought.”

“Well,” Virgil shrugs while Patton climbs down, “fight-or-flight, remember?” Roman laughs and pats him on the shoulder.

“Right, right.” They smile at each other for a moment before Patton speaks up.

“Where’s Janus?” Surprised, the three quickly take a look around. The deceitful side was nowhere in sight.

“I knew that slimy snake could not be trusted!” Roman yells angrily. Virgil has a similarly dark look. Patton doesn’t look convinced.

“Maybe he just went ahead? It’s not like there are any other paths we can follow, so he could have just gone ahead to scout for more bad books?”

“You really are too trusting, padre,” Roman scoffs. “But you are right, there is only one path to follow, might as well take it. Turning around now would be pointless anyway.” He and Virgil start walking forward. Patton nervously gnaws at his lip, not liking how this is turning out at all.

They do find Janus not all that far up ahead. He is crouching down in front of a bush, apparently muttering to himself. The path had winded at bit and with the branches in the way they hadn’t been able to spot him earlier. Still, Roman continues to be mad and stomps over to him.

“So now is the point where you try to abandon us?? Just what is your game, snake?!” Janus looks over his shoulder, as calmly as ever.

“Abandoning you was definitely my intention,” he scoffs before turning back around, reaching for something, and standing back up after. When he then turns to face them fully, he is holding a long, yellow snake in his arms that is winding itself around his torso. “This is Jake, I used to keep him in my room, but he took a liking to the jungle, so I let him live here, most of the time at least.” Jake stops his climbing and watches them for a moment, his tongue flickering out.

“Aww!” Patton coos before stepping a bit closer. “Can I pet him?”

“Sure, he doesn’t bite. Most of the time.” But the moral side has already stopped listening, instead stroking the snake’s head which he doesn’t seem to mind at all. Roman, who had been a bit stunned at the sudden animal in Janus’ hands, regains his composure.

“So why did you disappear then?” he demands. Janus shrugs.

“I figured you could handle two books with no actual teeth and Jake called out to me, so I went ahead to find him. There is only one path after all, I doubted you could manage to get lost.” Roman is practically fuming but Patton interjects before he can blow up.

“You can speak with him??”

“Yes. You really think Thomas modeled me after a snake and didn’t give me the ability to speak Parseltongue?”

“Cool!” Patton whispers, staring at Janus with wide eyes, who looks a bit uncomfortable with the sudden attention. He clears his throat.

“Anyway. Jake tells me that Remus is indeed here. And he’s not alone.” Immediately, Virgil’s gaze snaps to him.

“Logan?”

“Most likely. Jake has never met him before, but the description fits.”

“You don’t sound all that sure.” Janus shrugs.

“He’s just a snake. He doesn’t lie to me, but he could be wrong.”

“We should hurry,” Patton says with determination, pulling his hand back. Jake hisses in displeasure from losing the scritches he was receiving. Janus rolls his eyes.

“Come back with me today and I’ll scratch you wherever you like.” That seems to please the snake since he gives another, smaller hiss and continues his winding around Janus until he finds a comfortable position.

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

They continue along the path for another few minutes without incident. Some bushes rustled but no more books tried to attack them. Finally, they could hear the sound of rushing water. The river must be near. Unconsciously, they increase their pace until they end up before a cliff, the path just suddenly ending there. The cliff isn’t all that high, only a few feet away from the rushing stream. Some type of fish jumping out of its waters every now and again. The jungle continued to the left and right of them, no bridge in sight.

“Um… How do we get across?” Patton asks, eyeing the drop. Janus takes a second to answer, not focused on the below but the beyond.

“We don’t,” he finally answers.

“What’s that supposed to mean??” Virgil demands, yet again glaring at him. Janus shrugs while he pats Jake’s head, eyes still focused ahead of them.

“This place is one of Remus’ most treasured places and there are times when even he wants to be left alone. If he doesn’t want anyone to come here, he simply removes the bridge. There is nothing we can do.”

“So we made this entire trip for nothing?!”

“I wouldn’t say that. Look.” Janus points ahead. The others reluctantly follow his gaze. None of them have really focused on the other side yet, too preoccupied with trying to go further.

A few more trees stand along the cliff but way less dense than on their side. The path continues for a few more feet before it ends at the steps of a lightly raised wooden platform, the true start of the library. Behind a reading area, rows and rows of bookcases tower, each row bigger than the one before it until the ones merging with the wall that reach way, way higher, following the curve of the dome and still somehow letting the natural light from outside shine through.

What Janus was referring to, however, is the aforementioned seating area. Among the few tables and chairs, are some sofas, beanbags, stools, and various other seating opportunities, all in different styles and colors. Because of course Remus would never settle on one theme alone. Only one of those seats was currently occupied though.

Lying on a chaise longue, turned towards them, with a book in his hand and a steaming cup on a small table beside him, is Logan. Seemingly without a worry, their nerd is relaxed and reading. Without looking away from the pages, he reaches over, takes the cup and sips whatever drink it contains before placing it back down without a second though. It seems like their worrying had been unnecessary.

“He looks fine, right?” Virgil says, though he sounds rather nervous, and he raises his thumb to bite at the nail. Patton instinctively stops him.

“That’s good, right?” he adds, also not sounding quite convinced. Janus watches their reactions without commenting. He hadn’t been worried about the logical side, he just wanted to avoid the others working themselves up over the next few days with their wild theories.

“It is too early to say yet!” Roman proclaims. “That could just be an illusion to fool us. To let our guard down! I will not leave until I spoke with him in person.”

“Nobody said anything about leaving though?” Virgil mutters. Roman ignores him.

“But we can’t reach him,” Patton objects. “How do you wanna do that?”

“Hmm…” Roman hums and takes another look at the raging water below them. “It’s not that far across. If I jump far enough, I’m sure I could make it. And I’m an excellent climber and swimmer!”

“I would advise against that,” Janus speaks up, Roman immediately eyeing him suspiciously.

“And why is that? Huh?”

“Oh, my mistake. I assumed you would be able to recognize piranhas when you see them.” Quickly, Roman’s eyes flickered back to the river and the fish still jumping out of it occasionally. “I’m also pretty sure Remus put some sharks in there just because he could. And I mean the bloodthirsty kind.” Patton’s face is now white as chalk and Virgil had a firm grip on Roman’s sleeve.

“Fine, fine!” the prince exclaims. “No swimming, I get it!” He gestures widely and Virgil lets go of him, turning away, his ears pink in embarrassment. “Then I guess we have no other choice!”

“And what choice would that be?” Janus asks, eyebrow raised. Roman grins at him before cupping his hands over his mouth and yelling at the top of his lungs:

“LOGAN! OVER HERE! HEY! ACROSS THE RIVER!” The other three slap their hands over their ears, glaring at the prince. Roman doesn’t quiet down however, until Logan obviously takes note of them. Then he switches to waving widely. Janus rubs his temples; he has had about enough for today. Patton joins in on the waving though less enthusiastically. Virgil buries his hands in his pockets and shrinks back.

Logan does not look happy to see them. Not that they could make out much from the distance in terms of facial expressions, but he had gone stiff once he realized what was happening. He bookmarks his page before setting the book down and stands up. He turns away for a moment and Janus thinks he can hear him calling out to Remus, but the rushing of the water makes it hard to be sure. Afterwards, Logan makes his way over to them, down the steps and toward the edge of the cliff where he stops. Now they could make out the frown on his face more clearly.

“What are you doing here?” he calls over, sounding displeased. Roman hesitates to answer because of his tone, so Patton speaks up instead.

“We were worried about you, kiddo! You just up and vanished and we didn’t know where to!”

“I am aware, that was intentional. Did you not find the folder?”

“We did, but we weren’t really sure if we could trust it,” Virgil explains. Having to yell over the sound of rushing water quickly became annoying.

“What do you mean, you weren’t sure if you could trust it?” Logan frown deepens but before one of them could answer, Remus appears behind him suddenly.

“Boo!” he yells, grinning all the while. Logan rolls his eyes but doesn’t react further. Roman stiffens, Patton bites his lips and Virgil buries deeper into his hoodie in displeasure. Janus is standing to the side, petting Jake, and acting like this situation doesn’t involve him.

Remus cackles at their reactions before saying something to Logan and summoning what appears to be a soundboard. He lowers a few regulators and immediately their surroundings quiet down. The river now sounds distant, like the cliff just became a few miles deeper than before, the rustling of the leaves falls quiet, as do the birds. The surreal situation stuns all of them for a moment.

“There! That’s better, right?”

“Thank you, Remus,” Logan says before turning back to the others, not having to yell anymore. “Now please continue your explanation of why you did not heed my instructions?”

“Well, um…” Patton tries to find the right words, but before he can, Janus speaks up.

“Remus, please unmute your brother.” Everyone turns to look at Roman whose face is red and seemingly trying to yell but no sound comes out. Quickly all eyes turn back to Remus who is pouting.

“Do I have to?”

“If you don’t want them to continue assuming that you kidnapped our dear Logan over there, than you might want to consider not annoying them, yes,” Janus shrugs, apparently not really caring whether Roman gets his voice back or not. Logan raises an eyebrow and shifts his focus back toward his fellow light sides.

“You assume I was kidnapped?”

“It all happened so suddenly; we didn’t know what to think!” Patton tries to explain, eyes jumping between Logan, Roman and Remus. “Please give him his voice back,” he begs after a moment of Logan glaring at them, obviously not happy with the answer.

“But-!” Remus starts to whine before Logan puts a hand on his arm and in a low tone says: “It will only make this take even longer. Please just do it so we can get this over with?”

“Ugh, fine!” Remus groans before flicking one regulator back up but not to full volume.

“You stinking rat, I’ll run you through with my sword!” Roman yells, or at least tries to, only managing to raise his voice a little louder than his normal speaking tone. He glares at his brother when he realizes this, who flips him off in return.

“Stop fighting, kiddos, please.”

“He started it!” Roman protests but Patton just shrugs.

“And we came here without permission. Plus, we’re here to talk to Logan, not to antagonize Remus.” The prince clicks his tongue but doesn’t say any more. Remus laughs.

“Yes, listen to your Daddy, Ro-bro! Or you might get spanked later!” Logan squeezes his arm that he was still holding on to and frowns at him.

“You stop starting fights as well, Rem. I just want them to leave.”

“You know how to shut me up,” Remus grins and wiggles his eyebrows. Logan simply gives him an unimpressed stare. After a few seconds, he drops the grin and sighs. “Fine, fine. You deal with them, and I’ll go play with Bruce.” He summons his tentacles before diving into the river below. Patton gasps.

“Is he okay?!”

“He’s fine. It’s his realm so nothing he creates here will do him harm unless he wants it to,” Roman reassures, almost too quiet. Regulating his volume is going to be hard for a bit and he already looks annoyed by it. Patton nods at his reassurance before turning back to Logan.

“Where were we, kiddo?” The logical side, who had also followed Remus’ decent with his eyes, looks back up and returns to frowning.

“You were attempting to explain why you assumed I was kidnapped despite me leaving clear instructions to prove the contrary.”

“It was just very unlike you, Lo,” Virgil chimes in, still deeply buried into his hoodie. “You didn’t say anything beforehand, and we thought Deceit or the Duke might have forged the folder.”

“Exactly! And then we found my brother’s atrocious deodorant case in your trash and…” Roman trails off as he realizes what he just said.

“You�� went through my trash?” Logan is now undoubtedly seething, glaring at them with cold eyes.

“Well, you see…” Roman tries to explain with a nervous laugh, scratching the back of his head. Patton looks just as likely to come up with an excuse, so Virgil speaks up again.

“I asked Princey over there to check if you were in your room or not. He took that as an invitation to go snooping.”

“Very helpful, Doom and Gloom!”

“Well, it was your fault!”

“And you didn’t have to tell him that!”

“So,” Logan interrupts, voice calm but so icy that the others shiver, “let me make sure I understood this right. You found my notes and instead of trusting me and my ability to decide for myself, your first thought was that I was some damsel in distress that needed rescuing? And in your attempt to be the heroes once again you invaded my privacy as well?!” He continually got louder and louder, clearly very much angry.

“Logan, calm down, we just-“ Patton tries to interject but Logan continues, probably not even noticing that the other had spoken.

“You trust me so little, that you cannot even consider that I make decisions for my own well-being without consulting you? After pushing me aside again and again, you concluded that I cannot take care of myself? I have listed reasons for my decision in the letter I left you. Did you even consider those? Or did you assume that I would continue to let you figuratively walk all over me?” Logan takes a few deep breaths, the others stunned into silence. Once he feels like he is back in control of himself, the logical side continues, in his normal speaking voice.

“To me it is obvious that our current co-existence is neither beneficial to Thomas nor ourselves. We continue to figuratively turn in circles and no issues are truly being resolved. We all are stressed out, which makes finding a compromise even more unlikely. I had discussions on this topic with both Janus and Remus, as well as smaller conversations with all of you, if you cared to remember. And the conclusion I reached in the end was that we needed to take a step back and reevaluate. So, in order to do that, I asked Remus to help me arrange a place to stay for a few days to give us all time to reflect. He ended up inviting me here, to his library and I decided to extend my original idea into a vacation. I assure you, this all happened through my own volition.” With his arms crossed, he stares at the others, apparently awaiting an answer. Patton was the first to find his voice.

“We’re so sorry, kiddo. To us it was just a very sudden turn of events and we panicked. We should have trusted you more.”

“I trust him!” Roman huffs. “It’s Deceit and my brother that I don’t trust!” He points a finger accusingly towards Janus, who had continued to silently watch from the side and now raises an eyebrow but doesn’t comment. Roman addresses Logan directly. “You said you talked with them about your plan but how do you know that it wasn’t part of theirs all along?!”

“Their plan to do what exactly?”

“To drive us apart, obviously! Ever since that snake showed up, we keep fighting! It must be his fault; he wants us to not trust each other so that he can influence Thomas!” Roman’s rant was undermined by his inability to truly raise his voice and none of the others seem convinced. Not even Virgil. Logan sighs.

“I understand that Janus’ past action have hurt you, Roman, but you need to accept that he is not the villain you make him out to be. He is doing his best to protect Thomas, as we all do. And he is not always in the right, none of us are. As much as I hate admitting it, my plans and wishes for Thomas are not always the answer either, which is why I try to incorporate your suggestions into my planning. But since you all seem to refuse to acknowledge my contributions in the same way, Thomas ends up neglecting his responsibilities. I would not let Janus make all the decisions, but he deserves to voice his opinions as much as the rest of us.”

“But he lured you away!”

“As I’ve already said, the decision was mine alone. Janus was the one who brought the idea of a vacation up to me first, that is true, but I was the one to decide to ask Remus for help and not discuss it with you beforehand.”

“And why didn’t you?” Virgil chimes in. Logan glances at him before turning his eyes toward the sky.

“I was trying to avoid this exact conversation. I am tired of justifying myself to you all. I needed a break, somewhere you cannot easily get to. As I’m sure you have noticed on your way here, this library is exactly what I was looking for. I am frustrated, maybe even angry with you. I raised my voice against you earlier, which I did not want to do but I just cannot hold back anymore. I need this distance from you for a while. I need to sort out my” – he stops and bites his lips for a moment before continuing – “feelings and I do not have the room or time to do so properly while in the mindscape with you all. I had hoped that I would be able to explain this to you when I came back but you couldn’t wait, apparently.”

“And you expect us to trust them in the meantime?” Roman growls, again pointing towards Janus and then down towards the river where Remus disappeared to. Logan glares at him.

“No, Roman. I expect you to trust me for once. I can take care of myself, I can defend myself against your brother and I can do so better than you, as we all have seen before.” Roman goes red in the face and tries to retort, but Patton holds him back.

“Enough. Logan’s right, we’re in the wrong here.”

“But padre-!”

“No buts, mister.” A giggle is heard from down below. “We jumped to conclusions and came here without permission. Logan is allowed to make his own choices and while I’m not happy about it either, we should trust him.” He pats Roman on the shoulder before turning back to Logan. “Then I hope you have fun, and we’ll see you soon, okay?” He said it with a smile, but Logan frown deepens.

“Stop patronizing me, Patton. I am the same age as you and it’s demeaning. I do not need your permission to stay here.”

“I didn’t mean to… I’m sorry, I- “ Patton stutters, embarrassed and not able to meet Logan’s eyes. Virgil sighs.

“Let’s just get out of here. We all have a lot to think about, apparently.” Roman clicks his tongue but doesn’t argue. Patton nods and stares at the ground. “Hope you have a nice break, Lo. See ya.”

“That is the plan. Please leave now,” is all Logan says before turning away and going back to his book. Janus claps his hands together, gathering the attention of the others.

“Follow me, there is a shortcut out of here.”

“Let me guess, it only works one way?” Roman huffs, his voice still quieter than he’d like. The effect would likely only disappear once he’s out of Remus’ territory.

“Very clever, my prince,” Janus says and claps his hands again, this time in mock applause. “100 points for Gryffindor.” Roman glares at him but even he has lost the will to continue their arguments.

The group makes their way back in silence, through the jungle, down a hidden elevator off to the right of the gallery, out a side door of the building and back towards the mindscape. Patton is the only one who glances back towards Logan before he is obscured by the foliage of the jungle, but the logical side is already back on the chaise longue, drinking his still hot beverage.

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

Due to the sounds still being muted, Logan could clearly hear the ‘ding’ of the elevator, signaling the departure of the others. With a sigh he puts the book down that he had only pretended to read. He takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes tiredly. What an ordeal this has been. After setting his glasses back in place, he takes another sip of his tea – which never cools thanks to Remus’ powers. Speaking off, wet slapping sounds reverberate through the air as the Duke makes his way over to Logan, dripping wet from his impromptu bathing session.

“So, how is Bruce?”

“Fine! He tried to bite my leg off, but he only got a few scraps of flesh!”

“Are you going to heal it or do you want me to bandage it?” Remus grins and with a snap he removes his damaged pants, at least from mid-thigh down. He knows Logan’s comfort zones and nudity wasn’t one of them. At least not yet. The logical side sighs as he summons a first aid kit. “Why am I not surprised?”

“’Cause you know I like it when you bondage me!”

“You mean ‘bandage me’, correct?”

“I know what I said.” Logan rolls his eyes and starts examining and dressing Remus’ wounds which, while bleeding, were all pretty superficial. For a few moments, he worked in silence, but as usual with Remus around, that didn’t last long.

“Felt good, right?”

“I do not know what you are referring to.”

“Pff, don’t bullshit me, Lolo. You know exactly what I mean.”

“Fine, but I do not wish to comment on whether I found it satisfactory or not.”

“You can be such a prude.”

“That may very well be, but I do not see how that relates to our topic.”

“Do you wanna talk about it or not?”

“I am… unsure.” Logan finishes dressing the last wound, cleans the kit up before vanishing it away. Then he sits next to Remus with a sigh. “I do feel a bit better, having said what needed to be said but I also feel like I was too harsh with them.” Remus hums a moment before answering.

“Nah, I think they needed to hear it, ‘specially Daddy-o. He’s been treating not only you but Virgin as well like kids and he needs to stop or you’ll never get anywhere. Breaking out of your mold is exactly what you need, and they need to accept that.” Logan nods along but doesn’t look all that convinced.

“I am aware, but it still feels” – he grimaces at the word – “weird. I don’t know how to describe it.”

“And that’s fine, Specs! You only just accepted that you have feelings, it’s gonna take a bit to figure them out. And dear Tomathy is in a weird place at the moment anyway, so it’s double confusing.”

“I am exhausted.”

“No wonder. Wanna take a nap?”

“Are you going to dry off first?”

“Ugh, fine. But only for you, Nerdy Wolverine!”

[marvelspookytoberprompts]

Marvel Spookytober 2021 Prompts

Hello, everyone!

It’s finally that time of the year again, and Marvel Spookytober Prompts is back with prompts for you a bit later than usual.

For those who aren’t familiar, Marvel Spookytober Prompts is an event that lasts the entire month of October. It has two different prompts for you to choose from each day or you could even use both prompts. You are free to participate as much or as little as you wish, meaning there is NO minimum word count, minimum days to participate, minimum images, or anything of the like. All forms (writing, art, gifsets, moodboards, etc.) will be accepted.

Here are some quick reminders of this event:

You don’t have to use every prompt that is given for each day, but you are more than welcome to if you want.

If you would like for us to reblog your work, then use the hashtags #marvelspookytober or #marvelspookytoberprompts. For an extra measure, since tracked tagging has been a bit wonky lately, then tag us in your post.

To make it easier for us Mods for when we reblog and tag your work, please state what day and prompt(s) you have filled. (ex: Day 4 - Group Costume or Day 23 - “Don't you dare touch my caramel apples.” || The 13th Floor)

You can also include your work in our AO3 collection here. Please state what day and prompt(s) you have filled in the ‘Summary’ section.

HERE is a link to a post that shows fic formatting examples. This format should be done since it provides information about what your work entails so people can avoid it if there’s something they aren’t comfortable with.

These prompts are free for anyone to use; however, we will only be reblogging Marvel related content.

Without further ado, here, under the cut, are this year’s prompts!

If you have any questions, feel free to drop by our ask.

01 OCTOBER/DAY 1: “This sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen.” || Angel/Demon

02 OCTOBER/DAY 2: Horror Movie Binge || A broken lollipop, tears and hugs.

03 OCTOBER/DAY 3: “Please stop slapping the pumpkins. People are starting to stare.” || Masked Killers

04 OCTOBER/DAY 4: Group Costume || Camping trip, ghost stories, and a supernatural element.

05 OCTOBER/DAY 5: “That's such an inappropriate costume for the workplace. I'm telling HR.” || Hitchhiking Ghost

06 OCTOBER/DAY 6: Creepy Children Singing || Corn maze, scavenger hunt. and running into your ex.

07 OCTOBER/DAY 7: “Let me guess, you made your costume last minute?” || Vampires

08 OCTOBER/DAY 8: Zombies || Late night, consistent door knocking, and an empty front porch.

09 OCTOBER/DAY 9: “We are not doing a couple's costume.” || Cursed Amulet/Locket

10 OCTOBER/DAY 10: Ghost Town || Playing hide-and-seek in an abandoned mansion.

11 OCTOBER/DAY 11: “Would you like to be my date for the Halloween dance?” || Doppelgänger

12 OCTOBER/DAY 12: Shifters || S'mores, power outage, and sleeping under the stars.

13 OCTOBER/DAY 13: “So garlic really doesn't work on vampires?” || Killer Clowns

14 OCTOBER/DAY 14: No Call Service || Murky lake, mysterious deaths, and a terrible detective.

15 OCTOBER/DAY 15: “Hiking on a date can go two ways. Option one, we get engaged. Option two, someone gets murdered.” || Car doesn't start

16 OCTOBER/DAY 16: Vengeful Spirit || Newspaper clippings, new person in town, and a creepy legend

17 OCTOBER/DAY 17: “How long do you think it would take for Character A to realize I'm dressed as them?” || Old Diary/Journal

18 OCTOBER/DAY 18: Imaginary Friend || Falling, fruit picking, and a rain storm

19 OCTOBER/DAY 19: “I made a horrible first impression at the haunted house." - "No kidding, you nearly broke my nose.” || Hiding from a Killer

20 OCTOBER/DAY 20: Mad Scientist || A sunrise, a bumper sticker, and the color orange

21 OCTOBER/DAY 21: “My plan was to woo you but I just ended up scaring myself watching all those movies.” || Hidden Message

22 OCTOBER/DAY 22: Playing with Ouija Boards || Darting shadows in the corner of your eye

23 OCTOBER/DAY 23: “Don't you dare touch my caramel apples.” || The 13th Floor

24 OCTOBER/DAY 24: Found Footage || A small nature walk path in the forest

25 OCTOBER/DAY 25: “Get away from me! Your costume is horrendous!” || Mirror Scare

26 OCTOBER/DAY 26: Possessed Technology || Pumpkin carving, a haunted forest, and oversized sweaters

27 OCTOBER/DAY 27: “How could you hide something like that from me!" - "....It was a surprise costume party.” || Stalker

28 OCTOBER/DAY 28: Creepy Love Letters || Morning kisses, fake blood. and the warmth of a fire.

29 OCTOBER/DAY 29: “I don't think Character A knows how Halloween Works.” || Escaping Death

30 OCTOBER/DAY 30: Hidden Passages || The ever-growing chill as each night goes by.

31 OCTOBER/DAY 31: “I may be an idiot but I'm your idiot." - "Oh? I didn't realize you were wearing a costume.” || Abandoned Lighthouse Still Works || Flannel shirts, the harvest moon, and making your favorite apple-based desserts.

[miraculousgemscc]

Not So Berry Extended

I was inspired to write out a few more generations for the Not So Berry Challenge! I’m currently playing it in my spare time as a Vampire Not so Berry (cause why not?) and i’m having a lot of fun playing it and watching others play through the challenge! If you’d like to see more of these or maybe another version of Not So Berry Extended but with more of the careers then please let me know!

NOTE: This hasn’t been play-tested! If whatever’s listed below is impossible to complete please let me know and i’ll make the needed changes!

Gen 11: Black

(Requires Snowy Escape, Get Famous, Parenthood)

Growing up, you always thought you had the perfect life: You had the dream house, the dream family. Until one day you found out that your mother/father/parent had a secret affair. This completely broke you and in order to cope with the news, you decided to become a rebel. I mean, don’t we all go through a rebellious phase in our lives? Your whole perspective on life went 360: you changed your sense of style, your personality, etc. all at once. At least you had the great outdoors giving you comfort during your “everlasting phase”! Your favorite season was Winter because you could ski/snowboard all day, everyday. And what about those dreams you had of becoming a famous skier/snowboarder? Well we can do that too!

Traits: Hot-Headed (give as a teenager), Active, Self-Assured

Aspiration: Extreme Sports Enthusiast

Career: Manuel Laborer, Ski/Snowboarding YouTuber (once you reach Level 10 of Ski/Snowboarding)

Rules:

Must enter “rebellious phase” either at the end of childhood or beginning of being a teenager (you don’t need PH for this, it’s just apart of storytelling) (this is when the black color of this gen. should occur)

Must get the Argumentative, Insensitive and Uncontrolled Emotions Character Value traits (PH)

Must max either the Skiing or Snowboarding skill (SE)

Must enter the Manuel Laborer job as a teenager and stay in that job

Once your able to create Snowboarding videos, you must make your money off of your videos only

Reach at least Rising Star of Celebrity level (GF)

B-Lister is preferred but since getting fame with Get Famous is hard as it is Rising Star is ok

Must move to Mt. Komorebi (SE)

Gen 12: Dark Academia

(requires Get to Work, Nifty Knitting) Your mother/father/parent was one of the most famous skier/snowboarders in Mt. Komorebi. She/He/They always encouraged you to spend your time outdoors and take in the fresh air. Yet, you preferred to spend your time indoors, curled up in bed with your tea and book in hand. You craved to enter the fictional worlds you’ve read in your books from a young age. When you entered high school, you found your love for the arts and decided that you’d become an artist. At least then you could bring the worlds you’ve read to life on a canvas! And why not have a little snack while we’re at it? You can just learn some new foods you can make through cooking books after all!

Traits: Bookworm, Creative, Art Lover

Aspiration: Painter Extraordinaire

Career: Stay-at-Home Painter, Painter career (⚠️Only if you get offered the job⚠️)

Rules:

Must complete the Painter Extraordinaire aspiration

Must max out Painting skill, Cooking or Gourmet Cooking skill and Photography skill (GTW)

Must make your money through your paintings only

if you get a call about joining the Painter career, you must accept

Must move into a “rundown” lot/apartment with only a kitchen, bathroom, and a bed (and maybe your books if you want but you can’t sell these for money)

your funds when you move out after moving into your house must be $60

(this will be enough for your painting and some extra money to spend elsewhere)

Must have a library in your house

Must have 3 kids (biological or adopted)

spouse must be employed as a Salaryperson and/or Business career (recommended if it’s game generated but you can give them either job yourself)

can only marry partner towards the end of adulthood

Must purchase Knitting Skill Book 1 from bookshelf (NK)

Gen 13: Pastel

(requires Nifty Knitting, Get To Work, Get Together) Your family was pretty stable for the most part. Sure, you may have had trouble paying the bills here and there but what mattered most is that your family was together. Even though you enjoyed your mother/father/parent’s love for Forrest Green, Rosy Brown and overall Earthy tones you felt like you needed a bit more color in your life. And by color, you mean bright and colorful. One day while going through your mother/father/parent’s library you discovered a book on knitting. Figuring your mother/father/parent spent all of their time cooking and painting anyways you decided to take the book and learn how to knit. Yet, knitting cute decor and beanies isn’t going to put food on the table and a roof over your head. Guess running your own business is going to have to wait. Oh yeah, you also have a weird obsession with the letter B...

Traits: Perfectionist, Cheerful, Childish

Aspiration: Lady/Lord of the Knits

Career: Barista (teen), Business (young adult), Business owner (adult)

Rules:

Must complete the Lady/Lord of the Knits aspiration

Must max out Knitting skill, reach required skills needed for jobs before quitting them (ex. If you need Level 3 of Charisma for the Business career but you’ve age up to an Adult, you must reach level 3 before quitting the job)

Must Donate to Charity at least once a week

Quit your career in Business and open your own business as an adult (GTW)

Must get 2/5 stars for your business

Must live in Windenburg and have your business in the Old Platz neighborhood (GT)

Must create a Knitting Club and meet your friends (GT) when you reach Level 3 of the Knitting skill

Can only have relationships with immediate family (siblings, parent(s), grandparent(s), aunts/uncles) until you create the club. Once you create the club you may make friends.

Must become good friends with club members and best friends with one of the members

Marry your partner from the Knitting Club

Must have their first and/or last name start with B (you can cheat the name if you want)

Gen 14: White (Requires Get Famous, Get Together, City Living) Living in Windenburg for most of your life, you always loved how the town was so inclusive to everything and everyone. You always found yourself vibing with the music and dancing whenever you had the chance. But you also had a passion for music, specifically rap. While browsing the internet one day you came across some videos about some kid with blue hair rapping with his friends and you immediately became obsessed. (yes, I just made a FNF reference) From that day on, you wanted to become a Triple Threat: a dancer, musician, and a producer! The world isn’t stopping anytime soon so you gotta act fast and get your dance on!

Traits: Dance Machine, Music Lover, Geek

Aspiration: Musical Genius

Career: Entertainer Rules:

Must max the Dancing skill, Media Production skill, and Guitar/Violin/Piano skill (your choosing) reach level 6 of Singing skill

Must complete the Entertainer career

Must be signed to a Record Label and release your music (GF)

Must marry someone named Keith and has the Proper trait (you may cheat the name only)

Have a boyfriend/girlfriend/partner in high school but break up with them before becoming a Young Adult

must be Hot and Cold with High School love (negative friendship, positive romance)

Have Dance Battles with your friends at least once a week

Have at least 2 Enemies (you can have more if you wish) (this doesn’t include your High School love)

Gen 15: Navy Blue

(Requires Discover University, Eco Lifestyle, Parenthood) Growing up you tend to lean towards a more sophisticated lifestyle thanks to your father. With having good role models around you and supportive parents, you were able to pursue your dreams of becoming a lawyer. Helping those in need was one of your biggest goals in life. The world right now isn’t perfect and you strive to change the world for the better. Having been the smartest kid throughout your school career, you were given the chance to jump straight into the Law career. Although you were grateful for the opportunity, you decided to continue your studies and learn as much as you could before going into Law.

Traits: Proper, Ambitious, Genius

Aspiration: Academic

Career: Law

Rules:

Must complete the Law career

Become a Private Attorney

Must max out Research and Debate, reach level 5 Logic skill, reach level 8 Charisma skill

Must complete the Whiz Kid aspiration and Academic aspiration

Must attend college for the Law career (you may disable aging while you go to college if you want)

Must get an A in school (child and teen)

Must have the Responsible and Mediator Character Value traits

Must make your neighborhood a Green neighborhood (EL)

Attend volunteer events at least once a week (PH)

Never get married, only have 1 child

(can have boyfriend/girlfriend/partner)

Must move to Britechester when you start the Law career (you can live in Britechester while attending college if you want)

Gen 16: Phoenix

(Requires Vampire) You grew up wanting more from the world besides all of the “change the world” stuff your mother/father/parent kept blabbering on about. Instead of changing the world, you wanted a change of scenery. While roaming the world trying to find your new normal you discovered the world of Forgotten Hollow. There, you met your soulmate and later the person who would eventually turn you into a vampire. As crazy as it sounds, the minute you became a Young Adult you up and left your home in Britechester and moved to Forgotten Hollow. This you thought was it! You were finally free to be yourself! Until the dreaded accident.....

Traits: Loves the Outdoors, Romantic, Erratic

Aspiration: Master Vampire

Career: none

Rules:

Must purposely burn in the sun and die

Must have no kids

Must complete Master Vampire aspiration except the, “Survive for an Additional 20 Days as a Vampire” section (you must Die by Sunlight before this reaches the full 20 Days)

Must max Vampire Lore skill and Pipe Organ skill, reach level 5 Gardening skill

Have your own garden in Forgotten Hollow and make your money through your garden only

Must unlock the Thin Skinned weakness from Vampire levels

Must immediately move out as a Young Adult to Forgotten Hollow

your partner must be a Vampire and turn you into a Vampire

And that’s it! I hope you find this as interesting as I did! :D

If your wanting more ways to spice up your gameplay, I have a save file that i’ve been working on the past couple of years! You can find it here.

[crispycrimebrulee]

🎄25 Days of HXH: Day 4: Kurapika x Christmas Songs🎄

You swung a duffle bag over your shoulder and shuffled out into the snow, doing your best not to slip on your way out. The car was probably getting uncomfortably cold with the trunk wide open, but you had to get all the luggage in safely so Kurapika could see when he drives. You weren’t too fond of playing Tetris with a load of suitcases, but such is life, eh? Do They Know It’s Christmas? by Band Aid

Taglist:  @to-move-on-means-to-grow @lifescreams27 @twistedsmth @some-weeb-chick @dukinaxael @errorpeachy @demon-hugger @my-child-gaara @absolute-flaming-trash @yep-seeyalaterbranflakes

Kurapika had been given 2 weeks off for the Christmas season, and you’d worked long enough and collected enough vacation days that you could match with Kurapika and take the two weeks off as well. To top it off, the two of you had saved enough money to rent a lodge up in the mountains, far from the city, deep within the woods, a perfect snowy Christmas-y environment where you two could have some peace and quiet from the life involving work. It had been more of a surprise, really. Sure, you and Kurapika had planned to go away somewhere, and to sync up your vacation days. You’d spent weeks looking at hotels and little Christmas towns and places to go, practically losing sleep over it, trying to look for good prices and good reviews and things to do. Kurapika had come home one evening, came home to you practically pulling your hair out stressing about the best place to stay for the holiday when he told you he’d booked a lodge just for the two of you for two weeks, and you nearly screamed when you hugged him, absolutely ecstatic about the news. He’d shown you the lodge too, and you were absolutely over the moon. It was rustic, a classic wood lodge in the middle of a cluster of pine trees. A small Christmas town was a 20 minutes drive from the lodge, so you were close to activities if you so choose to do something for the day. There was a ski slope as well, 45 minutes away, and you’d mentioned wanting to at least try to ski at some point in your life. The days coming up to your departure, you’d spent so much time at the stores, buying a new coat, gifts and decorations and an extra suitcase, making sure you’d be able to pack everything you wanted for the trip.

Here you stood now, the snow was at least shin deep for you, threatening to come up to your knees and fall into your boots if you stooped too low. You were essentially dragging a suitcase behind you; too heavy to hoist it in your arms, let alone above your head, so dragging it in the snow was the next best option. Reaching the trunk, you huffed. Giving it your all, you heaved the suitcase in best you could, and rearranged it with the other pieces of luggage. Trying to shove the suitcase into a spot, your feet gave out from under you, causing your foot to slide backwards on the snow, a yelp escaping you. Your fall was stopped however, hands bracing you around your waist, the air gently pushed out of your lungs. Your hands met the edge of the trunk, and you looked up, Kurapika standing there bracing himself in the snow as well, eyes full of concern. Steadying yourself, you stood up, and Kurapika let his hands find yours, his grip gentle but strong, ready to catch you if you slipped again. 

He patted your head and sighed, still holding your hand and walked you back to the front of the house to continue packing the luggage, locking the door behind you. There was just a set of backpacks left, some snacks and a blanket were left to be placed in the car. Taking them, you easily brought them and placed them in the backseat rather than the trunk, seeing as the backseat had plenty of space. Kurapika was at the trunk, slightly rearranging the luggage and finally shutting the trunk. Checking it once more, he made his way over to the drivers side and hoped in, shivering at the chilliness of the car. You knew you should’ve heated it a while ago…

It’d been about 2 hours of driving, a couple of wrong turns here and there, and a snack break a few minutes ago. You’ve been driving in relative silence except for offering directions, wary of distracting Kurapika when he’s driving. Feeling restless, you sparked a conversation in hopes of silencing your boredom.

“Kuraaaaaapika~” you sang, looking over at him.

He glanced at you and smiled, as if sensing the spark of mischief in your tone.

“Yes, y/n? You okay?” he said, switching lanes.

“Got any favorite Christmas songs?” you asked, scrolling through your playlists, hoping you could play some music to get the atmosphere going.

Kurapika furrowed his brow, not in the sense of thinking, but more in the sense of it was a strange question. 

“Uh...I’m not sure, honestly…” he muttered, a hint of shock in his voice.

You were dumbfounded. Sure, there were just about 20 versions of Please Come Home for Christmas and 30 more versions of White Christmas, and just about every celebrity had sung Jingle Bells at least once, but everyone (or at least, most people) have a favorite Christmas song, whether it be a cover or an original. 

“Do you even listen to Christmas songs, Kurapika?”, you questioned, weary of the answer you would hear from him.

“I’ve heard them but I don’t really pay attention, love…” he replied, looking guilty.

You sighed, putting your playlist on shuffle.

The first song to come on, Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You, and you feigned shock and looked at Kurapika, as he glanced at you whilst you went into a mini performance. 

Doing your best to keep yourself from distracting him too much, you mouth the words, adding a bit of charades in the mix, being as cheesy as possible. Every time high notes and “all I want for Christmas is you!” came up, you’d point at him and make a heart with your hand, earning a faint blush from the boy. As overplayed this song may be, you couldn’t deny the catchiness of it, the overall festive atmosphere, you couldn’t help but get in an especially Christmas-y mood.

“You like this one?” peeking at Kurapika, doing a little shimmy in your seat.

Kurapika nodded, tapping his fingers along with the song, already falling prey to its notes.

The song faded out, and Last Christmas by Wham! came in next, causing your shimmy to slow down into a sway, putting on your best tragic yet romantic tone, pointing at him and (poorly) harmonizing with the song. 

Listening to the lyrics, Kurapika looked puzzled, looking at you briefly, “This one’s sad...and it’s a Christmas song?”

“Well, yeah...It involves Christmas so it flies.” you answered, getting lost in the song. 

Letting the song fade out, Do They Know It’s Christmas by Band Aid came on, and Kurapika let out a small gasp, a gentle smile finding its way on his lips.

“There’s a world outside your window, and it’s a world of dread and fear!” he sang softly, tapping his hands full on the wheel.

You looked at him, ecstatic that he was getting so into it.

“You know this one?!” you sang over the song a bit, dancing in your seat.

“I happen to know this one, yes”, he laughed, “Do they know it’s Christmas time at alllll!” giving it all.

His singing voice was cute and soft, yet full of joy. Even though his eyes were masked by contacts, it didn’t stop you from seeing the sparkle of happiness dancing in them, the way snowflakes dance in the cool December light at the crack of dawn. 

“We knoooooow whooooooooa! Let them know it’s Christmas time!” you let out, glancing at him as he followed along with you, letting yourselves fall into the song further, completely jamming out in the car. 

Softly ending and fading into Baby It’s Cold Outside by Indina Menzel came on next, and you went into both parts, batting your lashes at Kurapika, watching him try to keep a smile from his face as you put on a show in your seat. 

The rest of the ride was full of figuring out Kurapika’s favorite songs, and jamming out to the few that he did know, talking about the favorite aspects of the season, and planning on when to visit the little Christmas town.

After about another 2 hours of driving, you arrive at the lodge, making yourselves at home, decorating and setting up your Christmas escape. 

After flopping down on the couch in exhaustion, you snuggled up to Kurapika, laying your head against his chest, finding his hand quietly seeking out yours to hold as you relaxed, finally, for a moment. Laying there in silence, the warmth of each other and the steady beat of Kurapika’s heart against your own, you felt drowsy, and you found no need to stop yourself.

Until Kurapika started lazily humming Baby Please Come Home by Mariah Carey, and you looked up at him, his eyes hazy and glazed with sleep, looking adorable and peaceful as he hummed. 

“Someone’s a Mariah Carey fan, huh?” snuggling up to him closer, remembering how excited he had gotten when he heard the song.

A small, huffy laugh escaped Kurapika as he rested his cheek against your head, “I suppose so, y/n.”

You smiled to yourself as you fell asleep, Kurapika following suit not to long after, his humming slowly fading out into soft sleep.

[schiavonaspada]

Oliver! (1968) Live (re) watch!

i have already seen oliver!, but not in ages, so i decided to watch it again, enjoy

very long post warning

fuckin hell these opening credits are LONG

i love the fact instrumentals of songs in the movie are playing

i have chocolate popcorn, apple lucozade and oliver! on, life is good

yes i know mark lester is oliver ive seen this like 20 times can i watch the film now

OH ABOUT FUCKING TIME

god is love

IS IT WORTH THE WAITING FOR IF WE LIVE TILL 84 ALL WE EVER GET IS GRUELL

i forgot how much of a banger food glorious food is

LOOK AT BABY MARK LESTER 🥺🥺🥺

ads in middle of movie be like

its harry secombe!

AMENNNN

oliver gets bullied the movie

look at this poor kid

MOREE????????

oh yes oliver i love this song

O L I V E R

poor kid

without any bannister yikes

the one who named him........O-L-IV-ERRR

oh were outside now

olivers just been kicked out oh shit

but on the plus side he has a cute ass hat on

BOY FOR SAY AL

look at oliver 🥺 he deserves better

SOWERBERRY MORE LIKE SHITTERBERRY

theres a severe lack of thats your funeral and i shall scream

noah claypole more like noah clayprick

“perhaps... if i had a tall hat?” BABEY

HES GOT HIS TALL HAT ON YES OLIVER

oliver said dab on them haters from your old gaff youre a funeral advisor now and theyre still homeless

DONT INSULT HIS MUM FUCK YOU NOAH

YES OLIVER KILL HIM

yes stuff the nine year old in a coffin and sit on it well done

"OLIVAH ??" "Yes im here: ((("

ITS MEAT!

oliver deserves better man 

im gonna cry and were like 25 minutes in.

ik its not mark singing but whoever it is CAN SING WTF

i want to give him a hug

OH SHIT HES RUNNING AWAY

hes in the lettuce

LONDON YOU MADE IT !

yes oliver trains exist

DODGER!!!

whach you starin at aint ya ever seen a toff

the beak

look at lil jack wild

me more hintimate friends

cockney accent™️

the artful dodga

CONSIDERR YOURSSELF AT HOEME COSNIDER YOURSWLF OEN OF THE FAMILY !!!!!!!!!!

im sorry i love this song

look this scene is awesome, but it would be COMPLETE with charley oh wait he was demoted to extra and everything interesting abt him was given to dodger

he should have gotten the nobody tries to be ladeeda or uppity bit I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL

this cast is BIG

okay i am a Charger Enthusiast but do we all agree there is something oddly homosexual about oliver and dodger in this song

note how dodger is scared of the police FORESHADOWING

ive taken to this SO STRONGITSCLEARWEREGOINGTOGETALONG

how many extras is this ???? yall better be gettin paid

its dodga comin up

this set is sraight out of the book i love it

CHARLEY MATE IM SORRY THEY MADE YOU AN EXTRA 

“oh not again” does dodger just always show up with random workhouse kids 

ah yes fagin the character whos still a negative jewish stereotype

more and more big cast

THESE SAUSAGES ARE MOULDY! (am i going to freak out whenever charley does anything because i love him? yes)

stfu drink your gin

is this a laundry?? no fam 

THE BEST FUCKING SONG IN THIS MUSICAL

IN THIS LIFE ONE THING COUNTS

sorry if i dont add to this until pick a pocket or two is done bc its a straight banger

this song is EVERYTHING 

hard at work lol ok

did he make those himself??? no

couple a wipes

EMBROIDERED THEM??? no

petition for all oliver twist adaptations to refer to charley as master bates like the book and for him to have actual lines and not have his actor switched at least three times

i dont even now who charley is at this point because his actor is switched many a time im just gonna say purple blazer kid is charley

anyway charley bates supremacy

whos bill sikes??? NO

fuck bill all my homies hate bill

rum tum tum is a banger

go bed now

take your hat off in bed dodger

movie fagin has rights

fagin leaving where will he go

BET IS THAT YOU

FUCK OFF BILL NO ONE LIKES YOU 

NANCY NANCY HES HERE !!!!!! bet deserves everything and more ily 💖

NANCYYYY!!!!!!

its a fine life more like its a banger

wheres all of bets lines gone

bet 🤝 charley (being demoted to extras)

its not funny anyore bet.. bet girl please sing youre the best fucking thing about this song

such a happy song about domestic abuse

THERE SHE IS THATS MY GIRL BET I FUCKING LOVE YOU

bullsye rights!

i hate how this movie made fagin more symathetic but he’s still a “greedy jew” stereotype

oliver?????

at this moment fagin knew he fucked up

nancy you deserve better than bill

oh hi dodger forgot you existed

and the rest of you except oliver

ah yes charley “sausages” bates i missed you

THESE FUCKING KIDS THEY ALL LOVE BET AND NANCY MY HEART

im a regular gent i am. no dodger you arent

why is “permit me to assist you across the road” so fucking funny

pov dodgers back on his bullshit so you have to pretend to be a horse and cart for him

not “sir artful” 😭😭😭

anyfink for youu

WHAT FISTICUFFS???!!!

i feel sorry for the child extras man theyve prob had to film this scene like ten times

THESE KIDS CAN SING

 the boys dancing with eachother is too fucking wholesome i love this

again, movie fagin rights

weed riissk lifee and limmbb

you promised we could go see the angin!!!!!

ats on boys time were off

THIS IS MY FAVOURITE SONG

HOW COULD WE LET HOW COULD WE FORGET OUR DEAR OLD FAGIN WORRY!!

mate that aint single file did you not hear him

am i the only one who can hear london bridge is falling down in the back??

our pockets hold a watch of gold that chimes upon the hour!!! a wallet fat an old mans hat!!! the jewels from the tower!!!

WE KNOW THE NOSEY POLICEMEENNNN

dodger and charley (i am SURE charley is purple blazer kid even if havent seen this film in ages) are GETTING INTO THIS

oliver 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

movie fagin rights pt 27238227

DODGER OLIVER COME ON!!!!!!!!! alright dude chill

ARE YALL SEEING THIS SHIT, I WAS RIGHT, I TOLD YOU THAT THE LAD IN THE PURPLE BLAZER WHO SINGS “a wallet fat an old mans hat” WAS CHARLEY BATES AND GUESS WHAT HE FUCKING IS. I WAS RIGHT, PURPLE BLAZER KID IS CHARLEY YOU CAN LEAVE NOW

no dont were only an hour in

three kids on the back of the omnibus what will they do

dodger and charley said be gay do crimes

ah shit now look what youve gotten us into dodger

IT WASNT EVEN OLIVER IT WAS CHARLEY AND DODGER GO AFTER THEM

are dodger and charley straight up framing oliver for a crime they commited while also helping him escape

yes they are why are we surprised 

i hate to break it to you dodger but hiding oliver in a meat sack doesnt work

OLIVERS ON THE ROOF????

charley and dodger got oliver into this mess and they are not going to get him out

WHY DIDNT YOU LOOK AFTER HIM????? right calm down fagin

how could i help it :((((

no bill!

stan nancy

“two other boys stole it” no shit

BROWNLOW !

run bitch run

right intermission time now

AND WE’RE BACK!

entr acte

who will buyyy

strawberry girl is carrying this

oliver owns my heart pt 278983728938728

this is a banger wtf

okay its done now right

right?????

UHH BILL???? DODGER???? BITCH WHY TF ARE YOU HERE

have bill fagin nancy and the boys been stalking oliver???

NO SHE WONT FAGIN!

shit.

fuck bill

this scene is far more sadder when you think of how the boys have just seen the only woman they see as a mother figure been hit to the flo or, im not crying, you are

as long as he needs me :(

FUCK YOU BILL

rose maylie is that you?!

look at lil oliver!!

BILL FUCK OFF

i hate bill

“look at his togs! he’s got books too!” charley and dodger are my emotional support kids

anyway have i mentioned i hate bill, bc i hate bill.

I REALLY REALLY HATE BILL

even fagin aka the guy whos keeping these kids as pickpockets has more morals than bill

WE STAY CALM!!

no bill i havent heard a dying chicken

act one was just childish antics now we have THIS

fuck bill

YOURE TELLING ME THE BOYS WATCHED THAT????

jack wild is a banging actor. he genuinely looks terrified 🥺 

this film.. 

a mans got a heart hasnt he?? yes you do!!!

a full song dedicated to movie fagin rights?? did i ghostwrite this?? probably

banger

ithinkidbetterthinkitoutagain!

villains theives and nine year olds

MR BUMBLE?????!!!!!!!!!!

fuck bill pt72898376728909878199

bill youre traumatising him

cmon nance do something!!

also completely forgot abt this but uh does monks exist in this i forgot bc we have had no mentions of him yet

nancy tell him who bill is!!!

bullseye deserves better

uhm what is going on

bill sikes more like bill yikes

oliver what are you doing

BILL TERRIFIES ME

FUCK

omg oom pah pah????

leave oliver alone bill hes like nine

oh banger

OOM PAH PAH THATS HOW IT GOES!!!!!!!!!

just asking are nancy and bet lesbians bc they look it

COULD IT BE OOM PAH PAHHHHHH

god i love this song

IT SHOOOOOWSSSSSS

its the same oom pah pah

“She was from the country but now shes up a gumtree she let a fella feed her then lead her a long” foreshadowiinnggg

OOM PAH PAH! OOM PAH PAH! OOM PAH PAH!

nancy is so fucking smart

getting the whole pub singing and dancing to smuggle out oliver? clever

fuck

bill.. no.. bill.. bill????

FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKC

BILL GET OFF HER

NANCY NO

HE STRAIGHT UP COMMIT MURDER AGAINST THE NICEST CHARACTER

BROWNLOW DO YOU NOT HEAR NOTHING

nancy deserved a better death than to be killed by bill fuck bill

EVEN BULLSEYE HATES YOU BILL

ARE THEY ACCUSING BULLSEYE OF MURDER

FUCK YOU BILL

movie fagin rights + fuck bill combo?

youre telling me fagin had an ESCAPE ROUTE??? AT THE BOTTOM OF THE HOUSE THING??? THE WHOLE TIME???

BILL DONT KILL THE CHILD

BILL

fuck, well. #

“WHAT DO I DO!?” “LIVE UP TO YOUR NAME, DODGE ABOUT”

ten quid says dodgers been caught

oh no all fagins shit is gone

BILL DONT KILL THE CHILD PT 2

FUCK YOU BILL

GOD I HATE HIM

OLIVER MATE ARE YOU OK

never have i been so happy to see a character die

rest in shit bill

hi dodger thought you got caught n went to australia 

god, this film is so fucking good.

reviewing the situation 2.0 goes hard

MOVIE. FAGIN. RIGHTS!

FAGIN YOU CAN BE A GOOD MAN YOU KNOW YOU CAN

DODGER??????????

IM TOTALLY NOT CRYING RN

FAGIN NO DONT TAKE IT

FUCKING PLOTTWIST

IT MADE IT LOOK LIKE FAGIN WAS GONNA GIVE THE WALLET BACK TO DODGER BUT NO

once the villain you’re the villain to the end

i completely forgot abt this scene since i’ve been reading the oliver twist book and in that dodger gets arrested and fagin gets hanged but here they get away?

god this is bittersweet

I THINK WE’D OUGHT TO THINK IT OUT AGAIN!!!!!

thats where the film should have ended, i get olivers the main character but it ending on dodger and fagin walking out into the sunset is such a pleasing ending man

oliver gets his happy ending abt time

YES CONSIDER YOURSELF AND BE BACK SOON (THE BIGGEST BANGERS IN THE FILM) CREDITS SONGS!!

well.. that was a journey and half

[hb-pickle]

Into the Unknown: Making Frozen 2 - Review

Finally finished watching all 6 episodes of the Frozen 2 Documentary! My consensus is drum roll please... it was not very good.

Things I liked first: I loved watching the team get emotional when they saw their projects coming together (finishing Into The Unknown, etc). 

Watching random guys rub rocks together for sound design was funny. 

I loved looking at the Disney offices and all the merch, posters, art, etc. 

The actors/workers were very charismatic and believable. They seemed to legit enjoy their work and were happy to help. 

- -

Criticism: 

The documentary promised to be a look into all the hard work, collaboration, blood, sweat and tears, it took to make Frozen 2, but it came off more as a look into the very final stages of Show Yourself and a few unfinished animation clips. So little of the actual movie making process was shown and it was extremely misleading and frustrating.

-

Songs:

Songs and the songwriting process were definitely the aspect of F2 Disney was most comfortable showing, but that’s saving very little because the attention per song was extremely restricted and lopsided. About 50% of the entire docu-series focuses on just Show Yourself while every other song gets about 20 to 1 minute(s) of screentime (in order from most to least discussion, it goes: Next Right Thing, Into The Unknown, Lost In The Woods, Some Things Never Change, When I’m Older, All Is Found, and Vuile isn’t even mentioned by name). And even when they did discuss these songs, they only showed the lyrics that got into the movie, no cut lyrics or alternatives were shown at all. So it was just long extended scenes of Jenn and the Lopez’ trying to decide whether they should or should not add parts to the song which we, as the viewer, already know were added. And again, they showed no alternatives, so it wasn’t a choice of A or B, it was A or maybe rewrite the middle-ish but no specifics. 

They didn't even discuss the public outtakes / deleted scenes they've already released / planned to release like "Get This Right", "Seek The Truth", "Unmeltable Me", etc (they did mention “See They Sky” but nothing else). 

The last thing I’d like to mention for this category is that they did discuss the intended emotions / themes of the songs they kept in. They talk about how Show Yourself was supposed to make you feel empowered and satisfyingly wrap up the story, how Next Right Thing was supposed to make you feel just as emotionally raw as Anna, etc. So I can give them credit for that. But again, these explanations became few and far between once they got into the “lesser” songs. Nor do they explain why certain songs were added to the story; for example When I’m Older’s entire existence was justified with “kids really liked it”. “Lost In The Woods” was an 80’s rock ballad because they kinda just wanted to make a 80’s song, etc.

-

Animation:

Again, just like the songs, Disney was very comfortable showing off the animation process, but only unfinished clips, models, skeletons, etc of shots that were actually used in the film and nothing else. But, I did have fun watching animators physically act out character movements, record them, and then animate them (ex: that poor girl who recorded like 5 shots of her own face singing, all super imposed on bobbing reindeer shaped bubbles for the Lost In The Woods scene lol).

The most new/deleted content they showed were storyboards and sketches of Show Yourself  where we got to see alt. backgrounds of Ahtohallan and young Iduna and and See the Sky which was a dance-off type thing between the Northuldra / Arendelle soldiers.

-

Story:

This, and every consecutive category, is where this documentary was severely lacking. They showed no alternative scenes or storylines like “Hard Nokks” or the secret library. Nor did they go into the intended messages/significance of the story elements they did use, like why they chose to trap the Enchanted Forest in mist, why they spared Arendelle, why Elsa left Arendelle, why they chose a dam for the physical boundary they needed to destroy (even though apparently it was loosely based on an IRL dam that hurt the IRL Sami people; I got this from outside resources), etc. 

They also don’t dive into any character motivations (outside of the context of Elsa in Show Yourself/Into The Unknown, Anna in Next Right Thing, and Kristoff in Lost In The Woods). 

They very explicitly refused to discuss any changes they made to the script. In episode 5 they spend a lot of time emphasizing the importance of audience feedback but refuse to show any actual feedback (they even talk about how they gave out questionnaires but don’t even show us a blank one). This was very blatant and annoying because they spent a lot of time looking DIRECTLY at the camera going on about how important feedback was, how being willing to change was important, how they DID change things, and how change impacted a lot of the movie (ex: cutting songs and simplifying things for children), but refused to show anything. The one (1) change they did show was the prologue, so we see young Anna and Elsa playing before we see Agnarr's flashback, but that was pretty much it. 

-

Design / Environments:

Character design and dress design was not discussed at all. They do show us a few seconds of fabric physics for Elsa’s spirit dress and show us how they designed Olaf when he was pretending to be Grand Pabbie (using his snowball feet as ears and ferns as a cape), but nothing else. You’d think that since Elsa and Anna both had like 5 costume changes each, they’d want to discuss that, but no. Nor do they even mention Iduna’s shawl / the unity snowflake which had a ton of significance in the movie. They also don’t discuss the designs of the spirits or their symbols (or even water animation for the Nokk’s body which would’ve been perfect in the animation portions). 

-

Research: 

The only research we see them doing is visiting IRL glaciers for Ahtohallan in episode 3. This was neat and all, but also very bittersweet because they really emphasized how spectacular and breathtaking Ahtohallan was going to be, but it was literally just an empty cave made of ice; and not even shiny ice (like Elsa’s castle) just dark, flat, and blue. Like I know creating environments is hard but Ahtohallan is very literally empty besides a few extremely narrow hallways and dark colorless abysses. Like it may have been hard to build in a computer but it was NOT creative nor something to boast about (especially compared to the concept art they showed). But this is all my opinion...

They do show a black sand beach which greatly inspired the black sea, but otherwise they don’t show the research it took to properly replicate the Enchanted Forest (like plant life and ecology) nor any of the locations Elsa and the gang briefly passed through on the way to the forest. 

Most egregiously of all they completely omit the Sami community and their contributions to the film. They don’t address them by name or even acknowledge the Northuldra are based on them. Nor do they mention the apparent collaboration they did with the Sami community to accurately replicate their culture. The closest they get to acknowledging them or their hand in the creation of F2 was that the subtitles described Vuilie was a "yoik". Which does not count, since no one even says it out loud. You could dismiss all my other complaints about the lack of content and deleted scenes, but this is just flat out disrespectful. 

-

Ending Note: 

To me, I just don't see the point of this. If this entire documentary was condensed into an hour long YouTube video and explicitly only about the songs/animation I would've been perfectly happy and would've given this an A! Maybe even more because the little parts about the sound design and interviews with the cast would've been little bonuses. But I can't because this is a 6 episode Disney+ only "documentary" on all of F2. 

Tl;Dr - I expected a lot more, but was severely disappointed. I wanted an inside sneak peak on the making of one of Disney’s most iconic and my personal favorite IP, but instead I got 240 minutes of Jennifer Lee and the Lopez’ trying to feel the vibe of Show Yourself and crying. Surely they could’ve cut some of that out to talk about literally anything else. Watching this just felt pointless and I was never engaged nor were my curiosities satisfied. 

-

Extra Note:

For about 10 minutes at the end of one episode (which may seem short but that’s like ¼ of an episode), the documentary takes a detour to talk about Ryder Buck. Ryder Buck was Chris Buck’s (one of the director) son who died shortly after F1 was released, and I mean no disrespect but the sequence dedicated to him had nothing to do with the film or documentary. One of the F2 character’s was named after Ryder, but that was the only connection (they don’t even mention if Ryder in Frozen was based personality-wise on IRL Ryder, just that they shared a name). The whole 10 minute sequence was literally just a charity event in Ryder’s name and Chris and his wife sitting on a mountain talking about how they miss him. Again, no disrespect and I’m sorry Ryder Buck died so young, but a documentary on Frozen 2 wasn’t an appropriate place or time to talk about him.

Crossing out this section because some people took this as an opportunity to attack Chris Buck and his son, which is completely unacceptable and disgusting.

[fancifulbutsensiblething]

Adventures in Auditory Agony

So I recently made a playlist of absolutely horrible music to drive around to, and the image of Ronan and Blue terrorizing the others with it popped into my head and refused to leave until I wrote this entirely self-indulgent fic to go along with the playlist. It’s v silly and also my first foray into writing TRC content, but...here we are.

Post-TRK/Pre-Epilogue Bronan friendship and gangsey shenanigans, rated T, read on ao3

In the week following Gansey’s graduation, something strange happened.

He hadn’t wanted to leave for a week, not when he was going to be leaving Henrietta so soon anyway. He’d disliked the plan even more when Maura had insisted Blue couldn’t go with him, that if she was going on this road trip with him and Henry, the Fox Way ladies needed to take advantage of every moment they had with her. Gansey couldn’t begrudge Maura time with her daughter, just as he couldn’t blame his own mother for wanting him to spend a little time with the rest of the Gansey clan before he took off again.

So he acquiesced to his mother’s demand-phrased-as-a-polite-request that he would spend a few days at home, on the condition that he could bring Adam along. Adam was even less thrilled than Gansey at the prospect of leaving Henrietta, especially when he knew Ronan wouldn’t come with them, especially especially when he remembered the last time he’d visited D.C. But Gansey desperately wanted company, and with Henry visiting his mother, Adam was the only option left, and he knew it. Besides, at Gansey’s suggestion, they’d added a few extra days for visiting some of the colleges Adam was applying to.

(Neither of them mentioned that the idea of some quality time together—just the two of them—before they each went their separate ways for the foreseeable future was an appealing one. They both thought it.)

The plan was met with mixed feelings by every party involved, but it went off without a hitch, and four family dinners, three college visits, two breakdowns in the Pig, and one emotional late-night heart to heart later, the two boys had returned to Henrietta.

For a while, Gansey noticed nothing amiss.

The first night back was a game night. As usual, Blue somehow managed to beat everyone at Super Smash Bros. despite passing up actually learning how to play in favor of smashing buttons at random. As usual, Adam was alarmingly good at Monopoly. As usual, Ronan got bored before they could finish a round and insisted on playing Cards Against Humanity instead. As usual, Gansey was terrible at every game but nonetheless seemed to have the most fun.

The next day was spent split off in pairs. Gansey spent some time at 300 Fox Way, helping out around the house and good-naturedly tasting Maura’s experimental teas before Blue got fed up with Orla, who was not in the least deterred from her usual flirtatiousness by the official nature of their relationship, and dragged him out of the house to 1) go for a drive, 2) make out in the back seat of the Pig, and 3) explore a local farmer’s market. The rest of the day was spent at Monmouth Manufacturing, though Adam and Ronan were nowhere to be seen. Ronan had been spending more nights at St. Agnes than Monmouth, though, so Gansey wasn’t surprised. All went as usual.

It was on his second full day back that Gansey realized something had happened during his week away.

After a lazy morning, everyone was gathered once more at Monmouth Manufacturing to go for a trip to the Barns. Ronan had volunteered to drive the BMW.

Adam and Gansey followed the other two as they headed out of the apartment, watching amusedly at the scene unfolding. Blue had thrown herself sideways into Ronan, and despite her size, she’d managed to knock him off balance for a moment.

“Hey, asshole, cut it out,” he growled, mussing the colorfully clipped mess of her hair affectionately.

Blue huffed and attempted to shove his hand away. He redoubled his efforts. She ducked away, but he followed, and it quickly escalated into a chaotic tussle.

“‘M gonna shave it all off,” came Blue’s muffled voice from behind Ronan’s arm, “just to spite you.”

Adam laughed. The sound made Gansey grin.

“I’d shave it for you if you asked nicely.”

“No way. It’s a punishment, not a reward.” By this time she had freed herself and was grinning breathlessly back at him as she jogged up to the Beemer.

Then Blue climbed in shotgun.

Ronan was unfazed by this. He hopped into the driver’s seat, and Gansey saw rather than heard him answering her quip.

Gansey, however, was not unfazed. And neither was Adam, if the slight frown and amused quirk of his lips when he turned to meet Gansey’s eyes was any indication.

Gansey could only shrug and follow Adam into the back seat.

Blue rode shotgun in the Camaro more frequently than Ronan or Adam did these days, and on the rare occasion that any of them ended up in Adam’s piece of shit car, she had as fair a shot as either of the others. But if Ronan was driving, it had always been Gansey or, more recently, Adam in the front. It wasn’t that Blue and Ronan weren’t close—they were just about as close now as any of them, and it made Gansey’s heart feel like it was swelling up three times it’s regular size, like the Grinch’s in the old cartoon he and Helen used to watch every December. But Blue had never attempted riding shotgun in the Beemer if either of the others were along, and Ronan had never asked her to, and something about it felt significant when she casually swung herself into the front seat.

It was practiced, Gansey realized as he buckled his seatbelt. It was easy. What had Ronan and Blue gotten up to while he and Adam were away?

He didn’t have to wonder long.

Ronan wordlessly tossed Blue his phone, and she hooked it up to the aux that he’d dreamt to work in the BMW. This, too, was practiced and easy. Blue even knew his phone password.

Just as they screeched out of the parking lot, some kind of music that Gansey could only call aggressive blasted through the speakers. It wasn’t the murder squash song, which he appreciated, but it also wasn’t all that much better. It was all angry electric music and yelling and loud, so loud, but Blue and Ronan were both yelling the words and head-banging, which he had never seen from either of them. It was so strange, he had to glance over at Adam for confirmation that he wasn’t hallucinating. Adam stared back at him wide-eyed.

For a while they only watched in silence, and Gansey almost felt as though he were intruding on some kind of private ritual until Blue turned and began to teasingly sing some of the lyrics of the next song—a horrible, upbeat electronic sounding one—at him. From the few lyrics he could understand, it was about carrying out a relationship over the phone. It was more than a little pointed, and he found himself blushing at some of the more explicit lyrics.

Some of his discomfort evaporated when she laughed delightedly at him and returned to dancing in her seat, replaced by fascination.

Finally, Adam broke in, yelling to be heard over the music, “Can someone please explain what is going on?”

Ronan met his eyes in the rearview mirror and shouted back, “We’re going to the Barns, Parrish. Where have you been?”

“Or do you just mean like, the state of the world today?” Blue asked, turning to face him. “Because you will not believe what’s going on with climate change.”

“I mean the state of my good ear, which is on the verge of becoming my other bad ear. The hell are we listening to?”

Blue lowered the volume just enough that they could speak without having to shout, warding off Ronan’s dirty look with one of her own. “Our playlist. I wanted to name it “emo to the excreamo,” but Ronan kept insisting on names that were objectively terrible and we couldn’t compromise so now it’s a sad nameless little playlist.”

“For the record, ‘songs to commit crimes to’ is the perfect name.”

“It doesn’t make sense! I can’t commit ecoterrorism while blasting Britney Spears.”

“Not with that attitude you can’t. You probably shouldn’t even fucking bother with the ecoterrorism if you aren’t gonna blast Britney Spears while you do it.”

Gansey’s head was spinning. “There’s Britney Spears on this playlist?”

“Obviously,” Blue shot back over her shoulder. It did not seem obvious to Gansey given that the current song was some kind of angry electric rock and that the playlist had been made by Ronan Lynch and Blue Sargent, but then again, nothing else about their current situation had seemed obvious to him ten minutes ago, either.

“I can’t blast anything as bop-worthy as Britney Spears, or I’ll get caught and then I won’t be able to commit more ecoterrorism.” This Blue directed at Ronan. “You must be a terrible criminal.”

“Fine. ‘Songs to get murdered to’ works just as well.”

Blue punched him in the arm. “That’s insensitive! Gansey’s been murdered!”

Ronan barked out a surprised laugh at that. “Yeah, by you and your kiss of death, Maggot.”

“For the record,” Gansey interjected, “Jane’s kiss of death was vastly preferable to the thousands of hornet stings.”

“What a compliment.” Adam raised an eyebrow and looked from Gansey to Blue.

Ronan snickered. “Congrats, Sargent. Kissing you is slightly better than getting stung to death.”

Blue’s reply was interrupted by the sound of “it’s Britney, bitch,” from the stereo, which sent her scrambling to set the volume to its previous ear-bleeding level.

They carried on like this for a while, Ronan pushing 20 over the speed limit and Blue scream-singing lyrics to songs that almost all had to do with sex, cars, or both. Gansey thought the one about a dreamer in a Beemer seemed a little on the nose, and sentiment Adam voiced moments later.

“I can’t help it if I’m someone’s muse,” came the reply. Blue snorted loudly, and Ronan reached over and pinched her on the exposed skin between the top of her knee socks and her ripped shorts. She slapped his hand and squirmed away.

At one point, Blue sang (if you could call it that, when it was really closer to talking or shouting but set to music) the intro to a song that began, “Hey you lil piss baby,” leaning across the center console to get in Ronan’s face, without missing a single word. In fact, Gansey realized, she knew at least some (if not most) of the words to all of these songs, and he wondered just how many times they’d listened to them together.

The fact that they had coordinated dance moves and established which of them sang specific parts when there were back and forth elements solidified for him that the answer was…many, many times.

This coordination was amusing for the most part. An amused smirk played across Adam’s lips as he watched their stupid dances, and Gansey was just ruminating on how happy and carefree both of them seemed, open in a way he rarely saw from either of them, when their performance jolted him out of his reverie.

Blue was moaning. Loudly.

It was part of the song, of course, the singer’s desire to — like rabbits, with a moan in place of an expletive, blaring over and over through the speakers. Ronan was singing along with the rest of the lyrics. Blue contributed the…interjectory sounds, and apparently took this role very seriously.

When her eyes, glinting mischievously, met his in the rearview mirror, he realized she was doing this on purpose. To mess with him. His mouth finally caught up to his brain, and he spluttered a scandalized, “Jane!”

She threw her head back and cackled gleefully. Ronan fist-bumped her. Gansey’s face felt hot.

“I think you’ve become a bad influence, Lynch,” Adam shouted, but he was failing to suppress his smile.

“If anything,” Ronan shot back, “Sargent’s been a bad influence on me. She’s the one that found most of these songs.”

Gansey wondered at that. He wondered all through the suggestive and outright explicit of the next song as well. He wondered at Blue’s ability to sing along without so much as a blush, all while he tried very hard not to think on any of the images his mind conjured up in response.

But of course, she was dauntless and outspoken in everything she did. He smiled at the mental image of her playing these songs for Ronan, ranting all the while about how women in media are sexualized for male gratification but expected to keep themselves modest and pure, the double-edged sword that is the masculine perception of female sexuality, and raging against the vilification of the women who wrote songs expressing that sexuality while men could objectify women in their song’s as much as they pleased. Gansey wished he could’ve been there for Ronan’s response.

None of that made the upbeat, electronic excuse for music any more aurally appealing, unfortunately.

One song ended with sudden bursts of horrid, metallic clashing sounds at a volume so painful that he, Adam, and even Blue covered their ears. She reached to lower the volume, but Ronan slapped her hand away.

“Come on, Ronan,” Gansey yelled, “this isn’t even music! It’s just…screeching!”

Ronan threw a wolfish grin at him over his shoulder. “I know. It sounds just like the Pig when she breaks down. Does it turn you on, Dick?”

Gansey let out a deep sigh, but before he could defend himself, the song had changed and Blue had let out a little excited yelp.

“I just remembered!” she gasped, grabbing for Ronan’s phone. “Henry gave me a song to play for you. You’re gonna love it.”

Ronan sneered. “I don’t trust Cheng’s taste in music.”

Blue only waved her hand dismissively and fiddled with his phone until a new song, not dissimilar in style to the rest, was playing. A few verses in, Adam began laughing, a full, joyous laugh rarely heard and positively contagious.

“It’s perfect for you, Ro,” he gasped out.

Ronan had to concede that a song about only answering the phone for your boyfriend’s personalized ringtone was rather fitting, even if Henry was the one to recommend it. He didn’t fight Blue when she added it to the playlist, and his threats following her announcement that she was making the song Adam’s ringtone were halfhearted at best.

Looking from Blue and Ronan’s bickering to Adam’s gasping laughter, Gansey tried to take in and file away every detail. He wanted to be able to look back on this moment when they were spread out across the country, to remind himself that the separation was only temporary. His chest felt like it was going to burst.

By the time they got to the Barns, it was his eardrums that felt like they were going to burst.

“Next time,” he groaned, stepping out of the car and into the Virginia summer heat, “I’m bringing ear plugs.”

[pravasichhokro]

Schooling Then & Now...

During the closure of schools due to pandemic from March 2020 till date (End Oct 2020), I have heard how classes are being held and attended from home at least in Metros. I am reminded of my school days during1954-66 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

My first school was a family run primary school in the residential complex that we lived. I studied there as it was convenient to attend and my elder sister also went to the same school. It was housed in a bungalow with four to five rooms, each housing one standard. It was from 11 am to 5 pm. It was a traditional school with standard syllabus. The school was co-ed and we sat on floor. Our school bag had a book or two and a slate (black stone) and white chalk. We walked to the school. The medium of instruction was Gujarati

Then I went to a special primary school run by Sarabhais (Vikram Sarabhai’s family). The school had four classes, one each for one standard. Each class had 10-12 students only. The school started at 8.30 am and till 4 pm. On arrival all children would be given a glass of milk and then academic lessons would start till lunch at 12 noon. The children brought roti/chapati from home but all else was served by the school-Dal, Rice, Vegetables, Papad, pickles etc. Children from class 4 normally managed the lunch service, though food was cooked by others. School was co-ed and we hardly carried any books or other items in the school bag except a box of roti/chapati. I travelled by the city bus to commute to school. The medium of instruction was Gujarati.

After lunch, the non-academic activities were the main focus. These included music (mainly folk), folk dance (garba/dandiya), painting, carpentry, stitching/tailoring etc. the teachers of high caliber came to teach these special skills or hobby. Our music teacher was an AIR (All India Radio) artiste. We also undertook projects of a long duration. For example, in carpentry class we built Sam’s Cabin on the treetop (the school had a large area). We also staged plays in open air once a year. Each and every student must participate in the play and hence they were selected accordingly. One was “Alibaba and Forty Thieves”, and another was “Gulliver’s travel to pigmy land” (a shadow play).

The school also imparted general knowledge in the most effective way. We once slept in the school so that we could be taken to an observatory at 3 am to see the sky and the stars. We were once taken to the Municipal office to see the model of Nehru Bridge under construction (before1960) followed by a visit to the riverbed to see the construction. Children were encouraged to explore and most of us would sit on the wall (on the riven bank) just watch the Sabarmati river in flood. We were allowed to climb trees and play with our teachers. I found it to be a good place for an all around development.

Then I was admitted to a popular Gujarati medium school which boasted of the large area (I think 300 acres or more) and it followed Gandhian philosophy. Our uniform was from Khadi. The trust was Jain. The school was co-ed and I commuted by city bus or walked the 3 km short route on some days with other students and a teacher. Theschool was from 10.40 am to 5.10 pm with two short breaks. Saturday was half day- 7.30 am to 11 am.

The middle school (std 5 to 7) was in a separate building about 500 meters from either entry. We sat on floor with a wooden stool in front. The school bag had textbooks, notebooks and a pencil box along with a snacks box. In addition to academic classes we had optional selected non-academic courses. Music was compulsory and my weakest subject. One could choose from music, painting, stitching/tailoring or agriculture. I opted for agriculture. I was given a piece of land (5 x 10 ft) and allowed to grow vegetables etc. The vegetables were available for sale and I used to take some home.

The high school (std 8 to 11) was in a larger building near the main gate. The compass box was added to books and notebooks. We used to write with an ink pen.The classes had a bench. Between these buildings was a huge playground for volleyball, kho-kho and kabaddi etc.We had a prayer hall covered but open from sides where all students would gather first thingin the morning and pray. At this gathering, we were also able to enjoy cultural programs based on the festivals and some speeches by leading persons- politicians, writers, thinkers, and ex-students.

During the entire school years, I attended classes regularly and was not permitted to attend any private tuition, In any case private tuition was not so popular then, My father insisted that I asked all my doubts to the teachers in the class or after class in the teachers (staff) room. I hardly recall any parents’ teacher meeting. Strangely I had not spoken to any girl student at my school or class throughout the eleven years, though it was co-ed. I loved outdoor games and in the eight standard I joined a hockey coaching center (outside) run by an ex-India player. This led me to go for state school level hockey tournament and participated in all India school meet in Shillong in Feb,1966.

My daughter went to an international school in Japan and her experience was different than schooling in India. She walked to school everyday for 20 minutes and carried only an umbrella and lunch on some days. She played basketball, hockey, and volleyball. She would go ice skating or on over night trips to gain knowledge not just from textbooks but from experiences. When she came back to study in India, she found the education system hard and competitive and teachers had minimal interest in teaching except for scoring high marks.

I now will attempt to compare the above school life with present day school life in metros before COVID-19 (March 2020). Though I have no first-hand experience of it, I have gathered it from parents of school going kids. Most of these go to a private school and not municipal or govt school in various parts of the globe.

Before COVID-19 struck, the school time was 8 am to 2 pm and probably five days a week. Kids must carry a huge/heavy school bag containing water bottle, books, notebooks, compass box, lunch box (for two breaks). Kids do use ball point pen or gel pen. The school bag weighs a lot and there are complaints of kids, but no solution seems to be in sight. Most kids go to school by school bus or auto-rickshaw or dropped by parents. Hardly anybody walks to school. A lot of focus is on academic work and homework. Most schools lack a playground. Some schools do encourage extra-curricular activities, but most kids take up extra-curricular activities because of the parents or peer pressure. Some govt or municipal schools run two shifts to make maximum use of the infrastructure- school building. Most classes have 50 children in each room.

Many of the schools have annual day and they are a huge burden on parents both in terms of time and expenses. Most items on annual day celebrations lack heritage or folk influence on dance or music or singing.  Most kids (also their teachers) do watch tv and are influenced by its content. Many kids have the luxury of travel domestically or internationally with their parents on holidays. I do not see many activities among school going kids in residential complexes. Rural schools might still be following the historical timing (11 am to 5 pm) and the syllabus with almost poor teachers.

After March 22, 2020 the schools were closed, and students and teachers were encouraged to attend online classes. In last six months (till Oct end) the schools are closed and online classes have become the routine.

In metros, many private schools are actively following the online class concept. I understand the online class can be attended provided one has a laptop or a tablet or a smart mobile with adequate data and speed for Wi-Fi connection. The classes are for four hours a day. The homework is also given online and submitted online. In most cases projects given seem to be done by parents and not children which is not the best way to learn. While writing exams adults at home keep prompting the child to ensure high score /marks are achieved. Teaching a child short cuts or to cheat is not beneficial in the long run. Parents forget that getting marks above 90% should not be the only aim for the child.

Many families are facing the shortage of hardware as the parent or parents attend office from home (WFH) and they need the same hardware- laptop or tablet and a strong WiFi connection. If there is more than one child attending class/school from home the shortage of hardware and infrastructure is felt more and is also a financial burden too.

Poor people are finding it hard to attend classes online. My domestic help has three children going to school and that is either municipal or govt school. They also hold classes online. But the poor family has only two mobiles and only one is smart. Her husband is a driver but has lost his job.

I dare not imagine what is happening at rural schools and their classes with no infrastructure like WiFi connectivity or smart mobile at home. Some may not have even electricity at home. I hope that large IT firms instead of running schools in rural India under the name of NGO’s should have ensured a good e-learning system but that seems like a dream. This would have been helpful during these times and need not depend on poor quality teachers.

In all the above activities the major problem is that children have lost physical touch with school, class, and teacher. They surely miss outdoor activities (sports etc.) with their classmates. They also must be missing the cultural activities on the festivals.

The mental stress of being confined to a residence for so long must be very real and parents must be finding it difficult to attend to it among their children and themselves.

Conclusion…….

I do believe that old time classes at school and freedom to mingle/play with classmates and children from neighborhood were great contributors to develop a child’s all faculties. The emphasis was outdoor activities and non-academic interests to be followed. The child was not stressed with pressures from parents, siblings, or peer day in and out.

Prior to lockdown due to pandemic, the metro school going kid was stressed with many issues- get up early, catch the bus or transport or do homework or dress properly with or without makeup for girls, etc. Parents were also stressed to see that their child is not lagging only in academic pursuit but also otherwise.

After lock down the situation has worsened for the child. The child is confined to the four walls of the residence with same family members and has no chance to go outdoors. (recent relaxation may permit going out but many parents do not want to take the risk). Outdoor activities are almost none and 24x7 the child is using handheld devices –Laptop, tablet, or smart phone to do schoolwork and to play games, also to see cartoons or other entertaining content on TV.

I pray for early release of restrictions due to COVID-19 and restoration of schools to normal working in general and in rural areas in particular.

[qualityjoonie]

Sweet Lullaby (JB)

—Im Jaebum X Idol! Reader

— warnings: non but it is not gender specific:)

— word count: 1.8k

A/N : I had this idea for an idol. I wanted to make it gender neutral. If it sucks I’m sorry 🤧 I’m writing this on my phone while I’m in vacation

................................................................................................

Your group, MidnightStars, had just finished two weeks of promoting your new single ‘Desired Love’. Your agency, JYP, allowed your group to cover one of your senior groups from JYP Entertainment. From Day6 to Twice to JYP himself, a variety of different artist and different taste along with talent was given to choose from. Each successful group represented the success from the JYP Entertainment.

After given the options to choose and which songs you are able to perform, your group members stared at you and chose GOT7. Snickers were heard in the meeting room after the final decision was made.

You knew all too well why GOT7 was chosen. You have been dating Jaebum for over two years and hid it from the media. Your team, along with GOT7, always teased you for having the leader whipped for you. Your charms caused Jaebum to fall in love with you. If it wasn’t for your clumsiness, you wouldn’t have met your boyfriend during both your trainee days.

With a smile, you texted Jaebum the news about performing a GOT7 song in Music Bank. Jaebum grinned when he opened your message after rehearsing for their upcoming comeback for ECLIPSE. Groans were heard around the practice room after having a small 5 minute break, all tired and exhausted from their tough leader’s orders for perfection.

“What’s going on hyung?” Yugyeom asked, laying down on the practice room floor with his hair sticking to his head as his sweat was gel. “Oh it’s nothing, it’s just (Y/N) told me that MidnightStars are going to sing our song for Music Bank.” Jaebum explained to GOT7, panting in between his words.

Immediately the maknae line got really happy for the sudden announcement. Everyone was happy and excited for the incoming performance from the agency’s new junior group. Jaebum was more excited to see you perform one of his songs with love and passion. He felt like this performance was going to hold a special place in his heart.

...................................……………..............................................

It was finally the day of the performance and you were nervous to say. Your white long sleeve shirt was starting to stick to you as you were sweating thinking about the performance. As you were getting ready, GOT7 was back at Jaebum’s apartment ready to support you and MidnightStars. “Let’s take a bet in which member (Y/N) gets to be,” suggested Bambam to his bandmates while he pet Nora. Jaebum rolled his eyes and smirked with confidence and certainty, “We all know who (Y/N) is going to be.”

Jinyoung and Jackson started to make kissing noises while Bambam and Yugyeom added moans to the background to annoy Jaebum even further. Youngjae and Mark were laughing while poor Nora was startled for Coco’s parents loud laughs. “Quiet down, they’re about to perform.” Jaebum a announced and turned up the tv full volume as the MCs announced your groups name for the next stage performance.

You could hear the cheers from your fans outside your earpiece. Your heart beat was loud and echoed through your head. You got to your position with butterflies in your stomach. You didn’t want to mess this up. Not for your team, your fans, GOT7, and especially not for Jaebum. As a instinct, you immediately stared at the cameras as GOT7’s ‘Lullaby’ started playing in your earpiece. All you had to do is sing and dance correctly.

GOT7 were spread out in the living room grinning eagerly in anticipation. They saw your group replicating the formation for the start of Lullaby. The lights were all dimmed low and they couldn’t recognize which member is which, especially when your group has 8 members instead of the 7 GOT7 has. It would be harder to distribute the lines and will lead to the MidnightStars members to cut some of their lines short. Jaebum felt confident you had his part only and not another one of your members.

At the start everything seemed normal except the the extra member in the formation. Everything was fine until he heard your voice sing Yugyeom’s part after Ice, the oldest of the group, finished Mark rap in the beginning.

Jaebum felt worried but then he reassured with himself that it was a just a small line for another member to get another line. As Jaebum’s solo approached, he smirk flew away when he noticed that it wasn’t you singing his part. While he felt stunned, the other members of GOT7 cheered for MidnightStars’s maknae as they sang their leader’s solo.

Yugyeom kept screaming and shoving Bambam as you showed up in the screen singing his lines and executing the choreography with a smile in your face. You no longer felt nerves when you started dancing to the start of Lullaby. You felt the adrenaline going around in your body once you felt the beat and moved to the rhythm.

“Look at how great (Y/N) is doing hyung!” Yugyeom exclaimed while Jaebum stayed unfazed. Jinyoung could sense the irritation Jaebum is feeling from the maknaes constant yelling whenever your shown on the screen.

Your eyes were dark but you kept a wicked smile as you danced Yugyeom’s solo. Every move hit the beat perfectly. You look powerful and it showed for the first time to the whole South Korea who was the main dancer for MidnightStars. You were glad that you could finally dance by yourself rather than as a group for this performance.

GOT7 stayed in awe as your solo came to an end. Jaebum had goosebumps along with Yugyeom. Yugyeom has never seen someone who can dance with so much perfection and great body movement, and Jaebum has never seen you with so much confidence and sexyness in your dance.

As the song’s finale came to an end, cheers from both Jaebum’s living room and the Music Bank audience were loud and chaotic. You smiled, all nerves gone and you were only worried on how you looked during Yugyeom’s solo dance. Jackson and Youngjae congratulated their hyung on having one of the best dancers in the world as a partner, while Mark and Jinyoung started to tidy up the living room after the sudden chaos from MidnightStars performance.

Jaebum’s kept a poker face anytime one of the members talked to him about you or the performance. They could see the look of jealousy Jaebum gives Yugyeom when they talk to each other. Even a blind person can see that Im Jaebum was ticked off for having their partner do another persons line instead of his.

As you said your goodbyes and changed to your jeans and a light weight maroon jumper, you texted Jaebum in hopes to see if he was proud of your performance. The similar ding caught Jaebum’s ears. Seeing it was you who texted him, he didn’t bother to reply back to your message. After 20 minutes of saying bye to fans and taking pictures for the press outside the studio, your members left in groups in separate vans to go either back to the dorm or hit the streets.

You on the other hand, took the van to Jaebum’s apartment. You found it odd that he didn’t text you after having heard your message. You felt that something was wrong as your homescreen was empty from his messages he would’ve sent over 10 minutes ago. It never took him long to respond to you.

Arriving at his apartment, you felt the mood outside his door was staggering everywhere. Laughter was mostly heard, but you could still feel an unsettling feeling.

Opening the door, GOT7 were gathered in the living room with alcohol and delicious chicken. Mark and Bambam greeted with with mouth fulls while Jackson, Youngjae, and Yugyeom ran up to hug you. Jaebum and Jinyoung we’re at the sofa staring at your entrance.

Jaebum tensed up when he saw Yugyeom squeezing you to death. “Wow (Y/N)! You did me amazing!” Yugyeom exclaimed, still having you in his arms rocking back and forth. The entire living room erupted with laughter, all laughing expect for one. You rolled your eyes from having six grown men think like a couple of twelve-year olds.

You noticed that Jaebum continued to stay quiet and kept staring at your bear hug with the giant maknae. He stood up immediately, excusing himself and left towards his room. GOT6 stopped laughing and like looked at each other, already knowing what happened to their leader.

You, oblivious to Jaebum’s reaction to your performance, asked Jinyoung for help by sending hand motions toward him. “He’s mad that you performed Yugyeom’s part and not yours.” Jinyoung explained to you and the team.

“Uh oh, someone is jealoussss!” Jackson said as he shook you playfully. “Go get him, (Y/N). We’re going to go as we finished all the chicken and beers”

Quietly thanking them, you headed to Jaebum’s room. Pressing your ear to the door, it seem quiet. No sound, just pure silence. Slowly opening the door, you saw nothing in the dark room. Knowing Jaebum’s room, as you stayed there’s in mutilple occasions, you went to the direction of the bed.

Although it was dark, you can still see the outline of his body on the bed. Quietly, you went up and layed on his body and hugged him. You can smell his cologne that smelled like pine trees and Christmas. His heart beat went on a rampage having you laying on him like a baby. He was so in love with you.

“Jaebum, babe what’s wrong?” You quietly murmured as you stared at Jaebum while he played with one hand one of the necklaces you have given him for his birthday. He stopped playing for a second, hesitant to answer. He shook his head and continued playing.

Staring deeply in his eyes, you moved up from laying on him to kiss him. You asked again the same question while grabbing one of his hands and holding it on your chest. He too could feel how your heart beats wildly with each other’s presence.

“Why did you get Yugyeom’s part?” Jaebum stuttered a bit. You can hear the disappointment in his question. Finally holding on to his hand, you have it a squeeze of reassurance.

“I’m the main dancer for MidnightStars,” you explain trying to sit up from his body on to the bed, “ The team wanted me to shine in Yugyeom’s routine. They felt that I deserve to show the audience my natural talent.”

With a sigh, Jaebum sat next to you. “ I wanted to be singing your solos and reenact your chic and sexy self to our fans and South Korea. But unfortunately, my team wanted me to be the one who shines the brightest.” Jaebum felt selfish. He understood why your team did it after your explanation, but he felt self pity toward himself for being mad on you having your moment to shine as the rightful main dancer.

“Don’t worry (Y/N),” Jaebum grabbed you again to have him lay down on top of him. You squealed from the sudden shift and pressure, but felt at peace when hearing his heart beat by your head. “I will still love you.”

[growingstrongorsomething]

5. A Mute Spellweaver

Original Prompt: https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/bpxp37/wp_magicians_have_to_say_the_name_of_the_spell/ The man is moving his hands furiously.The shopkeeper is looking at the hands. His eyes are bulging from trying to get the signs. 

“Yes, seven kuais. You think it’s five, well, it’s because the sale was going on. No, no, we are not lying.”

The man pops the knuckles in his fingers before continuing.

“I give you six kuais. It is already too close to our cost, and we can’t do sales every day. Yes, thank you, may Capitalist Ceaser profit you too.”

The man is checking out the new handwand. It is like the short version of katar sword, but made of wood, and slender. He puts it on and aims to a pair of shoes thrown to an electrical wire.Zzap! The shoe received the magic quanta. But the shoe isn’t falling down. 

A boy is puzzled by the man. He tugged the man’s shirt. The man looked at him.

“Brother, brother, you want the shoe to fall?”

The man nodded. He signalled for help.

“Sorry, brother, I can’t read Hand Tongue.”

The man mouthed the word for help. The boy points to the shoe. “Jatuh!”

The shoestrings unravelled from the wire. It plopped on the cobbled road. The boy fetches the shoes and hand it over to the man.The man lifted a metaphorical hat from his head. 

The boy smiled. “You’re welcome, Mr...?”

The man mouthed his name. Dawai.

“Mr. Dawai, you’re welcome. Bye!” 

The boy enters a shop where his mother is already waiting for him at the door.The man tries to signal the boy for his name, but the boy is already gone. Dawai sighs. 

Dawai walks to the magic field gym. Many people are playing there. One is throwing a boomerang and keeps the flight on with his wanded magic, his mouth muttering all the time. A few strong young men and women are throwing and kicking rubber balls at each other. They wear thick cotton armour. The crowd keeps the ball in field with their wall magic, taking turns muttering the incantations. 

He keeps walking to a section of the field. The section is bordered with a tall fence. Balls, discs, and sticks hit the fence from both sides. Dawai looks at the door of fence, with the sign ‘Disabled Magicians Only’. A guard on a wheelchair smiles at Dawai as he shows his disability card. 

The guard smiles brightly and opens the door. “Come in, come in! New wand I see?” Dawai nods.“Come with me! They have installed new disc brands to shoot at. Try it out!”

Dawai tries to knock the disc. Took him three tries. A man shouts at the top of his lungs, and manages to knock a line of twenty discs. Well, when his aim is true. Most of the time, it just flies away, flinging an unlucky person or bird once in a while. 

His assistant gives pointers to aim without eyesight. The blind man knocks more discs over time.The blind man sniffs the air. “Dawai is that you? Clap once for yes, two for no!”

Dawai clapped once.The blind man hugs Dawai. “Well, am I glad to see your silhouette? How’s life?”

Dawai taps on a magical tablet. The words shine and the tablet speaks. “Fine, James. I just got a new wand.” 

“Now, isn’t that awesome? May I look?” Dawai moves the wand very close to James’ face. He squints very hard. He takes some time enjoying every crafted runes and decorations on it. 

“From what I see, very pretty.” James raises his head from his crooning position. “Well, I have to go now. Exercises do have a way to make you tired. Bye!”James laugh at his own joke as his assistant leads him away. 

Dawai keeps shooting at the discs.

The next day is work day, and Dawai is in one line. Some workers practice their stances. Some mouthed their spells. Others stretch their bodies, while more are squatting or sitting cross-legged on the floor. There are two other lines of workers, flanking both sides of the loom. Gari waves at Dawai, he is assigned to the left flank today.

The horn sounded. The factory manager marches to the front of the line, placing himself directly in the middle. 

“Line, ready!”

Everyone stands up straight.“Ready wands!”

They point their wands to the loom.

“Drummers, play!”

A troupe of drummers knock their drumsticks to the side of the drum, giving a wooden sound. A few seconds later, they start beating the drum skin. The music starts and the drummers play by perfect beat.

The manager takes a stance. “Workers, by my lead!”  

The line forms the same stance.The manager starts dancing, and the line joins in almost perfect choreography. Quantas of magic fly in a volley to the machine’s receptors. The loom starts to weave the threads slowly, gaining speed as the give of the thread increase, slackening the spool. 

The dancing line sings as well. The first song of strengthening, to make cotton as strong as steel. The cotton may still be cut in this stage, but after making the main cloth, more spells will be added to strengthen it to the final form. 

Dawai doesn’t listen to the music. He feels the song through his bones. A, a, a, TA! A, a, a, TA! The dancing line throws quantas every fourth beat, gaining a bit of sweat on their brows. Their hands remain pointing at the loom, as the loom starts forming a sheet of fine cotton cloth, magic literally weaved into its formation.The dance takes an hour before the electricity takes over. 

Dawai is already panting at thirty minutes. At forty five minutes, he is losing step. When the hour horn blows, everyone stands still. Except Dawai who is already on the floor. The thump makes everyone look at the fallen spellweaver.

The manager jumps to check Dawai’s breathing and pulse. “Someone get the medic!”

Dawai is awake in a hospital bed.An old man looks at Dawai, his face saagging from age and concern. 

“You feeling alright?”

Dawai makes a flurry of sign. Well, as much of a flurry an exhausted man could.

“Mom is worried about you. Yes, you want to be independent. But, you should go home once in a while.”

Dawai can only nod.

“Remember, we always love you.”

Dawai makes more signs. The doctor comes in to check on Dawai.

“Yes, see you this weekend.” 

The old man kisses Dawai’s forehead again before leaving.

The doctor’s diagnosis is that Dawai is magically exhausted. But the prescription isn’t the usual lemongrass, sireh, and kelulut honey tea. Instead Dawai is referred to a magical teacher. 

Dawai is signing furiously. The doctor shrugs. “I can’t read you. Slow down.”

Dawai repeats himself, slower but the fury is punctuated by each time his hands clap each other.

“You have been using too much magical energy to do what normal people do with less. This doctor, called Teacher Hashim, knows a way to strengthen your magical focus. It’s controversial, but in your case, you may benefit a lot from it.”

Dawai signs about money.“Not too expensive. You have applied for insurance?” Dawai nods.

“Disability benefits?” Dawai shakes his head.

“Well, it will be a bit more expensive. Usually he asks for two hundred kuais, but now he is having a promotion. New classes begin next week. For now, rest.”

The streets are not busy with traffic, but the buildings are filled with people. Dawai scratches his head as he tried to understand the directions. Some are helpful, but others are rude.

“Why don’t you just use the map board?”

Dawai makes mouth movements, telling that he is ill and can’t use a lot of magic yet.

“Your problem, not mine!”

Dawai finally gave up, and use a half-kuai to buy a magic pellet. He presses the pellet on the map board, types the address. A direction is given... to the next city. Dawai sighs.

The doctor laughs until hoarse. “Ahahahahahah! Oh gods, you really fell for that!”This is not a good time to incur extra medical costs, but Dawai could not help but make himself have hypertension from that laugh. 

He stands up, huffs, and prepares to leave.

The doctor stands up from his cross-legged position. “No, no, no, no, you really ARE in the right place! I am sorry for laughing at you.”

Dawai is brought back to where he sat. The doctor pours more tea for Dawai. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but there are two cities named Flew, and our government haven’t agreed officially on how to rename both of them. That city you were lost in, it’s called Flew of the Birds. This city, it’s called Flew of the Concords.”

Dawai drinks the tea, still fuming.The doctor lets a few laughters out of his system. “Alright! As an apology, I will give you further 10% discount. So, your discount will be 20%. That should come to 160 kuais. You agree?”

Dawai considers a bit. He nods.

“Excellent. Finish your tea, then I give you an overview.”

They go to the side of a low cliff, facing a forest. The doctor looks over the scenery. It is filled with trees and shrubs, and a creek flows across the field. Save for a few craters, the scenery is majestic.

“Now, observe. Usually, when we throw quantas of magic around, we use words. For example,” the doctor points at a crater then swings as if throwing a rock, “Tumbuh nan sebatang.”A tree sprout slowly. A few minutes later, they are both drinking more tea. 

“Well, the demonstration shows that speaking magic words lets you throw magic quanta. Now, if you do this,” Teacher Hisham points to the crater. He contorts his body as if to throw a javelin, then inhales a full lung of air. After a second of delay, he shouts, “TUMBUH NAN SEBATANG!”

The crater receives the quanta and a large tree sprouts. The earth around the tree cracks to accommodate the mighty roots.Dawai instinctively clap. The teacher makes a slight bow. 

“But, that wasn’t my point. Now, observe as I do the same thing with one difference.”The teacher points to the crater. He contorts his body as if to throw a javelin, then inhales a full lung of air. After a second of delay, he exhales as if he is shouting. No voice came out however. 

But the quanta of magic flies as strong as before. Another tree appears and the crater ceases to be one as the tree roots ploughed the soil and break the crater’s rim. “You see, Dawai, you don’t need to utter the words to throw magic quantas efficiently. You need,” Teacher Hashim draws and then exhales breath, “to breathe.”

Dawai and Hisham is jogging the early next morning.“Keep up, Dawai, you already paid for this course!”They jogged for an hour. After that, they immediately start the meditation class. It is hard to keep his breath calm and controlled when he has to learn to blow it out of his mouth.

“You need primer on meditating too? Just remember your studies back in middle school. Only this time feel the air in your throat.”

Dawai studied keenly under Teacher Hashim for a week. On the eighth day after jogging, Dawai is instead brought to the cliff the other day. “So, Dawai, you’ve learnt a lot. Shoot my tree.”

Dawai aims at the tree. He swings the wand. In the same tempo of launching the quanta, Dawai exhales his breath with force. The quanta falls only a few dozen feet away. “You’re holding back. Exhale like you’re shouting.”

Dawai repeats the stance and this time, he shouts. Of course, his voice cord being damaged, there’s no sound. The quanta zooms through the air and slams the tree, exploding part of the crown to shards of wood and leaves.

“Good, good. But remove the wand, I want to see your power without it.”Dawai repeats the spell without the wand. The magic quanta instead falls short a few hundred feet from the tree.

“Needs a few weeks of practice. Remember what I taught you. Spend the rest of the day calibrating your output. Don’t want to destroy your workplace now, don’t you?”

After three more days of sick leave, Dawai is back at the cloth factory. He joins the dance, with not much of sweat or heavy breathing like he usually had. 

After the dance, Gari touches his shoulder. Dawai makes a hello sign.Gari replies in sign too. Dawai is amused, and asked where he learnt.

“Just starting. I learnt from my nephew’s Orb 2. Such a rich kid, managed to buy his own horse last year.”

Dawai and Gari talks in sign language when suddenly the loom makes a sound it’s not supposed to. 

“Is the loom breaking?”

Spools are flung away by the springs. The threads tighten and break. The loom machinery begins to fall apart, with the wires snapping wildly with electrical charges. Emergency personnels move quickly to shut off power and reduce damage. 

But the frame holding the loom breaks with a sickening twang and the loom falls. Dawai’s right hand reaches for his wand as everyone runs away. He aims at the loom and exhales with a heave. 

He manages to whisper out a very hoarse word. “Angkat”

The loom bounces up with a great force. A dozen magicians throw quantas to the loom to stop it from reaching the roof. It merely scrape the roof before it falls. The magicians moves to stop the loom from crushing the ground at force.

Dawai walks to a safer part of the factory. Gari points at the loom. “Dawai, you managed to lift it! How could you do that?”

Dawai tried to make a sign, but his throat feels a great pain. He coughs a spittle of blood. His face can only show panic.

Gari is waiting outside the hospital. Dawai comes out with a mask on his face.“What did the doctor say?”

Dawai makes signs.

“Too fast, I can’t read you.”

Dawai makes the sign slower. Gari says what Dawai is signing. 

“You can’t follow Hisham’s technique too much. You can get your throat hurt. Learn to throat speak, but after two months. What does it mean?”

Dawai brings out the tablet and scribbles. It says: “I need to take two more weeks of sick leave. I can’t make magic as powerful as this morning, or my lungs can explode. I am lucky it’s only a slight injury on my throat.”

Gari nods. “So how do you eat? Your throat is hurt.”

Dawai unravels a pipe from within the mask. He sets one end on a jutting pipe on the base of his neck, and the other on the rice and chicken Gari brought. Dawai slurps it in and the food magically pass through the pipe smoothly.

“Huh, the wonders of medicine.”

If you like my story, please support me here: https://www.patreon.com/storyforger

[cyarskj1899]

Jake Gyllenhaal And John Mayer If I were you, I would log off of all my social media platforms and step away from the internet for the next week or better yet the rest of the year

Taylor Swift Seemingly Expressed “Regret” At Dating Older Men — AKA Jake Gyllenhaal And John Mayer — When She Was As Young As 19 In Heartbreaking New Lyrics

“I damn sure would've never danced with the devil at 19... Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first.”

Leyla MohammedPosted 4 hours ago

If you’ve been on the internet at all today, you’ve likely seen that Taylor Swift has officially released her 10th studio album, Midnights.

View this photo on Instagram

The album is, by Taylor’s own admission, a “wild ride” of “highs and lows and ebbs and flows” — and things were only made more chaotic with the subsequent release of Midnights (3am Edition),an additional album containing 7 extra songs, which dropped just 3 hours after Midnights did.

View this photo on Instagram

Between all 20 songs in total, Taylor most certainly upholds her ~reputation~ of nodding toward other celebrities in her lyrics, with Midnights seemingly charting several past breakups, feuds, and so much more.

One track in particular that has garnered huge attention online is “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve,” which is on Midnights (3am Edition).

Given that the song is explicitly about “regret,” and that Taylor makes several references toward age-gaps in relationships throughout, fans have theorized that “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” is a reflection on the older men that she dated in the past.

For a bit of background, Taylor infamously dated John Mayer back when she was 19, and he was 32. Less than a year after reports claimed that they’d split, Taylor all but confirmed the breakup with the release of a very pointed song on her 2010 album, Speak Now.

Aside from literally titling the track “Dear John,” Taylor sang the lyrics: “Don't you think nineteen is too young / To be played by your dark twisted games, when I loved you so? / I should've known.”

John has long faced scrutiny for the 13-year age gap between himself and Taylor. He was even questioned about her lyric, “Don’t you think I was too young to be messed with?” during a past interview, though quickly shut the subject down, saying he didn’t “want to go into that.”

Shortly after John, Taylor was romantically linked to actor Jake Gyllenhaal, when she was 20 and he was 29. According to reports, their relationship ended after a brief few months, with a source telling Us Weekly at the time that Jake “wasn't feeling it anymore.”

Taylor’s famous song “All Too Well” — which was originally released the year after her apparent split from Jake — seemingly charts their rocky past relationship, with a notable reference toward a stark age difference between two lovers. “You said if we had been closer in age maybe it would have been fine / And that made me want to die,” she sings in the full 10 minute version, released last year.

So, with all this in mind, let’s delve into the lyrics on “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” — which fans are calling “the darkest song Taylor has ever written.”

Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve is the darkest song Taylor has ever written. I’m literally nauseous, it was grooming point blank. And Taylor called him out on it07:35 AM - 21 Oct 2022Twitter: @TheBookofTaylor

From the very first verse, Taylor immediately references a “grown man” who she was once romantically involved with, while she was, in her own words, “a child.” She sings, “If you tasted poison you could've spit me out at the first chance / And if I was some paint, did it splatter on a promising grown man? / And if I was a child did it matter if you got to wash your hands?”

In light of everything we’ve discussed about Taylor’s past relationships, fans were quickly left wondering whether these lyrics were perhaps in reference to John or Jake.

not now babe I’m trying to figure out if Taylor wrote would’ve, could’ve, should’ve about Jake or John https://t.co/sNjoKY5aB608:40 AM - 21 Oct 2022Twitter: @EnceeteeEnjoyer

Some people were initially swayed by the idea that Jake is the subject of the track, suggesting that Taylor was later singing about regretting the fact that he was the first person she had sex with — a long-swirling rumor that has never officially been confirmed.

Twitter: @puredelicate

Just last month, in fact, Taylor all but confirmed a years-long theory that the “scarf” she mentions in “All Too Well” — which she says she left at her lover’s sister’s house — was a metaphor for the fact she hadn't had sex. Several fans took this into account when decoding the lyrics on “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve.”

Taylor sings: “If you never touched me, I would've gone along with the righteous / If I never blushed, then they could've never whispered about this.”

“And if you never saved me from boredom, I could've gone on as I was / But lord you made me feel important, and then you tried to erase us,” she goes on.

One fan theorized, “idk maybe should’ve could’ve would’ve is about jake purely based on Taylor confirming the scarf metaphor at the film festival and like the metaphor was a nice was for her to explain but now she’s like ‘real shit: that sucked.’”

idk maybe should’ve could’ve would’ve is about jake purely based on Taylor confirming the scarf metaphor at the film festival and like the metaphor was a nice was for her to explain but now she’s like “real shit: that sucked”08:08 AM - 21 Oct 2022Twitter: @darkbluetenn

However, given that Taylor goes on to specifically mention the age she was when she dated the mysterious “grown man” in question, it seems more plausible that she’s perhaps referring to John rather than Jake.

As mentioned, Taylor was 19 when she dated John, then-32. On the Midnights track, she sings: “I damn sure would've never danced with the devil at 19.”

As one Twitter user summarized, “Taylor and Jake did not even meet and start dating til the Fall of 2010 when Taylor was months away from her 21st birthday (even referred to it in ATW).” As we know, things with Taylor are never just coincidental, and it seems interesting that she mentioned the specific age of “19” in this song.

@justincferrell Did you even listen to the chorus?"And I'm damned sure I never would've danced with the devil at 19"---Taylor did not even meet Jake Gyllenhaal til the fall of 2010 months before her 21st birthday.When she was 19 she was dating John Mayer.08:33 AM - 21 Oct 2022Twitter: @JFrhink

“God rest my soul / I miss who I used to be... I regret you all the time / I can't let this go, I fight with you in my sleep,” she continues. “The wound won't close / I keep on waiting for a sign / I regret you all the time.”

And, perhaps most poignantly, Taylor then pleas for her “girlhood” back — a lyric that left fans devastated. “Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first,” she sings.

“no but ‘give me back my girlhood, it was mine first’ is one of the saddest lyrics taylor swift has ever written :(” one person tweeted.

no but “give me me back my girlhood, it was mine first” is one of the saddest lyrics taylor swift has ever written :(08:01 AM - 21 Oct 2022Twitter: @repiatation13

“‘give me back my girlhood it was my first’ is the most heartbreaking taylor swift lyric i’ve ever heard,” echoed another.

“give me back my girlhood it was my first” is the most heartbreaking taylor swift lyric i’ve ever heard07:30 AM - 21 Oct 2022Twitter: @sainthoodswift

What’s more, as “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” comes to an end, the next song on the tracklist is, perhaps conveniently, a track called “Dear Reader,” which several fans immediately tied to her aforementioned breakup hit, “Dear John.”

“putting a song called ‘DEAR reader’ after a song that absolutely annihilated mr. dear john was so intentional,” one person suggested, while others highlighted the “parallels” between both titles. In fact, some people went so far as to label “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” the darker version of “Dear John,” or “Dear John 2.0.”

putting a song called “DEAR reader” after a song that absolutely annihilated mr. dear john was so intentional #TSmidnighTS07:41 AM - 21 Oct 2022Twitter: @ellaalmighty_

All in all, fans are heartbroken for Taylor after listening to her apparent regret at the past relationship, suggesting that she’d been calling the subject in question out for “grooming” her. You can listen to “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve,” and the whole of Midnights, here.

Your weekday morning guide to breaking news, cultural analysis, and everything in between

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Scars

Hi folks! Here’s Part VI for our ongoing adventure with Alex and Harry, the Chaos and the Calm series. Please keep telling me what you think, good, bad, or ambivalent, I want it all- it helps me become a better writer! Please keep reblogging and liking it so more people get a chance to read it. I’m sorry this one took a bit longer to write, so I hope you all like it!

Scars

August 2019

We grow apart/I watch you on the red horizon/Your lion's heart/Will protect you under stormy skies/And I will always be listening for your laughter and your tears

“I miss you, H.” Alex sighed into her phone. He had been gone for nearly two months, and it was beginning to take a toll on her. Aside from a three-day weekend that she flew out to Nashville for, where he was touring, the couple had spent nearly all of the time apart.

“I know, love,” Harry responded. His heart ached every time he heard her like this, knowing that he was simultaneously the cause of her grief and the only way it could be alleviated. FaceTime was great and they talked on the phone nearly every day, but it did nothing to replace the ache that seemed to leave a hole in both hearts. “It’s just another week, and I’ll be back in New York. Back to you.”

Alex picked at her fingernails, an annoying habit of hers she had picked up in childhood and never been able to quit. “But that’s only for a month, and then you’re off to Europe. How long is that bit, again?”

“About six weeks,” Harry began, “but let’s not worry about that now, okay?”

“Yeah.” She let out a shaky breath, praying that he couldn’t hear her. “I didn’t realize how hard it would be. This. Us.”

“Love—” Harry started, worried.

“I’m not saying that I want out. God, I don’t want out. It’s just a lot to deal with. It’s hard to talk about a relationship when one of the people isn’t even here half the time.” Alex said. No malice was behind her voice, only a quiet sadness.

“I know, Alex. It’s hard for me being away from you and feeling like I’m constantly living out of a suitcase, but I can only imagine what it’s like for you to be juggling work and finding time for us and everything else you’re doing in the city.” Alex could imagine him running a hand through his hair, tugging at the ends like he was prone to do when stressed out.

“We’ll manage,” Alex replied, a small smile on her face.

“We always do,” Harry said. Hearing another voice in the background of the call, Alex heard Harry’s voice muffled as he responded to whoever was on his end. “Listen, love, I’ve got to get going, but I love you and I’ll see you soon, okay?”

“Okay, H. Love you too.”

But you're miles away/You're breaking up, you're on your own/It's hard to take/I need an hour just to say hello/And I can't make the truth of this work out for you or me

The next week was hard for the both of them; as much as they tried to make time for one another, contact was confined to hurried phone calls and short texts, promising they would see each other as soon as humanly possible and that they missed each other as much as humanly possible. Alex didn’t blame Harry, not in the slightest. It was true that she might not have known exactly what she was signing up for when they decided to make a run for it, but she was stubborn as hell and willing to do whatever she could to make it work, to make them work. Even before they had started dating, it seemed that they were always a unit. It was seldom just Alex or just Harry, almost always Alex and Harry. They went to the same schools, did most of the same extracurriculars, and ran in the same circles. Alex knew that she was didn’t need Harry to complete her, that she was an independent, strong, complex person all on her own, but it was hard to figure out where exactly she fit in her world when he wasn’t around. So, to distract herself from the fact of Harry’s absence, Alex had tried to fill her time, in any way she could. She threw herself into her work, started volunteering at a local animal shelter, and took her friends up on nearly every opportunity to go out for dinner or drinks.

While she may have had less free time in her life with her newfound commitments, Alex was frustrated to find out that it did next to nothing to get the longing for Harry out of her mind. So, when he texted her, saying his plane was about to land, she breathed an audible sigh of relief. While she did rely on the subways for her primary form of transportation, it was moments like these when she was grateful that she was leasing a car. Grabbing her purse and keys from their place by the entryway, Alex locked the door and sent Harry a text. I’m on my way, can’t wait to see you, H! Love you lots. A few minutes later, she was pulling out of the apartment complex and onto the streets of Brooklyn. Google Maps had promised her it would only be a 20 minute journey to JFK, but she left herself an extra ten minutes, never trusting their predictions of New York traffic.

Flipping through her Spotify, Alex let out a small grin when it fell on Only Angel. So that’s how it’s going to be, is it? She thought. It had always been her favorite off of the album; a video of her dancing to it at a pop-up show Harry did in New York had briefly gone viral. Eventually the playlist moved on, but Alex was humming along to it all the way until she pulled into the short-term parking lot. Locking her car, she shoved the keys haphazardly into her purse and pulled out her aviators. Harry had said he wasn’t expecting too many fans or paparazzi, but she had taken to carrying around sunglasses ever since they had gotten caught off-guard by a group of photographers while in Central Park back in May. A few minutes, two elevators, and a moving walkway later, Alex arrived in the domestic terminal. She glanced at her phone, seeing a text from Harry two minutes previous telling her that he was nearly there. Wearing the green coat, he had said. Tapping a foot, Alex kept her eyes flicking between her phone and the escalator. She didn’t have to wait long. Not quite a minute later, Alex caught sight of the green pea coat she loved so much on the man she loved even more.

He caught sight of her just after, a huge, genuine smile appearing on his face. WIth just a little extra spring in his step, he hoisted his duffel onto his shoulder, nearly tripping off of the escalator at the bottom. Grinning, Alex took a few steps towards Harry, and he met her halfway.

“I missed yeh so much,” Harry said, his words muffled by her hair.

“Not half as much as I did,” Alex responded.

And as soon as I can hold you once again/I won't let go of you, I swear

Taking Harry’s duffel from him, they began to exit back towards the parking lot. There were only about a dozen fans milling about, and both Harry and Alex were grateful for the relative peace and quiet. He loved his fans and were incredibly grateful for all that they had given him, but it had been a long few months and there was nothing he wanted more than to snuggle with Alex back at his apartment. After a few minutes of speaking with the fans and photos taken, Harry and Alex were finally on their way to her car. He caught her up on the past week while walking— one of his crew had gotten absolutely smashed after a show and had ended up singing Celine Dion on top of a table, apparently. Alex told him about an adorable puppy she was working with at the shelter, a beagle that “gives me even more kisses than you do, H.” Alex turned onto the freeway, headed to Harry’s apartment. They had already decided she would sleep over that night; neither could bear having to say goodbye too early.

NPR was playing on the way back, and Alex turned the car off right in the middle of what she was sure was going to be a thrilling story about a newfound species of Angolan beetle. Once again taking Harry’s bag over her shoulder, she followed him into the elevator, realizing that she hadn’t brought a bag of her own. She supposed she didn’t even need one, really. She had gotten ‘a drawer’ a few months into the relationship, and bits and pieces of her wardrobe and belongings had migrated over into his apartment. She was sure there were a few outfits, positive at least one toothbrush— she had a bad habit of misplacing them— and a box of tampons under the sink, should she need them. Shrugging almost imperceptibly and smiling at her absolute dream of a boyfriend, she stood to the side of the entryway as he opened the door.

“Home,” he said dramatically, dropping the handle of his suitcase and spinning around slowly, arms out.

Alex laughed. “Come on, babe, let’s get you unpacked.” Harry had a bad habit of leaving his clothes in his suitcase, and Alex knew if she didn’t get him to do it right then, they might stay in until the European leg. Groaning good-naturedly, Harry followed her into his room, where they set his luggage on the bed and began to unpack.

The TV flicked as Alex snuggled against Harry’s side, trying to keep her eyes open as the clock struck 11. “You’ve never watched Lord of the Rings?” He had asked incredulously, before shaking his head and slipping the DVD in.

“I wish we could stop this moment and just stay here forever,” he whispered, gently stroking her loose curls.

Alex’s head turned to face him, her eyes blinking in an effort to stave off the tiredness that was threatening to overtake her. Shit, Harry thought. She wasn’t meant to hear that. Nope.

“Me too, H.” Alex said softly. “I don’t know, and this is me being honest, I don’t know if I’ve ever been as happy as I am when I’m with you, when I’m in your arms. You have this weird, almost magical ability to make me forget all of the stress in my life, everything that’s bothering me, even if it’s only for a moment.”

“You never told me that before.”

Alex gently kissed his neck. “I didn’t know if it could scare you, and the last thing I wanted to do is make you want to run. God, I don’t know what I’d do if you did.”

Harry took a shaky breath. Alex meant so much to him, so was so incredibly valuable to him that he didn’t think he’d ever be able to properly express it. She was the lighthouse that pointed him back home when he flew off-course, the rock that kept him grounded and humble when the bright lights of the stage threatened to overtake him, and the one person he knew he always, always wanted to come home to. He knew so clearly how he felt about her, and hearing that she felt just as strongly meant more to him than he could say. “I’m all in, Alex. I’m in it for the long haul.”

She leaned her head back on the crook of his neck. “Good. Because I am too.”

We live through scars this time/But I've made up my mind/We can't leave us behind anymore

As the movie ended, Harry folded up the blankets while Alex threw the spent popcorn bags into the garbage can. She finished before he did, and was already rummaging for her clothes as he came into the bedroom.

“H, have you seen the top that goes with these?” She asked, holding up a pair of flannel pajama bottoms.

Harry crossed to his dresser, pulling open the top shelf and handing her the shirt that was folded inside. “Yeh left it here after we packed for this last leg of the tour. Think you were a bit pressed for time,” Harry said, remembering the moment with a grin. Alex took the shirt gratefully, moving into the adjacent bathroom to brush her teeth and wash up. Walking up to the doorway, he thought carefully about his next words. “When do yeh think you’ll bring over the rest of your things, love?” Harry said slowly, looking at the mirror in an effort to gauge her reaction. She stopped brushing for a moment, a bit of foam from her toothpaste dropping into the sink. Washing out her mouth, Alex put her toothbrush back in the drawer and turned to Harry.

“Are you asking me to move in with you, Harry?” Alex said carefully. She was near-positive she hadn’t misinterpreted his question, but didn’t want to respond wrongly and make a fool of herself.

Harry nodded once. “Why not? I know your lease is up at the end of the month. You’ve already got a key, plenty of your things over here, and it’s closer to the subway line; it’ll be half the time to work.” The reasons seemed to tumble out of his mouth, and as they did, Harry realized just how much he wanted this, just how much he wanted to share this part of his life with Alex as well.

Alex reached up, resting one hand on his cheek. “You sure about this, babe? I know it’s a massive commitment.”

Harry nodded, leaning into her touch. “Wouldn’t have asked if I wasn’t positive, love. So…,” he trailed off, “what do you think?”

“I think I’d better call my landlord and tell her I won’t be renewing my lease.”

“Hey, Lex?” Harry said, rolling over on his bed— their bed now, he remembered— just as she was dozing off.

“Yeah, H?” Alex asked sleepily.

“What do you think about coming along for the next leg of tour?”

[taetaesource]

The Crown Prince

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 

Taehyung and you were bound by marriage at birth. He swore to only have one queen and to marry for love but somehow things changed.

The day you left for the palace, your mother tried her best to hold back her tears as she watched you enter the sedan. It was a rule that those who entered the palace will never get to leave unless the king made a special exception. Knowing that she will never get to see you again made her hid in your father’s arms and cry. They have expected this even before your birth but it was still hard when it finally came. Your father’s voice was trembling even though he tried to sound firm, “always be a loyal servant to the royals and take care, my child.” 

The journey to the palace was a long one that took 3 days and 3 nights before you arrived at the palace gates in the dawn. The distance from the palace gates into the main palace grounds was itself a very long one. When you finally arrived where you were supposed to be, a row of palace maids were there waiting, and one of them who wore a different dress, something that looks a little more grand than the others, stepped forward, “welcome to the White Porcelain Palace. This is where you will be staying before the selections. The preparations and all activities will be conducted within this palace. There are a few ground rules of the palace which we will learn about in today’s lesson on palace rules and etiquette. Please take a break and proceed to the White Porcelain Palace at noon.” The woman had her head bowed politely as she spoke to you in a calm and extremely formal tone. After she finished, she politely raised her arm to show you the direction of your chamber. 

You gave a light bow back and moved in the direction which she pointed. The court lady stepped backwards with her head still bowed and only followed behind with the train of maids after you have walked a few steps ahead. 

Even though the White Porcelain Palace housed the girls who were not royalties yet, it was a grand and beautiful place. Like its name, most parts of the palace were made of white porcelain with fine details and decorations. It felt as big as your entire village. It took you almost 20 minutes to walk from your chamber to the main White Porcelain Hall and you wondered how big exactly was the entire palace.

When you arrived at the White Porcelain Hall, there were a group of girls in the middle and the palace maids were lined up in order at the sides, all with their hands placed below their chests and heads bowed. There were about 10 girls, they all looked around your age and had the air of ladies who grew up in well-to-do families. They were the girls who were taken in to be chosen by the crown prince. In fact, all the girls who managed to enter the palace for the selection were the prince’s women the moment they stepped foot into the palace. Even if they ended up not being selected to be the crown princess, they were not able leave the palace. They would be given random titles that considered them as concubines when in reality, they might not get to see the crown prince ever again in their lives. Hence, the selection was very competitive, each girl would do anything to win the favour of the prince so that they would not have to spend the rest of their lives being forgotten in a corner of the palace. 

However, the selection process was a long and tough one. The girls would have to go through special trainings every day and the court ladies would evaluate and eliminate the weaker girls at each level. By the time the selections reached the crown prince, there would only be at best 3 left for him to decide who would be his future queen. Most of the time, the other two that the crown prince did not select would be titled the royal concubines, which was the best tier amongst all the titles of a concubine. 

Although this process was not made known in the first introduction lesson, all the girls seemed to know about the seriousness of it. They were all eager to be the last one standing and seemed to all have only one objective - to be the crown princess. Their attitudes and the way they behaved made you nervous. Would you be able to survive in such competition? 

The lessons that you had to go through everyday were tough and the need to deal with the girls was even tougher. You had to learn the etiquettes of greeting, walking, sitting, standing, eating, bowing, drinking and everything else that involved the movement of your body, the palace language and way of speaking, and other skills such as singing, dancing, embroidery, story-telling, calligraphy, music, various instruments and many other things that caused you to be dead tired every night. It was even harder because the girls seemed to be good at everything if not at least a few of the things, while you struggled with almost everything. You were familiar with embroidery, poetry, calligraphy and the things that your father had forced you to do, but you were just not as good as the other girls. 

You did not really care about becoming the crown princess but the environment and competitiveness of the girls made you feel depressed and anxious about your situation. When night time came and you had the time for yourself, you went out to the Porcelain Garden to sit down and breathe. You missed home and wondered what were your parents doing back at home. 

While you were standing at one side of the pavilion, there was someone else on the other side. He was holding a binoculars and looking at the moon. You lifted your head and saw that the moon was indeed especially big and round tonight. There was another man standing next to him. 

“Who are you?” You were suddenly surrounded by guards. 

The two men turned to look at the commotion. 

“What do you mean?” you were shocked and scared at the same time. 

The guards were threatening you until the man with the binoculars walked over and said, “what’s going on?” 

The guards immediately kneeled down and greeted, “my honour, 6th prince, 7th prince.” 

You were the only one standing, not knowing what was going on. 

“How dare you, lowly servant! How dare you not bow down in front of the princes!” One of the male servants who was following behind the two men shouted. 

You stood there frozen, still not knowing what was going on and what you should do. You were suddenly seized by force to kneel to the ground and one of the men stopped the guards. 

“Who are you?” The man with the binoculars asked. He looked young and he had big round eyes. 

“I... i was asked to enter the palace a few days ago... I’m living in the White Porcelain chambers....” 

“Ah! You must be one of the girls contesting to be my brother’s wife then!” 

Apparently, the man with the binoculars was the youngest prince. His name was Jungkook and he was the younger and only blood brother of the crown prince. They were both children of the current queen. The crown prince has two older brothers but he was made the crown prince because he was the eldest son of the queen. The two older brothers were the same age, Namjoon and Hoseok, and they came from the third and fourth concubines, which explained why Namjoon could not be the crown prince even though Taehyung thought that Namjoon would be more suitable to be the future king. 

The 6th prince was Jimin, and he was the cousin of the crown prince. His father was the older brother of the queen, the general that led and fought many wars, which made him and his family powerful. Taehyung has another cousin who was known as the 2nd prince and his father was the brother of the current emperor. The father of the first prince was also the oldest brother of the current emperor. 

All these were told by the court lady who saved you from the situation. She heard the commotion and fell to her knees, explaining to the princes that you were one of the girls in selection and you were given your own personal time to meditate but she did not expect any of the girls to come out to the garden on their own. 

The youngest prince laughed it off and told the court lady that it was a beautiful night to take a walk in the garden and to look up to the sky to admire the moon, but the court lady kept her head bowed and apologised for the inconveniences caused to the princes. She quickly asked to be excused and promised that she would discipline you and take stricter control on the girls. 

“I shouldn’t be telling you all these but you need to know that the palace is a dangerous place. You need to be extra careful and not make any mistakes,” the court lady looked around before telling you in a hushed manner. 

"But the garden belongs to White Porcelain and we are allowed to be there, aren't we?" You tried to argue, you did not understand why you were treated like an intruder when it was the princes who shouldn't be there.

"Shush! Every space and every stone on the ground belongs to the royalties. Just remember not to go about on your own. Even a small mistake could cost your life!" the court lady warned in a voice still as hushed.

“Guess who we just met?” Jungkook exclaimed when he saw Taehyung arrived at the garden. 

“One of your wife-to-be” he continued after Taehyung gave him a blanked look. 

Taehyung turned and saw your backview as you entered into the inner palace and disappeared from his sight. 

“So how are you feeling about the upcoming selection?” Jimin asked. 

Taehyung looked at the moon and said, “I think... I want to pick only one. I will only have one queen.”  

"I don't think father would approve," Jungkook raised his finger up to signal a "no" playfully.

"What do you think it looks like if the world knows that I only have one queen, and she is the one I truly loved?"

"Hmm... nobody cares?" The youngest answered.

Jimin laughed, "they would probably think their king does not like women or he might be....." Jimin looked down at Taehyung's crotch, "impotent."

The two princes burst out laughing and Taehyung hissed in annoyance. He couldn't forget the unfairness that he felt when you told him about your situation.

The next day, Taehyung decided to sneak into the White Porcelain Palace to check on the selections. He disguised himself as a male servant and infiltrated the palace, making his way into the White Porcelain Hall where the maidens were tested on poem recitals.

You sucked. Although none of the girls did outstandingly well, they were all reciting well while you were outstandingly terrible. Taehyung found it amusing because it was the same poem that he was teaching you and the same poem that you just somehow couldn't get right. He almost laughed out loud when you stumbled on the same word that he was trying so hard to get you to get it right. 

When Taehyung was trying to secretly leave the White Porcelain Palace unnoticed, he bumped into you. He wished he could turn invisible in that moment.

"Hey! It's you!" You exclaimed. "We were all wondering where did you go. Why did you leave without telling anyone?"

"I... errrr...."

"Ah I understand. You must be in the rush to return here," you looked at Taehyung from head to toe and deciphered from his clothing that he was a servant at the palace. You lowered your voice and looked around before continuing, "this place is so strict and stifling."

Stifling. Taehyung had never wanted anyone to feel this way about his home. He wondered if this was what all the servants and people who lived in the palace felt. Stifled. Like birds with clipped wings. The palace was a mould that people had to fit in. He wondered if his brothers felt this way. If his other mothers felt this way.

Taehyung was sitting in his chamber looking out at the full moon from his window when his male servant came in and politely asked, "you may wish to use a blanket, Your Majesty." Taehyung took the blanket but did not use it. He knew that the servant was doing his job of offering the blanket and he did not want to cause any trouble for him. When any forms of danger and mishaps happened to the royalties, the servants would usually be punished.

"Make sure that the girl gets in," Taehyung commanded without looking away from the moon.

"Pardon?" The male servant was taken aback and slightly confused.

"The one from yesterday, make sure she gets in."

The male servant seemed to understand and he grinned, thinking that the young and hormonal prince must have caught his eyes on you.

"Do you wish for me to send her here now, Your Majesty?” The servant gave a smirk. 

Taehyung sighed. “Get her into the selections without drawing attention.” 

“At your command, Your Majesty."