#also the difference between the two artist comments cracks me up

[triangle-strategy-notes]

General Avlora’s design/reference materials

Translation notes:

“A cool older woman” was literally translated as “older sister,” referencing the common older sister archetype present in Japanese media.

“Femininity and elegance” might be more accurately read as “feminine elegance.”

“A two-handed sword and no helmet” might have actually meant something more like “a two-handed sword that shows no mercy.”

[hiraizyo]

your love’s got me high, baby girl

synopsis — with everything that’s happened between you and daniela, you knew you couldn’t let this be the end, not until you were back in each others arms.

friends with benefits, semi-fluff, angst-ish, swearing, lesserafim 6th member!reader

now playing: girl of my dreams, guti.

a/n: here’s the final part of the dani fic !! sorry it took longer than i thought :/ flashbacks are in italics, & reader kind of yearns (?). i hope you enjoy, thank u for the support of this fic <3

++ links: part i. part ii. dani & yn r finally happy :) might also do a bonus chap w some smut 🤷

there’s a certain hollowness in your chest, and your heart beats slowly as a reminder that you’re alive, but you barely feel like it. your fingers were cold, wringing them together while you stare ahead, unblinking and silent.

chaewon’s voice echoed around you, the sound muffled. your mind was far from where it should be as she waved a hand in front of your eyes, trying her best to gain your attention.

“yn?” chaewon called, a gentle hand on your shoulder.

she gave a small smile once you’d finally noticed her, eyes zeroing in on her. chaewon’s mouth moved, and it took a second before the words registered in your brain.

“we’re going in now,” she nodded her head to the side where the rest of your members stood. “are you going to be okay?”

tonight, hybe was holding a company dinner for the success of the past year. all idols would be present, and you knew it was highly likely that katseye would be here as well.

you nodded, biting on your bottom lip.

her hand fell from your shoulder and towards your own, gripping onto it softly and pulled you along with her. the rest of the girls watched as you walked closer, encouraging smiles sent your way, but you could tell there was a hint of pity.

after the conversation you had with kazuha and processing the realization of your feelings, two days later you found yourself opening up to them about your situation with daniela. your leader was angry, telling you off that it was a dangerous mistake from the start. sakura consoled you, offering bits of advice. yunjin had cracked jokes, finding humor to be her best form of comfort, but it wasn’t long before she noticed how much you were suffering and eased your worries. eunchae held you for as long as she could, and offered to help take your mind off things.

two weeks had passed, the lack of contact between you and the latina felt like torture. during the first few days, you obeyed her wishes for you to never speak to her again, but the distance was getting to you, and so you caved. daniela didn’t respond, leaving your texts unread.

it hurt, badly.

you knew it was deserved after everything you’d put her through, yet you still clung to the hope that everything would work out.

“let’s get through the night,” kazuha mumbled to you once you were near. “then, you can tell her everything.”

she locked her arms with yours together tightly, walking with you through the double doors of the large hall. as you walked in, many hybe employees and artists greeted. you bowed politely, but your eyes were scanning for a blonde curly headed girl.

finally making it to your table, the loud chatter of all the people in the hall took over your senses. eunchae tried to gain your attention, commenting on the black and gold colored decor and the different foods listed on menu for the night. still, your eyes never left the doors for a moment.

as time passed, your leg bounced up and down in anxiousness, trying to distract yourself in a short conversation with yeonjun and yunjin, the former having walked over and greeted your group a few moments ago.

his voice faded away once you finally caught sight of sophia, the rest of the kats’ following behind her. as if the universe was taunting you, all five girls walked in, smiles on their lips. it felt like agonizing pain waiting for daniela, who didn’t appear until the last second, until you’re holding your breath, and then — finally — you see her in all her glory.

she walked through the double doors gracefully, wearing a black formal dress, seemingly far better off than you were.

the sight of her makes your heart drop to your stomach. it stopped, then beat again, much faster this time. your eyes follow her as she greeted everyone just as you did, her smile so wide her dimples show. the lighting of the room made it seem like daniela was glowing, and even if that seemed impossible, in your eyes she was.

she looked absolutely divine.

“zuha…” you tapped her shoulder, eyes still trained on the latina. “she looks so fucking perfect tonight.”

the japanese hummed, following where you were looking. she glanced back at you, smiling. “tone it down an notch, eh romeo?”

yunjin giggled at her members words, bumping your shoulder with hers as she sat beside you. the slight movement caused you to forcibly tear your gaze away, leaning your elbows on the table and run a hand over your mouth.

“fuck, i think i’m gonna be sick.” you mumbled, your stomach churning from the overflow of emotions.

“sick in loveee~” yunjin sung out, another loud cackle escaping her. you flicked her forehead in response, but the blush on your cheeks was evident that she was right.

her laugh caught the attention of wandering stares, looking in both amusement and curiosity. you shrunk into yourself at the unwanted attention, and it wasn’t long before you’re gazing out in search of the blonde once again. daniela doesn’t notice you until katseye was sitting at their own table, and her eyes lock with yours.

you sat immobile, everything frozen in time.

for a moment, you imagined it was just daniela and you in the large hall, no one else around. you imagined that everything was alright, you’d smile at her and she’d smile back. but this was real life, and what you imagined was far from the truth.

daniela looked away faster than the speed of light, leaving you with another wave of numbness that washed over you, sighing dejectedly.

the blonde attempted to put on a brave face, and it was working for the most part, seeing as you believed it, but she could feel herself falter. she knew you still had an affect on her, heart calling out your name, and the necklace that now felt like a burning sensation could still be seen hanging around her neck — a reminder of the power you had over her.

daniela gripped manon’s hand under the table. her roommate raised an eyebrow in concern, watching the latina glance in your direction for a split second. manon understood, and squeezed daniela’s hand in comfort, a silent exchange that said she was here for the girl.

the sound of bang si-hyuk’s voice rang through your ears, every person turning to focus on him as he stood on stage behind a podium. he began with a short speech, thanking everyone for being here and to enjoy their night. he walked off once he was done, applauds and cheering now filled the hall.

the night continued on, many people talking amongst themselves as they ate and drank together. throughout it all, you couldn’t help but look over to daniela every once in a while. and each time you did, she never looked your way, it felt like a stab to your gut.

“do i tell her tonight?” you asked kazuha near the end of the dinner, who swallowed down a sip of water.

your question was slightly louder than you had intended for, the rest of lesserafim hearing you. chaewon shot you a warning gaze and sakura shook her head in protest.

“don’t you think that might be too overwhelming?” eunchae inquired.

in normal circumstances, you’d applaud her for raising a valid point. tonight, however, having daniela so close by after weeks had you itching to fix things between you two.

“manchae is right, yn.” yunjin added, settling an arm over your shoulder. “it’s better to do it in a less crowded place.”

you were half listening to them, catching sight of the katseye girls getting up from their table and beginning to walk towards the doors. without thinking, you went to follow after them.

“yeah, i think waiting a little longe— hey, yn!” kazuha yelled lowly, cutting herself off as you stood up from your seat in rushed movements, the chair loudly scraping against the floor.

it was difficult to push pash the amount of people and make your way towards the end of the hall, apologizing whenever you accidentally knocked into someone. your surroundings were a blur in your peripheral vision, desperately chasing after the blonde.

by the time you’d reached the doors, your breathing was heavy. you frantically looked around, trying to catch a glimpse of any of the katseye members. your eyes were wide, spotting megan walking out the glass entrance doors of the building. with new found adrenaline, you sped walk towards them, pushing the door open with such a force it stung your hands.

“dani!” you shouted out into the cold air, watching as the girls were stepping into a company car.

you sighed exasperatedly, yelling out once more to gain any one of the katseye girls’ attention, but your efforts were useless. the car door slammed close, and the last thing you saw was a flash of blonde curls before they were driving off into the night.

“i need you to tell me where they’re staying.”

yunjin looked at you teasingly, leaning closer to you as you sat together on the couch, a cartoon show playing in the background. “sorry, who is staying where?”

you groaned, falling back on the couch and slid down. “yunjinnn!” you huffed out, to which the older girl laughed at. “you know who.”

the american pretended to think for a moment, shrugging her shoulders carelessly. “mmh, i don’t think i do.” she tapped her pointer finger on her chin, looking off to the side in fake wonderment.

you rolled your eyes and your shoulders slumped down as you glared up at her from your low position on the furniture. you were well aware of yunjin’s connection with megan and sophia, and decided to use it to your advantage to know the location of where the katseye girls were staying. unfortunately, your member was having too much fun teasing you, withholding the information.

after last night’s event, you’d thought enough was enough. it was killing to not have daniela in your life, you needed to let her know how you felt, the truth of it all. you’d let her slip through your fingers once before, and you weren’t going to let it happen again, not when finally after weeks, you were able to see one another.

it was late, a little after eleven p.m. the phone rang as you pressed it against your ear, foot tapping against the floor of your dorm hurriedly out of nervousness. you muttered under your breath, begging for the call to be answered.

as if your prayers were answered, the ringing stopped and the call was picked up

“dani.” you whispered, almost afraid of what she’d have to say. there was silence for a moment, as you desperately pleaded out. “hey, i’m sorry. i’m sorry. please, can we talk?”

the hope that spread to your chest died out once you heard the voice on the other end, their voice hard. “stop calling.”

“manon…” you muttered, knitting your eyebrows together in confusion. “i— i just want to talk to dani, please! let me… let me explain everything.”

on the other end, manon shook her head silently and gazed at her roommate, sound asleep in the bed of their hotel room. it was rare to see her sleep so peacefully since your last phone call, and the ghanaian wasn’t going to let you ruin her friend any further.

“yn, daniela is one of my best friends, but you weren’t there to pick up the pieces of the mess you made.” manon whispered, turning around to face the window, looking up at night sky. “i’m telling you one last time, stop calling.”

“no, wait—!”

manon didn’t give you a chance, ending the call, and the silence being left behind was deafening, hanging over your head, reminding you of all that you’d done.

your hands grasped onto your members, gripping them tightly, sitting up from the couch and were now perched on your knees. your eyes were wide, as you managed to steady your voice amongst your frantic movements.

“yun, if you have any intention of seeing me happy, then please, tell me where daniela is staying.”

yunjin chuckled and untangled her hand from yours, patting down on your shoulder. “okay, chill out. i’ll text you the hotel’s address.”

you sprung up from the couch, smiling widely as you leaned over and placed a sloppy kiss on yunjin’s cheek. the girl groaned loudly and shoved you away from her as you tripped over your own two feet, stumbling into your bedroom to gather your phone and car keys. you hastily moved around the room, throwing on whatever you thought would make a decent outfit.

your phone dinged with yunjin’s personalized notification sound. the nerves began to set in, quickly unlocking your phone with only one leg in your pants, and copied and pasted in the address into maps, seeing the hotel wasn’t that far away from the lesserafim dorm.

by the time you’d reached the hotel, yunjin had messaged you again, telling you that megan would meet you in the lobby and bring you up to the room they was staying in.

you spotted her immediately, courtesy of her ginger hair, and smiled gratefully as you got closer to her. “thank you for this.”

megan hummed, “don’t get me wrong, i’m still kinda upset.” she told you, guiding you towards the elevator. “but yunjin vouched for you. and plus, i hate seeing dani like this.”

you bit your lower lip as regret filled you, thinking over all this pain you’d caused daniela and the mistake you’d made. your hands clenched together at your sides, worry now creeping in.

it wasn’t long before you were face to face with a white door, a golden plaque placed a little bit above the centre, showing the room number. megan used a key card to open the door, as you rocked on your feet nervously. she opened the door silently, and stepped in, with you cautiously following behind her.

what greeted you was the sight of four girls all gathered on a couch. it was separate from the bedroom and bathroom, large enough to be considered a seating area. the tv was on, displaying the multiple netflix movies. yoonchae sat on the couch, scrolling through the different options, completely unbothered by what was happening around her.

megan caught sight of sophia’s eyes, and sheepishly scurried past her as she abruptly stood up, curling herself against their youngest member. lara glared at you from where she sat, her fiery gaze making you swallow nervously.

if looks could kill, you’d surely be dead.

before you’d gotten a chance to speak, sophia beat you to it, looking at you with crossed arms and a blank expression, visibly unimpressed.

“what are you doing here?” she squinted her eyes at you out of protection.

you cleared your throat, trying to seem as if you weren’t intimidated. “i came for daniela.”

sophia scoffed and clicked her tongue. “don’t you think you’ve done enough?” the leader retorted, tilting her head to the side.

you hung your head down lowly, feeling as if you were under a microscope from the stares that the kats’ were giving you. as you were about to respond, explaining your reasoning for being here, daniela and manon came through the connecting door of the bedroom, stopping in their tracks.

manon was speaking aloud, unaware of your presence. “that better be room service, or i swear i’ll— oh shit.”

the ghanaian’s sudden pause in her movements cause for daniela to crash into her back. she scowled, wondering what it was that had everyone in the room so tense, until her eyes landed on you.

her body ran cold, looking at you with a mixture of surprise and sorrow.

daniela didn’t expect to see you here, in fact she didn’t expect to see you at all after she’d silently been ignoring you. she was suddenly hyperaware of everything, hearing her heartbeat in her ears. pleading with your eyes, you soundlessly begged her to let you stay.

sophia stepped back into your line of sight, her gaze even harsher than before. “you are not speaking to her.”

“it’s fine, soph.” daniela spoke out. all eyes turned to her, but she paid them no mind as she looked directly at you. her jaw clenched in annoyance.

daniela turned around and walked back into the room, a silent request that you follow her. it was difficult to make it past all the girls as they shot daggers your way, but you’d eventually made it and shut the connecting door behind you. as you looked around, you noticed the two separate beds against either side of the room, both messily made up with minimal effort. a couple of clothes were strewn around, daniela’s suitcase unzipped and lay open on the floor.

she stood in the middle of the room, back towards to you. daniela finally turned to face you, sighing. you remained in place with your hands at your sides, cracking your knuckles from the anxiety making its way through your body.

standing with her now, face to face, the words you practiced in your head on the drive over suddenly became lost.

she looked at you expectantly, “are you just gonna stand there and stare at me?”

“i wanted to apologize.”

“apologize?” daniela chirped out, “you think an apology is going to fix this?”

she shook her head breathlessly, looking at you in disbelief at your actions. daniela’s eyebrows scrunching together in anger, her voice raising.

“i get it, yn. from the start of all this, we agreed it was only hooking up. but you’d say and do things that would make me think otherwise, and i hate you for it!”

you flinched at her words, considering if she really did hate you. (you couldn’t blame her, either.)

“dani, i—” you quickly interjected, but she cut you off just as fast, giving you no room to speak.

“i mean, you give me your necklace to wear— to keep, like sure, whatever, it’s just a piece of jewelry! you stay the night at my place, which was your own goddamn rules! you call me whenever you have a bad day, just because you want to ‘hear my voice’ and then…” she paused, looking at you exasperated.

daniela turned around and walked in angry steps, “and then you buy me a gift, and tell me it fucking means nothing.” her voice croaked, facing you.

“like, what the fuck is up with that?!”

in rushed footsteps, you walked closer to daniela, until you were mere centimeters apart, cupping her cheeks and pulling her into an electrifying, world-stopping kiss.

daniela’s mind short circuited, distracted by your hurried movements. her body then melted into yours, hands pressed against your ribcage.

she kissed you back with need, her soft lips moving against yours out of instinct. you tried to pour every ounce of your emotions into the kiss, hoping to convey the way you feel about her. your hands found their way into her hair, fingers tangling in blonde curls, pressing harder until your teeth clash together and she gasped into your mouth.

your head spun from the feel of her lips pressed to yours, forgetting how much of an effect kissing her had on you. your body temperature was rising as you pulled your bodies together as close as humanly possible. daniela’s hands snacked up to cup yours cheeks as well, her right thumb running along your jawline, allowing herself to be consumed by your touch.

when you finally parted, you were both breathing heavily, heart thumping wildly. leaning your forehead against daniela’s, you sighed, shutting your eyelids closed and whispered out,

“i didn’t think i’d ever get to do that again.”

daniela blinked away tears, calming down her breathing. she looked at you, and when you finally opened your eyes, you could see hers were wide with something akin to fearfulness.

you leaned back, hands moving back to cup her cheeks and opened your mouth to speak, your voice shaking.

“i crave to be with someone, but i couldn’t handle that kind of intimacy.” you began, wetting your lips as you struggled to regain control of your breathing. “…and i never understood what people meant when they said love drives you crazy, until i met you.”

you swallowed, closing your eyes for another moment. when you opened them again, daniela could see the truth behind them, shining with despair and vulnerability.

“dani, i have never felt anything like this before, for anyone.” your head shook sideways, voice quivering. “and that scared me, so much. but you didn’t deserve how i treated you.”

you smiled sadly, finally letting your emotions take control. “in the past, i never had the best luck with love. i ran from it, hurting others before they could hurt me. but… its different with you.”

“i think of you, all the time, no matter how much i try to distract myself, my mind always goes back to you. when i’m out with my friends, or with my members — as much as i love them — i would rather be with you. and that bracelet… fuck, it did mean something. it meant that i wanted us to be more, that i wanted you to know how i really feel about you.”

your vision was starting to become blurry, eyes filling with tears the more you carried on. daniela watched as your walls around you crumble down, letting her in.

“you should’ve just been honest with me,” she whispered, delicately cradling your face in her hands.

for a moment, you choked on a breath. there were constellations in her eyes, and they stunned you you to silence.

you breathed, deep and slow.

“i’m sorry, okay?” you whimpered out, “i’m so sorry. i’m sorry that i’ve been a complete asshole in all this. i get it if you hate me, or you never want to see me again, but i am begging you, dani, please, please, can we try again?”

your hand clutched onto hers, pressing it down on your chest. underneath her palm, she could feel the quick beating of your heart. “it hurts not to have you with me. i want us to be together, in a proper relationship. no more sneaking around, no more being kept a secret.”

your voice cracked as you spoke in shuttered breaths, gasping, as though daniela was your supply of oxygen, needing her to survive. she could see the pain on your face, pursuing her lips.

the latina chuckled somberly, “you really hurt me, y’know that?”

“i know, and i will do whatever it takes to make up for that.” you pleaded with her, “just give me one more chance, if— if you’re willing.”

the silence dragged on as daniela gathered her thoughts. standing before her was you, begging and shaking, looking at her with so much emotion. there was love in your eyes, but there was also panic, sadness, desire, and longing.

her lips upturned, “you’re going to regret saying that, because i am sooo making you work for it.”

you laughed breathlessly, pulling her into you, making her drop her hands from your cheeks and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

“if it makes you happy, i’d do anything.”

daniela felt heat run up her body, warming her face and her ears. “anything?”

a weight lifted off your chest at her teasing tone. you tangled your fingers together, humming in contentment. “yes.”

the latina raised a brow at your willingness to comply with her demands. she smirked, tilting her head back to look at you. “you do realize just because i’ve forgiven you doesn’t mean the girls will?” she quipped, watching as you nodded.

“okay,” you mumbled, pulling her into a hug.

daniela wrapped an arm around your midsection while yours fell over her shoulders. she glanced at the side of your head, “manon will probably try and fight you, lara too.”

“i figured.”

she laughed as you stood with your arms around one another, basking in the comfort you provided. you were happy to finally have daniela back in your embrace, her body feeling like home.

the blonde separated herself from you, and sneakily placed her hands under the shirt you wore, raking her nails across you skin. she leaned to capture her lips with yours in another kiss, this time more soft and sensual. this kiss was tender; there was no more fighting, no more confusing feelings, no more denying yourselves the truth of what you really wanted.

as you stood there, the delicate kiss having your stomach flutter, you’d completely forgotten about the rest of world, until lara’s voice was heard through the door.

“if you two made up, please don’t fuck while we’re all still out here!”

aaanddd thats it ! <3

lowk think i am DONE with long imagines this shit drains me so much omf, anywaysss pls lemme know ur thoughts on this dani fic i love hearing ur opinions 😓

[paperlovesadness]

Ah... I feel a bit strange doing this. Might just stay in the drafts forever. We'll see. But my hands itch to do it every single time I listen to the song so... So here's a lyric analysis of "Star Treatment" and how... it might?... be? A song... About... Miles Kane?? Maybe??? 🫣 (no executions please. I'm really not trying to push this narrative. These things just kind of jumped out at me & I felt an urge to write it down somewhere. And perhaps see if anyone agrees? Comments encouraged! If anyone ever stumbles upon this silly thing) This will get long... Cause that's who I am. And also it references other songs.

Disclaimer 1: I did see someone attempt this on reddit. It was a bit out there though... And maybe ironic? I do share a thought or two with them though.

Disclaimer 2, an Important one: this does rely on an implication that there was something more between the two sometime around/ between 2015-2017ish? I don't want to put any labels and try to stay away from any too specific guesses. But well, I suppose I do kind of personally believe there was something there. If you're not a fan of theories about private lives of real people... I'm sorry. This one's not for you. I really do try to do it as respectfully as possible though. At the end of the day - it's just a theory. And not a mean one. I understand it's all just something that fits together in my head and may be very far from any truth. Disclaimer 3: I know this album is a concept album centered around characters. But I'm analyzing the second, potential autobiogrophical hidden layer beneath the obvious first meaning

Okay, let us have a whack at it now:

I just wanted to be one of The Strokes Now look at the mess you made me make Hitchhiking with a monogrammed suitcase Miles away from any half-useful imaginary highway

This one is very on the nose. But quite literally sneaking in his name in the lyrics -- maybe? we know Alex loves playing with many meanings/hidden messages & double entendres. + the being away from any half-useful imaginary highway makes me think of when he spoke about the fact that he couldn't write any more love-related matarial after EYCTE. And someone encouraged him to just go a different route. That's how TBHC was born. But also implies some trouble in the love-related ascpects of his life around the time. Could've just been trouble around Taylor - who he broke up with soon after the album's release. There's theories about how that happened [current girlfriend invloved] - but maybe there was even more confusion & heartbreak in the mix (ending a tour with someone with whom the lovey-dovey jokes may have gone a bit too far/serious?)

I'm a big name in deep space, ask your mates But golden boy's in bad shape

this is just implying any sort of broken-heartedness.

I found out the hard way that Here ain't no place for dolls like you and me Everybody's on a barge Floating down the endless stream of great TV 1984, 2019

dolls = puppets. And how the industry / society isn't a good place for relationships like this. (People wouldn't understand the type of bond they share?)

Maybe I was a little too wild in the '70s Rocket-ship grease down the cracks of my knuckles Karate bandana, warp speed chic Hair down to there, impressive moustache

Miles and Alex have spoken many times about how their first album was heavily 60s inspired - Scott Walker, The Beatles, 60s Morricone.

What may be less obvious and spoken about is how EYCTE was sort of meant to take their work into the 70s. He spoke about it in an interview when asked about the album cover. It's a 1969 photo of Tina Turner - which Alex commented on by saying: "The idea was to move the artwork on from the ’60s feel of the first Last Shadow Puppets album artwork, so here is Tina on the very cusp of the 1970s" (They also chose to sing covers like Moonage Daydream and Is This What You Wanted during that tour. Both 70s songs from artists that defined the era). So this could be him reflecting on the EYCTE era and how things may have gotten a bit too far during the time. Going in to deep, crossing some boundries and definitions?

Love came in a bottle with a twist-off cap Let's all have a swig and do a hot lap

alcohol? pills? alcohol & or drugs clouding some judgement/helping loosen up and causing the crossing of certain [friendship] boundries?

So who you gonna call? The Martini Police Baby, that isn't how they look tonight, oh no It took the light forever to get to your eyes

It's not a particularly meaningful line in terms of this narrative - but I wanted to talk about it because I find it so beautiful but also so fuck*ng sad. Like - one of he saddest lines I've read. It just hit me in the heart straight away when I heard it. I feel like my personal interpretation is dead wrong. But still choose to see it that way. I also know of the story of how it's inspired by Alex's dad telling him about how we see the light of the stars the way it was in the past bc of how long it takes to reach us. The way I hear this line though is: seeing the bottomless sadness in the eyes of someone who had their heart broken. Someone whose eyes used to be full of happiness - and now it takes forever for any touch of happiness to show up in their gaze. Now a possible interpratation for a second meaning to this whole section could be: calling the martini police = grabbing a drink to help with hearbreak, when there's no other solutions left. Miles has sang in his breakup album Coup de Grace about how he drowned the sadness after hearbreak in alcohol and pills. Mixing stuff together like a mad scientist etc. (Also if you ever saw the interview he did with [the one and only] Martin on his CDG album... Oof... Yeah. There was no light in that man's eyes. Even Martin saw that pain and commented on it. It's a tough one to watch)

I just wanted to be one of those ghosts You thought that you could forget And then I haunt you via the rear view mirror On a long drive from the back seat

This is one of these sections that hits me the most. Cause to me it can be seens as: Alex being aware of how much pain he caused - all he could wish is that he was just another lover whom the hearbroken person [Miles?] could forget. But alas - he still haunts him. Here it gets interesting (or batshit crazy. Cause I might be). Beacause the use of "ghost" just absolutely sends me to Miles' song "Shavambacu" - where he describes the eyes/thoughts of an ex lover still being focused on him after the breakup (this song though could have a whole seperate post of it's own) While "haunting via a rear view mirror" made me jump up and recall lyrics from Miles' song "Dont let it get you down". I saw your reflection, in The backseat of a Chevrolet from Hollywood to East LA NOW - don't shout at me. I know timelines are important. Because Shavambacu and Star Treatment came out around a similar time period. But Shavambacu came out a little bit later. While DLIGYD came out completely after all of hits - this year. So first off - I'm considering the fact that Miles and Alex are clearly still friends and in contact. So could have shown each other songs earlier. But more plausible theory: if these songs are perhaps maybe inspired by one another - they clearly are gonna recall events and/or inside lingo and jokes they both used. Possible situation: post Miles-Alex hearbreak Miles stumbled upon Alex going somewhere in a car. They spotted each other. this also makes me recall the whole:

Swear I saw you smile You try to hide it well 3:15 on the wrong side Columbia Street line from "Killing the Joke". Which many think references the area that Alex lives in. They lived a few minutes away from each other around 2016-2017. So would obviously run into one another often. Even if they were going through something and taking a break/trying not to.

But it's alright, 'cause you love me And you recognise that it ain't how it should be Your eyes are heavy and the weather's getting ugly

This one is also way to sad if you place it in a relationshippy context. There's a few ways I see it: 1) it's alright - no matter what happens, because A. knows M. loves him and will understand why things ended like they did. It shouldn't be this way - but it has to be, because there's things standing in the way. He believes he'll understand despite the grief. 2) dramatic, sad version - the "it ain't how it should be" actually references the "love me part". So M. should understand that things ended because they shouldn't love each other this way. It's just now how it should be and A. believes M. recognises that.

So pull over, I know the place Don't you know an apparition is a cheap date? What exactly is it you've been drinking these days?

once again referencing bumping into each other randomly? And going with it - going some place; talking. Maybe about how Miles' is doing, the heartbreak, how he deals with it - the alcohol (once again - just referencing what he himself sang about in lyrics on his breakup album)

Jukebox in the corner, "Long Hot Summer" They've got a film up on the wall and it's dark enough to dance

"Long Hot Summer" - by The Style Council is actually a song Alex cited to be one of the main references/inspirations used when working on the EYCTE album. So is definitely a nostalgic/meaninful song between the two. They go to a place after bumping into one another - there's a jukebox with a nostalgic song. They can dance together - because it's an incognito, dark place.

What do you mean you've never seen Blade Runner?

Now the Blade Runner line is so clearly Taylor Bagley (the woman is a huge, huge fan of it, apparently) it did have me stumped for a while. But then - maybe it's a clarifying line? Like - if this were about Taylor he would definitely not say that to her. It's obvious she's seen it a million times. Maybe this is here to sort of clarify this?

Oh, maybe I was a little too wild in the '70s Back down to earth with a lounge singer shimmer Elevator down to my make-believe residency From the honeymoon suite Two shows a day, four nights a week Easy money

70s again - EYCTE era But after the tour ended it was time to go back to earth, back to being non-TLSP Alex. Running away from reality into writing music - writing about a make-believe residency (Tranquility Base) Time to leave the honeymoon era = the tour and shows TLSP had together. (also AM may be easy money? Their reputation [very well deserved] makes it so that it's easy - bc anything they come out with will be bought)

So who you gonna call? The Martini Police So who you gonna call? The Martini Police Oh, baby, that isn't how they look tonight It took the light absolutely forever to get to your eyes

...

And as we gaze skyward, ain't it dark early?It's the star treatment Yeah, and as we gaze skyward, ain't it dark early? It's the star treatment It's the star treatment The star treatment

a sad ending. It got dark. A bit too early. It's sad that it all ended. But that's how it has to be - in show buisness, in the industry. They're well known people and it could hurt their careers - also it would just get out easily, so there's no room for self-discovery and just trying it out. That's the star treatment. (This is also a theme I am seeing in Mr. Schwartz lyrics. But that's for another time) Am I crazy? Probably! Is this just accidental elaborate fan fiction? Maybe! But still...I don't know. Song theories are fun. I get that morally it's a gray / or maybe even red area - talking out loud, publicly about theories invloving specific names and relationships. But like... Sue me! Let's call it a guilty pleasure. If anyone ever reads through this wall of text... Hi! Thanks and sorry. And please share some thoughts! (Eh. May just delete this soon anyway) Peace and love

[moostaronce]

Uninterested

Request: Hey wassup may I request a Jinsoul x fem reader where the reader was super loving and caring in the relationship but they suddenly saw the "Let me introduce idols" ep 5 where Jinsoul said she likes someone who isn't really interested in her. This makes reader get hurt and act cold towards Jinsoul bc she's scared she'll leave her and Jinsoul gets confused. Angst and fluff please, thank you <3

Pairing: Jinsoul x Fem Reader

A/N I hope this is to your liking!

"Sol!"

You come bounding into your girlfriend's arms the moment you see her and she receives you with even more excitement. The usual ritual that the two of you fall into without fail. The massive hug you share is only matched by the passion in the kisses you share when you get to see each other. She doesn't complain when you come crashing into her full force or when you dote on her 24/7. In fact, Jinsoul surprises herself sometimes with how much she loves being loved by you so hard. Not once has she ever had to question your love for her, because you show it in everything you do.

When you pull back, it's just enough to look into her eyes, chin on her chest, and a smile on your face. The other BBC staff brought the girls a little late so you and the rest of the makeup and hair staff have to move quicker than usual. Luckily for you, there were only 6 out of the twelve girls today. Unfortunately for you that also meant you needed to cover 3 different faces in less time than usual, but you're a pro so it's all good. Today you came up with a plan of action to move quicker, today you were in charge of the unnie line in age order while your colleague covered Heejin, Hyejoo, and Yeojin.

"Hey to you too." Her smile gives you warmth as you completely pull away. Now that your moment was over, you put on your game face and looked around until you spotted Kahei.

"See you later babe, duty calls." You give her a pack on the cheek before making your way to a clearly tired Kahei and gently guiding her to your chair.

"Why are you two so grossly adorable?" Jinsol turns her head to see Hyejoo looking mildly disgusted before Sooyoung puts her in a headlock from behind.

"Oh don't be such a love hater Hyejoo. They're just the right amount of cute." Heejin comments before sitting in the other makeup artist's chair.

"Yeah, don't be like that to your unnie." Jinsol squishes her cheeks when Sooyoung lets her go with a flourish of laughter.

"Seriously though you guys can be a little gross, I think it's cute." Sooyoung comments.

She watches Jinsol look over at you with adoration. In her mind, there was just no reason for you to be so perfect for her. She constantly finds things to love about you like right now. The concentration that takes over your face and the sweet smile she can catch you giving her members while you do your damndest to make them look even better for the cameras, consistently reminds her of how deeply she loves you.

"She has no business being that pretty," Jinsol grumbles under her breath, but Sooyoung definitely hears it. She nudges her friend fondly and just goes off into a different conversation.

Time actually seems to fly by as you finish up Kahei, then Sooyoung. You and your co-worker go pretty much at the same pace so when Jinsol finally sits in your chair, Yeojin sits in hers at the same time. You don't speak to her right away, you just give her a small peck on the lips before you get started. Jinsol looks up at you and pouts, trying to guilt you into another kiss.

"What's the face for?" You stand back, head tilted to the side.

"You call that a kiss?" She reaches for your hips to bring you down on her lap but you gently smack her hands away with a serious expression.

"You'll get kisses after work. Right now I have a job to do so be a good girl and hold still." You turn to start grabbing the products you use for her and Jinsol has to resist the urge to protest because she knows you're right.

The entire time you do her makeup Jinsol's eyes hardly ever leave your face. Periodically, she'll pucker her lips in hopes of you giving in but you don't pay her any mind. She doesn't try to speak because of the look in your eye when she tries to flirt with you while you're working. When you finally finish and start to pack up your things Jinsol stands and pulls you into her arms. You never mind when she wants to display her affection for you, but the moment she tries to lean in you aren't having it.

"Jung Jinsol!" She startles back and loosens her grip on you just enough for you to duck out of her arms and glare at her. She looks at you dumbfounded.

"If you mess up my hard work before you even get on set, I'm not kissing you at all."

Your threat shakes her up just enough to have her sputtering but she doesn't have time to properly respond before they are called in for their interview. They have another event with the full group after this is over so you pack up your bags except for your pouch for touch-ups. For now, you just have to watch backstage with the other staff before it's time to meet up at the next location.

For the most part, you just sat and relaxed. The atmosphere was pretty chill until Jinsol said something that hurt your feelings.

"I think I like people who are not interested in me," Heejin speaks up.

"Oh, that's right!" Jinsol nods along.

"It's a little much when someone expresses interest first." Heejin continues.

"Right." You're a little shocked to see Jinsol nodding and responding in agreeance.

You've never heard her even allude to being overwhelmed by you, yet right now you're overthinking every move you've ever made. Was she just pretending to like you back this whole time? Or if not, will she grow tired of you? You shift uncomfortably in your seat and nonchalantly glance around.

No one else seems to notice your discomfort so you just sit quietly until it's time to go. When the members make their way back, you're all packed up and ready to go. Jinsol comes to you immediately, lips puckered and hands around your waist. When she leans in, all she's gets is your cheek.

Jinsol steps back and looks at you sideways but you're too busy grabbing your things to look at her.

"Baby? What's wrong?" Your girlfriend begins to worry when you don't answer or look at her. Her mind races as you leave for the next location with the other makeup artist.

"Baby?" She practically whimpers at you but you're already out of earshot. She turns around to see the others looking at her concerned. You couldn't really be mad about earlier right? She was only playing around but what else could you possibly be upset with her about?

"Maybe she's just not feeling well?" Yeojin chimes.

"Maybe." Jinsol doesn't know what else to say.

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

When they arrive, you're already working on Chaewon. You're usually in charge of yyxy for ot12 events so Sooyoung and Hyejoo agree to try and figure out what's wrong with you. Jinsol on the other hand can't help the little feeling of jealousy growing inside of her while you giggle quietly with Chaewon. You hadn't even glanced her way when she came in but you looked up and smiled at Sooyoung and Hyejoo.

Deciding she had some time to spare before it was her to have her makeup redone, Jinsol slides up to you and asks what's wrong directly in your ear. You jump in surprise and turn your head only to realize just how close she is to your face. Seconds feel like minutes when you see her looking at your lips, and you almost kiss her. But then you remember your fears from earlier.

"Nothing, I'm fine." With that you turn back to Gowon, leaving Jinsol to pout at your side.

She leaves you alone for the rest of the day and is even more disheartened when Sooyoung and Hyejoo come back with nothing but shrugging shoulders. The hope that you'll be back to normal tomorrow stays with her but a week later and she's still confused. You never want to kiss or cuddle and when she tries you just avoid her. As a matter of fact, it feels like you're avoiding her period and it's making her upset.

It weighs on her mind until she can't take it anymore. She misses you and wants to understand how you're feeling so she calls you with a serious tone in her voice. It's not a request but a demand that you be home when she arrives at your apartment, so you are.

When she crosses the threshold you make no moves of intimacy towards her like you usually do and she huffs with frustration.

"Do you want to break up?" It's not the speech she had practiced and planned, in fact, it breaks her heart to even say. Her voice cracks but it seems to snap you out of whatever you were under.

"What? No!" Panic sets in so deeply, you feel it in your bones.

"Then why are you acting so weird Y/n? You just seem so uninterested lately." She gets worried when she sees the tears building in your eyes and the sniffles you let out.

"But I thought that's what you wanted. You said you like people that aren't interested in you, so I thought you might be getting tired of me."

At first, she's confused. When had she ever said that? It's clear that she said it because you look so sad just thinking about it. Then she thinks back to the first day you began acting differently and things start clicking into place.

"I didn't mean anything by that! I was just agreeing with Heekie because I know that's how she feels." Jinsol begins slowly closing the rather large gap of space you put between you. She moves as calmly as possible to give you time to back up if you want to, but she's really not sure her heart could take that.

"I love you and how you treat me. You have no idea how good it makes me feel when you get excited to see me. I love that you always want to show me love just like I do for you."

As she speaks and walks your head hangs low while tears spill silently down your beautiful face. When she's so close that her feet are right in front of your, Jinsol wraps you in her arms. It takes you a moment to reciprocate but you do. The hug you give back is so tight that it lets your girlfriend know very clearly how much you missed her. You're so warm that it brings tears to her eyes and soon she's crying with you.

"Please don't do this again. I thought you fell out of love with me." Jinsol's words were followed up with a gut-wrenching sobbing sound that made your own tears fall that much faster.

"I won't. I'm sorry baby." You whisper to her.

You continue to hold each other until you have just enough strength to lay down together on your futon. Jinsol is usually the big spoon but it was clear she needed to be held, so that's what you did. Before either of you know it, you're both knocked out. You're only awakened hours later by the call from Loona for Sol to come back to the dorm.

[internalsealpanic]

Love Through the Ages (Damian Wayne)

Summary:  Love like baggage needs to be declared.

a/n: This is part one of a series that is a fic rec list disguised as a fic. For these fics, most of the characters will be speaking different languages, so unless specified otherwise assume that the characters are speaking in the first language I mention. They’re all vampires with centuries under their belt. Why wouldn’t I make them all polyglots.  Also, thank you to the proof reading gang for putting up with my shenanigans.  I will have links to the fics I recommend in the fic itself.

Warnings: Everyone is dramatic. 

Masterlist

Series Masterlist. 

You wait by the platform, tapping your feet to the rhythm of the Little Colonel Bojangles Dance. It's been so long since you've seen the movie but your feet can still remember the steps- much to Damian's annoyance. Your feet patter against the pavement, wet from the spring rain, in a soft rhythm that kept your excitement at bay.

You wave to the approaching cab. The passenger of the cab looks away from you, pressing his mouth into the heel of his hand as his eyes stare out into oblivion. Your mouth quirks at the petulant gesture. You haven't seen each other in two decades and he's still mad about... what was it again? You'll find out soon enough.

The cab stops in front of you.

You bow your head, resting your weight on your umbrella. You grin at his seated form postured perfectly with an ease of a man born with the world in his pocket. He's dressed in a black suit and a dark coat that looked far too thick for spring.

"Long time, no see, little prince." You say in a dialect of Spanish too old for the young cab driver to recognize.

Damian raises his brow, articulating his annoyance. It takes you a moment to realize that it was with the accent you'd chosen. It was inelegant and curt and it mangled the curve of the syllables far too easily. In short, it was your favorite dialect.  Rolling your eyes, you try again. This time with a softer, smoother dialect much more modern but still old enough that you could talk freely without worrying about eavesdroppers.

Damian cracks a smile at you. It was wry but soft in the way Damian always was. Your own exasperated smile softens as you look at his eyes, their ever-changing lushness. It's been too long.

You open the door. Damian eases out of the cab handing the cabby what you quietly hope was the correct amount.

But considering the wide-eyed glee on the cabbies face, you can guess that twenty years has done nothing for Damian's spending habits. That was if the tailored suit wasn't a dead giveaway.

You look him over whistling," whose funeral are you going to after the museum?" 

"Yours if we're on schedule." Damian deadpans looking at his watch. 

You snort, sounding like a piglet in mud. Adoration flickers in Damian's eyes but you miss it as you throw your head back.

"Who has a schedule on vacation."

"People who don't like wasting time."

"That's what a vacation is for."

Damian makes an annoyed noise in the back of his throat and you shake your head. Damian wraps his arm around your shoulders. You happily press into his side, reveling in the intimacy of the action.

Damian had been telling you a story in rapid Arabic, the only words you understood were 'Jon' and 'moron', when you pause in front of a pair of paintings. The painting on the left was of Damian, his form drawn in harsh, messy angles. He's hunched over his sketchbook, candlelight glowing softly by his side makes his copper skin and forest green eyes breathtaking. The subject is out of view. The other was a portrait of you dozing off on a workshop table, your flaws lovingly rendered in gentle brush strokes. By contrast, your portrait was lit by the summer sun. Only Damian could make your features look this beautiful.

Vaguely, you remember this.

You remember it only for the countless times it had happened.

"They say that the one on the left is the painter sketching the portrait on the right and that the portrait on the right is of his lover."  You say airily. Damian, not one to disappoint, gives you an unreadable look.

Your stomach turns. You drop the subject. Wordlessly, you two make your way to the exhibit.

"Love through the Ages?" Damian asks, crossing his arms.

"Shockingly love wasn't invented by Stephenie Meyer."  You say. Damian wrinkles his nose at you and you cover your mouth to hide the scraggly smile spreading across your lips.

"I'm shocked your paintings didn't make it in."

He looks down at you huffing, "it's only speculation." 

You're heart twinges at that.  You press a frown to your hand.

"It'll be fun, Dami. I promise. Pleeeeeease."

Damian's stern look gives way to a weary half-smile as he capitulates to you.

"I promise it will only be half as nauseating as Dick's attempts to do family bonding."

"Tt, it would take a miracle to surpass that."

You grin. "Perish the thought."

"They say this stardust came from star-crossed lovers as they traveled through space. Oh and this one is a statue gifted by Persephone to Hades."

You drag Damian all over the exhibit. Pointing to specific exhibits with enthusiasm. He has to admit. It's infectious. Then again, Damian's never been able to resist anything about you. This amount of enthusiasm for something so frivolous would have been obnoxious on anyone else but because it's you, Damian's found himself utterly enamored by it.

"This one," You say, pointing to a series of paintings. They were all beautiful, painted in bold colors. The torrent of emotions radiating off of the canvas. "This one was made by an artist torn between three loves."

"Three? She must have been an exceptional artist."

"Probably was but her name was lost." You sigh.

 "She’s got exceptional brushwork." Damian hums. 

You squint at it. You would think after hundreds of years you would be able to discern that.

"And over there! Look at those postcards!" You say, pointing the three postcards pinned to a cloth in a glass case.  One card showed the northern lights, another with a picture of a thick rainforest, another with a large cave, and another with the pantheon. 

"They're not well preserved are they." Damian comments, scrutinizing the postcards and noting all the imperfections, the little cracks and tears, the water stains, and odd splotches of dirt. 

You roll your eyes, curling your fingers around his arm. "That's cus Hermes supposedly brought them everywhere while he searched for his lost love." 

"Quite the romantic. Do you know all the artifacts?"

"Yup." 

"I see..." Damian drawls.  "Then why are we here then?" Damian winces at how harsh and impatient he sounds. 

"Cus Jon said I needed an excuse to get you here and viola. It worked. I knew you'd cross the sea for a rare exhibit."

I would cross the sea for you, no matter how many times, Damian thinks.

"What about this?" Damian points to a golden coin, shaking his thoughts away. 

You lean back, side-eyeing him. "Care to guess?" His handsome features furrow as he thinks. 

"I think it’s a coin used to pay Charon." He says finally. 

You frown. "Good guess." A smug grin curls on his lips.  You stick your tongue out at him. 

"It’s an old Greek coin to pay the travel into the underworld."

 "Why would they want to travel  to the underworld?" It's Damian's turn to frown. 

"Yanno for someone who's so smart. You're asking the dumbest questions."

"It's a reasonable question." He asserts, his tone oddly defensive.

"Most people can't bear to be apart from their beloved."

Damian hums noncommittally. He understands that. he understands that all too well. 

"Like you and Jon." You say grinning.

Damian glares at you. No real anger behind it. 

"You two bicker like an old married couple." You laugh.

 "So do we." Damian says flatly, stepping closer to you and closing the gap between the two of you. He's looking at you so intensely that your skin sets itself on fire. 

"I often think about burying you under the kitchen patio too." Damian sneers, with a sharp grin. 

You snap out of your daze. Leaning in close and smiling, your hot breath fan against Damian's face.  "Will you do it affectionately?"

The moment hangs still in the air.  If you could capture it in amber, you would.

"Huh? This is new." You say, looking down at the glass case.

"How many times have you seen this exhibit?"

You preemptively shoot him an accusatory look. "What are you?"

"Concerned."

"Pfff!"

You lean down reading the plate. "Says here it's a letter from the late 1700s and early 1800s. An unsent letter to lost love."

"Sounds cliched." Damian says, leaning down next to you. 

"You've said that about everything."

You feel Damian stiffen beside you. You glance at him. He looks mortified. Your eyes follow his and land on the letter. The calligraphy looks familiar but you can't think of where you've seen the scrawl.

Damian tugs at your shoulder.

"(Y/n), let's go."

You shrug him off.

"(Y/n), let’s go." He repeats with increased urgency.

You shove your palm to his face.

Damian wraps his arms around your waist, pulling you into his chest. You flail and kick out childishly.

“Damian Al Ghul Wayne, I will gnaw your arm off.” You hiss but he doesn’t let go. In a last ditch effort to break free of his hold, you wriggle out of your coat.  Landing on your ass, you scramble for the glass case. 

My beloved (Y/n), 

Finding the words to tell you how I feel about you is not an easy feat. I feel as though Ibn Hazm himself would struggle to compose poems to express my feelings for you even then they would be inadequate.

Whilst we are surrounded by such death and misery, here in London, I want you to know that during these dark times, it is you that keeps me a light. It is you that leads me through the void and guides me.

I think I’ve always loved you from the very first moment I laid eyes on your beautiful lopsided smile. Yes. Your real smile. The one only a handful of people will ever see. I have been lucky enough to see it every day.

As time passed, I fell more and more in love with you. You have seen all of me. You have seen the monster within me and yet you still stand by my side. Never faulting in your stance.

I wish I had the strength to tell you this, face to face. I wish I could look into your eyes and whisper words of love my immortal beloved.

With Love, 

Damian

You stare at the letter uncomprehending. Realization slides off of you like rain off a tin roof. You read it over and over again until each syllable is embedded in your mind. “Damian, what the actual fuck?!”

“I-”

“You dork!”

Damian clams up unable to think of a response. Ok, no. He had a number of responses but none of them were appropriate or witty. He searches your features but the only thing he can make out is shock. 

“(Y/n), I was-”

You press your hand to the glass. “How come you never sent me this?”

“The French Revolution.”

“Which one?”

He crosses his arms raising a brow. 

“Ok, nevermind. But still, it’s been 200 years.”

“A lot has happened in 200 years.”

“A lot has happened in 200 years.” You repeat mockingly.

Damian pinches your cheeks in retaliation.   

“I was pinning for more than 200 hundred years!” You protest. 

“So was I!” Damian says, releasing your cheek. 

“Then why didn’t you say anything?”

“Why didn’t you?” Damian asks, accusing and curt. You flinch, something vile and caustic rising in your stomach.  Damian sees it and grips your hand as you fall away from him. He just got you back. “(Y/n)....”

The fear and hurt melt off of your face. “I thought… I just thought you’d...” You ball your fists in frustration, not quite grasping the right words. But Damian already knows what you’re thinking. He’s seen that look in your face. He’s seen it every time you look at the mirror. It was infuriating to watch you like this. Why couldn’t you see just how perfect you are?

Damian pulls you into a hug, burying your face into his chest and resting his chin on top of your head. 

“You are infuriating.” He mumbles into your hair.

“And you’re rude.��� You mumble back.

“Yet here you are 400 years later.” He laughs softly. 

You two stand in silence for a long moment. With Damian, silence itself was a language. It was one you’d grown fluent in. An unspoken conversation of confirmations and reassurances. 

He releases you but holds your hand in his. It feels warm. You shiver and Damian smiles at you, smooshing your coat into your face. Both of you can’t help but laugh. 

You step closer to the glass case, pulling him along. Damian follows without resistance, only lacing his fingers into yours. You both stare at the page. His proclamation of love carefully preserved for all to see. You take your phone out to take a picture.  Damian shoots you a glare. 

“You’re not sending that to Jon.” 

“Tim then.”

“No.”

“Fine, for myself then.” You pause seeing the confusion on his face. “In case, you know...” You say waving your hand. 

Damian tilts your chin up. “Beloved, I’m not going anywhere.”

Your chest flutters. After centuries of inaction, you can feel your heartbeat.  

[10-porgs-in-a-trenchcoat]

What I See

Pairing: Clone Medic Kix x GN Medic Reader 

Premise: My musings here resulted in this. You're a medic in the 501st who works closely with Kix. At first you think the crush you have on him is one-sided, until one day you look through his sketchbook and are surprised by a portrait he drew.  

Word Count: ~2.2k

Rating: G

Other notes: gender neutral reader, no pronouns, no use of Y/N, no beta we die like clones 

AO3

--

Being an army medic had its ups and downs, its slower periods and bursts of intense stressful activity. You wouldn’t trade it for anything though. The pay was better than what you earned as a civilian medical worker, your patients were much more agreeable (even though there was the occasional trooper who insisted he was fighting fit when he was still far from being so) and your coworkers were professional and easy to get along with. One coworker in particular was your favorite, and you looked forward to the shifts you shared with him.

When you first met Kix, you admired him for the love and care he showed his fellow clones and commanding officers. The two of you quickly developed a rapport; he always laughed at the bad jokes you made, and you liked to challenge him to competitions to see who could restock supply shelves in the med bay the fastest … he always won, but every time you’d stick your tongue out at him and say “I’ll get you next time!” and he would only respond with a knowing smirk.

During down time, when there were no patients and paperwork was handled, Kix would sit at his desk with a leather-bound book and a pencil. It was an odd at first, seeing the rich brown leather and sheets of paper in an austerely sterile all-white setting filled with holopads and technology, but it also looked right in his hands. Without meaning to, you’d sometimes watch as he focused intensely on whatever he was scribbling into the book, brow furrowed in concentration as he worked.

“Jesse teases me and tells me I should just take pictures,” he explained one day as he showed you some drawings in his book, “but I find this relaxing.” He flipped to a sketch of a grassy plain with mountains in the background. You marveled at the details: the colors and shading on the mountains looked like sunlight glistening off their stony faces, the grass looked so realistically textured you thought it would feel like the real thing if you touched it, and he even added some wildflowers as well.

After seeing the meticulous designs he shaved into his hair, it was no surprise that Kix was an artist.

“Looks like it could be a picture,” you commented.

“Fives said something similar once, when we were down on Felucia he caught me drawing this-“ he flipped through the book to show you a drawing of a wide-trunked tree with large drooping leaves. “I just draw what I see,” he added with a shrug.

“You’re really talented though, the best I can draw is a stick figure.”

Kix cracked a small smile. “That was once the best I could do too,” he said.

The way his lips curved in his smile, the way his eyes shone as he looked at you - in that moment you realized just how beautiful he was. Sure, he was good-looking – all the clones were – but he stood out to you.

There was no use denying it, you had a crush on him.

Before there was a chance for your thoughts to betray you in any way, Kix’s comm beeped. “Duty calls,” he said, closing his sketchbook and stashing it in a drawer under his desk. He then stood up and made his way to his station, and you followed suit. Whatever was about to come into the med bay, it would keep you busy enough to distract yourself … so you hoped.

It had to be strictly professional between yourself and Kix, you reminded yourself as the first wave of injured troopers came into the medbay. Besides, given how quickly he could turn on a heel from artist to medic like that demonstrated how dedicated he was to his work, you knew he would never let anything get in the way of his duty.

--

Four rotations went by. Kix went on a mission with the rest of Torrent Company, leaving you to manage the med bay on your own during your shift. It was more of the same, really … but you thought about him more than you would care to admit. Of course, you always thought about him when he went on missions, you told yourself. Everyone worried about their coworkers, right? Especially if there was a chance they might not come back?

He always came back, you told yourself. This time wouldn’t be any different.

Only it was both more of the same and different. You were working on paperwork when the med bay doors suddenly flew open, and troopers began pouring in. As soon as you commed some off-duty medics to report to the med bay, you manned the triage station so you could tend to the more critically injured troopers first. It was hectic, a flurry of stressful activity, making sure everyone who needed a bed had one and every wound and scrape was patched up. It wasn’t until everything quieted down that you found Kix in one of the beds.

Your heart dropped into your stomach when you saw him. He was asleep, undressed from the waist up with bandages and bacta patches affixed to spots on his shoulder and the side of his head, and his lower half covered with a blanket. Nodes attached to pulse points on his inner arm connected to a machine by his bed that recorded his vital signs, and everything looked normal at first glance. His chart reported a direct blaster hit to his shoulder and a graze on his head, with an expectation of a full recovery, signed off by one of the medics you called in to help. You owed that medic big time, you thought.

A glance at the nearest chronometer revealed that your shift ended three hours ago, but you couldn’t leave. You didn’t want to leave. So you grabbed a chair and pulled it over to Kix’s bed so you could sit by him. Someone had to keep an eye on him after all. It was professional courtesy, you told yourself, that was all. Besides, even though your body ached and felt heavy with exhaustion, your mind was too active and on edge for sleep.

On the floor by his bed were his things: his armor, neatly stacked and organized, next to his medical pack. Inside his pack you found his sketchbook, and you figured you could pass the time by looking at his drawings again. You found the sketch of the plain and the mountain again and took a few more minutes to admire the detail. Then the tree on Felucia, and then a tooka cat, and when you turned the page you nearly dropped the book in surprise.

Kix had drawn you. In the picture you looked off in the distance, chin propped up on your hand. The detail was incredible: the shape of your nose, your mouth, your eyebrows, all rendered with magnificent accuracy. You wondered if he drew it from memory, or used a picture as a reference, or sketched you one day on duty when you weren’t paying attention.

It had to be a picture, you decided. What you saw before you … it was an idealized version of yourself. Better-looking than anything you ever saw in the mirror.

Before you could dwell on it any longer, you heard a weak drowsy voice calling your name. You looked up and saw that Kix had woken up, his head turned towards you and his half-lidded eyes meeting yours.

“Oh- you’re awake!” you stammered, your cheeks flushing with heat as you slammed the sketchbook shut. You sprang to your feet and came to his bedside – to tend to him as a medical professional, you reminded yourself.

“What’re you doing?” he asked.

“My job,” you answered plainly. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I got shot,” he answered glibly. “But I meant, what are you doing with that?” he nodded his head best he could and glanced to the sketchbook that was still in your hand.

“Oh-“ You froze for a second. “I- sorry, I just really like your ….” Your sentence trailed off as you saw apprehension flash across his face.

“It’s fine,” Kix murmured as he averted his gaze away from you.

“I … I saw you drew me.”

“Yeah … drew that when I was away … was missing you.”

Oh. Maybe he was crushing on you too … the idea was equal parts exciting and scary.

“Missed you too,” you returned, reaching down to give his wrist a gentle squeeze. “And it’s a really good drawing of me too. Did you use a picture for reference or something?”

“Memory,” Kix said plainly.

“Wow …” You opened up the sketchbook again to your drawing and gave it another lookover. “And you made me look better than I actually do.”

“No. I told you before, I draw what I see.”

Your mouth fell open slightly in surprise, and you looked up to meet Kix’s gaze again. Tired as he was, he looked at you with a soft admiration, as if he was appreciating a fine work of art standing directly in front of him. Your mind was both full and blank at the same time, feeling flattered and treasured but at the same time unsure of how to respond to him.

“I … I’ve been putting off telling you how I feel about you,” he continued, “because –“

“Your duty comes first, I understand,” you cut him off as you sat down on the edge of the bed, turning your torso to better face him and setting the sketchbook down by his head.  

“No, not that. Well, it has to, but – but that doesn’t mean I can’t want more out of life.” Kix paused. He raised his hand and reached it towards you. You responded by raising up your own hand, taking his in yours, and holding it in your lap. Your other hand came to rest on his wrist. He was so warm under your touch, soft and solid and steady. You knew that you would eventually have to let go, but you didn’t want to.

“My favorite part of the day is when I get to see you, whether it’s here or in passing somewhere on the ship,” he continued, “and on the battlefield after I got shot, as I was lying there, all I could think about was how I might never see you again.”

“Kix, I-“

“You don’t have to say anything,” he interrupted you. “Except, if- if after the war’s over you wanted to give it a shot? You and me?”

“Yes.” The words immediately fell from your lips as your mouth widened into a smile. You didn’t even have to think about it, and the potential consequences that the higher-ups in the GAR might inflict upon the both of you for even entertaining the idea didn’t matter. It just felt right, the idea of you and him. You couldn’t begin to explain it.

Kix returned your smile. You raised his hand to your mouth and softly kissed the back of it before lowering it back down to your lap. Before you could disentangle your hands from his, he returned that gesture as well, pulling your hand that was intertwined with his to his mouth and pressing little kisses into your knuckles. The feeling of his lips on your hand sent pleasant little tingles through your skin.

“Let’s talk about it some more after you’ve recovered,” you suggested.

“Yeah, of course,” he agreed absentmindedly. He shifted slightly in bed but suddenly stopped and froze in place, his face twisting into a pained grimace and a hiss escaping through his teeth.

“You okay?” You asked, pulling your hand back to you and scanning his body for any other signs of distress.

“Yeah, just hurts is all.”

“Let me get you some painkillers.”

“No need, I’ve dealt with worse.”

“Kix, I insist.” You told him in the sternest voice you could muster.

“I have the right to refuse treatment, especially if the treatment is better spent on my brothers who are in worse shape than I am.”

He was right, he did have the right to refuse treatment. But you couldn’t bear the idea of him being in pain.

“Okay … how about a sleeping aid then? Or some water? Can I get you anything?”

“If you want to do something for me, go get some rest. I’ll still be here when you report for your next shift.”

“Ugh, fine. You drive a hard bargain.”

“Ah come on, you know you love me.” Kix said teasingly, punctuating his statement with a smirk and a mischievous gleam in his eye.

Giving him a small laugh and a half-hearted eye roll, you pushed yourself up onto your feet. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

Before you turned to leave, you took his hand in yours again, and took a moment to gaze in his eyes. It took everything in you to not immediately start imagining a life with him after the war. There wasn’t even any guarantee there was going to be a life after the war – the cruiser you were on might be destroyed tomorrow by the Separatists for all you knew – but the idea still filled you with hope and joy. Something to look forward to with him. Something else to fight for.

[stardust-wanderlust]

Hey Hey!

So I saw a conversation that was inflicted on poor @akookminsupporter, and while that conversation devolved quickly into finger pointing non-sense, it did bring up a topic that I have actually thought about in some detail --- the various types of relationships that each member has with each other.  And rather than get involved in the existing conversation, as I had no desire to bring to light more of that non-sense I talked about, I thought I would just give my opinions all by my lonesome.

This post will be about Jimin and his relationships with each member, I may post the other members at a later timer.

Now before we get started, let me preface this with a couple things.  I am a “baby Army” and only came to this delightful group of crack heads this past summer.  But I am also an adult (certified-with a mortgage and everything) and I try to be objective and logical in my observations of the world.  This means, that though I am a KookMin/JiKook supporter I am also OT7, because those aren’t mutually exclusive. It also means who rode in what car has no bearings on my interpretation of any relationship.

Before we get started under the cut, please note these are my opinions based on my observations.  Clearly I don’t know them.

Jin (JinMin?) - The relationship between Jin and Jimin is lovely, these two seem to have a close brotherly bond.  They appear to have a similar sense of humor (Jimin is often the only one that laughs at Jin’s jokes) but also a enjoy a light teasing.  They seem very brotherly, in the traditional sense.  They care for each other deeply (this will be a recurring theme because BTS love each other).

Yoongi (YoonMin) - Yoongi and Jimin also have a very brotherly vibe, their banter and bickering scream sibling to me.  I think they are very much in the “I can talk shit about him because I love him, but anybody else tries and we are throwing hands” camp.  That being said, they seem to understand (Yoongi in particular) that sometimes the other needs to hear they are loved and respected.  I also think that Jimin provides some comforting support, I think he knows that Yoongi often needs to have quiet companionship.  This is different from the more playful big brother that Jin is.

Namjoon (MiniMoni) - Namjoon and Jimin seem to have a very equal and balanced relationship. They show great respect and admiration for each other and appear to have a very comfortable relationship.  I think they provide each other with intellectual stimulation and a sounding board for their problems, but also their joys and questions about the universe.  They are very chill, but very close.

Hobi (JiHope) - I love Hobi and Jimin’s relationship!  I think they are underrated as a pair.  They have very similar personalities and seem to agree on most things.  They enjoy giving joy to others.  They are precious.  They also have real admiration and respect for each other.  I saw someone comment once that when “Dance Teacher” JHope comes out he goes easy on Jimin, I don’t think it is so much as going easy on him as him recognizing that whatever mistake he saw Jimin saw as well and was likely already working to correct it.  This shows a real trust in Jimin and his process and an understanding that it may differ from Hobi’s.

Taehyung (VMin) - Fun fact, a VMin fanfic is what introduced me to BTS!  VMin are soulmates, they have stated as much.  They have an intrinsic understanding of each other, they relate to each other on very deep level.  I think much of the confusion here is pop culture’s insistence that soulmates = romance.  I think this is wrong, while a romantic soulmate is very special, I think they are very rare.  But it is far more common to find a platonic soulmate.  A person that just gets you.  This is VMin.  I prefer to think of them as Kindred Spirits.  Kindred Spirits are soulmates, but the connotation is different.  You can have more than one Kindred Spirit for example.  A Kindred Spirit is somebody who connects with you on a higher level, a level that allows your spirits to soar together.

And now ...

JungKook (KookMin) - I absolutely believe that JungKook and Jimin are closest with each other.  And I believe this because I believe their foundational friendship, which was already very strong with many shared interests and passions, deepened into a romantic relationship. Though I am open to being wrong, and just want them happy whether it is with each other or someone else.  Jimin thinks of JungKook first, in almost all things.  And I think JungKook does the same.  They are constantly impressed by the other, and always supportive.  They encourage both artistic expression and individual passions in each other.  I love them.

I have said before that I think one of my favorite Grey’s Anatomy quotes reflect the dynamic between JungKook, Jimin, and Taehyung. Meredith tells Derek “You are the love of my life, but Christina is my soulmate.”  In this analogy Meredith = Jimin, Derek = JungKook, and Taehyung = Christina.

But at the end of the day BTS is 7, and the seven have a deep respect and love for each other.  And I hope they continue for at least a couple more decades.

[mr-walkingrainbow]

battle for abimel? i want a power showdown.

BATTLE FIGHT WITH POWER SHUT DOWN HERE WE GO!!

Basically OverWitch + I guess the rest of the charmed ones, face the new demon of the day, the Cancellor, which nullifies any power thrown at them.

They have to really think hard to figure this one out.

But like, mainly gay OverWitch.

“Ugh,” Macy groaned audibly for the fourth time in the past two minutes, “What’s taking her so long!”

“Ok could you tone down the whine today?” Mel replied exasperatingly, “It’s not like Abby lives next door. And she can’t orb like Harry. It takes time to get here.”

“Yeah and by the time she does the DotD will be long gone!” She stated in annoyance.

Maggie rolled her eyes, “I think the demon of the day can wait for a few minutes. I doubt their in a rush for a Appointment at the nail salon.”

The eldest huffed, “Yeah but Abbys just taking forever!”

“You rang?”

Everyone turned to the source of the voice, which oddly, seemed to be nix.

But more understandingly, smoke started to swirl, practically a mini tornado, until it took the form of Mels beloved.

“Abby!” The Latina cheered, running over and giving her girlfriend a hug.

“Hello lovely,” Abigael grinned, before smirking in Macy’s direction, “Now what’s this about me being slow? Shall I remind you how long it took you and Witchbanger to actually bang?”

Macy made a squawk of protest, while Harry looked on in mute surprise.

“Witchbangers new.” He commented, although Mel couldn’t tell if he was annoyed or curious.

Abby gestured towards him with a flourish, then nodded towards Macy, “Well, this pile of nerves is Whitebanger, only fitting we have the other half.”

Harry seemed to nod in numb acceptance, before turning back to the gadget in his hands.

“Now that we’re all here, I introduce, the Cancellor !” He waved his arms dramatically for the reveal, the gadget projecting a hologram of a dark woman in a white suit.

Maggie stared blankly, “the counselor?”

Harry looked a bit miffed, “No, the Cancellor.”

Macy tilted her head, “The chancellor?”

“NO, lovely, the CANCELLOR.”

Mel narrowed her eyes, “Cancer?”

Harry gasped for breath, “-wha- how?? It’s the CAN-CELL-OR.”

Abigael smirked, snickering lightly, “Oh Harold, why didn’t you just say so?”

Everyone offered nods of agreement while Harry sputtered for words.

Macy graciously took this time to step forward.

“As my dear was beginning to, ahem, say?” She broke off to give the sputtering whitelighter a concerned look, “This is apparently, in fact, the Cancellor. They have the power to nullify or ‘Cancel’ any powers used against it.”

“Oh but who needs powers when your in the middle of fighting a bloodthirsty demon!” Abby snarked typically.

Mel would normally scold her for such a comment, but found herself cracking a smile at the humor of it.

Macy looked annoyed, but shrugged it off, “As I was saying, something good to note, the Cancellor takes the form of whatever it nullified last, so it might not look like this. That’s just the last recorded form.”

She gestured to the regal woman in white. To which Abby purred delightfully.

“At least it’s last participant knew how to dress well.”

Mel shot her a glare, giving her a slap to the arm.

“What?!” The Britt squeaked. She just rolled her eyes in response.

“Aww,” Abby cooed, wrapping her arms around Mels smaller frame, “Is someone jealous of a power taking, identity stealing demon of the day?”

The Latina grumbled a bit, embarrassed of the blush that had indeed made its way across her face.

“No.”

“Oh I think you are.” The later whispered, “But don’t worry my love, no matter how amazingly dressed someone is, they cant even manage to come close to your overall beauty.”

Mel blushed again, this time for an entirely different reason. And a bit bashfully, she turned and gave Abby a chaste kiss.

“I hate you.” She stated grumpily.

“Love you too grumpy.”

“Ladies,” everyone turned to harry, who had finally recuperated, holding an Orb, “Will you generously accompany me to fight a fashionable identity stealer?”

“Oh Harold,” Abby sashayed forward dramatically, “I thought you’d never ask!”

Macy growled jealously while Mel shared a secret laugh with Maggie. The two of them had slowly found Abbys wit more humorous then insulting.

Harry threw the orb, the Group proceeding to jump through it into a wide circular stone covered room.

“Where are we?” Maggie questioned, peering around, their seemingly was only one entrance, a small archway carved into the surrounding rock. Leading into another room.

“We’re in the Cancellors Lair, that ark leads to the cancellor.” Harry answered informatively.

Mel was confused, however, “If so, how do people get in?”

“I think I have the answer to that.”

Everyone turned to Macy, who was staring at the ceiling. They followed pursuit, only to find their room was not really a room, but the bottom of a very deep pit.

“What a treacherous trap.” Abby seethed respectively, if possible, “Some loner demon falls down the pit. And if they survive. The Cancellor can steal their powers and harvest their body.”

“No… no that can’t be?” The youngest stated sadly, ever the empath, “Some have to escape. What about the innocent humans who fall?”

“I guess some could escape,” Abigael reasoned blatantly. If they realized where they were before the Cancellor found them. They would have to have some type of powers that could propel them upwards, like smoke phasing. Because no lucky Jim could climb these walls. Their smooth as stone.”

She wasn’t wrong, Mel found herself absentmindedly feeling the slick walls with her hand.

Someone tapped her shoulder, and she turned to see her girlfriend smiling at her bashully, and hand held out.

“Head in the Clouds my love?”

“Yeah,” the Latina grinned, taking the britts hand, “Thanks for always finding me.”

“Oh why of course!” The hybrid proclaimed, “What else is a loving girlfriend supposed to do?”

“Oh you know, fight demons, slay monsters, make out from time to time.” She monologued coyly.

-“while I’d love to hear this agonizing conversation,” Macy interrupted, “We have a demon destroy.”

Both of them rolled their eyes, but gladly shared secret smiles.

The ragtag group of magical beings entered the room. Nearly immersed in pitch darkness.

Mel felt Abby take her hand, and she tried to send soothing vibes, squeezing it to show she understood.

Abigael wasn’t a fan of the dark, it wasn’t cause she was afraid of it specifically, moreover, it reminded her of being locked in the crate. And mentioned it made her feel quite claustrophobic.

A lot of her fears spiraled from the singular subject of her childhood. It didn’t make them any less valid, however.

“Macy.” Mel whispered in the dark, “A light please?”

“Since when are you afraid of- oh.”

Her sister caught on, a tad second too late. But thankfully, mentioned nothing when the room was engulfed in flames. Just sending Mel a understanding nod.

Abby may get on Macy’s nerves, but she truly did care about her overall well-being.

“Oh thank you Lovely, now we can see where the Cancellors coming from.” Harry commented, subtly driving attention away from Abigael.

The Latina still could see the flush on her girlfriends face. And squeezed her hand again. Trying to say it was ok through touch.

Annoyingly, even with Macy’s flame, the room was not very bright. And from what Mel could see, it was another circular room, but with a domed ceiling, and vine-snaked walls.

Everyone sorta teetered around, peering closely at the cylinder wall, some parts holding ritualistic type carvings underneath the vines.

“How interesting.” Abby mused lightly, tracing a line finger in the indentions.

Mel winced slightly, as the light behind her got abruptly brighter.

“Hey Mace, good job with the light! Didn’t know you were practicing.”

“Mel…” Macy’s voice sounded nervous and halted, “Mel that isn’t me.”

“What do you mean who else would it-“

She cut off, as everyone turned to the center of the room.

Somehow, submerged in the darkness, a middle platform was completely unseen.

But now, from a spotlight coming from nowhere, it was illuminated in a ghostly, nearly theatrical glow.

And on top of that platform, posing dramatically, was the Cancellor.

Maggie scrunched her nose, “Wait… is that-“

-“LIL NAS X?!?” Mel exclaimed abnormally loud.

Her brain was completely shot. How could this be possible. This shouldn’t be. It couldn’t be.

But yet, it was, no one else rocked Red dreads, tiny black & white boxers, and thigh high leather boots then the number 1 black gay pop artist.

Macy looked thoroughly confused, “Who..? And are you sure that’s him?”

“I thought he looked familiar.” Maggie mumbled to herself.

Harry’s eyes were bugging out of his head, caught between staring and trying to give the Cancellor some privacy. The bulge in his CK boxers leaving nothing to imagination.

“No that’s definitely him,” Abby purred, practically hypnotized, “No one wears those raunchy underwear but him.”

Mel blushed jealously, “He’s gay Abby. As in into penis.”

Abigael jerked her head, trance broken as she gazed at her pouting girlfriend.

“Aww,” she cooed once again, leaning in close, “Is someone jealous of a LilNausex clone?”

The lesbian flushed, hating how adorable Abbys mispronunciation of his name sounded in her accent.

“It’s Lil Nas X.” She stated huffily.

Abby frowned, just a tad, “Oh come on Lovely.”

“Don’t lovely me!” Mel denied stubbornly.

It was a bit childish, yes, but right now the Demon straddling a chair from literally nowhere was undeniably hot for the Men lovers in the room. And she was green with envy.

“Oh you should know by now,” Abby whispered, her tone seductive and lovely, “Your the only one I want to see in those flamboyant boxers.”

Mel hated how much she was turned on right now.

“Also,” her girlfriends voice was now soft, “No matter how much I may ogle or tease, you really are my one and only love.”

Ok, now she could love her again.

“I hate you.”

“Love you too.”

“Not to break up this repetitive conversation,” Macy once again interrupted, “But how is ‘Lil Nas X’ in the room?”

“Yeah,” Harry piped up finally, “He’s human. And it’s not like he’s killed and stolen the crown, and powers of some random leader.”

“OH MY GOD.” Mel screeched, going straight back to mortified.

“I THOUGHT THAT WAS JUST IN THE VIDEO!?”

Everyone turned to her for an explanation, while she blushed from the heavy gaze, and sexual nature of the rationale.

“I-In his recent music video,” she whispered meekly, “he kills satan and steals his power.”

Her blushed increased dramatically at the implication.

“Not that I’ve watched it or something.”

“Don’t worry darling,” Abby whispered with a devilish attitude, “I’ve watched it plenty enough for the both of us.”

“Basically he stripper poles his way down to hell, does a Lap dance for Satan himself, and then proceeds to kill him in the middle of the throws of it. Ergo stealing his crown. And then his powers. We avid fans all assumed it was apart of gay pride and acceptance and sticking it to the homophobes. Turns out it’s that, and becoming all powerful.”

True to their personality. Mel loves what Abby says, Maggie nods appreciatively and nonchalantly, while Macy and Harry look seconds away from dying of pure awkwardness.

“Um, why isn’t he saying anything?” Maggie points out. The sexy demon staring at them all unblinkingly, thoroughly creeping them out.

“Maybe the voices doesn’t carry when he takes the form?” Macy suggests, “So he tries to hide it by not talking? False sense of security?”

Lil N’as Cloné then opened his mouth, revealing a large jagged set of teeth, jaw unhinging slightly.

“Or!” Maggie says with a state of panic, “He was just waiting to eat us alive!”

The demon crouches low, nearly spider like. Swaying from side to side.

“Ladies! Backs to the wall!” Harry announces, “And make sure to show some type of power, we don’t know how long the transformation takes, so we need to keep track on who still possesses them.”

Mel needs no second affirmation, grabbing Abbys wrist and yanking her back.

“Mel?” She looks outraged, “We need to fight it!”

“Yeah we’ll I can’t fight it if your powers are stolen and need someone to protect you!”

Abigael huffs, “I can take care of myself Melanie. See?”

She holds her hand up as if to summon a flame.

Head jerking when none appears.

Her expression changes to one filled with fear and confusion, “Bloody hell??”

Abby continued to unsuccessfully summon a flame, hand whirring to a blur.

“Mel!” She exclaimed in a frenzy, “Mel, it’s not working, why isn’t it working? To hell with this!”

“Hey! Hey,” the Latina soothed, rushing to place a hand on her arm in a calming motion, “Carino it’s ok. Don’t panic. The lil n’as dude just took your powers assumingly.”

“Are you sure?!?”

It seemed kinda like a controversial question to ask; considering she couldn’t activate her fire powers, but Mel understood it was from fear rather then logic.

“Well, try to smoke phase.”

Abby nodded tentatively. Raising her hands once again.

The very tips of her fingers produced ashy whisps, but aside from that, their was nothing.

“Your smoking.” Maggie unhelpfully stated, as she edged towards them.

“Why thank you Captain obvious!” Abby snarked bitterly.

The brunette looked concerned, glancing at the Latina instead, “Mel, what’s wrong?”

Abby was outraged, “Mel?! I am RIGHT HERE y’a know, if your just gonna stand their like a blathering idiot you might as well-“

-“She’s been cancelled,” Mel interrupted blatantly, witch just a tad of irritation at her raving girlfriend, “Her powers aren’t working and she’s lashing out.”

Maggie shrugged, “Naturally.”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN NATURALLY?! I have a RIGHT to be upset I-“

-“So you sure their fully gone?” Her sister continued, “I never saw the Cancellor do anything? And he still looks like Lil N’as!”

Mel turned back to the center, brows furrowing at the now empty stage.

“Where’d he go?”

The dead silence, and lack of demon, filled the room with an eerie unsettling vibe.

“Mel, I don’t like this.” The empath warned.

She didn’t either.

“MACY!” The Latina called out, “WHERED HE GO?”

Macy looked just as panicked, probably even more, “I DONT KNOW! HE WAS JUST HERE?!”

“Oh for gods sake! We should rejoice for all I care! I’m the one with my powers gone and if you would STOP bloody ignoring me id-“

Mel whirled around, placing one finger in front of Abbys lips, the other hand firmly around her waist.

“Abby. I love you. I know your freaking out right now. But please, can you refrain from ranting till we leave?”

Abbys eyes were both murderous and loving, and softly, Mel kissed her until it changed to a lightly irritated.

“Better?” She puffed quietly.

The Britt nodded silently, blushing lightly at the affection showed.

Mel scrunched her eyebrows, briefly seeing the abrupt look of horror sweep it’s way across her girlfriends face.

“What’s wr-“

-“MEL LOOK OUT!”

Abby had shoved her aside roughly, the witch groaning as she hit the ground, but enough adrenaline rushing through to allow her to roll to her elbows.

She glanced up, Just in time to see a dark shadow drag Abigail to the the darkest parts of the room.

“ABBY!” She screamed, arm outreached and terror in her eyes.

“MACY!” Mel barked, “MORE LIGHT.”

Her sister didn’t have to be told twice, “ON IT!”

Immediately, the softly glow from Macy’s flame turned into a raging fire, illuminating all that it could without burning something.

Dead silence followed.

Maggie gasped, “Oh no.”

Standing before them, with the shadows gone and dust settled, was two identical Abigael Jameson-Caines. Each with matching clothes and injuries.

“By all things science.” Macy blanched.

“The Cancellor has taken Abbys form!” Harry informed quickly, “Ready yourself for an attack from either one.”

Mel rose to her feet on shaky limbs, reading an icicle from the air particles around her.

“Alright,” her voice was steady, although she wasn’t calm in the slightest, “One of you is the hot pain in my ass who I love dearly. And the other is a cannibalistic identity stealer. So. Who’s who.”

Immediately both of them rushed to ensure her trust, voices perfectly identical.

“I’m the real Abby!” The one on the right said.

“No!” Lefty said, “Don’t listen to them I’m the real Abby!”

[Authors note - Right side Abby will be in bold.

Left side Abby is in Italics.]

“Their perfectly identical,” Macy stressed, “How are we gonna tell them apart?!”

“Their must be a logical way to solve this.” Harry muttered under his breath.

“Come on guys, really?” Maggie shot them a glare, Mel seemed to catch on, “It’s easy really.”

“We quiz them.”

After a quick group huddle, and their bearings regain, they were ready to give a life or death quiz.

“Alright Abby clones,” Maggie narrated, “We’ve each prepared a question, something only the real Abby should know. Based on your answers, we will decide if your truthful or not.”

“Great just don’t dose me with truth serum while your at it.” Both Abbys snarked in complete unison, before shooting matching scowls at the other.

Maggie looked drastically discouraged but the display, voice wavering.

“U-uh, um, y-yes. Questions. H-Harry your up.”

The man walked up a few feet, nervously wiping his palms against his button up.

“Alright, ladies,” he gave his habitual gentlemen nod to the two of them, “When one of you invited me over for dinner, what was the main course?”

“Duck!” Righty said immediately. Grinning proudly.

“Hey! That one was too easy!” Lefty argued, “Duck is the best meat for a date! Everyone knows that! Not to mention I gave Harold a massage beforehand.”

“Of course it’s the best! What else would you eat, bloody chicken like an uncultured heathen?!”

Righty paused to glance at Harry, “Uh, I get the point for that one right?”

Harry looked overwhelmed, panic evident on his face.

“Uh, um. Undecided!” He then quickly scampered to the back of the pack, face flushed while doing so.

“Completely identical.” The Whitelighter whispered to no one.

Macy shrugged, “Guess I’m up.”

She approached the twins glancing at either with an impassive face.

“Let’s see, what’s Abbys favorite nickname for me?”

“Whitebanger.” The two answer in synchronized perfection. Shooting yet another glare at each other.

Macy looked tired, pinching the bridge of her nose, “Of course that one was too easy. Any Abby could apparently answer that in her sleep. Let me think of a harder question.”

It wasn’t long before her poker face soon returned. Leveling them up once again.

“When You fake poisoned yourself, what was that one question that was actually subserviently a dig on me?”

“To spoon!” Left jolted, “I asked you to spoon!”

“Actually! I asked her if she was the big spoon or little spoon.”

“Well excuse me for messing up one tiny detail! At least I got the spoon part before you!” Left rolled her eyesz

“Well mine was actually accurate, so yours doesn’t count!”

“Yeah it does!”

“Does not!” Right argued.

“ENOUGH!”

Macy had both hands out, face strained, “You two need to stop arguing so I can think!”

The clones shut up, as she stormed back towards the group, shaking her head.

“They share a freaking mind.” The eldest stated bitterly.

A few minutes passed as they waited for Maggie to step up. Who looked severely intimidated by the task at hand.

Mel coughed, “Maggie it’s-“

“I KNOW!” The Latina shrieked, “GIVE ME A SECOND!”

“Okayyy!”

The youngest took a couple very hesitant feet forward.

“Hello!” She waved awkwardly, “I’m Maggie -wait ugh, Abby already knows that of course! Gosh stop talking to yourself and think of a damn question!”

She bit her lip nervously, looking at them with a fearful expression.

“Ok, um. Let’s see. What’s some things Abby likes to do?”

“Oh that’s easy, Alcohol, Mel, making Macymorts life miserable!” Righty laughed to herself.

Mel ignored the fierce blush that rose to her face at the implication.

“But that’s easy,” Lefty sneered meanly, “I like to do many things, all which someone could easily guess.”

“Pray tell, tell me how you could ‘guess’ I like those things?”

“Well I-“

-“Ok!” Maggie squeaked, “Another question then!”

She then proceeded to flounder for a few moments. Hands waving rapidly in anxiety.

“Um, ok then. Who’d you save my life from?”

“My brother.”

“My half-brother, Parker.”

The answers seemed to be the same, yet lefty seemed to be happy with how specific she was.

Maggie, however, had paused. Eyes narrowed at the two, caught in a thought.

“Maggie?” Mel whispered, “What did you see?”

The Brunette jolted, plastering a fake smile on her face, “Oh nothing! Just a trick of the light!”

Mel grabbed her arm once she returned closer to the group, “Pfft, trick of the light my ass, you saw something? What was it?”

��I honestly don’t know,” her eyebrows were furrowed in concentration, “It was something about how they said it. They said the some thing, yet one sounded right, and the other wrong?”

“But how is that possible?” Macy interject lowly, ever the logical person.

“I don’t know!” Maggie whined, arms flailing, “It just was!”

“We’ll don’t stress,” Mel soothed, “We definitely have something by now from other questions.”

“We definitely, do not, have something from any of these questions.” Harry muttered a few minutes later in a group huddle.

“Maggie,” he glanced at the youngest, “Were you able to get anything, you know, empath wise?”

Her gaze snapped to his, a bit of fire in her pupils, “Don’t you think I would have said something if I did?! It’s hard enough that their identical, but their emotions are too! The Cancellor apparently has the ability to copy someone completely! They know everything about the other, because they know it themselves!”

Mel gasped, realization hitting her in a flash, “Oh my god Mags, that’s it!”

Maggie looked confused, as did the rest of them, “What’s it? What did I say?”

“I can’t be something Abby already knows,” she explained carefully, in a deep whisper, “If it’s something she already knows, the Cancellor can immediately pick up on it. He has a copy of all her memories! It’s gotta be something she doesn’t know, or, Moreover, something we know that can get a honest reaction she doesn’t know she makes.”

“But that’s practically impossible!”

“Don’t say that Macy, it’s not impossible if your the girlfriend of Abigael Jameson-Caine!”

Mel pulled from the group, walking up to the two with a confident swagger.

Both, of course, seemed a bit taken aback by her bold demeanor.

“Ok Siamese freak from hell,” she grinned, cracking her knuckles, “Your in my court now, It’s my turn to ask the questions.”

“One of you is the woman I love, and the fact she’s currently having to take a quiz for her life is sickening, so that stokes the fire of hate I have for whoever is causing this. And once I find out who is it, I promise you will regret ever messing with us, and mi Cariño!”

Mel let her monologue be a distraction, gradually advancing forward as she spoke. Until she was directly in front of them.

“Now, it’s time for your final question.”

She stared them in their chocolate orbs, lingering over the right one. Mel couldn’t understand it, but she felt as if the righty was the true Abby. Even with no proof. Their was just something in her eyes.

“Can you kindly hold you hands like this?”

The Latina then proceeded to hold one hand up, baring the wrist, the other slightly bellow, pressing on a very specific patch of skin.

The two were confused, both tilting their heads to the side slightly, in a way Abby would commonly do when she was thinking.

Mel let her hands drop to her sides, watching like a hawk as the complied. She could feel the groups eyes on her, and was desperately praying that this worked.

A few seconds passed. Nothing happened. Perfectly identical.

Then, it happened. The Abby on the right legs swiftly crumpled.

Mel rushed in, and in one move, caught Abby with one arm. The other, which had been hidden from sight, stabbing the duplicate with a quickly formed air icicle.

The demon gave a feral screech from the weapon embedded in its chest, clawing at it weakly.

The group watched in awe as it switched between numerous forms, one which of was lil n’as, the others it’s countless victims.

“How?” It gasped hoarsely, “I’m completely identical.”

“That’s where your wrong!” Mel smiled proudly, “You see, in a way, you were identical. You knew everything Abby did because you could copy her mind! But what about something she didn’t even know of? Like the fact that from years of being put in shock cuffs consequently damaged the nerve in her right wrist? That when pressed, would cause her to pass out?”

“But how?” It wailed, “She would have known!”

“Except she didn’t!” The Latina cradled the unconscious body gently, kissing Abbys crown lightly, “I only found out by accident. And she didn’t remember a thing about it when waking up. I didn’t want to worry her, so I just stayed quiet. I soon understood why it happened due to her trial. But as a demon who can only copy what the person knows, you wouldn’t have.”

The creature let out a few more pitiful whines before crumpling to ash and dust.

“MEL!” Maggie shrieked in happiness, giving her a gigantic hug, “That was AMAZING! How did you figure it out?!”

“Just by what you said,” she answered honestly,” Their emotions were the same, and physically they were too. But the body is an amazing thing, and it does many things were not even aware of!”

“That is factually correct!” Macy complimented with a smile.

“I suppose this calls for a celebration when we get home, err, when do you think she’ll wake up?” Harry gestured to the peacefully resting girl.

The lesbian grinned softly, “Oh, any moment now. It only knocks her out for a minute or two.”

“Oh!” Maggie perked up, “I just remembered what I noticed about her response!”

Everyone stared with great interest.

The youngest smiled, “Abby called Parker ‘Brother’. Even though he’s only half related, she always adressed him as her brother. I guess the clone thought we wanted more specific.”

“She truly is just that amazing.” Mel noted warmly, lips parting when she felt Abby starting to stir.

The group took this as their key to leave, telling Mel to meet them back in the other room.

She nodded, expression soft when Abigaels eyes fluttered open.

“W-what happened? D-id we do it? Is it gone?”

“Gone Cariño,” Mel cooed, smoothing the stray hairs off her face and stroking her forehead just the way she liked, “All thanks to you my love.”

“Me?” Abigael questioned, “What did I do? All I remember is, ugh, I have a killer headache, I just remember doing some weird hand signs and then darkness?”

“Oh my love, you were yourself! Undeniably, and amazingly yourself. And no Lil N’as, fancy identity stealer could ever imitate you perfectly. For theirs only one of you. And for that, I am greatful.”

“Why?” Abby arched an eyebrow, smiling erotically, “Because I’m too hot to handle?”

Mel scoffed, chuckling despite herself, nearly dropping her girlfriend in the process.

“More like because i can barely tolerate one of your personality!”

The Britt pouted slightly, “Your mean.”

“Oh am I?” She leaned in and kissed her pouty lips, “No but actually? It’s because I’m reminded to never take you for granted. I only get one of you. And it be the worst mistake of my life to waste it.”

Abbys lips turned to a fond smile, “And their you go again, making me feel things and generally be a better happier person.”

“Oh the audacity of myself!” The witch smirked.

“Ugh, I hate you!”

She grinned, “Love you too.”

[taeescript]

VI. Script of the Angel

𝔰𝔶𝔫𝔬𝔭𝔰𝔦𝔰 >> This is the story of three very different people. A successful novelist, a blossoming artist and a dedicated cop. They seem to have nothing in common. Yet, they are continually drawn to each other. It is as if their fates have been intertwined. Written. That they must meet.

𝔭𝔞𝔦𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔤𝔰 >> ft. jungkook and jimin primarily.

𝔤𝔢𝔫𝔯𝔢 >> policeman!jimin, author!jungkook, painter!reader, serialkiller!XXX; a classic game of cat and mouse

𝔴/𝔠 >> 2.3k

𝔴𝔞𝔯𝔫𝔦𝔫𝔤𝔰 >> mature themes depicted. due to the explicit nature of the topic (serial killers, murders, violence, sexual content, infidelity etc.) this is rated 18+. to spare storytelling: please consider yourself warned.

𝔞/𝔫 >> there is a lot going on tumblr these days, and a lot of things just going on in life right now. i still hope to continue to share chapters with you although they may all be a little shorter than usual now. nontheless, i hope you enjoy (: 

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Wax – a diverse class of organic compounds which are hydrophobic, malleable solids at ambient temperatures. Typically containing melting points above at 40 C, they are obtained from multiple resources such as animals or plants. Wax can also be extracted chemically in petroleum. There are many uses for wax such as the manufacture of candles, final coatings on wood products and thickening agents amongst others. One of the most popular artistic use of waxes is the creation of statues from Madame Tussauds.

“Another what?” Jimin asks when he is dragged out of the interrogation room again by Namjoon.

“Dispatch just gave me a call. They want the homicide team on site because…well, you know the reason each and every time we’re called into site,” Namjoon runs his hand through his hair. The news had come as a shock to him as well. “You’ll have to release him, Jimin.”

Jimin shakes his head. “No, Namjoon. I was in the middle of something with him.”

“Jimin, be reasonable here! There’s another murder that’s been committed while you were here questioning him. It’s quite obvious that he couldn’t have killed this person.”

“I’m so close to cracking him!” Jimin yells in frustration. “Beside, how do you know he hadn’t gone and done this before he came in?”

Namjoon has to bite back his words.

“Fuck!” Jimin kicks the door. He doesn’t care that Jungkook could hear how angry he is on the other side. There really isn’t anything to hide between the two of them anyways.

After a minute, Jimin has calmed down. “I’ll meet you on site,” he says to Namjoon.

Namjoon doesn’t leave.

“Look, I promise, alright? I’m just going to send Jungkook off properly and then I’ll drive straight to the site. Text me the address,” Jimin says.

He only has one choice so Namjoon nods and leaves.

Once Jimin is left alone in the room, he punches the air blindly.

Jungkook sits calmly inside the room. It seems that luck is on his side. Perhaps whatever this case was would have Jimin off his back. It would be a little hard to continue any of his extracurricular activities if Jimin continuously monitors all his actions.

“You’re free to go, Mr. Jeon,” Jimin opens the door and speaks without looking at Jungkook.

Jungkook raises his hand and the handcuffs that link him to the table clang as metal hits metal.

Jimin walks up to him and opens the lock. Jungkook rubs his wrists and picks up his jacket on the way out.

“I really do hope you catch the killer, Detective Park,” Jungkook gives a light pat on Jimin’s shoulder.

...

Jimin recognizes her when he brushes under the caution tape onto where the rest of his team stands in a circle. It is not so much that he recognizes her facial features, but it is the outfit she is wearing. The same black and blue leggings.

“Fuck me,” Namjoon says the instance Jimin slides up besides him, “Fucking bat shitting balls.”

Yoongi has one hand placed over his mouth and his index finger pressing against his nostrils. There is a strange smell emitting off the corpse.

“A missing body part, again?” Jimin says. He swallows the bile that threatens to rise. The forensics team does not need to tell him what part is missing this time. It is glaringly obvious to the observer.

Replacing where it usually sits on the body is the head of another species – a buck’s crown with antlers and all. The girl is still standing although it is clear that she is deceased. Her body had been manipulated such that it looked like she was mid-sprint before being shocked by her attacker. She was a live manifestation of a deer caught in headlights.

“Let’s see if we can move her; bring her back to the lab for analysis,” Namjoon barks an order at the forensics team. They nod and move towards the body. Right as they put their hands on her, a loud voice yells,

“Don’t!”

It is too late, however. The team has already lifted her an inch off the floor. At his shout, they drop her immediately and that is when she crumbles, literally, at their feet. Jimin stands as her foot rolls in front of him. He stares at the shoe and foot that has been broken off at the ankle.

“Fuck!” Namjoon exclaims in alarm, jumping back.

Taehyung stands with his arms at his side, defeated. “You shouldn’t have tried to move her,” he mutters.

Namjoon’s face conveys both astonishment and confusion as stalks away to find somebody who could clean the body parts and move them back to the lab.

Jimin carefully tiptoes around the fragments of her body and walks up to Taehyung. “What the hell just happened?” he demands.

Besides being the team’s blood spatter analyst, he was an expert on a multitude of other subjects. “You saw how her body was positioned, didn’t you? Usually, victims are sprawled on the ground because gravity pushes on them, and their muscles have collapsed. She was standing. Something is keeping her muscles rigid post mortem,” Taehyung explains.

“Kim!” someone calls amidst the rubble. The victim’s body had been broken at most of the joints and a gathered team was currently packing each section in a bag.

Both Taehyung and Jimin walk up to the jacketed individual who had called out. She is bent over what looks like the forearm. A brown, semi-clear substance is pooling around the limb.

“This started seeping out all of a sudden. It’s happening to a couple of the broken parts, although most of the liquid is contained in the bags that we have stored them in,” she tells the two of them.

Taehyung bends down to examine the liquid. He is wearing gloves and when he extracts his fingers from the surface of the substance, it is slightly sticky between his index finger and thumb. He wipes his hand on a piece of tissue before slipping that into the bag as well. “Take that and all the parts back to the lab. If you can get a vial of the liquid to analyze, that would be helpful as well,” Taehyung told the assistant. She nods.

As the scene is being cleared, Taehyung walks back to the patrol car with Jimin. “What are you thinking about?” Jimin inquires, seeing that the gears inside Taehyung’s head are turning.

“Tell me, what’s the temperature right now?” Taehyung asks.

Jimin checks his phone and reports, “20 C, but with sunshine it should feel like 24 C.”

Taehyung takes note. “Slightly above room temperature,” he mumbles.

“What was that?”

“Slightly above room temperature,” Taehyung repeats louder. He stops walking and faces Jimin. “I’ve got a theory on what that is, but I can’t be sure yet. I’m going back to the lab and once results are out, I will call you immediately.”

Jimin nods. “I wanted to take a look around the site anyways. I’ll see you back at the station.”

Taehyung waves before leaving.

By the time Jimin returns to the crime scene, the majority of broken body parts have been cleaned. There is only a lone photographer who is packing up his camera into his bag. He greets Jimin with a slight bow on his way to leave the site.

“Any witnesses?”

Namjoon returns by his side. He shakes his head, answering Jimin’s question himself. “This is not a common runner’s route. It’s a short cut from the left side of the park to the right so not a lot of pedestrians know about it.” He sees how Jimin is still standing there with an unreadable expression on his face. “Are you okay?” he asks Jimin directly.

Jimin taps the bridge of his nose. “I know that girl,” he says softly, “Not personally. But I bumped into her before. It was at the park near our station. I also saw – ” His sentence is suddenly cut off.

“Saw what?” Namjoon asks further.

Jimin cannot continue his sentence. He knows what Namjoon will say already. Besides, if he really wanted concrete evidence against Jungkook, he must absolutely make sure that Jungkook was there at the park when the running girl was there. “Saw a red bird. I think it’s called a cardinal,” Jimin lousily finishes his sentence.

Namjoon gives him a strange look. “I’ve never pegged you as a bird watcher,” he comments.

Jimin shrugs. “I’m heading back to the station. Taehyung also says he has something on the possible C.O.D.,” he reports to Namjoon.

“You’re leaving me again to handle the crowd? That happened last time with Sara Michel’s case,” he groans.

Jimin shrugs again as if to say, “Sorry, what can I do?” He gives a reassuring squeeze on Namjoon’s shoulder before leaving.

This time, he is going to find unshakable evidence.

...

“Welcome back,” you smile at him when he enters the door. You are sitting at the table, pencil and sketchpad in front of you.

Jungkook smiles ever so slightly back before bending down to untie his shoes. They needed to be placed in their usual spot; if they weren’t, he would feel the irritation spread throughout his body until he went back to fix it. It is better that everything is perfect the way it is the first time.

After he has made sure that his laces were also tucked into the shoe as was his preference, he walks over to you. He can’t help but muse at how exquisite you look whenever the afternoon’s sunshine would brush through your hair. You are like a marble stature carved by the Greeks and placed on display in the middle of a garden. He moves his eyes over you like a curator would when assessing a piece.

You have your back turned towards him and do not hear when he walks behind.

“What are you drawing?”

Immediately, you stand and hold your sketchpad to your chest. It shields your work from his curious eyes.

“Something!” you blurt, your face flushing.

He cannot read why you are acting so strangely so he does what he always does around you: smile.

You clear your throat and tuck your disheveled hair behind your ear. “A package came for you. I left it in your room!” you say the tumbling words. It is your lame attempt in shifting his attention away from you to something else.

Thankfully, it works as he nods. He sends you a last playful smirk before making his way towards his makeshift bedroom. It is tiny, as you had originally used it as your storage room for your art utensils, but they had recently moved a mattress into the room for him and it helped that he did not have a lot of personal items with him anyways. The said package sits just beside the doorframe to his closed room, and he wonders again of whether or not you are scared of him. You never seemed to want to enter his room and insisted on speaking to him from outside in the hallway.

The package is not heavy and rather small in his hands. He is able to pick it up with one and balances it on his left palm as he opens the door. The blue walls welcome him into his small, personal haven. Carefully, he tiptoes his way between the old canvases and dried paint palettes. He passes by the yellow smudge on the wall and then collapses on the mattress in the back of the room. His suitcase squeaks as the wheels press against the body of the case while being wedged in the small space.

Once he is comfortably sitting cross-legged on the bed, he carefully finds a cutter and slices through the masking tape that conceals the contents of the cardboard box. The movement is as smooth and practiced as slicing through butter to him – a flick of the wrist. Once the tape no longer holds, he pries the flaps open. There is another small box tied with a red ribbon. A single white card is attached to the side. This is what he first takes out.

The envelope is embossed with a strange swirling design. He breaks the seal with another slice of the cutter, sliding out the cardstock letter. It had been written in elegant matching swirling cursive with a golden fountain pen.

“I’ve been waiting for you. Welcome to my town. A small home-warming gift.”

It has not been signed and Jungkook wonders if the writer was the one who wrote the words; each letter had been carved so delicately onto the material. He tilts his head as he thinks of who may have sent this to him. He has not told anybody that he is planning to stay in LA for the time being. He had never been one to open his circle of acquaintances and thereby it had remained small. Digging through his mind, he comes up empty-handed on any of the known possibilities.

Well, there is one person who definitely would not be the sender.

The bow becomes undone by a light tug from his fingers. It falls delicately onto his lap like a ribbon of red liquid. At that, the walls of the box fall easily to reveal its treasure, akin to the opening of an oyster.

His usual stoic expression becomes all the more frozen on his face when he sees what the gift is. Somebody has been watching him. Somebody knows about him. Somebody is out there.

For a single eyeball, pupil and iris augmented in aquamarine and azure hues, stares right back at him. The crystalline gift plucked so delicately from the girl who he had been planned as his next angel.

...

next part

[rallamajoop]

The Witcher: The Games vs the Books part 2 – Characters and Accents

So, I've already talked at length about the relationship between the Witcher books and games, but how well they captured individual characters is its whole own subject – and you’d better believe I have enough thoughts on it for a whole extra post.

Andrej Sapkowski's skill for creating vivid and engaging characters really is so much of what brings the books to life, and no matter how much work an adaptation might put into worldbuilding and plot, it's the characters you've really got to nail to get the long-time fans on board. Especially when you’ve done what the games have, framing themselves as a direct continuation of Sapkowski's story. Nothing invites comparison to your source material like basically forcing fans to read the original novels to understand even half the backstory alluded to in-game. 

So how did they do? I can only offer my opinion – characterisation is necessarily going to be a lot more subjective than just telling you what plot points the games contradicted outright – but like any fan, I have opinions in plenty.

Of the main cast, I feel Yennefer is the character they've captured the best. They've done just as well with some supporting players – I have no real complaints about Dijkstra or Phillipa, for example, who are favourites of mine in both games and books. For the main players though, Geralt and Regis seem to be the ones who's differences I'm most inclined to forgive, whereas I don't feel like they've done Ciri justice at all. Book!Geralt is much less of a smartarse, for one thing, whereas Book!Ciri is much more of one. But if we're talking about the differences, I’m afraid we really need to start with Dandelion.

Dandelion

For all the genuinely good work the games do with characters, old and new, I don't think I can overstate what a disservice the they've done Dandelion, who I could not stand in TW3, but is now one of my favourite book!verse characters. Alas, Dandelion is a prime example of something the Witcher games really don't do well: camp. Being the archtypical bard, Dandelion is about as flamboyant as any enthusiastically-heterosexual man can be: you should be able to spot this guy by body language alone, he should be flouncing around and he should talk like a spoiled noble auditioning for Shakespeare. Book!Dandelion is over-the-top and ridiculous and just so much fun, and I loved him well before I'd even really gotten into the rest of the books around him.

Here's just a bit of dialogue from one of his first appearances, to give you a sense of how he and Geralt play off each other.

The  bard  seized  the  fingerboard  of  his  lute  and  plucked  the strings vigorously. ‘How would you prefer it, in verse or in normal speech?’ ‘Normal speech.’ ‘As you please,’ Dandelion said, not putting his lute down. ‘Listen then, noble  gentlemen,  to  what occurred  a  week  ago  near  the  free  town  of Barefield. ‘Twas thus, that at the crack of dawn, when the rising sun had barely tinged pink the shrouds of mist hanging pendent above the meadows—’ ‘It was supposed to be normal speech,’ Geralt reminded him. ‘Isn’t it? Very well, very well. I understand. Concise, without metaphors. A dragon alighted on the pastures outside Barefield.’

Though TW3's Dandelion certainly looks the part, you have to go hunting through art from the Gwent cards to find much that comes close to really capturing his personality (see left pic below – though even there, a Dandelion who'd voluntarily break his treasured lute is a very hard sell). Though a lot of fanart does better (right-below – credit goes to Tatiana Ortaliz).

But as poorly as the games capture his flamboyance, they're not that much better when it comes to taking him seriously. TW3 left me thinking he was all talk and no substance; the books make abundantly clear that he really is renowned enough to be welcome in courts across the continent. Though he often overestimates what he can talk himself out of, he isn’t stupid either: he's lectured at Oxenfurt, spied for Dijkstra, and then there are the moments where the frivolous playboy mask slips and you realise he's sometimes much better at understanding people and relationships than Geralt will ever be (which is honestly kind of funny considering how many of Dandelion’s relationships end with plates being thrown at him from an upper story). He's not at all above mocking Geralt when he deserves it either (and especially his personal and relationship issues) – Geralt will happily mock him right back.

We never do learn how they became friends (I'm pretty sure the incident listed in the wiki is just the date of their first expedition together, not their first meeting), but Geralt just doesn't form lasting friendships or romances with anyone he can't have an intelligent conversation with. And Dandelion is a damn good friend to Geralt – one who, despite being a helpless, squishy little bard, will keep Geralt's secrets under torture, or will follow him into Nilfgaard in the middle of a war simply because you don't let a friend make a trip like that alone. (Seriously, I don’t ship it nearly as much as some, but hot damn there is some material in here if you do.) In short, it's basically inconceivable that he'd leave an amnesic Geralt wandering around Vizima alone, as he does in the first Witcher game – which is the kind of thing I can mostly forgive as a gameplay conceit, only it doesn’t really get better from there.

He’s also supposed to be blond, something I don’t think is technically specified until fairly late in the novels, but 100% what I’d been picturing since his first description as a man in a colourful bonnet with cornflower-blue eyes (let’s face it: Dandelion’s hair isn’t the only thing about him that screams ‘blond’). It’s a shame no-one from the games to the show to the novels’ cover artists seem to have noticed – but at least there are some fanartists out there who were paying attention (credit for these goes to Asphaloth, Ghostcupdraws, Hvit-ravn (tumblr deleted), 94355 and itsmespicaa).

As for the games? Well, I cannot speak to how Dandelion came across in the original Polish, but I think it speaks worlds about the priorities of the English version that they didn’t even bother to cast someone with a halfway-decent singing voice as their master bard. There are isolated moments of dialogue that come close to sounding like book!Dandelion– mostly in Witcher 2, which comes closer to capturing the spirit of the books than either 1 or 3, or his attempts to convince his captor he's a disguised noble when you rescue him TW3 – but his voice actor is just painfully ill-suited to the role.

Geralt

Geralt fares much better than Dandelion, though he’s still a little hard to square with the Geralt of the books. Book!Geralt spends a lot more time sulking, just to begin with: he sulks because his job is complicated and gets him no respect, and because the world is unjust and unfair – and, most of all, he sulks because Yennefer has dumped him again. He also gets mocked for sulking, and usually deserves it. Book!Geralt is generally a lot more taciturn and a less prone to making smart comments just to have something to say – arguably because in book!Geralt's world, making smart comments often ends at the gallows, or at least with some corrupt official making your life much harder. Book!Geralt's world kind of sucks, and he's just got to put up with it.

As much as he often plays into the expectations of being an uneducated monster hunter, he's also got a more of an intellectual streak than you’d guess. He may prefer to stay out of politics (because damnit, his job is to save people from monsters, not people who are monsters), but he attended school at Nenneke's temple and has even taken classes at Oxenfurt academy, and there's a lot of thoughtful nuance to his opinions – his speech to Ciri about why he can't in good conscience take a stronger stance against the Scoiata'el contains a wealth of historical perspective, just for one example. Even his smart comments tend to be, well, somewhat smarter in the books.

Book!Geralt’s explicitly a lot younger than Yennefer – around 50 is the usual estimate, falling far short of the 100-ish the games suggest (the scandal of having a man fall for – gasp! – an older woman clearly didn’t bother Sapkowski one bit). You don’t see nearly as much "I'm getting too old for this" from book!Geralt, who's really not that old by witcher standards, and is apparently still hunting monsters long into his future. I'm also a little annoyed by the way they play off his hatred of portals like he's a grumpy old man who doesn't like mobile phones, when his distrust originally came from having seen the gruesome deaths that result when portals go wrong. This is not to say Book!Geralt lacks other ordinary human flaws, however – twice in the last two books of the main saga, he gets severely sidetracked after his ego gets the better of him (in the adulation he receives after being knighted, then after arriving in Toussaint), and it's quite some time before he properly gets back on track for that whole rescuing-Ciri thing again. He’s also pretty hopeless when it comes to romance and relationships – breaking things off gracefully is really not in his skillset.

So why does game!Geralt not bother me more? Well, he's the main player character of a game franchise, and one who has to carry the experience largely solo. Some adjustments for genre are pretty much inevitable in that position. He's certainly fared better than Meve, for example, who's been softened far more from her book characterisation for her PC role in Thronebreaker. Then there's the whole amnesia thing – it's easy to believe that sort of experience would change a man – and if he doesn't sulk so much as he used to, maybe he's grown up a bit. Geralt's also in many ways the straight-man of Sapkowski's Witcher universe – there largely as the reliable centre for other, louder personalities to play off. But I expect the real bottom line here is that I do still like game!Geralt enough to forgive him a lot of what he lacks.

The books never do describe Geralt as being very attractive – something book-based fanart often tries to reflect. The point has been made before that the rather-alien-looking Geralt of the first game (left pic above) is probably a lot closer to his book-description. However, the main distinguishing factor you’ll see in book-based fanart is probably the ubiquitous headband, which genuinely is what book!Geralt wears to make his hair behave (the example on the right above comes from Diana Novich).

All that said, if Sapkowski really wants me to believe that nearly so many women are eager to jump into bed with him, I’m going to have to shallowly assume our witnesses are unreliable on this front, and Geralt is at least as attractive as Witcher 3′s take on him. Nothing else makes sense. *g*

Regis

Regis varies mostly in that book!Regis is a lot more smug, sometimes verging on obnoxious – and a lot keener to make fun of Geralt (who generally deserves it). But then, Regis is old and wise and superpowered enough to dance rings around most everyone else – can you blame him? By Blood and Wine, Regis' overconfidence has been recently smacked down hard after his near-death-experience at the hands of Vilgefortz, and that kind of thing could knock some chips off anyone's shoulder. Throw in the fact that with Dettlaff, we have a situation not even Regis could make light of, and the changes to game!Regis make a certain amount of sense.

I do feel it's a bit of a shame that the vocal direction didn't work just a little bit harder to capture some of Regis' smugger side, or emphasise that his long-winded philosophising on human behaviour is supposed to sound a bit pretentious. This is actually something I suspect they were going for a few times in the script, but which didn't come through in the dialogue quite the way it was meant to. Still, again, I'm sure I'm biased by the fact that I like game!Regis far too much to find much fault in what they've done with him. They've done a lovely job capturing his friendship with Geralt too.

Looks-wise, there's a tendency in book-based art to portray Regis with long hair (even some pre-Blood-and-Wine Gwent art did so – see the two pics on the left above, from Gwent and early B&W concepts. The right-most pic is cover art from the books). I couldn't rightly tell you where long-haired-Regis comes from, though – perhaps it's described more explicitly in the original Polish, or perhaps it comes up in passing in some passage I've forgotten, though it may just as well just be a fannish meme.

The books do describe him as looking rather like a tax collector, slim, middle-aged, with an aquiline nose, prone to wearing black, and his hair as 'greying' or 'grey streaked', so presumably somewhat younger-looking than the game would have it. The hammer-horror-esque sideburns are likewise a game-verse addition, though I do like the look they went with – it's distinct from Geralt in a way that making him another long-grey-haired man wouldn't have been, and that's probably the point.

Being the hopeless Regis fan I am, I have quite the folder full of different fanart takes on book!Regis, so have a selection – art here is by gellihana-art, justanor, greysmartwolf, Nastyaskaya, NatalyLanier, beidak, natalliel, ellaine and afternoon63. For what it’s worth, I feel beidak’s (bottom pic, second from the left) comes the closest to what I’d have pictured personally, based on how he’s first described.

Ciri

I find it much harder to rationalise the changes to game!Ciri, who I didn't exactly dislike, but found stuck too close to the role of generic-macguffin-girl-who-just-wants-to-be-normal to be very interesting. Having read the books, not only do I much prefer book!Ciri, I'm not sure I can emphasize enough how much the game did NOT prepare me for utter gauntlet of whump and misery that girl survives in the last four titles. Book!Ciri is a character who works for me mostly because of the same flaws the game mostly strips her free of – TW3 makes some token noise about how you can't tell her what to do, but she’s an utter little royal brat when we first meet book!Ciri, and it’s so much of what brings her to life. She throws herself into her witcher training with the enthusiasm of a kid going completely native, but still revels in getting to be girly for a change when Triss first arrives at Kaer Morhen. She hates Yennefer at first, but soon bonds with her just as strongly as she ever did with Geralt, picking up some of Yennfer’s haughty mannerisms along the way. And then she gets thrown through a portal and lost in the distant wilderness, and the whole world comes down on her head.

The build up to the first time Ciri actually has to kill someone is intense... and things only get worse from there. Steadily. For another couple of novels at a stretch. Seriously, a major caveat that pretty much has to go into any rec for these books (and I will absolutely rec these books) is that Ciri's story gets heavy. So heavy one finds oneself using phrases like, "that time that one guy died of his wounds on top of her while semi-consensually feeling her up was honestly one of the less traumatic incidents in the period."

By the end of the novels, Ciri has nearly died of thirst, been beaten, tied up, dragged around the country as a prisoner, run with bandits and killed innocent people for the fun of it, done fantasy-cocaine and got a tattoo, fought off more than one attempted rape, been drugged, lain for multiple nights next to an impotent elf who completely fails to impregnate her, watched the bodies of her friends and girlfriend being mutilated in front of her, and did I mention where she got that scar? She has survived hell, and it is absolutely a testament to her own strength that she somehow comes through it and puts herself back together at the end. When Geralt finally arrives to rescue her, what matters most isn't that her ordeal is over, but that she finally knows she hasn’t been abandoned by everyone who’d ever loved her after all.

The Ciri of the books is fierce and wild and arrogant, but she's learned her morals from the best, and she holds onto them until she can't, then picks them back up again when she can, and above all she survives. For all that her story turns arguably too much of the last two books into a slog of misery, oh boy does it pay off at the end. And that's probably about as much as I can say about her Big Moment in the last book without spoiling too much, so suffice to say that by the end of the saga, Geralt has pretty much become a supporting character in Ciri's story, not the other way around. (Seriously, you’d be surprised how few chapters of the last two books he’s actually in.)

Finding art which captures the aspects of Ciri’s character and history which are missing from the game has turned out to be pretty hard, though the fanart above from her bandit phase takes a decent crack at it (credit to Loles Romero and NastyaSkaya). I do rather like that one shot of her on horseback beside her girlfriend too, which comes from Denis Gordeev’s illustrations for the novels (below).

How much of this does TW3 get across with her portrayal in the game? Well, she's still pretty headstrong, I guess. And they let you give a 'sorry, I like girls' answer in one bit of dialogue, so they remembered her girlfriend existed. That's nice. But game!Ciri still has a kind of wide-eyed innocence that book!Ciri lost years ago, while book!Ciri is a little force of nature in ways the games hardly even hint at, and that's a really shameful loss.

You'd think, with a character so young, it ought to be easier to imagine she's simply grown up since we saw her last, but so much of what's changed about Ciri feels like a step back rather than forwards. I can shrug off Geralt and Regis' differences and still enjoy their game-verse-selves, but Ciri leaves me genuinely disappointed.

I’d say the official art that comes closest to capturing book!Ciri is that one portrait of her as a very grumpy young child (right above). Some of the early concept art (left above) feels a little more like it has her attitude, though she’s rather too yellow-blonde – not to mention too pretty. I think it also bears pointing out that Ciri isn’t really supposed to be the kind of beauty she is in the game – even before she gets what’s meant to be a seriously ugly and disfiguring scar. (Fanart below by justanor and bobolip)

But of course, the male gamer fanbase can’t be expected to give a fuck about a girl they wouldn’t want to fuck, so game!Ciri must be generically gorgeous. Le sigh.

Triss

I suppose I should at least touch on Triss, too, though she's a very odd case. She's so out of character in the first Witcher game that I am wryly amused that the biggest thing they arguably do get right is that taking advantage of Geralt the moment he showed up with amnesia is... pretty well in-character for her (look, I gotta be honest here, I'm not much of a fan of Triss in any of her incarnations).

The second game does a much better job with her – she actually feels like book!Triss, she has some good dialogue, we're finally dealing with some of her conflicted loyalties to the Lodge and to Geralt – though by the third, her characterisation has been so softened into “the nice one” that none of that potentially meaty conflict is ever resolved, or even really mentioned. Perhaps there's more buried in the Triss-romance path, which I've never bothered with, but the writers seem to have just given up on dealing with anything that might make her look less than wholly sympathetic. Heck, we hardly even get a clear statement about why she and Geralt broke up between Witchers 2 and 3.

Even speaking as such a not-a-fan of Triss, I promise there is more they could've done with the character the books give us. There's her ongoing trauma in from the Battle of Sodden, where she was injured so badly she was memorialised as one the dead: the 14th of the hill. There's her furious impatience with the neutrality of both the witchers and the Lodge: Triss has fought and died for a cause, and is ready to do so again. The second game sort of gets into this, but by and large, the games really aren't up to tackling the moral complexity of having such a theoretically-sympathetic character as Triss, who was still broadly willing to go along with the Lodge's plans to pair Ciri off and get her pregnant as soon as possible – her own wishes be damned. No, instead, Triss has conveniently left the Lodge before the rest of them go spiraling into abject villainy in the second game, clearing all that messy grey stuff out of the conflict.

Of course, the really big unresolved plot point still hanging over book!Triss is how badly she needs to terms with the fact Geralt's just Not That Into Her, and never has been – but since the games want Triss to be a serious romantic option, that's definitely not getting the resolution it could've used.

Book!Triss also pointedly avoids any outfit with a plunging neckline because her chest is covered with the ugly scars she received in the Battle of Sodden, something the games did not have the guts to reproduce. In a more confusing note, the books do consistently describe her hair as 'chestnut', which we'd usually think of as meaning 'brown' – though it turns out the games actually may not have been wrong to make her a redhead, since in Poland 'chestnut hair' apparently mean dark red hair (google some pictures of actual chestnuts, and you'll see why). Still, the firy-red-haired Triss of TW3 who wears nothing but plunging necklines remains a bit of a stretch, however you slice it. Once again, TW2 gets her best (and I must say, gave her the nicest outfit) – though even here she's conspicuously unscarred in all her sex scenes.

(Leftmost pic above is official Witcher 2 art, whereas Triss-with-scars fanart comes to us – once again – from nastyaskaya)

Shani

Shani sort of falls into a similar category as Triss as someone who isn't terribly well-served by any of her appearances, given that both exist in the first game largely to compete for Geralt's attentions. But I can't honestly say I find Shani’s portrayal in the Hearts of Stone expansion to be much better – the degree to which either version exists solely to fall all over Geralt is a bit painful, especially given that their relationship in the books is limited to a single, undramatic hook-up. Book!Shani really only appears in a couple of chapters: we meet her as a medical student friend of Dandelion's, who's been surreptitiously selling pilfered university supplies to fund her degree, then later see her again in the final book, where she proves herself as a battlefield medic during the climactic Battle of Brenna. She's pragmatic to a fault, and I really can't see her as the type who needs Geralt to point out to her that her patient is dead, for example, or who'd subject a guy with Geralt's problems to such an extended feelings-dump as you'll get out of her during the wedding.

Shani is a reasonably logical book-character to bring back, if only because she’s one of those who explicitly survives the ending, but for my money, "serious contender for Geralt's affections" is just not a role she works in.

Anna Henrietta

The duchess of Toussaint, Anna Henrietta, is another case who differs more from her book counterpart than you might think. In the books, the duchess is by far the least competent of the (pleasantly many and) various female leaders and rulers we meet – she comes across as rather young and naive, and every bit as absurd as everyone else in the ridiculous fairy-tale duchy she rules. She is, for example, most displeased to learn that Nilfgaard's war against the north is ongoing (something her courtiers have carefully avoided mentioning in her presence), because she'd long since sent the Emperor a stern note demanding he brought it to an end. She promptly has one of her ministers sent to the tower for misinforming her, and demands the others prepare an even sterner note for the emperor, which will surely do the job.

After Dandelion (inevitably) cheats on her, she has him repeatedly sent to the gallows, only to change her mind and send him a reprieve at the very last minute each time. Picture yourself a much younger and prettier version of the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, and you've about got her general vibe.

Blood and Wine sort of waves at this part of her character when she first speaks about Dandelion, and again in suggesting there's a widespread feeling she lacks compassion, and once more as she proves utterly immovable on the subject of her sister. But the generally sensible and insightful woman you deal with for most of the main story is a far cry from her book-verse characterisation. That’s a bit of a shame, because I feel like there's a lot more they could have done to blend the two versions of her. Still, it’s hard to argue the duchess we get suits the story being told around her.

Other characters

Much as I love Yennefer, Dijkstra and Phillipa, I don't really have much more to say about them because I feel the games have done such a good job. The Yennefer of the books gets to show a lot more depth and complexity simply because she has more scenes and more space in which to do so, but when ‘there isn’t more of her’ is your biggest complaint, the game is officially doing pretty well. I could certainly gripe her about how “dresses in black and white” seems to have been taken as “dresses in black with maybe a trace of white trim”, or how Yennefer and Triss seem to be the only sorceresses in the world capable of wearing pants, when Phillipa (just for one) is in sensible men’s clothing the very first time we meet her, but that’s getting into serious nitpicking territory.

(Not that Yen can’t look amazing in outfits with more white – art by Emily Caroll, theclashofqueens, BarbaraRosiak, and cosplay by greatqueenlina)

Vesimir, Lambert and Eskel, Geralt's fellow witchers from the School of the Wolf, fall into a similar category for me – though we spend far less time with them in the books, everything we see of them in the games feels like a fairly logical extension of their book-roles. Vesimir is somewhat over-played as the old fogey, and his death is painfully cliched, but the impact on the characters and Kaer Morhen still hits home – and the games do some especially great work expanding Lambert into a much more complex character. To my mind, the only shame is that more of the book-original characters didn't get the same treatment.

Who have I missed? There's Avallac'h, of course, but I think I've got him pretty well covered by that last post. Zoltan, perhaps inevitably, has had his personality largely flattened into 'generic dwarf', with nothing better to do than hang around Geralt and Dandelion. You wouldn't know Book!Zoltan was apparently incapable of turning away women and children in need, for example – even human women and children with the chronic inability to say thankyou for his help. Or that he eventually admits to Geralt that the luggage he and his friends are carrying comes from a decidedly unsavoury source for such a supposedly charitable, upstanding guy. Yes, even Zoltan gets to be a morally complicated character in the books – who knew?

Speaking of dwarves, pleased as I am that Yarpen Zigren gets remembered in TW2, he's an odd one to talk about, since even in the books, he appears to have had a substantial personality transplant between his two main appearances. Yarpen’s a largely comedic figure in The Bounds of Reason short story, where he cheerfully admits to having considered letting his men knock down a particularly pompous aristocrat and piss all over him to teach him a lesson, but he’s evolved into a studious voice of reason against the scoiata'el by Blood of Elves. TW2 doesn't do a particularly good job of capturing either version, which I suspect probably bothered me more than most people – I liked the later book-incarnation of Yarpen immensely (and not even just because he's one of few ever to really call Triss out on just how much she needs to stop misreading Geralt's friendship as anything more than it is). His chapter in Blood of Elves packs a hell of a punch.

On the subject of accents

I do have to wonder if I'd have warmed up to characters like Triss, Shani and Dandelion (or even Letho) more if they'd only had halfway decent voice actors. It's not just that none are exactly leading the talent at the acting part of the job, it's that their American accents stick out in TW3 like a sore thumb.

Geralt mostly gets away his own US accent by dint of being the very first character we meet, so we've gotten used to the way he talks long before we notice how he stands out – hell, maybe that's just how they talk down in Rivia (hilariously, book!Geralt eventually reveals he's not even from Rivia, but simply picked the place and taught himself the accent so he could feel a bit less like the abandoned foundling he is, which only gives us yet more excuse for why his accent might sound a bit weird). More importantly, Geralt is meant to stand out, to be the outsider wherever he goes, so having him sound like no-one else fits the character.

But neither Triss or Dandelion are "of Rivia", and by the time they show up we've had dozens of hours in a game where literally everyone else sounds British, or Scottish, or Irish, or vaguely-eastern-European in the case of the Nilfgaardians. So why do these weirdos sound like no-one else on the continent?

The short answer seems to be that every character with an American accent in TW3 is someone who had an American accent in at least one of the previous games, which were way looser with their casting and had enough incidental American accents around that they didn't stand out. Clearly, by TW3, consistency with prior games has been prioritised over consistency with literally anything else we’re hearing.

Gaetan is an exception to the rule as the only new character (at least that I caught) with an American accent – presumably because between Geralt, Eskel, Lambert, Berengar, and Letho (and cohorts), some sort of 'witchers have American accents' rule has been pretty well established (another random American-accented witcher shows up in Thronebreaker, just to underline the point). We're going to mostly ignore Jad Karadin here, since his British accent is presumably a recent affectation to go with his new identity, and so makes sense.

This still doesn't really work though, since Letho’s school is all the way down in Nilfgaard (land of the Eastern European accents), while the oldest witcher from Kaer Morhen (Vesimir) is the one guy with a British accent. He sounds nothing like any of his students, despite the fact he's logically the guy they ought to have learned their accents from. So the logic falls in a heap however you slice it, and I'm thrown right out of the game.

With TW3 as your intro to the series, it feels almost as if characters like Triss and Dandelion have been assigned American accents because they're just too important to be saddled with the same pedestrian British accents as everyone else, which did nothing to endear them to me. The only one I eventually warmed up to was Lambert, and then only because he's just such a bitter asshole that he eventually goes full circle and comes out the other side (somewhere around when you've heard his miserable backstory, then gotten drunk together and told him how much you love him, man). Gaetan similarly snuck in under the same clause – American accents clearly work better for me in this series when attached to characters you're supposed to find pretty insufferable on first impressions.

Some final notes

To conclude, it seems only fair to throw in a quick nod to some of the more memorable book-characters who don't appear in the games. Neither Mother Nenneke (Geralt's sort-of-surrogate mother) or Vissena (Geralt's biological mother) ever appear either, alas – Vissena doesn't even merit so much as a Gwent card, which seems quite the wasted opportunity.

Milva, Cahir and Angouleme – the three remaining companions of Geralt’s who died alongside Regis but who were not so easily resurrected – naturally don’t appear. But nor are even really mentioned in all the games, which seems rather less than they deserve after giving their lives to Geralt's cause.

Cahir and Angouleme do at least have pretty badass Gwent cards to their names, though I am properly offended that Milva (who has the dubious honour of being my very favourite book character who doesn't ever appear in the games) is stuck with a card of her freaking death scene – which not only gets the scene wrong (believe me, there was no grimacing and gripping the arrow buried shallowly in her chest for poor Milva), but doesn't even bother to get her hair the right colour, for fuck’s sake. Basically, Milva was a stone cold badass and absolutely deserves better. #justice4milva

One can only guess how I'd have felt about some of these characters had I read the books before playing the games – I am obviously biased towards forgiving changes to characters whom I liked in their game incarnations, regardless of how they compare. Still, I think it does speak wonders that there still all these characters who suddenly made sense only after I'd met them in the books.

Even if only for Dandelion and Ciri, I can only dream of seeing a bit more of the book-original characterisations make it into the collective fannish consciousness. There's nothing wrong with getting into the canon purely based on the show or the games, but having read Sapkowski's novels, it's no longer any mystery how they spawned this massive franchise. That the saga wasn’t even fully available in English until well after Witcher 3 was released – a solid couple of decades late, and long after it had already been translated into Russian, French, German, Spanish and more – is a real shame. For once, it’s us in the anglophone world who’ve been missing out: these books deserve so much more than to be thought of as a footnote to the games or the show.

[writtenjewels]

Cell part 2

Part One

Kaidan lay on his cot staring up at the ceiling. They called lights out an hour ago but his thoughts were racing too much for him to find any rest. He wasn't sure what to make Shepard. If what the man claimed was true, he was the infamous Butcher of Torfan. He knew the story, how an Alliance soldier disregarded orders and assaulted a group of batarian slavers and got many of his fellow soldiers killed in the process. It wouldn't surprise him to learn that the Butcher ended up here, but he also wouldn't be surprised if an inmate used the man's reputation to make themselves seem more bad-ass.

“Hey, Kaidan,” Shepard called to him. “Are you awake?”

“Yes. The cots here aren't exactly comfortable.”

“Yeah. Makes me miss the crew quarters. I used to spend a lot of nights just listening to the other soldier. One guy talked in his sleep. It was hilarious, he talked about some 'tasty man' and he put on a weird accent.”

“He used an accent in his sleep?” Kaidan asked, smiling faintly.

“Yeah.” Shepard laughed at the memory. “You do anything weird in your sleep?”

“If I do, no one's told me about it.”

“Don't worry, I will definitely tell you,” Shepard assured him. “My tongue is basically a blunt instrument.”

“Then I feel very sorry for your girlfriend,” Kaidan commented. He got another laugh from the man. It was surprisingly easy talking to this guy. Probably because they were both in a shitty situation with nowhere else to go. Silence fell and Kaidan shifted to a different position. It didn't help, of course.

“What are you thinking about?” Shepard asked him. Kaidan wondered how the man knew that he had sank into his thoughts again.

“I was wondering what you did with yourself before I came along.”

“A lot of masturbating.” Kaidan cracked up. “But seriously,” Shepard continued, “I've been carving shit on my walls. I've got this little knife-- takes forever to gouge anything but I think I'm coming along as an artist.”

“Too bad your genius will never be recognized.”

“You're really funny,” Shepard noted with pleasure. Kaidan smiled, though he didn't put much stock in the man's opinion since he likely hadn't heard jokes in a long time. “If you really did get solitary confinement, what would you be doing to pass the time right now?”

“I'm not sure.” Kaidan thought about it for a moment. Hearing Shepard's voice had been unexpected and he was sure the prison somehow made a mistake. Shepard might have engaged out of boredom but Kaidan was still appreciative of the other man's chatter. “If I was home I would read. Here... I guess I would make up a limerick?”

“Ooh, that sounds interesting. Do it!”

“Well, all right.” Kaidan smiled indulgently. “The day the door didn't lock, the woman didn't think to knock. The man was stiff in between and he tried to preen, but she said, 'I'm not impressed by your cock'.” Shepard laughed and even clapped a little. “Glad you liked that one. It may take me a while to come up with another.”

“Impressive that you did it so quickly,” Shepard praised. Silence fell between them again. Kaidan knew he should try to sleep but he wanted to keep talking to Shepard. He waited but Shepard didn't say anything more. Was he asleep?

“Shepard?” he called out.

“Yeah?”

“Sorry, I was just checking if you were still awake. I'll let you sleep.”

“Listen, Kaidan, I'm going to be bouncing around my little cell for the next few hours. So don't worry about keeping me awake; I do it fine all on my own.” Kaidan glanced over to the wall that separated them. Shepard had a very self-deprecating way of talking, he was starting to notice.

“Tell me about your 'art',” he requested. And the two fell into conversation again, only slowing down when exhaustion finally started to pull Kaidan's eyelids down.

[goldencorecrunches]

@lady-of-the-lotus I’ve done it. I’ve written, G-d help me, YaoYang fanfiction. I hope you’re happy. I hope you forget about your soup on the burner and it scorches. (Also on AO3 for fancy linked footnotes)

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Must one dread what others dread?

--Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

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What have I done? Sweet Jesus, what have I done?

--Jean Valjean, Les Misérables (Musical)

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Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, hamotzi lechem min ha’aretz.[1]

 --Jewish blessing said prior to eating an olive-bulk or more of bread (unless, of course, you disagree).

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It was a bright and balmy day, the third of the cultivation conference, and Sect Leader Yao was being insufferable. He was well outfitted for it. He had woken from his insufferable, snoring sleep and demanded an insufferable breakfast, the specifications of which made the most highly-ranked, honor-festooned cook in Jin Tower break down into tears and resign on the spot. He put on his most insufferable underpants on under his most insufferable robes, and tied back his hair in the insufferable style that he favored, the one that made him look like a badly turned rotten beet.[2] He had even spent fifty minutes manipulating his face in an insufferable series of facial expressions in the mirror, involving him at several points “losing” his own reflection only to “find” it again at the corner of the polished bronze, much to his own amusement—though not, it might be stated, to the amusement of the junior launderer he demanded watch his performance.

The hall had been surprisingly vacant of other unoccupied servants, when Sect Leader Yao had checked. All that scurrying and burrying! Well, servants should be busy, anyway: that was the way, and the way was right, HRRGNH. “That Was the Way, And The Way Was Right, HRRGNH,” was the latest of the updated mottos Sect Leader Yao had thought of for his sect. Though it was an excellent guiding principal and pure poetry upon the senses, it had two drawbacks. The first was that the tonally-important HRRGNH at the posterior end of the phrase was obtained by means of thrusting the hips forward, curling the torso, and letting the resulting force of air displaced escape through the mouth. This was, Sect Leader Yao allowed, not very dignified.  

Still, all was not lost. Sect Leader Jiang had scowled upon seeing it, but he was always scowling so he didn’t count. Sect Leader Lan had looked intrigued. Sect Leader Nie had applauded, and asked whether it would be possible to pass gas from below at the same time; a very tactless comment, Sect Leader Yao had thought, considering the gastrointestinal distress he was so often plagued by, which Sect Leader Nie should know about, as Sect Leader Yao had described it to him at length, frequently. He had reminded Sect Leader Nie of this with appropriate grace. It was good to show these young sprites how to conduct oneself with the proper manners. The second problem was that Sect Leader Yao did not, and had not for several years, have a sect. It was not something Sect Leader Yao liked to think about, so he largely didn't.

On the way to the discussion hall Sect Leader Yao felt a whisper, on the back of his neck. It was the slimiest whisper anyone had ever felt, and it carried with it the vague sense that someone had been watching you, through a crack in the wall, the last time you were alone in the bathroom. It also carried the powerful scent of moldy incense. Sect Leader Yao turned and spread his arms wide. “Sect Leader Ouyang!” It was his best, insufferable, friend. His worst friend, too, being his only, but Sect Leader Ouyang took on both roles with ease. They’d stabbed each other, once, over a hunk of demonic metal. Ah, memories were truly the jewels of life. Sect Leader Ouyang grimaced like a dead cat, which was his version of a pleased smile, and bowed. Sect Leader Yao bowed back. When he rose he waggled his eyebrows. Sect Leader Ouyang snapped open his fan and wafted, with the gentle flutter of a category five hurricane, several lungfuls of moldy incense. They had totally sucked face last night. It had been swag.[3] “What’s on the docket for today?” “I believe it is something to do with that Jin boy. An honor ceremony he’s attempting to put together. If he expects my sect to pay for it, I’ll want to know why.” Sect Leader Ouyang sniffed. He did that a lot. Sect Leader Yao lovingly passed over a handkerchief.

The Jin boy’s proposal was indeed the first major case discussed, after the necessary canapés and complaints about the accommodations had been passed around.[5] It was a matter the boy had clearly put much thought into, and one dear to his heart; he presented it with an earnest timbre that would have swayed a petrified forest. Unfortunately, earnestness was outside of Sect Leader Yao’s testicular-sized sphere of understanding. “He’s grubbing for money, you’ll see,” Sect Leader Yao said, in an overtone[6] to Sect Leader Ouyang. Sect Leader Yao considered himself wise to the ways of the conniving, since he, the aforementioned, sometimes cheated at cards. His friend-now-daring-conquest nodded and glared across the room. He was aiming for the Jin boy, but missed, and caught a rather startled wine-pourer on the side. “You ought to say something,” Sect Leader Ouyang said. That was an excellent idea. It was always, in Sect Leader Yao’s opinion, the right time for him to be talking. “Hey!” he shouted, waving his arms over his head like an extremely drunk aircraft marshal. “Hey! What’s this got to do with Wei Wuxian?” “It…doesn’t,” said the Jin boy, who was in fact Sect Leader Jin, and who while admittedly young outranked Sect Leader Yao to a degree that would make you wince and say whoee it’s a scorcher if you saw it on an outdoor thermometer. “Ridiculous!” Sect Leader Yao said. “We all know it does! Stop trying to bamboozle us with dacquoise!”[7] Sect Leader Jiang had stopped scowling in approval and had begun to scowl in apparent constipation. The history between him and Wei Wuxian was somewhat rocky.[8] “Exactly as he says!” Sect Leader Ouyang, the most and least loyal of Sect Leader Yao’s comrades, cut in. He leapt to his feet; several of his neighbors checked, instinctively, to make sure their pants were still up. “You won’t catch us sleeping!” “Hear, hear!” Sect Leader Yao thundered. “Please don’t shout,” Sect Leader Nie hangovered. He had one hand clasped around his temples, the other clutching a cup of water. Sect Leader Yao was surprised he was so bad off. He’d seemed quite sober when he’d stumbled across the totally swag face-sucking betwixt Sect Leaders Yao and Ouyang. Speaking of. Sect Leader Yao turned to look sideways conspiratorially at Sect Leader Ouyang and shoot him finger-bow-and-arrows.[9] Sect Leader Ouyang mimed catching one. Damn, Sect Leader Yao was for sure going to propose marriage after this Wei Wuxian dacquoise was smoked out.

Oh yeah, it was all comin’ up Yao, baby. That was the way, and the way was right.

HRRGNH.

----------

1This blessing has no relevance to the contents of this work. “Honestly,” the author said when questioned, “I’m just trying for all the help I can get.”[return to text]

2A confusing feat, as this was China prior to the year 1000 BCE, Gregorian, and beets had not been invented yet.[return to text]

3“Swag” is neither a genre- nor period-accurate term for the emotion Sect Leader Yao was feeling. However, translation is an art rather than a science,[4] and more atmospheric words fail to communicate to modern English-speaking audiences the true depth of Sect Leader Yao’s douchebaggery. Thus: swag.[return to text]

4"An art rather than a science” is a common phrase used by people who are neither artists nor scientists to describe what they believe to be the difference between these disciplines. One might as well say “a boot rather than a canary”—that is, not the same, but having more in common than people might think.

5There was nothing wrong with the accommodations, and especially nothing any of the poorly-used common folk the attendees lorded over would have found, but if there is one unifying factor among humans it is that they love to complain.[return to text]

6Like an undertone, but the opposite.[return to text]

7A word Sect Leader Yao thought meant “deceit,” but which in fact refers to a tasty meringue-and-cream French pastry.[return to text]

8If by “somewhat rocky” you mean “a high-speed chase over deadly-fast rapids between simultaneous avalanches, and also, there are sharks.”[return to text]

9Small handheld firearms, aka “guns,” had also not been invented yet.[return to text]

[welcome-to-afterlife]

Wannabe Challenge Kpop AU Headcanons

I know that no one requested this, but I had this idea stuck in my head for a while now. It took quite some time to get down, but I'm finally done!

Role: Leader, Main Vocalist, Center

Taehee was the first member of the group to be recruited by ST Entertainment. He had a charismatic yet soft aura that drew all the girls on audition day. Immediately, the entertainment company knew that Taehee would become part of their label.

However, it took him a good 5 years before the company decided that he was ready for debut. It was within this time that he learned how to avoid the entertainment industry's sleazy business practices, develop a strong image, and maintain constant motivation for debut. You could say he subconsciously preparing to he a leader by trying to himself afloat for 5 years.

Once he finally got to debut, Taehee was chosen to be the leader of the group. Although Hansol seemed like the more obvious choice, Hansol thought that Taehee would be a better fit since Taehee already knew a lot about the entertainment industry due to his experience. Besides, he was the only one who was mature and emotionally-equipped to lead a group.

As for Taehee's abilities, his strongest suit is his singing. While he wasn't the strongest singer at the start of his training, he ended up become one of the best vocalists in the company. His voice has a unique color that radiates smoothness with a hint of attitude. He's able to hit high notes, but he's a lot better at belting -- especially when he's feeling emotional.

Perhaps this is the reason that Taehee excels in elegant concepts. His graceful movements along with his princely facial expressions make him the star on the stage. Think of songs such as "I'm in Trouble" by NU'EST, "Blue Flame" by ASTRO, and "Not By the Moon" by GOT7. It's like he belongs on an icy throne in a golden palace.

Surprise, surprise: he gets the most lines in their songs. Usually it's not by a lot, but sometimes ST gives some of Biho's lines to Taehee (much to the everyone's dismay). He's never comfortable singing those lines and tries to negotiate to give Biho more lines, but it doesn't always work. He gets quite the backlash for it, but unfortunately it's out of his control.

When interacting with fans, Taehee is usually very warm and kind. He's constantly asking about everyone's health and well-being, nagging fans to keep themselves at top priority. He doesn't want fans to ruin their lives because of their love for him and his group. He's also very earnest and mature, almost like a guardian angel to his fans. Wherever they go, his heart is always with them.

In the group, he's basically the dad. He's always looking out for the other members (yes, even Yooha). Just like his fans, his members' well-being is top priority. In lives, you'll probably see him in the background cooking food, cleaning dorms, and or scolding the other members for doing dumb things (that last reason is why he's also very likely to appear in crack videos).

However, he appears most often in "sassy moment compilations" because of his reactions. Taehee has even gone viral because he just straight up rolled his eyes at a variety show when they asked him uncomfortable questions and threw not-so-subtle shade. From then on, he's been dubbed as the "sassy king".

For side projects, his main path is acting. Taehee is a really good actor who played the main male lead in a critically acclaimed K-Drama. He played the sly but sweet love interest in a historical drama. The audience are always amazed at his ability to adapt to the time period so accurately.... it's almost as if he's lived there himself?

Role: Main Rapper, Lead Dancer, Vocalist

Originally, Yooha has started off as a model. However, staff from ST Entertainment saw Yooha and thought that his visuals would be perfect for the kpop business. They offered their business card to him and he decided to try out for fun. Fortunately, he nailed his audition and was admitted as a trainee immediately.

Yooha was the last person to join the company and had the shortest training time (1 year). His sudden arrival and decision to debut with the group created a rift between him and the other members. Taehee thought it was unfair that Yooha could debut with minimal training while Hansol was worried that Yooha's addition would affect the group's dynamic (in areas like line distribution, dance formation, etc).

However, he and the other members were forced to resolve their issues when he became Taehee's roommate at their dorm. Since it was Taehee's job to lead the group (including Yooha), the two had no choice but to bond.

Now before y'all yell at me that Yooha isn't main rapper material, just know that I had to give the position to someone. Secondly, Yooha has an alluring and deep voice voice that was perfect for rap. Also, he is really good at rapping in various beats and experiments with different flows. While he can do fast raps, he prefers to make ones that have a distinct rhythm and leave a lasting impact on the audience.

However, Yooha hadn't planned to debut as the group's rapper. His original role being the main dancer, but he jokingly rapped in an pre-debut interview and everyone fell in love with his voice. From that, ST Entertainment thought it would be best to make Yooha the rapper instead.

In fan interactions, Yooha is very slick and flirty. Whether it's in fanmeet, lives, or concerts, Yooha knows exactly how to steal the hearts of his fans. Just one wink is enough to make the entire stadium swoon over him.

However, he's also the crackhead of the group. If you search for the group's "crackhead moment compilations", 80% of the video will involve Yooha somehow. In fact, it's these moments that really boost his popularity within the group and skyrocket him to the 2nd most popular member in the group.

Sometimes, he manages to pull one over Taehee and becomes the most popular member. How does this happen? Well, whenever the group has a "bad boy"/sexy concept comeback, Yooha absolutely dominates the stage. Think of songs such as "Want" by Taemin, "7th Sense" by NCT U, and "Love Killa" by Monsta X. The sexy concept was made for him, so it's no surprise when everyone in the comments section thirsts over him. It's just enough to put him over the edge against Taehee in fan voting.

He also has the most risque outfits. Yooha has an amazing body and he knows it, so why keep it hidden? His wardrobe is filled with experimental pieces that show of his abs, forearms, and everything in between. It's the reason why he's voted "Best Dressed" on every voting app.

Yooha is also a smooth dancer. His fluidity and confidence amplifies his sex appeal on stage, which often causes fans to confuse him as the group's main dancer. He's also has killer facial expressions that maintain his striking stage presence, making it impossible to keep your eyes off of him.

When Yooha isn't rocking the stage, you'll probably see him on magazines and commercial shoots. Photographers just can't get enough of his visuals, so they constantly bring him back for more modeling. He'll even dabble his feet in web dramas, but it doesn't last for long due to the scheduling conflicts between the web dramas and his music career.

Position: Main Dancer, Main Vocalist, Producer, Face of the Group

Hansol started his music journey long before ST Entertainment. He had been creating music as early as elementary school (mainly him bashing wooden sticks on the table and strumming rubber bands). However, he really got to develop his passion on high school-- where he dedicated his time towards music production and music theory.

Thus, Hansol had his own YouTube channel where he created covers of different artists and snippets of songs that he created on his own. From that, he amassed a small following of 25K subscribers. This audience attracted ST Entertainment, who took a liking to his videos and asked him whether he wanted to be a trainee. Hansol gladly took the offer.

Hansol was the 2nd member to join ST and trained for 3 years. Although the company had given him the opportunity to debut immediately, Hansol wanted to wait until he reached his full potential.

While Hansol originally was the leader of the group (since he already had a fairly stable music presence), he had to product all their music. This ate up leadership time, which Hansol was having difficulty in managing. Besides, he thought that Taehee was more mature than him and thought Taehee would do a better job as a leader. Hansol ended up handing the leader role to Taehee before debut.

Hansol's production has been praised by critics, fans, and other producers. His vision for the song helps the group distinguish themselves from the other acts in the entertainment industry and create their own identities as a group. Sometimes he writes songs with Biho (or by himself) to better convey his emotions onto their group's album.

Hansol is the group's ace: he can sing, dance, and even rap. He's equally talented at singing and dancing, so he decided to take main positions for both skills. In his singing, Hansol has a high-pitched voice that makes it easy for him to hit high notes and belt to his heart's content. In fact, many of his lines in the songs are his adlibs (which give the song that extra spice).

Hansol's dancing style is sharp and energetic. There's a lot of power in his movements with playful facial expressions (in contrast to Yooha's powerful, sexy style). This allows him to steal the spotlight when the group has a playful and upbeat comback (think "Energetic" by Wanna One, "Sha La La" by Pentagon, and "BBUSYEO" by ONEUS). His bright grin is enough to light up the entire stadium while keeping fans engaged throughout the performance.

The group's debut turned out pretty successful thanks the Hansol's YouTube fanbase. With his enlarged presence, Hansol is the "Face of the Group"-- the most recognizable member to the general public. While he isn't the most popular within his group's fans, Hansol is the most liked across the general public.

Hansol's personality around fans is very bubbly. He loves playing up his cute, boyish charms to win over the fans (especially when they drool over Yooha). There's a lot of winking, heart signs, pouting, and hugs whenever Hansol interacts with his fans.

Within the group, Hansol is the baby. Although he isn't the youngest, he acts the most immature. He's always nagging the other members and trying to prove his manliness, but it's more like a puppy trying to intimidate a pack of wolves.

For side projects, Hansol would have a solo debut. He'd produce all the music on his album while collaborating with Biho for songwriting. Since it's his solo career, Hansol would have much more creative control-- allowing him to fully explore every corner of his artistry. He plans to continues his solo career long after the group disbands too.

Position: Lead Vocalist, Rapper, Songwriter, Visual, Maknae

Biho was the 3rd member to join ST Entertainment. Out of the 4, he was the only one who submitted a formal audition tape to ST Entertainment and got accepted through the traditional audtion process. What made his audtion special was that he performed his own song-- a love song to his future lover. The judges absolutely loved his vibe and voice, so they couldn't pass this opportunity.

When Biho became a trainee, he always felt insecure about his skills. Even though he was talented, Biho was training with the likes of Taehee and Hansol, who were already experienced and seasoned professionals. Biho thought he'd be holding his group back, but the other members assured him that his presence made a significant impact on the group.

And honestly, it really did because Biho wrote most of their songs. His lyrics were both thought-provoking and poetic. He was never afraid of writing music about the things on his mind (whether it was love, fear, anger, or sadness). However, editing the lyrics took a lot of time as Biho only wanted to make the best content for his fans. Sometimes he lets Hansol write music with him.

Biho's strength lies in his singing (like most of the other members). His voice is soft and breathy, almost like a lullaby wrapping you in a soft blanket. No matter how you're feeling, Biho's voice is guaranteed to calm your nerves and take to your safe place.

Biho is also known for his looks. Although Yooha is the group's top model, Biho's face is the perfect canvas for all types of makeup styles. Although he doesn't realize it, fans love the duality between his soft persona and his darker one. Many are surprised that Biho is able to make the switch for sexier concepts and absolutely die when he does.

However, Biho shines the most with soft boy concepts. It's the image that he's had for the longest and is most comfortable with. Besides, the more thoughtful and heartfelt songs are where his lyrics get to shine through-- making him extra happy. For reference, the best examples of soft boy songs that suits Biho would be "Spring Day" by BTS, "Don't Wanna Cry" by SEVENTEEN, "Blue Hour" by TXT.

In fan interactions, Biho is extremely warm and a tad bit shy. He's always blushing when fans compliment him and showers his fans with a bunch of love in return. He likes to take his fans' hands and sincerely thank them for their support because his group would be nothing without them.

In fact, Biho is the most likely to get emotional while performing. The fact that there are so many people who are willing to listen to his music and his message is something that he could barely dream of. He will be forever indebted to their kindness, which is why he tries go provide his fans with all a lot of content (lives, Q+As, pop-up fansigns).

In the group, Biho isn't much different. In fact, he's the member whose idol persona matches his real personality the most. He's always cheering hisnother members from the side and gushing about how amazing they are. Sometimes he likes to throw an occasional jab at Yooha though (especially when Yooha is feeling himself too much).

For side projects, Biho is working on a book! He already has a collect of poems that was published, which has recieved high praise from critics and other poets. He also spends time writing songs for other groups, especially ones that come from small, poor companies.

[lenmatcha]

Xiao Yuliang related video recs from Bilibili!

P.S. 

If the live comments section is too distracting, you can turn it off by clicking a button on the bottom that looks like this:

Anyways, Enjoy

Xiao Yuliang edits:

【肖宇梁｜手书动画】to Rainco.小月亮，欢迎回来！ 【Xiao Yuliang| Animatic】to Rainco. Welcome back!

This artist spent only a month making this animatic. 

Check it out, it looks cool!

这TM才是一人千面的蛊王！【肖宇梁 · 欲向病娇感】 Man with a Thousand Faces 【Xiao Yuliang·Yandere-Themed Edits】

Compilation of magazine photoshoots

Very smexy

Highly recommend :)

Zhang Qiling edits:

旦脸武生① | 不靠后期剪辑直接就能打到这种程度！ | 肖宇梁 | 打戏花絮和训练视频混剪 | 周大侠 Fight Scene Behind the Scenes and Training Compilation

FIGHT SCENES

If you feel unsatisfied by how UN or Shahai had edited their fight scenes, watch this video, many fans say his behind the scenes stunts are more satisfying to watch than the final products.

Or you can just spend the time watching him doing flips and stuff

三次元漫画男们的高燃打戏视觉盛宴，进来爽一下【佐藤健/肖宇梁｜绯村剑心/张起灵】 【Sato Takeru/Xiao Yuliang| Himura Kenshin/Zhang Qiling】

A crossover between Ruroni Kenshin and Ultimate Note

both were known for being well-accepted live action adaptations and their impressive fight scenes

The transitions are really smooth, almost starting to see a resemblance between the two

Recommend for anybody who loves watching fight scenes with swords

显微镜看剧 | 肖宇梁 | 从瓶盖漏出的一些瞬间 & 一位百岁老人比较可爱的一些瞬间  Xiaoge Cute Moments Compilation

This is a baby xiaoge appreciation video

There are a total of 4 videos under the same title, they should show up in the recs

【张起灵|肖宇梁】雪山上那一幕回眸，在我心上烙下一道白月光啊 【Zhang Qiling| Xiao Yuliang】That Glance Upon the Snowy Mountains, Left a Ray of Pale Moonlight Upon My Heart

This video used one of my favorite songs when it comes to XYL edits

This was made before UN aired, he was already many ppl’s favorite ZQL even tho he only had minutes of screen time

【肖宇梁】带你沉浸式体验张起灵的百年孤独 Experience Zhang Qiling’s Hundred Years of Solitude

THE FEELS

There’s no lyrics in the music, so you don’t need to understand Mandarin to have the same experience

The video uploader recommend you to watch the video in full screen and turn off the comments for the full experience.

“你听说过藏海花的故事吗”【台词向|请笃信一个梦】 “Have You Heard of the Story of The Tibetan Sea Flower” 

Another one of my favorite songs, 请笃信一个梦， sang by Zhou Shen (周深）， some may recognize him for drama and donghua ost’s

Zhou Shen’s voice is incredible, but also the part there the child was singing, made me really think about xiaoge’s life and how NPSS said he is the most innocent character out of the DMBJ series

The lyrics are also surprisingly fitting. If you ship WX&ZQL, you might find the song heartwarming

Ship edits:

【邪瓶丨秦昊x肖宇梁】枕黄粱（互动剧情有！！！） 【Wu Xie x Zhang Qiling| Qin Hao x Xiao Yuliang】Zhen Huang Liang (Interactive routes!)

This edit is based off of a Xieping fic

Basically while ZQL was in the Bronze Gate, he subconsciously materialized another version of himself. 

The other “him” died after telling him to go home with Wu Xie. 

ZQL, feared that he is an imposter himself and that WX is going to find out, buried his other “self” in a stone-piled grave before meeting with WX.

ZQL went home with WX, trying to keep the materializing thing a secret, but one day the secret was exposed by Hei Xiazi, who found the buried body on Changbai Mountains.

If you’re watching from your computer, at the end of the video, you can choose different endings by clicking one of the buttons. 

【黑瞎子×张起灵】【黑瓶】||无问|| 为什么亲吻他的伤疤，却又不能带他回家 【Hei Xiazi x Zhang Qiling】||No Question|| Why You Kiss Him on His Scars, But Unable to Bring Him Home

The singer Mao Buyi was well know for his angsty songs

I’m surprised not that many ppl ship them now

These two had known each other many times before, although ZQL might have forgotten many of those memories. 

Every time xiaoge loses his memory, Hei Xiazi had to introduce himself again

Being the two characters with longer lifespan than the rest, they can keep each other company as time goes on.

Crack ships???:

“我集齐宝石，付出一切，只为砸开青铜门接你回家” I’ve Gathered All the Infinity Stones, Sacrificed Everything, Only to Bring You Home

Thanos x ZQL (yeah you read that correctly, it’s the Thanos from MCU)

ASDFGHJKL JUST WATCH IT

What terrifies me is that it has a coherent plot....

Never in my life did I expect to see Thanos and xiaoge in the same video...

肖宇梁 ●○ 失 忆 蝴 蝶丨爷孙就是最屌的 Xiao Yuliang· Amnesia Butterflies 

Zhang Qiling x Mi Ruo

Yes, it’s the two characters both played by XYL.

Fans always joked about how he looks different in every drama and almost like they’re played by different actors.

So here we are, a video edit of “What if Mi Ruo’s grandpa was actually Zhang Qiling”

Also, Mi Ruo and UN Wu Xie were both voiced by the same voice actor

[dreamboatisland]

walk with me | h.s.

Summary: feeling the need to prove your relationship to your coworkers wasn’t something that once concerned you. until their comments push you to join them on a hiking trip.

Pairing: Harry Styles x reader

Word Count: 3482

Warnings: bullying is somewhat present, none other than that I believe

A/N: So recently I decided to sign up for the Summer Reading Challenge hosted by the wonderful @helladirections with the prompt of hiking! As sort of my introduction into the Harry Styles writing world. In case this one doesn’t suit your fancy, definitely go ahead and check out some of the other authors and their works linked above! And if you would like to proceed, I would just like to say this is not where I intended to go with this prompt and that cracks me up. Sorry if it’s cringe. I can’t say it’s my first time writing, but it is for Mr. Harry Styles.

It wasn’t unusual for you to sleep in on days that you had off. In fact it was more than normal for Harry to come home and find you still sleeping tangled between the sheets just like he left you in the morning. But when you hear the door creak open and his footsteps in the room, you wake up immediately as you don’t want to waste any free time that the two of you had. With him always being in the studio nowadays, you took any chance you could to spend time with him.

Which usually consisted of cooking dinner together or watching a movie neither of you had heard about. These were the moments you treasured. The ones where he would dust flour over your nose in order to see your cheeky smile. Where you would cuddle up close to him under the blanket while you were both sprawled on the couch watching the latest episode of a tv drama.

The domesticity between the two of you was something you both treasured as it was a feeling of peace and comfort you experienced together. Usually it’s experienced when meeting each other's gazes. Knowing that you had to keep a level of friendship with the lovers portion in order to truly move forward in your relationship. And it truly did work as you were able to find a balance of seriousness, love, and enjoyment.

There were many people who questioned how your relationship worked. It wasn’t always the fans on Harry's side, but truthfully it came from those close to you. Close to you in the way that you spent a lot of time with them in your line of work. Always seeming to have an opinion on the way you both spent your time together and trying to fill your mind with doubts. Doubts that quickly went away if they were to appear as you knew how your relationship worked. But they didn’t understand.

Truthfully you didn’t understand what all the constant badgering on their part was for. To you it almost seemed as if they had nothing better to do then to pick apart your life, specifically your love life.

Even with all the constant telling and stories you gave of how you made it work and that you both treasured and cared for each other, it didn’t seem to convince them. Usually, that would have been the point where you moved on. But you couldn’t stand having people you worked closely with constantly ask and tell you how your relationship is when they had no part in it.

One of the many things they’ve done since you’ve announced you were dating the world renowned pop/rock star, is to invite you two to join them on their weekly hangout adventures. While you weren’t close to them and only kept up appearances to not be rude, they actually seemed like they got along well. Apparently more than well if they were willing to spend time together on their only day off.

After constant asking on their part, you decided to ask Harry if he would be willing to attend this week. You figured it was a way to show them how your relationship worked and that all they told you wouldn’t matter. You also wanted to see if they would say any of the things they told you to your face to his.

“So love what do you want to do this week-end? You’re finally getting a two day break, so I decided to take them off as well to be with you.” His arms slipping around your waist and pulling you close to him. Looks like he asked before you got the chance.

“Well actually now that you mention it.” You can’t help, but drag on not knowing if he’ll be open to the idea of going hiking with some of your coworkers.

Sure it seemed like an excellent idea for you two to have as a date, something you haven’t done in a while, but with your coworkers? It didn’t seem all the pleasant even to you.

“Hiking as in the forest or…” He trails off not knowing if there even was a hiking trail near your city.

“Yeah they said they know this pretty hiking spot about an hour from here. I don’t want to pressure you Harry, but please think about it? It’ll only be this one time so they can get off my back about never bringing you around them. They think you’re embarrassed of me.” You accidentally whisper out the last part not intending him to hear.

With wide eyes you look up at him and he looks disheartened. Knowing that people you have to work closely with in order to do your job think he could be embarrassed of you, hurts his heart. You, his golden gem that he only wishes he could ever bestow the same amount of love you gave him. His beautiful sunflower that has always managed to bring a sort of happiness to him at any time of day. It was undoubtedly obvious that he practically worshipped you.

He’s heard countless stories of what your coworkers say to you. And while you may not understand the hidden meanings that their words hold, he does. But he doesn’t ever mention it as he knows it will only hurt and anger you more than they already do. Instead he subtly tries to tell you that you should ask your director for a change in coworkers. He knows how much you actually love your job though so he could never ask or tell you to quit and find a new one.

Maybe accompanying them will let them know you two are as serious as can be. And that you are the light of his life that they won’t be able to dim or take away.

When he lifts your chin for your gaze to meet his, he can feel the guilt radiating from you. Knowing you didn’t want to guilt trip him into this makes him feel more confident as you truly didn’t want to make him uncomfortable. You truly did love him with your whole heart. No matter how much you wanted to go so that hopefully the comments would stop, you would never want to put him in a position where he wasn’t happy or comfortable.

As soon as word hit your office, specifically those going on the hike this weekend, they couldn’t believe it. Mostly because ever since you entered this office and were hired for the current job you have, you were perceived as naive, standoffish, and unapproachable to your comrades. However, the one thing that irked them and why they resented you and made all those comments to you was because you had everything going for you.

You were hired soon after obtaining your degree in a position they weren’t able to acquire for years. Everybody always praised you in the work that all of the team managed to put in. And to top it all off for them, you managed to capture the heart of the sweetest man alive.

In your eyes, you worked as hard as you had to, even sacrificing friend or family time to focus on your career, always commended and put the focus on your teammates when working on a project, and managed to get lucky enough to meet Harry in the middle of a diner on one of the late nights working where they all sent you to pick up dinner.

You could never see how much they resented you and they would never understand how long you had to suffer for before the good started to come your way.

Eventually the day came where you and Harry climbed into your car and headed to the location your coworker, Laura, messaged you.

Blasting as many songs as you could on different radio stations was a great way to spend the drive with Harry. With his angelic voice seeming to soothe you even with the screeching coming from the radio artist.

But you couldn’t help but think as to why this was such an important thing for you. To be fairly honest you’re not quite sure as to why going on this trip was a priority for you. Even with all the comments they made about your relationship, you didn’t normally let it bother you. Being the girlfriend of Harry Styles was already an immediate case for backlash, but you took it harder when it came from the people you work with. Which made some sense as they are tied closely to your life, but usually you didn't care.

Not wanting to dive too much into it and instead focusing on the fact that you and Harry will be able to spend some time together in the forest, even with some not so desired people, you couldn’t help but get excited.

This was something you’ve always wanted to do. The climb didn’t sound all that much fun, but you wanted to see if you could push yourself. And from what you’ve heard the view was absolutely stunning.

When you both arrived at the parking area, you noticed they had already arrived and were gathering their packs for the hike.

Once they noticed you both exit the car they all walked over to you upon locking their car doors.

“Hey Y/N, Harry. Hope the drive was alright. Excited?” Harry notices the slight distaste on the girl's face when she faces you to speak. But it’s not something you either seem to notice or aren’t bothered about, which irks him deep inside. They shouldn’t be treating you like this.

“Yeah we had a blast singing along to the radio. I’m excited, but a little worried. I didn’t really know what to pack.” You’re reaching into the backseat to pull out the small backpack you managed to gather supplies in right before the trip here.

“Oh Y/N I’m sure you packed well enough. Shall we get going?” The guy with the sunglasses seems to only be looking at him and never faces you, Harry notices.

But you just nod and grasp his hand in yours. Pretty soon you’re all walking along the path many others have trailed along that foliage no longer grows.

The others seem to have agreed upon asking Harry seemingly normal questions. Mainly about what his work schedule is like. Does he enjoy what he does and all the spotlight that comes with it. The questions seem pretty normal and you all seem to actually be getting along which calms you down as you were worried they wouldn’t like him.

However that should have been the least of your worries. In fact, after working with then for years you should have known that it was the opposite.

It wasn’t until halfway through the hike when you all stopped for a break that they broke the peace and calmness.

You were all resting against some fallen trees for a few minutes before you had to go down one path on a fork in the road.

Out of the corner of your eye, you see Laura sneak up next to Harry and stand up tall to reach his ear in order to whisper something to him. You can see him tense when she goes back down and smirks at him, but continues to speak lowly to him.

You stuff everything back into the bag from your place on the floor where you were looking for a bottle of sunscreen you thought you had packed. When you get back on your feet you can feel the heat of everyone’s stares shift between where you stand and where Harry stands with Laura.

“How dare you! You all can go to bloody hell!” You can hear his voice echo throughout the densely packed trees. You’ve never heard Harry curse is all you can think about as he suddenly grabs onto your wrist and pulls you towards the path on the left, the furthest away from them.

“I hope you all know you are all heartless human beings who do not deserve my sweet Y/N. I should make a call to your company to let them know how you’ve been harassing their most hardworking employee. And yes, hardworking employee as we all know you’re all busy being too jealous doing any actual work.”

As he walks away from them you can’t help but turn back and see them all look surprised with a hint of remorse it appears? You shyly look up to Harry and see how he is fuming. And think it’s better to let him calm down. Nothing better than taking an angry stroll through the woods to calm someone down.

You continue walking right next to him trying to keep up with the pace he’s set. But with you being a bit shorter than his tall frame it’s hard to keep up the pace. Especially when the pace he set seems to be increasing the more he realizes they could be right behind the both of you.

His hand still on your wrist seems to clench tighter and you find yourself almost tripping over a dip in the trail.

It’s not until you tug harshly on his sleeve that he pulls back and recognizes what he did.

“Oh crap I’m sorry love. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to pull you.” He lowers his head in shame and you know he doesn’t feel angry anymore, but instead awful at having hurt you.

“It’s alright baby. It’s alright. I get you didn’t mean to.” Rubbing his cheek with your fingers seems to calm him down as he leans into your palm.

“Do you wanna continue our climb? We’re already here. We might as well see what this view is that everybody is talking about.” You know he’ll talk when he’s ready about what happened, but until he does you want to let him know you’re not angry at him despise what may have happened when you were still with the rest of the group.

He softly smiles at you and intertwines your fingers to walk alongside you.

The walk seems peaceful until the actual hike part seems to appear once again and you have to walk upwards. You can’t help but sigh. The one good thought coming to your mind is that since you’re no longer with the others you can take your time and not feel like you’re going to pass out from pushing yourself in order to not get left behind. Harry seems to have a natural endurance for this sort of thing and is the motivational voice you need and end up hearing. Pushing you to take your time but to keep going and not give up.

Originally you wanted to keep going to give him something else to think about, but you were actually thinking about going back down. But with Harry’s words of support you want to keep going. Want to see what’s at the top of this mountain climb. He seems to distract you by the height of which you’re climbing by talking about his upcoming musical pieces. By which one is inspired by you.

It was meant to be a surprise but what a better time to tell you how you were his muse then when you were grabbing on tightly to his hand and sweater sleeve in order to not slip on the rocks below your feet.

You can’t help but feel honored at the fact that Harry had written a song about you. All he ever showed you was kindness, joy, and love and you hoped that one day you would be able to show him just how much he mattered to you. Whether that be by taking his last name, having a family with him, or just spending the rest of your life with him, you couldn’t wait to create more memories with him.

When you both reach the top of the hill, you can’t help but feel drained. And when you notice that it keeps going up, although more slowly, you want to turn back around yet again.

“They asked me why I decided to be with you. And said some awful things about you. Well at least until I walked away with you. Y/N I know they’re your coworkers but why do you put up with them? I’ve told you that you could probably get put in a different department, but still keep the same position.” You can tell this is tearing him up inside. And it really is, he doesn’t understand how you have such a strong group of dislikers that they get joy over seeing you get hurt. And yes he does understand that some of it may come with dating him, but these are people you work with. You even have superiority over them. Heck his haters seem to be kinder to you, knowing that behind it all you were still a human being.

He didn’t understand how one person could hold that much hate over someone who’s never treated them with an ounce of disrespect. Much less a whole group of them. The opinion that you’ve had everything in life handed to you was something they held on strongly to. And at the end of day he couldn’t do anything about it, but he could still protect you from that environment. It was also their loss is how he viewed it. They would never get to experience the true bliss he gets when you laugh at one of his lame jokes. Or the kindness you bestowed upon him when you brought him dinner after staying too long in the studio.

“Come on love let’s keep walking, well until we reach the hiking part.”

You hold onto each other as you continue walking forward and up the rest of the hike while he continues to offer his opinion on what you should do. And you know you should listen to him. That’s what you intend to do.

You honestly can’t believe it took you this long to grow a backbone to demand respect in your office group. With Harry’s help you decided you would be going to talk to your supervisor about it. Although you still didn’t know if you wanted to be moved or if you wanted to quit working there altogether. Harry was correct that you loved your job, but maybe it was time for a change.

Knowing the possibilities of what might happen when the week started was almost as exciting as coming over the bend with Harry. Seeing the top of the mountain finally flatten out was a great pleasure knowing you no longer had to walk up.

It really didn’t hit you that you made it to the top until you looked out past the peak and saw all the greenery below you. Towards the horizon you can barely make out a hint of your city. But that’s overshadowed by the beauty that’s right in front of you. The breeze that blows through your face and hair feels refreshing after working up a sweat.

You look back and find Harry grinning at you. Not being able to suppress it, you find yourself running back in his direction only for him to catch you in his arms. You can feel him spin you both around and you can’t help the laugh that comes from you. Feeling a surge of happiness you look down to meet his eyes as he slowly lowers you to the ground.

Knowing you couldn’t have done this without him, both deciding to finally do something about your job and the hike, you press your lips against his as a sort of thank you. Hoping he’ll understand. And he seems to when he moves his lips against yours, quickly finding a rhythm.

“I love you.”

“I love you too, so much.” You whisper to him when you separate and rest your forehead against his. The breeze blowing harshly against you causing you to shiver.

“It’s a lot colder up here huh?” He lets out a chuckle as he shrugs off his sweater and places it over your head and onto you.

“There you go all nice and cozy.” He quickly presses another kiss onto your lips until he’s spinning you around.

Hugging you from behind, you grip him closer. He can’t help but admire the way you hold his arms tight to your body. How nicely you tuck under his chin. Trying to be discreet, he presses a kiss onto your temple and you unconsciously lean into him. He can’t help but let out a sigh at how beautiful you truly are.

“My precious Y/N.” You can feel his mumble of words against your head. Softly, he begins humming into your hair as you both admire the view laid out before you.

[thedreadvampy]

Ok please if you don’t mind saying - who is Stuart semple and what did he do? I’m so confused. Like I recognise the name and I think he might the an artist or something but I have no idea

He is indeed an artist! He’s a English multidisciplinary fine artist best known for his ongoing beef with English sculptor Anish Kapoor over the 2016 exclusive licensing on the process to make Vantablack colour coating, which meant Kapoor was the only artist allowed to use it. Then Stuart Semple made Pinkest Pink pigment and said it was available to everyone but Anish Kapoor, and there was a big blowup which there’s a lot of documentation of - it was very memed.

Since then, Semple has made a bunch more pigments, most of them with the available-to-everyone-but-Anish-Kapoor disclaimer, and the beef periodically flares up, although I will say as time goes on it seems to me to have got increasingly one-sided given that Kapoor has pretty much wandered off.

(I’ve used several of his colours, btw. Pinkest Pink is pretty good. Blackest Black, his attempt to make the blackest possible paint (as opposed to Vantablack which is a nanofibre coating) I was pretty disappointed in, I’ve honestly had better light capture from mid-range art shop paints. His other pigments vary in quality - some I really liked, some I was meh on, but I think Blackest Black is the only one I was actively unimpressed by)

Anyway. Where I come in is much less exciting. 

A few months ago I reblogged a post on Tumblr asking about Semple from a discourse tag (my reblog did not tag or @ anyone), and I made a glib comment where I said (very truthfully) that while I thought he was pretty decent at pigments, both his paintings and his online persona came across pretty adolescent to me.

so it turns out Stuart Semple is an inveterate name searcher (hi Stuart if you’re reading this!) 

(Side note: I actually should have guessed this from 2019 Twitter when he saw and commented on an untagged thread I wrote about him and Kapoor’s beef (which was because I’d seen an article in which Kapoor, a British-Asian man, said that the racist Prevent strategy was liable to drive young British-Asian men into the arms of terrorist groups by making it clear their country hates them reblogged on Semple’s account with a caption claiming Anish Kapoor was pro-terrorism, which, while tongue-in-cheek, isn’t a neutral statement for a white person to make about an Asian person and was a pretty phenomenally bad-faith reading of Kapoor’s actual words) and in my thread I pretty much said that when the story had broken, I, like everybody else, had found it very funny and been firmly on side with Semple’s bit, but I felt that a) after a couple of years it really wasn’t very relevant any more and it had started to feel less like Fighting The Power and more like bullying the amount of Semple’s web presence was devoted to talking about Anish Kapoor; b) that it was a shame that Anish Kapoor was increasingly only known as The Vantablack Guy given that I really like a lot of his work and c) that continuing to frame a Jewish person of colour as the Face of the Artistic Elite was a bit weird given how overwhelmingly white the high-end art world is. but I digress. Semple responded to that thread, I don’t really remember what he said, it wasn’t an acrimonious response but it was a bit Oh I Didn’t Do Anything To Tag You?)

so anyway he found my reblog and commented saying ehhh I don’t remember, something along the lines of not feeling like I was being very kind and that he was trying his best. also I think he said I had accused him of being racist? which again the actual Tumblr post literally just said I thought his art and persona came across as juvenile and I think in the tags? I mentioned that I thought it was time for him to step off the Kapoor beef. 

then he screencapped my post, including my profile picture and username, and posted it on all his socials with a kind of :( people are so mean on Tumblr :( caption and um

idk if you know this about Being A Public Persona With Tens Of Thousands of Followers but. if you post someone’s identity and say ‘I do not like what this person is doing’ it. can get messy fast.

uh I don’t follow Stuart Semple (see the original post I made) but he commented to make sure I knew he’d posted my post on Instagram and “all my followers like your wig :)” which. according to my partner who did go and look at the time, the Instagram comments were largely about how I was an ugly non-passing trans woman aka “man in a wig” which. throw the whole suitcase out. There were a good few days where I got a lot of angry anons, ranging from ‘stop bullying Stuart Semple!!!!!’ to ‘die in a ditch graphically’ to ‘how can you claim to have opinions on art when You Are On Tumblr’ (I have been a freelance illustrator for 7 years and I have a Masters in art and design) to ‘your art sucks and you’re fat and ugly’ and my personal favourite ‘how can u be cis and use she/her pronouns you dumb snowflake’

(within that furore was a whole branch where someone was like ‘sex worker huh bet you’re bad at it’ and I was like ‘yep! that’s why I don’t do it any more! it’s hard work and it involves a lot of self-promotion and customer skills which I don’t like and am not good at!’ and this was a Whole Thing where they kept trying to insult me (much like today’s anon) about my supposed failures as a Slut Who Is Bad At Sex and I kept going like ‘ok but here’s how that just. doesn’t make sense in reference to what sex work actually is so like, ok?’)

and Stuart Semple and I were also having a conversation which, depending on your perspective I would call his attitude either conciliatory or passive-aggressive, there was a lot of ‘me and my followers would never say rude things about you :) keep up the art kiddo :)’ and being charitable I would say he was trying to be nice while being angry, and to avoid escalating (but with the added context I got later about the wig comment, I think that interpretation of his behaviour maybe. has some cracks?) and ultimately he took down the posts, we had a brief conversation about keeping pet reptiles (apparently he has a lizard) and we left it on, if not good terms, at least peaceable ones. 

however I still periodically get messages about it from angry Semple stans. and I’m not sure the argument was resolved, in that I still very much think it’s fair to make criticism, including quite harsh criticism (which I’m not sure ‘adolescent’ is), on art which is put out for public display and enjoyment, and that it isn’t a personal attack to post a criticism of someone’s public-facing work and statements on social media unless you actively target it towards them (for example, @ ing them), and Semple still thinks there’s no difference between a random blog with under a thousand followers criticising a public figure’s work and a public figure with 100k followers on most platforms criticising that blog (out of context - he clipped out the post I was reblogging from and my explanatory tags, and looking at my blog you may notice that 90% of my nuance is in the tags) while giving his followers all the information to find said blog.

(also as multiple people have remarked. if you want to say it’s an unfair criticism to call your online presence immature, being a middle-aged artist who as far as I can tell has a net worth over a million who spends your time name searching yourself in order to get mad at untagged mild criticism from strangers on the internet and share it on all your socials for your followers to join you in Being Big Mad is uhhhhhhh. it uh. it’s not like. not super thin-skinned and immature)

(also also I just googled his net worth and unsurprisingly I can’t find a source on it I’d consider reliable, but I did find multiple articles about him getting in trouble for breach of contract and nonpayment for gallery employees, including two accusations of him writing a big defensive blog post then changing it after a few hours to a very short post saying I LOVE YOU so like idk how true that is but it does seem. consistent with the above interactions.)