#and camera seems so random too if it’s not storage so

[kuiinncedes]

bro i think my phone camera and flashlight r somehow broken lol 😭

[smolwritingchick]

The Bangtan Gal Chapter 37- Running Man

Chapter Summary: BTS guest star on Running Man, playing the Tag Game. Running Man cast quickly finds out that JenKook are dangerous when they work together, and try to separate them.

Words: 4,000+

Author's Note: Jungkook fluff! JenKook! I love Running Man and plan to have Jennie be on more episodes, so I'll be making random chapters of her on Running Man. I hope you enjoy it. Inspired by Episodes 171 and 172 Tag Game with EXO! There will be a JenKook Running Man Episode in 2015 of the story! 

-------

Located at a local mall, rented out for the Running Man crew, the camera pans toward a stage in the middle of the mall.

‘There’s a stage...?’

Suddenly, BTS emerged from the stage, appearing as the audience cheered loudly, while they performed Danger.

‘They are finally here. Welcome idol group, BTS!’

“Okay, now your last mission will start. BTS versus Running Man. You’ll take turns playing hide and seek. Since your question is wrong, Running Man will hide first.” The announcement was heard as each Running Man cast member scrambled around the mall for a hiding spot. “BTS will start looking for you now. Rotating hide and seek starts now!”

With her curly hair styled in a bun on top of her head, with curls layered around her face, and her name tag stuck against her green varsity jacket, Jen strolled around on the first floor of the mall with the rest of the members. 

“I think we should split up.” Rap Monster recommended.

He pondered about getting as many Running Man cast members as possible by splitting up into teams, instead of staying together.

“Yeah, I think that would be wise.” Jin agreed.

“With this method, we should so we can oust as many as we can,” Jennie responded.

Adrenaline filled her veins. It was her first time on Running Man, along with the rest of the members. Who knew they would get a great opportunity to be on the show instead of sitting at the dorm, watching it? And it was a tag game, too!

“Split up into teams of two?” Jungkook suggested since BTS had an even number.

“I call Jennie!” A sudden shout was heard behind her. 

Before she could comprehend what was going on, Jimin wrapped his strong arms around her waist, holding onto her like a Koala Bear, with a big smile on his face.

“No way!” Jungkook blurted out. He stared at Jimin in annoyance, calling him out, “I called her first! Before we even got here!”

“There’s no proof! So, she’s my partner. You always hog her. We never spend any time together these days.”

“Oh dear...” Jen let out a sigh.

“Actually,” Rap Monster spoke up, removing Jimin from Jennie, “I called her first because I asked her last night and she said sure.”

Jungkook and Jimin, J-Hope and V, Jin and Suga were together in teams and scattered around the mall. J-Hope, V, Jungkook and Jimin go on the second floor, while Jin, Suga, Rap Monster and Jennie stay on the first.

“RUNNING MAN!” Jen heard the guys yell while she walked with Rapmon.

“We need to find the strongest players first. Like Jongkook. If he’s not out before this round is over, we’re going to be in deep trouble.” Rapmon murmured.

“I hear you. Lord knows I don’t want to encounter that man.” She shook her head. Jongkook was someone she never wanted to encounter. He was a beast on Running Man and showed no mercy. She would rather be on his team than against him. “Let’s check out that store, over there.”

Walking into a random clothing store, the two of them search around. From opening changing room doors to looking around the racks of clothes, they couldn’t seem to find anyone. Meanwhile, Haha and Ji-hyo were in the storage room, nervously watching them on camera, hiding out.

“Find anything?” Jen asked after shutting the last dressing room door.

Rapmon sighed in disappointment. “Nah. Let’s move to another store.”

“Ooh look at these hats!” She looked at the shelves with snap-backs in amazement. She might have to buy one of them after filming is over.

“Not the time Jennie.” Rap Monster dragged her away from the hats as the audience laughed.

“I’ll be back for you!” She pointed to the snap-backs as they exited the store.

“HEY! I found one of them! Guys! Come quick! Second floor! YAH!” They instantly hear Jin shout as all members of BTS rush to the second floor, in front of the store where Jin is yelling. 

Suk Jin was found in one of the storage rooms among various brown boxes.

“Hello, Suk Jin! I’m V!” He happily introduced himself as he grabbed a hold of him with a big grin.

“Hello, V. Now can you let me escape?” Suk Jin desperately tried to pull back.

“No can do!”

Jin, V, Jimin and Suga were all over Suk Jin, grabbing onto him and striving for his name tag.

“Snatch it off! Get it!” Jin shouted. “We’re almost there!”

“What does it look like we’re doing!?” Suga retorted.

“Jin is just a little bit too excited to play this game.” Jimin giggled while Suk Jin started laughing while trying to evade getting his name tag ripped.

‘Big nosed brother is in danger!’

All they could hear was a loud rip as Jimin happily raised the name tag up in the air.

‘JI SUK-JIN OUT. JI SUK-JIN OUT’

“Hello, it’s nice to meet you. My name is Jimin.” He grinned and bowed.

“Jimin. I’ll remember that name.” Suk-Jin called him out as they all shared a laugh.

Meanwhile, outside the store, Jen walked to the railing to see Haha running around on the first floor. As the camera catches her spotting him running around, the audience wooos.

“Found another!” She shouted as she dashed down the stairs with Namjoon.

Hearing her shout, Haha turned around, startled, and stared in surprise when he saw two members of BTS running to him.

“Oh, come on!” He exclaimed and began to run away. He panicked as Jennie got closer and closer to him. As he stopped running when Rap Monster attempted to grab a hold of him, Haha managed to keep him at arm’s length, laughing nervously. “The game just started!”

“Sorry, Haha.” Rapmon laughed as he attempted to grab him again. Evading his arms once again, Haha managed to run up to the second floor. “Jennie, corner him!”

“On it!” She shouted in response, running up the steps by skipping one step at a time, beating Haha on the second floor. 

As Haha glanced up to see her in front of him, he let out a yell in shock. He swiftly turned around to run back down the steps, but Rap Monster was at the end of the steps. The audience whoos once again as they watch that Haha had nowhere the go and Jen grabbed a hold of him from behind, maintaining a strong grip.

The caption, ‘Haha Has Been Caught!’ was shown on the screen.

“I’m sorry, Haha!” Jen ripped the name tag off his back in a quick motion.

‘HAHA OUT. HAHA OUT.’

“Atta Girl!” Rap Monster praised with a smirk, as he walked up the steps, regrouping with her.

Jen bowed to Haha, as he recovered. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Haha. I’m Miss Bangtan, Jennie.” She happily introduced herself.

“Ah, you’re too fast. I dunno what just happened.” He said in bewilderment as she let out a laugh with the crowd. “It’s nice to meet you, too, Jennie. Thanks for getting me out so early in the game. Was looking forward to lasting a while.” 

“Next time!” She guaranteed

‘One minute before rotating’

Jen and Rapmon hear the announcement and run around to hide. She decided to split up from Rapmon and head into a shoe store, running into J-Hope and Jungkook in the process. They decided to go into the room in the back, which was a storage room, stocked with other shoes, hiding around the equipment.

“5!”

“4!”

“3!”

“2!”

“1”

As the loud buzzer was heard, the Running Man crew began their search to hunt down BTS.

‘8 members of BTS VS 5 members of Running Man’

Hobi was next to Jennie, shaking violently, as he held onto her for dear life. Jungkook glanced at J-Hope, who was whimpering and let out a snicker. This was very funny to him.

“Hobi, you’re gonna get us caught! Relax!” Jen tried to stop him from shaking.

“I can’t! This is too scary! We’re gonna get caught! EEK!”

“SHH!” She put a hand over his mouth and turned to Jungkook. “Kook, please help me.” She pleaded desperately. 

They could not afford to get caught this early. She wanted everyone on her team to last long for their first time on Running Man.

“Hyung, it’s going to be OK. It’s not like someone’s gonna jump out and get you. Heheh, I wonder if they’re in this room right now, just waiting for the right moment to get you.” Jungkook teased, smirking evilly.

“EEEK! We’re gonna die!” J-Hope whined as the crowd laughed.

Jen rolled her eyes and rubbed J-Hope’s back, trying to soothe him as she shot Jungkook an annoyed expression.

Seriously, Jungkook? Really? Of all times to act the evil Maknae?

“WOW, Kookie. NOT helping! You just petrified him!” She whispered in annoyance, as she received a victorious smirk in response from the Golden Maknae.

But the mood turned serious when they heard someone in the store. 

“Children! Come out, children! Where are you!?” Jae-suk, better known as Grasshopper, shouted.

Jen exhaled shakily, covering J-Hope’s mouth so he wouldn’t scream. She shook her head urgently, trying to get him to calm down and not yelp in fear. Abruptly, they hear the door open as the three of them remain quiet.

“I have a feeling someone’s here...” They heard Grasshopper murmur as a cameraman followed him.

“AH! I found Jungkook!” He shouted, grabbing onto his arm as the crowd whoos. “Jungkook, it’s nice to meet you.”

Jungkook let out a laugh as he tried to push him away. “It’s nice to meet you, too.”

“YAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” J-Hope screamed over the top of his lungs and ran out of the room.

Grasshopper turned around in shock. “There’s another one!?”

The crowd laughed at his statement, while he began to run after J-Hope instead.

“J-Hope!” Jen shouted, running out of the store with Jungkook. “Run Hobi run! Run and don’t look back!”

“The kids are over there! Trap them!” Gary yelled as he ran towards them with Kwang-soo.

“Crap! Oh God, we lost our cover.” Jen looked on with worry, wondering what to do.

“Come on.” Jungkook grabbed her hand and dashed away from them.

J-Hope ran so fast from the adrenaline rush, that he escaped the Running Man crew and they decided to run after the Maknaes instead.

“Smartie and Jungkook are in trouble!” Suga pointed out to Rap Monster, hastily.

Rapmon simply shook his head, responding in a calm tone, “No, they’re not. They’ll be just fine. Trust me.”

Back to JenKook, when Kwang-soo stumbled in front of them, Jen stopped running, making Jungkook stop as well. 

“Ah-ah! Nope! Hands off him!” She pushed Kwang-soo’s hands away from Jungkook’s tag.

Jungkook yelled in surprise when Gary grabbed a hold of him from behind.

“I got him!” Gary shouted.

“Oh, HELL no! Not on my watch you don’t!” Jen shouted back, forcefully grabbing Jungkook to him, and snatching his hands away from Jungkook’s name tag. 

She felt a certain urgency to protect Jungkook. They had to stick together and they made an amazing team.

Out of nowhere, she managed to keep Gary at arm’s length and tripped him down to the floor, catching him off guard. But, she felt herself getting grabbed from behind by Kwang-soo. Wiggling herself away from his grasp, she crawled under his feet and ran away with Jungkook.

“How did they-” Kwang-soo stared dumbfounded, while Gary sat on the floor, catching his breath.

“I think we have a problem...” Gary huffed, still bewildered.

After outrunning the Running Man crew, Jungkook and Jennie snuck into a mattress store as a cameraman followed them.

“Now THAT was close...” She exhaled sharply.

That encounter was intense. She thought she was done for.

Name- Jennie

Weakness- Smarties

Attack- Normal

Defense- SEVERE

“Very. Glad, we outran them.” Jungkook opened one of the storage rooms, gesturing her to go in first.

Name- Jungkook

Weakness- Girls

Attack- SEVERE

Defense- Normal

Back with Gary and Kwang-soo, they meet up with Jongkook, Jae-suk and Ji-Hyo.

“These kids are gonna be the death of me,” Kwang-soo complained as the audience laughed at him.

“We desperately need to find them and get them out, like ASAP,” Gary exclaimed.

“Agreed.” Jae-suk nodded.

“What’s the problem? They shouldn’t be too bad.” Ji-Hyo spoke.

“Have you seen these kids, yet?” Gary asked her. “They run so fast!”

“I can handle a couple of kids. We can get them.” Jongkook replied confidently.

“Don’t underestimate them.” Kwang-soo shakes his head.

“Jungkook specializes in attack. Jennie specializes in Defense. We need to be careful around these two because if they catch us together, we’re done for. We need to separate them so they can’t get us.” Jae-suk recommended

“How are we going to separate them?” Jongkook crossed his arms.

“Half of us will go after Jennie, and the others will go after Jungkook.”

“Get those two out and we should have an easier advantage.” Gary nodded.

“Don’t you think we should go after the other members since they don’t seem much of a threat?” Ji-Hyo asked.

“It’s best to go after the strongest players first,” Gary responded.

“I think we should leave the strongest players until the end and just oust the others,” Jongkook suggested.

“Look, these kids made me trip over my own two feet. I want them out ASAP! They are too much!” Gary exclaimed as the crowd laughed.

-----

Meanwhile, Jen and Jungkook hide on the floor, with boxes scattered around them and blankets. They sit on the floor with the cameraman.

“You okay?”

Jen looked up to see Jungkook watching her with worry. She smiled in response. “We’re both alive and well, so I’m good.”

‘JIN OUT. JIN OUT.’

“Aw man, not Jin.” She murmured with disappointment.

“Darn it.” Jungkook huffed in annoyance.

“I hope the others are okay. Especially Hobi.”

“I think I scared him enough that he’ll just run away from anyone who approaches him. Teammate or not.”

Suddenly, they heard a loud bang as the door opened. Jen gasped sharply and flinched at the sound.

“Get down!” Jungkook said in a sharp whisper, gently but quickly pushing her on her back, landing on top of her. He put a blanket over them, while the cameraman managed to hide next to them, under another set of blankets.

The cameraman was unable to get any more footage because it was a little dark under the covers and Jungkook didn’t want to be noticed if the camera light was on.

With their faces inches from each other, Jennie and Jungkook maintain eye contact. “Don’t move.” He murmured as she curtly nodded in response. But when she heard more footsteps, her stomach dropped.

Placing her hand over the back of his head, she pushed him down, so there wouldn’t be a noticeable shape under the covers if the person checked where they were. Now his face was next to the side of her neck as he got a whiff of her perfume. Her sudden action surprised him but he wasn’t complaining.

Chest to chest, she felt his body heat radiate on her as she noticed the compromising but effective position they were in. Their hearts were racing from the rush of getting caught and the sudden closeness. She felt his warm breath on her neck, tickling her slightly as they remained quiet.

As they heard pairs of footsteps, they both noticed that despite where they were, it seemed like whoever was searching for them was having a hard time. But then they heard shuffling near them as Jen tensed up, closing her eyes. 

‘Please don’t notice us, please don’t notice us.’ She thought in her head.

Jungkook managed to not let out a groan of pain when a box fell right on his back. Widening her eyes, Jen immediately was concerned for his wellbeing.

“Kook?” She whispered, uneasily. 

How bad was the pain?

Letting out a soft curse from the discomfort, he murmured an almost inaudible, “Don’t worry. Relax, Jennie.” in her ear.

All that mattered to him was that she wasn’t hurt. He would gladly take another hit from the heavy boxes if it meant that she wouldn’t be harmed.

Jungkook had no time to feel shy or embarrassed at the position that they were in. All that was on his mind was keeping Jen safe, and winning this game, as his competitive streak came over him.

Before they knew it, the people who were trying to search for them left as Jungkook pushed himself up, looking at her in the eyes.

“You all right?” He asked.

“Unharmed. But are YOU all right? That hit sounded painful.”

“Ah, I can handle a box or two.” He grinned as they stared at each other.

She began to question why her face started to feel warm as she kept her eyes on him.

“K-Kookie?”

“Yeah?”

“I think they left.”

It took a moment for him to process her words as he looked at their position. His face started to heat up as he quickly got off her, pushing the blankets off their bodies and so did the cameraman.

Looking away shyly, Jungkook began to ramble, “Sorry. I didn’t mean to-I mean I-I was only trying to protect you-I hope you weren’t creeped out or anything or-“

Letting out a soft laugh, she shook her head. “Why are you apologizing? You just saved both of us. I want to last a long time in the game. Smart strategy. Thanks, Kookie.”

“Of course.”

“Oh and by the way, your breath smells nice. Smells like my gum. Thanks for stealing my gum without asking me.” She shook her head in disapproval.

“You would’ve given it to me, anyway.” He grinned sheepishly.

She rolled her eyes. “We should move. Only a matter of time before they come back. I think they’re gonna try to separate us.”

“Yeah. I know. Got a plan?”

“Oh yeah. This should go great. Here’s the rundown.”

After going over the plan, Jen and Jungkook left the mattress store and walked around until they saw Ji-Hyo.

“I see them!” She shouted, running right after them. Before she knew it, both she and the cameraman ended up losing them. 

Jae-suk ran up to them. “Where’d they go?” He looked around.

“I lost them.” The cameraman apologized as the crowd laughed. “I tried to keep up.”

“You lost the Maknaes!?” Jae-suk exclaimed.

-----

“In here.” Jungkook huffed and took her to a secluded storage room next to one of the stores. 

They lay low until they heard the door open. Backing her up against the wall, putting a finger to his lips, Jungkook protectively stood in front of her, while Jen breathed in and out, slowly through her nose, with her eyes closed.

So, this is the intensity of almost getting caught.

Outside the room, Gary shut the door, turning to the camera that was following him. 

“Ah, this place would be too obvious. They wouldn’t be in here.” He left as the crowd laughed

Sighing out of relief, Jungkook looked down at her.

“Hey.” He whispered gently. He continued once she opened her eyes to give him her full attention. “You all right?”

“Yeah. Trying to calm my nerves. I’m getting nervous.”

“Don’t be, because I’m right here with you.”

Before she could respond, she shouted, “Look out!” as Gary grabbed a hold of Jungkook from behind, aiming for his name tag. Out of instinct, Jungkook swiftly turned around and tried to evade his hands.

“Run Jennie!” Jungkook shouted.

With butterflies in her stomach, she stuttered, “R-run!? What!? I can’t just leave you!”

“I’ll be fine! Go before the rest of them try to come!”

“Kook, don’t do this-”

“Jennie, trust me. I’ll come back for you. Just go!”

Reluctantly turning to the door, she exhaled. “You better not be out!” She ran out of the room, praying that he would be all right as she saw Ji-Hyo running in the room. Running up the second floor, Jen bumped into Jimin and Tae who were escaping from Jongkook.

“Guys! Boy, am I glad to see you!” She exhaled and hugged them.

“Ennie! Good to see you’re still alive! Jongkook managed to ambush some of us, and now Suga and Hobi are stuck with him. We need to get out of here. Like, NOW.” V demanded seriously.

‘SUGA OUT. SUGA OUT.’

“There goes our Suga.” Jimin sighed

“I’m honestly not surprised. He’ll take a nap and be fine.” Jen shrugged, earning laughs from the audience. “I’m just worried about Jungkook...”

“And not us!?” Jimin shouted as the audience laughed again.

“He’ll be fine,” Tae reassured, as the three of them sneaked around to find another store to hide in. 

Out of nowhere, they hear J-Hope screeching nearby, as the three of them turn around in shock. There they see Jongkook effortlessly and roughly grabbing a hold of him, snatching the name tag off his back like it was nothing.

“Save yourselves!” J-Hope shouted as he was on the floor in defeat, still scared of Jongkook.

‘J-HOPE OUT. J-HOPE OUT.’

Jennie gulped. It was THE commander. Now what was she going to do? Jongkook was extremely intimidating. From the big muscles, and how effortlessly he eliminated J-Hope, she was in trouble. As soon as Jongkook began to run after them, the three members of the Maknae line desperately ran for their lives.

“AHHHHHH! RUN! RUN!” Taehyung screamed

‘Jongkook is on the attack!’

“Run! Run! Run! Don’t look back! Just run!” Jennie yelled.

“My legs are cramping!” Jimin shouted.

Suddenly Jimin and Jennie heard V yell out in shock and a loud ripping sound was heard.

“Tae!” She looked back.

“Keep running Jennie!” Jimin shouted.

‘V OUT. V OUT.’

Splitting up, Jen headed back to the first floor and ran into the food court. Out of breath, with a cameraman following her, she sat down on a chair. 

“This is not good....” She murmured.

She was exhausted. All the running clearly made her tired. All that was on her mind was, where was Jungkook? How were the others doing? And when was it finally time to rotate? Standing up, she turns around to see Jongkook standing there across the room as the crowd whoos.

‘Just my luck...’ She thought to herself as she tried to figure out how she would be able to survive this.

This was not fair.

What did she do to deserve this punishment?

Was it because she ate one too many smarties?

Nervously meeting his intense gaze, she gulped. “Hello, Jongkook.” She bowed, trying to not sound intimidated.

Smiling, he bowed. “Hello, Miss Bangtan.”

“Goodbye, Jongkook!” She ran around the tables as he followed her every move. She whined when he seemed to go wherever she went. 

‘This is not working! What am I going to do!?’ She pondered nervously.

“We can make this quick and easy. I don’t want this to be painful for ya.” He teased.

“Go away!” She whined as the audience laughed. “Come on! This isn’t how I wanted to go out! Wait! Wait! Can I get a 10 second head start? Please? Just give me that!”

“Fine. One.” He began to countdown as she started running. “10!” He shouted as he sprinted after her,

“Wait that wasn’t the countdown!” She shouted but screamed when she was grabbed by Jae-suk when she bumped into him. “No! No! Please!” 

“Your time is up, Miss Bangtan. You’re not as bulletproof as you think!” He said while Jongkook started walking up to her.

‘Jennie is in trouble!!!’

“Not today! I will live to see another round!” She shouted as she managed to turn around in Jae-suk’s arms, catching him off guard. She swiftly tripped him down onto the floor with her leg. The audience whoos as she ran away while Jongkook watched on in surprise.

Helping Jae-suk up, the two of them looked on. “She just-she just slipped between my hands,” Jae-suk said, bewildered as the crowd laughed at him.

'One Minute Until Rotation’

“By the grace of God, I’m still alive. Oh, my gosh, I can’t believe I just escaped Grasshopper and The Commander. I’ve been blessed, today. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for my quick footwork. I will celebrate by eating a pack of smarties when I’m back in the dorm. Phew, that was a rush.” She said to herself.

Thinking she was out of harm’s way, Jen made her way onto the second floor of the mall, cautiously walking around. It was only her, Jungkook, Rap Monster and Jimin left. And they would rotate in under a minute.

They could still win this. They had to win this.

‘5!’

‘4!’

‘3!’

‘2!’

‘1!’

‘Four Members of BTS VS Five Members of Running Man’

‘BTS Hunts now!’

Before she thought of who to go after, her thoughts were interrupted by a shriek escaping her lips when someone grabbed her from behind, dragging her into an emergency exit stairwell.

“Not again! Get off me!” She closed her eyes, trying to strike whoever had a hold of her.

The person grabbed her wrists with both of their hands, as she continued to struggle to fight.

“Babygirl, relax. It’s just me.”

Ceasing her struggling as she got released, Jen opened her eyes to see Jungkook staring down at her with a smile.

“Hey.” He greeted, smoothly. “It’s been a while. Long time no see.”

“Kook! You're okay!” She sighed out of relief, wrapping her arms around his neck, and pulling him in for a tight hug.

“Heh heh, course I am. I am the Golden Maknae after all.”

“Oookaay, never mind.” She released him, playfully shoving him away. “I’m happy you’re still safe. It was terrible out there. Ugh, why’d you make me leave you?!” She punched him in the chest. 

He remained unfazed, taking in her hits with an amused smile.

“That was not cool. We could’ve stayed together. I was worried sick about you!” She exclaimed.

“I told you to trust me.” he reminded her with a chuckle.

“Well, whatever plan you had, you could’ve just let me know from the get-go. What were you trying to do?”

“Impress you?”

Scoffing, she rolled her eyes, amused at his statement as she punched him on the chest, again. “You big bunny!”

“I’m sorry. I told you that I would protect you. Sorry for not doing that. I’ll try my best to keep you protected from now on.”

“I want to protect you, too, y’know. I got your back. We’ll protect each other. Alone, I think we’re just fine for the tag game. I mean, we survived this long. But together, we got some good chemistry.”

“We do make a good pair, don’t we?”

“JenKook, the Golden Duo. Let’s kick some Running Man tail.” she highfived him.

As they exited the emergency exit stairwell, they began their search. As they walked, she kept feeling his hand brush against hers, until she finally felt his warm hand grab onto hers. He then intertwined his fingers with hers.

“Am I...overstepping my boundaries?” He asked shyly.

She should’ve felt surprised that he was holding her hand but she didn’t. She felt comfortable around him and enjoyed the feeling. 

It made her feel happy. Content. And safe. 

“Nah, it feels nice, actually. I feel protected. Thanks for having my back.”

“And thanks for having mine.”

-----

With Gary and Song Ji-hyo, they walked around, still trying to find a hiding place. “We need to hide quickly. The Golden Duo is on the loose.” She cautiously walked with him.

“I know. I wished that we could’ve ousted them earlier.” Gary responded.

Stopping, Ji-hyo turned around. “I feel like we’re being followed.”

Watching from afar, Jen and Jungkook stalked the Monday Couple.

“How are we gonna approach them?” Jungkook asked.

Smirking to herself, she turned to him, raising her eyebrows. “Stealth.”

“It’s been a while since I played Metal Gear Solid.”

“No need. Leave it to me.”

After a minute of following the Monday Couple, JenKook went after the Monday Couple from behind. Ji-hyo let out a yell in surprise when Jen grabbed a hold of her arm, aiming for her name tag.

“Whoa! Whoa!” Gary shouted, backing away from Jungkook who was aiming for his tag.

“Oppa! Help!” Ji-hyo shouted, wiggling and squirming around Jen’s strong grip. Unfortunately for her, Gary was busy with Jungkook, as Jen easily ripped off her name tag.

‘SONG JI-HYO OUT. SONG JI-HYO OUT.’

‘GARY OUT. GARY OUT.’

Jen heard as Jungkook yanked off his name tag.

‘Golden Duo aggressively eliminates Monday Couple’

“Yeah!” Jen yelled in victory, high fiving Jungkook.

‘One Minute Until Rotation’

“I found Jongkook! I can’t do this alone! Come on guys!” Jimin shouted, catching the attention of JenKook as they ran to the first floor, where Jimin was on Jongkook’s back, gripping him tight.

Rap Monster tried to snatch his name tag off but kept getting shoved away. “Aish, he’s so strong!” He said tiredly.

“Finally, you guys showed up! I can’t hold much longer! Hurry before the time runs out!” Jimin told them while they rushed up to Jongkook.

Despite it being a four on one battle, Jongkook kept his own against all of them, which began to frustrate the members. They knew he wasn’t going to go down that easily, but even with four people on him?

As they heard the countdown, they all began to frantically aim for his name tag, as Jongkook had a strong grip on Jungkook. Jen and Rapmon attempted to fight off his strong grip, so Jungkook would be released but to no avail. Once the buzzer was heard, Jongkook swiftly ripped off Jungkook’s name tag while Jimin and Rap Monster dashed away.

“Run Jen!” Jungkook shouted as she groaned and sprinted away. This was not going too well. And things got worse because as soon as she turned the corner, she was met by Kwang-soo.

Shocked by her presence, he shouted in surprise, grabbing a hold of her as she slipped down on the floor. Before she even knew what was going on, he ripped off her name tag.

'JENNIE OUT. JENNIE OUT'

‘Miss Bangtan eliminated by Kwang-soo!’

“Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me!” She looked at her name tag in his hands. 

He helped her up. “I’m sorry, Miss Bangtan. It’s just a game.” He grinned nervously as she stared at him, unamused.

The audience laughed at her expression as he gulped nervously.

“What is your name again?” She asked, even though she already knew who he was.

“U-uh Lee Kwang-soo.”

“Lee Kwang-soo...” She repeated, staring him up and down, narrowing her eyes. “I’ll remember this.” She put two fingers in front of her eyes and turned them to him.

‘Kwang-soo has made an enemy’

At the end of the filming, the Running Man crew managed to win the tag game. The cast thanked BTS for attending the show as Bangtan expressed their excitement about filming the tag game.

The Monday Couple personally requested for Jennie and Jungkook to return for a future couples team episode so they could get them back for eliminating them, which they happily accepted and couldn't wait to be called back on the show.

[thecentrium]

What is the layout of the RV interior? (Elliott from Earth)

AKA there was no good reason for me to investigate this so deeply

Was I trying to build the RV as a house in The Sims and realized I had to actually figure out its full layout for that? Maybe, maybe not…let’s get to it though

So we can put together a pretty comprehensive layout of Elliott and Frankie’s RV just by looking at scene backgrounds, plus trying to make sure the recreated layout roughly fits the size of their type of RV. Their RV is what’s called a Class C, which can vary in size

As I tried to put together a layout “map” of the interior, the interior size it ended up reaching put the overall vehicle length at roughly 30 feet (see pic of random example 30 ft RV below)

With an interior length of about 28 feet including the overcab space, and a typical width of about 8 feet, a rough floor map ends up looking something like this:

Now most of these rooms and their furnishings are fully seen and known, since the living room and kitchen/dining area are all together (and there’s plenty of different scenes throughout that space to show it off) and there’s multiple shots of Elliott’s bunk too.

But…we have a few mysteries left. What’s the deal with the bathroom, and the (presumed) bedroom for Frankie in the back there?

Let’s start with the bathroom. In RVs, some models—usually small ones needing to save space, but Elliott and Frankie have a kinda unorthodox design with their RV, and maybe they just wanted the convenience and saved space with their RV too—have a “wet bath” for the bathroom. A wet bath is a small bathroom where the shower space and the rest of the bathroom are combined, so that basically the room itself IS the shower but it also contains other bathroom amenities.

We get only a glimpse of it just once, but enough to see it IS a wet bath:

There’s only that one very limited shot of it, but I think the rest of the room can be estimated, as you can see from the layout map I drew lol

Most wet baths, especially more room-sized ones like that, usually have a sink in one corner. We know it’s not in either of the back two corners we can see in that scene, and it can’t be mounted on the right wall surface there since that’s also the door, so that only leaves one corner where it could be.

From there it’s easy to just use process of elimination again to figure out where the toilet would be too—not visible at the back wall, can’t be against the right wall, and based on typical wet bath layout (and seeing where Mo is standing) it’s likely not on the left wall.

Other than that, looking close at the shot of the room for the other main structures of it, there’s a built-in shower shelf with bottles in it, the shower head and controls, and what seems to be a rounded corner shelf in the back

Overall, in the context of the scene it ends up something like this, with the sink and toilet out of view of the “camera” and the characters standing in front of them. Enjoy my awful drawn-over diagram it’s not pretty or perfectly accurate but it should get the point across lol

But enough looking way too closely at that. What about the other room—(seemingly) Frankie’s room? We see even less, but there’s still a bit of material to go off of: a glimpse of it through the doorway in one shot, and another view from the hole punched in its wall

It’s probably a pretty small area made for just a bed and a bit of storage space/surfaces, considering the look and placement of it within the layout here as well as just how smaller RV bedrooms are usually made. So while there’s not really enough visuals of it to extrapolate a whole layout like the bathroom, there’s probably not that much stuff in this room in the first place.

We can see what’s likely the end of a bed, and seemingly some sort of table surface with it there…

…as well as, in the other shot, a decorated wall and seemingly a shelf or table surface with a picture frame and other stuff on it (I brightened the pic for visibility but that kind of destroyed the quality)

So that gives a rough idea of it being mostly taken up by the bed, with some sort of thin table/shelf surface further in against the back wall, and maybe also an extra table surface by the footboard of the bed there near the door

With those two rooms mostly figured out, probably as best as we can from the material we’ve got, that solves the two big “mystery areas” of the RV layout and gives us a pretty much complete picture for it!

The only other note would be regarding the vehicle cab (where the driver’s seat and controls are)

I could go into more detail on why exactly I think this, but even just for simplicity’s sake it seems to me that while Elliott’s cab-over bed space was generated as part of their habitation pod on the Centrium, the actual vehicle cab part that would be below it isn’t there anymore due to not being part of the “home area” the tech recreated, and the divider wall that separated it just functions as a regular non-opening wall in the habitation pod now.

So that’s pretty much all I’ve got—most of this is honestly the combined conclusion of YEARS spent looking closely at the environments and design of the show for reference or theory reasons, so I hope you enjoyed the results of my long observations all put together!!

[linipik]

FAR OUT AT SEA

"Shiro is determined to know if the new human research base is a risk for his fellow merfolk with the help of a marine biologist and research intern Adam."

rating: T

pairing: Adam/Shiro

tags: Adam (Voltron) Shiro (Voltron), Keith for half a line but he is there, Merman Shiro, Everyone lives, First Meetings, plot-driven action, Alternate Universe Merpeople, Canon-Typical Violence

This fic is part of the Once Upon the Seashore PDF (get it for free on my Ko-fi)

Chapter 3 of 4

Or that was the plan. Unfortunately, there were cameras Shiro didn't discover on time and sensors he could not avoid. Before he could destroy more than half the machines, he was captured.

The superior officers tried to hide the havoc from the cadets, researchers, and interns. However, the damage was considerable, and, soon enough, soon enough the whole base’s personnel was moving.

 With his heart about to break through his chest, Adam ran towards Shiro's quarters and found them empty. At that moment he knew that a suspicious incident down in the deepest, more classified parts of the whole facility was thanks to one single person. How could Shiro go behind Adam’s back? the one person who has been helping him, after all the things they've discovered together. But if Shiro was really involved, doing so would be more dangerous than anything they’d been discovering before. Steeling himself, Adam resorted to going with the rest of the staff and waiting, turning off any suspicions for when it would be easier to sneak around.

He didn't find anything in the higher-up offices, the security rooms, or the storage units, which made him restless. It didn't make much sense to look for Shiro deeper down the base, but since they were being so careful and all out of better ideas, Adam went there.

The way there was painfully quiet, but he knew, thanks to the planes they uncovered early on, that there was a huge walk-in fridge at the bottom of the marine biology lab internal dock, which was used to store big tanks in a queue for cleaning. 

Adam almost forgot how to breathe. There were temporary cameras and alarms set in place so he could not come closer, but there was no mistake, that face was Shiro's face with pointy fins in the place of ears, sporting a very new very deep cut on the bridge of his nose. It was Shiro but all the way down in his shoulders in his arms shiny dark purple scales, all the way down to… to a lustrous dark flying fishtail. Adam had to do a mental double-take. 

Mermaids were real and Shiro was one of them. Mermaids, merfolk, merpeople, a merman. In front of him.

This was beyond anything Adam could imagine or dream. It also… made sense, somehow? No wonder Shiro had so much random deep knowledge of marine life, no wonder he asked stuff about their operation. Above all, no wonder he was so invested in unveiling whatever the base was doing in the middle of the ocean. Probably this was his home first and they were invading!

Adam was still frozen in place, wishing nothing more than to see that familiar and other-worldly face up close and to be able to talk to Shiro about everything he had seen while living deep in the sea, knowing that the truth was so much wilder than anything he ever imagined. It all would have to wait, though. Shiro was bruised and seemed heavily drugged, he needed Adam's help. 

The few officials with enough clearance were probably afraid and had decided to guard Shiro with machines only, probably wary of the reaction any soldier would have upon seeing a real merman. An actual merman! Adam couldn't wrap his head around it yet. Forcing himself to function, he dug in his memory for the passwords and system protocols he had learned while trying to breach the security measures with Shiro the days prior, and after a lot of tinkering and mumbled cursing, he managed to loop the key cameras and cut the flow of sedatives. Hoping Shiro was not too sensitive to changes in pH and temperature of the water, Adam connected the nearest water supply to replace the whole tank, dumping the contaminated liquid in another nearby.

Shiro stirred up after a while. He blinked heavily, disoriented, and bumped into the glass by accident, which made him scowl. Instead of trashing or causing a ruckus, though, Shiro shook his head vigorously and used his hands to explore the limits of the tank. Frozen in place, still unnoticed, Adam could see Shiro had membranes between his fingers.

It was truly incredible.

While Adam, mesmerized, stared at him, Shiro reached the upper edge of the tank and struggled to remove the lid… lid that was locked with a bolt placed outside the tank. Damn, what was Adam doing? He swiftly approached to remove the bolt, startling Shiro.

“Sorry!” Adam said, unsure of what he was apologizing for.

As soon as the lid was removed Shiro took his head out of the water.

 “...Hey” he added quietly, something between a greeting and acknowledgment of the new situation between them.

Shiro got his upper half body out of the tank and quickly crawled helping himself with his hand through the shallow water, following the drain into the marine biology lab main pool. It didn't look like the first time he has gotten himself in this kind of situation, very different from the helplessly drugged-up merman Adam first saw moments ago floating in the tank but not a little less impressive. Dumbfounded, Adam followed him, mindful of not stepping on his fins.

“Do you think you can open the gate to the cetacean interaction pool?” Shiro asked once he got comfortable in the marine biology pool, "There is a hatch towards the open waters at the bottom of this, I think.”

“Takashi.”

Shiro turned to finally see him. Adam had a million questions and the full awareness of that being the worst moment to ask any of them.

“Adam, I'm sorry,” Shiro said before Adam could gather his thoughts, there was a plea in his tone “you understand why I didn't tell you, right? No one is supposed to know.”

Adam knew that was exactly the case, yet he needed to understand.

“I…” he stuttered. It was hard to find of a single thing to say, their situation was far more complicated than the unnamed thing they’d been dancing around since they met.

Then they could hear the sound of people approaching. 

“Shit. I'll open the gate” Without losing a second, Adam ran towards the control panel and initiated the opening sequence. Shiro swam towards the sluice gate, ready to escape as soon as the pool got filled with enough water for the doors to open.

“They can’t find you here,” Shiro's worried tone traveled over the sound of the water rushing into the pool, “And… don't tell anybody I was an intern, they usually can’t put two and two together and realize we can shift forms.”

“Who's there?!” someone yelled from afar, “WHO IS THERE!?” the voice repeated while the footsteps came to a halt and the clicking of guns echoed in the corridor.

“GO!” Shiro shouted.

– o –

Adam could only run back inside the walk-in fridge, hiding behind all the tanks. He heard a crowd breaking into the lab, their gasps and curses upon finding Shiro, and many fierce screams and hits. There was a loud splash and many people yelled stuff like “Don't let him get away” and “Grab the UUVs.”

It was over after a few more seconds of whirring, clashing, and swearing. Curled in his hiding place, Adam couldn't help a sense of dread. Could Shiro really run away unscathed? Judging by the officer's cursing and rapid exit toward the upper levels, Shiro might have been lucky this time. When Adam determined it was safe enough to go out of hiding, the faint pink tint on the pool and the trail of blood made his stomach churn.

Adam was just an irrelevant intern, but he was determined to do everything he could to help. Lucky is not enough, He had to make sure Shiro was not followed, his secret his people were not going to be easily hunted if he could help it.

 Shaking his commotion off, he ran to erase any and all evidence of Shiro's existence, both as a human and as a merman And the last two hours have to be complete confusion. He tinkered with all the cameras, he stole all the files from the archives, he threw away the clothes, the food in the fridge, he burned the notebooks and fake IDs. While wiping out any mention of Shiro from the base, he wished he could wipe his memories as well. It was the sensible thing to do. The best thing to do. Shiro was something -someone- too amazing -too special- to be forced to be apart from his true home in the name of science or in the name of Adam's dumb feelings. He would never see Shiro again, and he'd better be at peace with that reality sooner than later.

With all evidence lost, the whole ordeal was officially brushed off as a freaky accident, something about a faulty engine exploding that didn't really make sense but was better than proclaiming a mermaid had come to destroy half the equipment of a supposedly super secure military base. The mess was picked up, the very few people implicated were bribed and then relocated, and nothing was said about the incident again, going down in everyone’s memories as a cryptid sighting at best and not more serious than that.

 Left adrift among all that chaos and all his plans for the future shattered, Adam ended up accepting a new position at an institute that had nothing to do with the one he originally aimed for, located on land where he could still see the shore from the lab's window.

----

Far Out at Sea is complete on PDF >> GET IT HERE <<

[heymeowmao]

2023.06.06 - https://weibo.com/l/wblive/p/show/1022:2321324909692089401460

加油啊!

bgm: Chong Zi OST - Heaven Light (天光)

LYN: Hallo everybody, good evening. I am Modern Brothers Liu Yuning! Welcome!! Long time no see. I feel like I haven’t streamed in a long time, at least. And... why is the sound so loud? /adjusts/. It’s been a while since I streamed last and I saw that a few of you were going out of your minds. You resorted to taunting me to get me to get me to come. Can we spread a little more kindness in this world? Please? It’s only been a few days and you’ve already started to taunt me. It’s not necessary, alright? LYN: When I’m in a good condition, I will come to stream on my own when I think the time is right. I hope you don’t push me next time. When you start pushing, I start second-guessing myself and think that maybe I SHOULD be streaming. But if my condition isn’t great- for example if I did some recording that day or took care of some different business- then I won’t be able to stream the way I want. I’d be forcing myself to stream. It’s not necessary. Let’s leave it up to me, alright? If I’m in a good condition and I want to stream and chat and relax, I’ll come. But otherwise... let me rest! 

LYN: The stream lagging a little is normal, because I’ve upgraded my equipment. If I upgrade my camera, I have to upgrade my computer, too. After that, you might think the sound card isn’t doing a good enough job- a lot of you always complain that the sound is too low. I don’t know why you can’t wear some headphones... but you always complain that the sound is low. After upgrades, the computer can’t keep up. See? It seems like I have to change my computer AGAIN. I’ve only had it for two years- it cost a lot- and now I have to buy a new one. Technology is too advanced for my computer to keep up. C: Sell it. LYN: I won’t be selling it. It’s just because that for this stream I’ve returned home to Beijing. i don’t have a desktop computer here, so I’m using the laptop. The signal on it is probably lacking, so it lags every once in a while. It’s enough for you to watch, though. Thanks, everyone (for your understanding). Our main focus is on “company”. Even if you are just photos (profile pics) we’re keeping each other company, alright? 

bgm: LBFD/CLJ OST - Searching for You (寻一个你)

LYN: Why am I wearing this today? Because the NCEE is fast-approaching. In order to fit the theme, I’ve worn some clothes that make me look younger. Let me pretend to be young, to be a student. Is it alright? Our theme here is “young.” LYN: As long as you’re satisfied with this look, all’s well.  LYN: The other thing is I haven’t lived in this Beijing house for a long time, since I am always away in Hengdian. I don’t really have any clothes to wear, here. I tried looking, I did, and I couldn’t find anything to wear. People always say that a woman’s closet is always lacking something. I get the feeling I’m lacking ten outfits- to use for streaming. I always feel like I don’t have anything to wear when I want to stream. Let me tell you- I do put thought into what I wear. You might think that I choose my streaming outfit at random, but I actually put a lot of effort into it. 

C: Ning-ge, I thought you had 3,000 outfits. LYN: When I first debuted- in the first two years- I might have had 3,000 outfits but now, three years later, how many clothes do you think I have? Think about it. There’s a room in this house that looks like a storage room and it’s full of clothes. I can’t even wear some of them because I bought them so long ago that the color has gone off from age.  C: Raffle them. LYN: We could... we could pick a concert stop- if I’m having a concert next year- and let’s say it’s a 10,000 person venue... Wait- I don’t have 10,000 pieces of clothing... Let’s do this instead. I’ll take 1,000 pieces of clothing for each stop and gift it to the audience. The concert benefit is being gifted clothes second-hand. 

- - - - - - - - - - 

C: How’s the album coming along? LYN: I really am working on album stuff right now. But if it were such an easy thing to do, it wouldn’t have taken me three years to release one. Think about the singers nowadays- there are as many as they come. It’s really difficult to continuously release albums, unless they are songwriters themselves. They could write their own works and put as much into that as they wanted; but even so, there are times when you have no inspiration. For me, as someone who does not have the ability to write songs... I just have to wait for something that works. Sometimes even when you find one, someone else gets to it first. It’s up to luck and timing. This time around I have taken my time to pick the songs and I’ve gotten some that I really like.  LYN: Let me tell you about my plans. I want to release this album before the end of the year. I previously released a song called “Fall in Love”- you know it, right? My fans have probably heard it before, but there are many of you who are just passing by and have entered the wrong shop- or have been dragged in by someone handing out cards- let me play my song “Fall in Love” for you. -- Fall in Love LYN: I went crazy all of a sudden. 

LYN: This was going to be the title song for my album... but it’s been two years since the track was released. Well- one and a half years. I sang it for the first time at the Jiangsu New Year’s Event... and then... about two years have passed and the album was never released. If I release it later in the year, it WILL be three years. So my plan for this year is to get my album out before December. It’ll be around 10 songs. This song (Fall in Love)- we can do without. I mean- not count it as part of the album. It’ll just be a single. LYN: As for my album, I’ll remake it. I had collected a few for the album from before, and have recorded two of them. But now... immodestly speaking, my singing has improved in the last two years. Listening to those songs now I think, “What the heck is this singing? WTF is this?? You think you can release an album like this, you must be crazy!” So the other day I re-recorded one of the songs. LYN: To singers “progress” is relative to a lot of different aspects. The first is the progression of age. The second is the advancement of music. The third probably has to do with the fact that I am acting now. After acting, I feel like I can better express emotions. I can let them show more or.. how should I say it? (Express them more subtly.) I have a deeper feeling/understanding of them now. LYN: Penny-jie gave me a song. Not counting Fall in Love, I should have... four now. But I should be able to confirm another one or two in the next couple of days. They’ve given me demos and I’ve given gone through them briefly and I think they’re very nice but I’ll have to get a better listen. I now have four complete songs and will get another three or four in the next days. I’ll have seven. Then I can just find three more and we can release the at the end of the year. :) My plan is to release the album before the end of the year- 10 songs- and then open up my concerts mid 2024. That’s just an estimate, because I have to film in the first half. Probably May or June. But before the concert I want to release an EP of about 5 songs.

C: Will you release an MV? LYN: I am working on an MV, yes. I’m planing on finding a few of my good friends- I can now make a PROPER MV. The MVs I shot before were all: I’m looking for something. I walk to the ocean and I search. I climb a ladder. I run. I look up at the sky and sit by my bedside, depressed. I’m emo. More conceptual. Now I don’t want to make MVs like that. I want something with a plot. So the songs I am finding now are all- /cuts himself off/. In any case, I’m going to find some of my good friends to help me shoot it. Of course, I will not be paying them. LYN: I already asked them- “If I release an album next year, will you help me shoot the mv?” They asked me if I would pay extra, and I replied that if they continued that thought I would block them. XD  LYN: My MV would need a group of them- I'll find 10 artists to act in the MV for me. Something that requires 2,000 extras. We’ll do a “human wave attack” (人海战术; offensive infantry tactic in which an attacker conducts an unprotected frontal assault with densely concentrated infantry formations -wiki).

LYN: So, for those of you asking about how my album is going, I really am working on getting it released this year, I swear. I have time in Beijing now to work on it properly and wrap up with logistics and with the music. After all that is finished I will re-focus on my acting. We’ll see.

C: I want to be an extra. LYN: Er... for extras the fee is 200RMB, sent to me. 1200RMB to me and I will include two meals. I won’t pick you up, but will send you back- to the closest bus stop. C: Ning-ge, I’ll invest 300k for your MV. LYN: Are you really investing or has chasing starts made you silly? If investing, let’s say my mv makes any revenue- you’d like a cut of the profits? But if you want to shoot a nice MV, it requires quite a bit of money. I don’t think 300k will be enough. I’m thinking of shooting two to three. C: I’ll invest 1M. LYN: I will find a staff member to contact you immediately. You can’t run, I’ve remembered your ID. I’ll find a staff to contact you and we can exchange the deposit in private. For a 1M project, you only need to give me a deposit of 200k first. C: Ning-ge, I’ll invest my charms. LYN: So what you’re trying to say that you’re too good-looking, so you want to be a part of my video and... that will be favorable for me? We’d be taking advantage of you because you’re too pretty, too beautiful?

C: Ning-ge, how about I give you 10RMB. LYN: Has the progression of my career reached a point where I need to do crowdfunding? I can’t survive on my own anymore, and if I want to do something my fans have to drum up the money? It’s not necessary. I know I’m not doing very well but I’m not that pitiful. Also, I just want to say- let me think of how I can phrase this nicely, to filter it-   LYN: ~ I think that music has always been a dream of mine. I can give everything I have to my music. You tell me you want to crowdfund in order to let me release my songs, but I think there’s no need for that. The music I release is for you to listen to, to enjoy, and to experience. If you feel anything when listening to my songs then that already is my greatest honor. That’s why, I don’t want you to give me any money. I will figure out the funding on my own. I appreciate your good intentions. You are all kind people. You all have dreams. You are good samaritans. ~ LYN: ~ I’m sure that everyone who has a dream in music who sees such a group of people who want to support their passion for music, will be moved. Thank you all. ~

- - - - - - - - - -

- /gives his support to students taking the NCEE/

C: Ning-ge, your voice is like this and you’re still streaming? LYN: ~ Honestly friends, I have to tell you, my voice is really uncomfortable today. Because for a long time I was in the South- in Hengdian- which is more humid. I’ve suddenly returned to Beijing and I haven’t quite adjusted. I have a really dry throat. I am withstanding searing pain to stream for everyone today. But I don’t want to make this a big deal. I don’t want to say that I am sick. I just want to say- that you are all very important to me. I’m willing to do this for you- ~ - /breaks character because he couldn’t stand himself/ LYN: Beijing is dry, alright? My throat is uncomfortable. I’ve been living in the South all this while- me, who originates from the North, has been living in the South. Hendgian is in Zhejiang, right? That’s south. It’s humid. So being back here now (in the North), my throat has been uncomfortable. It’s really dry. Especially Beijing, which is particularly dry. Liaoning, Dandong- where my house is- is okay, because there I am close the the river/ocean. The air isn’t as dry for a place in the Northeast. Beijing is really dry, though. I have to put on so many face masks every day. LYN: Wait for me a sec, I’ll go grab some water.

C: The chair looks nice. LYN: Are you making fun of me? This house in Beijing is rented so this furniture was all here when I got the house. I don’t have such high tastes. This is the landlord’s stuff, not mine. - C: Drink less soft drinks. LYN: This isn’t a soft drink, it’s just carbonated water. It’s carbonated, but there’s no sugar or anything in it.  - C: It’s a princess chair. LYN: /laughs/ Yes, it is. There are six of them. They were around the dinner table but I grabbed one over to sit on while I stream. I’m not in Beijing very often, anyway.

C: What special effect is this today? LYN: You can tell that this video has special effects?? This is the “aurora” effect. Why am I using it, do you know? Well- you all know what an “aurora” is, right? A very mystical phenomenon. LYN: ~ I am using this aurora effect today because I believe that not many people in this world have seen an actual aurora. Or a real rainbow. But I hope that each one of you who are in my stream can see this wonderful aurora special effect. So you can feel like you are in a faraway place- somewhere you can see the lights. ~ - bgm: Young Captain队长 & ODD Chen Sijian - 超感 (Super Sense) - LYN: But remember to tell me where I can see a rainbow. I saw one the other day- with my eyes, it was very clear. But I tried to take a picture of it on my phone and I found out- you can’t really see it.  C: Your skills aren’t good enough. / LYN: Oh. C: Change your phone. / LYN: Right, okay.

C: Have you done your physical yet? LYN: Not yet. I want to get everything arranged first and acclimate before I do it. Lately I’ve been preparing to start working out again. I want to give myself half a year’s time to start a regular eating schedule. I’ll mind what I eat- like not anything fried or sweet- and try to stick to an exercise schedule. I want to know, after this half year, what the results will be.  LYN: I really have properly started working out now. I’m not kidding anymore. My abs... I’m at... 10%. If having full-on abs is 100%, then I have at least 20% now. That is- you can see something if you squint. Let me train for a bit first. If there are results by the end of the year I’ll post up a picture. I see a lot of male artists wearing suits, right? But they don’t wear a shirt- it’s just the suit jacket- and a low middle button. I see a lot of male artists like that and I’m super jealous. They have such nice physique that allows them to wear the clothes in that way, to show a little skin. Either that or it’s a dress shirt, but the buttons are undone until the last few. The name of the game there is “Temptation/Seduction”. I can’t do that, though. If I open it up I look like a boiled chicken. LYN: I just want to have a nicer physique. I won’t make any promises from now on. I won’t bring it up again. We’ll just.. wait and see.

LYN: I was worried that I would come onto the stream today and my face would look fat. Lately I’ve been eating less but if I want to work out I have to eat more- three meals is modest. I’ve been forcing myself to eat, so I feel like I’ve gained weight. I thought it would show on the camera but it’s alright. The beauty filters are strong, after all. LYN: I had a huge bowl of rice and vegetables just earlier. But those are all regular foods. It’s alright I didn’t gain weight. // I have a performance in a couple of days, I told you about it before- some college, right?

C: Ning-ge, your hair color is makes you seem young. LYN: I don’t like the words “seem young”. I used to sell clothes, so I know all the right words to say when you’re trying to make a sale. If you say I “seem young” then that means that you don’t see me as ACTUALLY young. You don’t see me as young at all, but the words “seem young” should be allocated to 45+ year old men and women. You can use “seem young” to describe them. Okay?? You’ve just admitted that in your mind I am already... an old man.

C: Feels “youthful”! LYN: Friends, you don’t need to make forced compliments. I have a very clear image of myself and “youthful” doesn’t fit it. I told you before, that I had a script come to me and they wanted to act as a high school student for a portion of it, didn’t I? There was a plot where the two people met in high school and went to college together but later separated to start working. The majority of the plot is focused on when they are adults, but I couldn’t get past them wanting me to act as a high school student for a portion of it. Because of this, I gave up on this drama.  LYN: I can act as maybe a college student if you lay down the foundation extra thick to cover up the wrinkles. Maybe get some Thermage treatment in, and I could pass. But if you want me to act as a middle or high school student, I really can’t do it. I am 1.9m tall- when I’m not wearing shoes I’m 1.89m, but if I wear shoes I’m taller than 1.9m. It’d be okay if I were shorter but have you ever seen that tall of a high school student?? They’re already done growing! So me acting as a high school student would be a little unfitting. 

C: Kids nowadays are all tall. LYN: /laughs/ You’re right, but I still can’t do it! They might be tall but they still have young faces. My face has obviously seen time. I just can’t do it. A kid can play someone older, but someone older can’t play a kid. My face already has time on it. If you wanted me to act as someone around 30 years old or so, that wouldn’t be a problem. But early 20′s is difficult for me!

C: Ning-ge, you’re very young. Ning-ge, you can do it. LYN: I realized there’s something about this industry... let me tell you how I feel about it. People who do well in this industry- I’ve been to events, I can see who’s doing well or not- you’ll discover something. That is, no matter what they do the people around them will endlessly praise them. Really. I’m talking about people who are doing well for themselves. Their staff, the staff you meet at events- let’s say we’re at some recording for a show or an event- any staff around will give them endless praise. For example, an artist goes, “Huh? What is this, a phone? I’ve never seen one like this before. It’s called an iPhone?” The staff around them have already reached a point where they reply, “You’re so smart! Amazing! /claps/. You’ve never seen this thing before, but you knew it was a phone. You’re so great. You have a natural talent for identifying phones.” I was at the side, watching like:

LYN: But most of the time the artist will gladly accept the praise. “Oh, I just have a knack for this. :) I have an interest in mobile phones- oh, I see this is an iPhone! I’ve never seen one before, but I already know. I’m just talented. I have an interest in electronics.” !! It’s like humoring a child! And these artists aren’t young. LYN: You know- once you reach a certain point you’ll find out that the words of the people around you are 99% praise. The people close to you, as well as the people you meet. After I saw that happening I thought, “Oh~ So (that’s how it is)...” They’re probably already used to it and it doesn’t affect them at all but to me... I don’t feel a thing.  LYN: Just like when you tell me that I’m young and that I can play a middle schooler. I’ll listen to what you’re saying, but leave it at that. I might even have the passing thought that maybe you are trying to provoke me. After seeing all that, I have my own judgement on what people say to me in the future. I don’t believe that all you should hear is praise. There needs to be all sorts of comments in order to level you. Only then can you mature. Only then will you know where your limits are. LYN: That’s why when you praise and support me- of course, I like to hear it. But I don’t think there’s a need to take it seriously. There’s really no need. C: I was being honest. LYN: Even if you were, I still won’t take it seriously. I need to have self-awareness to maintain my balance. 

- - - - - - - - - -

- /saw a passing comment and makes note to answer it later, but clarifies he couldn’t really see the whole thing because the comment was too long. If they are short comments, usually he sees all of them scrolling by./ LYN: I can’t answer all of them, so please be generous. Don’t think that just because I am not replying to you, you shouldn’t comment at all. Our theme here is “company”.

C: Are there kiss scenes in ZY? LYN: What’s it to you?!? You must be crazy. XD LYN: There are no kiss scenes in ZY, only bath scenes. Of course by that I mean- a normal bath. For example, I’ll go to bathe and my bros will scrub my back for me. Scenes like that. They'll perform some gua sha and  ba guan for me. Because we’ll all get together to wash up after we go out to battle. We’re starting a “community bathing” culture. C: Such a big scale? LYN: We’re still wearing pants. If we want it to air, we’ll still be wearing pants. They’ll only show the top half. Just a bunch of guys helping to scrub each other’s backs.

C: Your ears are turning red. LYN: Why would they be??? What did I say today that would make my ears red?? You really think I’m only 18 years old?! Have you forgotten what I was trending for a while ago?? (Married) Oh-sorry. I’m... I’m not a young kid. Why I turn red from talking about washing up and scrubbing backs?? C: Now it IS red. LYN: Yeah, I misspoke earlier. My mind was running slow and my mouth too fast. I apologize. C: Drink some water to settle your mind.

C: When will YNGS air? LYN: I don’t know! :D Let me tell you friends, a lot of actors are also dumbfounded. I know you like to ask us actors when our dramas will air, but we’re in the dark and really don’t know. I’m guessing if you try to ask the production company, they wouldn’t either! Sometimes you’ll hear that a drama is airing tonight and then the next morning you find it didn’t. This is normal, so if you ask me when a drama is airing, I really don’t know. LYN: It’s been two years since I finished filming a couple of my dramas and even now I am getting notices to do voice acting or supplement for voice acting. It seems like everything is going according to plan and the OSTs are all recorded, but then... it’s just indefinitely about to air. So what time a drama airs is really hard to say. I can only tell you that I can’t tell you.

C: Do you have a variety? LYN: I do, we’ve been in talks. But I- I- Once I start in a drama crew I don’t have the time anymore. Varieties nowadays need two to three or up to seven to eight days to record. There’s no way the drama production is letting me off for that long. Especially since I am starting to accept male lead roles... So, it’s hard for me to go. The production doesn’t really give the time off. So the variety is hard to say, since I will be entering another crew soon. You all are afraid of me wasting my time at home, and desperately want me to enter a crew. Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing. You’ll see. When I pick projects, they’re usually dependable. If any news gets announced I’m sure you will be happy for me. I won’t be sitting around at home. C: Is it a modern or historical? LYN: Which one are you referring to? Are you talking about the one in the latter half of next year? That one... hasn’t come yet. Let me pretend. // This is called “I’ve been home too long and now I’m making fantasies”. I clearly don’t have work but I’m pretending I do. There are some people like that, and I am one of them.

LYN: If you don’t quite understand me, let me explain. I’m a workaholic, I really am. Just look at how I spent the past five years. I started off singing on the streets and slowly made myself internet famous. After that, I became a singer. Now I’m starting to be an actor. I’ve made it this far step by step. Do you think, if I took even one moment to rest in these past five years, I would have been able to make it to where I am today? Getting to work with all these comparative (to me) amazing people? I don’t want to say that I am putting a lot of effort into this; I just want you to know that I don’t want to let myself rest. I want to learn quickly how to make my way in this industry.  LYN: The people I’m working with now are all amazing, right? I started off as a busker on the streets. In order for me to make it here, if I rested at all in the past five years do you think I would have been able to walk this far? I don’t have a company backing me. I only have this group of fans who have kept me company all this way. I don’t have a company (公司/gong si), only fans (粉丝/fen si). LYN: I’m the type of person who gets anxious if they don’t have work. My old fans all know this. But can you see me being anxious right now? If I didn’t have work, and I hadn’t decided my next drama or made plans for the future- I’d be having a breakdown. Do you think I’d be sitting here so calmly, discussing this with you? I’d be here complaining, not telling you jokes. LYN: So, you can tell by my mood. If I’m relaxed then I have plans in place. Lately I’ve taken a break because I really do want to work on my album. It’s not like an OST, where I can just take a song someone else has written if I like it and just record a song and release it. Albums are complicated. The process of collecting songs alone is difficult. Another thing about me is that I don’t want the songs on my album to be like songs I’ve sung for OSTs. I’ve accepted many OSTs that I really like a lot. But if there are songs on my album that are no different from the OSTs then I’ll think, “What’s the point of releasing this song? This is exactly like an OST I can sing.” Choosing the music is hard. I hear too many songs every year, so it’s hard to pick one I really like. I’m really working on the album. LYN: I’m also going to start the voice acting for YNGS. I’m going to plan to give them 10 days for recording. For example, I’d go in at 10a-1p, grab a bite, then start again at 4-5p until 7-8p. It’ll be like working a regular job, for about 10 days. I want to get the voice acting finished in the coming week. I also have some OSTs I need to record and events to attend. I won’t be idle. Don’t worry- you don’t need to be anxious for me. LYN: Oh- I don’t need fan support for voice acting. Just want to let you know. If I go to the recording studio and there’s a group of you with banners chanting our fan motto... it’s not necessary. I just need to do my job and that’s it. LYN: Maybe in a few days when I go to the hospital for my physical, you can come give me fan support then. /laughs/ You can stand by the entrance and shout, “LYN, good luck on your physical!” or something like that.  C: Steal urine. LYN: ?? What does that mean? Are you a pervert?? You must be. I told you I was going in for my physical and you said you want to steal (my) urine?? /barfing sounds/ LYN: Unreasonable. Truly unreasonable. Oh my goodness. This is too perverse. C: Extreme sasaeng behavior. LYN: This isn’t even sasaeng behavior anymore. This is... /barfs/

C: Can you turn the lyrics off? LYN: What- what, are the lyrics blocking your sight to something? How about I make it smaller? This is fine, right? /sigh/ I’ll turn it off. Save you some face.

- - - - - - - - - -

-- break #1 (his friend is having a baby and he needs to take a look) LYN: Excuse me friends, I made you wait long. I’m back. Lao Wang had a son a while back, this time he had a daughter. It’s nice. C: Are they good-looking? LYN: Not better than me. /laughs/ Why does that feel low- I’m competing in looks with a child?? C: How many days apart are they? LYN: The last time they had a kid was... three months ago. Now they have another. It’s amazing.

C: You look young. You can go act as a middle schooler. LYN: Let me tell you, friends- lately I’ve been thinking I want to start “pan chuan” (counting prayer beads (?)). I just think it’s cool. I think it’s fun. Watching the string change over time is interesting. But then I was thinking, if I started to do this, wouldn’t it prove that I am crossing another...I can’t say “realm”, can I? I’m entering into the meditative mind and healthy body category. But my current category is as a “Disney-lover”! C: I’ve been doing this for many years already. LYN: Which means to say your age... is probably around mine, right? C: Elementary kids do this, too. LYN: Do they? I didn’t know. But I really bought a string online and later I’ll... play with them. // I met someone not too long ago, and they told me they had nothing fun to do. I suggested they count beads and they said that they didn’t want to because if they did that, they would enter into the “middle-aged” mindset. That’s how they described it, at least. I thought about it and... yeah, they were right. But if you’re telling me that even elementary kids are doing this now, then I think that this is the popular trend for now. Then, we’ll count! C: Don’t count them, “pan” me. LYN: Do you want to “chuan”?? // Wait- sorry. That sounds like a curse word. That is- Sorry. - /clears his throat and skips the topic/ ;; t/n: there’s some wordplay here, but idk LYN: I won’t. I seriously did research on this and these things need a high density. You’re probably not dense enough. Also there’s a process of going from white, to colored (oxidized), and then opened (?). I don’t really want to see you “colored”. I think I’ll forget it. You can “pan” yourself in the mirror. I won’t be participating.

C: Watch out for tendonitis. LYN: What do you mean- like when I’m moving them, this part of my hand is likely to get tendonitis? I’ll buy a machine to turn them. I saw that there are those things online. / Oh, was it “tenosynovitis”? Sorry, I read wrong. / But there are machines for this, so I was thinking of getting one. I won’t have to use my own hands. I won’t get tenosynovitis, it’s okay. // There’s another machine, where you can take each of the beads and there’s like a tube- you can put the bead inside and it will spin.

C: Nine-ge, don’t wash your face in the morning just take the beads and rub them on your face. LYN: Why are you so dirty? That would be so gross. We want the bead’s natural oils. Maybe this topic is not interesting to many females, but we want the bead’s natural oils, not your dirty face oils. That’s no good. Forget it, let’s not.

C: Tell Daimi to count them for you. LYN: Daimi? I’d be lucky if she didn’t take them for peanuts and eat them. 

LYN: I thought you wouldn’t be interested, but it seems like a lot of you women- and men, there are bound to be men here too, right? - you all like to play with this. When my string arrives, will we be considered “pan”you? [t/n: play on the word “friends” (peng you)] Or “chuan-you”? I don’t know. We can discuss it. LYN: I didn’t know elementary school kids were interested in this, too. I honestly don’t know too much about it myself. There aren’t many grade schoolers in the group of friends around me to begin with. So I’m not sure what they’re into these days.

- - - - - - - - - -

C: Is your dog male or female? LYN: She’s a girl. I won’t own boy dogs. I used to own a boy dog, a long time ago. I took him out for a walk and all of a sudden he set his eyes on another dog and took off. He was a bigger breed- a sheepdog (Scotch Collie). He took the leash and started chasing a female dog. I ran across 8 hilltops- I was walking him up in the middle of nowhere- it was up in the mountains, and there were giant storehouses. He took the leash and ran and I chased him across three hilltops. I was this close to a breakdown, I almost threw up and I couldn’t catch him. I lost him and it scared me so much. Even /I/ got lost in the chase, because I wasn’t familiar with the area. I was chasing my dog, and my dog was chasing another dog. After all the running I lost the dog AND my way. I ran for about ten+ minutes. Do you know how helpless I felt, surrounded by unfamiliar terrain, lost dog and lost way? So ever since then I learned my lesson for having boy dogs. LYN: After that I only ever owned girl dogs. Youmi... Daimi... and there’s was also a cocker spaniel, whose name was also Youmi. I had two dogs named Youmi. The original had died, so I bought another one immediately so the love could be transferred. [t/n: if I recall, he didn’t want his grandparents to be too sad that Youmi (original) had passed away.]  LYN: All female dogs.

C: Did you ever find him? LYN: Later, he came back on his own. It took ME a while to find the way back home- I really ran across three hills before I found the path and went home by myself. I went home and cried to my mom that I had lost the dog and that I almost got lost. But when it came around nighttime, he came back on his own. That dog was so smart. People could hold his leash as long as I was there, but if I wasn’t he would go crazy. He was so smart. But in the end that dog... you probably know how it went. He ran away. That’s why people tell you- you can’t trust men. If they so something wrong once, they’ll do it a second time. He ran away, and didn’t come back this time. C: It was a BE. LYN: That’s an appropriate description, yes. At the time I was really sad about it, I cried for a few days and didn’t own a dog for a long time after.

C: He went to become someone’s son-in-law. LYN: He was a really handsome dog, but unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of him. You know sheepdogs- they have long snouts and long hair. Usually they’re all cream and black, or brown, right? But he was black and white. If there were a litter- only one of them would be patterned like that. It was so pretty. LYN: ! He wasn’t a Border Collie, though. I know what you’re talking about- Borders are black and white. He was a Scotch Collie, but black and white. Wow, he was so handsome. // I know the difference between a Border and a Scotch. He was the only one of the litter with that coloring- he was very unique. Very special.

C: What breed was Youmi? LYN: The first was a cocker spaniel. The second was a toy poodle. The one now is a schnauzer. After raising the cocker first, I discovered it was better to own a dog that didn’t shed as much. Schnauzers don’t shed as much- only the undercoat- and nor do toy poodles. These dogs are easy to clean up after, they’re small and smart, and don’t need to be walked as much.

C: Why don’t you like big dogs? LYN: Wait- look, I just said that I liked dogs that don’t shed as much and someone in the chat said, “Ning-ge, I also don’t shed a lot. Raise me.”  I’m guessing in not too long someone is going to pick up on this topic. LYN: Don’t you lose hair? I don’t believe there’s one person here who can say they don’t shed hair. We all do, more or less.

- - - - - - - - - -

C: Ning-ge, this special effect looks like “spitting pies”. LYN: ?? What is that? There are small orbs flying at you, so you think I’m “spitting pies”? I don’t always make “pies” (pipe-dreams). When have I made a pie for you? There aren’t many. The first is my abs- that’s going to be fulfilled this year, isn’t it?  C: “Stream until we throw up.” LYN: It counts if I do, too. Someone earlier wanted to steal something of mine, didn’t they? I threw up, then. If I throw up it counts too.

LYN: I saw a comment in the group chat that read, “Ning-ge is streaming today. If someone pushes him to stop streaming, I curse them to eat instant noodles without the seasonings forever.”

C: Disney stream; Carnation Festival 3.5. LYN: I had explanations for those, didn’t I? I told you about the Disney stream the last time- it’s not convenient for me to stream at the park. It was going to be okay, but lately their business has been booming. It became inconvenient for me to stream at the park because we wanted to avoid any unnecessary crowding. C: Recipe for marinating meat skewers. LYN: I’ve been busy lately... watching dramas, going to concerts... XD I’ve been busy with that lately. As for the grilling recipe, I’ll see if there’s a time I want to go out and relax. Maybe when I’m done with voice acting for Ning Yuanzhou- I’ll film a video, then. LYN: I saw someone asking me where I’ve been- I’ve really been busy as of late. And this work isn’t on a set schedule.

- - - - - - - - - -

C: After going back to Beijing you look more lively. LYN: I’ve been in Hengdian for so long that I’ve felt stifled. I honestly really like Hengdian, but the problem is- it’s a town. There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just very small. It’s mostly the food- I’ve had so much of it! All the restaurants and take-out... I’ve been there for three years. Think about exactly how many good restaurants there can be. I’ve already eaten my fill. Also, there’s no place I can shop around! Sometimes I like shopping and buying clothes- give myself some motivation to keep working hard. I’ll go shop and say, “Wow, these clothes are so expensive! These shoes are expensive! I should buy them. Then, I can continue to work hard so I can afford them.” That’s what I do when I shop. LYN: I like living in the city. I can eat whatever I want, whether that’s skewers, hot pot, stir fry, Shanghai cuisine, Hangzhou cuisine, etc. I have choices. But the problem is that in Hengdian, there are only so many shops. You don’t really have a choice. All I did there was eat. I felt like I had enough. But after coming back to Beijing- there’s nothing really fun to do here, either, but- at least I can shop. As for “play” I like... arcades. Last time I was in Beijing I played with VR or escape rooms- those are fun. 

C: ZXD-laoshi is here. LYN: Welcome.

- /talks a little more about what he’d like to do in Beijing while he can experience the freedom of having choices: to eat/shop/play./ LYN: I’ve just been in Hengdian too long. Now that I’m back here I’m letting myself go, a little. I like the feeling of living in a big city. I like the bustle. I’ve asked my friends before, where they like to go for travel.One of them told me they go on hikes- to see the mountains and watch the rivers; how on the way there’s a part of the river that’s really beautiful. After hearing that, I didn’t have any reaction/feeling for it. They in turn asked me where I like to go for fun. I told them I like to go to Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou. They replied, “You’re not going there to work, are you?” LYN: I’m just the type of person who has to come to a bustling/busy place to relax. Why? Because my hometown is a tourist city I’ve grown up along the river bank. Behind my house is a mountain. I would ride my bike along the river to work everyday. Do you think I’m missing any opportunity to see the mountains and rivers? My home is a tourist city and I’ve grown up seeing the mountains and rivers. Now I’ve finally entered society and am doing well for myself, do you really think I want to return to see the mountains and rivers in my downtime? I’ve never seen such a flourishing city when I was little. I like the hustle and bustle of the city. I don’t want to go back to see mountains and rivers- I’ve seen enough. LYN: It’s been thirty years and I finally made it to a big city. Now you want me to go back? You’ll find that a lot of people- once they become wealthy, they want to “return to the natural state”. They’ve had enough of the luxurious meals, and now they want to go back to the simple things. But friends, I’ve had the simple things all along. I can finally eat meat, have the chance to have abalone, and you want me to go back? It doesn’t agree with my plans.

C: You’re trending. LYN: Really? :) I don’t believe. I don’t deserve it. LYN: LYN, trending? I don’t think he’s worthy. C: The Entertainment Tab. LYN: What’s wrong with that? C: #41. -- 我不配 (I’m Not Worthy) LYN: A sang a whole verse of this song just for those three words. (I’m not worthy.)

LYN: I’m trending, though? ~ Honestly, I think that being trending or not isn’t important. I think the most important thing is that if by being here streaming, I am able to bring to you some happiness. As a singer or an actor, the most important thing is to have good works for you. A trending topic is not something an artist- whether singer or actor- should be in pursuit of. You need to have truly good works, works you’ve put your heart into, works that can touch other people’s hearts- to give to everyone who supports you. That is what you, as an artist, should be pursuing. So this trending topic... is nice to have, but it’s not a big deal if I don’t. Friends, let’s let our work do the talking. ~  LYN: Who doesn’t know how to say nice things? Those are the basics, aren’t they?

bgm: Ice Paper -  夜泊秦淮 (Ye Po Qin Huai)

C: I learned. Thank you, laoshi. LYN: Are you an artist? If you aren’t then there’s no use in you learning this. Do you want to be celebrity??

- - - - - - - - - -

C: You have too many buttons. LYN: ... Okay. I’ll listen to you. Next time I’ll buy a shirt with a zipper. This shirt if full of buttons. If you think they’re too much, then from now on I’ll buy shirts with zippers. I think they exist- I’ve worn one before. LYN: Don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking. We are just a normal stream. I am a singer/actor. This can ONLY be a normal stream. Or are you telling me that you want to see something immoral in my VERY MORAL stream?? I see right through you. I’ve already turned of the gifting option, so there’s no paid content here. I don’t try to sell you products, either. There’s no way you’re seeing any paid content.  C: No~ That’s not what we were intending. We’re just afraid that you’re hot. LYN: I have an air conditioner. It can make the room 1° in a second. I’ll turn it on blast. I don’t need you to worry. I’m not hot. Later I’m going to put on a down jacket.

C: You’re so hot that your face is protruding oil. LYN: This has nothing to do with the heat. I just have naturally oily skin. I even looked it up online: Is it bad to have oily skin? I went to look up the pros and cons. The con is that I am more likely to produce oils and accumulate sebum on my face. Now I have to advise you to use this very good selfie stick- lol. No, I’m not going to push any products on you. It’s just that if you produce too many facial oils, your pores are more likely to become blocked and get acne. But the pro is that you don’t appear to age as quickly. That’s just what I need. I only just started taking male lead roles in the past two years. I really hope I can film a few more. LYN: There were some people trying to advise me, “LYN, can you stop playing male lead roles? We can accept you playing second male lead, but not main.” I can’t make that promise. Because... I have oily skin. I want to make the most of it and shoot a few more male lead dramas while I can. Is that okay? Please, I’m begging you. Stop trying to talk me out of it. I can’t promise you on this, but maybe on other things. Like that person earlier who said that I had too many buttons- I promised them that next time I would wear a shirt with a zipper. But on not playing the male lead, I can’t promise. I’m sorry. I’m the type of person who can understand and consider everyone’s feelings, but your feelings are... not feelings but gutsy demands. [t/n: this is a play on words.] I can’t promise you.

LYN: I really did see a comment like that, though. “LYN, can you stop playing male leads? I can accept second male lead but not main. I can’t stand it. I’m throwing up.” /laughs/ When I see comments like that, friends, it makes me happy. Do you know why? This is the mindset and logic you should have in order to keep living. LYN: At the very beginning when I wanted to be a singer, people were telling me, “You’re just internet famous, what makes you think you can be a singer? What do you think you’re doing on stage competing with other singers? You’re just internet famous- go back to your streaming room.” After a few years, I’ve finally made it as a singer- something people acknowledge me as, and now I’ve gone into acting. People said, “Why are you acting? You’re just a singer- just do your jobs and sing your songs. You don’t know your limits. What are you doing trying to be an actor? Other people have studied for so many years at a performing arts school and can’t find a role. What are you, a singer, doing acting? That’s ridiculous. Just because you have some fans doesn’t mean you can be an actor.” Some time passes again. “Why are you acting as the male lead? Just stay the second male lead!” LYN: You know? Unreasonably, they are- step by step- continuing to acknowledge me. So the fact that they have already accepted me as an actor makes me very happy. LYN: No matter what industry you’re working in, you have to have a good mindset. You have to consider things from all sorts of points of view. You can’t make trouble. If you live thinking, “Why are they saying this about me? I only want to be a singer... /cries/” It won’t help you. No one will pity you. Friends, you have to learn this in your lives as well. Don’t complain. You can, but not all the time. There’s no use. Complaining all the time will only degrade you. You have to think about making a place for yourself. You have to use your brain. Make your words powerful. Move forward. Alright? - C: /tries to make a joke on the word “complain” (bào yuàn)/ LYN: You don’t perhaps think that you’re very funny, do you? I hope not.

- - - - - - - - - -

C: We’re listening to music now. LYN: Yeah. I’m your music DJ, Modern Brothers Xiao Ning.

C: How long will you stream until? LYN: I don’t know. I’ll just keep streaming and stop when I’m tired. I’ll continue to stream for now. My stream doesn’t really have specific content or fixed rules that state I have to promote something. But, I do want to recommend something to you... hold on. LYN: ! Attention, attention! We have some good news! Tomorrow, Modern Brothers Liu Yuning’s song “The Remaining Life (余生)” will be online. This song is the ending theme from the drama “Gone with the Rain” (微雨燕双飞). The broadcasting station- everyone listen up- is Youku! This song will be online tomorrow- I hope that when it’s up you all can take a listen. Thank you! ! LYN: That wasn’t too much, was it? But it’s true that I sang the OST and they paid me for it... My main thing is price:product ratio. We deal in after-sales services, here. Tomorrow the very good drama Gone with the Rain will be airing- please watch it. Back from the Brink is also still airing. If you haven’t checked that out yet, please do. 

C: Promote all of your OSTs that way in the future. LYN: I’ve always promoted them this way. You must be new here. If you want to be able to get along with people in this industry, you have to know where you can fit into the ecosystem. For me, I am good with after-sales services. All of you are consumers. You might be looking for me to sing an OST, a platform, or brand. All of them are consumers. To a consumer, what is the most important aspect of a product? The first is good quality. The second is having something you can really make use of. The last is everything that comes after- the maintenance and upkeep. The after-sales services. As long as the after-sales is done right, and customer service is done right, you will always have good business. Remember that. C: Ning-ge, you’re a 4S shop now? LYN: I’m an OST shop. Mine is different from a $s shop- as long as you maintain upkeep everything is fine. But OSTs are a single-use thing. They don’t need upkeep. The OST doesn’t come back to me to change its engine oil or brakes. I don’t need to so anything after. It’s a single-use product that you can have for a lifetime. In terms of quality, it’s a treasure. I will definitely sing it to the best of my ability- as long as I can, I will but 110% into singing it. Secondly it’s single use, but it’s not as if you can keep listening to the song and then later think that it’s no good. I want to deliver a good price:product ratio, and you never have to worry about after-sales services here.  LYN: My after-sales does not only include promotion of the song and drama during my streams, but also when I attend galas. That is, it’s entirely possible that this song will come up again during my performances. It will be repeatedly broadcast to everyone. This way, we can keep reminding people of the drama. Give them something to remember the drama by. That’s my price:product ratio.

C: How much is it to advertise? LYN: It’s free for the consumer. All after-sales is on my own dime. There’s not much expense that goes into it, I just spend a little more time talking. Honestly, it’s just money for toothpaste and toothbrush. XD Other than that, there are no other expenses. I don’t collect more fees.

C: What are your rates? LYN: I get paid for OSTs like this, friends. It’s calculated by- what’s it to you?? You’re inquiring about my worth, now? How amusing. LYN: I hate these types of people! The ones who don’t buy anything, but ask about the price first! How annoying! // If you’re not going to buy anything, don’t ask! If you’re going to buy something then just buy it. If you’re not, then why are you asking??  LYN: XD I don’t know why, suddenly I went crazy. But anyway, don’t ask- that’s a business secret, I can’t just tell you. But as to whether it’s expensive or not... I can only tell you, it’s not cheap. :)

C: A business secret? LYN: It’s not a secret. It’s just that my group and I have been working for such a long time together, plus the fact that I’m my own boss. For a lot of things, I don’t need to follow a set business practice. I’m not doing things to further my company- like accepting jobs in order to pay my employees. I haven’t reached that point because I don’t have many employees to begin with. It’s mostly just me- and I can do a lot of things at once. Like promotions- I can do 30% of the work on my own. That means I can afford to hire one person less, right? This applies to other parts of the business as well. We don’t need to accept any jobs I don’t want to in order to further development.  LYN: When I get OSTs, it goes through this process: 1. What drama is it for?, 2. What platform is it airing on?, 3. I’ll listen to the demo. Of course, the song is always the most important but I have to understand the project first. If I like the song, I’ll accept. If I don’t like it, it doesn’t matter how much they offer. It has nothing to do with the money- if I don’t like it, I just won’t accept the job. The first step is never to ask about the price. I’ve encountered companies that started off like that, but I felt that approach is very... I don’t want to comment. For the most part, people usually do not ask about the price from the start. Usually it’s introducing the project and sending a song demo. If you like it, we’ll negotiate the price. If I don’t want to accept the job in the first place, there’s no point in asking how much they can offer me.

C: They’re afraid they can’t afford you. LYN: The investment in making a drama is very huge. At the least it’s tens of millions and at the most it’s a couple billion. They’re not lacking the funds. It’s not as if a single song will break the bank.

C: Then, do you have a discount for OSTs on 6/18? LYN: Do you need a discount for my OSTs? Oh my goodness... Okay, let’s do this. There might be some video production bosses in my stream now. I have a discount on OSTs on 6/18. If you buy 300RMB’s worth, you’ll get 20RMB off. Alright? If you want OSTs, please place your orders on 6/18.  C: The second song half off. LYN: No, that’s not worth it. Each song is its own price. C: Buy 300RMB for 20% off. Can the discounts stack?  LYN: So you mean, if a song were 600RMB instead of 300RMB? If it’s 300, you get 20 off, so if a song were 600, you’d get 40RMB off? Is that what you mean? You can do that. It stacks. 

C: Ning-ge, don’t say any more. If you keep on, you’ll be at a loss. LYN: This friend is considering it from my point of view. That if I let the discount stack, then I would lose out. They’re looking out for me and letting me know I would lose profit, right? LYN: ~ Actually when I hear you say that, I’m touched. I think this friend is a really honest person. In such a chaotic world, you really need to cherish when you meet such a person. Even if I make good on my word and let you take 20RMB off of 300RMB on my OSTs, have you ever encountered such a sale in the real world... but the caveat is that they raised the original price? Then, in fact, though they are selling very many- it’s at even more expensive prices than usual, disguised as a sale. Of course, I wouldn’t do that to you. ~

- - - - - - - - - -

-- break #2 (no excuse, he just needs to use the restroom) LYN: You’re still commenting on this “spitting pies” effect, so I’ll change it for you. I have a “ghost story” effect, do you want to see it? :) LYN: But there are a lot of women in my stream, I’m afraid that they will be scared. If I put on this effect they might get so frightened they will cry. It needs to be paired with music so that you can feel the chill. Let’s play this. It’s not very frightening, don’t be scared. LYN:  It’s not as scary as you think! If it’s too scary my weibo will be in violation. I’m an old streamer already, I understand this much better than you do. It can’t be too scary- no blood or jump-scares here. The “scary” I’m talking about is not the “scary” that you are thinking of. I was just exaggerating. You need only believe 20% of what I say. LYN: Alright. Three, two, one- - /error/ LYN: It’s not supported? Why is it telling me that?? Huh? What’s happening? LYN: Oh, well. It’s not supported. This is a flop. // ?? But I tested it out today and it was working?? /clicking around/ Oh, it’s this one. It’s not scary, though.

LYN: It wasn’t scary. C: What was that? Failing eyesight? // That was it? LYN: Friends, if you’re going to be like that then I’ll do a super scary one! I’ll make you cry in fright!! Friends, I’ll show you what is truly “terrifying”! Let’s do it, I’ll play a quieter song, otherwise the mood will be wrong. Friends. Three, two- I’ll let you see the scariest thing in the world! THree, two, one! - /error/ LYN: ?! “The special effect is unsupported.” /feeling stifled/ Okay, I found one equally as scary. Let’s try again. Three, two, one!

LYN: Sorry, it flopped. The stream doesn’t support the effect. Because this is on a horizontal screen. Next time if I’m streaming vertically, I’ll show you the terror.  LYN: There are a lot of different ones I can use, though. /shows them off/

LYN: /laughs/ What IS THIS??? This one really IS terrifying. Oh my goodness...

- - - - - - - - - -

- /someone tells him he's trending, still. but only in the entertainment tab. he thanks everyone for the trending topic anyway./  LYN: I was wondering what you were talking about- I almost threw my phone. [t/n: bc they told him he was trending, but he couldn’t find it on the main page. XD]

LYN: I feel like my face is very bright. Maybe this is TOO MUCH oil. Let me find some blotting paper. This is too much. I know we were talking about oily skin types earlier but this is too much- I look greasy. LYN: Is it better now? Not as greasy? C: Ning-ge, that’s called dewy skin. LYN: No, it’s just grease. That’s how you can tell a household is wealthy. I remember a story I was told when I was little. There was someone very poor, who wanted to pass themselves off as wealthy. They would take a piece of pork lard and rub it on their face before they went out. When they went out, they could say that they had just eaten. It would make it seem as if the household was wealthy enough to eat meat. I am like that, too.

C: You haven’t changed the special effect. LYN: It’s alright. This one is plenty scary enough.

C: Ning-ge, you’ve played this song so much I know how to sing it. LYN: Come here and sing it, then. Sing. Come on, sing! I thought you knew how?? I gave you the mic, but you can’t sing it, huh. C: Connect the mic. LYN: Er... /shaky sigh/ Connecting the mic... uh... The thing is weibo streaming is not as complete on desktop. If I were streaming from my phone, we could connect- it has that capability- but the desktop doesn’t. If one day I stream from my phone, I’ll spend that whole day connecting the mic with you all. We’ll chat. We can give it a try.

C: Is that a pie, too? LYN: It’s not a pie! It’s just because when I was connecting with people before, they didn’t want to. I didn’t see the harm in it, I just wanted to get some interaction, to play. I wanted to be different from others. We can chat and communicate, because I see people connecting mics often. It’s an effect of streaming and a mood maker. There’s no reason why we can’t. But the prerequisite is that I have to connect with a “normal” person. Otherwise, it’s quite fun. Even if you aren’t my fan, you can come chat with me. It’ll make the stream more meaningful. If I happen to accidentally connect with an anti, like the type who want to curse me out- no, not those- like the kind who wants to back-talk me. I really hope I can meet someone like that. We can chat. I want to see if I can win over them, and make them my fan. LYN: I’m someone who’s really good at arguing. /laughs/ Back when I was working in the restaurant if colleagues were fighting or talking about some logic, I was amazing. It was like a debate- I could lay out all the logic for them. But it’s been many years since I last dared to fight with someone. I want to test if I am still able to. Of course, not the type of fighting by cursing, but teaching you a lesson within the realm of reason.

C: Have your skills regressed? LYN: I think they have. Because at this point a lot of things don’t matter anymore- it doesn’t matter if I win or lose. Not to say that it’s not important... it’s very unimportant. If it doesn’t concern me directly, I don’t see the need to make it a focus for my attention. There’s no meaning in that. Sometimes I might mention a topic in passing during my stream- and that’s only because they became a topic of conversation. Otherwise what else would I talk to you about? You can say that I look young. I say thank you. Then what else? LYN: I’ll talk about a lot of things during my streams, but not because I care about them- though there ARE the ones I DO care about... It’s just because they become a topic for conversation. I can turn them into jokes and tell you about them during my stream. You find it interesting, and we can have a common ground.

C: Ge, you’re trending. LYN: Someone already told me. Entertainment, #31. It’s alright. Let’s be low-key. You don’t need to promote it. Being #31 on the Entertainment Tab means that people can get jealous. (sarcasm)

LYN: Let me go grab something to drink. I left earlier and saw someone say, “I can see the princess chair again!” LYN: I’m back. I told you before, this is part of a set of chairs at the dinner table and I grabbed this one to sit on. This is a rented house, so this is all the original furniture.

LYN: Drinking coffee at this time of night is okay, right? C: You’re not going to be able to sleep. LYN: No, it’s because when you talk too much there’s too much information and it jumbles my thinking. Drinking coffee will help me focus. You’ll notice that many people do their work in a coffee shop. Did you think that they had no place else to work? There is that possibility, of course. But it’s more because the coffee can help them focus. I have to stream, so I need to focus. C: It doesn’t look like coffee though? LYN: What does it look like then, herbal medicine? I don’t have enough energy to stream, so I need to drink herbal medicine to supplement my stamina? Shan yao, dang gui, and goji?

C: Ning-ge, are your glasses magnifying? LYN: /sigh/ Do you mean to say that my eyes are so small that I’ve purposely replaced the lenses with something that will magnify and make my eyes look bigger, as a sort of physical beauty filter? To make my eyes look bigger? Is that what you mean? I can make my eyes big- they’re not always small. /opens his eyes wider/ Are they small? No. LYN: I’ve worn these glasses today to go with the rest of my outfit. It’s not because I’ve replaced them with magnifying lenses to make my eyes look bigger. That’s hurtful. You’ve hurt me. :( LYN: See, who ISN’T cyber-bullied? I was just streaming, doing nothing- not trying to sell you anything or take your money- and I’ve still been cyber-bullied. They made fun of me and said my eyes are small. Friends, cyber-bullying is a real and scary thing. I’m not kidding. LYN: ! You’re laughing?? It makes me want to sing a song... “You’ve hurt me and played it off with a laugh.” I told you it hurt me, and you’re laughing?? -- 一笑而过 (Laugh it Off) [Na Ying] C: Sing it. LYN: I want to sing something different. I want to sing something more tender. Something that can promote love. Promote positive feelings. Let’s do it.

C: Ning-ge, what is the correct way to address cyber-bullying? LYN: For this, you should go baidu it. I can’t give you a proper answer. Everyone faces it differently. I don’t have the correct answer, but I still think you need to become stronger. If you become stronger, you won’t consider it as bullying. Let’s say you’re learning martial arts and are at the top of the game and someone punches you- you’ll think nothing of it. But if you are someone who does not work out at all and someone punches you- you’re going to get knocked out. But these punches carry the same amount of force. I can’t give you a correct answer, because this depends from person to person. The only thing I can tell you is to make your heart/mind stronger. For all else, abide by the law.

-- 這世界那麼多人 (Empty World) [Karen Mok] C: So gentle you don’t seem like yourself. LYN: Do you know why I was so gentle? Because this song is in the female key. So I could only sing it an octave lower. I can’t not be gentle. If I weren’t then I wouldn’t be able to sing the song. LYN: “So gentle you don’t seem like yourself”... so does that mean that usually in your eyes I am very... callous? No, right? I still LOOK upstanding though, right?

LYN: I used to listen to very loud or noisy songs. But lately I feel I enjoy listening to slow songs more. I imagine I have a glass of red wine, just sitting there listening to slow songs. I can’t say I’m emo, but I am in a very comfortable state. That’s a different way to relax. C: That means you’ve gotten older. LYN: /laughs/ I like listening to slow and gentle songs and that means I’m getting older?? What are you talking about? The songs I’m talking about are MBY’s. Not only have you offended me, you’ve offended everyone who listen to his songs. Let me sing one of his. I didn’t go to his concert for nothing; I came back having learned a song. LYN: What does “No lyrics yet” mean??? MBY, as a singer, is popular enough (to have lyrics) isn’t he? What else do you want?? How can you tell me you don’t have the lyrics? // It’s because I’ve selected the arrangement and since that’s the case the program can’t find the lyrics.  LYN: tsk. /sigh/ Fine, I'll find the lyrics on my phone. C: Ning-ge, didn’t you say you learned it? LYN: That doesn’t mean I have to REMEMBER THE LYRICS, though?? What I meant by “learned” is that I learned the melody. I learned the melody, not how to recite the song. LYN: The lyrics: “Every morning I wake up naturally at 7:30a. The wind chimes are ringing and the clouds are light.” He wrote his own lyrics, too. How well written! -- 平凡的一天 (Ordinary Day) [Mao Buyi] LYN: It’s not because I’m getting old. Just sometimes I think that a nice and quiet song is good to listen to. Of course, I still like those noisy and loud songs. They just give a different feeling. 

C: Sing one of Xue Zhiqian’s. LYN: Do I have to sing a song from all the popular male artists now? XZQ... I really don’t know his newer songs... /ning-ge.jpg/ Also all of his songs are very difficult to sing. I’m afraid to insult his works. Let me search. I’ll sing something for fun. Everything I sing during my streams are for fun. -- 我好像在哪見過你 (I Seem to Have Seen You Somewhere) [Xue Zhiqian] LYN: /shakes his head, no/ I don’t know this one. I’ve heard it before, though. It’s been such a long time since I last sang one of his songs. I used to all the time. I really like him. But it’s been a long time... Let me find an old song that I still remember. -- 方圆几里 (Within a Few Miles) LYN: I think I can do this one. C: 刚刚好 (Just Right) LYN: Let me listen. I used to be able to sing this, but I’ve forgotten now... // I know this one. I’ll sing it. -- 刚刚好 (Just Right) (Take 1) - /sings the first couple of lines/ LYN: Oh, this song! I was bragging to you earlier that I had improved, but I actually forgot a song I used to know before! Excuse me. I’ve sung this before, on a show. Let’s try that again. -- 刚刚好 (Just Right) (Take 2) LYN: It’s been such a long time since I sang this song. I suddenly remembered that I’ve sung it before. So... oh. But it’s already been 5 years since then. Thank you, XZQ-laoshi.

C: I’m dizzy now because of your swaying. LYN: If you’re going to say that, then I have no choice but to turn your words back on you. You’re getting old. What if one day we meet up at an amusement park. If you’re already dizzy after this bit of swaying, then you won’t be able to enjoy any rides with me. Your ticket will go to waste.

LYN: Now let’s find one of Zhou Shen-laoshi’s songs. I said in a stream before, that I would never sing one of ZS or Wu Qingfeng’s songs again. Their songs, to me, have it out for my life. I really can’t sing them. We don’t sing the same type of songs. I really can’t do it. But today, I want to give it a try. Friends, wait for me. I’ll go to the restroom and come back and then find a song to fight for my life with. I’ll find a very high song and lower it an octave to sing. - /singing Big Fish, but kinda scarily XD/ LYN: He’s singing about big fish in the ocean, but we’re talking about fish in the deep sea. He’s on top of the water, but I’m on the ocean floor. Where there are lantern fish. Deep pressure.

LYN: Let me play a video for you. I think I’m running out. I don’t have any new ones to play for you. Later I’ll download some more. Make do for now. Wait for me. -- break #3

- - - - - - - - - -

LYN: Alright, I’m back. C: Sing one of WQF’s.  LYN: Later I’ll pick one to try. Of course, I did see the comment telling me to sing my own songs. I’ll sing them, but I’m sure that my fans always hear my songs and are used to them. The other thing is, I just sing for fun in my streams. I’m not here to show off myself. I’m not here trying to gain OST work by showing you what I’ve got. My stream is here for company. I want to sing, play, and chat with you. That’s all there is to it. You don’t need to make it too complicated. No matter whose songs I sing, it’s a show of respect, right? It proves that I listen to and like their songs. Right? I’m paying my respects. The original will always be yyds, of course. So.. this is just for entertainment. LYN: Keep me company. It’s a... Tuesday night. We can play and have some fun. Let me find one of ZS’s songs... I’ll see if it has a track. -- 光亮 (Silver Lining) LYN: /misses the timing to start/ Is it really in such a high key?? This is too high, isn’t it? I was listening to the beginning chords and going over the key in my head. It’s already... up high. // Let me try lowering it an octave.  LYN: ... LYN: How about this- for the places I CAN sing in the normal key, I will. Once it gets too high I’ll switch to a lower octave. This is one method... Let’s try. -- 光亮 (Silver Lining)

C: WQF-laoshi. LYN: I’m honestly a little afraid.

C: Then, Zhang Jie-laoshi’s. LYN: All of his songs pretty such send me to the grave. His high notes are really so high. High notes are not my main thing. My main thing is the /starts singing the more rock-genre ‘爷们要战斗 (Men Fight)’/ Me and high notes go in opposite directions. LYN: 最美的太阳 (Most Beautiful Sun). Let me try it. // There’s no track for it. In this case... his copyrights are tight. C: 天下 (The World) LYN: Didn’t I sing that last time and my voice cracked? I can’t do it all. Remember, it went to my head? Someone had requested it the last time and, not knowing my limits, I tried. It got me worked up. I’ll try it. I’ll sing you a part of it. When it gets too much, I’ll stop. -- 天下 (The World) /stops right before the chorus/ C: Keep going! LYN: Uh.. it seems like you’re cheering me on. I just felt a sliver of support, then. LYN: Friends, there’s a saying that goes “见好就收” (quit while you’re ahead). People can’t be too greedy. If you continue... C: Lower it an octave. LYN: /laughs/ - /picks it up at the chorus; he did it!/ LYN: It goes straight to my head. I got worked up again. C: It’s okay. You can do it. LYN: Honestly, I CAN sing this song now. I just didn’t do it well, because I wanted to show you a comedy. Someone just cheered me on, again. Let me see if I can push through and get this song finished. - /finishes it up/ LYN: I did my best.

LYN: Men- we always try to look tough. But we all know who’s really suffering, don’t we?

C: Sing it through from the start. LYN: I really can’t stand when people cheer me on. If you’re going to be like that, then I’m going to stop streaming. I’m going to sleep. Stop provoking me.

C: Can you see the comments clearly? LYN: I can. Do you think I’ve sung so much that I’m lacking oxygen and can’t see clearly? No, I’m fine.

C: Ning-ge, 左手指月 (Upwards to The Moon). LYN: HAHAHAHAHA. Upwards to the Moon? Um.. .why don’t I just take my head off and give it to you? You’re asking for my life here, aren’t you? I’ll just give it to you. Is that not enough?? My head is yours. Upwards to the Moon... C: Ning-ge, let’s do an octave lower. LYN: You saw right through me. -- 左手指月 (Upwards to The Moon) LYN: Friends, here’s an interesting thing. I can’t even sing it with it lowered an octave. I can’t even sing it on a lower octave. Think about the concept of that. Let me try again. If nothing else, I’ll go all out. - /tries again/ LYN: This song hurts. Singing this song makes me feel like I hurt a lot. It’s not a physical pain, but a mental pain. Ahhh~~! Just these few words- you feel an inexplicable pain. LYN: Very painful. Excruciating pain. LYN: Alright, it;s not worth it. Let’s forget it. C: Bro, forget it. LYN: Are you calling me out?! LYN: I really don’t need to do this to myself. It’s enough already.

C: Ning-ge, you still have to record for your album tomorrow. LYN: Tomorrow... I’m not recording for my album. I have other work, tomorrow.

C: A Mayday song. LYN: Let me see if there’s a track. -- 夜訪吸血鬼 (Interview with the Vampire) LYN: This accompaniment is too noisy. :| But I really like this song. - /thinks of a different song/ -- 你不是真正的快樂 (You Are Not Truly Happy) LYN: I don’t really know it. So... I’ll stop singing it. C: Watching you sing this makes me really happy. LYN: I am very happy, but You Are Not Truly Happy.

LYN: I see you spamming “十年人间” (Shi Nian Ren Jian/DMBJ), but I really don’t know how to sing that song. I’ve heard it, but I don’t know how to sing it. Maybe if there’s a chance the next time I’ll sing it, then.

C: 黑夜一束光 (Praying) LYN: I won’t sing it now because I’ll have a performance in a few days that I’ll be singing it at. In order to leave you with some sense of “freshness”, I’ll save it for my performance. LYN: I’ve gone through all my songs and none of them really have that bright/positive feeling. I’ve mostly sung OSTs, so the majority are emotional songs. Those songs aren’t suitable to sing for particular occasions. I wouldn’t sing “你說愛情啊 (You Say Love)” at a school. Would I be encouraging them to start dating?? That’s not very uplifting. I’ll go to a school and sing 余生只想握紧你的手 (I Want to Hold Your Hand for the Rest of My Life)?? LYN: 意气趁年少 (Be Earnest While You’re Young) will work. It’s more positive, because it centers around learning. There’s a youthful feel, too. -- 意气趁年少 (Be Earnest While You’re Young)

C: Sing 初升 (Rising). LYN: I really haven’t sung this one before. Let me see if there’s a track. // There isn’t. /searches again/ There is. I’ve never sung it live before. Let me give it a try. If I crack then it does not represent my real ability- because this is my own song. -- 初升 (Rising) [Gen Z OST] C: You’ve crushed the original singer. LYN: Em, that’s overpraise. I AM the original singer. This is the theme song for the drama Gen Z. It’s a character song, and my first time singing it live.

- - - - - - - - - -

C: 云字诀 (Yun Zi Jue). LYN: I might not be able to sing it in my current condition. /searches for the track/ I can sing you MXT’s version? Oh, it’s the same version. Then, I’ll sing it. -- 云字诀 (Yun Zi Jue) [The Ingenious One OST] - /messes it up. starts over with the excuse he didn’t turn on the special sound effects/ LYN: Later I need to find someone to get these pictures on Kugou Music changed. What IS THIS??

LYN: I’ve already done Thermage treatment and don’t look like this anymore. ^

LYN: Change this picture out. What the heck. Look at these beady and small eyes and eyeliner. I can’t stand it. ^

LYN: This one’s okay. It looks like this fellow is emo. He’s a little depressed. Look at his eyes, full of gloom. His face is chubby, too. ^

LYN: Look at this. This is worse. Look at how big this face is. Oh, my goodness. He looks so bloated. Is your name “Liu Fu Zhong”?? Look at this face. ^

LYN: This one is okay. This one is good. He’s got a good jawline. This one doesn’t look as bad. It’s good. ^

LYN: This is from my concert three years ago. I’m waiting for the audience, looking worried that I won’t have many fans in attendance. ^

 LYN: This one was taken in the early days, when I was in a better condition. We took a whole set of “business” photos. ^

LYN: Look at this one. This one doesn’t want to live anymore. Pretending to be depressed, using his hand to hold up his head. In reality, the head is empty. Look at this guy- head empty. ^

LYN: This one is okay. It’s more recent. I look a little more lively, at least. You can see just a little bit of handsomeness on this face.  ^

LYN: This is also more recent. But at that time I was a little chubby. Look at this big face. It’s even this big AFTER the picture was shopped. Think about what it would look like if it weren’t?? ^

LYN: THIS you can say was when I was at my peak visuals. I took this photo as part of a set for a magazine; there was also a video. This was probably the peak of my visuals. I took these when The Long Ballad was airing. ^

LYN: This is okay. Also more recent. Golden-haired. The Disney look. It was pretty lively. ^ 

LYN: There’s no problem with this one. I think it’s okay. This was a while ago. You can see- his eyes are different. There’s something there. ^

LYN: This one’s a fool. /laughs/ Look at this fool. Look at these eyes. They sure are open wide. Open but soulless. This guy doesn’t have a clue what’s going on. ^

LYN: This is- kind/a little foolish with a side of wandering. He looks youthful, with hopes for the future. ^

LYN: This one is.. more mature. This was taken for the Jiangsu New Year’s event. You can say I was a mature artist by then. I do have eyeliner here, but not as “deadening”. ^

LYN: This one is.. pretending to be young. This should have been for the New Year.. otherwise I wouldn’t be wearing red. But I did look more refined. ^

LYN: This one... has some after-editing. Why do these just keep scrolling? This one is quite nice, though. Curly hair. Hong Kong-style. (?) ^

LYN: This one... he has a stick! Pretending to be Sun Wukong, or what?? At this point, he already has the eyes of an actor. They’re not like the one before, with nothing in them. ^

LYN: This is... over-edited. It’s.. too much. ^

LYN: This one was not too long ago! I look a little... chubbier, here. Look at this baozi-face. ^ LYN: Oh, we came back around. This is the worst one (the first one). LYN: Alright. LYN: /sigh/ LYN: Let’s sing a song. It’s called 云字诀 (Yun Zi Jue). -- 云字诀 (Yun Zi Jue) [The Ingenious One OST] [The Ingenious One OST] LYN: Thanks, everyone. This song is quite nice. I pretty much liked it after my first listen.

- - - - - - - - - -

C: I want to hear a Cantonese song. LYN: Don’t rush. Ehm... hold on a minute. Let me go grab something more to drink. I’ll sing for you after I come back. I’m running out of videos to show you, though. Because honestly this stream is running a bit long. I don’t have enough. You can watch it again. Wait for me while I get some water.  -- break #3.5 LYN: I’m back. Hold on, hold on. Let me find a song... (Stay with Me)

C: Where’s Daimi? LYN: She’s sleeping, don’t disturb her. She doesn’t have any schedule today. Let’s not disturb her. Let her sleep. Later, when she wakes up, I’ll call her over.

C: Did you see the ZY wrap trailer? LYN: What are you talking about? Of course I saw it. I acted in it, would I not go watch it? I’ve seen all the trailers for things I’ve acted in. It’s nice. I think in a few days there’ll be... no, never mind. I was just going to say there would be more content out in a short while. It’s a drama we spent several months working on, so I hope you can take a look when it comes out. LYN: Of course, YNGS as well- you have to watch. - /recites his lines from the trailer/ LYN: I remember it, because I only have so many. C: I support Ning Yuanzhou being abducted by aliens in the end. LYN: Have to taken a peek at the script? I admit it- at the end NYZ is taken away by aliens. The ending is a big suspense. He’s fighting with someone and in the very end, when it looks like he is about to win, a flash of light crosses the sky. A UFO appears and takes NYZ away. Why does it end like this? In preparation for a second season. The first part is called “Yi Nian Guan Shan”; the second part is called “Yi Nian Kai He”. Close (Guan) to Open (Kai). Mountain (Shan) to River (He). In the second season called YNKH- the UFO comes back in the first episode. NYZ has amnesia.  C: “Er Nian Guan Shan” is easier to remember. C: “Yi Nian Guan Si”. LYN: What is that?? If the first part is called “Yi Nian Guan Shan”, then the second should be “Er Nian Guan Shan.” The third part is “San Nian Guan Shan”. If we make it all the way to season 11, would it be called “Shi Yi Nian Guan Shan”? LYN: We should call it “Yi Nian Guan Qi” (Guan Qi, the character from SYXSSYX, who was “abducted by aliens”). C: Negotiating more scenes for yourself in a second season? LYN: No- our screenwriter is Zhang Wei-laoshi. She likes to use people’s names, and she has her own “Zhang Wei Universe.” I don’t mean any disrespect. It’s just that a lot of her male characters across stories have a connection to each other. The detailed people will have found out. If you watch her dramas you’ll find that some names appear across the universes. For example our drama will mention the name of a character in a different one of her dramas. What was the name of the male lead in A Dream of Splendor? I think it was Gu Qianfan, right? In this drama, my name is Yuanzhou. Qianfan and Yuanzhou- don’t you think there has to be some relation there? [t/n: part of a common saying] LYN: We’re all part of Zhang Wei-laoshi’s written universe. It’s possible that when she writes a script in the future, there will be a character called Ning Yuanzhou in it. The other day she posted something to her friend circle- I think it might have been at the wrap party and she complimented me! I forgot exactly what she said, at the time I had a bit to drink. But I promised her that if he character Ning Yuanzhou ever showed up in another one of her works, I wouldn’t just let it be a name on a page- I would come to act for her. I would cameo for her, as long as she continues to write and write about NYZ. - /fan makes a side comment asking about how much he drank.how many dishes he has to eat/ LYN: So, friends. Don’t think that I am being unfair only to you. Because I don’t exclusively makes “pies” for you, either. I have nothing against you, that I make “empty promises”. Don’t assume that just because ZW-laoshi is a very amazing screenwriter that I won’t make “pies” for her, too. No- all are treated equal. // After this story, do you feel more at ease? I’m not only like this to you. I make pies for other laoshis to eat, too. XD LYN: But if she ever comes to look for me, I really do have to go. How could I not?? But... I’ll probably have something else going on when that time comes. I might have something else to do... but it’s not for sure! If she asks me, I have to make the time. I have to make good on my promise.

C: You drank four cans already. LYN: It’s not four. I probably have more... Oh. It is four! You got me. Four, and a can of coffee.  LYN: Why are you keeping track of how many cans I’m drinking?? Are you going to take these to recycle? Should I mail them to you? C: You’ll get water swollen. LYN: What are you talking about? It’s a food thing to drink plenty of water. I don’t care about being bloated; I’m not going to be on camera tomorrow anyway. It’s fine. C: Give me the cans. I’ll sell them for money. LYN: Okay. Pay the postage yourself. I’ll send you these four cans, but pay the postage. C: The sugar content is high. LYN: No- this is just carbonated water. There’s no sugar/flavor. It’s just water.

C: The rising star of 2023- is that you? LYN: What an interesting question. I don’t get what you mean. From your language, I hear a story. That is, one day, you were surfing the internet when you inexplicably came across a fortune telling stream. The host posted an article that read, “In 2023, in this industry, there will be a rising star. A superstar will appear in the year of 2023.” They might have seen something like that, Am I right? Isn’t this story very complete? I extrapolated it out of just a few words. They probably saw someone post something like that. And then, in that moment, they thought that this prediction was describing me. They saw me streaming and they thought that they could see a purple aura from me. LYN: Look, I have lights here. So this friend thought, “Is it you?” Here’s the thing- I hope it is. If you ask me, of course I would hope its about me. Everyone wants to climb to the peak, right? But I’m guessing this “rising star” isn’t me. There are all sorts of highly skilled people are are just on the verge of popularity- why don’t you go ask them? It’s probably not me. You can go and ask them. I’m not- go ask someone else. LYN: I want to keep both feet on the ground, because I’m tall. If I climb too fast it might be too unstable. I’ll keep both feet on the floor- take it one step at a time to try one thing after another. I want to accumulate my viewers and their interests, and accumulate my own experience. That’s my path. Let’s not mess with any “rising stars.” LYN: Many stars pass in the blink of an eye. They’re shooting stars. So.. I don’t want to be a star. I’ll be... a little white rabbit. LYN: Now I want to gift you with a nice song. -- 感覺自己是巨星 (Think I’m a Superstar) [Mao Buyi] LYN: /to the tune of the song/ ~ Superstar, superstar we love you. Quickly, listen to us give you “rainbow farts” (excessive compliments). In our eyes, you’re the youngest. ~ LYN: So, friends. I would like to bear witness to exactly who this “rising star” is together with you. Who will it be? Let’s anticipate it! I’m also very curious! Let’s find out who it will be.

- - - - - - - - - -

- /Daimi barking/ LYN: Why are you being so mean? What do you have to be angry about? LYN: She’s awake. - /gives her the mic/ LYN: Weren’t you barking earlier? Come on, say something. Sing.

C: The rising star is Daimi. LYN: Are you talking about her? Let’s hope so. LYN: Once I said “rising star” she got angry- I mean- she woke up. I hope my female artist can be popular. 

- /Daimi, licking his arm/ LYN: Enough of that! She keeps licking me. -/Daimi tries to lick him again/ LYN: ! Do you want me to stop streaming? You’re trying to get me to stop, is that it? Okay, I understand. Sorry, friends. I need to stop streaming now because Daimi was pushing my hand away. She doesn’t want me to stream anymore. She doesn’t want me to stream- she’s about to eat my mouse. - /Daimi tries to lick his hand again/ LYN: Tsk. That’s enough...  - /makes her wave/

- /dancing/ - /promptly puts her on the floor/ LYN: /to Daimi/ Go play, go play. Don’t bother me. It’s time to work.

- - - - - - - - - -

C: Ning-ge, could you wish me well on my exam? LYN: Of course I can. I hope that tomorrow, or all of this week- everyone who is preparing to take the NCEE is in good spirits and can have a good result. Let’s amaze the world with one brilliant feat and reach for the stars. - /had said the proverb wrong, initially/ LYN: Excuse me. See- this is what an uncultured person will do. They’ll say the wrong thing. People who haven’t taken the NCEE will mis-read the phrasing. - /makes up for it by saying a bunch more (correctly)/

C: Ning-ge, could you bless me with passing the 16th level (?)? LYN: Am I a tortoise? Is my stream a wishing well? And I am the tortoise in that pond? You’ve come to me with your wishes? Then, why aren’t you throwing me any money? You should at least leave an offering, before making a wish. This is just... forceful wishing. What you’re doing is taking game money to throw into the pond, to trick me. LYN: I’m sure you’ll pass. Do well on the test! LYN: In order to become the “Rising Star of 2023″ like mentioned earlier, from now on I will change my name. I’ll be Liu Ziwei. Don’t call me Liu Yuning anymore. From now on I will be known as Liu Ziwei.

LYN: Friends, how many of you are watching my stream for the first time? How may of you are first-timers? If this is your first time watching or if you don’t watch often, you can subscribe to my weibo. I am Modern Brothers Liu Yuning. Here’s the thing with my streams- most of the time I’m speaking nonsense. Don’t take anything to heart and don’t fall for any tricks. If you take this too seriously then it becomes meaningless. That just proves that you are too innocent. Only believe about 20% of what I say here. Most of the time I will use an amusing or joking delivery to communicate with my fans and make the people who maybe don’t necessarily hate me stay a while. Just listen to my stream for entertainment. Don’t fall for what I say. Okay? I’m not capable of teaching you any lessons or opinions. Just listen for entertainment. C: Before you told us to believe 30% of what you said. How did it dwindle to only 20%? LYN: /sigh/ It used to be that I wasn’t very strict with what I said, so it ended up that people had a lot to hold against me. I was ridiculed for my words. Though it might not have been my intention, I was honestly too careless with what I said. So now my game plan is to say more nonsense and avoid more... sensitive topics. It’s fine as long as you are okay and I am okay, and everyone is happy. 

C: Will you sing a Cantonese song? LYN: I don’t know very many. Let me sing this for you. -- 无赖 (Rascal) [Ronald Cheng] LYN: Listen for entertainment. I’m a North-easterner, after all. My Cantonese is very poor. I know that. So.. it’s for fun. Someone earlier said “You’re Cantonese is skewing!” I don’t know what they meant by that, but probably that my pronunciation was off. It’s alright. 

LYN: Let me think... what other Cantonese songs do I know? What else do I know...? C: Once you start speaking the Dongbei dialect comes out. LYN: What else did you expect?

C: I’m a Cantonese person. I can say, it sounded very nice! LYN: You really are clever at speaking. “I’m a Cantonese person, I can say it sounded very nice... but it wasn’t accurate.”

C: First Love. LYN: Oh~ -- 初恋 (First Love)

C: I’m going to throw up. (bc of the video and swaying) LYN: Your age...? Forget about you- I’M a little nauseous. LYN: Is my stream over-trying to be cool? It’s slightly over. LYN: This is too eye-searing, yeah? Okay. Let’s stick with this effect for the... “middle-aged”.

LYN: I thought of a song just now. I REALLY really like it. -- 一生所爱 (Lifelong Love)  LYN: If there’s a chance later I’ll sing it properly for you. I don’t really have much strength left, today.

- /Daimi barks/ LYN: :| What are you barking at?

-- 倩女幽魂 (A Chinese Ghost Story)

LYN: That’s about it. It’s about time, friends. Thank you for keeping me company and for your support. I told you I would stream until you threw up. In terms of length, today’s stream didn’t let you down, did it? I accidentally saw a little earlier, how long I’ve streamed for. Right now it’s... four hours and thirty-five minutes. C: Don’t go! Don’t! LYN: I’ve been streaming for four and a half hours. That’s not a small amount. If i keep streaming /I’M/ going to throw up. You’re over there lying on your bed and snacking on melon seeds, but I’ve been over here yelling and singing, moving my mouth for four and a half hours! Now you’re telling me you don’t want me to go?? I’m going to throw up! I’m not streaming until you throw up, I’m streaming until /I/ feel like throwing up, now. Do you think you’re the only one who sees that violently shaking video and gets dizzy? I get dizzy too! I’m older in age- you all know that. C: You still turn it on, even though it makes you dizzy? LYN: I just wanted to give you the best experience in such a simple stream, didn’t I?? I didn’t want you to feel like I was just sitting in a room. I wanted to give you some stage effects, so that you can immerse yourself. I do this all so you can feel included- even this laugh sound. It’s all so you can immerse yourself in this room and the mood. Even though I’ve made myself nauseous- I still have to power through and stream for you. It’s all for the immersive experience, is that not enough??

LYN: It’s about time. If you still haven’t subscribed to my weibo, please do so. I am Modern Brothers Liu Yuning. I thank you all for keeping me company and for watching my stream. Even if you’ve only been watching for thirty minutes or if you’ve been here from the start. I thank you. I hope to see you in the next one, alright? I hope you had a relaxing, wonderful, and happy night. It was great to have you and I hope you had fun. See you next time! Goodnight, everyone!

[shythalia]

{I'm posting this early draft I made of an SCP idea I've had for a few years here. I'll say more at the end.}

Camera Trap - an SCP-inspired concept

This anomaly is a multitude of cameras of any model that can 'capture' any living being (excluding plants & fungi). The captured being(s) disappear(s) from reality then reappear(s) in the photos & footage taken by the camera. When the photos or footage are viewed for the first time by a person, they will see when the victim(s) was/were first captured. When viewed again, the background stays but instead the victim(s) will change positions.

In the photos, the victim(s) will be seen in different still positions, like what you expect to see in photographs. In the videos, the victim(s) will be seen moving independently & normally. It has been noticed that victims cannot leave the area they were captured in, and time does not seem to pass for them. For example: If a victim was captured in daytime, it will always be daytime for them; and if they were captured at night, then it will always be nighttime for them.

Human victims are aware of their situation, as they are mostly seen facing at where the camera was placed during their capture. However, animal victims are not aware of their predicament. All they know is that they are somehow trapped.

As for when another person views the photos & footage after someone else has viewed them already, basically, seeing them for the first time will show you the day the victims were captured and then seeing them again will show you what they are doing currently at the time you are viewing them regardless if another first-time viewer is seeing the day the victims were captured even when that's not what you are seeing because you have already seen it. These rules also apply to when two or more people view them.

As of today, there are no known ways to rescue the victims nor even ways to communicate with them.

There can be any number of cameras in one place and they are found all over the world. No one knows whether someone or something has been placing these cameras there or if they just showed up there out of nowhere.

{Incredibly early draft of an article:}

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: Taken instances of SCP-XXXX are to be kept at Storage Room XXX at Site-XX. The instances' hard drives separated from them on another table. Level 3 access only.

Description: SCP-XXXX is the designation for multiple types of anomalous security cameras & trailcams that are found at random locations across the world. The instances themselves are non-anomalous and have no distinguishable differences from regular security cameras & trailcams. Because of this, people normally pay no attention to them.

SCP-XXXX's anomalous properties manifest when an instance is on. When a living being appears in its field of view, the being stays in the camera's view and can never leave. The victims are then reported missing. There are no traces of the victims when visiting the areas where this had occur. Reviewing the contained SCP's footages reveal this. [See (insert Addendum something something here)]

It is still currently unknown who or what is putting these SCPs all over the world, or if they merely appear out of nowhere.

[Hypothesis: This SCP might be responsible for the creation of (the basketball game recording SCP).] -> this is just me wanting to connect my scp w another scp so pay no mind to this

{I definitely need to learn how to write a proper SCP article. They have all these different sites & rooms & stuff. I can't just make up my own, not especially now that there is so much lore in it. I don't know what proper shit to use for the Special Containment Procedures.

Idk if this would be Euclid or Keter. Probably Keter with how they just pop up anywhere in the world?

I also need to come up with the addenda stuff.

Man, I thought writing a technical paper would be easy. lmao I guess I'm more fit for creative writing, but I'm not writing a tale because that's too intimidating. haha And what if someone already wrote an SCP like this?

I'll figure this out eventually (maybe) some time in the future. I'll look up tutorials or how-to guides on this. If you have experience writing an SCP or two, maybe you can give me some tips?}

[titles-for-tangents]

I’m bringing this up because this seems to be the only article I’ve read so far that really addresses how much of human history we’d be losing. To quote:

“Musk himself acknowledges that Twitter is a public forum, and it’s this fact that makes the potential loss of the platform so significant. Twitter has become integral to civilization today. It’s a place where people document war crimes, discuss key issues, and break and report on news.

“It’s where the US raid that would result in Osama bin Laden’s death was first announced. It’s where people get updates on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It’s where news of the downing of flight MH17, a Malaysia Airlines plane that was likely shot down by pro-Russia forces in Ukraine in 2014, first surfaced. It is a living, breathing historical document. And there’s real concern it could disappear soon.

“‘If Twitter was to “go in the morning”, let’s say, all of this—all of the first-hand evidence of atrocities or potential war crimes, and all of this potential evidence—would simply disappear,’ says Ciaran O’Connor, senior analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a global think tank. Information gathered using OSINT (open-source intelligence) has been used to support prosecutions for war crimes, and acts as a record of events long after the human memory fades.”

The article notes how even the Library of Congress tried documenting stuff on Twitter for eight freaking years and simply had to stop in 2018 just due to the sheer deluge of information. Think about just how much has happened post-2017 in particular, post- the #Me Too movement. The #Black Lives Matter movement. How many crimes actively caused by the police that people captured on camera and help fuel #Defund the Police. How former President Trump would howl random insanities, instructions, and declarations in a complete breach of protocol both security and otherwise and Twitter was instrumental in deplatforming him, and not only did we get to have five minutes of peace for once, suddenly it opened up the conversation about how large social media sites can and should deplatform hate speech. Twitter is where we all noticed someone cracked into the CDC’s account in one of the first of many moments where the public’s trust in them began to wither and crumble during a pandemic. According to William Kilbride, executive director of the Digital Preservation Coalition, “There’s no indication that those formal records of government agencies have ever been archived, or indeed how they’d go about doing that.”

If you use Twitter for any reason, please find a way to back up your data now. The article goes on to say, “Many users have taken it upon themselves to independently back up their data, while the Internet Archive can be used to permanently store snapshots of Twitter’s webpages in a more reliable place than Twitter’s own servers. But both methods are not without their own issues: multimedia often isn’t stored alongside such methods of archiving tweets—something that would impact the vast numbers of accounts posting images and videos from Iran’s revolution, or documenting Russia’s invasion of Twitter—while accessing the information easily requires knowing the exact URL of any given tweet to access it. ‘You may have trouble finding that if it’s not already been preserved in some way somewhere else on the internet,’” says Eliot Higgins, whom the author notes as the “founder of open-source investigators Bellingcat, who helped bring the perpetrators of the downing of MH17 to justice.”

Storage already was a very real problem, and the recollection of that data is going to be far, far hairier if possible at all. I’m not on Twitter so I’m sure someone much more versed in legal and I.T. issues would be able to clarify if users will be able to get their data back. Don’t get me wrong: watching Elon Musk go bankrupt and his empire burn all around him has been and will continue to be cathartic as hell, especially over the class action lawsuits coming against him. But that will be just the first half of the parade before people try to get back their records of lost art, lost journalism, lost quotes, lost photography and films, lost records of how people have been faring during the pandemic across all walks of life. There’s a very real chance we’re not going to get those back. Yes, much of Twitter is full of brainrot. It’s also full of celebrities, artists, and organizations where their accounts can be as professional as they want it to be. Think about how many tweets you see copy-pasted to Tumblr and copy-pasted Tumblr posts get retweeted back to Twitter. Think about how Eli Lily just had to confront their horrible insulin prices this past week alone and how once again, the conversation turns to accountability and how life can simply be better than this dystopian, sick age we’re living in. This is arguably bigger than even the loss of Vine; I would say it’s a wee bit closer to the burning of the Library at Alexandria.

While there absolutely is worth in having community corkboards, the next social medial empire that will fall like Facebook is going to care even less about you and wipe out even more important moments in human history. Social media sites like Twitter are (again I need to use this word) instrumental as fuck for helping to instigate very real social change, even if they’re created for dumb and/or fun reasons and get quickly grandfathered into serious issues simply because they’ve been popular for so long they’ve just stuck around long enough to see them. Sites like Twitter have allowed people to get out the message out to vote and directly interact with politicians for better and worse. Sure, something will take its place, and Mastodon is already there to try to do just that. We should have healthy competition and no one should run a monopoly to encourage their status as billionaire (we shouldn’t have billionaires in the first place for that matter, but that’s a discussion for another day). The point is the fate of this closing era is going to be at the whims of a very particular twit this weekend, and the window of time to save what we can from the already burning pyre is rapidly closing.

I really, really don’t want to see Twitter to go up in flames. The best outcome for this would be to see all of its employees get much better-paying, unionized jobs and Elon Musk continues to peel and reveal himself for the insufferable jackass that he is.

[kpophubb]

nooo you are too cute i’m blushing🫣🫣

HOLY MOLY THOSE PICTURES ARE SO SO INCREDIBLE:( 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🥹🥹🥹🥹🤭🤭🤭🫣🫣I really like the nighttime vibe of big cities but my camera seems to be capturing those in a poor quality, i haven’t figured out how to solve that problem so i only take pics with my phone at night like the ones you showed me THEY LOOK SO GOOD I WOULD LOVE FOR US TO GO TAKING PICS TOGETHER:( it would be so fun:( maybe in the future our paths will cross sometime☹️many of my friends don’t like just wondering around the city to take lots of pics but i love it sm it has such a cool vibe🥹i would love to share more pics with you and see yours so don’t be shy show more if you want to😍

-wjj💖

You will learn with time my love!! I remember how much I struggled and could never focus when it came to taking moon pictures bc it’d blur out and appear as a ball of light 🥲 and besides, using a canon must already be very hard so you will get there, dw! 💗😻

Pls I love night time cities! 😭 my comfort scene tbh, AND I WOULD LOVE TO GO ON RANDOM TRIPS WITH YOU. Trips around the city doing nothing but walking, taking pictures, talking with eachother and getting ice cream or corn dogs!🥺 sounds so perfect, I’d be so down w those precious times like you🫶🏻 I love venturing, especially during the night time bc I’m a night person and night scenarios esp in the cold weather seems so relaxing ugh!

and sure id show you more pics once I click them lmao I cleared 1500 pics from my phone bc I have no storage so I deleted a lot rn💔

+ here take your seojun mullet jungwonie ;) 💖

[skyeet-the-writer]

The Love Among Us

Chapter 1-- I’d Never Snitch On Daddy

so i haven’t seen many corpse husband x reader stories on here, so i decided to upload one myself. i’ve been watching jacksepticeye’s among us videos and when i heard corpse talk for the first time, i was like, “hol up” and now i’ve been obsessed with him. also, go stream his music on spotify, it’s amazing. enjoy! x. 

 corpse husband x female!reader

summary: while playing among us, y/n watches corpse kill felix in o2. when his body is reported, however, she doesn’t tell who killed him. 

 word count: ~3.6k

warnings: swearing, mentions of death (not real death), mentions of murder (not real murder)

EDIT: before i wrote this and after i published it, i did not know that corpse did not like to be referred to as “daddy”. had i known this, i would have not even thought of posting this. and since i know now, i won’t refer to him as such in the future. thank you. (10/19/2020)

EDIT 2: this is the first part to my corpse x reader series. i will be adding chapters as we go!

next>

4 rounds before the incident

“I was in coms with PJ!” Sean exclaims. 

“He is doing the liar voice!” Felix shouts with a laugh. 

“I’m not,” Sean tries to say, but everyone talks over him and the voting time ends. Everyone left alive, though it was only four people, had all voted for him and he yells at them as he gets ejected. 

stinky was not the imposter

2 imposters remain

The round ends and everyone unmutes themselves. 

“Lizzie, you saw Felix kill me and you did nothing!” Roomie yells as soon as the round ends and the imposters are revealed. 

“Yeah, because I was the other imposter.”

“Oh. Okay, well that makes sense.”

Everyone laughs and Ken starts the round again. 

“Wait, can I invite y/n to play? She’s doing her twenty-four-hour stream and she just finished playing Monopoly with Mark, Bob, and Wade,” says Lizzie, looking down at her phone as they all appear back in the waiting room. 

“Yes,” Corpse blurts out and there are a few laughs and chuckles. 

“You were quick to answer, Corpse,” Sean teases. 

“Shut up,” Corpse mumbles and there are even more laughs. 

Lizzie smiles and taps into her phone. “I’m gonna invite her.”

~

“I can’t believe that you actually made that deal, y/n,” Wade is telling you after ending the second round of Monopoly that you’ve played with them. 

You smile and cross your legs on your chair. “Look, I was going bankrupt and it seemed good at the time. Besides, Mark was going to win anyway, he owned half of the board.” Your phone buzzes beside you on your desk and you pick it up. “Lizzie texted me.” There’s a sound effect that plays in your headset and you look up at your screen and smile. “Thanks to _lorieplays _for donating a hundred dollars, that means a lot. Thank you so much.”

“Do you want to play another round?” Marks asks. 

You shake your head, reading the text from your friend in England. “No, I don’t want to lose to you again.” You laugh. “Nah, Lizzie wants me to play Among Us with her and a few others. It was fun playing with you guys.”

“It was even though you took all of my money,” Bob snaps. 

You laugh. “Yeah, yeah. See you guys later.”

“Bye,” says Mark.

“See y--” Wade begins but you cut him off when you disconnect from the call. 

“Oops.” You put a hand over your mouth and laugh. “Sorry, Wade. Okay.” You straighten up and glance over everything, making sure it’s all working properly. “I have to pee and I think my roommate ordered pizza, so we’ll be back after this short break. Enjoy this live feed of my pet rats.” You giggle and switch the stream over to a view of your two rats in their cage where you have a camera set up. You take your headset off and head out of your recording room. 

Every two months, you have a twenty-four-hour livestream where you play games with your friends from all around the world. Despite being only twenty-five, your Youtube channel had grown exponentially in the past three years and you’ve had the chance to meet lots of other Youtubers like Markiplier, PewDiePie, and your close friend, LDShadowLady. 

Currently, you’re on hour twenty of twenty-four and you’re beginning to feel the effects of not sleeping for a whole day. You had been drinking coffee and energy drinks for the past four hours and that seemed to perk you up for two hours max. But your roommate had ordered pizza and that would hopefully wake you up. 

After going to the bathroom and grabbing an entire box of pizza, you return to your recording room and sit down. You put your headset back on and eat a slice of pizza before switching the views back to you. “And we’re back. I hope you guys enjoyed my rats because I don’t. They keep me up at night.”

You read a comment while loading up Among Us and laugh. “No, they’re not dead. They’re sleeping. They do that a lot when they’re not fighting.” 

When you finally get into the game and entire the code, you spawn in. You also quickly join the Discord chat and wince when nearly ten voices hit you at once. 

“y/n!” exclaims Lizzie and the other voices die down for a moment before rising to greet you. 

You wince again but laugh. “Jesus, you guys are loud. Hey, Lizzie.” You move your character to the customize tab and go to try and switch your color. But then you frown and realize that you’re stuck with being dark blue. “Damn, I wanted to be white.”

“Do you want to switch?” Corpse asks. 

Your eyes widen you your stomach flips. You hadn’t noticed Corpse was in this game. Immediately, your chat became flooded with keyboard smashing and lots of “omg my shipp” and “y/n rlly said ‘anna oop-’” 

“Uh, yeah, if you don’t mind,” you manage to stutter out and take a bite of pizza as Corpse’s player comes over and the white option becomes available. You select it and also select the goggles in the hats menu. 

“How’s your stream going?” asks Sean. 

You shrug. “Pretty good. I’m super tired, though. I literally almost fell asleep while playing Monopoly with Mark, Wade, and Bob.”

“You went to college, right?” You’re pretty sure that’s Roomie. 

“Yep,” you affirm with a nod even though they can’t see you. “You’d think that those all-nighters writing papers and studying for finals would make me able to do this.”

There’s a laugh in the group and the round starts.

3 rounds before the incident

You scratch your eyebrow and sigh in relief when you’re the crewmate. You mute yourself and slide up in your chair. 

“I like being the crewmate,” you say, heading towards admin as a habit. “It’s a lot less stressful than being imposter.”

After doing your tasks in admin and fueling the engines, you stumble across a dead body in the lower engine and a vent closing. 

“Oh,” you say, and press the report button. You unmute yourself and begin with, “So I saw a vent close but I didn’t see who went in.”

“Who died?” asks Lizzie. 

“Felix,” says Sean. 

You smirk. “It’s always yellow that dies first.”

“Where was the body?” Ken asks. 

“Lower engine,” you reply. 

“I was in medbay with Corpse doing the scan so it wasn’t him,” PJ says and Corpse makes a noise of confirmation. 

This makes your cheeks heat up and you smack a hand over your mouth. Your chat explodes again but you decide to ignore it. 

“And I was doing wires in cafeteria,” Lizzie says. 

“Sean, where were you?” 

“I was in reactor doing the simon says thing,” he answers. 

You sigh. “I hate that one. What about you, Ken?”

“I was with Roomie in electrical doing the power thing. You know, the one where you have to divert it somewhere else.”

“So do we skip then?” asks Lizzie. 

“No one is super sus, so I’m going to skip,” you answer. 

When no one is ejected, you mute yourself again. “I dunno why, but Sean seems pretty sus. Because I didn’t see him on the way down from upper engine. But I guess he could have gotten there in time.” You shrug and run over to the trash chute in the cafeteria. “RIP to Felix, though.”

After doing the trash there, you head down to storage, running into Corpse doing the wires in there. You wait there to clear him and once you do, you run a few circles around him to get his attention and he follows you over to the trash in storage and watches you do that. After that, the two of you head over to electric together and do wires there. 

Suddenly, there’s a body reported and you unmute yourself. 

“Sean just killed Lizzie in front of me!” exclaims PJ. 

“PJ killed Lizzie,” Sean retorts, flipping the blame. “I watched it, he didn’t realize I was there and murdered her.”

“I watched PJ do the scan in medbay, he’s cleared,” Corpse says and you find yourself smiling for no reason. “Sean, you killed Lizzie.”

“I knew he was sus,” you say, grabbing another piece of pizza. You look at the box and your eyes widen. Had you really already eaten half of it?

“Wait wait, how am I sus?” Sean asks. 

You take a moment to swallow. “Because when I was doing fuel earlier, I was running down from upper engine and didn’t see you in reactor. Sure, maybe you could have gotten there earlier, but it was super weird.” 

The discussion time ends and PJ immediately goes to vote for Sean as well as you, Corpse, and everyone else still alive. Sean ends up getting ejected. 

stinky was an imposter 

1 imposter remains

“You’re such a detective, y/n,” Sean says when he gets ejected. 

You laugh. “I just play this game too much.” You then mute yourself and smile. “I am a genius.” 

You end up finishing your tasks quickly after that and then stand in the cafeteria and eat another piece of pizza and read some of the chat. 

“’ What am I going to do after this?’ I don’t know. I might play some Minecraft. Should I have a poll on Twitter? I’m stuck between public Among Us games, Minecraft, and taking random quizzes on Buzzfeed.” You smile and hear another sound effect and something pops up on the screen. “Thank you to coochie man for donating a hundred dollars, that means a lot.” You laugh at their name. “I love your name, by the way.” 

There’s some rattling in the cage behind you and you turn around to see one of your rats drinking water. You turn back to the chat and read another comment. “’ Do you have a crush on Corpse?’” You blush and smile, biting your lip. “I mean, his voice is hot. I’ve never met him since he lives in San Diego and I live in h/t, but yeah, I guess I do. I’ve been listening to his music for the past few days and it’s really good, you guys should go check it out.”

You look up and unmute yourself when a body is reported. “Who died?” you ask. “I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Are you already done with your tasks, y/n?” Corpse asks. 

God, even the way he says your name is making you blush. “Yeah, I get them done quick.”

“She does that,” says Lizzie, “She always gets her tasks done quick.”

“Ken is dead by the way,” says Roomie and your snort, smacking a hand over your mouth. “I found him in the hallway by navigation. Where was everyone else?”

“I was in cafeteria doing nothing,” you say, leaning back in your chair and spinning around just a little. “I think I saw PJ downloading while I was in there, but I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Yeah, I was downloading,” says Ken. 

After more discussion, Corpse points out that Jaiden had been following him and it looked like she had been faking tasks. 

“No I haven’t,” she says. 

“That sounds like something the imposter would say,” you hum with a smirk. “That’s pretty sus, Jaiden.”

Everyone else agrees and you all end up voting Jaiden out. 

jaiden was the imposter

0 imposters remain

You cheer as the round ends and a blue victory screen pops up for the crewmates. “Good game, guys,” you say and play again, waiting for the host. 

~

1 round before the incident 

“Oh my god, I’m imposter again?” you groan and sigh when you spawn back in. “I was just imposter, I don’t want to be it again. I’m so bad at it,”

After another short round of you and Felix losing to the crewmates, you all agreed to play two more rounds before Sean had to leave. So you move your character to admin where PJ is and fake the card swipe before moving over to the admin security thing where you could see who was around where. Luckily, no one appeared to be near admin, so you quickly kill PJ and escape through the vent and come out through medbay. 

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” you whisper over and over, running down to storage. “That was clean.” You fake getting fuel and go back up to the upper engine. 

When PJ’s body is reported, you see that your fellow imposter, Sean, had reported it. You stay silent for most of the round and only say that you were in the fuel area when it was reported. 

“Yeah, I saw her run past electrical earlier,” Corpse says. You blush and glance at your exploding chat and shake your head. 

After everyone skips the round, you mute yourself once more and head towards navigation. “I hate this.” You drag the last syllable and watch Lizzie enter the room. You wait a moment before walking towards her and killing her, jumping into one of the vents. You let out a sigh and flex your fingers. “I’m so stressed.” You exit out of the vent into shields and your heart stops when you see someone else in there but you realize that it’s the other imposter, Sean, and you relax. 

You run past him and go to the trash compartments and pretend to unload those. And that’s how the rest of the round goes. You kill someone, someone reports it and you vote someone off. Eventually, you and Sean do a double kill and end up winning the round.

You unmute yourself. 

“Let’s go!” Sean exclaims and you smile. 

“I can’t believe you killed me, y/n!” shouts Lizzie. “I thought we were friends.”

You laugh. “There are no friends in this game. I’m not loyal to anyone in this game. You could be my best friend and I would fucking murder you.”

“That’s cold,” says Roomie as everyone else spawns back in. 

“Yeah,” you nod. 

“Wait, PJ disconnected,” says Sean, and you all end up waiting for him to rejoin. 

In that time, you look at your chat and say, “Hey, do you guys have any questions for who I’m playing with. I’m asking you, chat.”

“I swear if someone asks about my hands, I’m leaving,” Corpse says and everyone laughs. 

You laugh louder when you read a comment and read it aloud, “_Ironlady _says that you should be a hand model, Corpse.”

“Okay, I’m leaving,” you hear Corpse say over everyone laughing. 

“No, stay!” you exclaim, trying not to laugh. “C’mon, don’t leave.”

He sighs deeply and your brain goes fuzzy. “Fine. I’ll stay for you.”

You beam and your tummy turns. You ignore the whistles and remarks from everyone else and stand beside Corpse. You suddenly wish that the little bean characters could hold hands. 

When PJ joins the server again, Ken starts the round and you cross your fingers, hoping to get crewmate. 

0 rounds before the incident

You mute yourself and sigh when you’re a crewmate. “Thank god.” You let out a breath and go over to admin with everyone else. You swipe your card and go to the cafeteria to do some wires there. 

The game turns out to be rather uneventful. A few people die and two people are voted off before the game gets truly interesting. And that happens when you walk in on Corpse and Felix. 

“I’ve had this song stuck in my head for days,” you’re saying, walking from electrical over to O2. “And I can’t get it out of my head. Maybe singing it will help.” You hum the first part. “Don't go in there, you'll become one. Freaky creatures, monster party. Eyes of yellow, scales and feathers, tails in tethers. Turn the lights off. Bend the nightmare, you control it. Artful dodger, easy does it. Shut the closet, get under the covers. Snakes and lovers. Turn the lights off.” You do a little dance for a moment and continue hum the song, glancing at the chat as you go towards O2 after doing wires in storage. 

“Like, I know the song, it’s just been stuck in my head,” you explain. “And it kind of annoys me--”

But you stop as you enter O2 and watch Corpse murder Felix. Neither one of you move and you don’t know what to do. “Uhhh.” 

Then, without thinking, you turn straight around and make your way away from the scene of the murder. “I didn’t see anything!” you shout to no one. “I suddenly can’t see who murdered Felix.” You smack a hand over your mouth and stand in the middle of a hallway. “Oh my god, what do I do? I don’t want to snitch on Corpse, he’s hot.” You scratch the back of your neck and shrug, continuing on to reactor. “I didn’t see anything.”

You’re in the middle of doing the simon says in reactor when Felix’s body is reported. You unmute yourself and fidget with the sleeve of your hoodie. You know exactly who killed Felix. 

“--was in O2,” says Jaiden and you focus back into the conversation. “And I didn’t see anyone around.”

“I saw you heading that way, y/n, but I know it wasn’t you because I saw you do the trash in storage.”

You look at the screen when Sean talks to you and you chew your lip. “I know who killed Felix.”

“Who?” asks almost everyone at the same time. 

You close your eyes and swallow. It’s just a game, why are you taking this so seriously? Suddenly, a song lyric pops into your head and your stomach flips. You imagine yourself saying it and no one knows who you mean except for him. 

You open your eyes. “I’d never snitch on daddy.”

There’s a laugh in the chat and you blush fiercely, your livestream chat blowing up once again.

“I think we know who it is, then,” says Sean, laughing. 

“Yeah,” agrees Lizzie and your eyes widen. 

“Wait, what?” you ask, watching everyone vote almost as soon as the discussion time ends. “Wait, hang on, who--”

“We know who you’re talking about, y/n,” PJ tells you. 

You vote for yourself and your brain goes blank as you see that everyone voted for Corpse. He even voted for himself. They knew. They all _knew _about your feelings for Corpse. 

The round ends with Corpse being voted out and the crewmates win. There’s some talking, but you stay on the victory screen. You’re trying to decide if your mad or embarrassed or both. 

“I didn’t know you’d say that, y/n,” Corpse says, effectively breaking you out of your trance. “I thought you were gonna snitch on me.”

“You heard her,” teases Lizzie and you can tell she’s grinning. “She’d never snitch on you, Corpse.”

He laughs and you feel something in a certain place. “Oh my god, I’m gonna die of embarrassment.” You put your face in your hands, listening to your friends tease you in the chat. You suddenly want to jump out your window and run into traffic. 

“Don’t die,” comes Corpse’s voice through the onslaught of teasing. “I’ll be sad.”

“Fuck!” you shout and slam your hand on your desk, shaking your equipment and scaring your rats. “I’m so sorry, Corpse, that was really weird, I--”

“Stop.” He interrupts you and the chat goes silent and you look up at the screen even though you can’t see him. “It’s okay. It was funny.”

Your eyes widen and then narrow. Funny? He thought what you said was funny? How could he think it was funny?

But then he speaks again and he sounds oddly flustered. “Uh, I gotta go. Um, it was fun playing with you guys. Bye, y/n.”

“Bye Cor--” but then he disconnects and you’re left talking to no one. “--pse.”

There’s a long moment of silence until Felix breaks it. “I can’t believe you just watched me die and didn’t do anything about it.”

There are some laughs and you smile faintly, rejoining the game. “Yeah, uh, sorry about that.”

“Are you okay, y/n?” asks Lizzie. 

You blush and swallow. “I don’t know. God, I’m so weird.” You run a hand through your hair and adjust your headphones

“No, you’re not,” Roomie assures you. “He has a crush on you, too.”

Your eyes widen and you scoot up in your chair. “He does?”

“I mean, he called you pretty once during a game and said that he watches your videos a lot, so maybe.”

You groan and sink in your chair. “I’m gonna go, I need to run into traffic now.”

A few people laugh or chuckle and Lizzie asks you if you’re actually going to leave. 

“Yeah,” you tell her. “But not to run into traffic. I’m going to go play Minecraft to soothe myself.”

“Aw.” You can practically hear her frown. “Okay. Bye, y/n.”

“Good luck with your stream,” Ken tells you. 

You grin. “Okay, thanks, bye.”

When you exit the game and leave the chat, you scream. You actually scream and it’s loud. Your roommate even knocks on your door, asking if you’re okay. 

You look at them and nod. “Yeah, totally fine. Probably about to have a mental breakdown, but I’m fine.”

“Okay,” they say and lean on the doorframe. “But I’m not cutting bangs for you again.”

You laugh and nod. “Yeah, okay, fine.” They leave and you turn back to your stream, feeling like you’re about to cry. Corpse knows you have a crush on him. And it seems like he has one on you as well, but now you’re embarrassed because you called him ‘daddy’ on stream.

You rub your eyes. “Well, now I know what’ll be streaming on Twitter tonight,” you tell the chat. 

[miekasa]

any spare levi headcanons tonight????? 😁😁😁😁

Sure, why not, he is the love of my life after all. These are pretty random, and fit in some sort of generalized modern boyfriend au. Hopelessly domestic, as that is the nature of nearly everything I write for Levi, anyway. Also still terribly obsessed with the idea of him with a motorcycle, so there’s that.

He owns at least six black blazers. They’re nearly identical; slight differences in texture and cut, one with lapels, one that’s boldly all leather that you swear you’ve never seen him wear. They’re kind of his go-to staple, other than a sweater.

That being said, he doesn’t exclusively wear all black. His closet leans towards more neutrals, sure, but he’s not allergic to color. You might not catch him wearing neon orange on the average day, but he’s not averse to a nice shade of green, any shade of purple that suits his mood, even a softer pink.

He has towels and rags he sets aside especially for you when he comes over. He always washes them and put them back in place when you leave so that they’re ready to go for next time.

Claims to not have any attachment to the shows/dramas you watch, but he’s totally backseat watching. Halfway into every single series, he starts sitting down when you turn it on, and scoffs at dumb decisions the characters make.

He splurged on one of those frame TVs that look like a painting when they’re idle. It was a good investment in his opinion.

He doesn’t hate Starbucks drinks—there’s worse things out there in terms of quality of tea. What he despises about the establishment is the way they call out names for you to pick up your order. He’s learned that mobile order ahead is the way to go.

Has slippers for around the house, so consequently, you have slippers for walking around his house. He keeps both pairs (and a few extra for friends and guests) tucked neatly beside the door for easy access; yours always go next to his.

Does not understand the purpose of a robe. Buy him one tho and he will suddenly find an excuse to wear it: making breakfast, lounging around watching TV, doing some light cleaning and dusting. It’s comfy, alright, he can admit that much.

The little puppy you got him that he swore he was not going to warm up to now gets the royal treatment. The best doggie goods and treats, top rated shampoos, cutest drying towels, even a miniature couch he constructed just for the pup. They’re best friends, there’s no breaking that bond now.

Speaking of the puppy, affectionately named Captain, Levi can be found walking him every day shortly after work. They have a few different routes, but they always pass by the local vendors/market, who enthusiastically anticipate their appearance every day. Some of the older ladies running stands have even taken to bringing a few treats with them for Captain—after bundling up some goods for Levi, too, of course.

Captain also has a special doggy backpack Levi uses for when he’s on his motorcycle. If you follow anybody on TikTok in his area, you’re bound to see at least one video of the pup while Levi’s out riding. He’s become viral on social media without even knowing it.

(When you show him a video someone posted of him and Captain with well over 100k likes, and a million views, he only rolled his eyes. But remembers that particularly day; remembers the folks had a kid who politely asked to pet the dog, so he let him. He also maybe asks you to send the link to him).

On the subject of the motorcycle, there was a good few weeks he wouldn’t let you on it. Always found an excuse, a smart reply that was punctuated with gentle push on your forehead and calling you too clumsy for it. Later, you found out it’s because he’d ordered you a helmet; didn’t want to risk you riding without one.

He always keeps it in the storage compartment should he make a stop to pick you up while he’s riding; and he usually wears at least two layers to have a spare to wrap you in before you get on.

When he cooks, he always makes sure there’s enough for leftovers and/or to give you some later. He also bakes frequently, and at least once a week, he stops by with some kind of treat for you—“Trying out a new recipe, let me know if you think it’s missing anything.”

On the subject of food, he won’t police what you eat to annoying extent; he knows that not everybody has the time or will to make pasta from scratch like he does. But, he will smack your wrist if you consider ordering fast food when you’re over at this place. Give him 30 minutes and a single pan, he’ll make something much better than whatever you can find on Uber Eats.

Really, though, he doesn’t mean to obnoxious about the homemade food thing, it’s more habit for him. Growing up, he had to learn to be resourceful, so buying fast-food isn’t ever at the forefront of his mind. Cooking for you also turns out to be something somewhat intimate that he enjoys, so just let him.

Once bought an Apple Watch because he liked the look of them, it wasn’t insanely expensive like other high end watches, and it could connect to his other devices, so why not? A week later he returned it, the ping of his notifications were in one too many places for his liking.

You tried to convince him to keep it—“At least for when you’re jogging! It can track your activity and calories!”—but he clicks his teeth. He’ll survive without keeping track of them.

He learned the hard way that jogging with Captain is no good. His legs are too tiny and Levi ended up carrying the puppy the entire time. Captain is more of a walk dog… or ride on the back of his bike dog.

If you changed anything in his phone settings—like the ringtone for you contact, or the sound his keyboard makes—he wouldn’t go back in and try to figure out how to reset it. Unless it was something obnoxious, like adding an autocorrect shortcut to say something lewd.

He doesn’t really listen to music when he’s just walking. When he’s on a run, that’s fine, but he somewhat prefers to just… hear the environment around him when he’s on a stroll or a break from work. The only reason he’d have headphones on in public is to take a phone call, but even then, he’d prefer to wait until he’s somewhere more private.

He likes having you over at his apartment and has contemplated asking you to move in. He doesn’t want to rush anything, though, so he’s content with your sleepovers for now. (Though he really cannot fathom that you call them “sleepovers” like you’re 14. Please).

He speaks to his mother at least once a week, and she always asks about you. Levi tells her that you’re fine, gives her small updates about you, but Kuchel really just wants to know when the wedding is. He pretends to be busy whenever she starts asking and conveniently ends the call.

Occasionally, he’ll stop by and take you out for lunch. Depends on how much time he has during the day for himself, but he always enjoys sharing a meal with you.

Whenever you’re out with your friends drinking, Levi will pick you up. Even if you already told him that you’d Uber home; as soon as you text him that you’re going to leave soon, he’s already on his way.

He makes pretty good cocktails himself. Teases you for running his alcohol supply dry when the truth is he has more of your favorites in his cabinet than his own. He secretly likes the way you flirt with him when you’re tipsy.

You don’t always cuddle on top of each other when you sleep together. You can just lay by each other and that’s enough; but sometimes, you catch Levi turning towards you in his sleep, reaching for your hand. His body seems to search for yours subconsciously, and you swear there’s a hint of a smile on his sleeping face when you put your hand within reach.

Do not try to pay for dinner when you’re out with him. He’ll pull the “I’m going to use the restroom” move and pay the bill behind your back if he needs to. Open your own doors, maybe; pull out your own chairs, sure if you want; but not this.

He flosses very diligently every night. Mostly because he fucking hates the dentist, so if he takes the extra steps and is extra careful with his teeth, he doesn’t have to go as often, right?—Wrong, it’s the one time the roles are reversed, and you and Hange have to wrestle him into the doctor’s office.

On the flip side, if there are any doctors you routinely avoid and/or forget to schedule check ups for, fear not, because Levi will do it for you. He’ll drive you there, too—the only caveat being, that he usually doesn’t tell you where you’re going until you’re almost there. You think he’s doing the mysterious man surprise date thing and then boom, he’s pulling up to the ophthalmologist. Good luck.

He’s purchased a physical, paper copy of the news on every one of your anniversaries, birthdays, and other special occasions. He keeps them all neatly tucked away in a drawer. Sometimes, he looks back on them—sees what was happening in the world around you on that day. Maybe someday he’ll cut them up and bind them together in a book for you.

He doesn’t like having headphones in when you’re home with him, and preferred if you didn’t either—unless it was for work or school. He welcomes you to use his speakers and play your music aloud; he likes listening to what you listen to. If you look closely, you can catch him humming along or tapping his foot when he really likes a song.

Saves pictures you send him in an album in his camera roll. Occasionally can be found scrolling through them—particularly if you’ve been away on a trip, or he hasn’t gotten the chance to see you because of conflicting schedules.

He takes relatively short showers and doesn’t have a strong preference for the water temperature, so he lets you shower first. Unless you want him to join you, of course.

It’s not hard to tell when Levi wants you. He becomes noticeably more touchy, even if that margin isn’t too wide by anyone else’s standards; and he rarely tries to hide it. It only happens in the privacy of your apartments; but he’ll come on to you—leaning a bit further into conversations, a hand on your knee, a kind of cloudy look in his eyes.

Sometimes he forgoes the attempts at being subtle, just kisses you out the blue, carefully backs you up against the wall, puts his hands on your hips. He can be awfully direct when given the opportunity.

[mxtchalilies]

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶ RANDOM HAIKYUU BOYS + A BONDING MOMENT WITH THEIR S/O !

—highlights: oikawa tooru; goshiki tsutomu; sakusa kiyoomi

—word count total: 1.4k words

—notes: fluff; characters x g/n! reader (though afab! for oikawa's with the use of "muse"); headcanons + drabble; use of petnames; a lil messy and quite long; cheesy and ooc (?)

—rimi's letter: this is my first time posting my writing so i apologize if it's sloppy aaa !! might make this hq blog take requests if it's well-received ?

OIKAWA TOORU & UNPLANNED PHOTOSHOOTS ! ༉‧₊˚.

ღ oikawa absolutely adores going on dates with you, his beloved s/o! like, 'literally swooning and bothering iwa-chan about it'-level adores. at some point in the day, his brain starts racking adorable little scenarios of you two going out wherever. you can bet he's going to act upon it and is usually the one initiating it too—oikawa is pretty persuasive when he wants to be ღ whether it's by a chirp of, "i saw this cute cafe nearby, why don't we check it out?" or a little pout of, "angel, can we go out later? i missed you" he just wants to spend time with his sweetheart in a place they'd both like! (and show the world how lucky he is being with you!) he understands if you're busy, though he makes you promise to go on a date soon. but if you agree? his heart is going overdrive from excitement (and poor iwa-chan has to deal with a hyperactive overthinking oikawa... stay strong iwa) ღ the photoshoot part of dates is completely unplanned, usually spurred by the sole instincts of oikawa to snap images. he claims he wants to capture the moment to engrave in his memory (both in his head and his poor phone's memory storage). so when you both went out to a cafe, and he sees the angle of the sun kissing your frame just so perfectly... get ready for several minutes of picture-taking

"tooru, please tell me why you refuse to let me check out the new cake display by the counter for nearly five minutes now?"

oikawa's brown eyes glanced up to look at you briefly, before returning to stare at the screen of his phone. a few seconds of silence hung until you heard a click of the phone's camera, "just one more picture angel, then i'll get you that cake" he responds in a murmur, tilting his phone vertically before groaning in frustration

you couldn't help the small smile creeping onto your lips when you see his scrunched up look and matching pout, "you seem so intent on taking that picture perfectly, 'kawa. what for?"

"because it's a shame if i don't do you justice!" his outburst is equally as frantic as he gestures, pointing to the setting sun and its warm glow, "the sun is practically shining glory onto your beauty—you look like a muse, a deity—and i'd be a fool to let this opportunity pass by just like that!"

now you wonder whether it's the sunset's rays or the blush creeping on your face that's making you heat up. but with the small gasp and immediate shutter of a phone camera, you seem to have gotten your answer

"gosh, you're still pretty even when you're blushing! my pretty angel... oh and for that five minute wait, i'll get you that cake you wanted!"

GOSHIKI TSUTOMU & HAIR-STYLING ! ༉‧₊˚.

ღ first thing's first: he got the idea of styling your hair from two separate events. the first instance was something he didn't pay too much mind: when he read some articles trying to find something cute to do with your s/o (because the baby wants to impress and swoon you). the other instance, which got his attention, was a little quip from tendou about how cute he finds hair-styling ღ goshiki had a brainrot about this, i'm not kidding. he literally looked up techniques on how to braid hair properly, he went on a shopping trip to find some cute hair accessories, he even studied and tried to find out whether a comb or a brush would be more ideal for hair-styling. tendou caught onto what goshiki's planning and acted as the push of confidence he needed. so now the baby's fired up and determined to do it and make the braid the best one you'll lay eyes on! ღ he underestimated anxiety, however, as he practically trips over his feet and jumbles over his words when faced with you. the practice he did in front of the mirror is all for naught when he finds himself mumbling and fumbling, internally scolding himself over how clumsy he now looks. but when your sweet laughter rings through his ears and you actually allowed him to play with your hair? the guy feels like ascending the heavens

the way goshiki threads through your hair is soft, almost featherlight in his touch—very difficult to believe it's the same hand you saw practice sharp and hard-hitting spikes all those months ago

you're quite surprised that he's doing a great job styling your hair. a part of you was expecting a cute attempt in what's supposedly called a "braid" but then again, it's goshiki we're talking about—your sweet, determined, soon-to-be ace boyfriend. he definitely wants to perfect this for you and you seem to have no say out

soon enough you felt your braid being secured using a purple ribbon. as he pulls back, you take in the stars in your boyfriend's eyes—in awe of how pretty you looked because of a braid he managed to perfect. pride swelled in his chest, and a tiny grin broke onto his lips,

"uwoh! I-I did it, I actually did it... I did a perfect braid..!"

giggling, you peck his cheek, "yes you did darling, you did it well. i love it!" your eyes trail to the other untouched ribbon, a sudden idea boiling in your head as your boyfriend blabbers about

you poke him, "tsu-kun?" "yes?" "how would you feel if i did the exact same braid on you?"

goshiki blinked twice before furrowing his eyebrows, "that would... wouldn't that make us have similar braids? we'd be matching—"

realization struck in the form of a blush and all he could muster is a meek and understanding "oh"

SAKUSA KIYOOMI & STAR GAZING ! ༉‧₊˚.

ღ when i tell you that you've got this man wrapped around your finger, you best believe you have him so very smitten to the point he'd try to do things he normally wouldn't—just for you. sakusa tries to be subtle about his gestures but you quickly catch onto it ღ he initially wanted to refuse the request but... it's you—and the little shine of expectancy in your eyes made it even more hard for him to say no to you. he agreed to your one-time request of star gazing under two conditions: you guys lay on a picnic blanket, and that when bugs appear, you guys get back in. (you actually prepared some umeboshi as a final tactic but it turns out you didn't need it. still, you brought some along that night) ღ sakusa actually found himself liking the experience. the tranquil blanket of night facing you both, singing slumbers to everyone under its care. a sea of stars twinkling like decorations, tracing patterns of tales waiting to be read. the atmosphere is much to his liking: just the two of you and the gentle breeze of night. and he gets to witness all of this with you, the one whom he loves so dearly. how can he not be hooked?

"omi, i really think we should've printed out that constellation chart we saw on the 'net..."

you're both laying on your backs with your eyes still focused on the sky even as you feel sakusa intertwine his palm with yours. he chuckled softly, "what makes you say that, dear?"

"we could've tried to spot some constellations! maybe there's actually one we'd see here!" "fine. the next time we do this again, i'll remind you to print it out"

all the words to your response die at your throat and you thought you're going crazy, "kiyoomi... did i hear that right?" you sat up, now looking down directly at him in bewilderment

this was one of the rare moments that sakusa didn't bother to wear his mask out. with the aid of the moon's glow, you can clearly make tell of his emotions. from the squint of his eyes, the furrowing of his eyebrows, and the small downwards curve of his lips—clear confusion is written all over his face

"did you hear what right?"

a sudden wash of hope and excitement brought about a gleeful smile on your face, "you said 'next time we do this'. omi, do you want to go star gazing with me again soon?"

this time, it was him who had to find his words, "i-... s-sure"

sakusa didn't stutter because he was caught and simply embarrassed, no. he was caught off guard over how beautiful you looked. that pure happiness and love in your eyes, a smile so bright he swears it rivals the sun (ironic considering he noticed how the moon gently drapes its light over you too)

if loving you and being with you is all that it takes for you to look at him with such raw love, then by all the stars in the sky he swears to love you forever

! mxtchalilies, 2021. copying, stealing, editing, or using this work in any way without my permission is not allowed. reblogs and shares however, are much appreciated <3

[paintys-palette]

(You click the play button on the tape, starting another past rant from Anthony Pierson.)

“Log number.. I don't even know anymore- But-But, I found something.. interesting. I'm hiding out in this.. closet..? It's big enough to be a room, but it's full of clutter.. junk everywhere. I found this while I was going through Riley's lab, y'know, the scientist?? Anyways, I found this room.. I think it's for storage? There's notebooks and photographs everywhere.. all of them have this weird puppet in them, I haven't seen them before... I think her name is.. Kelly? Oh, wait, I think she was a side character on the show..! But why are their so many photos of her..? It's.. weird. Wait- I hear something, shit- Shit shit shit-”

(There's a short bit of silence, only broken by soft footsteps. Now a new voice begins speaking, sounding like Riley.)

“I swear, if Nick touched my stuff and that's what I heard in here, I'm going to give him SO much more than fear!!- Hhh.. there's nobody to be seen.. good, that means I can finally go back to admiring.. my queen~” (soft chuckle, followed by a sigh) “Oh my dear, sweet Kelly, how I miss you being near me~ Soon enough I'll get you back from HIM, I swear.. being without you is almost too much to bare...”

(She sighs softly, almost sadly. There's the sound of a camera going off, causing a short silence.)

“... GET. OUT.”

(The tape quickly ends. There's a photograph close by. You pick it up.)

(You looked up, seeing the exact some cork board in front of you, except there was more stuff of in. More photos, more random scribblings, the whole thing was almost completely full. Riley had even began writing on the walls. It seemed her obsession couldn't be stopped. Scout didn't seem to have anything to say about this room, so you both decide to leave.)

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

Lol just a lil bit of OC x Canon lore, how fun! Enjoy, I suck at writing TwT

[whatifyoulivelikethat]

aquarium | jjk

pairing(s): jungkook x reader

summary: You thought you and Jeon Jungkook would be last forever, but you had to read the ending yourself, in the form of typed words. When it arrived, you went to the blue sea. The grey sky would come and the black storm would appear.

warnings: cheating in established relationship; (very sad) angst; language; ambiguous ending; non-idol!AU; video game streamer!Jungkook x reader; ft. kind garden-loving landlord!Taehyung

--

now playing – trauma (aquarium) by ONEWE

this place has been transformed into something unknown i’m trapped alone in an aquarium

You could see the ending.

At first it was the little things. He held your hand a little less, stood a little further from you when you two walked side by side. Stared at his phone a lot.  Didn’t share his snacks as often. Spent all his time on his computer, streaming video games for longer and longer hours.

You had nothing to say. It was his job, after all.

You made his meals, washed his dishes. Changed his water bottles, gave him a kiss for the camera. Felt a little part of you die inside each time you went to bed alone, only to hear him slip under the blankets, hours after you. You went to work for longer and longer hours. There was no reason to go home. He ordered take-out for dinner every night.

Being Jeon Jungkook’s girlfriend was supposed to be fun.

And it was fun, at first. At first, he spent all this time with you. At first, he was always with you, by your side. He only streamed a little back then. It was a slow, gradual growth, and, like all parasites, it took over every aspect of your life. From your nights, to your days, to your time – making meals, cleaning up after him, doing all the laundry.

You could tolerate it. He made a lot of money. He was having fun. He was smiling. You would do anything for Jeon Jungkook. He dragged you into his sea and you swam in it happily. Until you realized you were stuck and alone, glass walls all around you, keeping you away from him. Seeing him, and yet not being able to touch him, kept away from his heart.

Caught in an aquarium.

He would give you kisses and tell you he wanted to get married.

He would say he loved you, but it was all a lie.

You weren’t in his Instagram photos. You weren’t part of his Twitter bio anymore. You weren’t listed in his phone with a little purple heart next to your name. Even that, you wouldn’t mind. He told you he didn’t want you to get harassed by trolls. He told you that he wasn’t ashamed of you, that you were the most beautiful woman in the world.

But.

Then again.

He told every girl in his DMs that.

You stared at them that faithful night, unable to sleep, reading them all. Jungkook was asleep beside you, snoring away, and you read every single one. The WhatsApp messages were worse. They were so much worse. More sexual, detailing what he wanted to do to other people. Not you. Not you, the love of his life. Not you, the one by his side.

You knew how to backtrack and retrace your steps. Make it seem like you were never there. Placed his phone on his side of the bed and went to sleep. He held you that night. Turned around in his sleep and wrapped his arms around you.

Inside, you drowned.

When he told you that he was going to a gaming convention, he was very excited. Grinning his beautiful grin, snacking on shrimp chips as you washed the dishes. It was only the weekend, only two days. He wasn’t going to go for the Friday or Monday, so he could spend time with you.

“I would totally invite you, but you said you have to work that weekend.”

You said apologetically. “I know. I’m sorry. But I have to be there for my co-workers.”

He frowned and nudged you. “You work too much. You know you don’t have to. We can just live off my streaming money. I can buy you nice things.”

“I would feel bad for leaving them. I’ve worked at that office for seven years.”

He smirked, elbowing you a little. “Cheating on me with all the cute guys?”

You carefully wiped down the glass, placing it back in the cabinet, smile plastered to your face.

“No guy is cuter than you, Jungkook.”

That was the weekend you left.

You went to work, confirmed your month-long vacation of all the hours you’ve collected over the years, and packed every belonging you owned in that apartment. To be honest, there wasn’t very much. Anything Jungkook had ever bought you, you left behind.

There was no reason to hold onto it.

For a long moment, you stared at the photos, the stack of photos of you and him. Your smile, his smile, the places you’ve been, the things you’ve seen with him. Then you placed them on the bed, scattering them, spreading them all over the blankets.

You left it like that.

-

You went to the ocean.

You dropped the boxes at a storage unit in the city. Took only a carry-on bag of clothes and took a train to the coast. You left your phone in the storage unit too, telling your parents you were going on vacation to the sea. Didn’t say where, only mentioned you wanted to unplug, unwind, disconnect.

Disconnect.

The cottage you rented was cared for by a nice young man with dark brown hair and tan skin. He said it was his parents’ and that he was renting it out for them. If you needed anything, you could contact him and he wouldn’t hesitate to help. He had a bright, boxy smile and a cheerful tone. You thanked him for being so considerate.

You sat on the edge of the cliff, legs dangling over the side.

Your pink flats were right beside you, and your arms were resting on the wooden fence. The ocean breeze was strong here, salty and cold. You were in a long-sleeved white dress that was going to get dirt and grass stains on it, but that sort of thing didn’t matter now.

Clothes could be replaced.

The garden rock in your hand spun round and round, dancing between your deft fingers. Your left hand. The hand that held his when you two walked side by side, fitting in his right covered in small tattoos. He had a king’s crown tattoo on his ring finger and asked you if you would get a queen’s crown tattoo someday. It didn’t have to be on your hand. Anywhere was fine. 

You looked at your left hand then, the hand that was holding his, and then it didn’t.

And then it didn’t.

You stared down into the crashing waves and jagged rocks under you. It was cold here. How far down was that? White forth slammed against eroding stone. Even mountains weren’t forever. Even something as solid as rock could be ground down into nothing with water.

Your eyes shifted to the shimmering sea, the endless blue, sun reflecting harshly off it. It didn’t matter how beautiful the water was or how many extraordinary creatures were under the surface. The deep sea hid all the worst creatures, all the terrible monsters. Not even science could go that far and discover all those horrors.

You pulled your arm back and threw the rock as far as you could. You couldn’t even see where it landed. The seawater was too rough and wild.

“Why would you throw my garden stone into the ocean?”

You started, turning around sharply to the heavy, baritone voice of your landlord. He was wearing a white sunhat, a beige shirt and pants, clutching a pair of dirty and worn brown gardening gloves. He frowned at you, staring into the ocean.

“What did my rock ever do to you?”

You looked back to the choppy waves and then faced him again, ashamed.

“Well, come. You will have to help with the garden to repay for that. I’m harvesting winter squash.”

-

“You can cook.”

You nodded to Kim Taehyung, the young man who was caring for the sea cottage. He was tasting some of your winter squash and fresh bamboo combination after he asked if you could do something with the two. You had added garlic, ginger, and made a light white sauce as you sautéed it all together.

“I got this bamboo from a friend who lives in the mountains. I can’t cook very well though. Can you?”

You two ate in steady silence, listening to the sounds of nature and waves crashing into shore. He had made rice while you cooked the vegetables.

“The only thing I can make, really,” he had chuckled.

You chewed, listening to Taehyung mix the leftover sauce with the rice and slurp it up.

“The world is quiet here,” you said softly.

He nodded; mouth full. His brown eyes shifted to the overhanging cliff as he swallowed.

“It is.”

-

You tended the garden with him.

You hadn’t even realized all the greenery around the cottage was a giant garden. To you, they were just pretty plants. Taehyung taught you all about the plants, which ones he was growing, which ones the season was already over, which ones he was trying to grow next season. Some were flower bushes he was trying to learn, but you learned that they were finnicky and not as hardy as the vegetables.

“I don’t even like vegetables that much,” he laughed, rich, full, heedless. “But they’re easy to care for, so they make me the happiest.”

He had tried fruits, but the wild animals always got to them despite his best efforts.

“I must share with nature, I suppose.”

Sometimes, you missed the internet. You missed the distractions, the games you played, the ability to like random thoughts on someone’s Twitter. In those times, you would stare at the never-ending blue ocean and then Taehyung would tap you with the rake and tell you that you needed to help him loosen the soil.

“We need all of nature’s nutrients.”

-

You stared out to the blue ocean, wearing a large straw hat and a navy dress. You weren’t at the cliff this time, but farther back. The breeze was softer at this moment. Taehyung had given you the hat a while ago, telling you it was better than the white scarf you wore around your hair. It did provide better sun protection for your face.

The cobalt sea was violent today, sky grey and dark. Taehyung told you it might rain, so the garden could be skipped today.

You held your hat and looked up.

“Me too, sky. Me too,” you murmured quietly.

You wondered when the feeling would disappear. It would probably be gradual, silently vanishing as each day was replaced, memories fading into the vast abyss of thoughts, mixing with fantasy so that you wouldn’t be able to know the difference between what was real and what was fake. That’s why eyewitness accounts were never trustworthy.

That’s how all memories were.

You let go of your hat for only a second. It flew off your head and you spun around, surprised at the strong ocean breeze.

Taehyung caught it with one hand, standing a few meters behind you.

Your lips parted at how easily he was able to catch it. He was wearing a yellow raincoat and brown pants with his usual brown gardening boots. He smiled, walking up to you and putting the straw hat back on your head.

“I warned you that you might lose it if you stand too close to the ocean.”

You hand came up and brushed against his fingers as he retreated his. He looked away quickly, into the stormy blue sea threatened by grey clouds.

“What have you lost to be looking so sad?” Taehyung asked gently.

You followed his gaze.

“Memories.” The water churned, smacking against the cliffside. “A whole book of them.”

“What do you mean?”

You turned back to Taehyung, who was now watching you curiously. You held onto your straw hat, not wanting it to blow away again.

“I left all the photos, so I wouldn’t have to see them again.” You sighed. “Pictures of moments, years etched out visually. I was going to make a memories photo book when we got married.”

You looked back to the ocean, seeing the sky darken ever more.

“And now we won’t.”

There was a loud clap of thunder. Your eyes searched for the lightning.

And then your name, shouted across the grass, harsh and angry like the thunder.

At first, you didn’t hear it. You were distracted by the sky, waiting for the rain. But Taehyung snapped his head around, startled. You noticed his movement and turned around too. A figure in black jumped over the fence, yelling your name on the top of his lungs.

The glass walls came up inside you, trying to protect you from the stumbling, turbulent sea that was Jeon Jungkook.

Taehyung frowned. “Who the fuck is that?”

“Who the fuck are you?” Jungkook spat, glaring at him and his yellow raincoat. He called you again, sharply, stomping over. “Do you have any idea how worried I was? When I came home from the convention and you were just gone? No note, nothing, only to find you running off with some random guy!”

The thunder sounded again, but there was no lightning yet.

“I called everyone! Your work, your friends, your family, your phone! You wouldn’t even answer your fucking phone. I had to find out from your work that you were on vacation,” Jungkook hissed, glaring at you. “Vacation from our relationship that is, fucking cheating on me.”

Taehyung glared back. “Dude, it’s not like that at all. I’m just the landlord of the cottage she rented–”

“Shut up. I’m not talking to you.”

You stared at Jungkook, his dark brows and wild black hair, so angry at you that he was cursing. The irony was not lost on you. You held onto the straw hat.

“Is that all it was?” you said quietly. “You were upset that I would find affection in someone else?”

“Of course, I was! You’re the love of my life!”

You smiled gently. “Is that what you tell them all?” Your navy dress fluttered in the harsh ocean breeze.

Jungkook scowled. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

You looked down to your pink flats, dirty and grass-stained now from running around the cottage garden. Taehyung had teased you, telling you they weren’t good gardening shoes, but you hadn’t brought any other shoes with you. Everything else Jungkook had bought you, with his money.

“Even now, you pretend, Jungkook.” Your hair tangled in the wind, salty and tousled from the sea. You looked back up at him and his expression was changing now. “I remember asking you once, should you comment like that on other people’s Instagram posts?” The thunder was louder now, sky ripping apart with flashing light. “You said, everyone is like that. It’s part of the business.” The color was draining out of Jungkook’s face. “Were the DMs only for show too? What about the WhatsApp messages? The things you wanted to do to them? The ones you wanted to shove your dick into?”

“That’s fucked up,” Taehyung muttered next to you.

“That… That wasn’t…” Jungkook struggled for words. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

You nodded. You felt it first, the fat drop on the hand holding your hat.

“I know you didn’t. Everything was for fun. Everything.”

Smile plastered to your face, because what could you do now?

“Even me. Even I was for fun.”

You inhaled a deep breath. You had cried for many nights when you crawled into that unfamiliar bed upstairs. For hours, long after Taehyung was gone. Drowning in your own endless sea, filling your glass aquarium. Cried yourself out, and now you let the sea cry for you when you watched it every day, while you worked on the garden with Taehyung.

The rain began to fall.

You looked back to Jungkook, torn, guilty, exposed.

“You should come in and wait for the rain to subside before going home. Your viewers will miss you.”

Taehyung pulled his hood over his head. “Do you want me to stay?” he asked you, voice sharp. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

The way he said it implied in more ways than just physical pain. But it was a little late for that.

“I think I will be okay, Taehyung,” you said, water seeping through your hat, rain drenching your dress., turning you into a soaked doll. “Nature has taught me to keep growing.”

He bit his lip, still frowning, but bowed. “Alright.”

And then you watched him go, back to his car, hurrying along. You went in the opposite direction, to the cottage. You had one more week in your hideaway. Rainwater seeped into your flats as you stepped into the grass, soaking your feet. But somehow, it was nice. It was nice to feel the sky cry on you, because then you didn’t have to. You made your way to the covered porch, wringing out your dress the best you could. Took off your hat, opened the door.

Heard heavy black boots in your wake.

“You… left all the pictures.”

The choked, sorrowful voice of Jeon Jungkook behind you.

“I did.”

You stepped inside the cottage. Placed your hat on the hook, dripping wet. Stepped out of your drenched pink flats. Didn’t wait for him. Just went upstairs to the bathroom, trailing rainwater, locking the door behind you. You turned on the water, plugging the drain. Ran a bath and sank into your own hot aquarium.

You heard the heavy fall against the door. Your name, softly spoken through the door.

“I’m sorry.”

You sank further into the water.

“No apology will ever fix what you have done to me.”

The water was cloudy and milky with whatever bath salts Taehyung had provided with the other personal goods.

“I can prove it to you.”

You felt the tears come now, the anger, the sadness. You submerged your head underwater, blocking out all the sound, blocking out your own thoughts. Your hair floated around you, washing out the salt of the blue sea. You waited, waited until your lungs screamed, and still you waited until your vision was fading to grey before you resurfaced, taking a shuddering breath, surprisingly calm.

“The trauma has already spread, Jungkook.”

You heard a slight sob at the tone you used to say his name, cold and unfeeling.

“I really didn’t mean it, I swear.”

You took a deep breath and dove into your man-made aquarium once again.

-

part ii

--

masterpost

extended playlist blue & grey by BTS 기억 세탁소 (eraser) by ONEWE 기억 속 한 권의 책 (a book in memory) by ONEWE

[violetsoju]

snapshot

miya atsumu · fluff · 1.9k

muse: highlight - not the end

a/n: my ultimate boys are finally back after three and a half years, and my inner fangirl that has been asleep for way too long has been unleashed for the past few days. hence, this impulsive piece. do let me know if you enjoyed it ❤️

It’s time.

After a year or so, there’s finally light at the end of the tunnel. Cherry blossoms are in full bloom again, gracing the pathways with shades of light pink and white.

It’s the beginning of a new year, of new beginnings, of new hopes and dreams. A time of renewal and rebirth. When cherry blossoms are in full bloom, the future is bursting with possibilities.

What better way to start off the new year with something that makes your heart blossom with love and joy?

You’ve been deep in slumber for the past year, so it’s about time to be awaken and open the curtains for the sunlight shine in.

Your planner is inked with colourful notes and doodles, laptop reformatted with an empty recycle bin, camera equipment cleaned and dusted, phone storage deep-cleaned.

It’s hard to not notice the bright smile tugging your lips even without the mandatory cup of morning coffee, greeting everyone in the office like a ray of sunshine. Even your supervisor notices it and is surprised with the increased efficiency of work from your end. Perhaps he’s more surprised with your razor sharp accuracy in clocking out every day, disappearing in a flash once the clock strikes 6.

Your colleagues can’t seem put a finger to the recent change in your behaviour. What’s an afterwork get-together without you and ridiculous tipsy antics? Not even your favourite yakult soju or the summoning of your supervisor could drag your feet to the dinner place.

“Do you have a boyfriend? That’s why you’re so busy recently?” They would ask. Or they would try and wiggle their way by asking “Is there someone waiting at home for you?”

No matter how tactfully they twist and turn their words, they were all futile attempts. Because all they would get was a sickly sweet innocent smile that never met your crescent-shaped eyes, and an automatic response. “Thank you for the invite, but I’m afraid I’ll have to pass tonight. Have fun!”

They had their bets that you were wrapped up with your secret little love life, spending nights over at your lover’s place, whispering sweet nothings into the night. “Ah, young love.” They would sigh. “Remember to stay protected!”

Your tight lipped smile fuelled them further instead. Why don’t you say anything, they wonder.

To you, why waste your energy explaining something that is incomprehensible to them and risk having yourself being the centre of gossip? Not that you are already the recent centre of gossip.

Because they won’t understand the surge of excitement flowing through your veins at the ping of notifications popping up on your phone screen during work. They won’t understand the of anticipation for the timer on a video screen to turn zero, whether on the way home or while having dinner. They won’t understand the happiness of late night chats with likeminded people online, sleep washed away while gushing and typing in full caps with each other. They won’t understand the buzz of giddiness with just one post, one picture or one sentence. They won’t understand the little squeal behind a picture or a minute-long video unexpectedly appearing on screen. They won’t understand having the same song or same album on loop for days, weeks, or months. They don’t understand the dilemma of choosing a wallpaper or lockscreen for your phone. They don't understand how by remembering a person or something they have said before drives unimaginable motivation and makes the toughest circumstances bearable and possible to overcome. They won't understand how a person who doesn't know your existence personally can be a source of comfort and happiness.

They won’t understand the real reason why you’re smiling like a fool at your phone.

Maybe if they peered carefully at your phone screen, they would know why.

And it’s not what they had in bet.

Well, they were partly right if you were to be completely honest.

But if you were to place your bets, you’re sure most of them would still be scratching their heads in confusion at the black, gold and white logo.

It may be foreign to them, but you swear that you can see those colours even if you’re blind.

MSBY. The 8 member boy group. Worldwide superstars. The whole damn package. Boys made for the dazzling stage. Boys that deserve the whole world. Boys whose talent knows no limits. Boys that you hold dear to your heart.

Ever since Hinata Shouyou, the youngest of the group had injured his lower back and knee during choreography practice (in which was revealed with a slip of a tongue in a livestream that Bokuto and him were so engrossed with a certain acrobatic move which involved a backflip from a higher ground, they begged their choreographer to add it into their new choreography. Instead of showing a clip of the move, they decided to give it a shot and perform it live spontaneously for everyone, where too much adrenaline and a small slip had him lying in the hospital bed for weeks), the group had collectively come to a conclusion to halt their activities until he was fully recovered and ready to roll. There were no solo activities, solo promotions or unit activities despite the attractive proposals or invitations. Such a waste of talent and time, many said. What is their company thinking? Letting their cash cow go to waste like that. But they tuned out all the crap, and firmly held to their resolve of being together as a group; all for one, and one for all.

“We’ll be back. And we know you all have our backs.” Meian Shuugo, the leader of the pack assured, eyes filled with resolute and confidence.

So after a draught of 456 days to be exact, an oasis finally appeared in the burning desert sands. When the notification titled ‘MSBY is back’ appeared on phone and laptop screens alike, it took a few seconds for everyone to blink and make sure it wasn’t a mirage. But the small tick was unmistakable. Then the whole fandom lost their shit.

This isn’t a drill. MSBY is back. In full swing.

The black jackals are ready to hunt. Their hunger has been supressed long enough. They’ve been starved for too long. They’re out for blood. They’re ready to pounce at any moment. They’re back in the game.

(If you were to be real honest, everyone should have saw this coming after that particular livestream where Bokuto, the renowned king of spoilers, animatedly announced that “We’ll be seeing you guys soon. Like real soon!” with his wide toothy smile, to which Inunaki Shion ferociously slapped him in the back with a cramped broad smile plastered on his face. “In the next livestream, of course! Can’t wait to see you guys soon!” The mom of the group added through gritted teeth. Adriah Tomas choked on his water and sheepishly grinned, while Sakusa Kiyoomi stared ahead unfazed, like this was a daily occurrence.)

Which means it’s time for you to get back to work. Which is also no surprise why you’ve been so occupied these days, having two schedules to work with: your personal schedule and MSBY’s comeback schedule. Which also means, your weekends are MSBY’s weekends.

Fangirling is a job to be taken very, seriously.

Change of word choice for the better. Supporting your idols is a job to be taken very, seriously.

So on a pleasantly warm Saturday afternoon with cherry blossoms petals dancing in the wind, as you try your best to stable yourself on the ground with the huge ass DSLR in your hands, you scan for a specific person among the sea of people ahead. A specific blond, to be exact. But lucky you, because even if you don’t scan for him, he finds his way to your camera lens. Which is why your pictures are one of the most sought after and anticipated of the idol Miya Atsumu, lead dancer of MSBY.

It’s like he has antennas on the top of his head. Despite the flurry of cameras flashing at him, confessions and screams drowning out his surroundings, rapid camera shutters going off like woodpeckers drumming relentlessly on a tree, he somehow, always manages to locate you, to look right into your camera lens, giving you his million dollar smile or infamous grin with small fangs peeking from the sides. The cherry on top? His top-notch fanservice. He never, never fails to give a reaction to you. Be it a small wave, a heart shape with his arms bent over his head, or a flirtatious wink that would combust hearts right on the spot.

You’re beyond grateful for his attentiveness and recognition towards you. It’s not like you’re on his heels. Hitting the shutter button is just a pastime of yours when your schedule allows. In better words, you’re just a random potato popping up occasionally with a camera. Plus, it’s no easy feat to pick a specific person out among a sea of people, especially with tens or hundreds of faces flashing before his eyes in one go.

Truth to be told, you’re thankful for the special attention too, because you get to share the fun and playful side of him with everyone, to light up everyone’s day with pictures of their favourite golden boy. Sharing is caring, and in this big close-knitted family, everyone deserves to be well fed.

However, the good things in life are never free.

Jealousy is a bitch, and bitches need to get well soon. Rumours are born out of wicked tongues, and wicked tongues are born out of the evil fire of envy.

Baseless ridiculous tales circulate among the community. How you’re the daughter of some big-shot of the company or political figure, using, or abusing your privilege connections to gain his favour. How you’re an obsessive fan who has intruded your way into his life, holding his career by the reins out of corrupted love by stalking and threatening him to pose for the camera, your camera specifically if he wants to keep himself and his group safe. How it’s a business relationship between the both of you: you as his private photographer, him paying you to get perfect shots of him to boost his popularity, to outshine his members, to feed his monstrous ego.

But do you care? Of course you don’t.

Because between this jam-packed schedule, this is the only time you get to see your boyfriend in real life, and you want to keep a record of his amazing journey through your lenses. It’s a diary of his growth, the beautiful moments in his life. A diary for him, you and his fans. To also show him that you’re here with him, here for him, no matter what.

And does Miya Atsumu care? Of course he doesn’t.

Because what more can he ask by having the opportunity to see you in flesh, even if it’s just a few seconds amidst his hectic back-to-back schedules. You’re his serotonin, the one that he misses holding in his arms after a long tiring day, the one that keeps him going, the one that he can count on for being there.

Knowing that you’re there at every step of the way makes him take each step with more confidence and pride.

So as Miya Atsumu exits the broadcasting building, he searches for a familiar camera lens among the sea of similar looking cameras shoved in his face. He sweeps his gaze from left to right, and grins when he spots the one he’s looking for.

A face sculpted by the gods with a boyish grin that could lit up the world graces the cameras of many, but only one captures his eyes gleaming with delight head on.

There was a really cute fanart of idol! Atsumu but the artist has closed her twitter account so I can't link it here T_T but if you do have any idol! Atsumu fanarts do send them in hehe

[rubykgrant]

A nonsensical “Freelacer/Sim Trooper/AI” swap because it amuses me-

York and North are the two dudes on Red Team who just stand around and talk all day (York is a little bit more of a slacker, and North tries to actually pay attention to orders. Often, York will lock-pick his way into a room so he can hide and take a nap, but North always finds him and nags the guy to get back to work). Later, South is the sister who shows up (but less in an “I missed you, bro!” way and more of a “You though you could escape ME, your problem sibling?!” way). Wash is their rookie, and they start dunking on him (yes, he’s the Donut). Wyoming is their leader (instead of all that bonkers yee-haw junk Sarge says, they have to listen to Wyoming talk British). They have another team member named CT, who the boys ASSUMED was a robot... because she almost never talks to them and is always working on the vehicles (Wyoming knows she’s human, and South figured it out right away; North, York, and Wash are just dinks)

Flowers is still Florida, because that’s just... that’s him. So, he’s the dead Blue Team leader. Carolina called dibs on his armor (everybody else calls it aqua, she insist it is cyan). New reluctant Blue leader is Tex (who is swapped with Alpha; the Director decided to hide the AI that almost-kinda-sorta reminds him of his dead wife in a box canyon in the middle of nowhere, under the guise of “Let’s see if she’ll act like a real soldier?”, but he just wants to keep her out of the way. He’s not even paying enough attention to realize his DAUGHTER is there too). Carolina and Tex argue a lot, but also get along really well (they have NO clue how ironic this is). Their rookie is Maine, who doesn’t say much... but he’s actually very sweet and happy to help (he intimidates the heck out of the Reds, but he’s a push-over). Sheila is also still their tank~

“Alpha” is Tex’s ex-boyfriend and a Freelancer who just shows up... he has a reputation for always surviving dangerous and deadly situations, but he can’t shoot for crap (he keeps doing AI things by accident and doesn’t notice because he’s stupid; THAT’S why his missions are successful, not because of physical skills. he’s still got amnesia about what he really is, the Director is using him as part of the “let’s see if the AI will act like people” experiment). Initially the others are afraid of him, but then they get to know him and see he’s also a dork

The Triplets are a group who were SUPPOSED to be trained as field medics... but then never got told what to do. They move between both teams and sometimes... help? A little? They try

The Freelancers all have code-names based on the Greek Alphabet, and are paired with AI units; the AI are very odd... they have unique personalities and nick-names that make them sound more like “real people” than computer programs (Alpha doesn’t remember because his memories were taken away, but he actually MADE THEM. these AI were friends that he created, partially based on emotions/real people the Director encountered at some point, but they’ve been allowed to develop into unique individuals. they also have missing memories, but feel like they should have another friend with them). There is also a training AI assistant named Lopez; there was a glitch, and his speech settings are stuck on Spanish... nobody can figure out how to fix it (he’s doing it on PURPOSE just to mess with people)

Alpha is usually put on solo missions, so the others don’t know him that well (again, he’s got a mysterious and impressive reputation, but... he’s a dork). He doesn’t have an AI partner (because secretly, he IS one). He tends to use a voice filter... because otherwise, people will hear his stress-screech when he’s upset (with the filter, he sounds more scary)

Delta is a very logical person and doesn’t like to rush into things without knowing all the information first. Despite seeming somewhat distant, he actually cares for the others very much. His AI partner is called Caboose, who seems to provide nearly boundless energy for running the equipment in his suit, and a special ability to allow Delta to see patterns in chaotic situations (somehow, random things just make sense from Caboose’s point of view)

Theta is the youngest Freelancer, though not a literal child (he’s just short and his voice still cracks). He’s pretty much the heart of the group and is best at breaking up arguments. His AI partner is called Sarge, who talks tough but has a soft-spot for Theta, and provides him with the ability to project multiple energy shields around himself and others to keep people safe (Theta also figures out how to make a perfect sphere, and roll in his shield through enemies like a giant hamster ball of doom)

Eta is a little bit melancholy and tends to mope... but still manages to always complete missions successfully. Their AI partner is called Grif, who seems to have a easy-going attitude, but also helps cheer Eta up (Grif gives him perfect camouflage/invisibility, plus block heat-tracers and motion-trackers... which is good, since when Eta feels awkward, he just wants to vanish)

Iota is Eta’s twin sibling, but they were raised apart. Iota wants to reconnect now that they are both here, but it is awkward. Iota is more out-going and cheerful, but has bad luck on missions (not very sneaky). Their AI partner is called Kai, who can help them hack into pretty much any machine (Kai especially loves creating distractions- she makes security cameras play random internet videos, and will make loud obnoxious music play on enemy radio channels)

Sigma is a very ambitious Freelancer, but he hides his motives with a calm persona. His AI partner is called Simmons, who seems very intelligent and eager to help with tasks, but he tends to panic under stress (when he can focus, Simmons is able allow Sigma to temporarily see into the thoughts of others, essentially reading the minds of enemies... it is against the rules to do this outside of battle, but Sigma bullies Simmons into letting him do it whenever he wants)

Omega is the most violent Freelancer, plain and simple. Most of the others don’t like him much, but it is undeniable that he’s helpful on missions. His AI partner is called Doc, who creates the best form of a healing unit (able to ease pain almost instantly and heal broken bones moments later. if they run out of energy though, it doesn’t work. Doc’s nicer attitude clashes with Omega’s personality at first, but the two wind up being good for each other)

Gamma is a Freelancer who was born mute, but speaks with digital voice enhancement. His skills with vehicles and machines make him a valuable member of the team. His AI partner is called Donut, and the two get along almost instantly (Gamma loves to tell jokes, and Donut thinks he’s hilarious... Donut has a habit of mis-speaking in a way that makes other people roll their eyes, but Gamma finds him endearing). Donut’s ability to let Gamma “see into the past” (they can visualize what took place in an a area a long time ago, even with no witnesses or security footage, allowing them know secrets and important information)

There is one AI that doesn’t have a Freelancer partner, and is kept hidden away in storage; each of the AI have become their own “person” in a way, but initially they began as people Alpha wanted to be friends with and had a “purpose”. They filled roles of companionship, but Alpha also wanted them to be individuals so they could grow and change. For some reason, Tucker didn’t let go of his memories when the Director tried to take them away. It was too dangerous to use Tucker as an AI to assist a Freelancer, so they locked him up. Tucker has a a talent for figuring out how to make strange alien tech work, even when nobody else does. They keep putting objects and devices in the storage room with Tucker’s AI unit, and he’s been learning how to use them, thus planning an escape. His first step is to contact his other AI friends so they remember him, and hopefully find Alpha again...

[suchalonelysunflower]

“Snapchat Memories”

(Calum Hood X Reader || Fluff)

A

Summary: Y/N is in denial about the new romantic feelings towards the bassist of 5SOS. Luckily, Snapchat keeps their memories alive.

Warnings: Strong Language, mentions of the pandemic and quarantine, nicotine addiction and alcohol. bad English (not my first language, sorry)

Word Count: 2.7 K

A/N: My first Calum Fic on my first post on my new blog! So exited!! Please comment and reblog if you want 🦋 Feedback is always welcomed!

You’re sitting in a black leather couch. It doesn’t bother you that it’s old and in dyer need of cleaning. You were with him and that’s all that mattered now.

When Calum invited you to the studio today, your immediate response was ‘yes’. It’s been weeks since you have seen him. After the pandemic, the guys went on tour almost immediately, not trying to waste anymore time without being on stage and seeing their fans. So you didn’t have much time to catch up in real life.

You were always in touch though, always FaceTiming and texting… But you’d be lying if you said you didn’t miss him to death.

Calum has been your best friend for years. He tried to flirt with you once at a party years ago and it backfired horribly when he spilled his drink on you. He was mortified, but you laughed it off. Ever since that day you were inseparable.

You were there for all the major events, the concerts and tours. You became close not only with Calum, but with the rest of the boys as well, they practically adopted you as one of them by now and you couldn’t be prouder of how far those 4 Australians idiots came.

But being so close to them came with also being shipped with them, specially Calum. You brushed it off at first, saying ‘we’re like family!’ Time and time again someone asked. And it was true at the beginning, but lately something’s changed.

Lately you would wait by the phone, hoping his name would show up. You found yourself smiling like an idiot every time he texted you or you were just thinking about him and all the moments you spent together, trying to decipher if, maybe, he thought of you as being more than just friends. At first you thought it was just your quarantined brain making it all up, that it was impossible for him and you to have romantic feelings for each other.

But you couldn’t deny the way your heart stopped every time you saw him, or the way your eyes lingered on his body when he’s playing, or the way the sound of his laugh could make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside…. You couldn’t deny it, but you were determined to push them away. It’s not like he felt the same anyways.

You smiled while you watched him play with some random notes on his bass, immerse in his own thoughts and smiling a little bit when he heard something he liked. It was a sight for sore eyes seeing him so free and joyful while doing something he loved. He lived for his music and it showed.

“You’re about to burn a hole on him if you keep staring like that” you heard a voice say next to you.

Michael plowed down next to you on the couch, waking you up from your daydream. You looked at him and rolled your eyes.

“I’m not staring”

“Like hell you’re not” He stated, laughing “You were undressing him with your eyes a few seconds ago!”

Okay, that earned him a punch in the arm.

“Shut up, Clifford! I’m just thinking” you said annoyed.

“Yeah, ways to take off his pants…”

You blushed at his comment and got your fist ready to punch him again, this time to actually hurt him a little bit. But he quickly catched your fist before you could actually touch him.

“Oh, c'mon Y/N! I’m only joking”

“Well that joke’s getting old now, Michael. It’s been going on for years, so get over it. And besides…” your gaze met the floor “We’re only friends, nothing more”

“Yeah? Keep telling yourselves that” He said. But before you could ask what he meant by that, he was already up and entering the recording booth.

He said something to Calum that made him look up at you and smile.

You’re sure that only an angel could smile like that.

An hour passed and you found yourself outside the studio, cigarette on your hand and a nicotine cloud around your head.

You were trying to quit, but it’s easier said than done. You took another puff and released the smoke towards the sky, your eyes got lost on the scenery for a while. There were no sunsets like the LA ones, that’s for sure. The sky seemed photoshopped, you could see how the clouds were puffy and light and how the colors pink, orange and purple mixed together the perfect ethereal sight, they were saying goodbye and hello at the same time.

You could’ve watched the sky forever, but the ding of a new notification on your phone kept you from doing that.

It was a Snapchat memory from a few years ago. You opened it, curious of what you might find and if it was worth remembering, hoping it could distract you for a while.

On the first video you saw yourself in a car, you had that stupid filter that made your voice high pitched and widen your mouth and eyes. You were singing along to a random Ariana Grande’s song when you suddenly moved the camera towards the person next to you. Now it was Calum’s face the one with the filter, but his face was serious.

“I’m not gonna sing it, Y/N!” He said trying to sound stern, unaware that the voice filter made him sound anything but.

“Cal! You promised”

“No I’m not gonna…. This is the part where I say I don’t wanna…” he sang to the camera when the chorus came blasting through the radio.

You smiled at the memory of you two singing together, completely out of tune and messing up the words until you heard a “Shut up” from one of the boys, probably Ashton.

Then the story continued, this time it was a picture of you pouting with a message that said: “When your friend puts you on time out for something you didn’t do”

You tapped the screen and another video came up. It was clear that you were backstage of one of their concerts, Calum was standing in the middle of the dressing room talking to Michael when your voice cut him off.

“Can I please be free?” You tried to plead.

Calum turned to you with his signature ‘are u kidding me’ face and said:

“Not until you think about what you did and say you’re sorry”

“I didn’t eat your chocolate! I swear” you most definitely did, unknowingly yes, but it wasn’t something you’d admit.

The video ended when Michael started laughing at you and you flipped him off.

You giggled to yourself, happy that Snapchat existed and had all your memories storage. You were going to move on to the next part of your story when a voice next to you made you jump.

“So, did you or did you not eat my chocolate that day?”

You didn’t notice that Calum was beside you until he startled you. He was leaning up against the wall, his own cigarette lighted up as he looked at you with an amused face, making your heart flip as you took him in.

“You should quit, you know?” You said pointing at his cigarette, trying to sound unbothered by the loud beating of your heart.

“I’ll do it when you do it”

Calum’s eyes were fixed on yours. His smile never faded.

“But you’re changing the topic”

“I’m not changing the topic” you answered “I’m avoiding it”

“So you did eat it!”

“Calum, it was years ago! I don’t remember”

“Well someone’s a liar” he laughed “Whacha doing?”

“Snapchat‘s just showing me some memories of a few years ago. I think it’s that concert on Phoenix”

Calum came closer to you, laying his head on your shoulder. You swore you stopped breathing for a second there, but forced yourself to control it. He was just your friend.

The story continued with some concert videos you took from backstage. You felt your face get warmer as you noticed that most of them were of Calum giving his all on stage, but he didn’t seem to notice.

The last video was of the boys stepping out of the stage, each one of them giving you a high five when they passed you by. All of them except Calum. When he saw you, he started running towards you and lifted you up over his shoulders, carrying you towards the dressing room again.

“Ugh, let me go you sweaty boy!” You said of camera, mocking a disgust tone.

“Never! Sweaty or not, you love me”

You let out a defeated sigh before answering softly “Yeah, I guess I do”

The stories ended with that last bit, leaving a bittersweet taste on your mouth. Calum lifted his head off your shoulders and you shivered.

“Are you cold?”

“Yeah” you nodded “It’s my fault for not bringing a jacket”

Calum smiled and in a quick move he took off his jacket and put it around your shoulders, adjusting it a little bit.

“Cal, you don’t have to do that” you said lowering your gaze.

But he was still standing in front of you, hands adjusting his jacket around your frame.

“But I want to, Y/N” he said softly.

In a brave move, you shoot your eyes up, only to find his already looking at you, taking you in. Almost like he wanted to remember you like this.

“Y/N, I…”

He started, not taking his eyes of you or stepping back. You were holding your breath, scared of what he’s going to say.

“I really missed you”

You smiled softly, trying to hide your disappointment.

“I missed you too, Calum”

“No, I really missed you” he said more seriously “Not only when we were in quarantine, or when we left for tour. I’m talking about when you’re ten minutes away in your home, or when we’re at the same party but at different ends, and even ten minutes ago when you came here to smoke. Everytime you’re not here I find myself missing you more than I should, even if you’re in the same building”

You stared at him confused, it saying anything. He took it as a que to continue.

“I find myself thinking of you and needing you more than I should. And I don’t know why I’m saying this now, what made me brave enough to say it. Maybe because, after seeing those videos something clicked and I realized that I want that with you. I want you to be with me, to be part of my life as long as possible”

“Calum, I’m always going to be there…” you said quietly. But he shook his head, bringing you even closer to him.

“Y/N… I know that and I don’t mean it like that I’m just” his voice suddenly sounded weak with the last few words, shifting his gaze from your eyes to your lips, looking at you almost pleading “I’m afraid of screwing the best thing in my life”

“What do..?” But you couldn’t finish the questions as Calum brought his lips to yours.

You were taken aback at first, but you kissed him back as soon as your head wrapped around on what was happening. His hands were on the jacket as he pulled you close to him. His lips were soft and tasted sweet on yours. It finally happened, you kissed your best friend and it was everything you’d hope for.

You hummed into the kiss, giving him more access in your mouth. There was no battle for dominance, but rather a dance of your mouths together, enjoying the intimacy. Your hands flew directly to his hair while his went down and grabbed you by your waist, molding you together as one piece of a whole. You realized in that moment that there was no other place you’d rather be than in Calum’s embrace.

After a while, you were the first one to pull away when the lack of air was apparent. Calum chased your lips when he felt them apart and rested his forehead against yours.

“Y/N, I don’t know if you noticed but I don’t want to be friends anymore” he said, eyes closed and trying to catch his breath.

“Well, that’s a cruel way to say it” you teased with a smile.

Calum gave you a small giggle as he stood straight, looking at you properly.

“I should’ve done that a long time ago” He said caressing you cheek with his hand.

“How much long ago?”

“Honestly? Since I threw that beer on you the first time we met”

You both laugh and you pulled him close to you again, wrapping your arms around his waist and hiding your face on his chest.

“But seriously tho, I should’ve said something a long time ago. The boys were right to tease me about it”

“The boys?” You asked, looking at him without moving form the embrace.

“They all knew I had a big crush on you for the longest time. Always teased me that I was being too obvious but didn’t do shit about it and that it was painful to watch”

“Well, it wasn’t that obvious. I didn’t know a thing” you laugh “But if it makes you feel better, I also had a huge crush on you for a long time and they teased me about it as well”

“Our friends are assholes” he said laughing with you.

“Hey! Don’t call us that!” You heard someone yell.

Looking up, you saw your other three best friends watching you two from a window, smirking like idiots.

“It’s about time you two!”

“Y/N and Calum sitting in a tree K I S S I N G”

Calum flipped them off as they started singing, pretending to be annoyed “Fuck off!” but his huge smile betrayed him.

“How about we get out of here?” You asked

“Great idea” he said, bringing you closer to him once again, and kissing you softly for a moment “I’ll bring your bag and the keys of my car. Wait for me?”

You smiled.

“I’m not going anywhere”

Calum went inside once more. You looked up to see three smiling faces smiling back at you.

“You really love that boy, don’t ya?” Asked Luke.

“Yeah, I guess I do”