#and here’s to the guy that saw all that chaos and adapted until it was the place where he operated best l’chaim I’ll drink to that
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“The Last Days of Moon Knight,” Moon Knight (Vol. 9/2021), #28.
Writer: Jed MacKay; Penciler and Inker: Federico Sabbatini; Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg; Letterer: Cory Petit
#Marvel#Marvel comics#Marvel 616#Moon Knight vol. 9#Moon Knight 2021#Moon Knight comics#latest release#Moon Knight#Marc Spector#Reese#Tigra#Greer Grant#8-Ball#Jeff Hagees#and here’s to the guy that saw all that chaos and adapted until it was the place where he operated best l’chaim I’ll drink to that
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Hey. I like the way you write.
LMAOJDIS
Chaos everywhere, wood flying and breaking, bullets made of who knows what, ink and death.
it felt like a war was playing in front of him, which he couldn't tell if it was entertaining or scary, not scary because the scene was too much for him, but scary because he was in the middle of it.
he wanted to make a run for it, but didn't make it. Didn't work. Too many things happening right now.
Ink falling down from his forehead, stress.
He just needs to wait until things calm down a bit, or too many people die until it's enough and the massacre stops.
he's almost glad he's in the middle of this and witnessing it, as he can learn new things from the new guests and adapt.
the two dishes have a long reach weapon, yes, fingers but they shoot bullets and a variety of it.
Could break their hands all together.
The cat is mostly relying on the bag and physical fight, the bag gives him everything apparently. Tricky and just needs to see if that bag can even be damaged.
the girl uses some kind of spells. She is fragile so she hopes those small and quick spells she can do without messing up are enough,
Meaning she is the easiest one.
on the other hand we have what used to be people dragging themselves around, hungry. Mad. In both senses.
And he's still stuck like this.
But after what felt like an eternity the fire stops, the screams and moans of pain stop, the ink slowly melting and dripping from whatever surface it's on.
blood is mixed with ink, minor injuries, maybe some are more severe.
The guests are covered in ink, some were close to be consumed by it completely.
They work the same as the rest. They are all victims of the same rules. they are just smarter and sane enough to actually try and survive instead of throwing yourself into some suicidal mission and wait to come back, again, and die, again, and come back, over and over, losing yourself the more it happens.
Sammy on the floor, obviously alive, just not able to fight anymore. that guy is hard to beat, he can tell you by experience. Some firey bullets won't do much.
Hopefully won't start a fire, they already have enough problems as it is.
a cough, multiple coughs. A whole coughing fit that sounded like someone just got out from the dark puddles, they all do it anyway, they all need to breathe still apparently.
Or it just sounds like someone whose lungs are merely an accessory instead of functional now.
the second one fits better.
"You okay, bro?" the one with the scarf as long as Alice angel's hair, even more, asks. Placing a hand behind the other's back and rubbing it.
"I-im good. I'm good." and a few curses.
What a nitwit. you're not fine. Why does he keep lying about that? Does he think he's cool or a hero if he does that?
What a joke.
"Where's bendy?" here, but he doesn't wanna be.
"Under a table, he's fine.." taking a few breaths in, glancing at the demon..kind of suspiciously but it was just a glance, the feeling went away almost immediately.
"Who even were they?" She asked. Tired. She didn't even move, why is she tired? All the work was from the rest of the group and her silly spells.
"I don't know, tree princess. Some weirdos."
"covered in ink.."
"Some didn't even look like a person though! They.. it's like they were made of ink!" they say the truth, yet they keep denying it once they say the rest of the words.
"Yeah. this place is dangerous. We need to go." a joy in this torment of a studio?
"But boris-"
"SCREW BORIS! We can't even save him anymore! He's cussing dead! I saw him cut open earlier! There's no one else to save! There's nothing to save him! So let's just get bendy out from under the table and go!" the tallest cup shouted. Ouch. and he snapped as well.
Amusing at best, but honestly, he doesn't care.
"..what?"
"Bori- you...you knew? You knew?! You knew Boris was here- and- and you didn't say anything until now?! You- y- Boris is dead and- and-"
"I couldn't do anything about it! he was already like this when I found him!"
"IT DOESN'T MATTER! Boris is-you could've-! I-" Tears and a mix of emotions that can't be fully described.
Tears from a girl, ugly crying without any shame. She doesn't have time for that, as she's busy crying over a stranger with the face of someone she knew.
silence, grieving silence.
"...bendy, look. I-..I wanted to tell you, but-" finally, the one who broke this news to everyone spoke, voice so soft and empathetic it was weird seeing him talk like that.
but he wasn't talking to no one anyway, there was no one there.
"...bendy?"
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Tf when your enemies kiss for the first time after slapping your ass to the stratosphere with a combination of Fire Glyphs and a cinch of Heron's Bane Anyway guess who got infected with @gamerbearmira's clownery and made an AU despite the 4 or so others I have in pending? It's me! Newly hatched Clown here folks. Basically it's an AU (a really babey one still) where Luz Noceda and Marcy Wu were the childhood friends, discovered Earth's Glyphs either by magical spoilery intervention or just like the Boiling Isles' Glyphs- through a stargazing session, messed around with them and mastered combinations enough that when Marcy gets dragged to Anne and Sasha all the way to Los Angeles at age 10 for her and 11 for Luz, our favorite human witchling managed to make bracelets-rings-necklaces-still can't decide that allows them to connect their mindscapes so they stay in contact via dreams, did that long distance relationship (except they didn't know it yet) thing for those 3 years until their canons came a calling. You can imagine the utter chaos when they both fell asleep in the Boiling Isles and Newtopia for the first time, met each other in their shared mindscape and were instantly like "You got stuck in another dimension too?!!???!!!" Oh and Marcy isn't the instigator for the Music Box here- girl recognized the aura of magic alright and years of experience with Earth Glyphs made her the hesitant one in the trio- at least until she could make sure it's safe. Plus, they just moved to Los Angeles and she has a bestest friend literally connected to her brain via fucking magic, so she won't have any motive anyway. Plus, all those times in the library that Canon Marcy would have spent? That's halfed now- she spends half of the time sleeping to meet, play, practice glyphs with Luz. So how'd they get it? Well, Sasha didn't have a present for Anne (she's the late one here), passed it by, saw how weirdly... weird it is (like Anne! And plus, most fics headcanon Anne having frogs as a favorite animal and I 100% agree) and said fuck it and stole it. She then gave it to Anne, Marcy's magic senses tingled like crazy- but Sasha does a Sasha and peer pressures Anne into opening it before Marcy regains her composure to protest. And with Luz? Well she basically goes to Boiling Isles the same way- too distracted by trying to get the Azura Book Marcy got her with her first allowance (to give it more importance, and also Camila's the one to throw it out not Luz) from Owlbert to recognize the magic her instincts were screaming at her to notice. The entire thing is almost the same as canon- except with Luz a little bit more mature and capable, and Eda being half 'this kid is so sus' and half 'yoooo pog??? A human with magic???' (because I'm pretty sure the reason Boiling Isles Glyphs don't work on Earth is because they're designed to use magic only from the Titan- I'm also pretty sure the dude gave them to Canon Luz. Now, my reason for Earth Glyphs working on the Boiling Isles? Have you seen humans? If we're adaptable, Glyphs made by nature- which we are part of - would also be. At least that's my AU loremaking led me to headcanon into existence anyway). Hmm... am I forgetting anything else???? Oh right. OH MY GOD I JUST WANT MY TWO FAVORITE GIRLS TO BE HAPPY OKAY AND THEY'RE SO PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER I'M FUCKING SOBBING UGHGHGHGHGHGHGH LUMITY IS GREAT AND SO IS MARCANNE BUT SORRY GUYS, FOR ME IT'S GONNA HAVE TO BE MARZ/GREENLIGHT/WIZ (WIT-LUZ HAHAHA) THAT SLEEPOVER SCENE WITH THE THREE AND MARCY'S LITTLE "Oh... you guys fell asleep... again..." WAS THE FINAL STRAW IT WAS SO SAAADDDDD I WAS RESISTING THE BIRTH OF THIS AU SO WELL TOO BUT THAT SCENE INSTANTLY HAD ME BABEY DON'T BE SAD I HAVE A GIRL RIGHT HERE THAT WOULD ABSOLUTELY, GENUINELY, GUSH WITH YOU ABOUT YOUR INTERESTS AND IT'S EVEN CANON COMPLIANT CONSIDERING HER UNIVERSE IS CONNECTED TO YOURS PLEASE DON'T CRY ANYMORE (SOBS) Alright so that's it for this AU- at least until I inevitably spend one (1) hour in the bathroom and come out with fully fleshed out lore.
(The one above is my first drawing HAHAHAHAH THEY HIT ME HARD SO MUCH)
#GreenLight#MarZ#WiZ#Luz Noceda x Marcy Wu#the owl house#toh#luz noceda#amphibia#marcy wu#au#sasha waybright#anne boonchuy#luz noceda x marcy wu
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My name is 01001010 01001011 (Alien!Jungkook! x Human!Reader)
Summary: “So you’re a human?” The alien that looked and acted like a human asked. The only difference between him and you was that he had two upside down triangles starting from his jaw going down under his shirt. Also, he was huge. “I’m talking 8 foot tall” huge.
Warning: Daddy kink, Dirty talk, size kink, cunt slapping, Jungkook being rlly big, fingering, nipple sucking (?), Dom/sub themes, and Jungkook being a curious alien.
Genre: Fluff, Smut
Word Count: 6.3k
Pairing: Jungkook x Reader
COVID-19 vs Human kind. Human kind was pretty much fucked. In front of your eyes, the world population went from a staggering 8 billion people to an exponentially low 1 million. Within two years. It was in October 2020, when scientist realized that instead of working on a vaccine, they needed to discover a place where those free from this deadly disease could live. Safely and peacefully.
Then, the people of Jubal, stepped in, and it was pure chaos. You still remember the day, 14thof December 2020. Everywhere; social media platforms, billboards, NASA’s speech, everything revolved around the message they sent us. They wanted to help us. Surprisingly, we knew nothing about them, but they knew everything about us. From our appearance to our food, cultures, languages, and what not. It low key creeped you out, not going to lie.
Nonetheless, we began building the transport link through their help and finally, one year later (pretty much the brink of our extinction), we were on our way to a new life.
Honestly, you had imagined them to look like- or well, to not look like how they looked. You’d expected Pokémons, or weird looking octopus, or even insects. But they looked just like you, expect they were way bigger in size.
After half a month or so, you had started to get used to the atmosphere. Almost similar to Earth, there were two sides to this planet, a much hotter plane, where the temperature never went below 104 Fahrenheit. You remember going there when you first arrived here, and oh god, you hated it. The temperature was too high for you; they didn’t know what ice cream was (how can they not know! You thought they knew everything, yet they’re unaware about one of the most popular desserts on Earth), you absolutely hated sweating and no amount of air conditioning could stop it, and the beach just looked out of place. The sand wasn’t the usual pale brown shade, instead it was just the color of the ocean itself – it adapted to the shade of the flowing water into a green-blue hue. Weird. Also, there was one sun in the morning, and three in the evening, gradually coming as the hours passed by.
You had also noticed that all of them ate food at the same temperature. Nothing was cold like ice, or hot like a fresh pizza. The concept was new to them, and when you asked for the water to be cold at the first restaurant you went to – the waiter just looked lost. The poor soul, he was told to make the humans feel at home, so when he realized he couldn’t do what you asked to, you just felt really bad. Still, it was funny that a seven-foot tall man was scared of you being uncomfortable. It was cute, honestly.
Also, almost similar to Earth, the two places had different types of Jubals living there. The sunny side had more tan skinned people, with bright, blond hair and bright eyes. Whereas, the cold plane Jubals had fairer skin, darker hair and doe eyes. The one similarity being – they were huge as fuck. The average height was around seven foot for men, and around six foot for females. So, standing at a 5 foot 2 inches (almost three inches I swear!), you felt tiny (and intimidated sometimes, but you weren’t going to admit that.
After finalizing that you definitely didn’t want to live in the hotter part of the planet, you moved to Corellia, it was cold there but not in the way you expected it to be. In the morning, it was perfectly fine, the cold breeze was nothing short of comfortable, but as the evening came, it started to get cold to the point where you couldn’t bear to go outside after 6 PM. Sometimes, you think you might have underestimated the cold here at night, because the two beautiful moons brought such intense cold that you wouldn’t dare go out at night. They gifted you a cozy one bed apartment with a really good heating system, which you appreciated. Also, you had never been so glad that you brought the microwave from Earth, without it, you didn’t know what you would do.
Ever since you moved, you had pretty much been lonely, because of the lack of contact with humans. Most of them preferred to live in the hotter state, wanting to get tanned - and to fuck the surfer Jubal hotties. You still remember parting with your sister and her ranting about this Jubal she met who was so “dreamy” and “good at surfing”.
As usual, you were just trying to get used to the food here, thankfully, they had a smaller section of “human,” food that mostly consisted of cup noodles, vegetables, chicken and chocolates. Getting groceries was intimidating at first (honestly, it kind of still is), because everyone and everything was so large, and everyone just kept staring at you. You still haven’t interacted with a Jubal on your own, it’s not like you were scared – you were – but also you didn’t really know how to go up to one. Until now, the only two Jubals you’ve met were the grocery store cashier and the landlord. Sigh.
You were so happy when you saw the new addition of real, organic milk in the grocery aisle! Thank god you got a break from that horrid almond milk. It was just water pretending to be milk honestly, and whenever you poured it in your cereal, it felt like drowning them in water, yuck. But, as much as you could try, you just would not reach the goddamn shelf. Why did these Jubals have to be so tall! Why couldn’t they just make this aisle according to human size!
You heard someone shuffle behind, but paid no heed until you heard laughter burst and immediately looked back to see one of them laughing so hard, his body shook.
“You- you’re so tiny!” He barely managed to get that sentence out of him, since he couldn’t stop his outburst.
Of course, you were offended.
“I’m actually not! You all are way too big!” You didn’t really know how to respond, because this was just so sudden.
“Hm, I don’t think so, you’re smaller than average earthlings. But it’s okay, because it’s adorable,” so, you were really surprised when you felt him behind you, reach up to the milk shelf and grab a container of it. Of course, being the dumb idiot you were, you suddenly turned around and had to face him again. You hadn’t noticed his physical features before, but now that you did. Holy shit.
He was tall (I know, it’s obvious by now), and had such, clear, fair skin. Two upside down triangles were on each side of his jaw and went down, disappearing under his coat. He looked at you with such doe, curious eyes, almost as if he was entertained by your mere presence.
“Here you go,” he handed you the container of milk – while still being really close (not that you minded it). Despite the irritatingly bright fluorescent store lighting, his hair shined, and looked so soft.
And after that, he just followed you around the store, and you honestly didn’t really know what to do.
“You know, I’ve been trying to find a human since a month now, but I’ve heard most of them moved to the Southern part. You should’ve done that too, because Corellia is too cold for you. You’re a little slow,”
And you’re a little piece of shit.
“But now I found you. You’re really adorable, the books didn’t tell me that. Ever since humankind moved here, I’ve been really studying Earth. Did you guys really had pink leaved trees? And forests? It must be so cool for so many trees to be in one place. I also really want to meet a lion,”
“You can’t just meet a lion,” you chuckled, he was weird, but somehow, it wasn’t awkward around him. He radiated this warm energy that you hadn’t seen in the Jubal people around you, and it was comforting, made you want to stay by his side – even if it meant answering his dumb questions.
“I can, you can’t. It would eat you, because you’re bite sized for it,” he continued to comment on your petite stature, and the worst part is that you couldn’t even defend yourself, especially when he kept towering over you.
“Hey! Stop making fun of me,” you tried to push him but the basket was too heavy for you, so you ended up just… awkwardly not being able to do it. Suddenly his – huge – hand swoops in and carries the heavy grocery basket as if it was nothing.
“You should’ve told me it was too heavy for you,” he sounded almost as if he was scolding you, and coo-ing at you at the same time. His eyebrows bunched up in frustration as he mumbled something along the lines of ‘how can I protect you if you won’t tell me what you need,’ but you couldn’t really make out what he said.
You were just pulled out of your thoughts when you heard him put something in your basket. Something that the Jubals ate, not humans.
Should I ask him to leave? No, that’s way too rude. Then, should I ask him why he’s following me?
“This is delicious, you should try it,” He spoke while continuing to look around the store, and put random items in your basket. There was a variation of their fruits (this one had a gradient of yellow and orange, with huge spikes coming out from the top), cans with God-knows-what inside (the one he put in your basket had cherry colored pentagons on it, and a juice bottle that contained neon green juice. You were not looking forward to drinking that.
“I don’t even know how to make all of this. What if I can’t eat it?” You were scared of most of these food items, you got sick easily, and didn’t know how to cope if you fell sick here. Without the medicines, you’d probably die.
“I’ll cook it for you if you want to,” He looked at you and smiled, “I know humans are fragile, so don’t worry, I made sure to get the ones which would be safe for you,” he said, while petting your hair, and smiling. You instantly fell in love with it, it wasn’t like the way he laughed at you earlier, but somehow, it was far more beautiful. His eyes crunched up into half-moons, cheeks being bunched up, he almost looked like the small bunny you had as a pet when you were younger. So. Cute.
“But I don’t even know your name, why would you do this for me?” You really were curious, why was a Jubal so interested in humans? So far, most of them have just maintained a distance from you.
“Because I want to keep you,” he looked at you, and the duality of his presence made you shiver. The small bunny smile morphed into a more serious face, his already dark brown eyes, turned into a slightly darker shade, giving you the chills.
“You can’t keep me,” you didn’t know how to fight this argument, you almost wanted to laugh and act as if you thought it was a joke, but you weren’t an idiot – and nor was he.
“I know, I can’t find the Earth word for it, I want to be with you, is what I mean,” he mumbled as he tried to find something in the cereal aisle.
The grocery trip was actually not as weird as you’d expect it to be. While you both didn’t know anything about each other, not even names (not that Jubals had actual names, they just talked through their minds?)
And as soon as you reached the cashier, before you could even take out your money, he nod, and paid the bill.
“Hey! I can pay for myself, you don’t have to do this!”
Honestly, you didn’t really know what to say after he said, “I’m paying, now be a good baby and stand still,” where did he even learn to speak like that?
It was starting to get cold now, and after you exited the heated mall, it was visible that you shivered every time the cold brushed up against your figure. You should’ve worn the third sweater, sigh.
“So you’re really a human?” He said, as he carried your groceries and followed you, on your way to the apartment.
“Yeah, I’m Y/N,”
“How can you be a Y/N? You just said you were a human,” He asked, really confused. Were you pranking him? He learnt in (one of his many books about humans) that humans liked to prank each other for entertainment. He found the idea amusing, but right now he couldn’t decide whether you were pranking or joking.
He didn’t understand the difference between pranking and joking, either.
“I- What? No, I mean I am a human, but my name is Y/N,” you were definitely amused at his seriousness, yet you couldn’t help but be intimidated by his tall figure. Also, you felt bad that he was holding all the groceries, so you decided to grab one of the bags from him.
“Y/N!” He stopped dead in his tracks after your fingers brushed against his, “I just remembered you can’t bear the cold after 6pm, so you have to wear many clothes to protect yourself. You’re already so cold,” he felt your hand, and his was so warm and felt right, intertwined in your hand. His hand was so huge, that it enveloped yours easily, and you could really notice the size difference now.
He quickly transferred all the grocery bags into his left hand, and continued to give you his coat, and held your hand again, and it felt… nice. The fact that he smelled so good, helped too, you couldn’t exactly put your finger on it, but it was really comforting.
You were quite used to the stares you got on the streets from other Jubals, and always thought that they would go away, but it’s been two weeks, yet they still continue to look at you up and down, so you finally asked him. You still didn’t know his name, and didn’t know whether you should ask him or not, was it insulting?
“Why does everyone keep staring at me?”
“Because you’re so cute,”
What. It was almost like you forgot how to breathe. How could he say that all of a sudden, out of the blue? Also, you actually could not breathe, because while he had long legs that lasted for days, you had much smaller legs and it was starting to get hard to keep up.
“Hey! Could you walk-” you took in a breath, wow, your stamina was really, uh, shitty, “could you walk a little slow?”
He looked back at you, and tilted his head almost as to ask ‘why?’, but understood quickly. Then, he flashed one of his cute smiles, again, the smile that did things to your heart that you hadn’t felt before.
“Do you want me to carry you?” He also had read previously that humans can get really tired, and sometimes not even have the strength to move on. Especially females, they were more fragile, and he could physically see that too, because you were just so small. The average height was supposed to be 5’4 or even 5’6 for human females around your age, but you seemed smaller than that. But you also didn’t seem to be a child because those under the age 18 were always with their parents right? He had almost started to doubt those textbooks he bought on humans.
“No, I can walk myself,” You tried to defend yourself, and started to mentally curse as to why you asked him to slow down.
You finally reached your apartment door. Honestly, you had thought that he would stop following you after you reached the apartment building… but he just continued to bring the groceries in.
Should you invite him in? Did you even clean your living space? You probably had your underwear lying all over the place, since now you lived alone and had no fear of someone else coming in your private space.
“Can I come in?”
Well, you didn’t want to say no to him, he’s been really nice so far, and you had to admit, picking up groceries was really hard to do, and you weren’t exactly physically active enough to carry all those bags that he easily carried in one hand.
He then walked himself to the door after putting the groceries in the kitchen. What really surprised you was how he looked back at you, not how he looked before. Before, he looked with warmth, and now. Now, he almost towered at you, reminding how much power he really has over you. He looked at your lips, and then back at your eyes and tilted his head.
“W-well, it was really nice to meet you,” you said trying to break the tension and to distract yourself from the obviously gorgeous man.
“I hope to see your cute face again soon,” he smiled one of his bunny smiles again, and kissed you on the cheek before disappearing under the stairs.
You curled yourself up in your blanket, and tried to sleep, but that Jubal kept intruding your thoughts.
Would you get to see him again?
The next time you saw the cute Jubal from the grocery store was next week Saturday. On Earth, entertainment was in the form of movies, arcades and concerts. Similarly, here too, people had a theatre – instead of a movie on a projector, it was shown in 3D form, almost like a live performance, expect there were holographic figures.
You looked around, and by now you had taken into account that Jubal people weren’t afraid to show off their skin – even though it was crazy cold here, their bigger bodies could compensate by giving them more body heat. Unfortunately, your smaller stature couldn’t provide you with the same amount of heat and you always had to bundle up in three or even four layers to keep yourself from freezing or catching a cold.
You were watching a really heated up scene, and it was getting kind of… uncomfortable. While others were simply watching casually, as if it was nothing out of the ordinary, you kept shuffling in your seat – so it was a pleasant surprise when you felt someone cover your eyes from behind you.
“Wha-” instinctively, you looked behind, and it was the same boy (or man?), from the grocery store.
“Hey,” again, you waved at him, almost as a form of habit, and he looked at you as if you did something quite weird. Without any questions, he tried to imitate you, but he was really stiff so you couldn’t help but let you a laugh.
“I know I didn’t introduce myself much better last time, but we don’t really have names. Still, I decided to get one for myself, because once I get a human, she should be able to call me something,”
Did he… did he mean that you were his human?
“Well, what did you settle for?”
“My name is 01001010 01001011. I thought it was really similar to the ones that humans have. Do you like it?” He asked with a proud grin, as his face lit up.
You tried to keep your laughter in, you really did but you when it did come out, you felt like wanting to die. His face crumpled up almost as if he was ashamed of his name as he increased the distance between the two of you.
Nice one, Y/N, you made the only person who cared enough for you sad.
“Hey, look, it’s a nice name, it’s just not very human-like,” you explained to him.
“It’s the binary code for a human name,”
Because of the constant conversation you both were immersed in, the Jubals beside you were starting to get annoyed – and while they didn’t say anything, probably because they didn’t want you to feel bad (you still did, for trying to ruin their experience for this live-movie thing), you decided to head out with him.
As you both walked in one of the main parks situated in the middle of Corellia state, he settled on a spot in the corner of the massive area.
“Would you like to give me a name?” he looked at your face with such intensity, that you couldn’t help but feel insecure and want to cover your face.
“Well, what did those binary numbers represent?” you really did want to help his get a name, after all, he was your first friend here.
“I want to be called JK, but my friends told me it was a ridiculous human name, because no one was named JK before. So I settled for its binary number. They approved of that,” his eyes shone of much when he talked about it, his long lashes were uprightly curved and you couldn’t help but swoon.
You fiddled with your sweater as you gave him suggestions, but none seemed to suit him.
“Jake? No,” you were starting to get frustrated at this, “Hm, maybe Jacob?” you shook your head again, unsatisfied.
He just simply continued to laugh at you being so serious, occasionally playing with hair and pressing a finger to your soft cheeks. When he commented on you being soft, you couldn’t help but blush (and when he compared you to one their red fruits, you couldn’t help but blush harder (you denied it, obviously)).
“Jungkook!” you remember reading that word in one of the books you had in high school literature.
“Jungkook? Do you like it, baby?” He played with your cheeks with happiness, he was happy that you were no longer frustrated or angry. Finally satisfied and happy. Of course, you blushed at the word of endearment, but didn’t tell him to not say it.
Oh. Well, after that, he just continued to ask you about humans, and more specifically about you. You were amused by most of his questions,
“What is sarcasm?”
“Why do you like pizza so much, when it’s detrimental for your health? You shouldn’t eat it, I’ll make good food for you,”
“How do you make stereotypes?”
“Why do people get cosmetic surgery?”
And each one of them seemed normal for a Jubal to ask until,
“Why do humans like cuddling?”
At this point, you were quite tired, but still thought it would rude to ask him out, because he seemed really curious, every question coming right after you answer the last one.
“I guess, we just like to be touchy and close,” you said and you tried to suppress a yawn, but it just slipped.
“What was that? Was that a sigh? Or a yawn? Are you tired? That was so cute, do it again,”
“Just a little tired,” you said as you rested you head on his shoulder without realizing to do so. It was also getting really cold; the second moon had started to show up.
You both got up, and the walk back home was really pleasant. He kept cracking jokes and dancing on the pavement. You tried to imitate his dance, but your flow wasn’t as steady as his. How could someone dance so good like this, yet not be able to wave correctly? Your fingers intertwined again, and you leaned more into his body this time. You could barely reach his mid chest, that’s how tall he was. But somehow, you didn’t mind it because you both fit so perfectly – as if two parts of one puzzle.
As you reached the door of your apartment door again, you felt Deja-vu. He looked at your face, studying it carefully and looking back at your eyes, however instead of just looking at your lips this time, he leaned closer and looked back at you – almost as if asking for permission to kiss you. You nodded, and wow.
As his lips drew closer to yours, you could feel him cupping your face with both hands, one of them gradually descending to the back of your head as it found its place in your hair. They were incredibly soft, and almost overpowered you, because you didn’t expect this. As he slid his tongue and slowed himself, you found yourself wanting more, leaning towards him.
Before realizing that you needed to breathe, you started to choke, as he pulled himself back, and chuckled before saying, “Baby girl, take it slow, I’m all yours.”
“Want more,” is all you can say before leaning towards him, wanting to kiss him again. But unlucky for you, he just moved back before laughing again, and this time you pouted and slightly punched his chest.
“Now, you’re just being a brat, baby, you’ll get what I’ll give you, understand?” You could feel his breath fanning your face, and his eyes were no longer twinkling like they did, but instead were full of lust and an animalistic hunger.
‘’Jungkook, please,” you had never really been serious with boys in your high school, and so, this was the first time you had actually felt something down there. It was almost like someone – or Jungkook – lit a fire in your core, and you couldn’t help but just want more.
Fumbling hands opened the door to the apartment and you both tumbled in, messily but both of you didn’t care as you headed to your bedroom. On the way, he messily kissed your neck that made your knees buckle in a way that even walking was difficult.
He tossed you gently on your bed, that was way too big for the apartment, and ran his fingers through your hair, to you neck, and to your chest. He attacked your neck again, and started to form a pattern with his tongue as he pressed harder on some areas and trailed lighter on others.
You couldn’t help but let a whine escape your mouth when he left your neck unattended to take off your sweaters and cardigans till you were only in your undergarments and a see-through white dress.
“Fuck, baby girl, you’re so beautiful,” he said as he attacked your lips again, this time being harsher with his movements, as his tongue slipped in your mouth, doing wonders to his body.
“J-Jungkook, please,” you felt so much, so sudden, and even in this cold, the heat was too much for you – the heat inside you wanted to escape, but you didn’t know how to ask him.
“Yes, baby? Tell me what you want,” his amused voice made it obvious as to what you wanted, but still he continued to tease you, torment you, put you on the edge, “Tell daddy what you want,”
You took in a gasp as he unbuckled your bra strap from behind, free-ing your breasts, and the very next second, tore your fragile dress.
“Hm, tell me baby girl,” he asked you once again, as he took in one of you nipples in his mouth, his tongue encircling your bud, as one of his hands pinched the other one.
“Jungkook I-” you gasped as you felt a slap on your clit, it wasn’t that harsh because he was being careful, and you were still in your panties – but it just turned you on more.
“Baby, you have to call me Daddy, do you understand?” he said as his free wrist kept putting pressure on the top of you panties, making you want to rip them off, so you could finally feel him where you wanted to.
“Yes,” you said, and whined after he took off his mouth from your nipple to look at you, and after a second you understood what you had to say, “Yes Daddy, I understand,”
“Such a good girl for me, so pretty,” he said as he kissed your cheek, and you just couldn’t stop blushing. He was so harsh, yet so gentle at the same time – and it made your head spin.
“Now, be a good baby, and tell Daddy what you want him to do to you,” he said as he neared your ear, “does baby want daddy to wreck her pussy?”
You couldn’t help but shiver before speaking, “I want Daddy to make me feel good,”
His fingers slowly trailed your body, making you moan and buckle your body up towards him. You looked at him, his ears tinged red, and his eyes were darker than before, he almost looked like a fallen angel. He chuckled, looking at you seem so helpless, so fragile.
You were so soft, so ethereal, like an angel from the sky and he was there to taint you, to make you his.
He teased you by playing with the band of your underwear, he put two fingers in your mouth and you instantly slicked them with your saliva, making obscene noises that blended in with your moans. Then he trailed those two fingers right above your covered clit, and you couldn’t help but buckle up again, wanting those two fingers inside of you.
“Be patient, princess,” and it felt like an eternity as he circled his tongue in your belly button and it so, so, so slowly trailed down and down, and he finally took off your panties with his teeth.
“So wet, baby, you’re making a mess,” he commented as he rubbed you with one finger, and using the other one to encircle your hole. He pushed it a little inside, easily as your slick helped him, before looking back at you to see if you were comfortable, and when he got the green light, he continued to push it entirely in, “Such a good baby for me, think you can handle Daddy’s cock?”
You nodded in exasperation, his finger was long and hit all the right spots, but you needed more. He added another finger, while rubbing your clit with more pressure and making circle patterns with his tongue below your belly button. You were so near, so so near, you just needed that one push off the edge.
“Well, you’re going to have to work for Daddy’s cock, baby, think you can take this monster?” He took out his finger with a pop, as soon as he felt you clench down on his finger.
“Daddy, f-fuck me, please,” you moaned, missing his touch. He looked just as a mess as you were, panting and taking off his shirt. You continued to admire his body, he didn’t look buff like gym rats, but instead he had a lean, slightly muscular body.
He continued to tease you by biting his lip and taking off his boxers extremely slowly. You whimpered when his cock was free against his stomach, and it was bigger than any you’ve been before while watching porn. It was even bigger than the dildo your friend bought as a joke for your birthday present, and you had started to doubt if he would fit inside of you.
“Suck Daddy if you want to cum, princess,” he groaned as he pumped himself a couple of times before you put your mouth on his head.
Not having any experience before, you didn’t really know how to start, but you gave little kitten licks at his head, and then took it in your heated mouth. He didn’t taste how you had imagined, instead it was more like a salted caramel toffee you had, it was delicious and you wanted more. You continued to take more, and more of him and suddenly gagged because you couldn’t take anymore – only to realize you had only taken half his dick in your mouth.
“Can’t handle more? I guess you’re too small for Daddy’s big cock, huh?”
The thought of his not fucking you was almost terrifying at this point and you continued to let your throat loose and tale more of him, until you felt his cock twitch, which made you moan. Tears spilled out as he fucked your throat, fast and hard.
“Such a good, pretty baby for daddy, taking my cock so good, princess,” he groaned before pushing in it a couple of times and taking it out.
“Such a naughty baby, making Daddy almost cum,” he kissed you again, tasting his own cum, before dipping down again, “you need to be punished, huh?”
“Daddy, please t-touch me,” you whined, grabbing his hand and putting it in between your thighs, and surprisingly he slapped your inner thigh.
“Being such a bratty baby now, I guess I do need to punish you, you don’t deserve Daddy’s fingers,” he said trailing again lightly all over body, but stopping as soon as he neared where you needed him the most, “touch yourself,”
You were dumbfounded, but when you saw his serious look, you shyly dipped your finger into your heat, and circled them around, but even after two fingers, it just wasn’t enough. You wanted more, you needed more.
“Daddy, please, I c-can’t, I need you,” you cried out while rubbing yourself between your legs, filled with your slick.
“Such a needy princess, always demanded Daddy,” he tsked before adding two fingers inside you, and as you gasped, “but Daddy adores you, so he’ll help his pretty little baby,”
You moaned, not holding back, as he pumped those fingers, and let his tongue work magic on your clit. He continuously pumped his fingers back and forth, while torturing your bud and the heat inside of you kept growing and before you realized it, “Jungkook, I’m going to cum!”
“Cum on my fingers, baby, go on,” his movements became more faster and you trembled under gaze, and unconsciously arched your back before letting yourself loose. It felt like heaven.
Even after this, you had been surprised to see that he didn’t stop and the stimulation was too much for you, as you tried to get away from him, but he held you in place, his wrist holding your pelvic in place.
Despite your whimpering and moans, he took his mouth to your perked up nipple again, and scissored his fingers, to prepare you for his cock. Then, he looked at you, cupped you face and kissed you again, this time more soft, as if you were a china doll, going to break at any given moment.
After letting his dick sit on your bud, he slowly let the head of his cock find your entrance and pushed it slightly. You let out a cry, he was too big for you, but he shushed you and pressed against your lips again before letting it enter little by little. You quickly grab his upper arm and clench it, the pain and pleasure were starting to combine again and you nodded, letting him know that it was okay to continue.
The raw emotion in his eyes was enough to let you go on, and when you were finally full, you looked down only to find you could only take half of him, he was just too big for you.
“Baby, fuck, you’re too tiny, can’t even take all of me,” he groaned before moving slowly, and then finally setting a pace that was safe, but unsatisfactory for you.
“J-Jungkook, f-fas-ter please,” you whined as he started becoming harsher, and his finger started abusing your bud again, and you couldn’t help but realize you were close again. This time, it felt more intense, more powerful.
He was so big, that you could feel him everywhere, it almost felt like he was ripping you apart, but the pleasure was almost overwhelming and the way his cock filled you up made you insatiable – you just wanted more, and more. You could feel your walls being pushed everything he buckled inside you, but he just did it so right.
“Baby, you’re so cute, gonna cum for Daddy?” he kissed your nipple and trailed up to your lips before diving a tongue into your moaning mouth. You nodded, and felt your second release come near.
“J-Jungkook, you feel so good,” you moaned as your walls clenched around his cock, and finally you gushed out, and trembled as you rode your orgasm. Simultaneously, he too, slammed his hips a couple times before cumming deep into you. As he took himself out, cum poured out of you, and he chuckled before taking it and spreading it over your face. Globs of cum covered your red cheeks and entered your mouth.
“You look so pretty with my cum on you face, keep it there until tomorrow morning,” he kissed your nose and coo-ed when you squirmed in embarrassment.
You could feel tugging and pulling when you felt someone wake you up and instinctively, you said, “Just five more minutes.”
“But you said that the last time,” Jungkook looked at you, his breathe fanning your face.
Too close, too close, too close. You looked at other way and tried to close your eyes.
“You’re so cute, like a small puppy,” he coo-ed at you, making your stomach feel things you’ve never felt before.
“I- I’m not like a puppy!” You tried to fight back in your sleep, but couldn’t help the blush forming on your cheeks and ears.
You could feel the dried up cum on your face, and wanted to wash it off, but feeling too sore to move.
“Can’t move, princess? Was Daddy’s cock too much for you, last night?” he coo-ed at you, mumbling about how cute you were, and how he wanted to baby you and make you his.
“I’m too sore, Kookie,” you whined into the pillow and were taken by surprise when he lifted you and carried you to the tub.
“It’s okay, I’ll take care of my little human baby girl,” he said as he laid you in the lukewarm water and washed your body softly.
CLICK HERE FOR PART TWO
You were starting to feel more at home, even more than when you were at Earth.
A/N: That’s a wrap! Hope you like it. Go to master link for more!
#bts smut#Jungkook smut#bts scenarios#bts imagines#bts fanfic#bts fanfiction#bts reactions#bts reader insert#bts preferences#bts#jungkook bts#jungkook scenarios#Jungkook#jungkook reader insert#jungkook reaction#jungkook x reader#Jungkook daddy#jungkook fluff
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Between the Lines || IX
PAIRING: Steve Rogers & Fem!Reader (Platonic) / Natasha Romanoff x Fem!Reader / Wanda Maximoff x Fem!Reader / Natasha Romanoff x Fem!Reader x Wanda Maximoff
Summary: Vampire AU. Life has changed drastically since the 1600s. Things are always on the move, and you’ve been very careful to not get on SHIELDs radar. Living on the down-low owning a café, you’re content to live out a quiet existence. That is until the Avengers enter your life.
[Set after the New York Invasion, in CAWS, and goes up to AoU. Canon divergent after.]
Warnings: This series will contain smut(**), poly-relationship, and dark themes.
Note: Everyone last chapter: “I’m ready for Wanda to fucking ruin me.” LMAO SAME.
PART I || PART II || PART III || PART IV || PART V || PART VI || PART VII || PART VIII
PART IX of XX
Count: 4782
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Antique.
That was the best way Natasha could describe your place. You had more warm colors for your walls and older styled furniture that made her feel like she was transcending time.
They had just gotten back from visiting Allison, who was beyond ecstatic to see you and Natasha. Her mother seemed to be all better now, and no longer needed the extra care for Allison. The babysitter you had recommended last time seemed to be working just fine for them when her mother needed to pull extra shifts, but you still promised to visit Allison when you could.
"Your place is nice," Natasha smiles softly, and you turn your head around to smile back at her as you grab a cup from the cupboard.
"Really? David says I have the taste of an old person. To my defense, I am old," you snort.
Natasha chuckles, "I like it."
She feels a little excited because it looks like you're making coffee for her, and it feels like it's been such a long time since Natasha has had your coffee.
"Even though I've lived so long and have adapted, this style makes me feel more at home," you softly explain, and Natasha's eyes turn tender.
You finish brewing Natasha her coffee and bring it over to her. She takes a sip, sighing with bliss.
Grinning at her, you're about to say something else when your phone buzzes in your pocket. Pulling it out, you check to see that it's from David.
"We've got to head out," You tell the redhead. "David's got a lead for us."
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Your search didn't yield much more than what David could find, which was annoying. Luckily, you didn't end up having to use your gift and instead used compulsion to find information.
Natasha trailed along, watching you work but also making herself useful when she could.
Within two hours, you felt like you already found out what you could before heading back to shower and head off to the Stark tower again.
When you get there, you already see David talking with Steve and Maria.
"Fatalities?" You could hear Steve ask.
"Only when engaged," David says as he catches your eye when you enter the room. "Mostly guys left in a fugue state going on about old memories, worst fears, and something too fast to see."
"Maximoffs," Maria mutters, and you're curious about Wanda's powers. They seemed similar to Tatyana's, but you want to confirm if Wanda's powers had only come from the scepter.
"That makes sense that he would seek them out. They have something in common," Steve said as he saw you approaching. "Find anything?"
"No more than you did, apparently," you shrugged.
"Well," David says as he's looking at his tablet. "Nothing in common anymore." He flips the tablet and a picture of Strucker's dead body and the word 'PEACE' written in blood on the wall next to him.
"Lovely," Maria huffs.
You see Clint on the phone just a couple feet from you, and Steve notices him too.
"So, you're not coming home tonight even though you explicitly said you would," you here a feminine voice on the phone.
"That's a negative," Clint says.
"This better be your last one for a while, I don't care what your boss says," you hear the woman respond. In the background, you could also hear two kids screaming, 'Is that dad? Can I talk to dad! Dad!'
"I answer to you," Clint responds almost dutifully.
"...If you miss the birth of our child...I'll kill you..."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Barton," Steve interrupts, "We might have something."
"Gotta go," Clint says quickly before he hangs up and turns to face you all.
"Who was that?" Steve asks.
"Girlfriend," Clint's eyes travel to you and David because it was obvious he knew you had heard him.
Steve doesn't pay it any mind as he leads everyone back into the room. You and David lag behind because Clint is walking beside the two of you.
"Listen--"
"It's none of our business, Clint," you cut him off with a wave. "We didn't hear a thing."
Clint sighs and gives you a smile of thanks.
"Although, you should be more careful if you're trying to keep them a secret," David says as he tapped away on his tablet.
He then holds up his tablet to you and Clint, a photo dated two years ago of Clint and his family on a ride at Disneyland.
"This you?"
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You've known as a vampire, it's impossible to get headaches, but it doesn't stop you from feeling like you have one.
Everyone is getting ready to get out onto the Quinjet to take off to the next location to find Ulysses Klaue as you'll be likely to find Ultron and the twins there.
There isn't much for you to ever prepare for, so you laze around in the kitchen before Natasha strolls in, the first to finish.
"Hey, you," she smiles, and you walk over to her.
"Hey, yourself," you smile as you inspect her suit. "Got everything?"
"Hopefully," Natasha shrugs.
You know you'll most likely meet Wanda soon, and something inside you tells you it'll bring chaos.
Nothing ever truly feels like it's over, but you have Natasha.
You look at her with slow eyes.
Sometimes it feels wrong to be this happy with Natasha, to allow yourself that kind of privilege. But there are no words you could use to describe what Natasha is to you and how you crave her.
Natasha peers through her lashes, catching the look in your eyes. She walks backward, pulling you with her until she hits the counter before she hops herself up onto it. Pulling you closer by the collar of your shirt, you end up between her legs, your hands automatically around her waist while hers are around your neck.
"When you have that look on your face, it makes me want to just...eat you," Natasha licks her lip, and you can't help but laugh lightly as she traces her thumb over your bottom lip.
"You know how funny that sounds, right?" You smile.
Natasha merely smirks as she lowers her head to press her lips against yours in a soft kiss.
She tastes like remnants of peach candy, and you hum into her mouth. Licking her bottom lip, you hold her hips tighter.
Good.
She smells good.
Like vanilla and dry leaves.
You bite her bottom lip gently, appreciating the way she moans lightly. It seems to excite her more as her heart pounds in her chest. You pull away, lowering your head as the tip of your nose drags against her side of her neck.
You inhale as Natasha holds your neck a little tighter.
You could hear it, smell, the blood rushing through Natasha's veins.
It would be so easy.
Natasha would be delicious, you just know it. Her blood hits every part of your sensories, and she would feel so good.
Your teeth drag lightly where your tongue had been.
'You can't.'
The voice and words ring in your head loud and clear.
Immediately, you pull away, almost panting as you do.
Natasha calls your name, but you shake your head.
"I just need a moment," you tell her, taking in a deep breath.
You haven't felt this way in so long, you felt like a child experiencing bloodlust again.
It had been so easy throughout the years to control it, knowing the consequences if you did it.
Yet, having Natasha tested every limit you had again.
You never thought you would ever experiencing wanting to drink from someone again.
"I'm sorry," Natasha says hesitantly. She had been so caught up in the moment, and you felt so good.
For a moment...she...she wanted you to bite her.
You clear your throat as your head clears again.
"Don't apologize," you give her a tight smile, "I should have better control."
Natasha is about to say something else when you help her down from the counter.
"C'mon," you say as you pull her along, "we should head to the Quinjet."
And Natasha's words die on her tongue.
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"Don't compare me with Stark! He's a sickness!"
You all come in time just as Ultron has sliced off Klaue's arm as he rants about Tony.
"Ahh, junior," Tony appears with Thor and Steve behind him. "You're gonna break your old man's heart."
"If I have to," Ultron tilts his head.
"Daddy issues, am I right?" You lean over to David to say, but loud enough for everyone to hear.
"He's not a villain without one," David says back.
You hear a laugh disguised as a cough from Pietro. He smirks at you, and you give him a slight quirk of your lip back.
But then your eyes travel next to him.
It hits you in the gut.
A million flashbacks happen to you, and you feel like someone just knocked all the air out of your body, and you're breathless. It's like you're going through a spiral of vertigo until you look her in the eyes.
She looks like her.
You were prepared to see the similarities, but this was more than you had expected.
But you knew it was not Tatyana.
You blinked, eyes focusing on Wanda.
She was staring at you too, but she didn't seem sure of what to make of it.
"You two can still walk away from this," Steve's voice interrupts the two of you.
"Oh, we will," Wanda rips her gaze from you, tilting her head as she smirks sardonically at Steve.
"I know you've suffered," Steve acknowledges, and for a second, you see rage flash through Wanda's eyes because while Steve knows, he doesn't truly know what they've been through.
Ultron lets out a groan of disgust. "Captain America," he says with a certain tone to his voice. "God's righteous man, pretending you could live without a war."
"I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but..." Ultron tilts his head, looking at Steve.
Thor tries to urge Ultron to keep the peace, but Ultron obviously declines.
"What's the vibranium for?" Tony asks.
Ultron looks as giddy as he can. "I'm glad you asked since I wanted to take this time to reveal my evil plan!"
Suddenly, Iron Legion Bots break through the glass and start attacking.
You and David have split up, he's taken off after Pietro and you to find Wanda.
Taking out Klaue's men along the way, you keep walking in the direction you could hear her in.
Her footsteps were rather light, and she had a distinct smell of cinnamon and orange blossoms.
"Thor! Status!" Steve yelled into the earpiece.
"The girl tried to warp my mind. Take special care, I doubt a human could keep her at bay. Fortunately, I am mighty," Thor trailed off.
You knew immediately what was happening.
"Nat," you called worriedly.
"I'm fine," she reassures you.
"David?" You called next.
"Still good," he grumbles. "Fast little bastard."
"Wait," David calls. "She's got Natasha and Steve in a hallucination."
You're about to turn around immediately to go back to Natasha, but David stops you.
"Don't," he warns. "Nat's still okay, just caught up in whatever she's seeing. If you want to put an end to it, catch the girl."
You grit your teeth but huff in agreement.
You stand along the empty hallway, breaking the wrist of a man who tries to charge at you. Flinging him over the railing, he lands on sacks of dirt and groans.
It seems you don't have to go to Wanda because you hear those light footsteps behind you, creeping up.
She stands behind you, unknowing you can hear her heart beating as she raises her hand, tendrils forming at her fingers.
You turn around abruptly, grabbing her wrist. Faced with Wanda's shock widened eyes, you quirk your lip at her.
"Cute," you tell her, "but it won't work on me."
"And why is that?" Wanda asks accent heavy in her voice that sounds so familiar to you.
"To control--compel, me to what you want, your will has to be stronger than mine," you tell her, pulling her closer by her wrist to show that even as close as she was, she couldn't use her mind control on you. "So? Do you still think you can play your little mind games on me?"
Maybe you had tugged too hard, but now Wanda was too close. Her eyes staring into yours as if she was searching for something. Lips slightly parted, you could feel her breath on you.
"Why?" Wanda murmurs as she tilts her head slightly at you.
"Why what?" You return.
"Why do you stare at me like that?" Wanda gets closer.
You should pull away. Disarm her, and go secure Pietro to finish the mission.
But it feels like there's an electric pulse in the air that seems to keep you rooted.
"Stare at you like what?" You husk.
Wanda licks her lips, drawings your eyes. "Stare at me like you want to save me."
"You're helping a homicidal robotic manic who wants to destroy the world," you quirk your brow at her. "I think that warrants needing to be saved or at least some sense beaten into you."
"He will save the world by putting an end of the Avengers," Wanda hisses. She draws forth the red wisps again in her other hand, holding it close to you. "Perhaps I can't 'play my little mind games' with you. But power is power."
Immediately, you feel Wanda's power surround your body before she uses it to force you through the window. You find yourself staring at the sky, blinking as you fall.
You swiftly turn around, positioning yourself upright as you land on the ground, creating a good-sized crater. There's a momentary crack in your ankles from the pressure and height you fell from, but as quick as it happens, it heals.
You look up, shards of glass falling around you, and you sigh.
It seems your suspicions were correct, that Wanda's powers were genuine. The feel of it was too raw and similar to Tatyana's.
And that made things complicated.
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"Hey, hey, look at me," you coo as you hold Natasha's face in your hands, turning her to look at you. Her eyes are unfocused, and honestly, it's a little challenging to get her to actually look at you.
You had arrived shortly back into the facility after hearing Clint saying they needed to move. Clint had been trying to shake Natasha out of it, but it wasn't working, and so you stepped in.
"I have no place in the world," Natasha mutters.
You had a pretty good guess about what she was seeing, and so did Clint.
"How do we get her out? Do we just have to wait?" Clint asked you.
"No," you say, stroking Natasha's cheek, tilting her face up as you look down into her eyes. "We overpower it."
Your pupils explode into liquid pools, swirling as you forced Natasha's to do the same. It would take a little longer, with Natasha not even being lucid.
"Look at me," you tell her softly. Natasha blinks. "Wherever you are, it's not real."
You start to see flickers of speckles in Natasha's eyes and lick your lips.
"Come back to me," you compel her softly but with a slight bite in your tone. "You have a place in the world. Here, as an Avengers, with Clint and everyone else." The fog is clearing from Natasha's mind, your eyes responding more to yours and your words.
"With me," you faintly say.
"Come back."
Life comes back to Natasha, her eyes no longer dull as she comes face to face with you. She's got a massive headache and slight nausea.
Natasha swallows as you still hold her face in your hands. She wants to say something, but Tony interrupts.
"Guys, I could really use some help. Maybe try the lullaby again?"
You look at Natasha, but she's in no shape to try to go against the Hulk.
"The rest of the team is down," Clint responds.
You look around to see David trying to get Steve out of his hallucination.
"David will handle things here. Get everyone back onto the jet. The twins and Ultron are probably long gone by now. I'm going to help Tony."
You look once more at Natasha, who lifts the corner of her mouth.
"Be careful," she tells you.
"Aren't I always?" Giving her a wink, you take off in a blur.
"Coordinates, Stark," you say into your earpiece.
"Getting my ass beat right now!" Tony groans.
"Coordinates, Stark, not status. I already know you're getting your ass beat," you smirk.
"Don't be a dick," he mutters, but you're unsure if that was to you or Banner. He tells you where to meet him, but it gets easier to figure out as you get closer, and you can hear glass and building being shattered, and Banner's roars along with civilian screams.
You pick up speed, reaching there as you stand a few feet away, and Tony spots you.
"What's the plan?" Tony asks.
"Get him away from the city. Damage's been done, but we should try to stop him from doing any more," you see Tony struggling to hold him down. His suit is bulked up, and you're sure he prepared this specifically for Banner.
"Where do we bring him?" Tony's punching Banner in the face, trying to get him to 'go to sleep.'
"Few miles from the Quinjet. There should be some open space."
"Alright," Tony says, having no other choice but to trust you.
He gets VERONICA to send in a new Hulkbuster arm, using it to suction in the Hulk's arm as they take to the skies. You start to run in the same direction they're going.
"Alright, what do we do after we get him in the area?" Tony's overworking the jets in his feet while the Hulk struggles to get the upper hand in the air.
"Can you trap him in his spot?"
"I have one extra set electric bars, but he dug a hole in the ground to escape it."
"Just set them in the ground, wide berth and electrodes on."
You enter into a clearing, and Tony drops Banner, breaking the ground as he lands.
Immediately, giant plates dig into the earth, surrounding Banner as he gets electrified. He screams, arching his back before he turns and snarls at you.
"You gonna try this compulsion thing?" Tony asks through his mask.
"Try being a keyword," you mutter, "I have a feeling he's not going to be receptive towards it."
"Is anyone receptive towards compulsion, really?" Tony grumbles.
"Yeah," you smirk, "humans."
You walk around the perimeter of the plates, and the Hulk turns his body as his eyes follow you.
"You're angry," you acknowledge. "She made you angry."
The Hulk only roars and glares at you, the surrounding area of his eyes were red.
You lock eyes, pupils expanding as you try to reel him in.
"But look around you, think if there's anything right now to be angry about," you say to him. His head moves side to side, but you can tell the Hulk is fighting it. "Are you really angry, or did she just tell you you're angry? Who are you outraged at? The civilians who've done nothing to you? Tony? Me?"
You kept circling, keeping your eyes locked on his.
"Yourself?" You asked, and when the Hulk lets out an enraged yowl, you know you've hit the spot.
"You need to calm down," you lick your lips. "Before you do something that will really make you angry with yourself."
The Hulk is huffing and puffing as he continues to stare at you, and you try to expand the compulsion stronger.
For a second, you think it's working. The Hulk is shaking his head, stumbling backward.
But as quick as that happens, suddenly he punches himself in the face, knocking himself out of your control before he lets out another bellowing scream.
He starts running even as the plates send out electric shocks, bombarding through one of them as it breaks.
"He's too ravaged for me to even try to influence him to calm down," you tell Tony quickly as you take off towards the Hulk.
"I think I got that," Tony has to move out of the way before the Hulk steamrolls him.
"New plan," you say, running towards Tony.
"What are you--" he starts to say, but you cut him off.
"Throw me onto his back!" You leap, forcing Tony to catch you as he spins around once before whipping you in the direction the Hulk took off in.
The speed propelled you straight towards him, he didn't even see it coming as he was approaching the Quinjet. Everyone had come outside, hearing his thundering footsteps as he ran in their direction.
You latched onto his back, wrapping your tiny arms the best you could around his neck with crushing force, almost enough to snap his windpipe.
He chokes, feet digging into the ground as he abruptly stopped. His hand comes up to your arm, and you only have a second before he forces you to release him via breaking your arm.
You open your mouth, teeth sharp as venom pooled to them before you dug it into his neck.
He was grumbling at you before, but he was definitely screaming at you now.
The sound of agonizing wails leaves his mouth as he falls to his knees. You let go of his neck.
Falling forward, the Hulk writhes in pain, and you could see the venom traveling in his veins as they turned a dark green on his skin. He was crawling as he groaned.
Soon, the venom overtook his system to the point Banner began to change back to a man. He lay there, moaning in pain as Tony came forward along with Clint, who threw a blanket over him.
"What did you do?" Tony asked, and David came out, blurring over to carry Bruce into the Quinjet.
"Forced him to change back," you mutter as you also got onto the Quinjet.
⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⋆⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷
David put Banner on a makeshift bed while Clint flew the Quinjet out of the area.
Bruce was thrusting off the table as he still writhed in pain while everyone else stood around.
"What's happening to him?" Steve asked. He was covered in dirt and grime, and he looked a little defeated.
"The venom is breaking his cells down," you say, eyes drifting to David, who nods, restraining Bruce down.
You could hear more questions being fired, but you didn't answer. You threw the blanket off of Bruce, and everyone could see his veins, dark and poisoned-looking.
Leaning over, you began to bite him various places until the discoloration in his veins began to disappear. The seizing slowed down in Bruce as he came to a restful stop, but beads of sweat ran down his forehead. He was still breathing heavily, and his eyes remained closed.
"He's going to have to sleep that off," you spitting out blood into a nearby bucket, and wiping your mouth. David hands you a bottle of water, which you use to rinse your mouth, spitting it out until your mouth was clear.
Natasha comes up to check on you, putting her hand on your back softly as you try to give her a smile that ends up being more of a grimace.
"What was that?" Tony asked as he inspected his friend.
"I told you," you say as Natasha gives you some gum. "Venom can be used in three ways. That was one of them."
"But what does it do," Tony emphasized.
The mint flavor spread throughout your mouth, and you were thankful for a change in taste. Lately, it's been getting harder to control your thirst.
"When venom is used to harm, it attacks the cells in your body. Specifically, it makes them explode. It's painful as it travels through your veins because it's basically shredding everything in its path as it moves. The more venom you inject, the faster the deterioration goes," you say.
"Why did you bite him again?" Steve asks.
"There's only one way to reverse it," you peer over to Bruce's sleeping form. "Only the venom of the vampire who inflicted it can undo it. I injected the healing venom to counteract it. He'll be fine, maybe just a couple scars, and feeling sore for a few days."
"We need to lay low while we can," David interrupts as he looks at his tablet.
"That's a great idea," you hear Maria chime in through the intercoms. "The new is loving you guys. No one else is. There's no official arrest warrant for Banner, but it's up in the air."
"Stark Relief Foundation?" Tony asks.
"Already on scene. How's everyone?" She replies.
"We took a hit, they're shaking it off right now," you mutter.
"Well, stay in stealth mode for now, and don't come back here," Maria warned, knowing it would be ugly.
"So, run and hide?" Tony seems displeased.
"Until we find Ultron, there are not many options on the table," Maria sighed, disconnecting after that.
Tony goes over to Clint, slapping his hand on Clint's shoulder. "Need to switch out?"
Clint shakes his head, "Nah, I'm good. If you wanna get some kip, now would be the time, we're still a couple hours out."
You look over to Clint, noticing the dark bags under his eyes, and for the first time, you see how tired he must be.
"A couple hours from where?" Tony asks.
"A safe house," Clint answers, looking at you and David, and you know immediately where he's taking you.
You turn to Natasha, and it seems she knows as well.
Taking the time to sit near the back, you hold your girlfriend in your arms, stroking the side of her arms. Natasha's worn, you can tell by the paleness in her skin, and she's upset.
You sit in silence for a good chunk of the time. As much as you hate it, the image of Wanda doesn't leave your mind. There was something that brewed deep within you, and you felt haunted.
It isn't until Natasha decides to speak and breaks your thoughts.
"I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't gotten me out of that hallucination," Natasha says quietly to avoid drawing the attention of the others, but now used with David unintentionally being able to listen.
"I wish I could've been there sooner," you say at the same level of quietness, but Natasha shakes her head.
"Sometimes," she starts, licking her dry lips, "it's so easy to live every day like that part of my life didn't happen. Even though it's my sole reason to do the things I do. I want to clear my ledger, but it's..."
"It's complicated," you finish for her when she drags.
It's silent for a few minutes as the two of you rest, you lean your head on top of Natasha's, breathing slowly as you try to comfort her.
"I had never thought about wanting kids," Natasha starts quietly again, and you hum softly in the back of your throat to tell her you're listening.
"I'm not even really sure that I do or not, but then I get reminded that I can't either way."
You hold her bicep tighter, turning your head to press a kiss to her head.
"It's okay to mourn the loss of the choice," you murmur.
Natasha nudges herself closer to you, inhaling your scent as it eases her. The images don't quite go away. They linger in her mind, a wretched memory of everything she's endured.
"I suppose it's easier," Natasha mumbles. "It's one less thing to worry about, one less thing that would matter more than a mission. It makes everything easier, even killing."
"Don't do that," you admonish her gently. "While those things can be true, don't make yourself out to be a monster."
Natasha remains quiet, not the kind where she doesn't believe you, but the kind where she doesn't quite have the right words to say for once.
"You act like you don't already have things that would matter more than a mission, things that you don't worry about," you lift your other hand up, using your fingers to tilt her chin until she's facing you.
Your lips are so close, the warmth vibrating between the two of you.
"Because you already do, don't you?" You murmur. "Everyone on this ship is your family--I'm your family, just as you are mine."
PART X
#natasha romanoff x reader#Wanda maximoff x reader#natasha romanoff imagine#wanda maximoff imagine#wandanat x reader#natasha romanoff x you#wanda maximoff x you#black widow x reader#scarlet witch x reader#natasha x wanda#Natasha x reader x Wanda#avengers x reader#avengers imagine#avengers reader insert#marvel x reader#marvel reader insert#modern avengers au#mm: my fics#series: between the lines
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Chaos Walking Film Opinion Time!
Hiiiii.
I know I haven't been incredibly active on this account, what with college and the world falling apart, but I just wanted to check back in because I saw the movie! (No spoilers)
Alrighty so overall, I walked out of the theater happy about the humour of the movie and the dynamic between Todd and Viola, but I have to be honest and admit that I wasn't really satisfied with it as a representative of the books. Don't get me wrong - it was entertaining to watch, and definitely made me laugh and smile and all that good stuff. My issue just lies in the fact that it's not a good adaptation.
(Pls share your thoughts! I'd love to talk about the movie with anyone!)
Here's a few of my thoughts (possible spoilers for the film and later books):
- I overall felt as if the plot of the film was a fairly shallow representation of the depth that the book goes into. And I know! It's a movie, you're really limited time-wise, but I'll explain what I think didn't make sense.
- I didn't like that they set up the movie with a fatherly dynamic between Todd and the Mayor. I get that it is a quick device to show the whole brainwashed mindset he has regarding Prentisstown's history, but I feel like it's a blow to his character in a way. I think the relative innocence he has in the book really makes the reader empathize with him from the beginning, which I don't think reflected as well in the movie until Viola started putting the pieces together. Overall, it was just a weird choice, because Todd in no way sees Mayor Prentiss as a father figure in the books until MoM - and he's quite literally brainwashed into it.
- I overall liked Todd and Viola's friendship in the movie, I really enjoyed their scenes together, but the one thing that did irk me was the whole "oooh is viola gonna kiss me!?" thing they had going on in Todd's noise. Again, I know it's a movie and there was limited time, but I am just so fond of the way that book-Todd has literally zero romantic interest toward her for the entirety of book one. He cares for her so deeply without even thinking of her in that way, which I think was what made them such a great duo throughout the series, so overall if the filmmakers were looking to make this into a franchise I don't think that was the greatest call. A slow build - kinda like the Ron/Hermione relationship in the HP films - would've felt a lot more natural and less thrown-together.
- (Movie spoiler) The rushing of the plot to have the ending be the settler ship arriving was just so??? Unnecessary? I didn't understand that at all. Like again, if the studio's goal was to make a franchise, why implement book 3's arguably BIGGEST plot motivator in the movie? Almost the entirety of MoM is a race against the clock to get to the settler ship first, so that just completely tosses out that whole fantastic plotline for future use. I just don't get it? It felt like such a cop-out, like oh here! a big ship that will (spoiler again) conveniently arrive in time to give Todd life saving medical treatment! I'll say it again: inneffective in getting me to want to watch a sequel. Want me hanging on the edge of my seat and willing to pay for another movie ticket? End it the way Ness did, with one of the main characters injured, and their whole goal, the only shot at hope - Haven - destroyed because Mayor Prentiss already got there. It's just astounding, because there was SO much fantastic writing right there at their disposal! And I feel like rushing it was so unnecessary.
- (MAJOR MOVIE SPOILER WARNING) They KILLED OFF Mayor Prentiss???? Or at least it looks like they did. Did the movie makers not understand that he is literally the driving force of the entire book series and if not for him all the issues would most likely be resolvable in book 1? Once again, franchise-wise, this was a terrible call. Who could possibly replace him as the big-bad in future films?
- (spoilers) Now, because Mayor Prentiss was (seemingly) killed at the end, and because there was virtually no emphasis on the fact that Prentisstown needs Todd to kill in order to "complete their army" or whatever (the book plotline), Aaron's character is literally completely pointless in the context of the movie. He serves to scare Viola and kill Manchee, and that's it. He screams a couple lines about wanting her as a sacrifice, he terrorizes them, and she torches him at the end. Let me emphasize again, that the entire reason Viola killing Aaron was so pivotal in the books is because Todd didn't do it. So when the film fails to deliver the "Killing Makes You A Prentisstown Man" plotline, then they also fail to make Aaron's character mean anything. There is no symbolism that comes with his death. Experiment: say the movie replaced him in every scene with a random Prentisstown man that the Mayor sends to find Todd and Viola. Is the film changed at all? Nope. I rest my case.
- Brief point here. That being said ^^^ the film also fails to make Todd's attacking the Spackle be anything other than a wild action scene.
That's all I really have to say for now. I know I'm kind of being hypercritical, but I just feel like it would've been so easy to make the movie good if they had just stuck with the original plot. Lmk if you guys agree/disagree, or whatever your thoughts were after seeing it!
#chaos walking#todd hewitt#viola eade#patrick ness#the knife of never letting go#monsters of men#the ask and the answer#tom holland#chaos walking movie#manchee#daisy ridley#mayor prentiss#davy prentiss#davy prentiss jr#nick jonas#tiola#chaos walking spoilers#tom holland chaos walking#chaos walking books#chaos walking movie review
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Habanero
You're a good girl, well behaved.
Absolutely not the type to rail random guys in nightclubs.
Until you are.
Fandom: BNHA
Pairing: Polyamorous Erasermic x Reader
Rating: Explicit, MINORS BE GONE
Trigger Warnings: None in this chapter.
AO3: Here | Want to support me? I have a Kofi
Chapter: 15/16 (all chapters)
UA’s press conference aired two days after the incident, a deceptively simple move in the grander scheme of things. Their status as a household name and initial hesitation to comment on the incident had captivated the country. By the time the conference began, everyone had grown morbidly curious. Reporters chomped at the bit for answers; the general public watched with bated breath.
Hizashi glowered into his beer at the izakaya, stomach churning as the other patrons watched in suspense.
Nemuri sat down in front of her TV, ready to bury her face in the pillow she held to her chest.
Shigaraki and the League of Villains watched with expressions of glee, glancing across at Bakugo every so often in the hopes of catching the exact moment he lost faith in hero society.
Jirou, Hagakure and the other students yet to recover from the forest attack watched from their hospital beds.
Midoriya, Kirishima, Yaoyorozu, Iida and Todoroki watched from Kamino ward, hands trembling at the grim reminder that they shouldn’t have been there.
Your mother watched from the couch in your childhood home, alternating between sewing and shooting disapproving glances at the television, all while your father bellowed into his cell phone, demanding to know the name of the person that had allowed Moonfish to escape. In an oddly fortuitous turn of events, UA had escaped his ire. He had been personally involved in Moonfish’s conviction and took your injuries as a slight on his honour. It had never occurred to him to blame UA.
The world watched as Aizawa, Nezu and Vlad stepped out onto center stage, a fact that was not at all lost on them. Vlad gave his tie a forceful tug before stepping out into public view. Shouta took a deep breath and followed.
He had taken a crash course in interview techniques the night before, though if anything Hizashi’s coaching methods made him even more nervous. Hizashi was used to taking interviews, a consequence of years as a public entertainer. Eraserhead was rarely seen in public, much less interviewed by the press.
As Shouta, Vlad and Nezu bowed in apology, your eyelids twitched. You opened one eye by a sliver and then the other, taking in the darkness around you. You were still woozy from surgery and multiple rounds of treatment from Recovery Girl, every inch of your body feeling like lead. You didn’t remember who you were, much less where you were, and your initial inspection of your surroundings gleaned little in the way of answers.
The last thing you saw before closing your eyes again, overwhelmed by exhaustion, was the punnet of peaches at the foot of your bed- a flash of colour in the otherwise monochromatic room.
You slept for two days after that, fingers and eyelids occasionally twitching. The doctors were hopeful that you would wake up soon, though the news of any potential recovery on your part was swiftly drowned out by the chaos in Kamino ward.
The age of All Might was over and all of hero society needed to adapt. UA needed a plan now more than ever.
You were moved to Musutafu’s city hospital three days after the incident, Recovery Girl insisting that you were well enough to make the trip and it would be more convenient to have you closer to home. You slept through most of this process, briefly opening your eyes and staring at the strip lights above your head as they wheeled you through the hospital corridors.
You woke up fully coherent the following morning, eyes burning as they opened. Your body didn’t feel as heavy as it had before, but it ached instead, as stiff and sore as if you had run a marathon at full speed.
You sat up and immediately regretted it, for your side throbbed and left you flinching. You stroked a hand over the spot, remembering the last few moments before you had lost consciousness. You remembered the blade cutting through you; remembered the tightness in your body and stench of blood. When you lifted your pyjama shirt, though, there was no wound, only a ghostly patch of raised skin.
You wondered how long you had been asleep and scanned the room for any sort of hint, heart fluttering at the realisation that you weren’t alone. Someone was sitting in the chair next to your bed, face obscured from view by a textbook and snoring softly.
From the clothes and book title, you were able to make an educated guess who lay beneath. You only knew one person who taught English grammar.
“Hizashi,” you murmured, reaching out to touch his arm. “Hizashi.”
You tapped his elbow and he shifted in place, perhaps thinking your touches were part of his dream.
“Hey...Hizashi.”
“Hmmm?”
You eased the textbook off his face and put it down on the bed, watching as he began to stir.
“You’ll get a crick in your neck if you sleep like that,” you said, poking his arm.
“Sorry, (Name),” he said sleepily, taking off his glasses and rubbing his face, only to freeze in place and realise what he’d said.
He jerked up straight and shoved on his glasses, hands trembling so much that it took several attempts to actually get them on, much less see you properly.
“You’re real, right? I’m not dreaming,” he said, sitting down on the bed next to you and throwing both arms around your shoulders, resting his chin on your head.
“If it is a dream, it’s pretty meta,” you said, reaching up to touch the arm closest to your collarbone and looking up into his face, gaining a faceful of scratchy, tearful kisses in response.
You remembered dialling Hizashi’s voicemail; the way you had cursed every time you reached his automated message.
You had resigned yourself to never seeing him again, but there he was, holding onto you and kissing your cheeks. You closed your eyes, absorbing his warm body and familiar scent, tears running down your own face before you realised what was happening.
“Hey, (Name),” he said, loosening his grip on you and stroking his fingers through your hair, “are you okay? Does it hurt?”
“I’m just so happy,” you sniffled, “I didn’t think I’d see you again.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t answer,” he said, planting a kiss to the top of your head.
You sat in silence for a while, overwhelmed with emotion and enjoying the moment. You rested your head against Hizashi’s chest, afraid that he’d disappear into smoke if you let go.
Unfortunately, the more you relaxed and focussed on his heartbeat, the more memories of that night came flooding back. You remembered stumbling through the woods, remembered why you had dialled his number in the first place.
You couldn’t breathe, your heart raced, memories of USJ creatures and men with patchwork faces dominating your every thought.
You knew you were having a panic attack; you knew dozens of techniques to get through them. Even so, it had been such a long time since you had had one and it crept up on you with so little warning that you were powerless to do anything. All you could do was grip onto Hizashi for dear life, hands growing sweaty and chest rattling with shallow breaths.
Hizashi picked up on your struggle relatively quickly and stroked a hand over your back, gently prising you off him and slipping one of his bracelets off his wrist.
“Here we go,” he said, slipping it onto yours, “slow and steady, focus on my voice.”
You reached for the bracelet and snapped the elastic against your exposed skin, relishing the sharp shock that rippled through your body and eased you back to earth.
“Just like that,” said Hizashi, stroking your hair, “nice and easy.”
You took a deep breath and rubbed your temples, head clearing and tension slowly leaving your body.
“How long have I been out?”
“About a week.”
“A week ?”
From the heaviness of your body and severity of your wounds, you assumed it had been much, much longer.
“Did you get my message? The address? What-“
“One thing at a time, princess,” he laughed. “A lot happened while you were asleep.”
“Really?”
“Well, for a start, UA’s reputation has taken a nosedive. Almost all of the students at the camp were injured-“ he reached for your shoulders as you flinched at the news, “-they’re fine, don’t worry!”
“Ragdoll,” you whispered, remembering the way she had told you to run, “is she-“
Get out of here, (Name). Tell the others!
Hizashi’s grave expression was all you needed to know. You clapped a hand over your mouth, shoulders shaking with silent sobs.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” you whispered, Hizashi letting go of your shoulders and holding you to his chest. “It wasn’t…”
“I know, sweetie, I know. We don’t have to talk about it anymore.”
“No, I need to know,” you said, wiping your eyes. “Is she dead?”
You needed closure.
“No,” said Hizashi, “she and Bakugo were taken away by the League of Villains. Ragdoll lost her quirk, but Bakugo was rescued in time…in part because someone led us straight to their front door.”
“Poor Ragdoll,” you sniffed. “And Bakugo? Is he…”
“He’s going to be fine,” said Hizashi. “The League wanted to recruit him, but no such luck.”
You knew from conversations with Shouta exactly how volatile he could be. It was naive to think villains wouldn’t have noticed it too.
“Wait,” you said, “Shouta...”
Had he been caught up in the villain attack? Was he okay? You remembered dialling his number too.
Hizashi frowned, which only added fuel to the fire.
“Hiz...Hizashi? I-“
You willed him to tell you Shouta was fine, that he hadn’t thrown himself into danger. You knew him too well to believe that, though. You remembered how angry you had been with him after the events of USJ; how quickly he had thrown himself into the line of fire to protect his students.
Your throat tightened and you snapped the bracelet against the inside of your wrist.
“He’s fine,” said Hizashi. “Came out of it with nothin’ but bruises. Thing is, though…because of everything that’s happened in the last few months...a lot of people have lost faith in UA. We’ve grown negligent, taken peace for granted…”
“What are you saying?”
“Something happened the night they rescued Bakugo,” he said. “All Might’s power. It’s gone.”
“ Gone ?”
“I don’t know all of the details,” he said, “only that he can’t use his quirk to fight anymore. He’s going to retire soon. Without him, though…”
You shuddered, knowing exactly where this was going. All Might had maintained Japan’s low crime rate for decades. His departure from the hero ranks would almost certainly create a power vacuum on both sides.
“What does that have to do with Shouta?”
“Well, as I said, UA’s reputation has well and truly tanked,” said Hizashi. “Sho, Nezu, Vlad and All Might are going to visit the students today...try and persuade their parents to let them come back.”
You tried to absorb the news, habitually snapping the bracelet on your wrist to keep you grounded.
“Is he...okay?”
Shouta would blame himself for this. You knew that much without having to ask and Hizashi chuckled under his breath.
“As good as anyone can be when their lady’s in the ICU.”
Your heart skipped a beat at that. You remembered plotting with the Pussycats, the strategy they had put in place so the two of you could talk alone.
You’d never mentioned your feelings for Shouta to Hizashi. You’d never told him the pair of you had slept together. Before leaving for summer camp, you didn’t think you had never given him any reason to suspect you might have been Shouta’s ‘lady’.
Of course, the more you thought about it, the more obvious it seemed. You remembered calling him ‘Shouta’ in conversation without realising; remembered probing Hizashi for his address. Hizashi wasn’t an idiot and knew Shouta better than you ever would. It was naive to think he wouldn’t have noticed something was off about the two of you.
“You knew about that, huh?”
“You kiddin’? I don’t get how anyone could meet you and not fall in love with you.”
His words were so sincere that you giggled.
“I’m serious,” he said. “Did you know you have your own background music? What’s it like having cherubs sing behind you every time you take a step?”
“Stop it,” you said, face flushing red, “you’re making me blush!!”
“Good,” he said, kissing your forehead.
“Say, Hizashi.”
“Mm?”
“Don’t call me Shouta’s lady like I can’t be yours as well.”
There was no point dancing around the point now. You were well past the stage of breaking it to him gently.
For a second, you wondered if you’d made a mistake. He sat incredibly still, breath warm against your forehead. Slowly, he lowered his face, touching his forehead to yours as he caught your lips.
“Hizashi,” you murmured into his open mouth as he broke the contact.
“Sssh,” he said, cupping your face and moving in to kiss you again, “the cherubs brought out tiny violins.”
“You’re such a dork.”
“Adds to the appeal, don’t ya think?”
You looped your arms around his neck to draw him in deeper and lowered yourself down onto the bed. He crushed his lips against yours, every kiss sending ripples through your core.
It felt so good that you forgot you were in a hospital and why you were there. In that moment there was only you, Hizashi and months of lost time.
Hizashi slipped a hand under your pyjama shirt, lifting the fabric higher to expose your scar. He broke away from you and sat up a little to get a good look at it, pouting as you instantly dragged your shirt back down.
“I guess my two piece days are over,” you said, blushing bright red in an attempt to deflect your embarrassment.
You had exactly two scars on your entire body and both were from Moonfish, each as ugly as the other. Hizashi linked his fingers through yours and guided your hand away from your shirt.
“I was just thinking,” he said, exposing your scar, “it makes me kinda nostalgic.”
“Nostalgic? For w-“
You caught his meaning too late, remembering the night you’d slept together. You remembered the moment he dragged off the condom and came across your middle, covering you in spots as ghostly white as the raised skin.
“I can’t believe you just said that,” you squeaked, hiding your face in your hands.
“Am I wrong?”
He prised your hands away from your face, grinning widely. He wasn’t wrong and you couldn’t bring yourself to look at him.
“(Name), look at me.”
Against your better judgement, you looked up at him, only for him to lean over and steal a kiss.
“Am I wrong?” he murmured, face inches from yours.
You looked up into his face, slipping a hand out of his and tucking a stray lock of hair behind his ear.
“No.”
You looked into each other’s faces for a while, enjoying the warmth and one another’s presence. You had had so much to say, but the events at the lodge had given you a new perspective. It didn’t matter to you anymore if you said it out loud. Actions spoke far louder than an awkwardly planned confession ever would.
“Let’s get out of here,” you said at last.
“You sure?” said Hizashi, nuzzling his face against your hand. “You were really badly hurt, ya know? Couldn’t hurt to rest for a little longer.”
“No,” you said, motioning for him to get up. “I have work to do.”
You had been gone for a week and the world had fallen apart. The children needed you; your colleagues needed you. They were the future of hero society and had already suffered enough. You couldn’t fix the world or undo the night at the lodge, but at the very least you could give them pats to the head and a sympathetic ear.
~~~~~~
It took a lot of coaxing for the doctors to let you discharge yourself. They insisted that you still needed rest, to which you argued you needed fresh air. You pouted your way through their examinations and tests, insisting you had rested enough. Your wounds weren’t open anymore and you hadn’t been on a ventilator since arriving in Musutafu. You were wobbly on your feet, but you weren’t in danger and you weren’t alone.
“Be careful,” your doctor sighed as you handed over your discharge papers, “your injuries were severe and it’s important you don’t push yourself too much.”
“I’ll be okay,” you said, knowing that he couldn’t stop you even if he wanted to.
“Don’t worry, doc,” said Hizashi, lifting you up into his arms like a newly wedded wife. “I’ve got Recovery Girl on speed dial.”
You giggled as he carried you out of the hospital and into the car park, holding you gently so as not to aggravate your injured side.
“Do you really have Recovery Girl on speed dial?”
“Of course I do,” he said in mock offense, “though I called her so many times this week that I’m pretty sure she blocked me.”
“Wow, should I be jealous?”
Hizashi laughed, stopping in place to kiss you on the lips.
“ Are you jealous?”
“Just surprised,” you said. “I didn’t have Recovery Girl pegged as a cougar.”
The pair of you sniggered as you crossed the car park, arriving at a flashy car that could only belong to Hizashi. He set you down on your feet as he reached for his keys and opened the doors, easing you into the passenger side front seat as if you were made of glass.
“Comfortable?” he asked as he fastened his own seatbelt. “I have some cushions in the back if you want one.”
“You sleep there often?”
“Only when I’ve got company!”
The ride home was a short one, though you made sure to absorb every detail; the soft synthwave music playing through the car radio; the city’s afternoon glow; Hizashi’s hand slipping into yours whenever you hit traffic.
Hizashi pulled up outside of your house and went on ahead to unlock your front door before helping you inside. You lingered in the doorway, Hizashi a couple of steps behind you.
“You good, little listener?”
“Yeah,” you said, taking a deep breath before crossing the threshold, “it’s just been a while, that’s all.”
Your home was exactly the same as when you’d left it, which shouldn’t have surprised you, yet did all the same. You hadn’t been there for so long that it smelled foreign. You normally didn’t smell the pot pourri or candles you had used to decorate the place, but suddenly they overpowered your senses.
You had left in a hurry, without much time to tidy up. Your breakfast dishes from that morning were still drying on the rack; your pyjamas lay abandoned in the laundry basket. You had left your laptop on the kitchen table, a pamphlet for Yamanashi next to it.
It was like a perfectly preserved time capsule and Hizashi wrapped an arm around your shoulder at your hesitation.
“We can go to my place if you’d like,” he said gently, “if it’s easier.”
“No,” you said, snapping the bracelet against your wrist and taking a few shaky steps towards the couch. “It’s fine.”
You sank down onto your couch, rummaging through your purse as Hizashi pottered around in the kitchen. At some point someone had switched off your phone and you turned it over in your hands, all too aware of how spotlessly clean it was. Someone had scrubbed away the bloody fingerprints, perhaps the same someone who had painted your nails. You spread out your fingers as you powered on your phone, taking note of how carefully it had been done.
Your phone came on at 13% battery, immediately bursting to life with messages, missed calls and voicemails.
You recalled the USJ incident, how overwhelmed you had felt back then when you had been in no danger at all and out of contact for only a few hours. This time you had a week’s worth of notifications to sort through. The groupchat you shared with your girlfriends had exploded; you had voicemails and missed calls from your brother, as well as a few from your mom. You had missed calls from Hizashi and Nemuri, though one name cropped up more than any other. Shouta seemed to have called you multiple times a day every day since the incident.
“Hey,” said Hizashi, sitting down next to you with a cup of steaming tea, “enough of that.”
He prised the phone out of your grip and set it down on the coffee table, slipping the tea into your hands instead.
“Thank you,” you mumbled, though for the tea or the intervention you weren’t quite sure.
~~~~
Several hours later, you sipped ice water at the izakaya, Hizashi peering out from your booth to the doors.
As a morale boost, he had invited the other teachers to the izakaya for drinks that evening. If the students refused to come back, they could drink away their woes. If they agreed, they could raise a toast to the new school year.
He hadn’t expected you to be awake, much less eager to join them, but you had looked so desperately lonely that he couldn’t refuse. What’s more, he didn’t want to leave you on your own. He never wanted to ever again.
You had gotten there early, long before any of the regulars, much less other teachers. Despite being the one to suggest getting wasted in the first place, Hizashi stuck to soda, not quite so desperate to let loose that he was willing to drive you home drunk.
He stole glances at you every so often, watching for any shiver or grimace of pain. It had seemed like a good idea to steal you away from the hospital at the time. Perhaps it was selfishness on his part, but he wanted to relive the moment of joy when you spoke his name. He could think of no better way to do so than by reuniting you with the other teachers, who needed the excitement now more than ever.
Now, though, he wondered if he’d done the right thing.
After you had finished up your tea, he’d sent you away for a nap. You had been reluctant to go, but he’d insisted, claiming you needed your strength for the partying that night. You’d pouted as he tucked you in, only to fall asleep again in minutes.
For the past few days, Hizashi and Nemuri had taken turns visiting your hospital bed. They both had lesson planning to do, though nothing they couldn’t do remotely. Shouta had visited a few times as well, though lesson planning and dealing with the fallout of Bakugo’s rescue took up almost all of his time.
Hizashi had continued to plot out his schedule while you slept, getting up every so often to poke his head through your bedroom door.
Even now he watched you like a hawk. He knew your movements were slower than usual, that your injured side burned with pain if you stretched too far. He had helped you bathe and dress ahead of the night at the izakaya, only too happy to rinse the smell of the hospital from your hair under the guise of being a pervert.
It was a useful facade, for whenever you caught him glancing in your direction, all he had to do was slip a hand onto your thigh and tell you you were pretty to deflect how concerned he still was and likely would be for the rest of your lives.
Nemuri was the first to arrive, massaging her shoulders as she stood at the bar. She glanced around the room to see who else had arrived and waved at Hizashi, unable to see you because of the angle of the booth.
She cursed as she arrived at the table, beers under her arm as well as a portion of garlic fries.
“Wake me up when the-” she grumbled as she arrived at the booth, freezing in place when she saw you sitting there.
“Hi,” you said, to which she let out a shriek of joy and threw herself into the seat beside you.
“It’s you!” she cried out, trapping you in a tight hug that she swiftly reconsidered. “It’s really you!”
“Yep,” you said as she pressed your head against her chest and carded her fingers through your hair, “it’s really me.”
“How did you... when did you?!”
She glanced from you to Hizashi, suspicion and joy playing out across her face. You had been fast asleep the last time she visited you, fingers occasionally twitching.
“This morning,” said Hizashi, leaning back against the walls of the booth and sipping his soda.
He’d considered texting her with the news, but you had been sleeping at the time and he knew she’d come right over. He’d considered texting Shouta too but decided against it. It would come across as incredibly unprofessional if a text came through while he was speaking to a concerned parent, after all. In the end, for better or worse, selfish or otherwise, he’d left it as a surprise.
“I can’t believe you’re really here,” she said, tears rolling down her face. “Pinch me.”
You pinched her arm and she cupped your face, swiftly squishing you against her again.
“I’m coming to stay with you for the next few days,” she said, “we can watch movies, I can do the cooking-”
“Nemuri, she just got out of the hospital.”
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that,” she said, glowering at Hizashi and stroking your hair. “(Name), just ignore him. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
Hizashi protested the point, though you barely paid attention, catching only the occasional word here and there. Nemuri combed her fingers through your hair, defending both her honour and cooking skills.
“Honestly,” she said at last, reaching up to touch her own cheek. “I should go and fix my makeup. (Name), you come too!”
Neither you nor Hizashi commented on the fact that her makeup was fine and you weren’t wearing any.
~~~~
“It was you, wasn’t it?”
Nemuri paused, eyeliner pen in hand.
“Whatever do you mean?”
She had lifted you up onto the counter to get a better angle, silently painting away the dark circles under your eyes and returning the colour to your cheeks.
You spread out your fingers, flashing your scarlet fingernails.
“Guilty as charged,” she said. “It was the least I could do, considering…”
You remembered the last conversation you had had with her, right before you had rushed out of the door to meet Shouta and take on her duties as chaperone. She had sounded so upset over the phone; you had gone without a second thought.
“You couldn’t have known what would happen,” you said, tilting your head as she applied the eyeliner. “No one could have.”
“(Name),” she said, swallowing loudly, “the truth is...there was never anything wrong with me. I sent you there because...Hizashi and I wanted you and Aizawa to talk.”
“Huh?”
You had wanted to get Shouta alone, of course, but hadn’t thought of the trip to the lodge as anything more than a lucky break.
Not for the first time that day, you realised exactly how naive you had been. How many conflicts had passed by without your notice? How many sacrifices?
Shouta had pushed you towards Hizashi, Hizashi had pushed you towards Shouta. Both wanted the other to be happy, both wanted the best for all involved.
You laughed, you couldn’t help it. Every moment of hesitation; every second thought; it had always been part of something much bigger. You had always been part of a far more intricate sequence of events and now it was unravelling before your eyes.
You laughed so hard that your eyes blurred with tears, Nemuri joining in soon after.
“I’m such an idiot,” you said. “We’re all such idiots.”
Nemuri laughed with you, doubling over and smudging your makeup in the process.
“It’s really been that simple the whole time,” you spluttered, “ all this time .”
You laughed until your side hurt and you sucked in a deep breath, touching your hand to the spot as Nemuri ran a makeup wipe over your smudged eyeliner.
“Did you?”
“Did I what?”
“Speak to Aizawa at the lodge.”
“Oh,” you said. “No. The attack happened before…”
Nemuri tossed aside the wipe and folded her arms with a smirk.
“Seems to me that you three have a lot to talk about,” she said, glancing from you to the makeup bag. “I need to rethink this...I need to rethink all of this .”
She reached for different eyeshadows and fresh brushes, ready to paint you in different colours.
“You listen to me, kitten,” she said, reaching for lipstick, “if they mess around with you like this again…” she ran her thumb over your bottom lip, “you come to me.”
Her thumb was warm against your lip, gentle enough to tickle but hard enough to bring heat to your cheeks.
Was she...
Surely she wasn’t...
Surely she didn't…
Your eyes darted from her slender fingers to the bright red polish coating her nails; the same shade she had used to paint your own. She smelled intoxicatingly sweet, like the fancy soap stores you often passed in Roppongi, the ones that left their doors wide open to lure in passers by with exotic fragrances.
Right then you felt just as curious; imagination wandering to paths never taken and decisions never made. A different lover in a different bathroom...maybe even this one.
“O-okay.”
~~~~~
Night had fallen by the time Shouta arrived at the izakaya, loosening off his tie with a grunt. He hadn’t bothered to hide the fact that he didn’t want to go. He could think of a dozen or more things he’d rather be doing. He had lesson planning to do, streets to patrol and that was without mention of stopping by the hospital. Your transfer to Musutafu made things a lot more convenient in theory, though his schedule had been so unforgiving that he still hadn’t been able to visit as much as he wanted to.
He walked towards the bar, ready to order something fruity and deceptively strong. For a moment at least, he wanted to distract himself from the chaos of the past few weeks.
“Sho,” said Hizashi, stepping out from a booth and draping an arm across his shoulders. “You made it!”
“Looks that way,” he said, eyes immediately darting around the room.
It had been a few days since they’d slept together and, in truth, he was still waiting for it to feel wrong. Hizashi had never been a stranger to putting an arm around his shoulders or reaching for his arm, but there was something different about his touches now. Shouta half expected everyone in the izakaya to stop what they were doing and stare in disgust, yet they carried on as if nothing had happened. Snipe and Nemuri faced off against each other on one of the arcade machines while Cementoss and Vlad played pool. Thirteen was sitting in a nearby booth with Ectoplasm, engrossed in a game of poker. All Might and Nezu discussed the day’s events, drinks long forgotten.
Shouta wasn’t used to public displays of affection. He wasn’t used to dating or letting down his guard. He had brushed off any of Hizashi’s attempts to hold hands, had been deliberately non-committal in arranging dates, and all because it felt like a betrayal. He wasn’t ashamed of being with another man, didn’t care that said man happened to be Hizashi. He did, however, care a good deal about doing either of those things without your blessing.
He didn’t want to commit to another person without hearing what it was you’d had to say that day at the lodge. He had told himself that you were better off not knowing how far you had gotten under his skin, but he didn’t believe himself anymore. He wanted the first thing you heard from him to be a prayer: a prayer that you wouldn’t leave him again; a prayer that you would forgive him for every time he had pushed you away and been upset when you didn’t follow.
Hizashi, who not only knew him better than he knew himself but had found himself in a similar predicament, didn’t push. Shouta told himself he would thank him for it when all of this was over.
“Listen,” said Hizashi, expression grave as he flagged down the bartender, “don’t freak out, okay?”
“Freak out? About what?”
“Hmmm...well…”
“You can’t just tell me not to freak out without context.”
“Uhhhh...well...the thing is…(Name) woke up earlier on today.”
Shouta’s eyes widened. He was glad he hadn’t yet ordered a drink, for he was certain it would have shattered on the floor.
“I have to go,” he said without a moment’s hesitation. “I need to-”
He moved to leave, only to look back in surprise as Hizashi took hold of his arm.
“What are you doing? Let me go.”
Before this, Hizashi had encouraged him to go and see you. Why was he stopping him now?
“She discharged herself,” he said. “You won’t find her there.”
“She what ,” said Shouta, pulling his arm away. “That idiot , what was she thinking?”
“Wait,” said Hizashi, grabbing his arm again, “where are you going now?”
“Where do you think? I’m going to her house,” he said. “What if she tries to cook something and passes out by the oven? What if she tries to take a bath and dr-”
“Sho,” said Hizashi, looking more than a little bit offended, “you won’t find her there either.”
Shouta blinked, contemplating where else you might have gone. Had you gone to your parents’ house? No, he knew for a fact that it was unlikely. He paid close attention to just about everything you said and you hadn’t exactly made a secret of how little contact you had with your immediate family.
Had Hizashi set you up at his place? Had Nemuri taken you to hers?
Where were you?
He needed to talk to you, needed to wipe the last memory of you from his imagination. He didn’t want to speak your name and immediately think of you pinned to a tree. He didn’t want to remember your voice as a croak of despair.
Hizashi chewed at his bottom lip and Shouta’s imagination ran wild.
Was this his weird way of telling him you’d died?
“She’s over there,” said Hizashi at last, nodding his head towards All Might’s booth.
Shouta’s blood ran cold.
No way.
No fucking way.
He had wanted to speak to you so badly for so long. He’d wanted to see you up and about on your feet, back at UA as if nothing had happened. Now that you were there, though, in the same room and surrounded by other teachers, he didn’t trust himself to look at you. What if he fell to pieces like he had on that night at the lodge?
“You okay?” said Hizashi, prodding at his arm.
“I’m fine,” he said with a sigh. “Just...”
He wasn’t prepared to be vulnerable in plain sight. He didn’t know how he’d react when he saw you.
“Okay,” said Hizashi. “Hear me out…”
~~~~~
The past week had passed by you in a second, yet it felt like you hadn’t seen your colleagues in years and apparently the feeling was mutual. You found yourself on the receiving end of more hugs than you could count, more pats to the head in half an hour than you had received in the past twenty years.
That was without mention of your ever expanding collection of ice water. Everyone wanted to buy you a drink and you knew for a fact you couldn’t drink them all.
You ran your fingers through the condensation on your nearest glass as All Might and Nezu discussed the home visits, eyes darting to the izakaya doors every time they opened.
You had expected Shouta to arrive with All Might and struggled to contain your disappointment when that wasn’t the case. The more time passed, the more nervous you became. Part of you hated the idea of the first years’ hard work and training going to waste, but you didn’t know what you would do in their parents’ position. If your child went through the same experiences as 1-A and B, would you allow them to go back? Would your need to protect them overpower your need to see them happy?
You were biased and you knew it.
It was almost a relief when Hizashi came back to the booth and reached out an arm.
“C’mon, Little Listener,” he said, guiding you out of the booth and onto your feet, “let’s stretch those legs and greet your adoring public!”
You linked your arm through his and used his weight to steady your own, grateful for the prospect of leaving the booth even temporarily. You had been sitting there for so long that you were pretty sure it had remolded your butt.
“This way,” said Hizashi, leading you past the arcade machine and jukebox, through a side door that led outside to the back of the izakaya.
You took a gulp of fresh air, relishing the coolness against your skin.
“You okay, sweetness?”
“Yeah,” you said. “It’s good to see everyone again.”
He laughed softly, patting his hand over the one you had linked through his.
“ Almost everyone,” he said, pointing out a shadowy figure further along the street. You followed his gaze, eyes blurring with tears.
You would have known that silhouette anywhere.
You had wanted to see Shouta for so long; had wanted to speak to him for longer. There he was, right in front of you, and none of it seemed real.
He looked good , dressed up in a suit, though plainly tired of it, for he had taken off his tie and unfastened his top two buttons, leaving his collarbones on full display. You realised this was the first time you’d seen him with his hair up since Ego and, in all honesty, you were surprised your knees didn’t buckle.
“I’ll leave you to it,” said Hizashi, clapping his hands together and stepping back into the izakaya, leaving the pair of you completely alone.
You stared at Shouta; he stared at you, neither of you quite believing this was happening.
“I,” you said at last, “the thing is…”
You never got to finish your sentence, for Shouta moved, stepping closer and resting his head on your shoulder. For a moment, you were sure your heart stopped.
“Forgive me,” he murmured into your neck, voice rumbling against your skin. You closed your eyes, tears rolling down your cheeks.
You considered asking him what it was he wanted forgiveness for, though decided against it. He’d spent the entire day apologising for events out of his control and this wasn’t the time to dwell on them even more.
You reached up to cradle his body, one arm wrapped around his shoulders, the other combing through his hair.
“Okay,” you whispered back, saying nothing of the wetness against your neck from tears that were not your own.
He lifted his head and touched his forehead to yours, catching your lips in his in a kiss that consumed every inch of you, from the top of your head to the tips of your toes; a kiss you wanted to burn you to ashes and scatter you on the evening air; a kiss you would remember with perfect clarity for the rest of your life, long after other details of that night lay forgotten.
~~~~
You stayed at the izakaya for another hour or two, Hizashi’s jacket draped over your shoulders while both he and Shouta hovered in your general vicinity like a pair of mother hens.
All Might and Nezu were the first to leave, staying only for a couple of rounds and catch up with Shouta, followed a short while later by Thirteen. Nemuri, who had had more than a little bit to drink by that point, tried to persuade everyone else to finish up the night at a club. Ordinarily, Hizashi would have said yes, but he had other responsibilities today, namely getting you home and finally hashing it out with you and Shouta.
He didn’t speak much at all on the drive to your house, glancing at you in his rear view mirror every time you hit traffic lights. He wanted to reach out for Shouta’s hand as he had yours; to congratulate him properly for his hard work that day. Once or twice, as you leaned your head against the passenger side window and drifted in and out of sleep, he reached in Shouta’s direction, only to pass it off as resting his hand against the gear stick.
Even if he did make contact, he knew Shouta wouldn’t accept it. He wouldn’t do anything without your knowledge. It was exactly the sort of honour he loved him for, but did nothing to warm his fingertips. Hizashi loved to touch and be touched; he liked being on the receiving end of attention almost as much as he liked giving it out. Not being able to touch Shouta was like being starved of oxygen and he felt himself wither with every second that passed.
It was a relief when they finally arrived at your house, Shouta lifting you up into his arms as you rifled through your purse for the key.
Hizashi followed the pair of you inside, watching as Shouta set you down on the couch and slipped off your shoes with a good deal of care- far more care than he ever afforded himself.
“We need to talk,” Shouta said as you rubbed your eyes.
“Sho,” said Hizashi, suddenly paranoid that you would be too tired for such an important conversation.
You sat up straight, though - of course you did - not quite wide awake, but coherent.
“It’s okay,” you said. “Let’s talk.”
The three of you sat in silence for a while. None of you had ever imagined getting this far.
Finally, Shouta broke it.
“I fucked Hizashi,” he said, so bluntly that Hizashi choked on his own spit.
“Hey, you...you don’t have to put it like that!”
“Why not,” shrugged Shouta. “It’s what happened.”
“Well yes, but...it sounds so dirty .”
For Hizashi, at least, it had been more than just fucking and even though he knew Shouta wasn’t an overly sentimental kind of guy, the notion that he felt otherwise prickled at his skin. He had been one too many people’s one night stand for it not to.
You glanced from Hizashi to Shouta with an unreadable expression. Finally, you nodded, crossing one leg over the other in the pose you very often took at your desk.
“Okay.”
Hizashi was sure his stomach fell through the floor. He’d expected you to be shocked, hurt or at the very least confused. He hadn’t expected your reaction to be so subdued.
“Does it bother you?” said Shouta.
“Why would it?”
“Well...uh…”
Hizashi glanced from you to Shouta, increasingly agitated by both of your poker faces. You were normally far more expressive than this and it was making him nervous.
“I fucked Hizashi too,” you shrugged and it took everything in him not to gasp.
It was one thing for Shouta to say it, but you?
“Does it bother you two?” you said. “That I’ve slept with you both.”
“Of course not,” said Hizashi, so quickly that it was a surprise even to himself.
The idea of being upset with you and Shouta for sleeping with each other was absurd. He wasn’t even completely upset that you’d kept it from him for so long. Shouta hadn’t been upset by the revelation that you had slept with him either, accepting it as easily as if he’d been told the pair of you had gone to the movies or eaten dinner.
“Then why should it bother me ?”
“We’re both men,” said Shouta almost immediately, to which you finally broke out into a smile.
“Trust me, I’ve noticed.”
“If we did it again...would it bother you?”
“Do you want to do it again?”
“Yes,” said Shouta, once again without any sort of hesitation.
“ Really ?” said Hizashi, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
“Sure.”
You sighed and rubbed your temples, adjusting your weight on the couch. Both Hizashi and Shouta stepped forwards to help but you waved them away.
“It’s okay with me,” you said. “It’s not like I own either of you. You don’t need my permission.”
“No, but I want it,” said Shouta, stubborn as ever.
You pushed yourself up from the couch and folded your arms, wrapping your fingers in the sleeves of Hizashi’s jacket.
“Do you remember how all of this began?”
“ Ego ,” said Shouta.
“No, before that,” you said, shaking your head. “When I got dumped...it made me question everything. Akira told me he didn’t want to settle down, he didn’t want to lock himself into a particular path...and I hated him for it. I thought I wasn’t good enough, that I was boring, that my entire life until that point had been a waste of time…”
“(Name),” said Hizashi, but you waved him off.
“I understand it now, though,” you said. “It was never really about Akira. It’s just...up until then I’d always been the one who settled. I was always the one who made sacrifices and hard choices. I was always the one who caved. Up until Ego I’d never done anything self indulgent. I’d never thrown caution to the wind and chased something I wanted. Until then I’d shaped myself to fit other people, because at some point I’d convinced myself that everything I actually wanted was silly or an imposition.”
You breathed a heavy sigh, cheeks flushing a bright pink.
“I want both of you,” you said. “I don’t want to choose or settle. Life’s too short to talk yourself out of doing things that make you happy. If you want to choose, I’ll support it, but don’t feel like you have to because of me.”
Hizashi looked across at Shouta. Shouta looked at him. Both of them turned to look at you and all of the confidence melted from your body.
“That is…” you said, shuffling on the spot, “I mean…”
“This is new territory,” said Hizashi at last, “it’ll take time to figure it out.”
“If it doesn’t work we can just reset,” shrugged Shouta, “it’s not a problem.”
“We’ll need to,” you said, trying and failing to stifle a yawn, “....go over boundaries.”
“We can have a longer conversation about it tomorrow,” said Hizashi, as you rubbed your eyes. “It’s been a long day.”
He reached into his pocket for his car keys, turning to Shouta with a knowing look.
Hizashi had had you all to himself for much of the day. It was only fair that Shouta got some time too, especially considering how much you likely still had to talk about. He doubted either of you would declare your undying love in an alley behind the izakaya.
“I’m heading home,” he said, “you two...don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
~~~~
After Hizashi left, you and Shouta fell into a comfortable silence. He helped you into your pyjamas and tucked you up in bed, planting kisses on your forehead any time you got close enough. It was so casually affectionate that you thought your heart might burst and you quite deliberately turned your face to his for more attention.
Your heart sank, though, when he actually tucked you in.
“I’ll be right next door,” he said, backing away, “call me if you need anything.”
You glanced from your bed to him, finally pulling back the sheets and motioning for him to come closer. You had wanted to hold onto him for what felt like an eternity and you weren’t going to pass up the chance now that it was right in front of you.
“Come here,” you said, patting the space next to you. “Get in.”
He considered it, the dilemma visibly playing out across his face.
“Fine,” he said, “move over that way.”
You did exactly that, wondering what his motives were. It would have been easier for him to take the side you pointed out to him. Had he picked the other side for no other reason than to be contrarian? It wasn’t outside the realms of possibility, but you had a feeling that wasn’t the case.
He unbuttoned his shirt and dragged it from his shoulders, exposing the sharp angles and scars of his body. This wasn’t the first time he’d done so in this room and heat pooled inside of you at the memory. You hadn’t been able to stop yourself staring then, either. You had seen the scar on his face from USJ, but not the mark on his elbow. You skimmed over the ripples in his skin, the same discoloration as on your own body.
Realisation sank in.
Shouta did indeed have a reason for choosing that side of the bed and it was far simpler than you might have imagined.
Anyone who broke into your house would have to pass your couch. Shouta had picked the side of the bed that was closest to the door. Anyone who came in would have to go through him to get to you.
You lifted up the covers so he could crawl in beside you, heart skipping a beat as he rested his head on the pillow. He looked at you in confusion, no doubt feeling your eyes on him.
“What is it?”
You rested your head on his chest.
“Nothing.”
In this situation, Hizashi would surely have pestered you for an answer. Shouta was almost certainly curious, but he didn’t say so, instead combing strands of hair out of your face in an attempt to see more of you.
You closed your eyes and listened to the steady thrum of his heartbeat, the warmth of his body enclosing yours. He held you close, though not so tightly that it hurt, the rise and fall of his chest lulling you to sleep.
You fell asleep safe and warm, with a peaceful expression that Shouta watched long into early morning.
~~~~~~
A week passed.
Your energy returned, albeit slowly. It took the best part of a day to get through your notifications and update your friends and family on your condition, much less make the time to have them over. It took all of your energy on that first day to make a single pot of tea, much less make conversation.
Nemuri, true to her word, stopped in every morning to make breakfast and help with laundry. Her cooking wasn’t the best and you found yourself redoing the laundry more often than not, but her heart was in the right place and you couldn’t bring yourself to turn down her offer.
Hizashi created a group chat with you, Shouta and himself as the only members. You knew exactly what it was for the moment you received an invitation, smiling at the emojis he had used as a title: 🐱 🎤 👑
If you were all going to date it made sense to have a group chat, though it made your stomach flutter nonetheless. You still couldn’t quite believe you’d signed up for this, much less that Hizashi and Shouta were just as up for it as you were.
It didn’t sink in even as the three of you ordered food and worked over the final details, which in the end took only a matter of minutes. You were all fairly laid back when it came to preferences and boundaries. You didn’t mind who slept with who or how many dates you had with each other. You were all busy for one reason or another and there was no point in keeping score.
You discussed threesomes last of all. Given your triangular relationship, it had always only been a matter of time before it cropped up in conversation. You and Shouta had never had one, while Hizashi’s experience mostly amounted to drunken fumbling with beautiful strangers. He’d never done it with anyone he wanted to date, much less anyone he actually was . It was new territory for everyone and all three of you were nervous for different reasons.
You agreed that if you were to test run something of that nature, it made sense to do so before the next school term. The teachers would become incredibly busy almost overnight and, while Nezu had gotten you a temporary replacement for the first couple of weeks, you would have just as much to catch up on when you returned.
And so it was that Hizashi sent an address to the group chat, one sent you flushing a bright pink.
👑: You do realise that’s a love hotel?
🎤: Yup! Best for it to be on neutral ground, don’t you think?
👑: I guess you’re right .
🎤: Plus, this one has alllllll kinds of facilities. They have a minibar, they sell toys at the counter, they have every kind of lube and condom you can dream of...it’s the perfect place for de p r a v i t y
👑: what do you think, Shouta?
🐱: whatever
🎤: Then it’s settled! We’re going to have so much fun! 🎉 🎉 🎉
You lowered your phone into your lap with a giggle, which prompted Nemuri to look over from the kitchen with a raised eyebrow.
She hadn’t asked too many questions about who it was you were always texting, mostly because she hadn’t needed to. Hizashi and Shouta took turns staying the night with you long after the strength returned to your legs. It never progressed any further than cuddles and they were always gone before she arrived, but you knew she wasn’t a fool and had likely already guessed what was going on. You’d agreed to tell her once the dust had settled and you’d figured things out.
“Something funny?”
“Somewhere, at this very moment, I’m pretty sure Shouta’s questioning his life choices,” you said between giggles.
“Ahhh,” she said, reaching into your cupboard for dishes, “must be Tuesday.”
~~~~
However nervous you might have been about going to the love hotel paled in comparison to how it felt when you actually arrived.
You had spent hours going through your wardrobe, wondering what on earth to wear. Hizashi was quick to remind you that whatever you wore would end up on the bedroom floor anyway, which did little to quell your nerves. You wanted tonight to be special; the kind of night you revisited over and over to better enjoy each detail. In the end, you settled on a simple dress and shoes, with the fanciest lingerie you owned underneath.
Your stomach fluttered as you caught sight of your reflection while you were getting dressed, the anticipation of the night ahead almost too much to bear. After tonight everything would be different for what you prayed would be the right reasons.
You bobbed on your heels as Hizashi booked you in, glancing around at your surroundings. It didn’t look any different to any ordinary hotel, though you weren’t sure why such a thing surprised you. You had heard stories of people spending the night in one by accident, as well as people who took advantage of the cheap rate to do so on purpose.
You glanced across at Shouta to see if he was as nervous as you, only to see him examining one of the posters on the wall. From the looks of things, the hotel offered themed rooms as well as generic ones and while some of the themes were pretty run of the mill, some were far more unusual. They had a dinosaur themed room and an aquarium, as well as a superhero room designed to look like a back alley.
They also had a cat themed one, complete with fluffy pink bed sheets and equally fluffy cat themed lingerie, which seemed to have grabbed Shouta’s attention the most. You made a mental note to do some online shopping at the next opportunity.
“Let’s go!” said Hizashi at last, dangling a key labelled 215.
You took a deep breath and followed him through the building, taking note of the luxurious interiors. You’d expected it to look seedy and the reality was quite jarring.
“Who’s excited?!” Hizashi cried out as you took the lift to the second floor. “This is going to be awesome!”
You couldn’t help but laugh at his enthusiasm, but even he fell silent when you stepped inside of your room for the night.
This...this was everything you had expected and more besides. Everything you looked at was more obscene than the last.
The room was bright red, with silk sheets and a mirror on the ceiling. There was a pole and set of couches in the right hand corner, as well as bookcases full of erotica. Across from the bed was an enormous flat screen television and a cabinet underneath it that you knew without looking contained porn.
Hizashi fiddled with the switches on the wall, ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the spotlights on the floor and ceiling, all three of you taking a step back when one switch made the room rumble. The ceiling mirror shifted and a set of straps lowered through the gap.
“Is that…” you whispered.
“It’s a sex swing!” cried out Hizashi, unable to contain his excitement.
You had only ever heard of them until now and mostly as a joke. Hizashi rushed across the room to test the straps, looping his wrists into the cuffs and hoisting his weight up off the floor, laughing as he began to swing as if the three of you were in a playground and not a room full of sin.
On the leftmost side of the room was a wooden divider screen, with multiple wardrobes behind it. You approached them slowly, morbidly curious about what you might find inside.
What you actually found there made you cry out in glee.
“Oh my god,” you said, rummaging through the drawers. “Oh my god!!!”
“What is it?” said Hizashi, trying to unravel himself from the swing.
“It’s...oh my god. They have costumes.”
“Oh? You gonna be a dominatrix for us?”
“No, you don't understand,” you said, stepping out from behind the divider. “They have costumes.”
Both Hizashi and Shouta’s eyes widened when they saw what you were wearing. You’d found a familiar spiked leather jacket and gloves, as well as the shades to match the set.
“Hey, hey, hey listeners,” you called out in your best Present Mic impression. “It’s a beeeeeeutiful day to boogie!”
Hizashi was delighted; he struck a pose of his own.
“Put on your dancin’ shoes and happy smiles,” he said, “tonight we’re going Plus Ultra style!”
“I knew it was a bad idea for you two to spend time together,” sighed Shouta, rummaging through the mini bar.
“Are you saying there’s not enough room for two Present Mics?” Hizashi pouted, wrapping an arm around your shoulders.
“I don’t think the world is big enough for one .”
Shouta pulled out three beers and unscrewed the lids, passing one to you and another to Hizashi.
“Cheers,” you said, taking a long sip before setting the bottle down on the nearest surface.
Hizashi and Shouta did the same, the reality of what you were about to do sinking in.
“Anyone want to back out?” said Hizashi.
“Nope,” you said, Shouta shaking his head along with you.
“Okay,” said Hizashi, “in that case, let’s set the mood .”
You stripped off the leather jacket and gloves, watching as Hizashi played around with the various switches in the room. He returned the sex swing to its original position and fixed the lighting, choosing a setting that left the room in a soft light that resembled candles.
Shouta pulled the pillows from the bed and set them down on the nearest couch, fluffing them up as you slipped behind the divider screen and unfastened the zipper of your dress. You slipped it off your shoulders and down to the floor, excitement rushing through you at the knowledge that neither Hizashi nor Shouta had noticed yet.
You rearranged your hair, taking a deep breath before stepping out and perching on the end of the bed, stretching like a cat and waiting for them to turn and look at you.
It was Shouta who noticed first, turning from the couch and freezing on the spot. You flashed him a knowing smile and he reached out for Hizashi, who was searching through his phone for the perfect playlist.
“...so I’ve been putting this together for the past few days. I wanted something that was mellow but had a bit of a beat and-ow!”
Shouta poked him in the ribs and pointed in your direction, prompting Hizashi to almost drop his phone.
“I seem to have lost my dress,” you said, crossing both arms over your chest in pretend modesty. “Won’t you help me?”
“O-o-o-of course,” said Hizashi, “though for what’s worth, you seem to be doing just fine without it.”
Shouta sank down into a chair at the foot of the bed, reaching for his beer as Hizashi climbed up onto the bed behind you.
“You look,” he said. “I’ll supervise.”
Hizashi’s breath was warm against the back of your neck and you shivered as he planted kisses along your exposed back.
“Maybe it’s hiding behind your ears,” he said, lifting your hair and swirling his tongue around your earlobe. “Hmmm...nope.”
“Maybe this one,” you said, tapping your finger against the opposite ear and giggling at the tickle of his lips against your ear.
“No,” he said, sounding genuinely forlorn even as he kissed the back of your neck. “Not there. Perhaps… maybe...”
He looped his fingers through your bra’s fastening and unhooked it with ease. Your bra dropped down onto your lap and you tossed it aside, watching as Shouta leaned back in his chair and sipped his beer, an expression of satisfaction across his face as Hizash looped his hands around your middle and reached up to give your breasts a squeeze.
“Not here either,” he said, tightening his grip on your nipples and grazing his teeth against your shoulder. “Where else might it be?”
He slipped his arms under yours, maneuvering them into his line of sight and turning your hands so they were palm up.
“Not here,” he said, spreading your fingers in the same way you wanted him to spread your legs, “my my, we are in a pickle.”
He set your hands back down and moved a little further up the bed, leaning over to pull at your shoulders so that you followed. He guided you up onto your knees and tossed his own shirt to one side before resting a hand over your lower stomach. He snaked his free hand over your breasts, burying his lips in your neck as his other hand dipped into your underwear.
“Is it in here, perhaps?” he purred, slipping his fingers into your folds and earning a gasp from you in response. “Hmmm…”
He slipped a single, exploratory finger into you and you nibbled your bottom lip, remembering the last time he had gone down on you. You’d been a shivering, shuddering mess afterwards and you couldn’t wait to experience it a second time.
“What do you think, Sho?” he asked, glancing across at Shouta, who had cast aside his beer in favour of reaching into his pants.
“I think you should get a better look,” he said, resting his free elbow on the arm of the chair and resting his chin in his hand.
“Roger that,” said Hizashi, taking his hand out of your underwear. “Lay back for me, princess.”
You obeyed, rolling over onto your back so that your head rested at the foot of the bed, facing out towards Shouta.
“That’s a good girl,” he said, easing your panties down your thighs and over your ankles before tossing them over to Shouta, who held them up to the light, admiring the way the soft light shone through the pattern.
You blushed, heat pooling deep inside of your core as Hizashi planted a kiss between your breasts, hair tickling over your lower stomach as he spread your legs wide to expose your cunt.
The chill of being so thoroughly exposed lasted only a second; Hizashi ran his tongue over your clit before it could truly register. You gasped, reaching down to run your fingers through his hair and catching your reflection in the mirror on the ceiling.
You knew for a fact what was happening; you knew you were there, you knew who you were with. You saw your face, your naked breasts, the lacy stockings you had yet to remove and Hizashi’s head bobbing between your thighs. Even so, you didn’t recognise yourself.
You released Hizashi’s hair and spread your arms across the bed, watching as the girl in the mirror did the same. You watched the pleasure play out across her face, the muscles in Hizashi’s back shifting as he reached to slip in a finger. You cried out and so did the girl on the ceiling, back arching from the bed.
You could see Shouta too, jerking his cock in time to Hizashi’s movements. You watched the ceiling, watched as Hizashi took note of your silence and followed your gaze.
“Ah hah,” he said, waving at your reflections. “So Sho isn’t the only one who likes to watch!”
You blushed and turned your head to look at Shouta. You were on your back, so he was upside down, but the intensity when your eyes met was no different than usual. Before you knew it, you were reaching out to him, willing him to come over. You wanted to feel his hands against your body as well, wanted to see all three of your naked bodies on the ceiling.
You didn’t speak a single word of invitation, but you didn’t have to. He got to his feet and kicked off his pants and underwear, showing off how hard he had gotten just from watching.
Hizashi sat back, wiping your juices from his lips.
“Nice of you to join us,” he said, letting you relax your legs and roll over onto your side. Shouta approached the bed and you reached for his dick, propping yourself up on your elbow to coax him closer. He climbed up onto the bed and sat down on his knees, providing the perfect angle for you to run your tongue over his hardness.
You hadn’t tasted his cock before. Technically speaking, you hadn’t tasted Hizashi’s either. You had dipped a finger into the pool of cum he left on you while he was busy running your bath, curiosity and lust overtaking you.
It was too simplistic to say it tasted good or bad. The only way you could describe it was that it tasted of him, sweet and earthy in equal measures.
Shouta’s cock tasted far more bitter, though in a way that was more intriguing than it was unpleasant. He was broad, so broad that you couldn’t take all of him into your mouth without gagging, though you were so intoxicated by him that you were more than willing to try.
Hizashi crawled off the bed and kicked off his own pants, slipping a kiss to the side of Shouta’s mouth before leaning back down onto the sheets. He shuffled his weight until he could comfortably rest his head between your thighs, lifting one of your legs up onto his shoulders before returning to his earlier ministrations.
Maybe it was the change in angle; the moans you dragged from Shouta every time you moved your head. Maybe it was the way Shouta used his position to grip onto Hizashi’s hard cock. Whatever the case, you found yourself quaking at the prospect of everything to come. You could feel your stomach churning in anticipation; the wet sound of your lips on Shouta’s skin combined with the wet feel of Hizashi’s lips against your clit sending shudders of pleasure down your spine.
The first time you came, it was like butterflies in your belly, sending shockwaves through your middle that teased at what was to come. You moaned onto Shouta’s dick, Shouta squeezed Hizashi’s and all three of you groaned at the combined sensation.
“Do you think you’re ready for me, sweetness?” said Hizashi, sitting up from between your legs to look you in the face.
You nodded, rolling over onto your back while he got up to choose a condom from the box beside the bed.
“Hey,” he said, unable to hide his glee, “they have Present Mic ones!”
“Really?”
“Yeah!”
He laughed as he tore open the packaging and pulled it on, still overjoyed as he got back up onto the bed and aligned his hips with yours. He gave your clit a tentative stroke and you raised your hand up to get a good grip on Shouta’s dick from this new angle, jerking it gently even as Hizashi held onto your hips and slid his tip into you. You sighed at the feeling of being stretched, Hizashi slipping himself in and out a little deeper each time.
Both of you moaned the moment you took him to the hilt, as he gave one gentle thrust.
“Oooh, she feels so good, Shouta,” he said. “I’ll get her all nice and warmed up for you!”
Shouta didn’t answer, he was watching the three of you in the ceiling mirror and Hizashi reached for his shoulder.
“Sho,” he said, “earth to Sho.”
Shouta looked down at him, only to be dragged into a searing kiss, one that came with its own soundtrack of moans and flesh hitting flesh. Hizashi thrust his hips into yours with such force that it pushed you up the bed, leaving you little choice but to grip one of Shouta’s legs.
“Okay, little listener?” said Hizashi, breaking the kiss to peer down at you.
“Not going easy on me, are you?”
“What me? Never!”
He slammed his hips into yours and crushed his lips against Shouta’s, all while you moaned and held onto Shouta for dear life. Hizashi held one of your legs in place to secure you further, tangling the other in Shouta’s hair.
You wrapped your free hand around Shouta’s cock, jerking it roughly in time to Hizashi’s thrusts. You looked up, watching the pair of them kiss both above your head and on the ceiling.
Your insides grew tighter still; a spring inside of you ready to unwind.
You weren’t naive enough to believe Hizashi would let you come there and then. Sex was an artform to him and he had had enough time to plan.
“You feel so good, cupcake,” he said, breaking free of the kiss for a second, “Sho’s really missing out.”
He slowed down his thrusts to an agonisingly slow and deep pace that left you gasping into the sheets and digging your nails into the back of Shouta’s legs.
“...listen to that,” Hizashi murmured against Shouta’s lips, forcing him to listen to the wet sound of him fucking you, “it’s driving me crazy and I’m the one balls deep.”
He stopped for a moment and Shouta reached for his jaw.
“Don’t hold out on me, now,” he said. “Don’t start something you aren’t prepared to finish.”
Hizashi grinned at the command; you realised this was exactly the outcome he had been waiting for. He fucked you so hard and fast that you squealed in a mixture of surprise and delight. Shouta adjusted his weight, crossing his legs beneath him and guiding your head into his lap.
He stroked your lips as gently as if he had kissed them, reaching for the hand that had held his dick not so long ago and planting kisses on your knuckles.
“Harder,” he said, in a commanding tone completely at odds with the tender way he held your hand.
Hizashi was only too happy to comply, lifting your knees higher to get a better angle. You gripped Shouta’s hand and arched your back, trying to link your legs behind Hizashi’s back to hold him in place, only for him to tickle your feet in punishment.
Part of you couldn’t stand the growing tension between your thighs. You wanted to let go and lose yourself completely. The other, more rational part of you wanted to relish this moment, the combination of Hizashi’s rough and increasingly sloppy thrusts and Shouta’s soft touches.
“Deeper,” said Shouta at last and you screwed up your face as Hizashi obeyed, so close to shattering to pieces around his cock and yet so tortuously far. You spluttered in sheer desperation, holding Shouta so tightly that you feared you’d break the skin.
“Oh my g-don’t stop,” you pleaded, “like that, like that, like-“
You let out a whine, holding your body still as pleasure rushed through it. You bucked your hips into his as flutters of delight rushed through your core, enough to shake your legs though not enough to take over completely.
“Oh fuck,” you said as your walls clenched around Hizashi’s cock, a taste of what was to come and enough to send him over the edge.
He gave a strangled whine as his cock twitched deep inside of you, holding himself perfectly taut to ride out the wave. You knew the exact moment he finished, for the bones left his body and he flopped forwards, a goofy smile on his face.
“You tryin’ to kill me, Sho?” he murmured, head resting on Shouta’s chest and dick still buried deep inside of you. He pulled out with a sigh and rolled backwards, climbing up off the bed without any sort of grace. He reached for his beer as he pulled off the condom, making an impressed sort of noise as he held it out in front of him. “Look how much you made me cum!”
He threw a couple of fresh condoms onto the bed and Shouta picked up the closest one: a luxury branded one in simple silver packaging. He eased your head up from his lap and shifted positions, leaving you to watch as he put it on, body so close to release that it ached.
“Come here,” he said gently, helping you up onto your knees and holding his body against your back. “Just like that…”
“I’m so close,” you whined, “so close…”
“I know,” he whispered in your ear, “you’ve been very good and patient.”
You laughed at that, knowing for a fact that you’d been anything but.
Shouta reached down to take hold of your waist, holding his hand over the flat of your stomach and kissing the back of your neck. You arched your body into his every touch and ground your ass against him, relishing every time you brushed against his hard dick.
He guided you down onto your hands and knees, slipping a finger into you a couple of times before replacing it with his dick. You moaned in relief at not only being filled again, but in a different position. Every time Shouta pushed into you, he teased the sensitive spot inside of you that would turn you into a squealing mess; a spot that had gone thoroughly neglected until Akira dumped you.
Shouta went almost torturously slow and deep, gripping onto your hips to steady you. At first you gripped onto the bed sheets, before sliding one hand down to your clit. You wanted to cum so badly, but no Shouta wouldn’t go any faster no matter how much you moaned.
You never made contact with your clit, though. Hizashi got there before you.
“Let me,” he said, sitting down next to the bed and leaning over to reach his head between your thighs. You gasped at the combined sensations: Shouta’s deep thrusts and Hizashi’s masterful tongue.
“Oh my god,” you said, so overstimulated that you feared you’d explode. “Oh my god, don’t st-ahhh!”
For a moment, it was as if time stood still. You weren’t there; none of it was real. All you knew was pleasure, rippling from the top of your head to the tips of your toes, Hizashi’s tongue hot and sticky against your clit while Shouta groaned, your walls clenching around him almost unbearably tightly.
Your body shook, still twitching as both Aizawa and Hizashi eased you down onto your back.
“You okay, listener?” said Hizashi, stroking sweaty strands of hair from your face. “Are you with us?”
You blinked, staring blankly into their faces.
“I think,” you said, voice hoarse, “I think my soul left my body for a second there.”
Something cold touched your cheek and you realised Shouta was holding out a bottle of water from the minibar.
“Maybe we went too hard on you,” he said, sounding more than a little concerned.
“No,” you said, flapping a limp arm as you leaned over to sip the water. “That’s not what I meant! It left my body in a good way!”
“Hear that, Sho,” smirked Hizashi, “your dick is killer.”
“Speaking of which,” you said, “you didn’t finish.”
“You’re right,” gasped Hizashi. “Where are our manners?”
Both he and Shouta had flopped down on either side of you, cocooning you in warmth to negate how cold you had suddenly gotten. Hizashi shimmied over to the other side of the bed, leaving Shouta in the middle, all of his earlier fatigue forgotten.
“Now then,” he said, peeling the condom off Shouta’s dick, “let’s do something about this.”
At first you watched, body still heavy. Shouta rested his hand on Hizashi’s head as he trailed his tongue over the underside of his dick, looking Shouta dead in the eye as he lapped up all of his precum and took his dick into his mouth.
It was mesmerising; so different to when you were on the receiving end. You could make out every flutter of Shouta’s eyelashes; the way his body tensed whenever Hizashi hit a particularly sensitive spot or sucked that little bit harder. He looked so vulnerable there and then and you couldn’t look away.
Shouta opened his eyes and looked towards you, crushing his lips against yours before cupping your face in his hand. He pulled you further down his body, until you joined Hizashi at his waist. Hizashi leaned back to make room for you, holding the base of Shouta’s cock and guiding your lips down onto it, earning a sigh of relief.
“Like that,” said Hizashi, holding Shouta in place as you sucked at him. “Wow, you’re really good at this, check you out!”
“Maybe one day I’ll be as good as you!”
“Haha! Maybe! Now, (Name), I want you to do something real quick.”
“Oh?”
“I want you to sit tight and then, when I give you the nod, I want you to do this.”
He leaned over and wrapped his lips around the tip of Shouta’s cock, giving it a hard suck before letting go, making a loud popping noise as he let go. Shouta’s response was instantaneous; he hissed with pleasure and bucked his hips into Hizashi’s touches.
“Think you can handle that?” said Hizashi, bright eyed.
“I think so.”
He nodded and you sat up on your elbows to watch, eyes darting from Hizashi to Shouta as Hizashi began to jerk Shouta’s dick without a hint of mercy. Shouta ground his hips into the bed, arching his back just as you had and making deep, guttural noises you would never have guessed he was capable of. You could see how close he was getting, cheeks flushed and eyes darkened with need.
He gasped when Hizashi finally let go, though the torture wasn’t over. Hizashi gave you the nod you’d been waiting for and you wrapped your lips around the tip just as he had. You sucked hard, relishing the noises Shouta made almost as much as the pressure when he planted a hand on the top of your head in an attempt to hold you in place. You let go, knowing it would drive him insane.
You really were learning from the best.
Hizashi gripped Shouta’s cock and motioned for you to take the tip between your lips. He held on tight and jerked him hard, both sensations leaving him squirming into the bed.
“J-....F-...I…” he babbled, arching his back and reaching his free hand to grip the bed frame. “H-”
Hizashi tapped your chin, motioning for you to sit back. You obeyed and he jerked Shouta’s dick with even more force, only stopping as Shouta sighed in relief and cum seeped across his body.
You and Hizashi both watched him in contentment, taking in the ripple of his muscles as he gasped for air. You crawled back up to lay beside him, giving him a soft kiss to the cheek that he leaned into.
Hizashi crawled up to Shouta’s other side and flopped over onto his back, folding his arms behind his head.
All three of you stared at your reflections on the ceiling, drinking in the sight of your naked bodies and perhaps even thinking the same thing.
“Well?”
“Well what?”
‘What now?”
Art by the lovely @earthbender/ earthbender on tumblr / ArtemisRedd on AO3~
#erasermic x reader#poly!erasermic#aizawa shouta x reader#present mic x reader#hizashi yamada x reader#erasermic#habanero
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CQL Rewatch - Episode 11
Is anyone else amazed at how quickly this place cleared out? It seems like it was less than an hour ago that they were still trying to kill each other, and now it’s just pristine and empty again. Magic of television! Also, reminder! Jin Guangyao is still mortally wounded and hobbling around.
I love how caring they both are for each other here. They really feel like brothers instead of a master/servant role. Nie Huaisang is worried for Jin Guangyao, and the feeling is mutual. It’s a relationship that I never paid much attention to on the first watch, so it’s nice to go back and see it again, and notice that it exists. You can sense the bond and the closeness between these two, and it’s quite nice—also makes the betrayal sting more.
Ah, and the little shared moment between Wei Wuxian and Jin Guangyao—it’s sweet that he hasn’t forgotten the kindness that Wei Wuxian has shown him—he always treated him with respect, regardless of his background. Also I wonder if Jiang Cheng feels annoyed here, because Jin Guangyao salutes him second….
See? Nie Mingjue was so pissed that he knocked over all his art and stuff. I like that little detail. We see the aftermath, but we didn’t see him actually do it. We didn’t need to—we know he’s upset and feels horrible that he even had to make that decision, let alone carry it out. We don’t know much about their relationship yet, but it’s very clear that they were close and they respected each other a lot, for Nie Mingjue to be this emotional about Jin Guangyao’s actions and banishment.
NMJ: What are you two going to do next?
WWX: Um, I’m going to go rescue my boyfriend.
Okay, so I know how the story goes, and Wei Wuxian does not go to the Cloud Recesses again for a very, very long time. However, they’ve already added so much, why couldn’t they throw that in? Just saying, I wouldn’t have minded more wangxian moments, okay? But this part makes me giggle a little, because Wei Wuxian does, indeed, want to go after Lan Wangji (the guy left, basically without telling him)—Wei Wuxian is worried about Lan Wangji going off alone, especially because of what the Wen Clan is up to. And of course Jiang Cheng has to cock block by saying that they need to go home, because if the Wens are after the Gusu Lan and the Nie Clan, then they are probably going for the Jiangs as well. Okay, okay, it makes sense, Jiang Cheng—but do you not understand how much I want to see more wangxian?
But the important thing there (important meaning the thing that I like the most) is that Wei Wuxian thinks of Lan Wangji first. It’s not the last time either. It’s part of the growing feeling that Lan Wangji becomes more his family than his family does (and I mean, they aren’t his blood relatives, anyway). Yes, Wei Wuxian loves his family at Lotus Pier, but you can’t say that he doesn’t also consider Lan Wangji part of his family. At this point, he’s already willing to risk his life for Lan Wangji. And the reverse is true as well. I’m not going to go off on too much of a tangent, but I love that this story features two people who fit in better with each other than with their actual families.
At this point, even if I didn’t know the story, I’d be thinking, “Okay, how hard are they going to fall?” Lotus Pier is too idyllic, too perfect, the people too friendly, too happy—you know it’s all going to come tumbling down. And this story is so tragic (we know that right off the bat—the first scene is Wei Wuxian dying) that you absolutely know that something horrible is about to happen.
But aside from that, I like in the book how Wei Wuxian basically has a tab open with all the vendors and Jiang Fengmian has to foot the bill. It’s cute that Wei Wuxian has a relationship with all these vendors (or at least that one in particular)—like he’s willing to be amongst the common people. It’s clear here that Jiang Cheng isn’t. They know his face, because he’s the clan leader’s son, but he doesn’t seem to share the same relationships that Wei Wuxian does. And obviously in this scene, he just wants to get home and see if everything is okay. He’s very family-focused.
I’ve been reading a lot of discourse on Jiang Cheng lately, and this scene makes me feel a lot of emotions. It’s true that Jiang Cheng’s character in The Untamed is different from MDZS. A lot of his angry remarks seem to come from a place of caring (at first), because it seems he really does care about Wei Wuxian quite a bit, and I think he considers him family. But at a certain point, his well-meaning, angry remarks start to become old, and I feel bad for Wei Wuxian that he is so eager to take the blame for things that were not his fault. He goes along with Lan Wangji (without permission), and Jiang Cheng says it’s his fault for putting them all in danger, for being punished, for everything—but Jiang Cheng didn’t have to sneak off either. Is he not responsible for his own actions? Had it really only been about his concern over Wei Wuxian, he could have just talked to their father (who knew about it and basically didn’t care, which is whatever). My heart kind of breaks for the rocky relationship these two boys have, and to know that it will completely crumble in just a short amount of time.
But that’s also what I love about it. What I love about Jiang Cheng is that he’s basically horrible. He’s self-centered, he’s unkind, he’s cold, and he can hold a grudge better than anyone I’ve ever seen. I truly enjoy the fact that he and Wei Wuxian have an irreparably damaged relationship by the end of this.
“In the afterlife, let’s still be brothers,” Wei Wuxian says, and Jiang Cheng pushes Wei Wuxian’s hand off of his shoulder. It’s such a kind of off-hand remark, but it’s so meaningful in this series, since the opposite ends up happening. But I feel like this is their relationship at its core: Wei Wuxian trying to be better and eager to please, while Jiang Cheng is always responding that he’s not good enough, always shrugging him off. No wonder he becomes so close with Lan Wangji, a man who sees Wei Wuxian for what he is, yet loves him anyway.
I’m really inclined to agree with Madam Yu here: Jiang Fengmian is not really prepared for what’s going to happen, and considering in this adaptation, I think he even knows more of what’s going on with the Wen Clan than he did in the book. I believe Wei Wuxian aptly pointed out in episode 10 that this indoctrination is basically to hold the heirs ransom while the Wen Clan tries to take control—it’s to keep the other clans from acting up so they can get what they want (which in The Untamed is the Yin Iron, of course).
But aside from that, this seems like the most unpleasant table to sit at ever, next to these two people who probably very rarely get along. I think in this scene, you find out that Madam Yu thinks that her husband isn’t tough enough or prepared enough for future attacks, that she believes he was cheating on her and in love with Wei Wuxian’s mother, and that Jiang Cheng is unfairly treated between the two of them. That’s a shit-ton of accusations right there!
I actually do wish that we knew more about Jiang Fengmian’s relationship to Wei Wuxian’s mother and why he took him in. They must have been very close. Maybe I’m not remembering correctly and they delve into it a little more later.
But! What I also noticed in this scene is that Jiang Cheng and his mother are wearing matching outfits, while Jiang Yanli matches her dad, wearing purple.
I audibly gasped when I saw this. He’s using one of Wei Wuxian’s talismans!! OMG!!!! But I never noticed that the first time, so I was super excited to see that! How cool is it that Lan Wangji respects Wei Wuxian enough to not only accept one of his talismans, but to also use it? I love that detail! They didn’t have to include a scene to show it, but the fact that they threw it in makes me so happy. And even when they aren’t together, it’s like they’re together! My heart!
And visually, it also looks cool, so I’m always pleased to see some more magic in this series, in particular the talisman magic, which always looks pretty. The butterflies here remind me of the butterfly that Lan Xichen sends Lan Wangji way later.
Oh, it’s also interesting that the characters that come at odds with Lan Wangji always point out his arrogance, but, like, he’s not. They mistake his coldness and his lack of verbosity to being conceited, but I really don’t think that’s the case. There is literally a Lan Clan principle that says not to speak unless you have something important to say. For example, the kind of chattering that Wei Wuxian does is against their rules. Lan Wangji has been brought up in this stark, spartan environment, and he has been a rule follower. Actually looking down on people for the sake of being arrogant is even against their principles—I mean…I don’t expect Wen Chao to know this, but people like Su She certain should.
I like the contrast here between Lan Qiren and Lan Xichen meditating, their incense burning, all the tea cups and knick-knacks sitting just so—and utter death and destruction outside. The Cloud Recesses are literally on fire and you two are sitting in here trying to meditate. I get it. Gusu Lan are probably the most pacifistic of all the clans, so this is totally against everything their clan is about. But really, you’re sending all your red shirts out there to die.
Also I have no idea why Lan Qiren is spitting up blood in this scene. Did he overexert himself…meditating? Maybe I’m being ignorant here. Maybe he’s doing some magic to keep the Wens at bay (even though they’re getting in and all…).
I keep having these moments where I find myself thinking, “I didn’t pay attention to this part at all the first time, but now I see how great it is.” And here’s another one. For starters, I didn’t notice Lan Xichen was crying—I knew he was getting really emotional, but I didn’t see the tears on his face until just now. Here’s a man only a few years older than Lan Wangji, possibly still a teenager at this point (in the book, he was still underage at the start of the Sunshot Campaign if I remember the notes correctly), who has no idea where his younger brother is (who he probably helped raise), pleading with his uncle to take the treasured books in the library and escape.
And then you have Lan Qiren, who also has no idea where one of his nephews is and showing genuine concern that he’s missing (once again), whose other nephew is offering up his own life in order to save his. Lan Qiren practically raised both Wangji and Xichen as if they were his own, so the last thing he wants is for either of them to come to harm. I really love this moment, seeing the Lans’ faces crumble with emotion and show that pain and grief that they are feeling, that they normally keep in check. You get to see that, yes, they are human too. And I think this is especially important with Lan Qiren, who up until this point has just been kind of a hardass. But it’s also great to see Lan Xichen fall apart like this, because he’s been so sage and wise, and so adult up to this point. Now we’re forced to see that no, he’s still young, he’s inexperienced, he can break down too.
I do think it’s kind of ridiculous that the rest of the Gusu Lan Clan is basically useless in a fight, but I will never turn down a boss bitch Lan Wangji entrance (no matter how corny it is). I mean, I guess he doesn’t do all that much. He throws some guqin chords at them and gives them time to hide in the Cold Pond Cave. But ultimately, it doesn’t matter, because he ends up giving up the Yin Iron shard anyway.
I’m sure he’s feeling like he’s let down at least his entire clan and, at most, the rest of the world who would stand against the Wen Clan. But I think he was faced with the choice of seeing his people completely come to ruin or handing over the Yin Iron—either one is bad, but in the end, he chose people over power. I think that’s very fitting with Lan Wangji in any adaptation: he will do what’s right, he will choose humanity over any kind of power. He’s later willing to give up everything for Wei Wuxian, because in the end, it’s not his reputation or his standing among the clans that matters. I like here that Lan Qiren doesn’t try and stop him either—he understands that the people are most important and allows his nephew to make that choice.
It’s a nice scene overall, plus more Cold Pond Cave looks, which I love (I can’t get over the frost in his eyebrows, it’s just sexy). And anytime Wang Yibo gets to show some emotion on his face is a good time as well—I love what he does with his micro-expressions, but that makes the impact of scenes where he shows a lot on his face even greater. Like, if his eyebrows knit together, you know something big is going down!
It’s super cute that Jiang Yanli is giving them all this food to take along. She can’t go, she can’t help them, and she can’t do anything for them once they leave Lotus Pier, so the only thing she can think of to take care of them is to give them food. It’s such a sweet moment, but there’s a desperation to her actions as well. There is such a tension in the air and it’s affecting the entire family. Also not surprising that Madam Yu isn’t there to see them off. (Wei Wuxian’s cute wave at the end—god, he’s too adorable.)
That’s the look of somebody who’s seeing their close friend after a long time, when they were worried sick about them, when they had written letters that went unanswered, when their first thought upon entering this place was, “Where is the Gusu Lan sect?” Either the director told Xiao Zhan, “You’re in love” or he just did it on his own, because I mean, come on.
Basically, Wei Wuxian’s priority here is Lan Wangji, and I won’t hear any different. He’s not thinking about the mission or his creed or the Yin Iron—he wants to know how Lan Wangji is doing. He heard about what was going on in the Cloud Recesses, and he just wants to know if he’s all right. Even after he stops saying, “Lan Zhan,” which he says several times (I didn’t count), he still continues to look at Lan Wangji.
Other episodes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
#cql#the untamed#wangxian#wei wuxian#lan wangji#jiang cheng#lan xichen#lan qiren#jiang yanli#jiang fengmian#madam yu#wwx#lwj#mdzs#mo dao zu shi#jin guangyao#nie huaisang#nie mingjue#cql rewatch
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Welp, I expect every Scourge fan to hate me...
As I said last time, 160 was his first appearance. But since that story focused on Reverse Sonic becoming Scourge, 161 is what we’ll be focusing on as that is where we see just how different Scourge is to his old self.
161 officially begins with Sonic unable to handle Croctobot. Not because he’s difficult but he can’t help but laugh at such a ridicious design. As for Scourge, his first action is to do a hobby that I think everyone who ever read Archie Sonic would enjoy...
BEAT UP LOCKE! He would have killed him if Rouge didn’t want a corpse on her list. Its at this point the writers are trying to bring Rouge to her actual game self. And before Sonic and the rest meet Scourge, we see that Bean and Bark has a previous relation with Fiona.
One Chaos Control later and the three Hedgehogs meet: the Cheap Recolor, Ow, Edge, and unable to escape the 90s. They have a small truce to take care of the robot before Scourge begins to attack them both. At first, it seems he can handle both Sonic and Shadow pretty well...
And then you notice he gets tired. I’m guessing the Chaos Boost that changed him is wearing off. And with every other Freedom Fighter coming on the attack, Rouge suggest the two retreat and they do. If it wasn’t for a Magic Ring that saved them, Shadow may have finished Scourge off here and for good.
But despite the mess, Sonic is happy. The New Base did its job and prevented anymore attack on Mobotropolis, away from all their family, and he got to kick butt on his Birthday. But who saved Scourge and Rouge?
Dr. Finitevus, who luckily enough is NOT a Pender’s creation or actually among his Echidnas. So he’s safe. The rest of the comic is about Blaze and being a sort of Sonic Rush adaptation. So what do I think? Well, it definitely build up hype and showed how much more of a threat he is compared to Reverse Sonic. But while most of his fans were dazzled, I saw a guy who used a cheap shot and was more talk than ability. So what followed for Scourge?
Scourge appears a lot more often, starting with 165 where one on one he does pretty good. But Fiona saves him before it gets serious. 172 Fiona proved that she fell for Scourge and not Sonic. But that issue also really bugged me because Scourge tries to pull a Joker...
Sonic lost his parents, his uncle, his childhood, friends, people, in a War with Robotnik. And Scourge thinks none of these are a bad day? Sonic counters with all Scourge had to be was less selfish and more decent and he would just be another Sonic. And that damages Scourge a lot more than anything he threw at Sonic (and again, saved by Fiona).
For a couple of issues, Scourge played second fiddle but got himself a team to help him out with Sonic. He bounces in 184 to find answers to who he really is. Which in 188 is “King of Moebius”. He forces the doubles to get their own names and attack the Freedom Fighters. They take over the base but when Metal Sonic attacked, followed by Metal Scourge, they were forced to team up with the Freedom Fighters to beat them. With that showing that Scourge may not be ruler for long.
And this moment kind of ruined Scourge for me. 192, the second story, Scourge tries to attack Sonic in his sleep but runs into his dad. And its here we see that Scourge’s dad didn’t give him enough attention. You know, trying to maintain the Great Peace until Scourge ruined it all. So Scourge’s bad day, the thing that he said to Sonic, was “daddy not paying attention to me”.
Eventually, Sonic dethrowns Scourge, gets him to an interdimensional jail and gets broken out by Fiona and her crew with the promise for more that never came to be. Honestly, I don’t think he’s a good evil Sonic. Reverse Sonic was just a bore while Scourge is mostly flash without substance. A weak motivation and easily gets trounced over and over again. So what would happen if the people who created Scourge got to do so in a way without the baggage of Reverse Sonic? Well, next week we’ll see that.
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THANK YOU FOR SAYING THAT ABT THE BSD MANGA ILY THANK YOU I FEEL LIKE MY OPINION IS FINALLY VALIDATED WHICH IS: BSD has turned meh. I have become indifferent towards the plot due to the fact there are no real stakes - I feel like the OP characters like Dazai will always have a solution with a deus ex machina feel to it, making it impossible for me to care. With the recent chaos happening in the manga (I too gave up on the manga a year or so ago!), I was baffled to find out I could no longer enjoy it. My memory is poor, and I can't really pinpoint it at the moment, but BSD just... doesn't engage me as it used to. Keep in mind I was an obsessive fan of it and analyzed it to the tiniest details, but all of my great love for the series has long died, sadly. But! I am glad to hear you feel similarly about it because, yes, the potential was there, but it got terribly wasted.
Bruh don't I feel it, me and @autumn-foxfire have like monthly bitch sessions about the state of bsd at this point. I was also super invested in it in initial arcs (Up until the guild arc ended) and then slowly started petering off only to drop it the first time around the hunting dogs introduction. Then after some time i was like okay ill go give it a second shot, came to the vampire arc went 'wow this is really fuckin stupid' and dropped it again. Idk will I pick it up again, maybe I'll just stick to being an anime only, even tho I also have problems with some adaptation things but that's BESIDES THE POINT.
Please click under for The Point
The thing about Kafka is: He's really good at coming up with interesting concepts and ideas and REALLY BAD at executing them in any sort of satisfying way. Like, when I say I only like bsd until the end of the guild arc, I don't mean it was perfect. It could have handled it's female cast better, it would have been fun to see more mafia and agency team ups besides soukoku and shin soukoku, I still don't get why shin soukoku is supposed to be a replacement in training since Dazai and Chuuya still work together perfectly and even if they hate each other they hate each other less than Akutagawa and Atsushi AND have way more experience fighting together but that once again is besides the point. The point being those arcs of bsd were SATISFYING. We got introduced to two organizations, seen them butt heads and then have them forced to work together against a common enemy. It's very simple but it's effective and it's satisfying.
And then the rats struck.
While up until then bsd wasn't perfect it was fun and had lovable characters and an interesting plot and engaging dynamics. Rats arc wasn't horrible per say, the idea of the cannibalization was really fun (Though I think Kafka should have used it to get rid of Mori, nobody fuckin likes Mori) but this is where we slowly get introduced to what I think are two main failings of Kafka's writing: That he's unable to handle characters properly and that he likes writing smart things but doesn't know how to write smart things.
Kafka has a very, very bad habit of INTRODUCING TOO MANY FUCKING CHARCTERS. Every arc is a new massive group with like a bunch of members, one of who may actually end up being fleshed out before they are inventiblely replaced by another large group or maybe two why the fuck not. The mafia and the guild left lasting impressions on me and I can still name all the main members but fuck me if i know a single rat aside from Fyodor (AND ILL GET TO FYODOR). Kafka feels like someone who's idea of rising conflict is 'introduce a bigger enemy each time' and it's just so annoying. Chapters and arcs end up centering around these groups of new characters while old characters, who we loved the manga for, just fall into obscurity. He almost had me in the hunting dogs arc by giving Yosano a backstory. I was so excited! I was like!!! finally development for the agency!!! But that barely went anywhere did it. I've talked about this with Foxy but it really feels like Kafka is just BORED of the og characters and is trying to silently sideline them for his new shiny characters. When's the last time we saw Chuuya again, you know, the ex partner of one of the series protagonists? The next predicted mafia head? Is he important? Foxy tells me Dazai's been sidelined too, fUCKIN DAZAI, for a good while I was sure Kafka liked Dazai a lot better than Atsuhi for protagonist and now he's getting sidelined. I know bsd is still really popular in japan but at this point i think it would have been more merciful for Kafka to just end bsd and start a new manga with new characters instead of doing whatever weird metamorphosis this is turning out to be.
Introducing new characters isn't a bad thing of course, but bsd has become mcdonalds of new characters. They are cheap and disposable. I can't feel anything for them because I know nine times out of ten they'll barely make any impact and they'll disappear as soon as the new group slides in. When adding new characters you should do so while knowing what role those characters will play in your plot, what will they bring. If a character is just there to waffle around until they get shoved away they should probably be cut because they are wasting time and space. AND YOU SHOULDN'T SIDE LINE YOUR CORE CAST FOR UR SHINY NEW CHARACTERS YOU'LL GET BORED OF IN COUPLE OF ARCS ANYWAY, ARE YOU A TODDLER???
I still think that bsd could have been SO much better if instead of focusing on the next big evil group they just focused on shifting tension between the agency and the mafia. I mean they've had to team up for the guild and then they immediately got thrown into the cannibalization. It would have been interesting to see them pull against and pull towards those ties made during the guild arc when they are forcefully pitted against each other again (and decide that killing mori would be in everyone's best interest). Instead we got, idk I already forgot what the rats arc ended up being about, atsushi and aku team up again yadda yadda yadda, Chuuya gets done dirty and never recovers, Fyodor ruins Dazai
SO ABOUT FYODOR. As I said, Kafka strikes me as someone who REALLY likes to write geniuses and who wants people to think he's super smart but also has no idea how to show his work. At first this was okay. We had Dazai and Ranpo who were very good at pushing the plot along and sometimes you'd get explained how they got to that conclusion and sometimes you didn't but it usually wasn't a big deal. But then the writing became more and more and more of 'well he's smart so he figured it out so just trust me' without actually explaining anything and as you said, it ended up feeling boring, unengaging and very deus ex machina. You know what Kafka's writing reminds me off? That video about how Sherlock is so happy to stroke itself to how smart they look while never showing their work, you know the one. Kafka likes writing smart characters but doesn't actually know how to write smart characters so instead of giving us reasons and clues and explanations to how they come to some conclusion, how they predicted or planned or whatever, he just goes 'oh well they are super smart so they figured it out'. I don't think I need to explained why this is bad, annoying and unengaging writing. This is why i say Fyodor ruined Dazai for me, Dazai was fine as a genius but then they had to pit him against Fyodor who's another genius and things just got ridiculous. You know how in that sherlock video the guy points out the one scene that encapsulates every irritating thing about sherlocks writing. This had been it for me and BSD (thank you Foxy for helping me find the panels)
THATS NOT HOW CODES WORK, THATS NOT HOW ANYTHING WORKS, THEY WOULD JUST BE COMING UP WITH TWO DIFFERENT SETS OF CODES HERE. Even if they were both smart enough to remember every conversation in detail, how on earth are they supposed to 'guess out' what the other means. How are they supposed to confirm or deny that's what a certain word means in a way that can be understood, how can they even guess what the word the other guessed is IF THEY ARE BOTH TALKING IN CODE. KAFKA'S ANSWER: THEY'RE MONSTERS, THEY ARE JUST THAT SMART, NO NEED TO EXPLAIN IT BECAUSE THEY ARE JUST THAT SMART AND THAT'S YOUR SOLUTION AND THAT'S BULLSHIT. This scene broke bsd in half for me and honestly made me dislike Dazai for a long time (I got better), but it honestly shows so well how Kafka wanted to make his characters so smart he actually made his manga really fuckin stupid, ruining very good and interesting concept he had started with.
In the end, Kafka writes how I wrote when I was 15. With no idea where the plot is headed, adding new characters and situations whenever it strikes his fancy whether they work for the story or not, ending up just flopping around plot holes and fizzled out character arcs and boring ass writing. And that's fine for a 15yr old writing fanfiction. It's not fine for a presumably grown ass published author of a relatively popular manga.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
#anon#bsd#if you like bsd dont read this i tear it apart#BUT KAFKA MAKES ME SO ANGRY AAAAA#IVE NEVER SEEN SO MUCH POTENTIAL WASTED SO EFFECTIVLY
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OH MY GOD OKAY IT’S HAPPENING
HI! I AM BEYOND EXCITED AAAAA
I’m writing this on Friday, but I’m waiting until Saturday to post it- partially because I want to give people a chance to watch the episodes for themselves, and mostly because I’m extremely tired from cooking and hosting the full on dinner party I decided to hold for this premiere. This is what being an adult is, baby!! Putting together sophisticated get-togethers to watch kid’s shows!!
A quick warning! This liveblog will reference plot points from the books, which will spoil the books and future episodes of the show. And believe me, it’s much more fun to go in blind :)
With that out of the way, here’s episode one: A Bunch of Smart Orphans!
Here he is! Mr. Benedict himself and-
KATE!!! KATE THE GREAT! Love her!
Sticky!
Ah, and hello foreshadowing (aka Mr. and Mrs. Washington).
And here’s our first major change- Constance’s backstory. I’ve seen folks bringing up how this could affect the plot of a possible season 3/ Prisoner’s Dilemma adaptation… personally, I think that show runners definitely have a plan. They seem enthusiastic about future seasons, and I doubt they would self sabotage. Plus, this is only one small scene- we don’t know yet how much has changed, or if it’s changed at all!
Also, I already adore Constance.
The vague and ominous signs around town are a nice touch!
REYNIE! REYNIE MULDOON! Annnnnd- roll intro!
Her Majesty the Queen??? Madge?? Hello??? You’re one book early, ma’am, but AAAAAA WHAT A NICE REFERENCE
OKAY I’LL PROBABLY MAKE A SEPARATE POST JUST FOR THE INTRO BUT FOR NOW I WILL SAY THIS: IT SLAPS
Miss PERUMAL MY BELOVED
hmmmmmMMMMM wow good thing our current world isn’t like that haha! haha
ha
she saved it for him,,,,
So the Boatwright Academy is an actual place? Wonder how Mr Benedict got out of those lawsuits dktxkjkigxit
Then again, this man lives in an actual mansion, I think he can afford it
Tamil!!
fyidbsurekgxugsoydkvdiywitxyiv
such a good moment and it’s straight from the book!
:(
:( :(
:( :( :( :( :(
i,,,,,,, i need a minute,,,,,,
I LOVE THEMMMMMM
NUMBER TWO
okay funny story- i only found out about this show when the trailer came out, and for some reason my first thought was “i wonder if they cast kristen schaal as number two” and SURE ENOUGH
why was that the first thing i thought? why is she somehow perfect for this role? no clue. must be fate.
the visuals for the questions are so cool
…
THE WAY SHE JUST LEAVES
oooooh…. that’s a really good way to show how long the emergency has been going on, and how nothing has changed…. because none of it is real
AAAAAAAA the green hair! the cloud dress!! i love it!!!
9 year old me was blown away by this
THE PICKLE JAR I-
Okay, now I know why Kristen Schaal is perfect for this. Her deliveries are so deadpan but so funny.
I’ve used a lot of school pencil sharpeners, can confirm they always sucked
HEBEHEUDQHBSYQQJWHBIGHHSEHHFHQJHDHEBSHIWQNFHISMCIJCHXNDUWQJ
This also blew my mind in 4th grade.
and so the kids finally meet!!
The Great Kate Weather Machine!! I love her!!
hmmmm do i hear hintings of a character arc?
They don’t bring up her measuring ability again, but it’s nice that they mentioned it!
ah yes, the adaptation-only fodder characters! nice to meet you two, we’re never going to see you again! (unless the writers pull a dungeons and dragons and make one of these random kids the big bad all along…. 👀 /j)
Kate Wetherall: Agent of Chaos. (you know, that might actually be a pretty good nickname. she should look into that)
MILLIGANNNNN
👀 👀
WOW, REAL SUBTLE GUYS
OOOOOOOH
split screen! very cool :)
THE PERSPECTIVE SHIFT IS SO CLEVER
Kate Wetherall: Rater of Sewers. (okay, yeah, that one’s not so great)
Kate Wetherall: Rater of- okay, you know what, not doing the same joke again.
People keep repeating that specific phrase- “Nobody’s at the wheel”. Interesting…
AGAIN. SUBTLE.
The framing of shots with these two specifically is so genius. It’s barely noticeable, unless you already know the twist in the first book! Someone who’s going in blind might notice how some shots seem to linger, but they wouldn’t put two and two together right away, which makes it excellent foreshadowing. aaaaaa i love it-
This scene is done so beautifully!!! The home video look… i’m crying
Katie-Cat,,,,,
Her jacket being from the circus is a really cool detail :)
NO HE DIDN-
excuse me for a moment
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
shut UP DEWEY
the DRAMA I LOVE HIM
SHUT UP DEWEY
YEAH GO OFF KATE
RHONDA KAZEMBE MY LOVE
HER ACCENTTTTTT ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
using that split screen again! more shows should use split screen, i think :)
KATE WETHERALL: KARATE MASTER
ughhhhh dewey
I HAVE NEVER HATED A CHILD MORW IN MY LIFE YOU JERK
“it was more of a yell” ahgehdhwjfjwhxnijhq
reynie you sweetheart <3
kate!!
OHH i hate you
kate, on the other hand, i adore awwwwww
AWWWWWWWWWWWWW
HAHAAAA GET OWNED LOSER
ROLL CRED- no wait
HERE HE ISSSSS (for real this time)
MR. BENEDICTTTTT
“donteatthat” ahgehdhwhdhhshws
awwwww
ah- well, not inaccurate
WHAT AN AMAZING WAY TO INTRODUCE A CHARACTER
THE TRUE MAIN CHARACTER IS HERE
MS. CONSTANCE CONTRAIRE
he looks so excited i- ❤️❤️❤️
wow rude
AN I C O N
ICON
I saw someone in the comments of this clip saying that this is actually a pretty accurate depiction of narcolepsy with cataplexy! good for the crew doing their research :)
“Constance, apparently.”
They included the green plaid! Even if it’s not really part of his costume.
Marta Kessler’s facial expressions are glorious
:( :( :(
:) :) :)
REYNIE-
love these science nerds higsftjydgitloh
machinator
I LOVE HIM I LOVE HIM
I LOVE HIMMMMMM
HIS VOICE,,,,, HIS FACE,,,,,,, REYNIEEEEEE
OH HECK
RECRUITERS?????
oKAYYYYYY
WELL THAT’S A CLIFFHANGER ALL RIGHT
and we get to hear that awesome intro music again :)
So! Overall thoughts: 9/10! A really solid premiere, definitely has me excited for things to come, and a pretty faithful adaptation! Obviously there were some changes, but that’s always to be expected when adapting a book to the screen. I really enjoyed it!
I’m going to get more pie, and then on to episode two!
#mysterious benedict society#the mysterious benedict society#mbs disney#mbs#mbs disney spoilers#mbs spoilers#mbs liveblog#sylv liveblogs#mbs s1e1
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FAHC: Sweet Sauce
This is my first time writing for the FAHC. I haven’t really ever written anything like this before, but after reading some of the stories on Tumblr and watching a GTA I had missed from months ago, I was inspired to cover a duo that I haven’t seen on here. Hope you enjoy!
Axial never really goes in the field. Not because he doesn’t want to, nor because he’d be incredibly less effective than any of the others. He tends to hang back to work on the comms and hacking for the team because he knows he’s the best at it. No one else could co-ordinate the communication between the chaos within The Fakes, it takes someone with a will of steel like him to ignore all of the snark and push back with both authority and advice. He also knew that, without specific instructions, no one else in the gang could hack into any targeted building like he could. He also is one of the best at on-the-fly adapting when shit goes south and a plan needs to change. When it comes to field duty, however, he makes exceptions on special occasions. In particular, he will go into the field if requested.
As it turns out, Matt’s actually pretty adept in at more than just communications, planning and hacking. He’s a stellar driver. This fact wasn’t well known to The Fakes until he trounced them in another Mario Kart tournament, to which a drunk and furious Mogar loudly proclaimed that he could outrace Axial in real life any day of the week. Once everyone was sober, Michael doubled down – and got beaten by Axial. It was a close race, since Michael was brilliant at driving, but Axial had something he didn’t. Knowledge. The hacker knew the city like the back of his hand due to his life on the streets, and once he was told the destination he knew every turn and how to safely make them. Everyone was stunned, as Michael shook Matt's hand with a smirk, calling him a piece of shit.
Matt only drove for the crew on missions when requested personally, leaving his communications job to The Boss while he would hack remotely from the car. He’s only ever done so for three people, up until this point. Once for Rimmy Tim, since he knew it would be fun. Once for The Golden Boy, because he knew he’d get a good laugh out of it. And once for The Sauce. Almost everything in The Fakes was an unofficial competition. Who got the most kills on a job, who could escape the cops the quickest, even who could piss off The Vagabond first. And there was no one more competitive in the group than Alfredo. Even though these contests meant little-to-nothing, they meant everything to him. He had to win. And, most of the time, he would. So, when he was told the next job involved multiple hits at different locations, utilising teams of one gunman and one driver, he knew exactly who was going to drive him.
Convincing Matt wasn’t as hard as The Sauce had thought. Deep down, he had a competitive streak that was just shy of Alfredo’s. All it took was the promise of victory over Gavin, Jeremy and even The Vagabond to convince him. It was getting everyone else on board with having one of their least experienced members in the field to leave the penthouse, to go on a mission with just one other person, that was harder. They knew he could handle the driving job, but they also figured there must be a reason he locked himself in his room during a Heist. The pressure could get to him, and that could get one or both of them hurt. Besides, he’d only ever driven before and this particular job required the use of covering fire from the driver to assist in the gunman’s run inside. As far as The Fakes knew, Axial had no training with a gun.
With a face that reminded the others of the calm before a storm, Matt pulled out a pistol no one had ever seen on him and cleanly shot three of The Kingpins most expensive vases on the other side of the room in as many shots. As he put his gun away without a word, everyone was quick to agree – Axial was on the mission.
The robbery teams were; Axial and The Sauce, or 'Sweet Sauce’; Supernova and The Golden Boy, or 'Chungə'; and Rimmy Tim and The Vagabond, or 'The Battle Buddies'. Each team would be simultaneously hitting a different building. Each building was the home of one of the many idiotic celebrities living in Los Santos, those with lots of money and little security. The plan was to steal as much expensive looking gear and/or cash as possible and leave. This was, in turn, a distraction for the main job. With the simultaneous big-name robberies, the police would be spread incredibly thin, allowing Mogar and the Pilot, or 'The Betting Buddies', to 'covertly' enter LSPD headquarters to locate and take information the cops have compiled on The Fakes. Or, as covertly as one could do a job like this with Michael.
Once Alfredo had recruited Matt to his team, he began to really play up the sense of rivalry they all had. He made sure they all knew the newly christened ‘Sweet Sauce’ were planning on doing everything the best. Fastest to the house, fastest in, most cash grabbed, fastest back to HQ. He enthused with the utmost confidence how they were going to destroy everyone – with a silent grinning Axial standing behind him. The others eventually got riled up enough that they laid down a bet. The team who did each aspect of the job the best would win $1000. Everyone involved in the job, even The Boss and The Wildcard who would both be staying at the penthouse as comms and backup respectively, put in cash to make a prize pool of $3000. Due to the constant feed that would be going to The Boss, he was going to be in charge of timing each team’s work. Michael and Jack then began a betting pool to see who would win the most cash, for those who weren’t participating to have some fun too. In the end, only The Kingpin placed a bet on Sweet Sauce. Everyone thought Matt too inexperienced and Alfredo too cocky. But, for some reason, Geoff saw something different.
The job was simple, and it went off without a hitch. Each team did their job even better than they normally would, since they had a lot riding on it. Chungə tried to focus on just getting one part as fast as possible. As such, they broke every speed limit and ran every red light to get to their house the fastest. And they succeeded, beating both Sweet Sauce and The Battle Buddies to their destination, both earning $500.
The Battle Buddies, however, wanted to humble Alfredo, and figured with Matt on the job it would be fairly easy. Even so, not wanting to take the risk, they tried their hardest at getting each aspect as quick as possible, with Rimmy behind the wheel and The Vagabond storming the woefully unprepared home to rob it of as much as he could, before they raced home at record pace.
They were shocked to see Sweet Sauce had arrived in the garage just seconds before them, with two full duffel bags of loot. Axial and The Sauce had worked incredibly well together, even more so under pressure. It was Matt’s idea for them to take a gamble and both storm the house. If it worked, they’d clear it quicker and they could steal double the gear. The risk was potentially losing their car, which was one of The Sauce’s personal vehicles. Shockingly, he didn’t bat an eye at the idea. Even if, at most, he was only going to make $1500 on this bet and would be losing a far more expensive car the victory itself would be absolutely worth it. And so, they executed their plan to perfection. Axial found the most simplistic and expedient route to their target, they both entered the premises with guns blazing, loaded up their bags and left in complete unison with Alfredo behind the wheel, Axial giving him directions from the passenger seat. Even though he was famously not as good at driving, the two of them wanted to rub in their victory. Matt and Alfredo had just gotten $1000 richer.
Their victory in two of the three categories had pipped Geoff as the biggest victor in the betting pool, winning a cool $400. After returning from the successful police headquarters heist, Michael was thrilled to learn he won $200 by betting on Chungə. Everyone else don’t make any winnings by betting on ‘the sure bet’ of The Battle Buddies, much to Jack’s dismay.
This was not the first time that Axial would work out in the field with The Sauce. Doing this job was one of the many reasons that the resident computer expert had decided to be out in the field. It didn’t hurt when The Vagabond tried desperately to earn his winnings back, and The Sauce requested his assistance again. They wouldn’t always work together, but whenever they did it was damn near impossible to top them.
Hope you guys liked it! I don't know how much FAHC I will be writing, but this was a fun thing I liked in my head. I might try to write more dialogue next time. This sort of recount style fit this story but I want to try my hand at figuring out these characters a little more. If I do more, I think I'll probably focus on Axial/Matt. No surprise, but the boys my favourite.
#fahc#fahc fanfiction#matt bragg#alfredo diaz#michael jones#ryan haywood#gavin free#fiona nova#jeremy dooley#jack pattillo#geoff ramsey#trevor collins#lindsey jones#achievement hunter#fake ah crew#fahc vagabond#fahc matt#fahc jack#fahc gavin#fahc michael
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Spectrum
FF.net: here / AO3: here
Characters: Tachikawa Mimi and Takenouchi Sora
Pairing: Sorami
Words: 3100+
Notes: There’s no other explanation to this other than I love these two. And I hope to be more than Mimi.
HAPPY PRIDE! LOVE IS LOVE!
Enjoy!!!
To Mimi, love was something she understood from a young age. It had never been the subject to ask any explanation for; she simply had always embraced it. She felt it in the small things, such as the cherry blossoms growing on the trees during spring, or with the rainbows that came after a big rainstorm.
She had had great teachers, too, the best ones, even. The way her parents loved each other, by how her dad always opened the door, of any kind, to her mom, or left a bouquet of flowers every seventh of the month on their dinner table, as if they had just started dating, made her heart ginormous. She loved love and was not afraid to express it.
She had always had many boyfriends, even if they tended to last a couple of months only, but each one of them Mimi could have sworn at some point of their relationship, had to be the love of her life. Her friends tended to roll their eyes at her, Mimi was a hopeless romantic, and she could not deny it, she did not want to.
When she was eleven, her world turned upside down, when her parents told her they would move to New York, the Big Apple, which she had only seen on movies. She was at shock at first, of course, but she was sure she could handle it. She had always been a sucker for adventures, after all.
"Aren't you scared of learning a new language?" her oldest friend, redhead Sora, was helping her packing. Their mothers had introduced them to each other when Mimi was in diapers, and Sora was only a year older than she was. Mimi's mother was passionate for anything luxurious, and she considered flowers a luxury, she always had. Hence why she had to take Ikebana classes, which was how she met Toshiko, Sora's mother.
They had been best friends ever since.
"I have been practicing a little bit! One, two, three!" She counted with her fingers, in English with a thick Japanese accent, which left Sora speechless. Mimi was her own kind.
"I will really miss you." Sora said after closing the last box in the brunette's room. It felt cold, wrong even.
"Don't be silly, daddy promised we will come visit every summer at least," Sora embraced Mimi, and it was the very first time she had felt sad about moving. New York was exciting, of course, but it did not have Sora.
.
New York was a whole universe apart from Tokyo. Sure, they were both huge cities, but the mentalities from one another, it was hard to believe they were both under the same sky.
Mimi had learned so much more about love during the six long years she had lived there. For starters, contrary to what most of the media she consumed while growing up had wanted her to believe, sexual orientation was a spectrum, which had as many options as humankind would let it. Mimi had remained a love lover, and that also meant she had, well, experimented here and there. And she had enjoyed every piece of it.
When her parents gave her the option to study her junior year of high school in Japan once again, she accepted without hesitation. New York would always be waiting for her, but Japan felt more distant than ever, and she somehow felt a part of her was missing.
She was especially excited to see her childhood friends, especially Sora, whom she had not seen for two years, but had kept in touch via e-mails and text messages. God bless cellphones and the internet. Sora had told her that she was in a relationship during those years they had been apart but had just broken up.
He had other priorities; Sora explained.
Since Mimi´s parents never had the heart to sell their old apartment, Mimi could have it all for herself, which was a dream for someone who loved experimenting with art like she did. She had seen so many cool ideas on design magazines, she could not wait to bring some western into good old Tokyo.
Sora was waiting for her at the airport, with a very tiny, very discrete, but with the most beautiful handwriting WELCOME HOME MIMI sign. She had written it in English, too. Mimi squealed the moment she saw her and ran as if she was in one of her favorite rom coms, to embrace the redhead.
"It has been ages, Sora, you look fantastic!" and she was not lying. Last time they had seen each other, Sora was fifteen and she was fourteen, during the teenage years, each one counted as at least five. Sora had not grown in height, Mimi was still slightly shorter, but it had always been like that, however, she looked grown, almost adult. Perhaps it was being an Ikebana master daughter, but Sora's posture and presence was impeccable.
"Says Tokyo's favorite princess," her and Sora had always had what Mimi liked to think as a spiritual connection. They were so incredibly different, in every single aspect, however, any time their eyes linked, they could communicate in ways Mimi could not dare to try with anyone else. "Did you seriously only bring a couple luggage?"
"Silly little Sora, the rest is being shipped, obviously!"
It had been a month since Mimi had arrived back to Tokyo, she had had enough time to unpack, and get familiar with the language once again. Classes had also started, and as much as she did not want to admit it, she had felt like an outsider. Sure, she was amicable with the rest of the girls in her class, but she could sense the hypocrisy behind their smiles. Mimi was very sensible with people's vibes, after all.
Sora tried her best to be there whenever she needed her, but Mimi understood she was close to be driven insane. Not only was Sora on her senior year of high school, and applying to the best design schools in Tokyo, but she was still managing to be in the tennis team, help her mom with the school and stay as a top-notch student. Mimi's head was in pain by just imagining it. She was grateful Sora had managed to save that Saturday night just for them, for old time's sake.
"Sorry I'm late! My mom had ordered forget-me-nots for the school, but they sent carnations instead! Can you imagine the chaos? We had to make like a million calls in order to get three hundred forget-me-nots in time for the exhibition next week, I almost had a stroke!"
Sora took out of her bag chips and sodas for their movie night. She also brought out skin care products, since she knew Mimi loved them. That was Sora in a nutshell, always going above and beyond for everyone, but especially for those close to her heart.
"You sound so stressed, and remember, stress is not allowed in the Tachikawa household!" Mimi was already in her PJs, she helped Sora with the snacks, and they both proceeded to sit in the living room. "Nu-uh, you must get into your sleepwear, otherwise you would be breaking the most important rule of slumber parties!"
Sora rolled her eyes and got into the bathroom, to get out wearing, not a silk set like Mimi was, but running shorts and an oversized tee. Sora had a unique kind of beauty; while Mimi had a face you could be able to catch on a runway, Sora had a face that made you look. No wonder most of the guys at school were even scared to talk to her, she was mesmerizing, even with no makeup and her short auburn hair all over her face.
"You have no idea how much I needed this evening, it's exactly what kept me going throughout the week!" Sora stole the chips from Mimi and smiled, she felt a punch in her stomach which she decided to ignore. "What are we watching?" Sora asked completely clueless of her anatomic pain.
"One of my favorites, The Notebook, the kind of love story that makes you want to die," Sora raised her eyebrows, not surprised by Mimi's exaggerations.
It was no lie The Notebook was one of Mimi's favorite movies, but she could not focus on the movie even if she were being paid to do so, and not because she had seen it at least fifteen times, but because she could not keep her eyes off Sora, and her reactions on the star-crossed lover's story. Sure, Mimi had experimented with women back in New York, but they had never been her very best friend.
"No way he fixed the house for them!" Sora was slowly cleaning up the tears that were fighting to get out of her eyes, as she caught Mimi staring at her.
Sora, on the other hand, had never experimented anything, of barely any kind. She had lived in Japan her whole life, and the most extreme adventure of her life was missing the train while she was on her way to visit her dad in Kyoto. In her very structured brain, heterosexuality was the only way of loving, the one-way couples existed. Then, why was she feeling magnetic towards Mimi's hazel eyes?
Mimi was the one to make the first move, holding her hand gently, to see what Sora's reaction on it was. She was static, but did not seem against her touch, either, so she slid closer, removing the bare centimeters that were separating them to each other. Her hand moved up Sora's arm, to her collarbone, neck and stopped right at her cheek. Sora's whole body was on fire, she had never been touched with such care, with such kindness.
Words were not necessary when the unspoken language between their gazes was so powerful. Maybe it had been a second, maybe it had been an hour, but Sora's lips were all over Mimi's, as if she had wanted to do it all her life, as if she had needed to do it all her life.
The kiss had started sweet, a peck savoring Mimi's strawberry infused lipstick, but had slowly increased in heat, Sora's body felt sweaty. Their lips had understood each other perfectly, adapting to the other's pace, and need. Sora's thoughts had been emptied for the whole time, and she wanted it to remain like that. Whenever she thought, she tended to overdo it, and she really did not want to ruin the moment.
Until their lips had to be separated, not because they wanted to, but because they needed to catch some air. Mimi's lips seemed swollen, and Sora's hair was messier than before. They were both panting, cheeks flushed.
And then it hit her, the big wave of thoughts entered Sora's brain and she got scared. What had she just done? That was Mimi sitting in front of her, that was Mimi who she had been kissing as if they were the couple in the cheesy Hollywood film they were watching. Tears filled her eyes once again, she was shaking.
"I'm sorry but… I really need to go." She grabbed her backpack and ran as fast as she could. She was not brave enough to face Mimi once again, because she was the reflection of what she had done, and she was not ready to hear it out loud.
Mimi was left alone in her parent's small apartment, because somehow it still did not feel like her's. She hugged herself and tried to force herself into finishing the movie, which was almost impossible, since her tears barely let her see anything.
What had she been thinking? Sora was all she had in Japan, her only sincere friendship, and she had to be stupid enough to let her feelings lead the way and ruin the only thing that was right with her life. Her chest was in so much pain, Sora would probably never speak to her again, and she could not blame her. Mimi was not stupid, and she knew Japan was one of the most homophobic countries in the world, even if it was the 21st century for fucks sake!
In New York things were much more different, and sure, homophobic folks existed here and there, but it was 2005 and her gay friends were allowed to hold hands in public, even show other signs of affection. Yeah, same sex marriage was not allowed just yet, but they were close to getting there! Japan was miles away from any kind of acceptation… God, what had she been thinking? Perhaps she should start looking for planes, to go back to where she belonged.
Sora ran, she ran so fast she felt her legs could detach from her body. She was not sure why she was running so fast, the one thing she wanted to get away from was on top of her shoulders. She was aware she had been the one to make the final move and kiss Mimi, the facts were there, what she wanted to know, to understand, was the reason behind her actions. She had never seen girls in a romantic or sexual way, she barely even had a close relationship with many girls.
But she had not been on drugs, or alcohol, or any other substance she could blame her actions on. She had just been drawn to Mimi's pink lips as if it were the natural thing to do, as she had kissed her ex-boyfriend so many times. She stopped running to catch a breath, she was not even close to her home, because she had been running without a destination in mind. She knew she had acted like a jerk by leaving Mimi's apartment, but she really needed to be alone, clear up her thoughts.
She grabbed her phone and texted Mimi, "can we talk about this tomorrow? I need to clear up my thoughts."
"Sure ," Mimi replied unable to write a dry message. Happy faces tended to relax situations, right?
Mimi and Sora agreed to meet in Sora's apartment to have breakfast. They could have had their conversation in a restaurant, or café, but the mere thought of being heard by anyone, drove Sora insane. No, they needed privacy.
Sora still felt guilty about leaving in such a rude way the night after, so she tried her best to cook an American breakfast, with pancakes and sunny side up eggs. She bought bacon, too! Very early in the morning, considering she had barely even slept.
Mimi knocked Sora's door, with a knot on her stomach. She could smell from the hallway the breakfast she had prepared, and she hated to admit she was hungry. Sora was a great cook, another talent to add to her never-ending list.
"Hi," Sora opened merely a second after she had knocked, making Mimi believe she had been standing behind the door for a few minutes. She seemed nervous, considering she could not stop playing with her hands. Who was she kidding, Mimi was crazy nervous, too.
"I brought flowers, which is probably stupid considering I came to the Japanese kingdom of flowers," it was a single orchid, beautifully sitting in a nice pot. Sora grabbed it and placed it in the middle of the kitchen table. It all had been arranged as a nice brunching spot Mimi would go to on a Saturday evening in the American city, her heart skipped a beat. "You didn't have to go this far with the breakfast, you know?"
"It's nothing," she shrugged her shoulders, which Mimi could see since Sora was wearing a tank top. She had never noticed the amount of freckles Sora had on them. "You know how much I enjoy cooking, please sit or it will get cold."
They ate in silence, making a mundane comment here and there, about anything but the one subject that was burning on both of their chests.
"I want to apologize for leaving like that yesterday, it was rude. No matter how confused I was feeling, that had not been your fault."
"I understand, really. You don't need to apologize, I seriously thought you would never speak to me again."
"Why would you think that?" Sora's voice sounded hurt.
"Well, considering the circumstances… it could get weird. I've been there before."
"But Mimi, before anything we are friends, best friends even. Sure, I am still very confused about my actions last night, but you did not offend me. I can not promise I could see women in a romantic way, I did not even know it was an option until last night but… I would never want to lose you."
"It must have come as a big shocker to you, right? So many of the people I had mentioned in my mails and letters were girls. To me love never had a specific sex attached to it, not even when I was a kid. I have been working with my sexuality for my whole life. I do not expect you to figure it out in a single night."
"So you…?"
"I have fallen for girls before, yes. I believe I do like girls more than I like boys. Girls tend to be more sensible and open with their feelings, you know? Of course, I do not expect my feelings to be reciprocated, there may even be a chance I am just confused because you are the only person who I feel at home with in this country. I am sorry I let myself get controlled by my feelings, I tend to do that a lot."
"Wow Mimi, I had no idea."
"I do not think I have ever said this out loud, I am not the best at speaking."
"Are we sure The United States is in the same planet as Japan?"
"Right? Japan may be advanced in technology, but you guys still live in the 15th century for so many other things."
"In my household I think we live in that century for most of the things, including beds," both Mimi and Sora laughed, cleaning up the air. "You are so brave, Mimi. For never being afraid of being yourself. You are such a blessing to anyone who ever runs into your life, I will never understand how you do it."
"I guess I have been lucky to, for the most part, run into the right people. Thank you, Sora, for not seeing me as a monster."
"Are you kidding? You are way too pretty to be a monster," they held hands, speaking once again everything they could not say out loud with their eyes.
Mimi knew she could not ask Sora to be with her, not in that moment, not the way she wanted her to be. But Sora was still for her, and she knew she would always be. She was grateful she could still be herself with the redhead, no matter the circumstances.
#digimon adventure#tachikawa mimi#takenouchi sora#sorami#mimi tachikawa#sora takenouchi#fanfic#fanfiction#mimi x sora
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May 6, 2021: The Martian (2015) (Recap: Part One)
We’re leaving lo-fi sci-fi, people. Kind of.
I mentioned before that films like Her are what I define as “lo-fi sci-fi”, which is a category that I’ve kind of made up. Basically, it’s the science fiction version of low fantasy, meaning it contains science fiction themes contained within an otherwise contemporary setting. In the case of Her, Joaquin Phoenix’s character, along with many others, live in a world and setting basically like ours, but with technology advanced enough to generate AIs (like Siri) that are intelligent enough to actually ascend our reality. Because we live in a society.
You give me Joaquin Phoenix, I’m gonna make a Joker reference; it’s in the contract of my existence. Anyway, that is admittedly kind of broad, right? I mean, that has the capability of crossing over with a BUNCH of sci-fi genres and themes. And, considering that we’ve already seen magic, speculative technology, time travel, monsters, and artificial intelligence, we’ve already touched on quite a bit.
And with science fiction, the sky’s the limit. Literally. So, I think it behooves us to re-examine lo-fi sci-fi a little bit. Specifically, we should note that it can also be defined as an extension of currently existing technologies and possibilities. Writers would call this “speculative sci-fi”, assuming in this case that it’s set within the present or a near and attainable future. Her definitely fits in this category, as does Westworld. But, let’s crossover to another genre by speculating upon another possibility. And it begins with this man. Probably.
Hey, Elon, what’s up? Now, Mr. Musk here is a...controversial figure, for COMPLETELY understandable reasons. Instead of touch upon the man himself, I feel like touching upon one of his recent focuses: space travel. With SpaceX and the various upcoming space trips and journeys that they’re planning, Musk has made it clear that he plans to shoot to the Moon. Again, literally.
In fact, this full plan is to go even further than that, and to fuel potential commercial space flights in the future, which is admittedly very cool. And of course, if you’re going to shoot for the Moon...
Guys...guys, that’s Mars. THAT’S FUCKING MARS
Is that not amazing? We have sound and pictures from FUCKING MARS! THAT’S A DIFFERENT PLANET, GODDAMN IT! It’s cooler than I have the ability to properly express, but it IS goddamn cool. And this means that, easily within my lifetime, we could (and likely will) land on Mars. Which is amazing. God, I really want to see that happen.
And so, landing on Mars is BARELY science fiction, but since we haven’t yet done so...yeah, it’s fictional at the moment. And so, any film about landing on Mars falls within this category. Well...to an extent.
2000′s Mission to Mars, for example, was a Disney-funded film (to my IMMENSE surprise; and it’s based off of an old Disney World ride, WHAT), and a movie that I saw a LOT when I was a kid. I also barely remember it, to be honest. But that film is straight-up science fiction because of, well...aliens. The idea of Martians is, as far as we know it, fictional. And most fiction involving Mars includes these aliens somehow. Whether it’s DC Comics’ entire civilization of Martians, as seen in Justice League, Supergirl, or Young Justice...
...Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s heavily mythologized civilization, as seen in the Barsoom series of novels (and another Disney film)...
...Or one of the best Looney Tunes characters.
Mmm. Yes. Isn’t that lovely?
But, yeah, Mars and aliens go hand-in-hand in our media. So, to properly look at lo-fi science and speculative science fiction in relation to the Red Planet, we’ll need a movie that goes to the planet, and doesn’t touch upon the concept of aliens AT ALL.
Enter...Ridley Scott?
Yeah, the director of Legend, Alien, Thelma and Louise, Blade Runner, Gladiator. Also the director of Kingdom of Heaven, Prometheus, Exodus: Gods and Kings, and...ugh, 1492: Conquest of Paradise. I’ve talked about his mixed record before, in my Recap of Legend right here.
In 2014, he was brought on to adapt a book by Andy Weir called The Martian, which is a great book! I’ve listened to the audio book, and I whole-heartedly recommend doing that. And because of that, I am VERY MUCH looking forward to watching this film, especially seeing as it’s often called one of the best science fiction films made during that year, and was critically acclaimed then and now. It got seven Oscar nominations (although it won none of them), amongst other awards. So, enough navel-gazing, huh? The Martian!
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
Recap (1/2)
On Acidalia Plantitia, at the landing site of the Ares III mission, a group of scientists are gathering samples. These scientists are commander and geologist Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain), pilot Rick Martinez (Michael Pena), systems operator Beth Johanssen (Kate Mara), surgeon Chris Beck (Sebastian Stan), German chemist Alex Vogel (Aksel Hennie), and overly talkative botanist Mark Watney (Matt Damon).
The group seems to have a good dynamic, but that dynamic is interrupted by a massive dust storm, which is large enough to cause the entire crew to evacuate. However, in the chaos of the dust storm, Mark is hit by debris and lost in the shuffle. Although Lewis goes back to find him, she can’t get to him before they need to leave, and Mark is believed dead. This is reported (pretty callously) by NASA Director Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels) to the press soon afterwards.
But of course, that wouldn’t be much of a movie, now would it? Mark’s alive! And Mark’s alone. With his suit damaged, and low on oxygen, he trudges back to headquarters, which is intact and still contains breathable oxygen. He gets inside, and realizes that he’s been stabbed in the abdomen by some debris. He removes it, and stitches up his own wound. Which is...god, it’s fucking BRUTAL just to think about, nevertheless watch.
Once he’s finished, he records a log for the future, if he doesn’t make it. It’s day 19 of the 31-day mission at this point, and Mark’s basically screwed. He needs lasting oxygen, water, and food, and he might need that for 4 years, when the next manned mission can come to the red planet. Additionally, he has absolutely no way to contact NASA, leaving him completely stranded. Another dust storm rolls in that night, and Mark looks over the belongings of his colleagues, packing them up for their eventual return. It’s somber, to say the least. However, Mark affirms that he’s determined not to die on the planet.
After doing the math, Mark should have enough food to last him for about 300 days, especially if he rations it. Until then, he’ll need to figure out how to grow his own food, on a planet where nothing grows. Which is, of course, going to be a difficult feat to accomplish. But Mark Watney’s a botanist with botany powers, and he’s gonna do it.
It’s day 31, and Mark’s brought in dirt from the outside, and uses the bio-waste from the crew’s stay there for a form of compost. After 5 days, mostly full of him watching Happy Days on TV and trying to farm, he realizes that he needs water, both for himself and for the soil. To do that, he goes chemical and decides to use hydrogen-laden rocket fuel, wood from Martinez’s belongings, and good old-fashioned fire to make water! And since hydrogen + oxygen = water, it should work. With a minor side-effect.
So, yeah, he blew himself up. As as he records a video log, the sound mixing makes itself impressively known by subtly and realistically generating a tinnitus sound. It’s VERY well-done, holy shit. Anyway, he makes a stable fire, and the place is soon covered in condensation, moistening the room and the soil successfully.
We get to day 54, and Mark’s planted leftover potatoes from the crew in order to grow them. And while he’s being mourned at a funeral on Earth, and in NASA, he’s seeing the fruits (or shoots) of his efforts.
Back on Earth, Mars Mission Director Vincent Kapoor (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is trying to convince Director Teddy to let him lobby for another Ares mission, despite the risk of bad press for the callousness of the proximity to Watney’s death. Meanwhile, satellite technician Mindy Park (Mackenzie Davis) looks down at the Ares III site, and realizes that the site has changed visually, meaning that Mark may actually be alive.
Shocked by this, she tells Kapoor, Teddy, and media director Annie Montrose (Kristen Wiig) about this, and they realize the absolute clusterfuck that this whole thing is. They can’t tell the other members of the Ares III crew about it, because it’d devastate them for the 10 months they have to get back to Earth, at the VERY least. They can’t tell the WORLD about this, because they just had a funeral for the guy, and they’d reveal that they left him stranded on Mars accidentally, destroying faith in the Mars Missions Program. And they can’t save Mark, who they’re sure will starve eventually. It’s a mess. And Kapoor also wonders what’s happening to Mark psychologically through all of this.
And yet, they reveal this to the world regardless, causing the clusterfuck reaction that they think it’s going to cause. But Mark’s busy on Mars, figuring out how to get to the site of the next Ares IV mission in 4 years, at the Schiaparelli crater about 50 days travel away. This is a struggle, as his Rover has only so much power and fuel, and he can only get more power by cutting out the heater is risking death by freezing. So, problems. However, he figures out a potential solution: radioactive isotopes! In a move that is, let’s face it, COMPLETELY INSANE, he digs up a radioactive generator from the ship in order to heat the ship.
On Earth, they try to figure out Mark’s moves, as well as how to resupply Ares IV sooner for Mark’s benefit. This is with the director of JPL, Bruce Ng (Benedict Wong), and the flight director of the ship Hermes, Mitch Henderson (Sean Bean), who insists that they tell the Ares II crew. They continue to monitor Mark, and note that he’s been travelling for 17 days in his Rover towards something. Kapoor figures it out, and flies to California.
See, Mark needs a way to contact NASA, and he believes that the way to do so is through Pathfinder, the first probe ever sent to Mars in 1997, lasting for 9 months since landing until they lost contact. Mark digs it up, and the people at JPL in California start their own efforts for contact. And despite communication being extremely rudimentary, initially limited to yes/no questions that use a still-frame camera, it fucking WORKS! WHOO!
To boost this communication hurdle, the two camps figure out a hexadecimal system for communication, allowing them to communicate using a circular table of numbers that represent an alphabet. That allows them to teach Mark to hack into the Rover, allowing it to piggyback off of its broadcast signal and send them messages via keyboard. Nice! Now that communication is reasonably possible, Mark’s able to ask how the crew is handling his death. But upon learning that they haven’t told him. He’s understandably a little goddamn enraged. And so, they FINALLY tell the Ares III crew about this.
The news breaks the crew, even though Mark continues to stress that he’s all right, and that it wasn’t their fault. Meanwhile, Mark’s able to survive for 912 days with his potato plants, and things improve with the help of technicians on Earth. They plan to launch a supply rocket to him in the next year, and things are looking fine! Unless, of course...something goes horribly HORRIBLY wrong.
Well...fuck. Good place to pause for Part Two, then?
#the martian#ridley scott#matt damon#jessica chastain#kristen wiig#jeff daniels#sean bean#michael pena#chiwetel ejiofor#benedict wong#science fiction may#sci-fi may#user365#365 movie challenge#365 movies 365 days#365 Days 365 Movies#365 movies a year#bookstofilm#whatelsecanwedonow
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Book Review - Summer Summary 2020
I didn’t get around to doing an individual post for the books I read in June/July/August, so I decided to choose a dozen that I read over the summer... I’d separate the wheat from the chaff for you so to speak. Though like you’re about to find out, that doesn’t necessarily mean they were all good by any means...
Crave
My girlfriend got this for me to “tide me over until Midnight Sun”. Between you and me, I think she was taking the piss. Anyway, Crave is very... standard fare paranormal YA school romance with the added flare of being written by an adult erotica writer, meaning the rhythm and tone of this novel is fucking bonkers. If you want to read the novel without reading the novel, just take Twilight and the entire Vampire Academy series, shove them in a blend, and force down the sludge you get from that. Normal Average Girl Goes To Secret School In Alaska For Vampire, Werewolves and Dragons. That’s this book. It is so big and so so so bad. I finished it out of spite, please don’t do that to yourself. Unless you are really craving (hurr hurr) some top tier trashy paranormal romance, in which case... no judgment.
The Last Firehawk
The Last Firehawk is a Scholastic “Branches” series, written for beginning readers (grade 1-3ish, depending on the child’s reading level). It has short stories, big text, and awesome pictures on every page. Guys. I unironically am adoring this series. It’s simple and is introducing children to a number of classic elements in the fantasy quest genre, but it is so charming. Friends Tag and Skyla discover a firehawk egg, and species that is supposed to have disappeared long ago. When Blaze hatches from it, the three are tasked with going out and finding the magical ember stone which was hidden long ago by the firehawks and which could be used to defeat the evil vulture Thorn and his dark magic... I read the first two books to second graders who ate it up and read the next four books because I personally wanted to continue the series. If you have young readers in your life (or just want a fun kid adventure) then please try these they’re the literary equivalent of nibbling on a chocolate chip cookie.
Lupin III: World’s Most Wanted #3
All the kind people that still follow my tumblr and haven’t tried to murder me because of my Lupin obsession are not going to be surprised by this one. I finally read one of the manga for this series and honestly I’m delighted. Somehow even hornier than the show, but hilariously funny. I felt like I was reading a more adult version of Spy Vs Spy. It’s a bunch of short, individual bits/adventures with lots of visual gags and an artstyle that is really different and delightful.
River of Teeth / Taste of Marrow (American Hippo series)
I’ve talked about River of Teeth before, but I finally finished the American Hippo duology and need to sing its praise. This is an alternate history series composed of two novellas that explore the question What would have happened if the States had decided to import hippos as livestock...? Anyways, my pitch for you: queer hippo cowboys. That’s all it took for me to read it. You have a gay gunslinger who loves his hippo to death, a nonbinary explosives-expert / poisoner who is the main love interest, a fat con artist who spoils her hippo and is the only voice of reason in this entire series, and a latina mother-to-be who is the scariest assassin in the entire series and is obviously scheming. The four of them are brought together on a job to deal with the Mississippi’s feral hippo problem.
IT’S A QUEER HIPPO COWBOY HEIST NOVEL GUYS I DON’T KNOW WHY I’M STILL TALKING AND YOU HAVEN’T JUST GONE TO READ THIS YET.
Petals to the Metal (The Adventure Zone series)
The graphic novel adaptation to the McElroy family’s DND podcast The Adventure Zone. Most of you are probably aware of this? It’s a great adaptation, it hits all the important beats, shows off the characters really well, and still gets lots of good gags in even while condensing entire arcs into single book stories. This one is probably my favourite so far just because Petals to the Metal was one of my favourite arcs in the show... but you can also see how the art has improved and the chaos of the race is fun to see drawn out.
If you like The Adventure Zone but haven’t tried the graphic novels yet -- would recommend! If you’ve always wanted to listen to The Adventure Zone but don’t have time for such a long series or struggle to focus on podcasts then pick up the first book of this series (Here There Be Gerblins) and try reading it! It really is an enjoyable adaptation.
Pony to the Rescue (Pony Pals series)
I continued my April/May theme of reading old-school chapter book series to combat Covid Brain Fry, so I picked up a few Pony Pals books. I read these as a kid and always enjoy them -- there’s just something so appealing to a child about having a horse. It gives your child characters a level of independence and ability to explore that you wouldn’t get otherwise. These books definitely read young, but they were nostalgic to revisit.
Small Spaces
A really cool middle grade horror novel I picked up. Maybe it’s because I live around a lot of corn fields, but farm/scarecrow themed horror absolutely does it for me. One evening, after seeing a woman try to destroy a strange, old book, eleven year old Ollie doesn’t stop to think, instead stealing the book and running. That’s how she becomes wrapped up in the strange, sinister story of a cursed family and creature called the Smiling Man that seems to live out in the foggy fields. While unsettling, Ollie tries to remind herself that it’s just a story... but this becomes more challenging when her school bus breaks down one day out their own set of fields, and a fog is rolling in...
“Avoid large spaces. Stick to small.”
Snot Girl #1 - #2
A Canadian graphic novel series by the creator of the Scott Pilgrim series! I love his work so I decided to give Snotgirl a try, even though it’s not generally my genre. I’m glad I did! First book took a while for me to get into, but by the time I hit the second I was really wrapped up in the mystery and character development. Snotgirl is about Lottie, a self-consumed fashion blogger whose biggest struggles are dealing with her allergies, frustration with her fellow-blogger friends, and how entirely her self-esteem is tied to her “beauty” and how people view her. But everything shifts in strange and horrifying ways when Lottie starts taking a new allergy medication, meets a new friend... and then witnesses that girl’s death. Or does she?
Seriously, or does she? I have no idea, I need to read the third book. This book is full of intrigue, complicated relationships, murder (or not?), and a healthy dose of magical realism to keep you guessing. If you like slice-of-life, crime, and abstract reality then this series is world a try. Plus the art is gorgeous.
Summer Wars #1 - #2
I recently rewatched Summer Wars (still one of my favourite movies) and decided to read the two-book manga adaptation. It was a really neat little adaptation. The creator of the movie gave the writer free range to tweak things to fit better in a manga format, which means some movie elements were allowed to fade into the background, whereas other aspects were fulled into the forefront and fleshed out to a greater degree. It was very cool, it kept the same story but gave you new things to think about which I wasn’t expecting. Reading this as a stand alone works just fine, but honestly if you’ve never watched the movie Summer Wars you should give it a try! It’s a great mix of slice-of-life, sprawling family dynamics that I relate to a little too well, cyber adventures, and fantasy. Super feel good.
This One Summer
Okay, last graphic novel, I swear. This One Summer was... weird and intense. It’s a coming-of-age Canadian graphic novel that follows a pair of pre-teens who meet up like they do every year at their family’s summer cottages. You see them both in the awkward phases between childhood and growing up to become teenagers, as they’re confronted with things like maturity, friendship, self-esteem, family problems, and sexuality. A beautiful read, but probably the heaviest out of all the books on my list.
Wild Thornberrys Novelization
I rewatched The Wild Thornberrys movie with my girlfriend earlier this year, and decided I wanted to hunt down the chapter book novelization because I’m kind of a sucker for novelizations. Honestly, this was about what you would expect from the era. 90s/00s novelizations, especially young novelizations, are generally just a transcript of the movie without much thought or effort put into them to make them anything but. That’s what this was. It was fine, and it really let me revisualize the entire movie, but honestly you’re probably better off just rewatching the movie unless you also really deeply love The Wild Thornberrys.
The Willoughbys
I saw that Netflix had done a funky looking adaptation of The Willoughbys and I decided I needed to read the book first before watching the movie. This was a little bizarre, I’m still not sure how I feel about it. Over all, I think it was a net-positive experience. It’s an obvious satire on classic children’s novels, especially the likes of Mary Poppins (real Mary Poppins, not the Disney version) and while a little heavy-handed, it does a Series of Unfortunate Events vibe that redeems it. The story is about a group of horrible children (The Ruthless Willoughbys) who decide they are sick of their parents and would rather become Worth Orphans... and to do that, they’re going to have to dispose of their inconvenient parents, obviously. Conveniently their parents are also sick of having children and decide to do away with them as well. The Willoughbys sets up three (or four?) different subplots that are gradually woven together through a series of schemes and exploits. It’s definitely more ruthless (hurr hurr) than the Netflix version, which tried to make the children more sympathetic, and in some ways I think that’s a definite point in the novel’s favour. I’m not sure I would go out of my way to recommend it, but it was a fun romp if you want something short and off the wall (and a lot more fleshed out than the Netflix version).
#book review#book reviews#the willoughbys#the wild thornberrys#lupin iii#scott pilgrim#snotgirl#bryan lee o'malley#this one summer#small spaces#pony pals#crave#the last firehawk#river of teeth#taste of marrow#american hippo#summer wars#petals to the metal#taz#novels#manga#graphic novels#children literature#kid lit#chatter
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Diabolik lovers Chaos Lineage: Kino (Heaven END)
Dear anonymous asker, thank you for asking me to translate his heaven ending! Since he was my first route in Chaos lineage, I enjoyed replaying this ending very much!ヾ(≧∇≦)ゞ
Place: Shopping mall
Yui: (Fufu, today I’m having a date with Kino-kun. I’m so happy that my face is already loose)
Kino: Tell me, what happened to your tight face from just a while ago?
Yui: I’m happy because it’s been a long time since I went out alone with Kino-kun.
I didn’t even sleep much yesterday because I was wondering what we would do together today.
Kino: Hmm. You couldn’t sleep because of this, just like a little child. Hopefully you didn’t get lost in thoughts too much.
*Yui blushes*
Yui: Ah… that doesn’t matter anymore!
Kino: Fufu… thought so.
Yui: (Kino-kun looks happy about today as well)
(Did he look forward to this too? I’d be happy if that was the case)
Kino: C‘mon, let‘s start walking around.
*Kino grabs Yui’s hand*
Yui: ….. !
(His hand… in mine)
Kino: Heh… looks like it worked.
Yui: Eh? What do you mean?
Kino: Yesterday I tried out a romance game because I was interested in it.
I was foolish, thinking that these actions of that man were solid, but it seems as if you could surprisingly try them out.
Or maybe, you’re just a crazy woman?
Yui: I’m what… ! That’s not true!
I just really like your hands... that’s why I’m pleased with holding them.
Kino: Ah, I see. You like them…
Yui: We’re done with this topic! Let’s just walk around the stores, okay?
Please tell me if there’s a store you want to go to, Kino-kun.
Kino: Sure, understood. Hey, I just want to drink something sweet.
Yui: Yes, that’s good too. Why not entering a coffee shop then?
Kino: Fine with me. Hm, what’s that… ?
Yui: What’s wrong? Are you interested in any other store around?
Kino: Yea, what store is that?
Yui: Eh? Oh, that’s a candy store over there.
It’s a shop that sells a lot of sweets. You can buy it cheaper than ordinary sweets.
Kino: Hmm. Children are going in there one after another… there are also unusual shops here.
Oh… over there!
*Kino runs off*
Yui: Eh… wait, Kino-kun!
*Yui follows him*
Yui: Why did you suddenly start running off?
Kino: Look, over there. Konpeitō! And there are many types of it.
Yui: Speaking of which, you really must like Konpeitō.
Kino: Yup. They look like stars, right? That’s why I liked them ever since I first saw them.
I always wanted to get my own star someday…
Yui: …That sounds nice
Kino: But now I already got what I wanted, so I don’t need to aim for that any longer.
Yui: Is that so? What did you get that you really wanted then, Kino-kun?
Kino: Haa…
Yui: Eh? Why did you suddenly sigh?
Kino: Because… say, you don’t usually notice this?
Yui: Huh… ?
Kino: You really are an insensitive person. What I seriously wanted was you to begin with, got that?
Yui: Eh… what, me… ?!
Kino: Exactly. Who else is there?
Yui: (He’s confidently confessing that to me in a shop like this…)
Kino: Fufu… your face is completely red.
Yui: That’s because Kino-kun said that… !
Kino: Because I told you such an embarrassing thing, are you still able to go shopping with me?
Yui: Of course. I was going to do that from the very beginning.
Kino: Then let’s see what’s in that candy store.
Yui: Yes, alright.
Kino: Heh, there seriously are all kinds of sweets. I’ve never seen any of them at a supermarket.
Right, I came up with a good idea. Let’s buy everything we want for up to 500 yen per person.
Yui: Oh, that’s a good idea. Let’s do that.
Kino: I’ll also go and get konpeitō. I will not start without this.
After that… wow, what’s this?
Yui: Oh, that’s a candy that changes its color when you knead it a lot.
Kino: Amazing, so it does changes its colors when you eat it too? Is that healthy?
Yui: It’s an old fashioned candy, don’t you think that it would be delicious?
Kino: Then let’s try that poisonous thing. I’ll buy one too.
Yui: Poisonous you say… I’m sure it’s not bad.
Then I… ah! I wonder if I can take more of them.
I’m sure Kanato-kun would like them too.
Kino: Hah? Wait a minute. Why did Kanato come to your mind now?
Yui: Right… he’s still unconscious.
Kino: To say the name of another man while I’m with you, you seriously must have some guts.
… Remember that later.
Yui: Eh?
(Now I feel like I caught myself up in something… or is it just me?)
*time passes*
Kino: I guess that’s enough. 500 yen are doing it for them.
Yui: Let’s go to the cash register then.
Kino: It’s not bad for a candy store to have costumers buying this much. I’ll definitely tell Yuri about this store.
Yui: He would surely like it here.
Kino: But I want to come here with you next time again.
Yui: Yes… me too. Let’s come again.
Kino: Yup… hm? What is that thing behind you?
Yui: Eh? ...Oh, this is a lottery. The first prize seems to be like an assortment of sweets.
Kino: Hmm. I see. In other words, it’s like a normal gacha game?
(Admin note: ガチャゲーム - Gacha games are video games that adapt and virtualize the gacha (capsule-toy vending machine) mechanic!)
Yui: Well, maybe I guess? I think they are similar in a way.
Kino: Heh. I’m sure I’d do good in this gacha game too.
Yui: I see. Kino-kun is always playing smartphone games after all.
But the lottery of a candy store would probably hit you unexpectedly as well. It may be difficult, even for Kino-kun.
Kino: What are you talking about? I have enough practice at gacha games to win this.
During that time, I was able to pull out SSR weapons with only one shot.
The difference between this lottery and my gacha games won’t be too big. Look at it, because I’ll win the first prize in one shot.
Yui: Isn’t that difficult?
Kino: Hah? Are you saying that you can’t believe in my luck?
Yui: That’s not what I said, but you can’t really fortune yourself, right? So…
Kino: Let’s bet about that. If I beat you, you’ll give me a reward. Alright?
Yui: Ah... alright, what should I give you as reward?
Kino: I’ll decide that later. I’ll start it now. Old man, one play!
Hehehe… look at that!
Yui: No way…
First try…
Awesome, you really pulled it out in one shot!
Kino: As I said. I told you that, right? I said that I’d definitely beat you.
Look at this old man! I won the first prize, this one! I’m amazing, right?! Look look!
Yui: (No matter how much I think about it, it’s true what he said)
*time passed*
Yui: I bought sweets and even got some as prize, I’m sure I don’t need any more.
Kino: Well, isn’t that good? We’ll eat them all anyway.
Yui: Such, like a glutton… oh, Kino-kun! Please don’t eat while walking!
Kino: It’s fine. Fufu… Konpeitō is delicious after all. I’ll give you some too. Open your mouth.
Yui: Thank you. Yes… they’re sweet and delicious.
(Speaking of which, I hope he forget about the bet we made earlier)
Kino: Oh, right here. Hey, you. Come a little closer.
Yui: Eh… ?
*Kino comes closer*
Yui: Kino-kun, what’s wrong… ?
Kino: We made a bet, if I’d win the first prize you’d give me a reward for it afterwards.
Yui: Ah… yes. That’s right.
What is it? Should we feast on guava juice on the way home?
Kino: Haa, that’s way too dull. When I talk about a reward, I’ll be the one deciding on it, right?
Yui: Ah…
*Kino blushes*
Kino: That delicious looking neck, give me a sip from there… Nn… Nn…
Yui: Ahh… Kino-kun… you can’t do that in such a place… ! If someone sees you…
Kino: You’re an idiot. If you make such noises, you’re the reason they’ll notice it.
And you need to follow the given rules. I got permission from you to get that reward.
Yui: I know… you’re right.
Kino: That’s why you shouldn’t complain about what I’m doing.
I’ll make you feel good, so be quiet… Haa...
Yui: Ahh… nh…
Kino: Haa… oh, right. Would you like to have a mark of my fangs that others can see too?
You’re just thinking about other guys during a date. I’m worried that you may end up betraying me like that.
Yui: N-No… I promise that I won’t do it anymore… forgive me, Kino-kun.
Kino: Your mouth does say that, but your blood… it‘s getting sweeter.
Just like the Konpeitō I ate earlier… it’s sweet…
I guess you can’t stop something like this sweet blood of yours.
Stay exactly like this, until I’m completely satisfied…
Yui: (No… I can’t do that)
(I can‘t think of anything else but Kino-kun anymore anyway…)
*time skipped*
Yui: (Kino-kun won’t let go of me, but I’m starting to feel dizzy)
Can we stop going around the stores and go home soon?
Kino: Fine. It was unexpectedly enjoyable even tho it was my first time coming here.
Yui: That’s good. Thank you for this wonderful date today.
Kino: On the other hand, it seemed interesting and I just came along. Ah… the Konpeitō are already gone…
Yui: Eh? Have you already eaten them?
Kino: I ate a lot of it while walking.
Hmm, I should have bought another bag of it.
Yui: Then why don’t you go back to the candy store again?
Kino: It’s fine. I’ll get this instead.
*Kino kisses Yui*
Kino: … Nn…
Yui: Ah! Nn...
E-Eh?!
Kino: Fufu, you look a little too surprised. You’re not saying that the reward you got from me just now was bad, right?
Yui: But… did you need to do that while we’re watched by people?!
Kino: I have to show off what I have, that’s only natural. You’re so noisy, do you want me to do it again?
Yui: ….. !
Kino: Haha, that face! The expressions you make are really interesting after all.
Once we got home, I’ll make sure to give you more torment, okay?
#Diabolik Lovers game#diabolik lovers chaos lineage#diabolik lovers chaos lineage translation#diabolik#diabolik lovers translation#chaos lineage translation#chaos lineage#Diabolik Lovers#Diabolik brothers#diabolik lovers kino#kino x yui#kino sakamaki#yui x kino#diabolik lovers kino fanfiction#kino#diabolik lovers kanato#diabolik lovers kino sakamaki#otome#otome game#english otome#otome romance#translation#diabolik lovers translatio#otome game translation#sakamaki#Sakamaki Brothers#translator#kino chaos lineage#chaos lineage kino
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