#and ofc i want to redo some stuff

[midnightmah07]

Would you guys be mad if I redecorated/changed certain part of the flower pot (daiggie's family) home? ((It's literally my decision

[sungbeam]

𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 — part one

nonidol!ji changmin x f!reader

messing around with demonic rituals isn't exactly how you imagined getting bound to changmin's soul. (note to self: salt circles don't work when you draw the pentagram inside it...)

▷ genre, warnings. f2l, technically a college au, demon au (it's different from night terrors i swear. also it's not as intense lol), comedy, suspense/mystery, swearing (a lot... sorry 😭), drinking, low fantasy/supernatural elements, mentions of chronic illness, mentions of rituals and pentagrams, self induced soulmates? 🤔 but ofc 😂, kissing, mentions of blood, very small amount of violence (like one scene), what is a mfking slow burn like who needs to take their time w falling in love i sure don't 🤷🏻‍♂️, one allusion to death

▷ part word count. 16.3k out of 34.8k / read part two here

▷ inspired by. incantations (composed by richard meyer) it's not like,,, the fic's "soundtrack" or anything. i just think it sounds cool lol

this is my submission for deoboyznet's boyz who bite event! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

a/n: i'm telling u that i resisted the idea of another demon changmin au for ONE WHOLE MONTH. i went through THREE OTHER IDEAS BEFORE FALLING BACK ON THIS DRAFT. I SWEAR. so pls reblog + comment + enjoy! :') and thank u to @justalildumpling as usual for reading this for me 😭💖

PART I: THE CATALYST

THERE WERE WORSE WAYS TO GO OUT, you supposed. However, the paranormal wasn't often a subject you frequented, so sitting atop an ashy-white pentagram wasn't exactly how you expected to be spending a Friday night.

“Changmin, you're always hooting about this shit,” Juyeon said as he peered over his shoulder at the boy lurking in the far corner of the living room. “Are you seriously all bark and no bite?”

No one really paid attention to Changmin's response besides you and Juyeon (kind of—he was busy lighting the candles). Technically, it was a new behavior; Changmin was usually the one obsessed with horror movies and the paranormal, constantly getting you all to participate in Halloween horror nights and haunted houses, and bringing his beloved (cursed) Chucky doll to any and every group movie night. But now that you were finally acting on his demonic big talk, all of that stuff and nonsense dissipated like the snuffing out of a candle.

A shadow fell across his face. “I already warned you guys. This isn't something you should be toying around with.”

“It's a Ouija board—what could go wrong?” Shuhua wrinkled her nose as she began tapping out a circle of salt around your body and the pentagram on the floor. “I saw them on sale at Toys R Us for half off.”

Because you were the last one to arrive tonight, you were chosen as the sacrifice. It wasn't really fair because this was literally Juyeon and Changmin's apartment, but it didn't matter much in the end. You didn't believe in this stuff and it wasn't your salt being wasted. (You were also exempt from venmoing Hyunjae a portion of the paycheck he spent buying candles and chalk. Save fifteen bucks and sit on a pentagram in a salt circle? Why the fuck not.)

“Don't we need to draw blood or something?” you asked, half joking.

“No.” Changmin's expression somehow grew even darker. Your eyes widened slightly; you'd never seen him so serious. “Absolutely not. Do you want this to turn out worse?”

“Changmin, dude, you gotta chill, man.” Hyunjae dumped the Ouija board he'd dug out of his parents’ attic onto the floor next to you, just outside the salt circle.

Shuahua squawked. “Oy! You're ruining my perfect circle!”

“Just redo it, dumbass!”

“You redo it, asshat,” she growled back, tapping out some salt to finish it.

Juyeon, as if to placate your friend, said to Changmin, “The salt will protect her.”

You blinked. “Oh, that's what it's for?” You could've sworn that was what the candles were for, but again, you didn't believe in this, so why would you know a thing about it?

Changmin's face hit the palms of his hands with a resounding slap. “Absolutely not. You can't have Yn in the circle if she doesn't even know what the Hell is going on.”

“So do you wanna be in the circle?”

His left eye seemed to twitch as he cocked his head to the side. Something about that movement made a shiver crawl down your spine. The sensation was akin to watching a predator consider its prey from the brush… but that wasn't right. Changmin was all dimpled smiles and goofy shenanigans and twinning with his horror doll child. There wasn't anything remotely scary about him, unless you made him mad (you hadn't yet). So why were your inner alarms screaming for you to run? “That's actually not a bad idea—”

“Okay!” Hyunjae called his hands together. “Let's get started, shall we?”

The thoughts were brushed beneath the dusty rug in your head. You shrugged at Changmin. “Too late, I guess.”

You thought you heard him mutter out something under his breath in frustration, but you didn't understand the language.

All of your other friends began to gather on the side of the circle where the Ouija board was. You weren't even sure what all the pomp and circumstance was for, but Changmin didn't seem up to correct anything. He continued to sulk in the corner with his arms folded over his chest, eyes shaded by the brim of his cap as he stared onward.

Hyunjae's eyes fluttered closed as he, Juyeon, and Shuhua placed their fingers upon the planchette. “To the spirits who may be here in this room with us—”

“And demons,” Shuhua murmured.

A choked sound came from Changmin's side of the room.

Your eyes flickered open and saw him rub a hand down his face as if he was stressed.

“We are opening the veil between your world and ours,” Hyunjae continued. “My name is Hyunjae, and with me are Shuhua, Yn, Juyeon, and Changmin.”

Shuhua inhaled shallowly. “Is there someone here with us?”

The apartment was consumed in a dead silence as the five of you waited. You sat cross-legged in your ring of salt, cheek resting against your fist. Your eyes were drifting to half-mast—it’d been a long day for you, and considering it was approaching midnight already, it was about time you went to bed.

“We brought you a sacrifice,” Hyunjae said. “We were wondering if you could tell us your name.”

A chilling breeze brushed past your cheeks and you glanced up, expecting the air conditioning to have caused it. There was no vent above you, however. Strange.

You wrung your hands in your lap. “You could possess me if you'd like.”

Your eyes joined your friends’ as you all pinned your gazes to the Ouija board. The planchette remained still.

After a beat, your patience ran thin, and you sat up to lean back on your hands—wasn't something supposed to happen?

The amber glow from the candles in the living room wavered violently. In your surprise, your fingers grated against the salt and hardwood as you nearly fell backward. You yanked your hand back to you at the sting.

The bodies in the room went taut, speechless.

A gust of wind—something impossible in this enclosed space—whipped past you in a wide circle. The salt circle was no more, the candle flames were snuffed.

You sat stiff as a board. For a moment, you could swear you felt some invisible, foreign weight rest upon your chest. It sank deep into you, a phantom hand reaching into your body as if to latch onto your very soul.

Ba bump ba bump ba bump, your heart drummed wildly in your chest.

Howls and gasps of delight were drowned out by the blood in your ears; they were sounds of awe from your friends. You placed your hand over your sternum in the dark to feel for that unseen force, but there was nothing.

The room flooded with warm light. It chased away the shadows to the furthest corners.

You glanced up and saw Juyeon at the light switch with a boyish grin stretched across his lips. “That was crazy! Yn, how do you feel?”

Eyes darted to you.

The pentagram beneath you was smudged, the white chalk staining your pants and your hands. You managed a smile, and then a slow nod. What you felt earlier was probably nothing.

“I'm good,” you chirped. You glanced over at Changmin in the corner, his eyes still shaded by the brim of his cap, but with the muscle in his jaw clenched. Why? Why did you look at him? You couldn't fathom why survival instinct had you encoded to turn toward that which was capable of your demise. “Yeah, I'm good.”

A yawn tore through you as you stepped into your darkened apartment. Your hand fumbled for the light switch and you tucked your shoes away on the rack, before depositing your keys onto the table with a noisy clatter. The remainder of your time spent at Juyeon and Changmin's had been spent cleaning up the failed ritual, and you hit the road as soon as it was over.

Your roommates were all out for the night, so the apartment was cold and quiet as you stumbled down the hall to your bedroom. Compared to your friends, you'd left rather quickly because of a text you'd received from Lee Chan, a good friend of yours and former neighbor from childhood. His home life hadn't been the most spectacular, so you and he became fast friends during the moments after school when you hung out on your front lawn.

He'd swung by your apartment earlier to drop off banana muffins, but you hadn't been home. I'm home now! But you can totally come by in the morning instead, you texted him after setting your backpack down and peeling off your jacket.

As you sat in the dim gold illuminating from your desk lamp, the pressure in your chest returned. You could feel your heart pick up speed in your ribcage and you lifted your finger up to your mouth to suck on the dollop of blood that had welled to the surface. It was a small scratch from when the candles went out—your own clumsiness—but it was nothing a My Little Pony bandaid couldn't fix.

A featherweight sensation drifted over your arm, and you slapped your palm over it as if to catch whatever invisible insect crawled atop your skin.

There was nothing though.

You glanced over at the window to your right. The sky outside was an unpeculiar ebony riddled with the white speckles of distant stars. No breeze drifted in from outdoors and you double-checked that the window was closed.

You startled as your phone vibrated on top of your desk.

dino!!: oh it's okay! i have dance practice early in the morning, so i'd rather bother you while ur still awake haha dino!!: i'll be by in about 10ish min if that's cool? your phone: sounds good lol and tysm :’)) love mingyu's banana muffins

You smiled to yourself at the thought of those delicious pastries. Chan's friend Mingyu baked whenever he was stressed, and he usually gave out the results of his stress-bakes to friends. The first time you'd tasted his banana chip muffins was the closest you would ever get to heaven on Earth.

“I'm glad he makes you smile at least.”

Your phone clattered to the floor, your physical body leaping five feet in the air as your soul flew out of its encasing. Everything in you jolted like one, big heart palpitation, and your wide eyes took in the sight of a person standing by your window.

Ji fucking Changmin had nary an apology on his lips for scaring the everloving Hell out of you. It was as if he hadn't even moved out of his position at his apartment: the crossed arms, the tense posture, the clenched jaw.

Except, his eyebrow was cocked this time, unamused by your very valid fear.

“Oh, fuck you.” You braced your palms against your bed as you stood opposite from him. “Fuck you, fuck you, and fuck you.”

“I got it the first time.”

You could have blown steam out of your ears. “What the fuck are you doing in my room, you creep?”

He raised his palms up, finally breaking pose. “I know what this looks like—”

“You know what this looks like?” You let out a scoff, throwing your arm out in wild gesticulation to match the throttle of your heartbeat. “This looks like Edward Cullen in Twilight, except this isn't a movie, you're not Robert Parkinson, and you just climbed up a five story building!”

Changmin stepped forward, and you took a very obvious step back. He exhaled, pressing his lips together. “Okay, I deserve that,” he muttered.

“No shit. I should call the cops on you, friend or not. What is the matter with you?” You had known Changmin for as long as your college career thus far. The five of you had met in the freshman dorms and stuck together like a package deal since. You were all quite close, and you'd spent more than your fair share of quality time with Changmin.

But this—nothing could warrant this behavior.

“I need to talk to you about something important.”

You enclosed your palms around your arms, defensive. “Then you call or text or use the front door. My window was locked—”

“The lock on your window should be the least of your concerns,” he huffed. There was a firmness in his voice and behind his words, and a matching gleam of desperation in his face. He pressed his fingers against your bedspread and the air seemed to still.

That phantom breeze had returned and it drifted against your arm. It came accompanied by the weight in your chest. “What,” you stammered, “do you mean?”

He glanced away then, that tension seizing his shoulders again. He scratched his jaw seemingly at odds with words. “The ritual that happened tonight… that was real.”

You paused. “You have got to be shitting me.”

“I'm not.”

“Changmin, I'm way too exhausted to deal with your pranks right now. If tonight was all an elaborate thing you guys did to get back at me for waking you up at 4AM—”

“Yn.” The tone of his voice made you stop. It made you think. You considered the graveness of his expression differently; you had never seen him so serious. It was jarring. “I am being incredibly serious. The thing that happened to you tonight? That was a summoning ritual, and you were actually put into contact with Hell.”

You remained quiet, unknowing of how to answer. All logic in your brain was countering his statements profusely—it wasn't possible. There was no way something as little as chalk, salt, and candles could open up a portal to Hell.

At your lack of response, Changmin continued, “Tonight, a line to Hell was opened. The ritual was meant to contact a demonic entity. Usually, ritualists use it to make deals and bargains with whoever answers the call. The human link—the 'sacrifice’” —he looked at you pointedly— “is one half of the signing party responsible for fulfilling whatever the bargain is.”

A shudder rattled down your spine at what he revealed to you. This had to be a joke, you thought. This could not be real. But every time you looked at Changmin, the expression on his face did not change and his voice did not waver.

You swallowed, hard. “So,” you said finally, your voice barely a whisper, “you're saying…”

A lone nod. “You made contact with a demon tonight.” He paused for a beat, something warring behind his eyes. “You made contact with me.”

What. You sputtered out a laugh.

Changmin released a small, but sharp exhale, patiently waiting for you to let your giggles out. There were undoubtedly better ways to reveal it, but any way would still evoke such a reaction from you.

“Okay, now I know you're fucking with me,” you said with the lingering curl of a smile on your face. “You're saying that you're a demon?”

He seemed to weigh an idea in his head for a millisecond before caving. He flicked his chin out toward you. “You cut yourself tonight?”

You flinched and instinctively curled your right hand, your other fingers running over the small slice in your index finger. “What?”

“Come on. Let me see.” At your balking, he lifted up his hand. “I bet you I have a matching mark.”

Your eyes narrowed. “What hand and where?”

“Right hand. Index.”

“This doesn't count because that's the most predictable hand and finger.”

He rolled his eyes. “Yn, don't be silly. I literally have the same mark.”

Slowly, he stepped his way around the bed to your side, stopping only close enough where you could inspect his hand from a distance. Lo and behold, the flesh of his index finger was neatly sliced open, slightly diagonal in the top right quadrant of the finger—exactly where yours was.

The breeze returned like a cool breath, gentle against your cheek, as you raised your eyes to meet his again. The horror in your gaze must have confirmed that he'd convinced you of who—no—what he was.

“So what does this mean exactly?” you asked him. There were no giggles this time.

Changmin sucked his bottom lip between his teeth. “We are now bound via soul,” he said and extended his hand out slightly. His fingers curled inward and he gave a tugging motion level with your chest, and something deep within you moved.

Your eyes went as wide as a full moon. “What the Hell…”

“That's the line we're connected by.”

“I'm on a leash?”

Changmin glanced toward the ceiling as if mentally counting to three, then took a breath. “Not a leash; it's just a line. That's what was created between us when I became the demon on the other end and you spilled your blood on the pentagram. It doesn't mean we're restrained to stay within physical proximity of one another, but it does mean that you can't run away and hide from me.”

You shuddered. “That sounds scary.”

“It would be if you didn't fulfill your end of a bargain, but you never made a bargain.” He lifted his baseball cap up to card a hand through his blond hair before replacing the hat on his head. “Which basically means that we're stuck like this. We are emotionally and metaphysically bound to one another.”

There were a lot of words that had been said over the past few minutes, and most of them were difficult to wrap your head around. The worst truth of all was the brief, but very real sensation you had felt when Changmin had tugged on the invisible link between the two of you. That weight on your chest from earlier… had that been the “bond” settling into place?

“How could sitting on a chalk pentagram even” —you waved your hands around as you attempted to formulate words— “how was all of that possible? I thought Ouija boards were fucking toys?”

“I told you guys that you shouldn't play around with those things.”

“Well, how the Hell were we supposed to know this was going to happen?” you countered. The four of you had done some innocent fooling around, and now, you were “emotionally and metaphysically bound” to Changmin. Whatever the fuck that meant.

Changmin sighed, rubbing his hands over his face. “We can undo it. I think.”

You think? “How?”

“I—I need to do some research,” he said with a grimace. “I've never heard about instances like this and I didn't think it was even possible. I thought I could just intercept the call—”

Intercept the call? You shook your head. “I need you to start from the beginning, but slowly, as if you're speaking to a five year old.”

He opened his mouth to retort, then stopped abruptly.

A change in expression flickered across his face. It was brief, almost instinctual. You swore it looked like mild irritation, but it was gone before you could be sure. “You should probably answer the door.”

“Answer the what?”

You nearly yelped at the sound of loud knocking at the apartment door. Confusion pummeled you first, then you were swearing. “Chan.” You forgot he was stopping by.

“I'll be right back,” you said, moving toward the bedroom door.

“It’s fine. I need to go looking for answers.” Changmin stopped you before you went out, and you couldn't suppress the violent shudder when the invisible line in your chest pulled taut. “And Yn? Don't do anything stupid.”

You made a face at him from over your shoulder. “I'm already soul-bound to you by accident. How much more stupid can this get?”

He threw his hand up in the air. “Just don't do anything Hyunjae or Shuhua would do. Actually, just don't tell any of them about what I just told you.”

Why not? You were about to ask when you heard Chan's voice at the door calling out to you. Another swear fell from your mouth and you rushed out into the hallway to rip the door off its hinges.

Chan startled as it opened, his eyes going wide like a deer's in the bright hallway lights. There was a loose blue hoodie hanging over his green dinosaur pajama pants. He had his phone in his hands along with a paper bag undoubtedly carrying the legendary banana muffins. “Oh, hi. Sorry, is someone here with you? I thought I heard another voice.”

You braced a hand around the doorframe. Don't tell anyone. “Ah,” you winced, the lie curling up your tongue, “I was just on a call with a friend and he wouldn't shut up. Sorry about the wait.”

“No, it's no worries,” he insisted with a classic, easygoing smile. It made the adrenaline in your veins calm somewhat. Chan had always been a good presence to be around. There was something perpetually warm about his persona that made you want to stay in his orbit. “Oh, right!” He handed you the bag. “These are all yours. Mingyu says to let him know how they taste this time around, as always.”

As you accepted the bag, your face lit up like a Hollywood billboard. “I can guarantee that they will taste as divine as always. Tell him thanks for me” —you glanced up sheepishly from the paper bag— “and also, thanks for stopping by. I wish I was home earlier so you didn't have to drive all the way back.”

You didn't realize your face had contorted into a grimace. If only you had come straight home instead of indulging your friends’ curiosity tonight. Then, you would have been here with the banana muffins and one less soul-bond to worry about; and you would have been none the wiser to the fact that one of your college friends was a demonic entity.

Hadn't Changmin mentioned that you were now emotionally and metaphysically bound? Did that mean he could feel your emotions?

The smile had long since slipped from your face, but now your hands grew cold. When you got your muffins just now, did he know—

“Yn?” You perked up at the sound of your name. Chan's hand froze midair, then retracted back to his pocket. Concern shone on his face as stark as day. “Are you okay? You look like you just forgot you have something due tonight,” he chuckled half-heartedly, but the sheen in his eyes told a different story.

“Oh.” You forced out a laugh. “I'm fine! Yeah, I was just reminded of something. Actually—uhm, I shouldn't hold you up for any longer. It's getting late.”

Chan stared at you for a moment longer, and for that seemingly infinitesimal second, you feared he could see the invisible knot tied to your ribcage. “Right,” he said suddenly while shaking his head. “You should get some sleep.”

Your hand reached for the doorknob. “Thanks for dropping by again.”

“Wait” —his palm pressed against the door to keep you from closing it— “are you sure you're okay?”

It was as if your guilt was written in plain words across your forehead: No! I just became magically handcuffed to one of my demonic friends! And I also sat in a pentagram salt circle less than two hours ago! Please help me!

You channeled all your energy into a convincing smile. “Yes, I promise I'm okay. Have a good night, Chan.”

It was enough. That easygoing beam graced your eyes once more and he took his hand back. “Okay,” he said, “good night.” He waved to you as he turned on the ball of his foot, and you waited until he turned the corner before closing the door.

Your entire body deflated as you let out a rather dramatic sigh. That sigh turned into a loud groan, which eventually escalated into a borderline scream.

Like a woman possessed (would possession have been a better outcome than this?), you slunk back into your bedroom with your treasures in your grasp. “Hey,” you muttered as you kicked the door closed, “I'm… back.”

The room was vacant. Not a trace of the blond demon could be found.

“Son of a gun.” You settled into your desk chair and pulled out one of Mingyu's stress-baked muffins. As you peeled the parchment wrapper from the muffin's bottom half, you attempted to process all that had occurred within the past two hours. Every time you rewound the events, you met the same dozen or so questions. If only Changmin were still here to answer them, but he mentioned something about going off to answer questions of his own, including ones pertaining to undoing this rather inconvenient situation you’d found yourselves in.

“He should have stopped us,” you garbled between bites of banana chip muffin.

Your chewing came to a gradual halt as you marinated on that thought. “He… should have stopped us.” Why didn't he stop the four of you? If he had stopped you and suggested a movie instead, or any other activity for that matter, you wouldn't be here and he wouldn't be stressed.

He should have stopped you since he knew what you were getting yourselves into.

You crumpled the now empty muffin wrapper in your fist. Ji Changmin had far too much to explain to you.

PART II: THE CONSEQUENCES

IF THERE WAS NO REST FOR THE WICKED, Changmin didn't want to be wicked anymore. By popular perception, he and half his heritage were “evil.” While his father was a human from this mortal plane, his mother hailed from one of the nine circles of Hell. They'd fallen in love, conceived a halfling child, and the remainder was history.

“You look like shit, Ji.”

Changmin's eye twitched as irritation needled beneath the surface of his skin. “Thanks,” he drawled, not bothering to spare Lee Chan a glance. If he had limited energy reserves, he wasn't about to spend a drop on giving Chan the time of day.

Plus, Changmin was more than aware of the thick shadows that lingered beneath his eyes like fog clinging to cobblestone. He had woken up from his ninety minute power nap, trudged into the bathroom, and faced his own gauntness in the mirror. Why the fuck did Lee Chan think it necessary to point it out?

Chan's stare lingered on him through the practice room's mirror for a moment longer until he was called away by Kwon Soonyoung. Only then, when Chan's attention was passed elsewhere, could Changmin release the breath he was holding onto.

It was one thing that Changmin couldn't shake the offputting energy he felt whenever he was near Chan; he could stomach being on the same dance team as the guy, even though they each harbored an unspoken dislike for one another; but it was another thing entirely that he and Chan were both friends with you. The two boys attempted to be civil in front of you because your comfort was more important than their pettiness, but currently, said truce was nowhere in sight just as you were.

Simply, there were less reasons for him to be amiable today, including his thinning patience. Last night’s debacle had drained him of his energy. He was a halfling, not a pure-blooded demon. Additionally, his mother wasn’t a high-ranking demon by any means, which basically screwed him in the area of power stores. He had magical capabilities, but it could only handle so much. Answering ritual calls and creating soul bonds required a decent amount of power, which was why they were usually only answered by the more powerful demonheads of Hell. They enjoyed making human suffering a pastime.

Tacking onto that Changmin’s brilliant idea of warping into and out of your room last night instead of using his own two feet, as well as spending hours digging through the occultish corners of the internet, added all together to make for one exhausted, stressed, and grumpy halfling.

A presence—this one being far more welcome than the previous one—appeared by Changmin’s side in the mirror. “You really need to start going to bed when you say you're going to bed,” Juyeon said as plopped down onto the laminated hardwood to stretch out his calf muscles.

Changmin followed his lead onto the floor, but opted to slide into a left split. “I was tossing and turning the whole night,” he dismissed with an innocent lie. (Well, “innocent” was subjective.)

“You should try this new matcha that Hyunjae got from his hyung. He brought it back from his recent trip from Japan.”

For a second, Changmin let the words feed into his head one by one: matcha… from Hyunjae… from Hyunjae's brother… which one was he? Oh, the one who just got back from Japan, Sangyeon. When his tired brain finally caught up, he gave a nod. “What about it?” he asked, raising himself up to switch his hips into the right split.

Juyeon looked on with envious admiration, even if this was the thousandth time he stretched with Changmin. “It’s really refreshing and has a bit of a caffeine kick, but it's not as awful as coffee. Indigo likes it, too—said something about it being one of those rare finds that you can only get in the secluded countryside or something.”

Changmin paused. Juyeon's girlfriend Indigo was someone Changmin got along with well, but that wasn't why he was slightly interested in the matcha now. What Juyeon wasn't aware of was Indigo's witch heritage. Just as Changmin was hiding in plain sight, so too was Indigo. And if she recommended some countryside matcha powder, he was going to be inclined to try some.

“Yeah,” he coughed, “sure. Sounds like it wouldn't hurt to try.”

Pleased with the outcome of the conversation, Juyeon smiled and nodded. “I'll get you some later today then. Hopefully it'll help with the weird headaches you've been having, too.”

Changmin had nearly forgotten about those with everything that had happened. He'd recently been struck by random headaches; there were no patterns to their appearance, and no remedy—human, at least—that could soothe them until they faded on their own. He'd failed to ask Indigo about it because, well, he didn't think it was important enough to act on. But if this tea could help him out, then it would be taking out two birds with one stone.

Practice went on swimmingly. Though Changmin could only boast about his ninety minutes of sleep, when it came to dance, it was as if he was possessed. This was a hobby—a passion—that never failed to drive a fire through his veins. It didn't matter if he'd had the worst week in the history of worst weeks; when the music started, he was cued in, and he gave it his all.

As a river of sweat poured down his face and the room suffocated with the humidity of everybody's labored breathing, practice came to an end. Changmin hiked his duffle bag over his shoulder and poured water down his throat. Juyeon wasn't far behind as the two of them waved goodbye to their teammates and headed out.

Saturday mornings usually occurred in similar fashions: dance practice was held from 7AM to 10AM, then Changmin and Juyeon would return to their apartment to wash up; Changmin would then eat about an elephant's worth of food while he caught up on lecture recordings—unless he had something else to distract him.

In the case of this Saturday, as soon as Changmin had finished showering, he plummeted face-first into his pillows and was out like a light.

Demons could dream, one must understand. However, the demonic body tended only to dream when it was well spent—exhausted. Demons liked to correlate a weakness with having dreams, because foolish visions meant that one was unable to control their own mind. Control was rather important when dealing with magic.

Even if the dream was about, say, something real and occurring right at the moment Changmin was asleep—it was still considered a dream. Because he had not yet learned to leash his mind from meandering down his fresh soul bond, he found himself in a body that was not his own.

Yours. It was your body.

Was this real, he wondered, as he soaked in the familiar sight of your bed, the desk, and the closet space. He'd been in here just last night—albeit, in a fashion that wasn't agreeable—and he didn't expect it to change, but it did look real.

It was like he was actually sitting in your room, except he wasn't able to move or control his own body. The heart that beat in his chest was yours, the blood that pumped in his ears was yours, and the breath that fell from his mouth was yours.

He inwardly sighed as you adjusted your position at your desk chair. What a predicament he found himself in. He could feel the ache in your back from the uncomfortable piece of furniture beneath you, as well as the knots in your shoulders. (Did that mean you had a bad night of sleep?)

Though, it wasn't all bad, he supposed. He did adore the smell of your perfume lingering in the air and clinging to the sheets, the walls, the furniture… You would never know this of course, if he could help it.

You were currently reading a book—for class or for enjoyment, he hadn't the foggiest. The left side of the novel you clutched in your hand was riddled with colored sticky tabs, and you had the back of a ballpoint pen pressed between your lips. (His lips? …No, this was a precarious line of thinking.)

Changmin followed along as you read. Well, he tried. Whoever designed the layout of this book must have had perfect vision and no sympathy for someone visually challenged. The font size was likely less than ten point, and good grief, the line spacing—

“Holy shit.”

He paused. Right, that was you and not him.

You leaned forward and brought the book closer to your face as you read over the line again.

“Oh my gosh, Eliot, you incredible, talented woman.” This earnest compliment was swiftly followed by a colored tab to mark the passage. Changmin was about to read what you tabbed, but your eyes went down to the desk to scrawl a thought onto a post-it note. “Dorothea, you poor, poor soul. Casaubon needs to get the fuck over himself—you are fifty, dude.”

Changmin, frankly, had no clue what was happening. But he didn't entirely mind, because the pure joy that fluttered in your (his) chest was enough to keep him satisfied. There was something oddly serene about being in your sphere of presence, and in this state of being, that kept him at ease.

The stress of breaking this soul bond ebbed away like the receding edge of a tide.

Alas, all good things had to come to an end. Changmin couldn't tell how much time passed before you bookmarked your place with an index card and pulled your phone toward you.

12:04PM was what your lockscreen read.

Oh, so he was definitely catching up on sleep, at least.

Wait—had you not eaten lunch yet? The unmistakable void in the pit of your stomach…

Yn! Eat lunch, you silly girl! Eat—

“He could just be away from his phone,” you muttered to yourself. There were a few app notifications waiting for you, but each dismissal was fueled with mild disappointment.

Who were you talking about, he wondered.

A flash of bitter annoyance pierced his chest at the memory of who you'd been texting last night with that big smile on your face. However, any of that sentiment was dashed clean away when you pulled up your text chain with him, not Lee Chan.

Changmin's heart sped to a gallop as he watched you swipe out just as quickly as you'd checked in. The reason was two-pronged: one, you were wondering about him; and two, you had texted him while he was currently asleep and he did not know how to wake himself up.

Ji Changmin, he chastised himself, you're not only intruding, you're also inadvertently ignoring her.

He could understand that he put you (and abandoned you) in a worrisome place last night. If he could tear out the strands of his fried, blond hair he would.

You were his friend, were you not? He cared about you, and this soul bond wasn't only stressful to him, but to you as well. Maybe ignorance really would have been bliss in this case.

Your phone emitted a low vibration as it rang. Changmin had missed the moment you decided to call someone. Juyeon's contact name and photo was displayed in the middle of the screen, and he answered before the call went to voicemail. “Yn, what's up? You're—you’re not mad about last night, are you?” The wince in Juyeon’s voice was audible.

“No, I'm not mad,” you promised him as you leaned your cheek against your palm. “I was just wondering if you know where Changmin is. I texted him an hour ago and he hasn't answered yet—I guess I'm just a little antsy.”

Shuffling, then, “Oh! Changminnie's sleeping. He didn't sleep well last night, so as soon as we came home from practice, he was knocked out.”

Relief made your shoulders sag. “Ah, okay.” A smile, self-deprecating in nature, curled up on your mouth. “No worries then. Thanks, Juyo.”

“No problem. I'll let him know to call you once he wakes up.”

“No, it's okay” —you began putting your materials away— “have you had lunch yet? I can swing by with food; I haven't eaten yet.”

“Really? I haven't eaten yet, and Changmin hasn't either. I'll split the cost with you.” Changmin wished he could say that he would also split the cost. Why were you coming over? He hadn't gotten a good look at the texts you sent before.

(It had to be because you wanted to see him, right? To talk—of course to talk and not for any other reason.)

You stood up from your chair and stretched out the stiff muscles in your back. “I'll be by in—maybe twenty or thirty minutes?”

“Sounds great!” Juyeon chirped. “Thanks Yn-ie. See you in a bit.”

You let out a small laugh. “Yeah, see you.”

As the call cut off, Changmin was left with a daunting task: to wake himself up. There didn't seem to be many options as to do this. If demonic dreaming was activated based on lack of control, that meant he had a lack of energy. Thus, if he couldn't yet regain control, it could only mean that he was still tired.

There were a great many things that he had yet to figure out about this kind of magic. It wasn't like his mother ever anticipated he would need to know about it, so she never explicitly taught it and he never asked.

He was kicking himself in the head now.

Meanwhile, you had busied yourself with getting ready to leave. You'd selected a jacket from your closet, swiped on a thin layer of lip gloss, and spritzed yourself with that divine-smelling perfume. It made his toes curl and his chest feel fuzzy.

Just as you were filling your purse, your phone jolted with an incoming call.

Changmin soured as he saw the caller ID through your eyes and felt, not disdain, but pleasant surprise. He couldn't fathom what you saw in Lee Chan, but he never said anything; you and Chan knew each other longer, after all. It wasn't his place to say anything, especially when his reason revolved around something as subjective as a “vibe.”

“Hi Chan,” you greeted when you accepted the call.

It was funny—a dull, but annoyingly familiar pulsing appeared in Changmin's head. It beat steady against his cranium, hard and relentless. The longer it continued, the more it hurt. Could you feel it, too? The sensation was recognizable at this point after so many instances of the random headaches popping up. Was he seriously getting another stupid headache during a dream?

He winced to himself, but suddenly felt his heart drop into the pit of his stomach when he heard you audibly grimace.

Was this headache yours or his? Should he be worried?

“What was that? Are you okay?” asked Chan from the other side.

Changmin/You clenched your jaw as your vision went spotty for a moment. Your hand whipped out to catch yourself against the table.

Panic seized his chest as you muttered out a reassurance, though unconvincing. The invisible string that tied Changmin to you tightened, stealing the breath right out of his lungs. It was as if his own physical body was yanking him back.

He was waking up.

No, he thought, no I need to make sure she's okay—

Distantly, he heard yours and Chan's voices. Your words between one another were muddied and distorted to Changmin. Before he could even begin to understand what was happening, his eyes opened.

“I could smell lunch through the door,” Juyeon sang to you in greeting as he eagerly beckoned you into the apartment.

You chuckled, shucking your shoes off under the rack by the door. In your hand, you held onto a large bag containing a box of delectably fragrant fried chicken and fries. Oh, glorious sodium and cholesterol. “Yeah, well, imagine my suffering as I was driving over here with it in the car,” you mused.

Juyeon locked the door behind you and took the bag out of your hands.

It was another thing to return to the site of last night's ritual. You'd been in this apartment dozens of times before, but it was difficult to look at the specific spot on the living room floor where the chalk and salt had been. Even if the vacuum cleaner had taken care of all that remained, you couldn't help but choose to sit on the end of the couch farthest from that spot on the floor.

“Oh, could I get a glass of water, by the way?” you asked Juyeon as the two of you began taking things out of the bag to lay them out on the coffee table. “I was feeling a bit lightheaded earlier.”

Juyeon's eyebrows creased as he straightened to head into the kitchen. “Shit, yeah—of course. You drove here while feeling like that? What if you passed out, Yn-ie?”

You snuck a fry into your mouth, murmuring your thanks as he handed you the cup of water. “I'm fine,” you insisted with a vague wave of your hand, “it was just the blood rushing up to my head, I think. And besides, you were already expecting me and I was hungry.”

“I would have woken Changmin up and dragged his ass out of bed.” Juyeon settled onto the couch with you and cracked open the can of Sprite he'd gotten out of the fridge. “You know, Changmin's been getting these random headaches, too. I guess not exactly nausea, but you guys have gotta be more careful,” he waved a fried potato at you as he said this.

The irony could not escape you, and you failed to keep a sarcastic smile to yourself. Uh huh. Be more careful, you say? Too late for that. You took a ginger sip of the water. “Is that right? Maybe he just needs more sleep or something.”

“That's what we thought at first,” Juyeon hummed, idly scratching the back of his neck, “but they happen no matter what he does. There's not really a noticeable pattern.”

You wondered if it had anything to do with his demoness. You couldn't be too sure because you hardly knew anything about his species yourself, but that could explain the seemingly randomness of the headaches. Perhaps it was another question to add to your list.

“Huh.” You frowned. “Well, I hope they go away for him soon.”

Juyeon nodded solemnly. “Yeah, same. Hyunjae's gonna bring over some matcha for him to try… oh, hey! You like matcha—do you want some?”

“Sure, I'd love—”

Your phone buzzed violently in your jacket pocket. A laugh of disbelief flew from your mouth when you saw the caller ID, and you flashed the screen at Juyeon. “Speak of the Devil.”

Juyeon chuckled as you answered. “Hello?”

“Hey, I'm so sorry I missed your text.” His voice, rough from sleep, was accompanied by heavy breathing and the sounds of fabric shuffling in your ear.

You nearly choked, but you remembered that Juyeon was none the wiser to the weird spike in your heartbeat, nor the reason for it. “It's all good; I was being impatient. Juyo said you didn't sleep well.” Your eyes darted to his closed bedroom door and wondered why he hadn't come out yet.

“Yeah.” A brief pause. “Are you—are you okay?”

“Of course, I'm okay,” you drawled, glancing over at Juyeon. “Why? Should I not be okay?”

“No, I mean—” His voice in your ear and behind his bedroom door overlapped one another like two ocean waves colliding along the sand. His door ripped open.

Changmin stood on the threshold with his phone in one hand and the other clutching the doorknob. He was in a loose white T-shirt and sweatpants, a thin layer of sweat making his cheekbones shine. His eyes, a wild creature of their own, landed on you—all of the tension in his body melted away.

He exhaled and sank against the doorframe, ending the call. “Hell…” he muttered under his breath as he dragged a hand through his hair.

Concern had you rising to your feet. “What? What's wrong?”

Changmin closed his bedroom door behind him and collapsed onto the couch somewhere between you and Juyeon. “Bad dream,” he grunted. “How much are we splitting?” The latter was asked as he shoved a fry into his mouth and pulled out the Venmo app on his phone.

You and Juyeon exchanged glances over the blond head: what just happened?; you think I know?

Juyeon sent you a shrug. “Well Yn?”

Now their focus was on you. You took your seat again and reached for your glass of water. “Ten bucks each.”

All of the food that you brought turned into crumbs faster than Cinderella's carriage at midnight. Considering all three of you had barely eaten all day, it was expected. At some point, Juyeon dipped out of the apartment to meet someone for a group project, so that left you and Changmin alone. It was the perfect opportunity to get what you came here for.

“You left pretty abruptly last night,” you said to him as you returned to the couch with a full glass of water. Changmin stood nearly opposite to you, his back against the wall by his bedroom door. He also nursed a cup of water. “And I have some questions.”

He let out a small laugh, his lips pressing his dimples into his cheeks. “I'm sure you do. Sorry, I realized that after I left,” he admitted and raised his free hand up to grab the back of his neck. “So shoot.”

It was strange, you thought. There was no way this guy could be a demon, but was that leaning into stereotype? Last night, that feeling you got when he looked at you from beneath the shadow of his cap… your hairs had stood on their ends and you couldn't shake the spike of adrenaline in your bloodstream. It had been undeniable.

But here he was with a pretty, boyish smile as if he was a completely different person.

“What did you mean by 'intercept the call?’ What exactly happened during the ritual last night?” you asked.

The smile slipped from his face a little, and his eyes flitted over to the spot you had been sitting twelve hours ago. “Like I said,” he began, “you opened a line to Hell—like a phone call, basically. I channeled enough energy to answer it before anyone else from Hell could. And instead of, y'know, appearing in front of you like another demon would, I was already there and just chose to stay quiet when the candles went out.”

You straightened. “So the breeze in the room was your doing?”

Changmin cocked his head to the side with a wince. “I think so? At least, I can't control it yet. Think of it as a physical manifestation of power.”

A physical manifestation of power—you imagined last night's scene from Changmin's point of view, where he stood in the far corner. He would have focused his energy toward the breach between the worlds, and that fulfillment swept through the room like a gust of wind. But then what about all the other times? That moment wasn't the only other instance of a cool breeze on your skin.

When you brought this up to him, Changmin pressed his lips together. “Ah. This?”

On cue, something lightweight and cool brushed past your cheek. Your hand darted up to cover it, and you looked over at Changmin who arched a brow at you. “You get creepier and creepier the more I know you.”

His mouth burst at the seams with a smile. He ducked his blond head, shaking it. You were missing some kind of joke here. “Don't speak too soon,” he said. When he raised his head back up, he ran his tongue over his smile. “It happens when I want it to, it happens when I don't want it to. Just depends.”

“Great.”

“I'll get it under control,” he promised.

You leaned forward onto your knees and pressed your mouth into a slight pout. “Is there anything I can do to bug the shit out of you? This seems like it's only entertaining for you.”

“Well,” Changmin shrugged helplessly, “that's kind of the point of why demons started to do this. They find humans entertaining, and they also like to hold them accountable. The line” —he gave a gentle tug at the invisible string you still couldn't find— “is an insurance policy.”

“Saying it like that just implies it's that much harder to work your way around it.”

“Pretty much.” A grin split his face, and you were struck by the ease you smiled back without having meant to. “Don't look too excited now.”

You flattened your face and voice. “I'm thrilled.”

Before Changmin could respond, you suddenly remembered the main question that plagued you last night. You cleared your throat, your fingers dancing around the sides of your glass. “By the way… why didn't you stop us last night?” You watched his facial expression and how it was carefully knitted into something blank. “If you knew what was going to happen, you could have insisted we stopped, and we would have. Why let us get to this point?” you asked, gesturing between the two of you.

Changmin's throat bobbed as he swallowed. “I was pretty confident that I could intercept it, so there wasn't any real risk with doing the ritual if you guys wanted to have fun. I just didn't count on…” He lifted his right hand, where the pinkish scar was left on his index finger.

He hadn't counted on you getting cut and sealing the bond.

You pinched the space between your eyes. “Ah. My clumsiness has now doomed me to be metaphysically handcuffed to you.”

“I wasn't going to say it…”

“Oh, go to Hell.”

Changmin laughed. “Only if you come with me.”

Heat rushed to the surface of your skin. Sometimes, his mouth moved too fast. You snuck a glance at him through your fingers while he sipped on his water. If you peered close enough, the tips of his ears were flushing to a light pink.

He lowered the glass from his lips, and a crease formed between his brows. “Also,” he said carefully, his tone starkly different from less than a minute ago, “I do have another side effect to add to the list.”

Your stomach flipped. Not another thing—

“I may or may not be able to occupy your physical body when I'm dreaming—”

Changmin grimaced as the bottom of your glass banged against the wooden coffee table. That expression only deepened at the wide-eyed fury—fear—on your face. “And when I was asleep earlier,” he continued on, dooming himself to walk the plank, “I kind of intruded on your reading session, and when you called Juyeon, and when Chan call—”

“Can I murder you? Would that harm me in any way?” you cut in.

His mouth was open, but no words were coming out.

You stood, abandoning your seat on the couch and your water glass, to step across the room toward him. “Because if I could,” you said while pressing the back of your knuckles to your lips, “I can rid myself of the absolute creep of a friend I have!”

Changmin's eyes widened as soon as it hit him—your hand. Your hand hit his shoulder.

He bolted.

“Hey, let's talk about this, Yn-ah!” he exclaimed and dove into the kitchen to duck behind the counter. Some monstrously high-pitched scream left his mouth as he scrambled to stay out of your reach.

“We are talking about this, Changmin-ah.” You charged after him, chasing him around the counter and back out of the kitchen. If you didn't respect Juyeon like you did, you would have fully embraced becoming a bull in a china shop.

Your fist hit the solid plane of his bedroom door just as it slammed in your face. You let out a sound suspiciously close to a growl. “You possessed my body without my consent!”

“It's not like I consented to it either! It just happened!”

“That's not a valid excuse, you panini head!”

“I don't want to possess your body!” he insisted through the door with his voice going higher than the Eiffel Tower. “Why would I want to possess your body? I don't wanna be around when you and bestie Lee Chan gush about Star Trek.”

On certain occasions you really wished you had Superman's laser vision. Then you could burn through this stupid piece of door and roast a demon. “You're not helping yourself, Ji.”

A beat passed. “Look,” he huffed. “It only happened because I was exhausted as shit, okay? I really had no control of it, I swear on my life.”

You remained still with your arms braided across your chest without a word coming to mind.

“I didn't see anything sensitive, I promise, and my body woke me up and pulled me out of it when you got that really bad headache.”

Huh? That bout of lightheadedness… was that related to how the connection was severed? Or at least, hindered? You brushed the curiosity aside; weren't you supposed to be mad at this guy?

“Which was also why I was worried when I woke up and asked if you were okay,” he added in earnest. He did look worried like you were going to die when he woke up…

You glared impetuously at the closed door to the point you were sure even the wood grains were two seconds from apologizing to you. “Okay, fine,” you relented. “But you're not fully off the hook; I just won't use the kitchen knives.”

A choking sound filtered through and you felt the corners of your mouth tug upward.

“What can I do to make it even?” Changmin asked, though he continued to remain behind the closed door.

Frankly, there weren't many things he could do to even the score unless you chose to be creepy and sit in on his private moments. You shuddered—you’d rather not. Those were private for a reason. Maybe he could burn his eyes out with bleach. (Kidding… ish.) “I don't know,” you said half-heartedly, ”tell me a secret.”

A moment of silence passed. “I thought it was hot when you asked if you could kill me.”

Not even an ounce of shame with this one, huh? “You're sick. I'm leaving.”

For the second time today, his bedroom door ripped open. “No, wait, I was kidding! Yn, I was kidding.” (He was not kidding).

You stopped, half-whirled around. In your periphery, he stepped out of his room, but refrained from getting too close. When you turned around fully, the red that dusted his cheekbones was unmistakable. Unfortunately, seeing him flustered was enough for you at the moment.

With a feigned, heavy sigh, you motioned to him. “C'mere.”

Changmin perked up like a confused puppy.

“Come here,” you repeated with more urgency this time. You curled your hand toward you to beckon him closer.

He crept closer to you. There was a gleam of uncertainty and suspicion in his eyes as you continued to gesture at him closer… and closer still. Your heart throttled against your ribcage; your physical body was even unsure of what exactly you had in mind.

Only once his face was close enough you could count his eyelashes were you satisfied. You could hear him gulp.

And maybe you let the moment linger too long. His gaze flickered away from your eye contact for a heartbeat, eyelashes fluttering as he considered something out of the bounds of friendship.

You raised your hand up to his forehead and flicked him between his eyes. Hard.

Changmin yelped and fumbled backward to the boisterous sound of your laughter. He rubbed his forehead furiously where an angry, red mark formed and smarted. He snarled at you, “Not cool!” His face was nearly as red as the mark… oops.

“That's what you get!” you countered with an accusing finger. “Now. Promise me you'll never purposely possess my body in your dreams, you perv.”

A grumble came from the depths of his throat—agreement. “I never did it on purpose,” he mumbled, slapping his hand with yours in a binding handshake. He sounded like a teen boy who's gaming console was just taken away.

“And promise me that you will take care of yourself, so that we can get out of this binding thing and so that you don't accidentally possess me.”

“Didn't you offer to get possessed last night?” Changmin stiffened as the words left his lips. “I didn't mean that! Don't get the kitchen knives!”

His giggles pierced the air, sharp but endearing, as he scrambled back into his room with you clinging to his heels. “Or get the kitchen knives—it’s kind of hot.”

“Ji Changmin.”

PART III: THE RELATIVE

WHEN YOU APPEARED IN YOUR 8:30 biopsychology lecture on Monday morning, you had nearly forgotten that the world had not completely turned upside down when you bound your soul to Changmin’s. No one else but you and he knew about it, and it seemed he was determined to keep it that way. Nonetheless, when you settled in your usual seat about midway up the lecture hall, close to the exit on stage right, you looked into Yeh Shuhua’s terrifyingly beautiful eyes and almost blurted your secret.

It was because of that reason, and the fact that she was one of your close friends. She was one of the participants of the ritual; it was only right that you disclosed to her the consequences of all your actions. However, the reminder from Changmin echoed in your head like a dull heartbeat: Don’t tell any of them. Don’t do something stupid like Hyunjae or Shuhua. He realized that ‘stupid’ applied to him, too, right?

“You seem antsy,” were her first words to you as you finally decided on how you would roll up your jacket. It had taken a couple tries and configurations before you settled on just draping it over the chair behind you.

You straightened in your chair. Perhaps subtlety was not with you this morning. “My coffee was too strong,” you said.

She snorted, a bright and unassuming sound, as she pulled her laptop out from her bag. “Honey, you don’t drink coffee.”

…Right. You let the words sink in to properly register your dumbassery, then settled on the most basic excuse known to college students. “It’s too early for this.”

“Amen.” Conversation saved.

When you first signed up for this class, you were under the impression that it would be a riveting insight into the brain and its inner workings. Alas, your professor from Psych101 did you a disservice by testifying to Psych210’s interest factor, because it was entirely lacking in interesting things. The majority of what was being discussed in lecture could be read about via the slides, but unfortunately, participation was mandatory. Even worse was that this class was the prerequisite to the neuroscience class that was actually interesting.

You didn’t like to critique the teaching skills of a professor who was meant to research and not to teach, but you were going to for the umpteenth time.

Beside you, Shuhua barely swallowed a yawn and hid the last bits of it behind the lid of her coffee tumbler. She took a sip, then leaned over to you. “I’m pretty sure I learned all of this in freshman year biology.”

“Is that right,” you murmured. You hadn’t taken the introductory biology series because you were only minoring in psychology, whereas Shuhua was a neuroscience major. “You must really be suffering then.”

Her head slowly touched down onto your shoulder. “Tell me about it… by the way, did you hear about the house party that’s happening on Saturday?”

You hummed. “Who’s hosting?” House parties were usually something you needed to be a part of a friend group to be invited to. Though, that was usually the case for all parties in college, you’d found out. Fraternity parties were oftentimes exclusive to Greeks, or if you knew a frat brother or sorority sister. Other parties were spread by word of mouth and required an entrance fee that amounted to a fraudulent sum of money. Thus, if you went to any party, it was either a house party hosted by a friend of a friend, or one of your friends’ birthday parties.

“Hm… it’s my family friend’s kid’s friend group.” She paused, then clarified her statement, “Yangyang. You know Yangyang, right?

You made a sound of acknowledgement. “Isn't he friends with Xiaojun, Kevin, and Yuqi, that group?”

“That's the one,” she chirped. “But he only lives with Xiaojun and a couple other guys. It's a house in one of the neighborhoods nearby.”

“I see. Are we going?”

“Of course we are, silly.” Shuhua blindly patted one of your hands and you imagined that her eyes were likely already closed. You and your friends were accustomed to forcing one another to socialize outside the group from time to time; it made the college riptide a bit easier to swim through. “I just didn't know if you were aware or not yet.”

“Well, now I am,” you chuckled.

“You sure are.”

The remainder of the lecture went by as dull as it usually did, and 9:30 could not come faster. You and Shuhua bumbled out of the packed auditorium among the crowd of others filing out.

A yawn stretched your mouth open as you checked your phone. “You've got a class after this, right?” you asked Shuhua.

She nodded. “Unfortunately. Do you wanna have lunch together afterward?”

“Ah” —guilt anchored itself to the pit of your stomach, allowing the urge to spill your secret to dwindle— “I'm actually hanging out with Changmin today.” Neither of you had terribly busy Mondays, so you both decided to do some solution-hunting together, whatever that meant. He just needed to be back by the time his dance rehearsal started.

Her mouth quirked to the side in a slight frown. “Oh, okay. Just you two?”

“Yep.”

For a second, you thought she was gazing right into your soul where the invisible knot was tied linking you to your mutual friend. But she suddenly smiled and blew you a kiss. “No worries! Have fun.”

You blinked, the anxiety lingering. “Yeah… thanks. You, too.”

Shuhua left first to hurry off to her next class while you remained in the lobby. You had fully expected that she would at least ask what the two of you were doing, and you were prepared to come up with another dumb excuse. It wasn't suspicious that you and Changmin were hanging out alone, right? There were plenty of instances where you hung out solo with your close friends.

You brushed it away. It was the paranoia talking.

You headed toward the nearest parking lot. Because you lived relatively close to campus, there was usually no need to drive, but since you and Changmin were going elsewhere in the city, you opted to drive.

As you settled into the front seat, you sent him a text to let you know you were on your way over to his apartment. It would be convenient if you could somehow use the soul-bond to communicate with him instead, you thought as you navigated through campus to a nearby neighborhood. Alas, based on what Changmin told you before, the bond was more useful to him than it was for you. How wonderful.

You let your car run as you pulled up to the curb outside of his apartment complex. Through the windows on the first floor, a periwinkle sheen caught your eye. There wasn’t much doubt in your mind that it was the ribbon Changmin tied to his bicycle. It was his favorite color—not that you knew that for any particular reason, other than the fact that you were friends. It was useful information for birthday cards, was your reasoning.

Before you could meander down some weird mental road of thoughts, the passenger side door opened and closed. Your counterpart was dressed in dark green today: dark green sweater, a darker but muted shade of cargo pants, followed by a matching cap shoved over his blond hair. “Hi,” he said, strapping himself in with the seatbelt and setting his bag down by his feet.

He looked particularly pocket-sized today with the cheeky, dimpled smile on his face and you smiled in greeting. “Hi!” you chirped back. “Where to?”

“An aunt of mine lives downtown. Do you know how to get to Union Station?”

You nodded, tugging the car into drive, “Yup. Wow, she lives down by the waterfront?”

“Yeah,” he laughed. When he did, he ducked his head so you only caught a glimpse of that dimpled smile. “She’s married to a siren.”

Your eyes went wide, and his laugh grew louder. You flattened your expression into a deadpan as heat rushed to the back of your neck. “Don’t laugh,” you muttered. “Why are you laughing?”

“I’d say for you to not pout then, but it’s cute,” he replied with that smile lingering on his face in the form of a half-smirk. He had pulled his phone out to text someone. “I’m only laughing because I had a feeling you’d react like that, and I was right.”

You huffed. “I feel like I’m at too much of a disadvantage around you.”

“You have more power than you think.” Changmin passed you a glance and deposited his phone in the cupholder. He leaned his cheek against his knuckles. “You just need to exercise it.”

“Well, I can’t exactly threaten you with kitchen knives and forehead flicks all the time.”

He shrugged. “That’s not what I meant, but it’s whatever. How was class?”

Changmin, Juyeon, and Hyunjae were all aware of yours and Shuhua’s disdain for your shared biopsychology class. The complaints had filed (flooded) in as soon as the first week of classes were over. You could gab on and on about the boredom that plagued you, but you hardly wanted to be a broken record when there were other things to talk about. “It was fine,” you said, then swiftly moved to something else. “I think I almost told Shuhua, like, twice about the soul bond thing. Why can’t we tell them again?”

“Do you really think they’d believe us?”

You thought about it—about the twin cuts on your index fingers, the unseen string that tethered your souls together, the dream that Changmin had. They would think Changmin had roped you into his regular shenanigans, and in a way, he had. You sighed, albeit reluctantly. “True. But it just feels…” you grimaced. “Is it weird that I feel guilty?”

Changmin shook his head. “No, I’ve had to tiptoe around my mom’s and my true nature around you guys for years. It’s natural to wanna be truthful to your friends, Yn, but some things are better left unsaid.”

“Is there a reason why the supernatural community stays hidden? Is that something I can ask?”

“Of course,” he said easily, turning his gaze out the window. “It’s just that it’s better—safer—for us this way. Humans can hardly handle differences amongst themselves as it is; imagine what would happen if they found that even more species of sentient beings existed, y’know?”

Truth was a difficult pill to swallow. It was a capsule that often found itself lodged in a throat rather than being digested. And even if it eventually managed to make it to the stomach, it sank to the bottom like a body anchored by bricks in a river. There was, unfortunately, much merit to what Changmin said.

Your eyes flickered to your side mirrors as you merged onto the highway. “I see.”

“It’s definitely relieving that at least one of my close friends knows the truth now, though.” He knocked the back of his hand against your arm in a warm gesture, and although you were unable to return the expression or even look at him then, he was looking at you.

Because you and Changmin set off just after rush hour passed, the drive through the downtown scene was relatively easy. The rest of your time in the car was spent chatting about the party Yangyang and his housemates were throwing, as well as Changmin directing you to his aunt’s residence by the marina. His ability to give directions left much to be desired; your car was filled with shouts and bickering whenever he told you to turn too late.

Somehow though, you arrived at the right street, and he even helped you find a parking spot along a curb that didn’t involve ungodly hourly parking rates. You wouldn’t call it a complete redemption, but he was on his way toward one.

“Are you sure it’s cool if we just show up unannounced like this?” you asked him, tilting your head back to peer up at the apartments that towered above you. Some of the windows were left open and their curtains drifted whimsically in the mid-morning breeze; some of the fire escapes were connected by copper-colored ladders, fitting together like a puzzle. You liked to think that complexes like this housed residents who were friendly to one another like some fantasy video game—a pair of friends hanging out of their windows to gossip across the fire escapes, a cat sleeping in the window—that sort of thing.

Changmin stood next to you, but his gaze was turned out to the marina in the distance, the sails of boats in the foreground of the slate blue-gray of the bay water. “Yeah, it’s cool. And we’re not exactly unannounced; I told her we were coming.”

“When?” You followed him in through the front door. The hinges squealed upon use and the door shuddered violently when it closed.

“In the car.”

You deadpanned at his back as you followed him up the stairs. “You’re an awful relative.”

“Don’t all relatives show up to their other relatives' homes unannounced?” he jested. “I’m a model nephew, actually.”

“A model in what standard? Hell?”

He shrugged up ahead, glancing back to pass you a boyish grin. “Yeah, basically. My mom says demons just kind of teleport into their relatives’ homes unannounced.”

“So that’s where your incredible lack of boundaries comes from,” you said and glowered up at him.

You met Changmin on the landing of the second floor and ducked out of the stairwell into the dimly-lit corridor. It was quiet here in the middle of the day, but you could hear the muffled sounds of television programs and voices emanating behind different doors you passed by. The carpet was well-trodden and didn’t kick dust up when you walked, and the overall smell was vaguely fishy and reminiscent of the seafood section of a supermarket.

“Cultural difference,” he replied cheekily. “This is hers, Aunt Jenna’s.” He gestured to the door he stood at with a rusted, gold B29 hanging on its surface just above the peephole.

You tucked your hands into your jacket pockets. “Anything I should know before going in?”

Changmin paused and his face flashed with realization. It translated roughly, but accurately enough, to ‘Uh oh.’ He opened his mouth to say something, but the door beat him to it.

Correction: his aunt beat him to it. Or at least, she was who you assumed was his aunt. Her facial features and bone structure weren't similar to Changmin’s at all, but those eyes—dark like the deepest corner of a shadow; engulfing, embracing, enveloping—her eyes were what made familiarity pang in your chest where the soul-knot sat.

Her mouth stretched into a bright smile. “Changmin-ah! And his significant other, isn’t it—or kids these days say partner instead, hm? Don’t be strangers now; come in, come in!”

What did she just say? You have got to be kidding me.

Too overwhelmed to think, you let his aunt usher you and Changmin in through her front door. You threw—chucked—an alarmed glance over at your counterpart, who could only meet your wide eyes with his own. Shoes were exchanged for slippers, and you were guided toward a couch settled in one part of the cozy living space.

“It’s nice to meet you, Aunt Jenna,” you finally managed to say through the heat flaring up your neck and behind your ears. “But I do have to, uhm, correct you.”

Changmin coughed beside you on the couch as his aunt perched on the coffee table across from you both. “She’s not my romantic partner, auntie. Yn’s just a friend.”

You nodded earnestly.

His aunt’s face flickered from that sunny smile to a more somber surprise. She broke into a sheepish sort of laugh, absentmindedly brushing a lock of hair behind her shoulder. “Oh, well how silly of me. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable—I got embarrassingly excited,” she confessed. She addressed Changmin specifically, reaching over to whack his knee, “You used the word for lover when you texted me earlier!”

Changmin’s hands rocketed up as both you and his aunt fixed him with pointed looks. “It was a typo and an honest mistake,” he swore. “I haven’t spoken or written in that demonic dialect in awhile,” he said to you, “and the words for friend and lover are, like, one letter different.”

His mouth had pursed into an unconscious pout, and you reached over to flick him between the eyes. Bone against fingernail, and the dense thunk sound the impact produced was quite satisfying.

“Ow! I'm sorry!”

You turned to a rather amused Aunt Jenna. “I'm sorry I did that in front of you. I swear, I won't make a habit out of it.” That remained to be seen, however. How had you refrained from flicking him for his behavior before this?

She chuckled. “I'm sure he's warranted it more than once. It's nice to meet you, Yn.”

“Likewise. You have a lovely home.”

Changmin held his forehead with his hat now sitting in his lap, and his eyes narrowed at the two of you. “This was the worst idea I've ever had.”

“Do you drink tea, Yn?” his aunt asked you, waving aside her nephew's comment. “I'll make us some tea and we can talk about whatever you both came to discuss.”

Tea was served on an elegant tray made of polished dark wood. The color was a deep red, as if it had been dipped in a vat of blood, and was engraved with images of what you assumed to be flowers with long stems crowned with big, beautiful petals. You nursed a Finding Nemo mug between your palms, gently blowing on the steam that wafted out of the aromatic floral tea.

Just the fragrance of the drink was enough to put you at ease. The muscles and knots in your shoulders loosened, your frown lines smoothed over. You took a gentle sip and savored the tangible warmth that streamed down your throat and into your stomach.

You nodded to Aunt Jenna who's dark eyes gleamed knowingly over the rim of her mug. “That's very good,” you said.

“Isn't it? Would you like to take some home?”

Changmin harrumphed from beside you after taking a hulking gulp of his own drink. “Guys, please.”

“Mm yes, yes.” Aunt Jenna waved her free hand flippantly. “Your problem.”

While Jenna had prepared the tea, you and Changmin explained to her how your souls became tied together. Most of the explanation consisted of specific details of the ritual itself, not the circumstances before. You described the physical sensations on your end, and Changmin added in his out-of-body experience.

When your piece was said, it left Aunt Jenna to marinate on all the facts. She took a sip of her drink first. “Well, you're both fools, but you” —she wiggled an accusing finger at her nephew— “especially. How could you be so irresponsible as to let your friends go through with a bargaining ritual?”

Changmin grabbed the back of his neck and hung his head like a kicked puppy. “It didn't seem like the end of the world if they wanted to have fun.”

“I suppose,” Jenna muttered, but not without some sympathy. She was a demon living amongst humans, too, after all. “But look where that's gotten you both. There are just far too many unforeseen variables that could have made this situation ten times worse. You and Yn becoming soul-bound is probably the best outcome, frankly.”

You would beg to differ, but you kept your lips stitched together and attached to the rim of your mug.

“But as for undoing it, I'm afraid there aren't many options.”

You detached your mouth from the mug.

You and Changmin exchanged a glance with one another. He asked, “What are our options?”

Aunt Jenna's mouth pursed slightly to form small divots in the sides of her cheeks. “The one most accessible to you is to bargain with another, more powerful demon to take over your bond with Yn.”

“Absolutely not,” he interjected. “That's out of the question.”

“I guessed as much,” she said, taking another sip. “Then it's quite literally impossible—unless you used cursed magic—but even if you didn't care about facing the hellish consequences, gaining access to a Book of the Diabolical is insanely difficult.”

Though you were completely ignorant to almost everything Aunt Jenna was saying, you weren't so ignorant to her message between the lines: you were fucked. Supremely.

Looking over at Changmin only confirmed what you were thinking. There seemed to be a war being waged behind his eyes as he clutched his mug in his lap and glared at a grain in the hardwood floor. This situation was partially your fault and his, and now, the only thing you could do was to drown in the consequences.

You turned to his aunt. “Then how can we live with it?” In your periphery, Changmin's head raised. “I mean, are there techniques to better control this situation, like on both Changmin's end and my end if we can't simply rid ourselves of it?”

Aunt Jenna considered you for a moment, then nodded slowly. “There are,” she said. “Control is something very valuable to demons, Yn. I don't know how much Changmin's told you—”

You sent him a thin smile.

“—but mastering your own body is one of the most integral things young demons first learn. If you don't have control over your mind and body, then how could you possibly be trusted to control anything else?”

That made sense, you thought. It was a thoughtful principle, too, that others (humans) could learn from. What other parts of demon culture and values were there that these two would be willing to share with you?

Jenna had finished her cup of tea by now and set her empty mug back onto the tray. “So the easiest way, I think, to safeguard yourselves against one another is to strengthen your minds.”

What exactly Aunt Jenna had in mind was meditation. Because you were human and couldn't exactly perform the same demonic energy rituals and mind exercises that Jenna and Changmin could, meditation was the next best group activity. In order to do this, Jenna shut all of the curtains and sealed the living room off from the outside world. The coffee table and sofa were shoved to the edges of the room, while the empty space was occupied by three bath towels and a Bath and Body Works candle.

It was reminiscent of the ritual from That Night, but your heart rate sat a little more stable with the belief that you were in capable hands this time.

The three of you arranged yourselves in a loose triangle around the lit candle, its small flame shuddering at the force of your breaths.

“You can place your hands wherever you're most comfortable,” Aunt Jenna said lowly, softly—a vocal embodiment of the small head of fire upon the candle. “Sit up straight, close your eyes, and breathe in deep… let the darkness envelope you.”

There weren't many moments when you considered yourself petty, salty, or bitter. But at this very moment, you were most certainly all three at once.

“Are you really still mad that you fell asleep?” The question was posed with as much audacity as there was incredulity in his voice.

You didn't have to direct your glaring eyes at Changmin for him to feel the edge. “It was embarrassing,” you grumbled.

“Aw, it's okay. Not everyone has the mental fortitude to meditate.”

And you do? you wanted to snap back like a five year old. Instead, you tightened your grip on the steering wheel and focused on not steering the two of you off the road. “I will literally ditch you on the highway.”

He leaned his head against the window to watch you with a twinkle in his eyes and a toothy grin on his lips. “And I will literally haunt you in your sleep.”

The pair of you were in the car driving back up to the university. You had just left Aunt Jenna's about fifteen minutes ago after the failed meditation session (for you) and her insisting you both stayed for lunch. With your stomachs full and your heads quite literally empty, there was nothing left to do but to return home.

There had been a moment before you both left when Jenna pulled Changmin aside to have a private conversation. You had lingered outside the apartment door, but couldn't hear anything despite it being left slightly ajar. There must have been some crazy soundproofing done on her apartment. A charm, perhaps?

But when Changmin came to join you, you picked up the tail end of their talk. It had to do with Changmin pleading with her not to tell his mom about what happened; Aunt Jenna would only agree if he promised to babysit her kids next week.

That thought made you smile to yourself even through the cloud of salty pettiness in your vision. What was Changmin like around kids? The guy was rather childish himself, but… you wouldn't deny that he would probably be good—

“What are you smiling about?” he mused as he peered out from under the brim of his cap. He reclined his seat back a little and crossed his arms over his chest, settling himself in for the ride back.

You scoffed and forced the smile away. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

He hummed. “Methinks it was about me,” he teased and tugged his cap further over his eyes so even his mouth was barely visible. At your silence, he murmured, “Also, I hope you're not bothered about earlier.”

“Hm?”

“I mean—the fact that you weren't able to meditate. And,” he added quickly, “I'm not trying to make fun of you. It's just that that was the only way Aunt Jenna could think that you could safeguard yourself against me. I'm gonna be really good about this, Yn, I swear. I don't—y’know, I don't want anything to change between us.”

Ah. Well, since his hat was over his eyes, you allowed your smile to slip back into place. The weight in your chest was warm, a comforting sort of tightness. You were gradually getting more accustomed to its presence, and at this particular moment, you were glad to be aware of it.

“I believe you,” you said to him. “And I don't want anything to change between us either.” You were friends before the ritual, and you would continue to be friends after it.

You were content with being accompanied by your thoughts and the radio for the remainder of the ride. Your companion in the passenger seat had drifted to sleep at some point when the highways began to grow rather congested with the early afternoon traffic. Changmin had a dance rehearsal in a couple hours, which gave some leeway as to what time you needed to get him back by.

By the time you hit the university district, the sun perched lower in a sky spotted with cirrus clouds, wispy and drifting in the autumn breeze. The filter it cast over the world was a mute gold, warm.

Changmin peered out his side window as you navigated through the busy streets, his face nearly pressed up against the glass because his cap was turned around. There was far too much foot traffic at three in the afternoon, but it was unfortunately a popular time to be out and about for students on a Monday. “Could you drop me off at the sandwich shop on the corner over there?” he asked suddenly, his voice gravelly from disuse. He inclined his chin further down the block, and you had enough time to switch lanes.

“Yeah, sure,” you murmured, glancing over at him. “You don’t want me to drop you off straight at the dance hall?”

“Nah, I’ve got a couple hours, so I think I’m gonna get another bite to eat first.” He rummaged around in the bag at his feet, double checking that he had brought along everything he needed. “D’you wanna…” His voice trailed off as he turned his head up toward you.

You hummed in question and furrowed your brows in concentration to direct your car into a parking spot along the curb.

“Did you wanna come in with me? I don’t know what your plans are after this.” Changmin had one foot out the door, but the rest of his body remained here with you, in the car, as if hesitant to leave just yet. With the brim of his cap turned around, you could better see his face, the hair pushed out of his dark eyes. There was a small smile seated upon his lips, hopeful in the way it curved into his cheeks in the way you always found slightly endearing.

Your hand lingered by your seatbelt. What were your plans after this? Nothing, right? “I mean, if you don—”

“Yn, is that you?”

The voice and the interruption elicited similar jolts from both of you. Your head whipped around on instinct to locate the person who had called out to you.

Crossing the street to you now was Lee Chan. He had his backpack slung over his shoulder, and he waved a hand at you when he caught your eye. But they flickered away from you to someone behind you—Changmin straightened to his full height, his head appearing over the roof of the car.

You glanced back at your counterpart. That smile, so boyish and innocent, had grown an edge.

“Thanks for the ride, Yn,” Changmin said to you, ducking his head to address you. He reached into the car so he could clasp your hand, his fingers clutching yours as he stole your gaze away… they lingered. “I’ll talk to you later, hm?”

You nodded, unsure why you were so dumbfounded. “Yeah, sure,” you stammered out. “I had fun today.”

“Same.” And there was that smile again. It wasn’t exactly the same, but it had softened out at the corners. With a final raise of his hand, he shut your passenger door and jogged off toward the shop.

You blinked as air suddenly filled your lungs again. Had you been holding your breath the whole time? You forgot to wish him a good rehearsal.

A knock on your window had you swiveling your head around. Chan grinned as you rolled your window down. “Hey, what’ve you been up to?”

Not a mention of Changmin, you noted. You were aware of Changmin and Chan’s dislike for one another, and though it caused you a torrent of internal conflict, there was nothing that you could do about it. If they were unwilling to talk about it with each other or with you, then there was no use. Both of them were important figures in your life, so it was just as important that you could keep them both—was that selfish? It seemed that they were able to somewhat coexist, however, if they participated on the same dance team. How did that even work out?

“I was out with Changmin for most of the day,” you said. “We were just… y’know, visiting a relative of his downtown.” There was no harm in saying that, right?

Chan’s expression didn’t even shudder. “Oh? I didn’t know he had relatives downtown.”

Of course, you didn’t. You appreciated that he tried to be civil about Changmin around you, but sometimes the pretense was more aggravating than the petty disdain. “Yeah, they were really nice. We drank tea and chatted a bit.”

“Glad it was a chill time,” he smiled. “Ah, speaking of—I was wondering if you wanted to go visit Chaeyoung noona with me sometime this week? I've been trying to figure out the best time to go see her before midterms.”

You brightened at the mention of Chan's older sister. Though his parents had passed away before Chan graduated high school, he was supported mostly by his older sister, Chaeyoung. You'd heard and seen for yourself the chronic illness that she was cursed with, however. There had been a decent stretch in time when her situation looked much better, but recently, she had been forced back into long-term care at the hospital.

“Yeah, definitely! It'll be nice to see her after so long. Just text me and let me know what day you decide.” The last time you saw Chaeyoung was probably at the start of the past summer break when you went home to see your parents with Chan. Though you and Chan were around the same age, he acted more as an older brother figure to you, likely because of Chaeyoung's good influence.

The golden hour sun glinted its rays into your eyes, and you were reminded of the time. “Oh, don’t you have dance practice soon? Need a ride over?”

“Yeah, I do, but I don’t need a ride,” he said. “I was about to meet Vernon in the cafe down the street though. Do you wanna come with?”

The idea of accepting his invitation crossed your mind, but the ache in your legs and at the nape of your neck were suddenly a lot more prominent than before. You hadn’t even realized how tired you were. “Not this time; I think I'm a little tired. Thanks for the invite, though!”

He pressed his mouth together in slight disappointment, but waved it away with a casual hand motion. “Of course. Drive home safe, then.”

“I will. Have a good time, Chan.”

Chan returned the sentiment back to you, but instead of leaving right away, his lips parted another time. He paused, concern gleaming in his eyes—or was that the setting sun? You couldn’t tell the difference, but there was something he couldn’t quite articulate with words that his facial expression was desperate to reveal to you instead.

You frowned. “Something wrong?”

He let out a small laugh and brushed away the thought. “No, don’t worry about it.”

Are you aware that you've been cursed?

Aunt Jenna's words echoed in Changmin's head ceaselessly throughout the dance rehearsal. They had been subdued slightly when he was asleep in your car earlier, but consciousness tended to surface more nightmares than the unconscious state. Even in the bright light of day, those shadows found a way to creep in and force him into some horrific tunnel vision.

No, he wasn't aware that he'd been cursed. How could he?

Out of everything he thought she pulled him aside for, that was the last thing he expected. The look in her eyes—those dark irises that mirrored his in depth—had been stricken by a grave worry. Those all-knowing eyes, far surpassing his in experience, had taken one look at him coming in through the door and determined something horrible had happened.

A curse?

You haven't been feeling strange lately? She had grasped him by the shoulders, her hands firm in their iron grip. Any strange aches and pains?

The headaches. He told her about the random, spotty headaches that had been plaguing him recently. It hadn't occurred to him at all that they could even be a side effect for a curse.

I've heard some strange things have been going on to the demons in your area. The curse has subsided for now because of your half-humanness, but…

Changmin could fill in the blanks.

His appeal to Aunt Jenna about not telling his mom about any of this included both the soul-bond and the curse. Based on what his aunt told him, there have been demons in this area who have been forced into critical conditions by an energy-stealing curse. That would explain his frequent headaches and his increased exhaustion. Though, the headaches had been on the decline as of late, which coincided with the other part of Jenna's warning.

He was at odds. He couldn't simply sit around and wait for whatever maniac was at large to suddenly stop. He and all the other demons around him were sitting ducks. Worrying about the soul-bond was one thing, but he supposed this now took priority.

Changmin hunched over his bag in one of the darkened corners of the practice room. The lights had been turned down slightly as their four reserved hours drew to a close. It was a hard night, but the sweat, heat, and adrenaline was a delightfully addicting mixture.

Absent-mindedly, he rubbed a palm over his chest. The invisible knot there that linked you to him tightened at the attention. He had made a habit of this over the course of the past few hours; the physical sensation of the string tugging grounded him and kept him from disappearing into his head too much.

Could you feel him on the other end? He was certain you could if he made it obvious. If he tugged just right—

“Ji. I need to talk to you.”

The only sign of surprise Changmin let Lee Chan see was the raising of his eyebrows. “I don't need to talk to you.”

“It's about Yn.”

Changmin's movements froze. He let go of his bag's strap and zippers with a sigh, then straightened up to meet Chan eye to eye. He crossed his arms over his chest. “What about Yn?” You were his problem now, whether you liked it or not.

Chan's eyes narrowed at him, a muscle in his jaw twitching. “I don't know what you think you're doing with her, but you need to stop. It was enough that she's friends with you—”

He couldn't help but scoff. What the fuck is he going on about? Changmin's mouth twisted into an incredulous smirk, the points of his canines peering out from under his lip as he jabbed his tongue into his cheek. “I was wondering when you'd finally drop the Nice Guy act.”

“This isn't about me putting up a front,” Chan quipped in hushed tones. He wouldn't have done so if he wanted to make a scene. “This isn't even about us not liking each other. My problem is that you're roping Yn into your—your fucking bullshit.”

Changmin furrowed his brows. “You're being vague and dramatic, Lee Chan. I really don't have the time or the patience for this.”

“I know who you really are, Ji.” In any other context, those words in that order would have made Changmin bark out a laugh.

Changmin shuddered as he sized up Lee Chan in a different light. It was almost funny how perspective could change everything. In the daylight and bright fluorescents, Chan was a model kid with a charming smile and unshakeable charisma. He cared about you and watched over you like a brother. But without the presence of light was when Changmin was most afraid of what he saw. It was not because he was afraid of the dark—the shadows, frankly, were a demon's ally—it was because the dark did something to Chan in the same way blood infested clear water.

Chan's mouth was set in a firm line, and nothing about his facial expression or stance gave even an inkling that he was bluffing.

“I still have no fucking clue what you're talking about,” Changmin replied lowly, scooping his bag up and brushing past Chan.

He went to find Juyeon. The organ in his chest pumped his blood wickedly fast through his system; the blood thundered in his ears, loud and deafening, like an oncoming train. Aunt Jenna was in his head, you were in his chest, Lee Chan was at his back.

Ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom—

He and Juyeon were out the door in a flash, but Changmin glanced backward—because we always turned toward that which was capable of our demise; that was survival instinct—and he flinched when Chan's eyes caught his again.

Changmin let the door slam behind him as he stole into the cold night. If only the darkness could hide him from whatever just happened.

read part two here (if the link isn't there yet, refresh out of this page and it'll be linked at the top)

permanent taglist 1: @flwoie @vatterie @seomisaho @hqrana @ja4hyvn @outrologist @rikizm @luumiinaa @lotties-readings @tinkerbell460 @kaaimins @hyunjaespresent-deobi @otterly-fey @gluion @floatingpluto @winterchimez @ethereal-engene @gyulfriend @polarisjisung @jaehunnyy @shakalakaboomboo @loveliestfelix @bless-311 @zhaixiaowen @leaz-kpop-life @amourdsr @pxppxrminty @kqyutie @sseastar-main @kxthleen14 @fluorescentloves @mosviqu / fic taglist: @tbzhubrecs

[lizdive]

Heyy :3 I saw your Lynette! Reader and I'm love with it 🥰 Can I also request some version for Welt, Gallagher, Argenti? Ofc platonic all they wayy [I love ur work 🫶🫶🫶]

Yes you can nonnie 🫡🩷 thank you so much for your sweet words MWAH MWAH 🫶🫶 thank you for requesting !! if you’re unsatisfied just tell me and i’ll redo it <33 ALSO !! NOT CLICKBAIT I GOT TWO POSTS OUT TODAY AND THE CROWD WENT HOME 💯‼️ *Comically gets tomatoes thrown at me* /j

notes 𐙚 gender-neutral reader — "you" used to refer to reader ,, reader is a teenager ,, reader is based off of "lynette" from the game genshin impact ,, platonic relationships ,, mentions of being sold, close to being 'used', creepy old men, and other things relating to lynette’s past ,, mentions of various other characters in various parts ,, platonic relationships ,, not proofread ignore typos

⭑ Much like Dan Heng, WELT did not expect you to fully trust anyone on the express quickly, which was why he tried to make himself seem as welcoming as possible even though he very much is welcoming on his own.

⭑ He was patient with you and respected your boundaries, and when you’d give him your wacky replies he’d just nod his head and leave you alone. He never pushed you to do stuff with any of the members and was overall pretty chill.

⭑ His comforting and welcoming vibes alone helped you trust him easier than the other members of the express, and soon enough Welt found himself walking around with you trailing behind him like a duckling. If he was sitting in the parlor cart, you were next to him practicing or showing him your card tricks. If he was in his room, you were probably there just in the corner doing your thing.

⭑ Tea time anytime anywhere. WELT will always have the time to enjoy tea and snacks with you whenever you’d like! If you make your treats yourself, he’ll help you make them, too. It’s nice bonding time. He’ll also learn a thing or two about tea making from you as it seems that you take the art very very seriously.

⭑ He’s not a swordsman by any means but he’s seen many different fighting styles in his time so he’ll give you some tips on how to improve. He’d still prefer for someone else to properly mentor you and by someone else I mean Dan Heng as he’s the closest one to a swordsman on the express.

⭑ Like some others in the first part, he’ll keep something sweet with him in his pocket so if you’re ever craving something sweet or feeling hungry in general he’ll be able to hand you the sweet treat easily. Feels bad whenever he doesn’t have anything on hand, especially when there aren’t any stores nearby.

⭑ He can do the talking for you if you want him to. He’ll calmly tell others that you aren’t comfortable with conversations and that he’ll be doing the talking for you during interactions. If they don’t cooperate then he’ll just,, leave with you. He needn’t waste both of your times with someone who cannot respect boundaries.

⭑ Not surprised by your feline features as he’s seen many things in his time, but if you lean more into the feline mannerisms he’ll give you extra head-pats and ear scratches and may buy you cat toya if you want them. Makes sure you take care of your nails too!! Doesn’t want you hurting yourself.

⭑ He doesn’t mind participating in your performances. He,,,, he has experience on stage,,,, ahaha,,,, WELT can entertain a crowd! Doesn’t like the tricks that involve the both of you getting a bit messy thought like the water container, but he’ll indulge you in any other tricks! He also doesn’t mind watching your performances! He’ll smile and clap after every trick, praising your skill and what you do. He’s very supportive and would be honored if you teach him how you do what you do.

⭑ If you ever open up to him about your past, he’ll be there for you as he pats your head and rubs your back soothingly, telling you to take your time and that he’s so proud of you for getting through that and having the courage to tell him all of this.

⭑ Like Veritas, I don’t think WELT do anything to the man should he still be alive. He’ll help you forget him if you’re bothered by the memories and help you heal should you be repressing emotions. He’ll teach you how to accept and will make sure by the end of your journey you’ll be the best self you can be. He’s already so proud of you.

⭑ You both are like old people with technology and both learn as you go. A member of the express teaches WELT something, he’s quick to message or tell you about it and vice versa.

"Humans are complicated creatures. Even when they are not doing so intentionally, they will still unconsciously hide their true selves. Though I can always notice a few 'redundant' details, I won't expose their facades when it isn't necessary."

"That’s… very nice of you?"

⭑ You were a performer at the bar, many of the patron and visitors flocking to the bar just to watch your amazing performances. GALLAGHER couldn’t deny that you were a talented kid, and he also quite enjoyed your performances.

⭑ You were young, so it’s not surprise some people did try to get you to work for them instead in hopes of exploiting you. GALLAGHER would always step in if they were being too insistent and sometimes even kick them up, however most of the time they left you alone due to your eccentric replies. They always made him snicker in amusement secretly.

⭑ GALLAGHER will make you drinks as you work and fix up small snacks if there’s anything available. Because of you he’s become a bit of a tea-making expert. Every time you take a break or finish a performance he’ll have a nice cup of tea set up for you in the staff room at the back. He awaits your feedback.

⭑ When you invite him to joins you in your tea breaks? He’s either tossing the bar to Siobhan or another employee, and if there’s non then uhm,,, yeah he can’t join you but he’ll make it up to you! And if you help him with drink making he’ll cry a bit internally. You’re such a good kid,,,

⭑ Not only are you both a good duo in the bar, but you both are a good duo in officer work. He’s is a bit intimidated with your swordsmanship, but he also admires your quick and clean cuts. You become his unofficial official assistant sometimes when it comes to snatching up criminals and it’s actually kind of fun.

⭑ You suck at technology, he’s decent at it, he doesn’t mind. If you want to improve he’ll help you out but if you don’t he’ll supervise you whenever you’re using anything relating to technology so that you don’t burn the bar down or something. Is it possible to get hurt in the dreamscape? I can’t remember. But still, he doesn’t want you to get hurt.

⭑ Calls you 'kitty' jokingly but if you get upset he’ll drop it. Also, only he’s allowed to call you that. Nobody else. He feels that if others do it then it’s mocking you — even if they mean well he just doesn’t like it so only he can do it.

⭑ He’ll help you practice but I don’t think he’d perform insane acts with you. Maybe the more simplistic ones or ones that don’t require him doing really complex things. He just doesn’t want to mess up and ruin your acts. If you want him to do a dramatic announcement for you before you go on stage, he’ll do so happily.

⭑ The moment you open up to GALLAGHER trust that he’ll make sure you’re much more guarded and kept safe. He’ll also be much more observant of the patrons and visitors and nobody will be offering you work offers. He’ll ask you during your break times if anyone tried to do anything to you, and if so, to give him as many details as you possibly can. No need to ask why — he’ll deal with them.

⭑ Should the man that you were sold to dare be alive and enter the bar, GALLAGHER will have him out of there before you even catch a glimpse of him. He’ll also make sure that man is out of the dreamscape. Man, Sleepie has been needing a new toy as of recent!

⭑ Does the talking for you but at the same time not many people will be talking to you anyways after your performances because you’re having your tea break and so he’ll tell anyone that wants to interact with you that you’re unavailable for the rest of the time.

"If you explain a magic trick, then the allure of the performance is lost. Personal relationships are the same. If you want to understand me, why not learn a bit at a time, and gradually piece together a complete picture?"

"I like how you think, kid. Don’t change your mindset ever, got it?"

⭑ A new feline-featured performer holding a show in a planet nearby? Oh how delightful! ARGENTI’s getting a ticket to your show the second they’re available! He’s always loved performances and shows as they show how skilled others are and are always so beautiful.

⭑ He absolutely loved your performance and even wanted to thank you personally for the lovely time! And so after the lights were back on and all guests left, he made his way outside in search of you with an appreciative rose in hand which he expected he’d be able to give to you.

⭑However, what ARGENTI didn’t expect was for you to give him the wackiest response ever. He blinked, handed you the rose, and then continued to converse with you. He’s like Sunday but oblivious — there is no winning with him he can talk for hours.

⭑ It’s a huge yapper / listener situation. You travel a lot for performances and he travels a lot in search of Idrila, so you can’t escape him because he has the excuse to follow you around. Well, he does protect you even if it’s not needed due to your swordsmanship, but it’s convenient so you guess it’s fine.

⭑ ARGENTI also does all the talking for you which is a nice and huge bonus. Sometimes he does it without even realizing and nobody is able to make him shut up. It’s a big win win for the both of you and he never brings it up out of concern because you don’t seem bothered by it.

⭑ Finds your feline features beautiful and would love to help you groom your ears and tail if you’d let him !! He’s be very gentle as he brushes out the loose furs and if you like head pats / ear scratches he’ll sneak them in while he grooms your ears. He’s somehow so good at it for being a first timer (or so he claims.)

⭑ Very present in your performances and will always be there to support you and cheer you on, handing you a rose as a congratulations for the successful show. If you perform for him alone during your free-time, he’ll clap with a big smile and tell you how wonderful that was and how you’re improving so much.

⭑ ARGENTI is probably the best performance partner out of everyone because he puts in so much emotion with the tricks and acts he pulls. Also, he doesn’t mind being in front of a large crowd and he manages to captivate their attentions so that’s a bonus. You’re deadpan and he’s very emotional. A good duo.

⭑ If you open up to him, ARGENTI will be appalled. Not at you — never ever you — but at that disgusting man who dared to even think about using you. He’ll promise you that he’ll make sure nothing like that ever happens again and then he’ll ask if there’s anything he can do to make you feel better. Would you like a specially prepared fish dish? Some sweets? Tea?

⭑ Speaking of tea, he loves tea time with you! It’s a nice time for the two of you to bond and relax from life, enjoying the flavors of the teas that would vary each time you prepared some. If you teach him how you make your teas he’ll be over the moon.

⭑ I don’t think ARGENTI is bad with tech, he’s probably pretty good, so he’ll help you figure out how to not bust everything that contains some sort of tech or machinery. If you break things he won’t be upset or anything — he’s a pretty patient person. He’ll care more about you and if you’re injured.

⭑ Spars with you and constantly praises your agility and clean cuts. You both share tips and tricks for tending to your weapons and fighting in general, too. ARGENTI won’t be too rough on you but he will put up a challenge — he genuinely wants you to improve!

"Building a relationship with someone is like gambling. No matter how much information you have, it's hard to predict how other people might change. I've always had the habit of keeping a safe distance from others, but in your case... I'm willing to shoulder the risk of losing a bet."

"I promise you, you will not regret this gamble nor will you lose."

[imnameimswrld]

ⵌ ׄ ۪ 𝐊𝐄𝐘𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐍𝐙 ⁴⁴ ׄ ⑅ LH44 ‌˖ ֺ ᰮ

— DESCRIPTION ੭yn is been wanting to take lewis' xmas present for a spin ever since he got a new one sent from mercedes amg, but it will take some convincing.

— PAIRING ੭ lewis hamilton x fem!reader.

— FILE ੭ social media au.

— WARNINGS ੭ suggestive content, mdni !

— FACE CLAIM ੭ meghan fox.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

ynwis_supremacy

liked by lewish44news, ynusername, and 878 others

ynwis_supremacy actual footage of yn trying to convince lewis for the keys to his benz.

View all comments

user yn liked omg 😭😭

user the ice-cream one gets me everytime 💀

ynusername trust, I WILL get those keys.

⤿ ynwis_supremacy OMG QUEEN 😭

⤿ user ma'am, you dropped this: 👑

user I give it a week before he caves, who can handle saying "no" to THE yn ln for that long anyway ???

user "lew, look, i will take Roscoe on two walks, everyday, for 3 weeks,"

[ liked by ynusername ]

Y/N baby 💋

...

i will take ros on 2 walks everyday for the next 3 weeks ?

Lew Baby 💋

cute, but no.

Y/N Baby 💋

OH COME ON LEWIS.

PLEASE.

just one spin, that's all I'm asking here babe

is that really too much to ask ?

Lewis Baby 💋

ofc baby, anything for you 😚

Y/N Baby 💋

c'mon lew-

wait... fr !!?!?!?

Lew Baby 💋

NO

fucking Russell snatched my phone

it's gonna take more convincing baby, sorry 💋

Carmen 💏

how's convincing lewis for those merc keys going hon ?

Y/N 👭

I am failing miserably carm.

I feel like I've tried EVERYTHING

even sexy stuff like-

Carmen 💏

OKAY YN !!!

on that note, g and I have an indea

Y/N 👭

oh ?

I am all ears hon

Carmen 💏

4 words girl

sex in the benz.

ynusername

liked by georgerussell63, carmenmundt, and 1 223 454 others

ynusername keys to the benz ? keys to the benz 😉.

View all comments

user HE CAVED.

georgerussell63 hehe 😎

⤿ lewishamilton something tells me you and carm were behind yn's little...act.

⤿ user UH, WHAT DID MOTHER DO 😲

⤿ ynusername shhh, i don't kiss and tell 💋

user mother brought out the big guns OO

⤿ user there's no denying THE yn ln

landonorris I'd say I'm impressed, but it's yn we're talking about here so

⤿ ynusername thanks lan ! 😄

⤿ lewishamilton mhm, thanks mate.

⤿ georgerussell63 oh suck it up hamilton, it's not like you didn't enjoy it 🥱

⤿ ynusername EXACTLY !!!

lewishamilton

liked by ynusername, landonorris, and 1 233 090 others

lewishamilton bought her own so she'd stop asking for mine 🙄 , happy 2 years baby 💋

View all comments

user DAMN.

user mother has a G-WAGON PEOPLE

ynusername thaaankkss baby 🙃

⤿ lewishamilton love, you can thank me with a redo of what happened in my benz

⤿ ynusername mhm, yes sir !

landonorris MY EYES

carmenmundt yeah, you're welcome lewis

[ liked by ynusername & georgerussell63 ]

user oh they did the nasty IN THE BENZ.

user goals honestly

[just-some-random-blogger]

Found the inbox, i think😅 could you please make a shortstory with aegon/tom the actor? Where yn is a co actress playing a servant/love interest for aegon, and they are supposed to kinda film a feisty makeout scene (on aegons bed🙄) . Anyway it’s kinda awkward so ofc Tom is gonna be a crackhead and try make yn laugh as well as being fliirtyyy (and dirtyminded). That’s it that’s all I’ve got. If this made some sense at all and you would be so kind to use your time and talent on this, I will be blushing and screaming for a week!!

A Total Babe

Tom Glynn-Carney x Actress!Reader

Summary: Aegon is yucky but Tom is baby (confirmed.)

Word Count: >800

Warnings: fem!reader, tom being super cutie and annoying T_T, set shenanigans, i have never actually been on set so im making stuff up as I go, fluff, typos, etc.

A/N: hello lovie im giving you an express pass (even though its not as express but trust me it's express lololol) because youre new here and im sure youre super panicked that i havent replied yet lol i btw combined your req with another one (i actually thought you were the anon that sent that) because they're quite similar. btw nonnie, i didn;t want to redo the matt smith fic, so i changed it up a bit <3 i hope you both like it <3 Tagging: @pinksirensong @deniixlovezelda

"Cut!" the director calls.

Tom, who was hovering atop me from the bed we were laid upon, pulls back, pressings his lips into a line, and rolls off, landing on his back.

I, who had been making out him for about 30 minutes, prop myself up on my elbows and eventually sit up. I suck in a breath, willing the haze that comes in the aftermath of kissing. I catch sight of the incoming stylists, ready to retouch our makeup and readjust our wardrobe.

I straighten up as the makeup artist redoes my foundation with her brush. I turn to the artist that goes up to Tom and I point a bit worriedly, "I think I accidentally messed with his wig."

Tom, who's stylist immediately check on his platinum hairpiece, turns to me, chuckle, "her fingers were two inches away from snatching it off."

They all laugh at his sentiment. I, in particular, snort and frown playfully, "fake news. You're such a drama enticer."

"What?" Tom chuckles, "I'm not kink shaming," he raises his hands, "but you can't just snatch my wig, baby."

I scoff, rolling my eyes, holding back my grin. I turn to the the stylists, absolutely humored and enamored by Tom's English drawl and smooth talking, "he's such a dweeb."

Tom pulls his upper lip up in faux annoyance, "I'm offended you think so little of me."

Once our makeup was retouched and ready, Tom and I go back to our spots on the other side of the set. He extends a hand out to help me up, although I didn't need it, and I take his hand, allowing him to lead us back to our marks. Totally normal. Totally no butterflies in my stomach.

Tom and I face each other, waiting for our queue. We absentmindedly look around the set. There are distant voices of crew members conversing behind the camera.

It turn to Tom when he pushes back hair behind my ear.

I give him a look and he gives me a narrow eyed smirk, as if nonverbally saying he did that just to mess with me. I ignore him and the tightening of my chest.

The next moment, the intimacy coordinator walks up to us with the director, the latter of the two says, "great shot guys, but I'm thinking wilder."

"Are we ok with that?" the intimacy coordinator asks, looking between us as she raises a thumb up with her questioning gaze.

Tom and I turn to each other, nodding softly as we purse our lips and mutter agreements.

"Ok," the director points, motioning over to the bed, "I think in this part, where you push up her skirt, you have to make sure the camera can see your hand on her thigh, Aegon."

Aegon's actor nods as we walk over to bed.

"Should we practice it?" I apprehensively offer.

"We can," Tom says, turning between the three of us, raising his hand out to me. I grab his hand and place it on my hip, hiking my skirt, placing up the bunched up fabric in Tom's hand. Much like a while ago, I place my hands on Tom's shoulders, leaning back a bit. His hand goes to my waist, and I huff, ignoring the washing machine turns in my stomach.

"Are we good?" the intimacy coordinator asks again, coming near us, placing a hand on our shoulders. Both Tom and I turn to her and agree. She smiles and nods, stepping back, "okie dokie.

The director steps forward, adjusting our form, turning over her shoulder, "how are we looking?"

One of the assistants calls, "looking hot!"

"Nice," the director grins, turning back to us. She turns to me, "you're good with whining out his name?"

"Tom?" I catch myself, "I- I mean-" but it's too late.

Tom, the director, the intimacy coordinator, and everyone else who catches my questioning tone, breaks into a giggle.

I bare my teeth in a tight grin, straightening myself up, pulling my hands away from Tom, "I meant Aegon," I weakly say.

Tom chortles, loosening his grip on me as he looks off to the camera, "for the record, she did not."

The director chuckles, slapping Tom's shoulder playfully as she turns to me, correcting, "Aegon!"

"Aegon," I nod my head.

"Aegon," Tom grins, as he says my character's name sequentially.

I roll my eyes at him, "yes but Aegon keeps forgetting her name."

"Fine," Tom says, continuing with my name as he throws a lopsided smile.

"Enough," our director, chastised lightly tapping Tom's nose, "if you two screw this up I'm making you do 600 push ups."

Tom gasps, pulling his hands away from me altogether, to hover his them by either side of his cheeks, "not corporal punishment."

I cross my arms, scoffing in amusement, turning to the director, "please actually make him do 600 pushups if he messes up."

Tom laughs loudly, "aha," he tilts his head, "and what should I do to you for calling out my name on," he raises his two fingers and wiggles them " 'accident', sweetheart?"

"Quit being annoying," I raise my brows at him, pursing my lips.

"That means you find me distracting," he retorts victoriously, wiggling his eyebrows next.

"Alright," the director raises her hands in front of both our faces, "that's enough flirting. On your marks."

[blair-the-juggalho]

Hello!! I absolutely love your TWDG writing. And I have been having a bad day bc my tooth broke and I'm stressed -_-

Could you possibly make a "TWDG S4 characters when a bubbly Y/N is upset/sad"? ^_^

Hey yeah ofc! And I’m so sorry I hope your day gets better lovely :(

Also I did this as platonic lmk if ya want me to redo it idm! 😭

Another sorry if there’s any spelling mistakes it’s half three am and I’m tired

Also side note, sorry I’ve been like gone a lot of stuff happened and I lost intrest in the game but it’s kinda coming back I’m just getting use to writing again so if this sucks I’m SO SORRY 😭😭😭💖💖💖

TWDG S4 characters when a bubbly Y/N is sad

Violet

She’d find you a bit strange and would tease you but in honesty she loves how bubbly you are

Whenever life gets her down all she has to do is spend some time around you and she feels better

She notices instantly when you’re upset tho and will give it a few minutes before coming up to you

“Hey. What’s up? Why are you all depressed?”

But fr tho that’s her job 😞 LMAO SORRY

But you’ll open up to her and she silently nods along

Whatever it is she gets it

“Yeah…it sucks sometimes…”

She won’t say much but she offers to go somewhere more private so you two can chill and just complain to each other

She’s not all that good at comfort but she’d really try

When your back to normal she’d have a small smile on her face

“Ya happy again now?”

She’d be a bit upset if you’d want to go right back to being around everyone else but she’d join you anyway cuz she’s just happy to see you smile again

Mitch

He doesn’t really get it I mean how can anyone be happy living like this? I mean sure it’s manageable at times but it still sucks

He’d never on his life say it but he does secretly enjoy how happy you are even if he’d tease you for it

When he sees you upset tho I’m so sorry but this man is useless here

He doesn’t notice at first but after Willy or someone points it out he picks up on it and worries a bit

However he just hopes you cheer up on your own and doesn’t say anything

But he does watch out for you in the corner of his eye

He just assumes if it’s really bad you’ll come to him

Cuz he won’t come to you unless your both alone

When you do tell him what’s up he’s still not very helpful

“Damn…that sucks..”

He does care he’s just rubbish at showing it

He will let you stay with him but be warned you’ll both be sat in silence if you’re not in a talking mood

But when you do cheer up he’s relived

again, not that he’d voice it

“Happy again huh?”

Marlon

Marlon finds you to be a breath of fresh air, he always has a gentle smile on his face when your around

He’s happy that you can bring the others up too cuz a happy group is a good group yk

Plus you keep him calm too

So when he sees his usual happy friend down in the dumps he’s very confused

What happened to you?

He watches you for a bit then walks over to you and asks if you’re ok and if ya wanna talk

Hell take you up to the office and will listen to you explain why your upset

He listens and offers some advice and comfort

He’ll let you stay with him for a bit and if you like dogs yk he’ll get rosy to give you some comfort hugs and all

He just has normal conversations with you and will say that he hopes you cheer up soon cuz what would they all do without your positive ways

When you cheer up he’ll have a big smile and if your ok with it he’ll pull you in for a hug and definitely does that back pat and rub (yk the that you do to a friend or family to either be like heyy! Or ok that’s enough now)

Louis

HELLO YOUR BASICALLY THE ONLY OTHER PERSON THEIR WHO CAN MATCH HIS ENERGY

Like he needs to see you all happy and lively because that makes him more happy and lively too!

And this mf he instantly knows when you’re down and he will come up to you and just say “aww what’s wrong (name)? You gotta turn that frown upside down!” He might even pull an over the top sad face too

Depending on what kinda person you are this either kind of works or makes it so much worse

If he does realise that he’s not helping he panics a bit like

“Oh no- they really are sad…what do I doooooo?? This is badddd…”

He’s not all that good in serious situations and will try healing you with comedy and laughter

He’ll tell jokes, tease the others at Ericsson’s

Anything to cheer you up

Heaven forbid the moment you actually do cuz this mans energy is amplified by 100

“is that a smile I see?? So mx grumpy finally cheered up? Ha well it seems I’m just the best at curing sadness.” He acts all cocky but he’s just joking

He’s very pleased to see ya back to your regular self again

Aasim

Aasim always found it curious how someone so happy could exist in a world like this

But he’d be lying if he said he didn’t like it

He can’t match your energy but he does support your cheerful ways

He won’t voice it but you do cheer him up when he’s having a bad day

he notices when you’re upset very quickly n all it’s very obvious lmao

He’ll give it a few minutes but after a while he’ll cave and awkwardly walk over to you

“So…you ok? You seem upset…”

You tell him what’s up and he listens

He either gives you advice or will empathise with you saying he gets it

He just kinda silently sits next to you cuz he doesn’t really know what to say

You both just kinda sit around for a while

he won’t really offer it out loud but he doesn’t mind giving you a hug if it will cheer you up

He just waits for you to feel better and is thankful when you do

(Sorry but damn this man I just can’t imagine he’d be much help here that sounds horrible Ik ik 😞)

Omar

This man is grateful that you’re the way you are even if he doesn’t voice it a lot

He’s also a silent observer so when he saw you where upset he just quietly watched you

I think he either doubts how good he is at comforting or he’s too preoccupied but he’ll still watch you for you

He’s kinda hoping it’s just a off day and you’ll perk up again in a while

He waits to see if anyone else will check up on you or if you’ll come to him

But if enough time has passed and both of those didn’t happen he’ll slowly make his way over to you

He doesn’t say much but he listens to you

The few times he does speak it’s either reassurance or advice

He will stay with you for as long as he can and if he had to start cooking again he’d let you stand next to him while he does so

When you cheer up again he wont say much but he has a smile on his face

Ruby

Ruby fully appreciates your bubbly ways and she will usually match your energy when she can

She really thinks you totally brighten up Ericssons!

But today you were acting totally different and she could just sense it

Like there was a shift in the air she just picked up on before she even saw you

Since she gives me like mother friend vibes she totally instantly goes over to ya

Are you ok hun? Ya seem down? What’s happened? Do ya need some space?

She’s there and she will listen to ya 100%

She does whatever she can to be supportive and she might tell a few rubbish puns to make you smile again

She’ll get all protective of ya too like if anyone tries to annoy ya (which I doubt anyone would but yk just incase) she will get so mad at them she’s shout at them and scold them so much

She’ll either stay by you till you cheer up or will give you the space if you need it but the moment she sees that smile she loves so much and that cheery personality she adores she’s matching that happy face

Brody

This girl loves how bubbly you are it’s such a nice change of pace from the usually rubbish day to day apocalypse life

You don’t know how much you can cheer her up and make her feel more relaxed

So she was super quick to notice that you where sad

Huh that’s (name), why arn’t they all happy?? Where’s that lovely smile gone??

I don’t think she’d straight away ask if you where ok cuz maybe you needed some space? I mean it’s normal to get upset now a days but this isn’t like you

She’d ask the others like Marlon if they noticed that you’ve done a total 180

She’d still stay put but keeps a close eye on you and after a few minutes of watching you mope around she’d walk up to you and ask if you where ok

After you tell her what’s got ya so bummed out she’d do anything to get that smile back

She’d listen to you, give you advice if you wanted it, she’d give you a hug literally anything!

She’d also try to distract you by planning some made up road trip (a beach trip if I remember correctly??)

She needs to see her friend go back to their bubbly self 😞

Once you do cheer up she just sighs in relief man she’s happy you’re back to normal lmao

[mera-k1]

Hi! I was going through your masterlist and wondered if you could redo your Paralive & amount of kids post but with Hypnosis Mic ? Thank you!

hi, nonnie!! ofc, i can! hope you enjoyed this little thing i whipped up~ (-saburo)

ichiro -> as a family man, i can definitely see him wanting kids. it's up to you how many but he definitely wants at least 2 if you're also okay with it!

jiro -> he hasn't really thought about it honestly. if you were to ask he'd shrug and say he's not sure yet. too early for him to decide!

samatoki -> it's up to you. he understands if you don't want kids and doesn't pressure you but he's also up for it if you want a kid. 1 is good for him unless you want another!

jyuto -> just 1 is fine with him. he'd like to have a kid at some point but will wait for you to be ready for that responsibility as well.

rio -> girl dad or boy day rio... hard choice... i can see him being both but he's okay to settle for just 1 kid if that's what you prefer! 2 at the most!

ramuda -> how would that work with his million clones...? in any case, i do think he'd enjoy having 1 kid, a daughter is what he'd hope for!

gentaro -> he's on the fence. if you ask him, he'll oblige but he doesn't want one just yet. he'd rather wait a while longer before settling down with a kid.

dice -> at the moment, no. his life's a little too crazy for him to want to bring a kid into the mix at the moment. plus, he hasn't really given it much thought...

jakurai -> he's willing to bring a child into the world even while it still pains him that his adoptive son is still unable to wake up... but he would enjoy having a child with you!

hifumi -> on the fence. on one hand, he'd love to have a mini you or mini him running around the house! on the other hand, he does feel like he's not ready to settle down for that just yet.

doppo -> he's got too much on his plate already... it might stress him out even more to have a child and while he does like the idea of having one, he's just not ready for that stress on top of his job stress...

sasara -> 1 or 2! he doesn't mind having a kid or two and they'll be hearing his jokes since the day they come home...

rosho -> 1 is fine with him! he doesn't mind being a girl dad if you have a daughter and he doesn't mind being a boy dad if you have a son!

rei -> he's already got 3 so... hmm... you could maybe convince him for 1 more... i'm heavily debating this within my own mind though

kuko -> he's not really allowed to do that stuff... but he still does. boy dad kuko or girl dad kuko... he could be both. i think he'd be happy with 1-2 kids no matter their genders!

jyushi -> girl dad jyushi!! he'd be happy just to have 1 kid, especially if it was a little girl

hitoya -> he'll ponder it for a while before agreeing to have 1 or 2. he already has jyushi and kuko after all...

[goosewriting]

ok so i revisited my spidersona design and gave it a bit of a redo (first iteration here)

more info under the cut!

i felt like in the first version they looked too much like a child because of the style, so i decided to try a more ✨ shapey ✨ one

here’s the gist of the backstory:

spidergoose was bitten by a goose that was bitten by a radioactive spider. so they have all the spidey powers as well as the ability to communicate with geese and essentially command them to attack someone lol imagine going to central park and you see a horde of geese suddenly taking off and you're like "ah yes, spidergoose is calling" xD (i had to google if there are geese in central park for this one and yes there are! and there’s also resident canada geese there? that’s marvellous, my fave kind)

spidergoose is low-key obsessed with the spot, following him around and encouraging him in his monologuing

they're a bit of an anti-hero, being selective with what kinda vigilante work they do and when. the police don’t see them as an ally at all, even less so than the real spiderman (spidergoose is from miles’ universe btw, so e-1610)

teaming up with (miles’) spiderman is rare but it has happened; mainly because spidergoose was nearby when the fight took place and had nothing better to do anyways. they have pretty fun banter.

age and real identity are unknown. they use a voice modifier under the mask which makes them sound a little distorted (think storm trooper helmet voice, but not quite as deep)

they’re unaware of the whole canon event and spider society stuff. spidergoose lies somewhere between chaotic neutral and chaotic evil, so miguel definitely doesn’t want them around; he’s already got too much on his plate lol he does keep tabs on spidergoose tho, sending in some of his spiderpeeps to check in on them from time to time

i’m gonna go ahead and establish that star wars exists in this universe, just so i can say that spidergoose likes appearing behind people and go “hello there”, and is very disappointed when someone doesn’t get the reference

but ofc their tagline still is "noot noot motherfluffer" before round-house kicking someone in the head c:

often spidergoose can be found chilling on some building talking to geese and birds, having a preference for the aquatic ones though. if they find you feeding bread to the birds, they will scold you and give you seeds and peas instead, as bread isn’t healthy for the birds and water

(i’ll keep adding stuff to this as i come up with it lol)

[dredgen-dumbass]

Redo of my pinned post, again, because I'm indecisive.

At a glance:

No screen name, he/him. Predominantly SFW blog, tws follow the normal content of Destiny 2. I swear like a sailor. Not the type for dni lists, just don't be a bigot. Asks are open to all. I don't mind mass likes/reblogs, and dw about derailing. The rest is under the cut.

Message from yours truly,

I genuinely thought I was going to just spam Drifter content for a few days, and then go delete Tumblr again once my brain calmed down about it. As it turns out, that isn't happening. I like the community here so far, which isn't something I've been able to say about Tumblr for some time now, and it seems like I'm going to stick around a while longer. That, and I thought I was just fixated on the one character, but Destiny itself is becoming a pretty big interest of mine, and I know I'll need somewhere to talk about it, so this is going to shift more towards that. I'm going to try to be a bit more cautious with tags so I'm not filling them with every Destiny related through that crosses into my brain, so I'm going to set up an (albeit shoddy) tagging system and be a bit more conservative with what gets put in the main D2 tag. Apologies if I flooded anything you follow, I'm used to posting in a much larger fandom where things get buried really quick, I didn't realize how bad it was until I tried to go through those tags myself, and... eesh. (it’s been a few months, but I’m leaving this here. iykyk.)

So, me.

I know it's Tumblr culture to put every last detail in your bio, but personally I'm not comfortable with that. If you need more than I give, then just click off and move on. I understand wanting some idea of who you're talking to, but I think the things that matter will come up naturally through my posts. What I do think should be clarified, just as a matter of perspective with all the queer stuff in this fandom, is that I'm a gay dude. Other than that, I don't think any labels are relevant to this account. If something else becomes relevant, feel free to ask for clarification, I understand that some things read differently depending on who's saying them. Otherwise, respect my privacy, thanks.

Fandom chaos & such,

I want to keep discourse away from my blog, both fandom and real-world. Especially real-world, because Destiny is an escape for me, and I want to keep this as a separate space I've carved for myself, in the same way as the game is for me. That said, bigots can fuck off to all hell. Y'all aren’t welcome here just because I'm not interacting with the arguments. This is a safe space for everyone, provided you don’t make it unsafe for anyone else.

sm love for the ppl here theatre passionate abt d2 like I am. y’all are great, keep posting

Destiny stuff,

I'm a casual player, have been going for about 3 years now. I'm a solar titan main. Dredgen, not masochistic enough to have it gilded (I can’t spell shh)

My favorite character is drifter, woah big shocker. I'm still learning the game lore and such, so at the moment he's the only character I've actually gone in-depth reading about.

My other favorites are saint-14, saladin, shaxx, osiris, eido, holiday, and ofc ghost.

Expect my posts to mostly be about them.

This isn't a ship blog, though I may reblog ship content occasionally. I don't have any I particularly care for, aside from O14, but to me they're different because it's canon. Again, asks are open if you want to hear me talk about a specific ship.

I have been asked specifically about drifteris because I post sm about Drifter, and no I'm not a drifteris shipper. I read their relationship as platonic, and if I post about both of 'em it's not a shipping thing. I'm glad the ship brings more attention to the characters, though.

Fanart & fics,

I'll be honest, I've written a few short pieces of my yw. I don't plan on posting them, and even if I do I'm not sure that I'll connect them to this blog in any way. that's a question for future me, whether that's tomorrow or years from now.

updating this bc I’ve been doing more lately— you can repost my fanart, just credit and tell me. I would prefer it stay on tumblr tho for ai protection purposes, though.

I don't sit and vet all every account I reblog, so if I reblog something stolen or just uncredited let me know and I'll tag the artist.

If you have m/m or m/neutral (or just platonic) fic recommendations feel free to send em over. Gotta have something to keep me occupied.

Tagging system?

I've never made one of these before. I don't think I have the time to go through all of my previous posts and set them up with this, but from now on the structure will be:

#dredgenposting - all of my destiny-related rambling, because I don't want to fill the destiny 2 tag with my post spam.

#reblogs

#mild nsft - probably just sex jokes

#nsft - probably won't be used, but leaving it here in case it is so that I'm not coming back again to edit this

#discourse - not sure how much this will be used, but I'm bound to have a public opinion on something eventually

#my fanart - my own fanart

#asks

if there's something you'd like tagged to filter in/out while looking through my blog, lmk. chances are I'm fine with incorporating it.

and that's it. thanks for reading, live long and prosper y'all.

[ganondoodle]

Hello! I hope you are doing well. I have been following your concepts on [cursed bird app] for a while now and find your stance on the totk rewrite intruiging. Since twitter ofc is never a good place to elaborate on anything lmao, I figured I would ask on here after finding out about your tumblr.

You are welcome to take as much time as you need for this, but I was very curious to hear more about why you feel totk 'fails as a sequel' in terms of writing. I can agree that the whole zonai thing did come out of left field a little, and I never did like the whole "zelda is once again separated from you for 90% of the game," bit (bc c'mon Nintendo again? Really??) but I was curious about what else you found dissatisfaction in and sought to redo

If your plan though is to do so gradually as you go with the new rewrite concepts you piece together and post, that is fine too. I just get more curious about your opinion bc you always seem to have a *lot* you want to say outside of just tag ramblings xD

Thank you for your time, ik this is a rather long ask, but your view is very vast and different, and I wish to understand the development of it more as I find it on my timeline

Thank you for this ask!

i have talked alot about the things i dislike about totk, all my general talking (not just about totk tho) is tagged with "ganondoodles talks" and all my longer rants should be tagged with "ganondoodles rants" (tho that tag is new idk if i remembered to put it everywhere) so i think it might be easier if you searched for these on my blog bc thats were all my ramblings go and, with no ill intent, have talked about it so much already i kinda dont want to spend hours writing out something that just ends up repeating myself really

somethign i can say that the main thing on why it fails as a sequel to me is .. bc its not .. a sequel really, it reuses map and models but doesnt elaborate on anything from botw (the zonau were barely even a thing in botw and now in totk their stuff looks way different and they have been here all along actually(tm) ) the shiekah stuff is basically erased despite it having been so build into the world of botw (and you could have just .. explored them more bc theres lots of cool stuff to do with them still), characters act weirdly off, stuff that was seemingly build up and was a perfect slide into a sequel either gets ignored or just straight up erased, themes dont match up at all and more

it just feels like they tested the glue mechanic for 3 years and everything else was an afterthought, i felt empty at the end, in a bad way, it felt like the game was actively mocking me for caring so much about botw at times and totk actively hurts botw too imo (with some reveals etc)

they should have just called it an alternative dimension thing like majora and half my complaints could be dismissed, but its not so im super frustrated bc i love botw a ton

if there are more specific questions you are free to ask about it again of course! this is not meant to sound dismissive but me typing out stuff can take a long time and im behind on so much work already qnq

also all development both visual and writing concepts for my rewrite are tagged with "ganondoodles rewrites totk" so you can find everything with that too :D

[nyxi-pixie]

I genuinely cannot pick ur WIPs i want to ask abt all of them. so I’m asking abt all of them please please PLEASE yap at me (current 5+1 included I want a snippet 🤭)

PLS😭

- 5+1. i rlly need to finish this chapter i got frustrated w it deleted half of it and now im redoing but ANYWAYYY have some silly dialogue

"My aching limbs demand rest. You should be accommodating; I had to do a lot of running earlier."

"It was a light jog at best. I did most of the work, again, while you spent half the night telling your hostage exactly how easily I could beat them."

-skipping tskatsby bc we have beef again. shes grounded.

-Early Sunsets over Monroeville is a higugin mcd zombie apocalypse au (title comes from the mcr song) that i started Agess ago and havent worked on in forever. it also has background sskk who mostly spend the entire time snarking at eo while everything goes to shit

"And what are you doing it for? What do you want, Higuchi?"

Their eyes meet, and Higuchi swallows down every word clawing at her throat.

She waves a dismissive hand, "The same as always."

-Did you know a dog's saliva is antibacterial? um. skk wound sex. i offer no defences. its wound care turned freaky bc ofc it is. dazais being an annoying little shit throughout as per.

-a series of moris unsuccessful attempts to set skk up. randomly thought of it earlier today but the whole teehee of it is they get together in the middle somewhere. mori just has zero faith in them bc theyre the worst. he wld probably have figured it out if he wasnt actively losing his sanity from dealing with them. poor guy always suffering😔

-answered the sskk one for rori

-this is tew long already i have no way to explain oc stuff simply. um vague plot. what if the fantasy series was about destroying the monarchy instead of replacing it with The Good Heir (to be clear. i love fantasy that keeps its monarchy its fun but i wanted family drama so)

[ageless-soul-au]

hey so asau has destroyed my perception of what is and is not a long story. i started reading the jurassic park novel and got curious about how many words it has and i was genuinely a bit disappointed when i saw that, according to google, it has 117,645 words and that the second book has 108,000, because hey just Confidential is longer than those combined. and then i realized that just Confidential is longer than both of the jurassic park books combined.

and i need you to understand that the jp books ain’t small. the lost world width is only a little under the length of my pinky. both are over 400 pages long. confidential and the stolen altars have a little over double the words of the entire jurassic park book series. and then you add on faction and all the other stuff y’all have currently published on ao3 and it ends up being 475,278. that’s longer than IT, which is 445,134 words long (and that book is thick as FUCK it’s such a pain in the ass to carry around. asau would be even more of a pain in the ass to carry around if printed. that’s so fucking cool)

and then for kicks n gigs, i looked up the word count of Les Misérables, the book commonly referred to as The Brick due to it literally being the size of a brick (using the pinky scale again: a little wider than the length of my pinky.) turns out, it’s 545,925 words long. y’all are gaining on les misérables. and, from what i can tell, the story’s still relatively at the beginning. what the fuck. what are you two on. how have you guys done this. this is genuinely one of the most impressive things i have ever seen what the fuck. give yourselves the biggest pats on the back you more than deserve it

i definitely could’ve made this way more concise and coherent but i need y’all to understand that asau has permanently altered the way i see book length. i finished a tale of two cities in a week because i was like “pfft this is nothing compared to asau.” you guys are insane and i am here for it. waiting for the day y’all pass the bible’s word count (783,137)

Okay so anon,,,,, I (Kio) decided to look into my ao3, because your ask put me in hysterics (the "what are you two on" got me in particular, and I couldn't fucking tell u)

The main asau fics that make up "the series" imo are, in order, counterpart, confidential, and the stolen altars. The words counts of those combined are 437,910.

If you add in the main things on our ao3s, which I consider the 3 series asau fics above, faction, and ofc peaches & cream, that's a combined word count of 546,196. That's 5 fics.

But what most people don't know is that asau had a false start. Counterpart was the first one to be published (on July 29, 2021) and it's the only one that remains after the initial run, which we started redoing with Con (published March 9, 2022). That's a pretty significant gap! In that space, we published 4 fics with a combined word count of 71,239. That's not anything to sneeze at, but nowhere near what we operate at now. They didn't perform super well and we wanted to rework the story to be better paced, more fleshed out, to have some actual meat on there, yknow?? So we made those works private and just considered confidential as the start of an entire overhaul of the plot.

But that brings us to a combined word count of 628,101 just with the most important and active things included. And, buddy, we're not even a quarter into altars yet. Altars won't even be the end of the series.

We will top the bible's word count. Easy.

-Kio

[taeiun]

TAEIUN UPDATE (05/07/24)

hello everyone!! im not sure how many of you still keep up with this blog and i am so sorry for being inactive for so long (a full month sheesh…) and for not posting anything for longer than that! i have a couple updates, some good some bad, and a few changes i want to make to this blog.

TL;DR: canceling the beomgyu smau + possible future redo, temporary archive of this blog, future works planned.

O1. from the lack of of updates and the low interactions ive gotten, i think you guys can already guess that the beomgyu smau i posted back in march was going to be terminated at some point. it’s not that ive lost full interest in the plot. im just unhappy woth the setup and also dont have things flushed out to where i think an smau would work as a format. i do hope to publish it again some time in the future but for now, that post will be taken down.

O2. again, based off my inactivity i dont think it’s much of a surprise for me to say im going to be temporarily archiving this blog. that doesnt mean im never coming back! its just that right now i dont know how long it’ll be before i get back into a consistent writing schedule again. think of it just as an extended hiatus; the main difference is that im calling it an archive in case i dont come back at all. ofc ill announce if im going for good but this is just in case.

O3. i dont think i’ll be gone for good (knock on wood) so while i stay kind of inactive, there a few things im changing up here.

declutterring: going to be deleting spam posts and tidying up my blog to make the viewing experience more pleasurable!! i have a second blog where i ramble and shit post so i dont need this one for it.

reposts of old works: i dont have the time as of now to be working on brand new shiny content, so i hope people dont mind me possibly reposting a couple of my fave older stuff from my previous blog.

O4. i am crafting new things! they just wont be out for a while. a few things on my mind are:

zb1 apocalypse au: i have standalone fics for all the members and i hope to get this done at least before calling it quits. taerae my boy…

a couple different possible supernatural!skz smau mini series: little bit on the fence with these ones bc im not fully into skz (despite saying i write for them lol) so im not sure how much passion i can put into this project. if not the mini series, then i’ll be working on a minho fic within that au instead!

i think that about sums up where this blog is going. in general ive been good. busy with school and idea of uni but good-ish. ive been enjoying life for itself and got closer with one of my irls which has been so nice :DD im also facing a bit of a writer’s slump bc of the mental switch from a heavy math and science academics semester to an only analytical and writing semester. honestly, i really do want to keep this blog around. its just hard when my interest in kpop as a whole has dwindled down so fast? like its crazy how quickly i kind of got over this phase ngl- but yeah! thats it for me <33

thanks for sticking to the end of this if you did! no hard feelings if you didnt. its funny i say that bc they wouldnt be able to see this if they didnt but oh well. that’s all from me for today!!

— ur fave, sol / jun.

[ccrisntok]

Redoing my intro post hell yeah

Heyy. I'm a fanartists! Most of my stuff is despair time! Some of it will be other shit eventually! Probably Kindergarten.

Pronouns are He/They, you can call me CCR, Chris, or whatever I don't really care. I'm a minor so... Keep that in mind

I'm open to people wanting to be friends, dms are open, such and such. Asks are always open ofc

(Also I cannot fucking spell for the life of me so expect half the shit I say to be illedggabe. I'm a lil stupid that way)

Anyway, hope we can coexist and or interact on the internet in a positive way!

[sunnyie-eve]

9 | Redecorating

Series: Odds Together

Paring: Ryan Dunn x OFC Margera!

Word Count: 2.3k

Warnings: None

| MASTERLIST |

~

"We picked the perfect house!" Bam comes back after looking for a new house.

"I just want to say this... You break or lose any of my shit... I swear Bam. Mess with mom's and dad's shit I don't care but me." I stare him down.

"You heard her. Careful with her shit." Bam tells everyone as I go upstairs to pack things nicely.

"Need help?" Ryan walks into my room.

"To carry shit to my car, yes. I don't trust any of y'all with things important to me. Well, when I mean y'all I mean all of y'all together. You alone, I kinda trust more than you with them. If you get what I mean." I laugh at my rambling trying to explain myself.

"I get what you mean, Bels. I know your movies are one thing that's really important to you. Your snow globes you collect that not a lot of people know about. Certain rocks you find and like to keep." He laughs at me as I hand him a box.

"Then be careful taking this box to my car. It's got my globes and rocks." I pat his shoulder and he leaves as I grab my box of CDs following him out. He helps me put boxes and bags in my car till he was needed for other shit.

When Raab gets here with the truck I just watch them break everything. "Now you see why I put my stuff in my car." I tell the camera as it pans to me watching them.

"Hey, can you give me the address so I can get a head-start?" I walk over to Bam so he tells me.

"I'm only telling you so you can have first pick of a room. I'll be a nice brother about that so you don't get stuck with the worst room." He says making me hug him.

"I love you." I run over to my car.

"Key!" Bam yells tossing me the key and I catch it.

When I get to the new house I really liked it from the outside and liked it more inside. I look around before deciding the room I wanted. Out of 8 rooms 3 had their own bathrooms, so I of course took one with my own bathroom. Plus it was a good size for me and my stuff with a nice size walk in closet.

As the rest show up I hear the guys running so I stand at my open door say so they know I called this on.

"Yours is nice." Ryan whines before going to check out other rooms before picking the room next to mine. "Sup neighbor." He smiles at his door way.

"Hello." I laugh at him.

While everyone was taking on the second level, I hear mom say Jess's name making me run out of my room.

"Jess!" I shout running down the stairs almost but catch myself on Bam.

"There's the baby!" He wraps his arms around me as I hug him.

"It's good to see you but I have to fix my room." I say making my way outside.

As I was carrying a box in all the guys walk out. "Hey, help Ape and Phil's move in and paint stuff. We're going to Amsterdam." Bam tells me.

"What?" I stop walking.

"Have fun." He pats my back.

"You know he's a terrible son so you make up being the Platinum daughter." Ryan gives me a smile.

"I'm not going to do anything because he's going to end up redoing everything mom does. I'm not wasting my time." I tell him.

"You know your brother better than Ape knows her son." He laughs.

"Just go catch y'all's stupid plane." I walk past him going in.

"Annabelle, come help your mother and me!" My dad yells for me.

"I'm gonna pass this once because he's going to redo everything when he gets back. Come on, you've got to know that. He said it was his place so he's going to make it gothic." I lean out and down.

"Just help us!" My mom calls out.

"I'm busy fixing my room!" I go back into my room.

"Thank you for taking me to get a new bed. You're the only person I know who could help me." I tell Glomb as he drives.

"It's not trouble for me. I wasn't doing anything that's why I said yes to you. I was thinking we get more than just a bed. Get some other furniture as well. So it can fit whatever theme you paint your room."

"Sounds great." I smile.

After all the shopping and going back fixing up my room we made it look great. "I think this is the most girly thing I've ever done. Buying, putting together, and moving things around." He crosses his arms looking at the finished look.

"Well I'm a girl, and you were doing something for me... a girl." I laugh at him. "Thank you, again." I give him a side hug.

"No problem. See you whenever Bam calls me back over." He laughs leaving.

"Hey guys." I hear mom so I come out of no my room and look down at them.

Bam of course complains then starts reck everything making the rest join as I laugh at mom losing it. "Guess who's gonna go out the window next?" She says walking towards Ryan.

"Don't throw him out. He one of the few people I call a friend." I shout out as she kicks his butt.

"New house, new rules. We're burning it all!" Bam shouts.

"Just leave my finished room alone." I laugh making him run up to me.

"Finished?" He walks into my room and eyes the room. "I approve the shade of purple. Black carpet is good. I can get over the white parts. How did you do all this alone?" He faces me.

"I called Glomb to take me shopping for a new bed and he suggested to get other furniture for the room too."

"It's very you." Ryan walks into my room. "I expected a lighter purple though." He laughs.

"I hate light color walls especially with bright light. Dark makes me feel more comfortable." I explain.

"Dunn, look. It's the three of us." Bam looks at my picture on my bedside table.

"We mean that much to you?" Dunn wraps his arms around me.

"Don't get too cocky. Let's go burn the shit you threw out." I head out first with them following me.

-

I hear racket over in Dunn's room waking me up. I start to hear him shout for help so I get up.

When I open the door as far as it would go I see his bed flipped upside down. "You fuckers get me out of here." He tells me.

"Why I gotta be a fucker?" I yawn.

"Anna, help me out. I can't get out because of the saran wrap around me." I watch the bed move.

"Let me go get my scissors. I'll be right back." I grab them off my desk then go back to his room going around the bed bending down to look at him underneath it. "You look comfy to me." I joke with him.

"Just get me out please." He huffs so I work at the wrap then help him crawl out. "Thank you." He stands up.

"No problem. Let's flip your bed back." I get on the other side to help. Once it was up right the camera guy leaves us.

"You're lucky they can't flip your bed." He says pushing the bed against the wall as I pick up the pillows.

"I'd murder them in cold blood." I put the pillows back on the bed as he pulled the wrapping off rolling it up into a ball.

"I don't wanna have to go visit you in prison." He laughs as I sit down on his bed. "Did them messing with me wake you up?"

"Yeah. I heard you yelling so I came to see what happened." I lay back.

"That's what good friends do." He falls onto of me making me roll him off me.

"Bam is a good friend. He lets you stay here for free. Now I'm gonna go get dressed for the day and do whatever." I get off his bed leaving the room.

"What happened to you?" I ask seeing mom covered in mud as she comes back into the house from going to Bam and Ryan outside.

"Yeah, what the heck?" Raab asks.

"These two assees..." We all laugh at her for calling them that as she explains what happened.

The plan was to finish up the pirate bar and other rooms for Slayer to stay of since they were coming tomorrow.

"Anna-," I cut Ryan off with yelling.

"No passing that doorway when you are covered in mud!" I rush over placing a hand on his chest walking him backwards shutting my door behind me.

"Sorry." He puts his hands up as I keep making him walk downstairs far from the room.

"Can you make one room black?" Ryan asks my mom.

"No." She tells him.

"Slayer would like black." I tell her.

"No! Who wants to live in purgatory?" She gets louder and Ryan raises his hand making me laugh.

"Slayer!" Bam shouts.

All the guys do all the hard stuff while I just help Mom paint. "Have you got yourself a date to the party?" She asks as our backs face each other.

"Really?" I laugh at her getting more green paint. "Me have a date? I don't even know guys outside of Bam's friends. Everyone my age in West Chester knows the fake rumors. No one wants to go in a date with me."

"How's painting?" Bam joins us having a conversation with mom.

"I like heavy metal." She tells him.

"Well this is heavy metal." He tries to get her to understand.

"I love heavy metal." She says making me giggle as he tries to explain how heavy it is.

"Heavier than Metallica?" She asks so we say yes. "Def Leopard. My favorite." She tells the camera as I leave the room to go to the bathroom.

After my pee, I go down to check out how the guys are doing at Pirate Bar. "How is it coming along?" I ask walking up to Ryan's side.

"I have a boner." He smiles showing me the bone he was messing with.

"You have such a mature sense of humor." I shake my head at him.

"What we're you and mom talking about before I came in?" Bam joins us.

"She was asking if I have a date to the party. To which I laughed at because the only guys I talk to are in this house. Now I'm gonna be loser if y'all can somehow get Don Vito a date when I can't." I say going back to help mom.

Bam, Ryan, Dico, and Rake went out to go help Vito on his date and Raab asked me to help him paint things gold.

"Are you painting a bottle of Windex?" I laugh joining him.

"We don't have anything else good so I'll paint whatever gold." He laughs as I find something worth painting gold.

"What did you mean earlier saying you can't get a date for the party?"

"As I said the only guys I talk to are you guys. Everyone else in this town believes or is cautious about the lies." I explain to him.

"You know you always say only one person was on your side from the start but you had two. I was too."

"You never said you were." I stop painting.

"I thought you would know a friend believed you. Plus I knew how you felt talking about it. I didn't want to make you. I may be dumb but not all the time."

"Well thank you for always believing me." I give him a smile.

"I'll be your date for the party." He says making me raise an eyebrow at him. "So you can say you at least have a date and that you're not alone. You don't have to say yes."

"Sure." I nod my head

"What?" He asks.

"Yes, you can be my date and the other way around." I say making him get a big smile.

In four hours Slayer arrives and we were finished the little touches to the Pirate bar. Bam gets on Raab for painting random things gold. So I had to stand up for him saying we didn't have much, but I tried my best to find other things to paint gold too.

"I painted a rock gold so I did okay, right?" I pout at them.

"Yes, it's better than shaving cream." Ryan squirts it out then we celebrate for finishing up.

When Slayer does arrive we show them around the house. "You aren't looking forward to the party are you?" Ryan sits with me.

"I gotta make sure to keep random people out of my room. If you get what I mean." I give him a look.

The party wasn't that bad when I did hang out with everyone, Raab would stay by my side the entire time. Whenever someone, who I didn't know, would try to get me a drink, Raab would say he was my date.

[re-discover-communication]

Hey!!! Any tips for those who just started writing? Maybe something you wished to know when you began?

Sure! But this is what works for me so ofc it's not universal. The experience of writing is a very little universal, so take this with a grain of salt.

-Don't start what you're not sure you can finish, don't know how to make it finish, don't know how it finishes (yes it's two different things), don't know if you'll finish. NEVER*. Let it go or work your mind on it until you have at least 70% of it "ready", (with the 30% left being exclusively linker scenes between core scenes, stuff you can make up on the spot) and then you can start.

-Writing is 4 parts thinking-daydreaming and 1 part typing. It's best not to make them overlap too much.

-No "I'll think about it when I get there". Building scenes while writing them is exhausting, stressing and very time consuming. Not to mention the type-delete-type-delete cycle.

-Not every scene can have a place in the story. Yes it can be the cutest you have come up with or your favorite filler moment or whatever, but if its only purpose is to be cute, or worse it risks to derail the story in a cul-de-sac because of its implications... leave it out.

-This is mostly for before starting to write. Read a lot. You found some authors whose style you've fallen in love with? Study their style. Understand what you like of them and why, what expedients do they use to convey specific emotion/set up moods/introduce a sudden event, stuff like that. But don't imitate them, learn from them.

-Dialogues: imagine them like a movie scene in your head. Daydream them. Voice tones, gestures, and all. Would they really talk like that? Is it realistic? Does it make sense? Or does it feel like a theatrical piece? Because it's easy to make conversations fall into the theatrical piece.

-It's okay and natural for your first work(s) to suck ass. You only get better by writing more and more and more, but you also have to be self-critical; both in the "this sucks. Delete." and the "this can be done better. Redo." at the same time, and both in the constructive sense. Getting better takes time, and lots of reading (again), so be patient.

-It's okay to delete that 300 brick of words you sweated on weeks ago, if it doesn't fit. And the one you wrote yesterday, and the one you just finished writing and just realized it doesn't fit. It's okay. It's not wasted time, it's a possibility you explored and made sure it wasn't good.

-And always reread the story you're writing while you're writing it! Or you risk falling into inconsistencies, which I often do because I myself often forget to reread and I always curse myself when it happens.

-Don't be lazy and don't be sloppy. Be accurate but not pedantic. Some things can be left vague.

-Don't specify things the reader can "perceive" on their own through the context.

-PERSONAL ADVICE. If you want, let's say, to describe a situation inside of the story, better not doing it in a short paragraph. If possible, make the story itself show it. Again, make the reader "perceive" and guess it through details scattered around. Unless it's something so big or specific that it does need a paragraph for itself. But be careful where you place it, or you risk breaking the flow of the narration.

-Please for the love of every god avoid stuff like "the brunette" "the taller man" "the blue haired woman" UNLESS you're talking about characters the main chars don't know. Especially not for established relationships. In order to be honest I also have to specify this is a pet peeve of mine so if instead you do like this kind of things, ignore what I said and go for them. De gustibus.

-If you see shit, even if you've already posted the story, fix it.

-This is a personal thing of mine, but I find it waaaay better to write chronologically, instead of the scenes I like the most first and later what's in between. Be patient, you'll get to them sooner or later.

-Do NOT put a story aside to start another you just came up with. Either you accept to work on both at the same time, or you finish the first and only then start the second. BE. PATIENT. AO3 is stuffed of unfinished "chaptered" fics because their authors kept starting a new wip abandoning the precedent, and so on and so on and so on... like one of my fav author has done too many times... When you start a wip, you make a promise to it: of taking care of it and bringing it to its realization. DO NOT START WHAT YOU'RE NOT GOING TO FINISH*. Please.

-Then of course if working on it gets too stressful or is hurting you for some reasons, that's a whole different thing and you should abandon it.

I repeat. this is what works for ME. Different people will tell you different things and they're all correct at the same time. These are only suggestions, despite my imperative tone (sorry😅).

Hope this helps!

*if you're past the first quarter of the story. I too did abandoned two wips after 1k each because I realized too late that they weren't going anywhere. But 1k and never posted, not a "15k, 4/?"