#and then he attacks jw with 'it was you wasn't it' and at first watch when you don't know yet exactly what happened it feels audacious

[kanronotatsu]

something something noh sangcheol, a complete outsider, a cop with serious anger management issues and prejudice against criminals, who never knew high schooler golden boy goh jeongwoo and has met him twice before learning he's a murderer still noticing that something is *wrong* and working through his bias to come out on jeongwoo's side

vs

jeongwoo's father's closest friends & jeongwoo's closest friends, who have all known him since childhood, some of them probably even held him as a baby, and has known him more than anyone else apart from his parents not only betraying his trust and destroying his life completely, but also doing everything to divert blame back to jeongwoo by all means necessary

i think about this dichotomy a lot

[tac0tesseract]

Glitch Time

“The Boy King is weak,” said High Priest Ay to the general, Horemheb.

Emma shot the priest and he dissolved into dust.

No, that was after.

There were realities where Kira hadn't found them in time, realities where she'd died while out scouting or had never been on Ecates at all. Oddly, there were no realities wherein their little squadron of seven had ever been prepared for the Naiki attack; each and every time, they were caught in varying degrees of surprise.

Emma watched the facility burn, watched the researchers flee as floe worms burst from the ice to devour them like grapes. She watched instances where Marsh and Sarah failed to eject in time. “I can bail you out again, like I did with the worm,” Emma said over private coms to Daughter, “But this time I want something in exchange.”

Emma shot the priest and he dissolved into dust.

None of that happened.

She shivered in the cockpit, blinking in a vain attempt to focus sundered vision. Chaos raged all around her but most of her consciousness was sinking into the Lich's velveteen waters. It was impossible to process time without Sam, but here she was trying to do it all by herself anyway. She had to.

The threads of time were so silver, so beautiful, so cold. Emma reached for one, pulled; Knell began to move faster. That was in the future.

The hammer fell, the hammer fell, the hammer fell.

There were no words in any human language for how horrible the sound was. The Tokugawa caved like an empty soda can and there was nothing left of JW to even scrape out of it.

She jumped.

She jumped.

She jumped.

The hammer obliterated the Lich and turned Emma into human paste instead. She drank deeper, pulled a new thread, engineered a reality where the Demolisher was now meters away. This time, Thresher could react. The hammer never fell. She was back at her soul vessel.

Emma shot the priest and he dissolved into dust.

No, not yet. Breath came ragged; she convulsed in the cockpit. Emma fumbled the threads and the missiles landed and now her mech was missing an arm and she was crying laughing screaming and she couldn't move and she couldn't move and she couldn't move and she couldn't see and she reached for the threads she had to hold the threads she had to pull the threads her team needed her where was Sam where was Sam when was Sam why wasn't Sam here?

A hand caressed Emma's face. She looked up. The field was a ruin of burning bodies. She watched herself, in the third person, lift the Unraveler and fire.

Emma shot the priest and, finally, he dissolved into dust.

The battle was over.

She couldn't even rely on GANDALF to take her back to safety. That, too, she had to do by herself – but by now she was deep underwater. Sound and vision came muffled. She followed on mental auto pilot behind Harvester's blurry outline, only able to track him because he glowed so bright. Somehow, that got her back into the maintenance bay.

Once there she managed to power the core back down, but thereafter vacillated between raving and catatonic in the cockpit, clutching her ankh amulet in both hands. Until today, she could have counted the number of times she'd had to glitch time like this on both hands and still have a few fingers left over. Ostensibly, that was why her boss had wanted to print a Lich in the first place, but...Emma had never had to use the core like this twice in one day, let alone twice in one month. Today, she'd done it twice in as many hours.

New threads of reality kept flowing past her eyes. She didn't know how to make it stop. No wonder Sam felt so exhausted, living like this. Tears flooded in the longer she watched. The facility and the people inside of it were safe – that was the most important thing, she knew. But it was far from perfect. The generator should have never taken a hit. Actium and Black Baccara should still be standing. That mysterious Monarch chasing Knell should have never gotten away.

The core was out of power now, but maybe...maybe once it was recharged, she could try again and get it right...

For now, all she could see were a thousand-thousand realities, none of which were her own. She saw everything she could have done different. She watched deaths on repeat. She saw angles of existence normally invisible to human eyes, and hidden truths spoken of only in the Lessons. This happened every time she used the core, but...it'd never lasted this long before.

Emma laughed, and cried, and, somewhere in the remaining depths of her fraying consciousness, prayed desperately for it to stop.

[peaky-shelby]

New Romantics | Mbappé [2]

» Pairing: Mbappé x Oc

» summary: in which an arrogant and talented football player (the best of his time as some say) and a focused and harsh critic of a journalist are gonna have to find a way to co-exist.

« previous chapter

» Chapter 2: trains that aren't coming

» Writer's note: i don't know if y'all are still interested after the second chapter because the response wasn't as big but i wrote the third chapter so here you go. Let me know your opinions and if you guys want to see more! Also im trying to find ways to make this more interactive for everyone so bear with me please.

» Taglist: @moonchildohh @formulahoe @princetongirlll818 @mavieesttriste16 @kiwisa @godessstela @hummusxx @kodzuvk @pink-manz @corbyns-smile @jayruiewo265738 @blueanfield @mrs-bellingham @sorceresski @sooblovebot

I didn't know i had to watch my tongue. Now you know that I'm loaded gun. Uh it might be true I'm too taboo.

She wished the car would drive by faster but for whatever reason traffic seemed to be working against her that day. She would be late again and it was her first day. Her leg tapped on the bottom of the uber annoyed until they reached the training center. She practically jumped out of the car to get to the entrance, her camera hanging from her neck, a water bottle on her hand and she would have walked in if it wasn’t for the French guards again-

“Oh, you have to be kidding.”

“Nous avons besoin de votre carte” One of them said. She recognized the word card but she had no idea what card they were talking about. She had no card and how was she supposed to explain that? She didn’t really look professional, she was dressed in her sweatpants and her PSG hat, she looked like a random fan that wanted to get in to flirt with the footballers. While she was trying to explain she was just a journalist and was working closely with Galtier, she felt someone bump on her shoulder, walking past her like he hadn’t hit her at all. Of course, it was him-

“Kylian!” she yelled. He stopped on his tracks, looked at her up and down like he was seeing her for the first time. Then he smiled and she knew she was basically fucked.

“Je ne sais pas qui elle est.” he said quickly and walked inside the building. Taylor jumped forward to attack him but the guards stopped her, pushing her back. She wanted to throw her water bottle at him. She backed up, fixing her hoodie and breathing heavily. She looked at her phone, realizing she was alreay 15 minutes late. Horrible first impression.

“Elle est avec moi. C'est une journaliste. Ne vous inquiétez pas.”

She turned around, Neymar standing behind her with a smile on his face. He motioned for her to get inside with him and she followed. She didn’t like having to rely on others like that, she needed to get better with her French quickly. And on top of everything she wanted to smack Kylian in the face. She still hadn’t posted the paragraph about him but she was very close in doing so.

“Thanks for that.”

“No problem. Come on we are late.”

Neymar and her run outside on the field apologizing for their delay. Galtier didn’t even look at them while he reprehended them for their actions, first Neymar and then,

“Ms. Taylor, we are very strict about our time schedules in this team. I asked you to be here before the boys.” He finally looked at her “you are late.”

“I had a problem with the guards-“

“Do I look like I care?” he asked and returned his gaze on the team “Boys this is Taylor Wilock. She will be attending trainings and games for the next month-“

“Assuming she is there on time” mumbled Kylian, he didn’t say it loud enough but she did hear it. Her eyes settling angrily on him. She drew a fist with her fingers, annoyed at the young man but said nothing in response. Hakimi laughed at his comment but quickly stopped when he saw Galtier’s eyes on him. He stopped.

“Among other things she is writing an article on the team, for JW’S Website.” Kylian faked a cough when he heard the name, ones again getting her attention “She’ll be my eyes and ears for as long as she is here, so be kind, kids.” Warned Galtier, specifically looking at Kylian. He gave them all their tasks for the day and then called for Taylor to follow him. She had to walk past all the players who were standing next to each other in a long line. While walking she twisted the cap on her water bottle slowly opening it and when she passed in front of Kylian she ‘accidentally’ tripped, water spilled on his clothes and his shirt.

“Oh my god- would you look at that-“ she gasped, pretending to be shocked and sorry. Kylian looked at her, annoyed. He gazed at his shorts and his shoes. Was it childish? Absolutely. Did she care? No. If she had to act like a 5-year-old around him, then she would. She had told him the first time they met; she was very easily provoked. Neymar and Hakimi were cracking up next to him, holding their hands over their mouths so he wouldn’t see.

“Seven. Go change. Now!” yelled Galtier while Taylor joined next to him. Kylian smacked them both on the back of their heads as he was leaving and the two completely lost it when he left.

“Was that really necessary?” asked Galtier when they were far away from the rest of the team.

“It was an accident” she defended, drinking whatever water was left in her water bottle.

“Sure.” He nodded “Your one week of this act starts today. I expect them to know the whole truth by next Monday. Understood?”

She calculated the days in her mind “Yes, sir.”

“Do me a favor. Talk with them, I want a full report of each one, individually.”

“Each one?”

“Yes. By next Monday as well. Marcos can help. I suggest you have 1 on 1 meetings with them-“

“All of them?” what she was really asking was ‘even Kylian?’

“Yes. Is there a problem?”

She wanted to say yes. She wanted to tell him that she was in over her head but of course she wouldn’t admit it so she shook her head, biting her lips “No. No problem at all.” She faked a smile. Galtier gave her a nod and left her standing alone, terrified for what was going to follow on this day that hadn’t really started that great. She huffed and puffed, rubbing her face in despair.

“Estas Bien?”

She jumped, screaming. “WHY DOES EVERYONE KEEP DOING THAT- I AM FRAGILE.” She yelled and turned around to face whoever it was that scared her this time. Her entire body froze when she saw him. 7-year-old her would have wrap her arms around him already but she had to be professional, she had to stay calm.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Leo.” He held his hand out or her, Taylor shook it with no hesitation, smiling. “We didn’t meet yesterday.”

She was speechless. She was never speechless, that was a whole different level of anxiety for her “Pleasure is all mine.” She said quickly, smiling. Did he know as well about her secret? He was this team’s MVP, he was the entire world’s MVP, lying to him felt wrong.

“I enjoy reading the blog. Your boss writes very well” So he didn’t know “I’d like to meet him.” She didn’t say anything to that, she just smiled and nodded. Messi ran back to his team to continue with training. While she mentally face palmed herself. That’s when she realized, she was standing on a field, almost in the middle of it, on the green grass. She watched the players from a distance, running around. Suddenly she couldn’t stop the memories from flooding in her mind, leaking. She used to run in between those cones, drippling and messing with her friends. She felt an ache in her heart, she held her chest. Trying to remind herself of why she stopped and where she was now. What she was meant to be doing. She was so lost in her thoughts, she didn’t even notice Kylian staring.

He had just returned from the training room, still a little annoyed at her but she was a good match. She challenged him and obviously didn’t take any of his shit which made him want to go harder on her and he would eventually. That was a promise.

Taylor watched the boys as they played a simulation of the game. Separating in two equal teams and as always, she was making her notes while watching. Kylian was out of it, he kept missing the ball, tripping and whenever he was trying to go really hard with it, he’d fall on his face. Marquinhos kept yelling at him to get his head in the game, cursing him in French. Neymar spent more time drippling then actually passing the ball. They were lacking connection; it was like everyone was playing for themselves and themselves alone. When the simulation was over, they each parted around the field, each of them doing something different.

She’d take pictures of them sometimes. Raise her camera and snap some when they weren’t looking, making sure she kept the lenses away from Kylian.

“She’s taking pictures now?”

“A journalist. Taking pictures. For an article” Hakimi threw a ball at him “Who would have thought.”

Kylian caught the ball before it hit his face, making a grimace. “Should have been a comedian.” Hakimi smirked while running on the other side of the field.

While sitting on the benches she noticed Verratti, running. She stood up and ran towards him. He was making a sprint around the field and she joined him. He laughed when he saw her running alongside him.

“Can I help? tiny human.”

“I was looking at your stats. You’ve had 102 touches in Ligue 1 so far this season but only 44 during opening half on Friday’s game.”

Verratti stopped on his tracks, he did it so unexpectedly Taylor almost fell on him “Where are you getting those?”

She rebalanced herself “I’m a journalist it’s my job.”

“Friday was a hard game. Lens was good.”

“And you were bad. That’s not the point.” She shot back without even thinking. Verratti raised his eyebrows got closer to her “All I’m saying is that it’s like y’all wanted to lose. They owned the ball for almost the entire match and you were barely trying to get it back. It’s not like you”

“Is this leading up to a question?”

“Why?” her question was simple, why did that happen. Why was he so unfocused? Verratti didn’t answer, he made a few steps away and then continued his ran. She knew that look in his eyes, scared to admit to any answer. He ran towards Kylian who was on the ground doing stretches and knelt besides him.

Kylian looked up at him confused.

“You were right.” He told him, making him even more confused “she’s trouble.” Kylian searched for her on the field, she was talking to Ramos now, a conversation that seemed one sided because Ramos would barely look at her while she seemed like she was making some of her points. Verratti ran away from him but Kylian continued looking at the girl in the grey sweatpants. Danger and trouble were only one way to describe her.

INDOOR TRAINING CENTER - DAY

She was hungry she could hear it by the way her stomach whined. She searched the hallways for the kitchen making sure to keep away from where she had gone the day before and her day was brightening up because she had succeeded to stay away from Kylian. Sometimes she’d feel him staring and maybe throwing a few curses her way but she ignored it. Fortunately, she managed to find the kitchen, everyone going silent when she entered the room. Talk about an awkward moment. She ignored it, the same way she had been ignoring Kylian and went straight for the buffet. It was fish with rice. Her mother would laugh at her if she was here, she hated cooked fish, she only liked salmon in her sushi. But she had to stay calm, she kindly looked at the cook behind the counter smiling, nodding for her to put her a plate.

“What are you doing here?”

She close her eyes when she heard Kylian’s voice, ones again startled by the unexpected. She was starting to get used to it. People scaring her all the time in this place. She took the dish from the cook placing it on her disk. He was so close to her, leaning down to her ear, she was tempted to get the fork and stabbed it on his hand laying on the counter. “Currently being annoyed by a child.” She said bluntly, getting herself a glass of water too.

“This is only for the team. Not journalists” I’m part of the team you fucking moron, she wanted to say but she didn’t.

“Galtier has given me permission, so if you don’t mind-“she gave him a smile and carried her disk to an empty table to sit and eat. Kylian didn’t follow her or tried to pressure her more, he went and sat next to Verratti. Hakimi and Neymar were also in the table, eating.

“Galtier gave me permission” he mocked her voice and looked at his food. Hakimi choked on his water, coughing. While Verratti was shooting daggers at her.

“She’s gonna be 24/7 with us now?” Verratti asked. Taking a full bite aggressively. Hakimi watched the two men, his mouth half open, he kept feeling like he was in a classroom. Neymar on the other hand was too focused on his food to pay any attention to them.

“What did she say to you?”

“Something about my touches, I don’t know.” He took another full bite. “You think Galtier is actually listening to her?”

“I don’t know- why is Marquinhos with her?” Marquinhos had taken on her table, they were laughing about something. She was showing him some of her notes and pointing at the pages on her notebook. Marcos was nodding like he was agreeing with her. She lifted her hair up on a bun, uncovering her neck. There was a weird feeling catching up on his chest so he looked away. She was pointing at Ramos, Marquinhos following her gaze. “What are they talking about?” he groaned. Neymar finally looked up from his food “Did you know he drove her home last night?” asked Kylian but it was more of a statement.

Neymar smirked, nodding “Nice.”

“Kylian!” Warned Hakimi, throwing one of his used napkins at him “dangerous territory. Stay out of it.”

“She’s always showing him her notes, why?”

“Maybe because he is the captain.”

“And what does the captain care about a journalist’s notes? I want to see them too.”

Hakimi threw him another napkin “Get. Over. yourself.”

Kylian rolled his eyes, took a spoon of rice and put in his mouth. Chewing aggresively. Verratti nudged him on the shoulder and leaned down to whisper “we have to get that notebook”

He glanced up at her one last time. Their eyes meeting just for a second.

“We will” he reassured him.

OUTDOOR TRAINING SPACE - AFTERNOON

Taylor was packing her stuff, throwing everything in her bag. Training was over and it was raining again but this time she was prepared, she had already called for an uber that was supposed to be out in 10 minutes. She noticed him nearing by the corner of her eye, she thought that if she didn’t say anything at all he’d go away but for some reason he came and stood next to her, when she dropped one of her pens he knelt down before her but as he raised his body again his head crashed on her chin. She backed up, groaning and he held the top of his head annoyed. She held her chin, cursing.

“You had already seen me kneeling-“he yelled, rubbing his head.

“No one asked you to reach for it-“she spat back at him and snatched the pen from his hands throwing it on the bag.

“I was trying to help!”

“Try less.” She mumbled. Obviously still annoyed and offended by yesterday’s comments. He bit on the inside of his cheek, making a step closer. “I don’t like people invading my personal space.”

“I wanted to apologize.” He said quickly. Hands behind his back. Her head shot up, she searched for his eyes to see if was mocking her again. He seemed sincere and yet there was something that worried her, people didn’t change so quick and so easy. She narrowed her eyes.

“Galtier, made you say that?”

“No.” he laughed “We started off on the wrong foot and it’s my fault.” She listened, her eyes examining him, expecting him to start laughing in her face “I shouldn’t have said those things yesterday. I was just surprised to see you there.” She blushed, remembering their encounter and lifted her bag to hang it over her shoulder “you’re obviously gonna be here for a while so we have to find a way to coexist that doesn’t have you spilling your water all over me- or you know slapping me-“she laughed at that, she couldn’t help it.

“That’s a nice apology.” She shrugged

“Is it acceptable?”

“It’s been noted.” She smiled and started walking away, he trailed behind her.

“You know I wanted to talk to you about your notes” she stopped, looked at him. Her expression had gone back to suspicious “Whatever you said to Verratti it hit a chord. I was wondering what you have on me-“ he pointed at her bag.

“You did? Didn’t think you’d respect my opinions Kylian.”

“Marquinhos seems to be entertaining them. He talked with Verratti after you showed him your notebook-“

“That’s what this is about?” she laughed, shaking her head “I should have known. God. You have to work on your approaches.”

“I don’t understand what you mean-“

“You are trying to get close to me so you’ll read the notebook.” He laughed nervously, hiding his hands on his pockets “It’s not gonna work Kylian. You wanna know what my notes for you are? Respectfully to get your head out of your ass. “ she paused “You are one of the greatest players of our time and yet you choose to limit yourself time after time for show and pride. Six lost possessions and only 25 touches in Friday’s game and you wonder why my boss is dragging your ass? Why don’t you drop the tough guy act and admit that the only reason you hate me so much is because I’m right-“ she closed her eyes “I mean my boss is right- whatever it doesn’t matter.” She sighed “I have to go.” She turned to leave, stopping when hearing his next question.

“Your boss thinks I’m the greatest player of our time?”

She hesitated, thought about it but turned around eventually “That’s what you got from all that?” she scoffed “he thinks you could be. If you stopped trying to be the next Ronaldo and just be Mbappe.”

They stood still, looking at each other until he made a step forward. Suddenly he cared to know more, no one except Galtier had spoken to him like that but Galtier was his coach. She was just a girl, obviously not caring who he was. When she said she didn’t intimidate easy, she meant it “Do you?” he asked her and she seemed taken aback by the question. She took a minute before answering.

“I’m still trying to figure it out.” She said and walked away. “So far you’re just the greatest pain in my ass”

He stayed late in the gym that night, he didn’t want to go home.

It was lonely there and he had to find something to keep his distracted. Why did he care about what JW and that tiny person thought all of a sudden? Is that what drove him as insane as he was that they were right? Six missed possessions weren’t a small number. He took out his phone and searched for the girl’s Instagram, there were countless Taylor wilock’s. Some of the profile pictures didn’t even show their face and were private. He couldn’t find it. Then he got the notification on his phone about a new article on the JW website. He clicked on it, started reading:

“I’ve sent one of my journalists on the PSG headquarters and she has already spent 2 days with the team. When she gets back to me, she is always confused, mixed emotions she says. The team seems to lack not in skill but in spirit, like they’ve all fallen apart after the world cup and struggling to return on their roots. We have a broken-hearted Neymar that dives willingly into red cards, A Messi who is returning as a winner in the country he beat. A Hakimi that takes his exhaustion out on opponents, a Verratti that seems to be lacking moral and of course an Mbappe who has to work alongside the man that beat him to his second world cup. And these are supposed to be the wild cards, meanwhile the rest are falling apart behind them. It takes all pieces to complete a puzzle. Equal pieces. Even if some of them are golden...”

The golden child. That's what she called him when they first met, he thought.

TAYLOR'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

"think about it" said Marquinhos on the other line. She looked at her computer while the notifications on her latest post were going wild. "If they see your talent. It will be easier to trust you. Plus you'll see how the play firsthand" She was thinking about it. All the things that could go wrong, not for professionally but personally more than anything.

"fine. Yeah, I'll join the simulation game tomorrow." She agreed "but just for first half."

"I'll be honest. Seeing you against Kylian. That's gonna be fun."

"is that the only reason you want me to join the training?" She teased, petting the cat that had cuddled on her legs.

"isn't beating him the only reason you are accepting?”

Maybe, she thought. But she never said it.

Next chapter »

Kylian and Tay against each other? Playing on the field? What could possible go wrong? I Wanna say a big thank you to everyone reading and interacting, it means the world to me!! I hope you are gonna enjoy the ride and how excited are you to see these two together 👀👀 what do you think is going to happen? 👀👀

[deliriumsdelight7]

So I wanted to ask about Jefferson in JW... specifically, what's the chance of him turning up again, given that he wasn't supposed to be there in the first place... :) *wicked grin.

You caught me in a verbose mood (which to be honest is kind of my default) so you get a rant.

So, in the original story, “Jefferson” is very very very different. He doesn’t show up at ALL in the playground scene. He has no daughter, no ties to the shrink, no tie to the protagonist… nothing. He’s just a one-off sketchy criminal guy who the police suspect for unspecified reasons. He gets arrested on suspicion of being the murderer, and released later. That’s literally it. You could cut that chapter (and the one with Blue) and lose NOTHING. It’s pure filler.

When I was writing the playground scene, I knew that Blue would be the first suspect, but I had no clue who would play the second. The video game has this long and (in my opinion) tedious sequence of playing with the son in the playground. Nice to watch, boring to write. Next thing I know, Jefferson shows up. “Nice,” I think. “Bae can play with Grace, and Gold can have a friendly ear to listen to him before things all go to shit.” And then Jefferson starts being creepy, and poor traumatized Gold starts having an anxiety attack, and I’m just sitting here like, “wait, no. This isn’t what I wanted to happen at ALL.”

But it fucking WORKED. Jefferson showed up in a story, completely uninvited, and he managed to tie several plot points together. He made Gold have PTS flashbacks, which allowed Bae to be taken. He was sketchy, which made Gold mention him to the police, which made him a suspect. He has ties to the shrink, which will come in later. That magnificent bastard gate-crashed my fic and made it better.

So: will he be returning in a future chapter? I have no such plans at this time. Which means absolutely nothing, because I had no plans to include him in the first place.