#and they seem to miss that that's a super hard scene to translate into the compressed action show with the right context

[yumeka-sxf]

In addition to Yor's epiphany scene, this scene was the other one I was most looking forward to in season 2 - a scene that, in my opinion, is one of the most Twiyor-ish scenes in the series so far 💖

Why is it so significant? Because there was no reason for Twilight to put on any Loid Forger acting in that moment. He wasn't conversing with nor being scrutinized by anyone. So why would he give that soft smile followed by such affectionate, comforting words as "お疲れ様/otsukaresama"? (this can be translated in many ways, but generally it's something you say to thank someone for their hard work).

The answer is because it's something he truly felt...he understood the sacrifice Yor made for Anya's happiness and genuinely appreciated it (if only he knew the sacrifice she made on the larger scale, lol). While he's a bit perturbed at first since some onlookers were snickering at him, it didn't take long for him to soften and then graciously carry his queen and princess the girls back to the ship 😭

But Twilight overall was really soft in this episode and I loved it~ From his blush upon seeing Yor to the several times he gave that same soft smile when talking with/looking at her...I think Anya was right when she called him out on the ship about missing his wife 😅

I liked how the anime conveyed his shock when noticing her bruised face...what must have been his thought at that moment? 👀

The scenes of the family activities translated better in animated form in my opinion. While they were each only a single panel in the manga, they lasted a few seconds each in the anime, plus the addition of the insert song helped the with the comfy, wholesome vibe~ Also the part where Yor inadvertently chucks Anya across the ocean is still hilarious.

Loid's dorky skip at the beginning of the episode translated very well in animated form too 😅

The ending of this chapter in the manga always felt a bit rushed to me...it quickly jumps from the aforementioned scene of them returning to the ship, to suddenly being home, reuniting with Bond and Franky, having a meal together, then Twilight meeting Sylvia, all within a few panels. Even though I wish the anime added more than just some additional scenes of the ship leaving the island, I felt it flowed much better in the anime since, just like the family activities, each scene in the ending lasted a second or two instead of being a single illustration.

But I love how this chapter/episode ends, with Yor, Anya, and Bond napping while Anya draws about her family vacation. This seems to take place the next day or maybe later the same day they got home, so makes sense they'd still be tired from the trip!

By the way, the manga has this additional scene showing that Olka and company are safe. Weird that the anime didn't stick it in at some point.

Also, the anime team didn't have to go so hard with this episode's key visual but they did...and I love it 😍 Might actually be my favorite of the key visuals so far!

I was very happy to see the "surrounded by liars" panel finally animated! This is such a funny scene and a great way to fully wrap up the cruise arc.

I also burst out laughing at Yuri's locker 🤣

Damian is surprisingly laid back in this episode. I think the reason is because Anya's antics aren't directly involving him. He tends to go total tsundere only when she's actually talking to him, lol.

The new scene of Yor getting the keychains for her coworkers was a nice addition! Guess it's canon that Yor and Anya didn't sleep for the entire trip back, lol. Glad they got to spend family time on the ship too! (though I wish we could have seen Yor's reaction waking up in Loid's bottom bunk bed, haha. He must have brought her to his room since he wouldn't know where her room is. Unless she woke up before he even put her in a bed, in which case she would have been super embarrassed knowing he was carrying her around in public 😆)

Looks like next week the anime will be changing the order of things a bit and giving us the Becky home-wrecking and Fiona chapters (the latter of which seems to have some anime original content?) The Becky chapter is one of my favorite stand-alone chapters...I'm already dying of laugher thinking about it 😂

[askshivanulegacy]

SO MUCH THIS.

Imagine watching the live action first, before ever seeing the cartoon. THAT'S the consideration it deserves.

If you're sitting there asking "why didn't they include this," or "why didn't they do that," that is backwards thinking. If you want those elements, they exist; go watch the cartoon.

So many of the elements people aren't seeing ARE actually in the show, but in different forms. And most of the elements that they're crying about are honestly chump change. Are you missing some outfit or some event from one cartoon episode?

That's ... one cartoon episode. It's insignificant. You're not going to get every single episode, let alone every single moment from every episode.

A lot of the other things people are crying about are due to the first season being a first season. There's so much more that can happen in later seasons. If you didn't see something happen by the end of season 1, try season 2 or season 3.

I'm totally on board with the complaint about no filler shows, but that's a chronic problem. If that's your complaint in the year of 2024, then you have a long line of shows to resolve that on before you ever get to the Avatar. It was made in an environment where filler isn't a thing, so ... even more reason why all your favorite cartoon nonsense is gone. But that's not a fault of the Avatar. Go make movies and TV shows with your life and change the environment back for the rest of us.

The season gets a lot better the further you get in it. It's just a different way of telling the same story. It still feels like the Avatar. There's nothing especially bad about it that's not also "bad" about many other TV shows.

The live action Avatar slaps.

Sure, some things are a little different, but adaptions always are. Going in thinking it was going to be a 1:1 of the cartoon is either silly or bad faith. I implore you to remember that you first watched the original ATLA when you were a kid, and therefore may have rose-colored glasses on regarding its pitfalls.

The new ATLA is a genuine good time and the actors are great. The stakes feel real, and it's so cool seeing this setting brought to life.

The naysayers are just the vocal minority. Even Rotten Tomatoes says the show is dang good. So give it a chance. Go in with an open mind. If you start episode 1 with the primary intent to pick it apart before it's even begun, I think maybe you missed the point of the original, no?

[sufferu]

It's always bugged me because yeah yeah Subaru and Flugel have some sort of connection sure but like there's just so many ways to do it without some boring and thematically disaonant au/timeloop sort of thing?

Reincarnation is literally and explicitly a thing, we have multiple characters who are already the reincarnation or spiritual successor to some big name important figure from the past and Subaru being another one of them but also refusing to let it define him and making his own path better fits with who he is and the story itself.

Reminds me on how way back before we really had anything about him beyond some suspicious similarities between Kararagi and Kansai that people thought that Hoshin had to have been some sort of AU Subaru as well.

I'd rather believe Flugel is an AU Kenichi or Subaru's maternal grandpa or whatever than Flugel is literally just Subaru and this is all just some greater part and plot of a ginormous timeloop.

I had never heard it before but I'm actually super into the idea of Al as Subaru's displaced younger older brother? Especially since we're now at Al's arc and everything.

Yeah imma be honest I hate basically all Subaru == Flugel theories, and all Subaru == Aldebaran theories, too (though really those are one and the same, because Aldebaran == Flugel seems pretty much canon at this point lmao: there are too many signs, and also they act so similar to one another that it really doesn’t feel like nearly as much of a stretch to say that they’re the same guy as it is to say that Subaru is either one of them). This includes timeloops, reincarnations, etc.: it’s just — “Oops, all Subaru” isn’t an ending that I am very partial to, and if that’s where this is going then Tappei is gonna have to sell it HARD in order to get me on board.

But my favorite theory is ABSOLUTELY the Younger/Older Brother Aldebaran theory.

Evidence:

Subaru is explicitly referred to by Kenichi as his “eldest son” in every translation of the First Trial, despite the fact that he doesn’t have any siblings. (Honestly even if this DOESN’T end up being canon I’m gonna go the rest of my life headcanoning that Naoko was pregnant when Subaru got Isekai’d just because of that line alone)

Subaru has gone out of his way to mention that he is afraid that his parents had more kids when he got spirited away, which sure smells like foreshadowing to me

In a side story, Aldebaran is mentioned to have had many of the same insecurities regarding his family members as Subaru. These family members are not named. (In the shadow of his perpetually missing older brother, perhaps?)

Garfiel talks about Al and Subaru smelling similar in the same volume where similar scents indicate a familial resemblance between him and his mom

The Pleiades Constellation references seven sisters, bringing the idea of siblings right front and center

In astronomy, Aldebaran is the Following Star, specifically following Subaru

Aldebaran has been literally calling Subaru “bro” every time he shows up, which is currently just a speech quirk but has the potential to get recharacterized HARD

Pros:

Keeps Subaru and Al connected without making them the Same Guy

Brings the focus of the story right back to the character-centric drama of the Natsuki Family and how Subaru left them behind, which I can basically guarantee has to come up again at some point anyway

All of Subaru and Aldebaran’s scenes become so much funnier if it’s revealed that they are actually siblings

We can get Subaru and Aldebaran fighting with one another over who gets to be the older brother

So many Cain Instinct memes

Cons:

?

Please. It would be so, SO good.

[twstunes]

I am OBSESSED with your colored in manga pages!!! They’re beautiful I can’t stop thinking about them, how do you do your TWST page edits??? I’m really wanting to color the chapters too! It looks so fun!

I downloaded the pages (of chp1) straight from where I read them, and edited over (im using krita! Maybe photoshop would be better??) but I can’t seem to make them look the way I want them to. The line quality is nowhere near yours, yours looks so professional! I hope I’m not stepping on your toes by asking but I feel like I’m missing something 😭 would you mind explaining where/how you download the pages with such high quality? Do you turn them transparent like coloring books or edit overtop of them? I hope this ask isn’t too much!!

XOXOXOXO I hope you’re doing well!! You’re easily one of my fav twst blogs!

kicking my feet and giggling,,,,,, I hope you're doing well too!! you're not stepping on my toes at all, don't worry!

The pages I've been using for color edits are from turtlesoupscans' uploads – they're a scanlation group focused on TWST, and currently have stuff up for the manga (both the main story + anthology comic) as well as translations for the official novel. To my understanding, their scans ARE okay to use for color edits, but not for re-translations or mass-reuploads.

I do all my edits in photoshop using a lot of multiply & lighten layers! The coloring book method u mentioned is so enticing yet so traitorous…in photoshop, the selection + erasing method tends to damage the lineart, and the inverted channel method for removing white backgrounds quickly will keep a 'film' if the background isn't pure #ffffff. (Maybe krita has a more effective solution? 👀)

(Also bc I brought up using photoshop I'm ethically obligated to mention that photopea, an online equivalent to photoshop, exists and is free to use)

I've never used krita before, but from what I'm seeing of its layout/capabilities, the process I use should translate over fairly well–

(Added a black bg to the "fill" portion to make it easier to see)

First come the "fill" layers, which are for covering up halftones & similar shading techniques. This step isn't super necessary (and sometimes involves a lot more editing to replicate halftone gradients/patterns), but I heavily recommend it for scenes that involve a lot of dark colors. Leaving halftones in can cause colors to look darker & grayer than they should, the latter of which you specifically want to avoid when making color edits of darker-skinned characters. (They can also be really good for conveying texture tho, which is why I left the statues' shading alone in this example.)

Next are the color layers, where the bulk of the editing happens. As I mentioned above, I use a ton of multiply layers for this so I can just draw over the image. Darken layers also work, but I've found they tend to affect line density & smoothness. The shading and highlighting here is done using masking layers for individual objects/structures – I think quick group + choosing inherit alpha for the mask layer is the krita equivalent? Layers for darkening the overall lighting (like for nighttime scenes) would also go in this section.

Finally, the lighten layers are solely for the lineart. This is to help "soften" the the lineart, so to speak, making the scene feel a little more 3D/fleshed-out. This step is especially important when dealing with hard shadows, like on the Dark Mirror's frame, Pomefiore's windows, and Ignihyde's central pillar-thing. What I do is put down a bunch of lighten layers, typically at 50% or 75% opacity, and color-pick the darkest part of whatever feature I'm editing the lineart for. Because I'm using a darker color, the surrounding multiply layers will usually go unaffected by the lighten layers – if not, I just gotta zoom in and be careful about it. These layers need to be on top of/closer to the 'front' than the color layers, or else the multiply effect of the color layers will apply to the lighten layers as well.

Thanks for bearing with my kinda long-winded explanation! I've been learning as I go, so there might be easier/better ways of doing things that I haven't stumbled across yet.

I hope this helps & that you have fun doing color edits!!

[lyntergalactic]

20 Questions for Writers

i was tagged by the ever lovely @oakashandwillow

1. How many works do you have on AO3? uh... are we counting works i've orphaned over the years? if not, 16 over two accounts.

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 41,118

3. What fandoms do you write for? currently, it's all star wars all the time, though there's probably going to be a one piece fic out of me soon. other fandoms i've written for include dragon age, naruto, and stranger things.

the rest of the ?s are under a cut to save space!!

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

(i promise you that) we're marching on | naruto fic, sakura-centric gen

the long and short of it | witcher fic, geralt/eskel, bonus fiberarts

the unexpected series | stranger things fic, steddie, rule 63!steve with surprise baby

quid pro quo | star wars: the clone wars fic, rex/echo, smut

the will to carry on | stranger things fic, abandoned wip, rule 63!steve

5. Do you respond to comments? i try to! i don't always have the spoons for it tho

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? surprisingly, it's not the fic that's all about grief and recovery. it's a star wars drabble, changing of the guard.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? the joke answer is quid pro quo. (because it's smut.) but most of my endings tend to be content or hopeful if not happy, so this is hard to quantify for me.

8. Do you get hate on fics? not as of yet, but given i write cloneshipping i'm honestly just bracing for it to happen at some point

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? indeed i do. i currently only have one smut thing uploaded, so idk if i can say anything for certain about trends, but given my wips... emotional sex and smut as character studies seem to be my thing.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? nope. not really my thing.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? nope! thankfully, i've heard horror stories

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? i think one that no longer exists was once translated. (i had a sad habit of deleting or orphaning things i was less than pleased with when i was younger. i know better now.)

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? ahaha yes but none of it i'm going to mention by name. all my co-written fic happened in middle school with IRL friends.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? i'm a filthy multishipper this question is like asking me which of my hairs i like best

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? oh man. definitely the will to carry on and the couple of stranger things wips in my wip file. not that i don't love the stories anymore, but certain parts of the fandom annoyed me right out of any inspiration or desire to touch anything related to said fandom with a twelve foot pole.

16. What are your writing strengths? i like to think i'm good with characterization and dialogue.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? writing anything longer than 3k words max lmao though that has been improving lately and i have high hopes for the sev fic getting finished

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? there... there is a whole can of worms here that this question opens for me and i don't think anyone wants my ramble about dialogue, other languages, conlangs, dialects, and the effects of having been in anime fandom for so long so. this is not getting answered other than with a shrug

(unless someone wants the ramble in which case i will happily oblige)

19. First fandom you wrote for? teen titans cartoon when i was a wee thing. it was a self-insert fic that was less than a page in ms word, single spaced :')

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? this is such a cop-out answer but i genuinely don't think i can pick a favorite. maybe ordinal, just because i'm still super proud of having finished it and what i did with the characterization at missing scenes? but augh i want to put more here too

i'm tagging @bisexualdinahlance, @bilbosmom-belladonna, @cacodaemonia, aaaaand @cabezadeperro but no pressure if you're not game :> and if anyone wants to do it but isn't tagged /points to eyes /points to u

[kotaka-kun]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

saw @middleearthpixie doing this and I wanted to do it too :)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

249 works

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

380,279 words

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Most recently I’ve been writing for Phantom of the Opera and Love Never Dies, but according to my AO3 dashboard, I’ve posted fics for just under 40 fandoms and naming them all seems excessive... That being said, my top five are Lord of the Rings, Phantom, MCU (mostly Captain America), Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Harry Potter. 

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

1. thank you for the food (ATLA, zukka, Fluff, Domestic Bliss, Modern AU) 2. Simple Happiness (ATLA, zukka, Fluff, Living Together, Modern AU) 3. Bucky has a belly kink, but Steve doesn’t mind in the least (MCU, stucky, ABO, Belly Kink, Pregnancy Kink) 4. Surprise (MCU, stucky, ABO, mpreg, Birth, Twins) 5. New Colors (One Piece, zosan, Fluff, Color Blindness, Gifts)

5. Do you respond to comments?

I do try, though I know I’ve missed a few over the years... but I do love and treasure every single comment I get!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I’d have to say that it’s probably a tie between The Worst Thing (MCU, Steve/Bucky, omegaverse, infertility, miscarriage) and overboard (LOTR, Frodo/Sam, trauma, depression, suicide attempt)

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? 

Hard to say, since aside from the two mentioned above, I write mostly fluffy happy endings... 

8. Do you get hate on fics? 

Thankfully, no. But maybe that just means I need to write more divisive fics? 

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do write smut, and it’s probably mostly -- if not all -- omegaverse tbh... 

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I love love love writing crossovers! I think they’re fun and silly and a good time all around. Don’t know if I have one that’s significantly crazier than the rest, but I think i read the hobbit (in 1937 when it first came out) is one of my favorites to think about. I’ve got a soft spot for ws!Bucky is all. Putting him in Middle Earth and adding him to the Fellowship was just for funsies :)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I’m aware of...

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! A reader translated New Colors into Chinese, which was super neat!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Absolutely, 100% -- in the sense of collaboratively plotting out and writing a story, as well as taking turns in an improvised narrative style RP, and also something in between where the premise of a fic was agreed upon and each of us had characters to write, RP style. 

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

I don’t think I can pick a singular ship to label as my favorite... I’d call Zoro/Sanji my OTP, but only because they were the first ship I got involved in fandom for -- I haven’t read a fic of them in years. I’m reading almost exclusively Erik/Christine fics right now, but I’ve come across Erik/Raoul fics that have made me fall in love with them, as well as Erik/Raoul/Christine fics that are so so good... I guess in terms of longevity and my ability to always come back to them, Steve/Bucky has been a solid ship for me? 

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Gonna go with Zoro’s Promise, since it’s the only multichapter fic I never bothered to move from FF dot net to AO3. It’s literally been ten years since I updated it lmao

16. What are your writing strengths?

On one hand, I guess my ADHD-fueled hyperfixation that allows me to write fic after fic could be considered a strength...?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

On the other hand, as soon as my ADHD-fueled hyperfixation loses its vice grip on me, I lose all motivation to write. Especially if I’ve already written out the scenes that I had in my head, I become incapable of filling in the gaps and making it a cohesive fic... I honestly don’t think I have very good writing hygiene even after taking classes on being better about being a hobby writer oops 

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I personally tend to avoid writing in another language, because I think it’s hard to do well. Sometimes it takes you out of the fic because you have to copy-paste it into Google Translate to figure out what they’re saying, sometimes it takes you out of the fic because you speak the language and the author evidently doesn’t and they used Google Translate. 

19. First fandom you wrote for?

First fandom I wrote fic for and then posted would be One Piece... but in actuality, I’ve been writing fanfiction from long before I knew that’s what it was called. I was probably in second or third grade when I wrote self-insert Peter Pan fics. Also Shrek fics. I don’t have the notebooks I wrote them in anymore, but I have a very vivid memory of writing them.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

This is maybe the hardest question of all to answer, because while I like a lot of my fics, I don’t know that there’s one that I could call my favorite. My current WIP stranger than you dreamt it (PotO, Erik/Christine, ABO) is one I’m excited to keep working on because, well, omegaverse. But also time and time again (LOTR, Frodo/Sam, Time Travel, Fix-it) was one of the first multi chapter fics I’ve actually finished, so in that regard I’m rather proud of it. I liked the time-travel-y premise of it as well. And even though what comes after (HP, Snape/Harry, Time Travel, Fix-it) is still technically a WIP, I’m still pleased with how it’s coming along... though it’s been a hot minute since I’ve updated it oops

tagging... you! 🫵 if you're an author, i'm tagging u! i want to know about what you write!!!

[pikahlua]

Is it just me or the flashback scenes bakugo had before his sacrifice didn't look good unlike the manga where other scenes were also included besides the sludge incident. I think this episode sucks very much compared to the other episodes.

That's just, like, your opinion, man. And to be clear, you're not alone in feeling that way, but I just happen to disagree. I loved this episode. I can also see why someone else might not have loved it. To each their own.

I watch some reaction channels, and a lot of anime-only viewers seem to have been blown away by this episode. Clearly they're getting what they needed to out of this episode, and that's basically the anime's job. So I'd call that a successful episode.

To compare the anime 1-for-1 to the manga is always a losing battle, because when an anime follows the manga too closely it adds absolutely nothing to justify why the manga needed an anime in the first place. And when an anime strays too far from the manga, die-hard manga fans will be upset. It's a thin line to walk. But it is always a mistake to compare the anime's art style to the manga's, because the manga will always win every time (at least it SHOULD). Manga is still-frame art. It's meant to be viewed at your own pace. Each panel is going to have more detail than you would ever see in an anime episode, because animation does not lend itself to lots of super detailed frames (at least not without a giant team and budget). Additionally, each animator will have their own art style they use to try to capture what they can from the manga but ALSO translate the images from the manga into an anime format. There are lots of considerations there, and some priorities will trump others when it comes down to what's possible for the animation team to accomplish.

That said, the correct things to scrutinize would be what the anime brings to the table, namely music, pacing, voice acting, editing, and animation. I thought there was some spectacular animation this episode, and the anime added some things I thought really helped clarify the action of the episode as well as drive the emotions home. From the way everyone else was reacting before I saw the episode, I was coming in with some low expectations, so I was very surprised by what a solid episode it turned out to be. If I were to criticize anything, it would probably be that I would want a little more physical impact shown when Katsuki is hit (although I do also see why they played it the way they did, so while I may have done it differently I'm not upset by what we got). Additionally, some of the still images in the rescue sequence (such as some of the flashbacks like you said) were either missing or shown too quickly to have the same impact. That said, none of these changes ruined the tone of the episode. We only can feel upset about these things because we have read the manga before this, but any anime-only viewer will not have missed anything major. They wouldn't have been able to linger on those moments anyways by virtue of this being anime rather than manga. No, I think the pacing of the rescue sequence was correct for the anime medium, even if some things I liked in the manga had to be cut to make it happen. That's how translation from one medium to another ultimately has to work.

All things considered, despite its flaws, this episode was a banger for me.

[deltaruminations]

i put on this video last night and i think patricia touches on an idea here that i’ve been struggling to articulate wrt to Gaster Lore which is like. the fanbase historically and at large tends to get super deep into gaster’s mechanical roles in the story and forget to consider "surface level" readings of the information. the difference being, of course, that deltarune (unlike the interpretive artworks she’s discussing here) DOES have an explicit and coherent narrative. that means detailed lore explorations are certainly worthwhile, but i think understanding things on a "surface level" is sort of what makes the difference between throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks and like, sorting through the stuff ahead of time to see what might actually be sticky in the first place.

this is why i think stuff like friendship propaganda adds value to discussion — we know that characters like Kris and Ralsei have layers and are capable of more than what they let on. looking carefully at the text and simply asking, "what does this tell us about the characters? how do i feel about it?" gives us a reasonable idea of what their interests are and what they’re willing to do for it. is Kris trying to end the world? no, probably not. is Kris willing to do something risky or irresponsible as a way to spend time with someone they like, and/or as a way to find a missing loved one? yeah, maybe!

one of the reasons why i think gaster has become so obnoxiously over-discussed in theory spaces is because we for a long time had no real indication of his actual means and motivations. it seems like he can theoretically fill in a gap, so we assume he does. he’s a good guy! he’s a bad guy! he’s unknowable! he’s all-powerful! he’s whatever the theorist needs him to be in that moment. to a certain degree we could call that lazy, but i also think that’s kind of unfair, because it is hard to get any kind of real grip on the guy’s intentions or the scope of his abilities. before deltarune chapter 1, it was impossible. the information wasn’t there. nowadays a lot of us are just tired, and we tend to just shrug and say, "yeah, gaster’s in deltarune. who knows what his deal is."

the reason i’ve spent so much time overthinking his scenes & music in chapter 1 is because i think the information there can be taken as a rosetta stone for beginning to translate both means and motivations. i don’t think Gaster Theorization is moot, i think we’ve (again, speaking of the fanbase at large) just been lacking the foundations of that surface-level approach to contextualize the lore.

ex. i would have never considered the possibility of him (sort of) being the unseen/"Roaring" Knight if i hadn’t started going through those scenes, leading to an observation, then questions: gaster isn’t just distantly invested in this world, it seems like he’s tearing himself apart trying to save it. why does this matter so much to him? why this world? if he just found it somehow, why does he feel so committed to it? if he created it, then why doesn’t he just rewrite the ending himself?

i definitely don’t think GKT is the only logical conclusion (FAR from it lol) but it is a non-arbitrary possibility among other non-arbitrary possibilities i’ve seen proposed since chapter 1, and i think it’s really interesting that we can like… start to come up with anything like that at all now i guess lol

[notebookmusical]

Hi!!! I totally missed talking to you too! I would love to hear about the performance or festival! It sounds super cool and I've never been to one. I hope it was amazing. I totally agree that the surprise songs are a nice bonus and how it makes every show different and special no matter what. I totally agree about the Folklore dresses..they are my favorite next to Speak Now. Unfortunately I didn't get to go to the Paramore show the other night which is a huge bummer. It just didn't work out at the last minute. But I finally saw the Barbie movie last night! It was pretty good. There were some things that surprised me still even if I got stuff spoiled. I loved all the pink stuff and the Ken stuff. It managed to be funny but also kinda heartfelt and real. Like even America's speech..even though it felt on the nose at times, it was kinda nice to hear her say it in a simple relatable way and it did make me think about being a woman. It had a lot of good themes and ideas but almost felt like two different movies...and I guess because of the two settings. It made it a little different than what I expected though and I don't even know what I was expecting either. I loved the I'm Just Ken song and scene! It makes me happy that he got to sing in another movie again haha. I guess they are still working on a La La Land stage version but I haven't heard anything else about it. I'm curious what other kinda songs could be in your musical version. I could definitely see a welcome to Barbie land song and maybe a song for Weird Barbie. I could see it being similar to Mamma Mia I guess. I love Megan Fahy as a choice and I loved her in the Bold Type and then I found out she was in Next to Normal. I'll watch the videos you posted too. Gavin Creel and Jen Coella seem perfect haha. I was lucky to see Gavin as Cinderellas prince/wolf in Into the Woods last month and he was funny so he'd be great in this. That's so awesome about getting Hadestown tickets! I'd definitely say it was one of my favorites in the last few years and to see live. I haven't actually listened to the new Sweeney Todd yet but I guess I'd recommend the original cast with Angela Lansbury as Mrs Lovett, but I've also seen Patti Lupone. For Rent, sometimes I just like hearing the songs compared to watching the show..like you can get most of the plot from the cast recording even if you're unfamiliar. That is sooo cool about Newsies!!! Did you get to see Jeremy Jordan? I've seen the proshot a ton of times anyway but I'm so curious. I also enjoyed and would recommend SMASH since we are talking about musical shows lol. But Schmigadoon was the same way with all of the references and stuff. Also who did you see in Waitress? I still watch the Tony's and try to keep up with it but I feel like the revivals were better than new musicals this year or that's what I was familiar with and I didn't listen to any cast recordings. I used to always do that before the Tony's with any new show but I didn't this year..but I will eventually. It's really hard for me to know who should win Tony's since I usually like most musicals. The only ones that I don't really like are the bio ones that's also jukebox cuz they all seem similar to me. I have a musical sideblog so I do try to keep up with it and I love all your gifs. You have great taste in musicals. I love anything Sondheim and those are great picks. Spring Awakening is also a favorite of mine! I forgot the rest of your list but I think I'm familiar with most of them. Also that's pretty cool about the Notebook musical and I'm sorry it wasn't good. Maybe some things shouldn't be a musical and I can't really imagine the songs translating well or how many songs it would be but at least you liked the actors. I'd be curious to hear more about it if you wanna share! I thought it could have potential with Ingrid Michaelson. I think I saw a clip of Joy Woods singing Suddenly Seymour from Little Shop if I'm remembering correctly and her voice is so good!

hellooooo friend!! i went to lollapalooza last week, which was my first music festival and it was a lot, but also really fun! i definitely am not an outdoorsy girl, and i was not as prepared for chicago summer heat as i should've been. i lowkey had more fun at the aftershows (for sabrina carpenter, and maisie peters), and i think if i was to do lollapalooza again, i'd probably just do aftershows and maybe not do GA for all 4 days, but just one day? there were a few sets where i was like "... i probably would have a better view and have more fun watching this on the hulu livestream", which is a little bit unfortunate, but you live, you learn! it was actually kind of scary watching so many people around me pass out, and i just ... do not think i am a festival girlie! which is fun because i have bumbershoot coming up, but it's not really a big music festival, just a very small one in seattle and i'll probably just hang out with the crafty things instead (unless the people i'm going with really want to listen to the music)! i got to see some of my favorite artists though, and it was just really, really lovely — especially holly humberstone, because i don't think i'll get the chance to see her for a while (unless she tours to seattle with her new album)! i don't think i've asked you this, but aside from paramore and taylor swift, who else do you like to listen to? 🤍 i'm sorry about paramore :( i thought of you earlier! i got a notification on my phone about cheap paramore tickets in seattle tonight and i was like oh .....! i almost caved and got tickets but i am 1) still run down from chicago/lolla + 2) i spent money on tickets this morning! but eeeee i'm glad you got the chance to see barbie!! i do agree about it feeling a little clunky / like two separate movies! i don't know what i had expected from the barbie movie, but i definitely didn't expect that! ugh i'm already thinking about how beautiful a barbie musical set would be (can you imagine the barbie house?) maybe something by jason sherwood or beowulf boritt? i just think it would be so fun!! and yes — love love love meghann fahy! she also sang a bunch of kerrigan-lowdermilk (who wrote sam brown) songs back in the day that i really like, like say the word i'm so jealous you got to see gavin in into the woods! the tour didn't come to seattle :( i've only heard the best things about gavin, and one of my close friends loves gavin creel so i was like "oh he'd be a perfect ken!" i think they finally announced the sweeney todd revival cast recording release date, so i mightttt hold off and wait till then, and then go backwards and listen to angela lansbury! i did not get to see jeremy jordan in newsies, but i have seen him live — he came to seattle with betsy wolfe to sing with the seattle symphony a couple years ago! i saw newsies on august 9th, 2014, actually (what are the odds), with corey cott, liana hunt, and ben fankhauser! i like the proshot, but i think i'm more partial to the casts i saw (and i think that jeremy and kara and ben and akb were all a little too old to play teenagers at that point)! although my favorite cast is probably actually an amalgamation of the first national tour cast — stephanie styles as katherine, joey barreiro as jack (i've actually seen him as jack twice; once on tour and once regionally), and i think i've just loved every davey i've seen! i love smash! i was talking to someone in chicago about it, actually — they were sitting at the table next to ours and i just struck up a conversation about lolla since they mentioned someone i really love and we ended up talking about broadway / smash and it was really fun! i always say i'll do a smash rewatch and then i never do, but the music is just so good! i'm super curious to see what happens with the smash musical (bombshell musical?) they're supposedly working on.

with waitress, i saw betsy wolfe & drew gehling twice on broadway, desi oakley twice on tour, and i saw alison luff & mark evans on broadway three times! my jenna ranking is probably alison then desi then betsy, and i just really liked how alison and mark played off each other (i have a soft spot for mark from when he was in the play that goes wrong). but i think my favorite jenna overall would be nicolette! i kind of stopped paying a ton of attention to waitress after it closed on broadway though! i also feel that way with this last tony season! i feel like everything now is just either a revival (no shade to revivals), or an adaptation, or a jukebox and it is very rare that an adaptation feels ... complete to me now rather than just a cash grab. it's just very disheartening, as someone who loves theatre! if/when you feel comfortable coming off anon, i'd love to follow your sideblog (and/or your main blog), but that's totally up to you! always happy to chat with you on anon 🤍 i got to see a sunday afternoon on the island of la grande jatte again in chicago, and i had a good little cry! i'm such a sondheim girlie. and that's okay; not all musicals are winners/will speak to me! i think the notebook musical just felt very ... cashgrabb-y? it did make me cry though, so there's that (not that it takes much to make me cry)! i think the songs were just kind of ... forgettable, which really sucks because i like a lot of ingrid michaelson's songs! joy woods' voice is BEAUTIFUL, and john cardoza really just stood out to me! i remember sitting in the theatre and thinking to myself "this man needs to be orpheus someday" and then went to look at his insta and realized he covered epic II from it! i was so so happy when he was cast in moulin rouge as christian; i've heard some clips of his christian and i really like him too! i think the set was beautiful too; i remember being really impressed by the rain scene! i wonder if they've reworked it for broadway, and what will be the same!

[thegeminisage]

ok, i'm fucking BACK. sitting position. tv on. god i missed this game

the stable i saved at has a cucco finding quest. this is a huge move it's a big deal there was one of these in ocarina of time. great job zelda devs made me feel super nostalgic

did my first backpack korok vehicle. crashed hilariously, but it got me most of the way there

found a chasm! not today, satan

i see a geoglyph, but it's near lake hylia and i'm scared of the gleeok lol. maybe it's time.......

well, this will certainly do no favors for my heart rate but let's give it a go

OH MY GOD???

i can't even get NEAR it...i don't have any high-temp gear

i had to dive into the lake. no choice at all lol. that thing shot at me almost until i reached the edge. terrifying!

there's a chasm i wanted to check out in the lake but i am So Sick of being underground. geoglyph first

i like how theres always a korok in one of these lol

ok. im prepared. im bracing.

oh holy shit okay sonia is dead fr. check THAT off the old bingo square

"i came to you after finding a man underground" and ganondorf's theme comes in >:)

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

SHE SAID

HIS NAME

SHE SAID HIS NAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE FINALLY HEARD THEM SAY HIS NAME.............

not "the demon king," GANONDORF!!!!!!!

oh boy. we are in it now. ok. unpausing

oh no if zelda cries i wont be able to deal with it

OH THIS IS THE SCENE FROM THE TRAILERS.......

not the main theme coming in when they say links name 😭

oh my god DONT cut it off there...WHY IS SHE HERE........

ok, i also wanna check the whirlpool before bed

COOL.................... "underwater" shrine. no idea how to get up to that island though lol

oh!!!!! painter sheikah is here!!!!!!!!!!! mc who will likely never see this i agree w you so much he SHOULD remember link >:(

UGH i guess i'll check out the chasm while i'm here

oh, wait...there shouldn't be anything down here? this island is srrounded by water on the surface, which translates to walls here...no wonder i can't make out any landmarks or lightroots to head for...at least i won't be down here long???

doesn't seem right tho. theres gotta be SOMETHING or why would they put it here

i found a........tunnel? maybe??

oh! and there's the tree. whew. i was starting to worry i'd find the scary hand thing everyone keeps talking about down here and i am just not prepared for that rn.

omg i backtracked to see if there was anywhere else i could go (i dont think so) and found some of those little frog mfs DIGGING UP MY BRIGHTBLOOM SEED...............evil

very last stop b4 bed is lookout to get my quest reward for going down in the mines 😭 i worked hard for this one so it better be good

YOOOOOOO a hot air balloon.......ok worth it <3

[adamwatchesmovies]

Black Adam (2022)

Pitched as a different breed of superhero film, Black Adam unfortunately fails to reach its full potential. Still, there’s enough here that works for me to wish we'd get a sequel. Maybe it’s my history with the comics combined with the source material shining through but I had fun.

In Kahndaq, archeologist Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi) is searching for the Crown of Sabbac. If this ancient artifact falls in the hands of the criminal organization Intergang, there's no telling how much damage it will cause. Ambushed, she and her brother (Mohammed Amer) are about to die when they awaken Teth-Adam (Dwayne Johnson), a super-powered champion who's been asleep for 5,000 years. As he slaughters the Intergang troops, the Justice Society - Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell) and Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo) arrive to stop his rampage.

The biggest difference between Teth-Adam/Black Adam and the other mortal given powers by the wizard Shazam (see 2019’s Shazam!) is that this antihero is a jaded former slave who doesn't hesitate to spill blood. When we meet Black Adam, he’s sending enough lightning through a man to reduce him to a screaming pile of bone and ash. He’s hitting so hard limbs come off. He's stuffing grenades into people’s mouths. Oddly, you still never feel that the Justice Society is truly justified in their “going in guns blazing" approach. While in-universe these mercenaries had lives and families of their own, to us they’re just faceless goons ready to be pulverized. Black Adam doesn’t have a harsh idea of justice that has him cutting off a thief's hands or executing corrupt politicians so he can establish himself as the rightful king of Kahndaq. He's "bad" for killing people but we still remember Man of Steel, and that time Superman snapped General Zod’s neck. Meanwhile, the super-powered squabble is tearing up streets and demolishing historical statues. For that destruction to feel worth it, this movie needed to push the “antihero” idea much further.

The good news is that everything else in Black Adam is pretty great. There are some odd writing decisions in the beginning but they pay off in a satisfying way. Actually, there are several twists that will take you by surprise. There are several issues I can’t discuss because they would give away important plot points but each of these is matched by other decisions that keep you invested in the characters.

One of the best things about Black Adam is the way it translates characters from paper to the screen. If I told you that Cyclone’s power was to manipulate wind, you’d think we’re about to have some flashbacks to The Last Airbender and its uninspired combat but when she moves, director Jaume Collet-Serra takes the colours from her costume and makes them swirl around the screen in a display that’s surprisingly beautiful. Hawkman is a character could easily seem ridiculous. Here, he’s awesome. As the other junior member of the Justice Society, Atom Smasher was only so-so for me, though I found his dynamic with Cyclone rather sweet. This leaves us with Dr. Fate. All of the actors in Black Adam are well cast. Years before they announced this movie, every comic book fan knew they had to get Dwayne Johnson to play him, which makes Pierce Brosnan stealing the movie away from him - and not only because his character’s powers look super cool -  a shocker. The heroes have roles that are about as important as Adrianna’s teenaged son, Amon (Bodhi Sabongui), but you’d be excited to see any of them return.

I wish Black Adam was a better movie. Nonetheless, the way it brings the source material to life, combined with the cast and some well-executed action scenes are enough to earn the film a mild recommendation. Who knows? Shazam! Fury of the Gods might even tie into it and find some ways to elevate the film. Either way, fans of DC should check it out at least the one time, as there’s a mid-credit scene they won’t want to miss. (Theatrical version on the big screen, December 17, 2022)

[veilchenjaeger]

(I'm going to talk about non-consensual sex in media below, obviously. Just a head up.)

@stripedroseandsketchpads I’m not super knowledgeable about these tropes either, so I’m definitely not the right person to do a detailed analysis of the trope subversions here (or trope subversions in Scum Villain in general). I don’t read a lot of danmei, though I do have a background in old 2010s BL manga, and a lot of tropes do seem familiar to me. I have looked at a few stallion novels, but those are so incredibly misogynistic that they’re impossible for me, a person without access to copious amounts of alcohol, to read without taking permanent damage. But like… What bothers me about the Maigu Ridge takes I see isn't a lack of understanding of the trope subversions (which I don't fully understand either) but how many people miss the basics of what's happening in this scene? I don't think it's necessary to do, like, a close analysis of the text to recognise that Maigu Ridge is not supposed to be sexy?? Maybe I'm wrong and it is hard to tell, but?

I am genuinely baffled by the amount of misinterpretations I see about Maigu Ridge mostly bc I don't think it’s subtle about what it is! I, too, think that MXTX's sexy scenes are sort of odd and not very sexy [Edit: @stripedroseandsketchpads pointed out that this is likely a translation bias, and I agree 100%], but the difference between e.g. the wine enema extra and Maigu Ridge is blatant? Shen Qingqiu is in so much fucking pain at Maigu Ridge that he can barely think! He's hurting in the other sex scenes, too, but not nearly as much, and the tone of those is light-hearted and Shen Qingqiu's narration is funny. There's nothing funny about Maigu Ridge! Shen Qingqiu doesn't very nearly black out from pain in the You Understand extra, because that one's supposed to be cute and awkward and not absolutely horrifying!

And even if we ignore the actual sex (I hesitate to use the term!), the entire way Maigu Ridge is framed makes it obvious that this is very much intended to be read as a traumatic event. First of all, they stop. It’s so important to me that they stop. It would have been so easy to transition into a good, pleasurable sex scene as soon as they're both able to consent, but it doesn't. They stop the second Luo Binghe comes to, because none of what just happened was arousing or made them want to continue having sex. This shouldn't be special, but it is, because this is a romance novel and romance novels don’t do bad sex, but I’ll get into the trope subversion later.

More stuff about the way Maigu Ridge is framed: My favourite thing about it is not the sex scene itself or the build-up to it - I'm not that hardcore - but the conversation they have afterwards, after Luo Binghe regains consciousness. They stop having sex, and they immediately start taking care of each other. This is a scene where they just went through a very traumatic thing together, and they support each other in the aftermath. This is one of the ultimate Bingqiu conversations for me, which cemented my love for them and imo proves how much they care about each other.

Within that conversation, it becomes obvious how shaken Luo Binghe is by what happened. He fucking asks why Shen Qingqiu didn't kill him instead of letting him do this! It's. Just. It's so much. It shows how horrified Luo Binghe is by what "he" (in quotation marks bc he wasn't conscious) just did. He's hurt Shen Qingqiu a lot in this book, in various ways, but here, we see him break down after doing so and pretty much say outright that he'd rather have died. Bingy.

There’s also the fact that Shen Qingqiu tries to calm him down by pointing out that he "was willing". No you weren't, king, but I appreciate you reassuring Luo Binghe that he didn't just outright rape you. It's such a weak reassurance in this moment, when Shen Qingqiu is literally dying, but it still means the world. Everything is so horrible, but Shen Qingqiu successfully pinpoints the thing that makes it slightly less horrible.

Later developments support this reading, too! Luo Binghe, Mr Pushy himself, doesn't dare initiate anything sexual for the first weeks of their relationship! Maigu Ridge is the catalyst for him letting Shen Qingqiu go and not being there when he wakes up (despite having waited five years for Shen Qingqiu to wake up before), because he doesn't believe they can come back from this! In the interview extra, Luo Binghe refuses to name Maigu Ridge as their first time, preferring to pretend it never happened! Shen Qingqiu mostly refers to it as a failure, something that’s tragic bc Luo Binghe as a stallion protagonist should have had a better first time, but his tone in those moments of narration is seriously mismatched with his narration during Maigu Ridge, and ignoring his own feelings about the matter completely and re-framing it as a plot point in a novel instead of a real thing that happened to him is precisely how Shen Qingqiu deals with trauma all the time. Maigu Ridge is so obviously written as a traumatic event, so I really cannot understand people who are either mad that the sex scene wasn't hot (It's not meant to be!) or complain about this scene being super problematic and Bingqiu thus being horrible. (This was very intentionally written that way and Bingqiu themselves acknowledge that it was awful!)

And that isn’t even getting into the trope subversion yet. As I said, I’m not super knowledgeable about that, but I read a post recently that pointed out that a lot of danmei tropes are just romance/erotica novel tropes, and… yes. That’s true. What happens a lot in these stories is the “It starts out non-consensual but the main character (the woman in straight romance, lbr) ends up liking it anyways!” trope. Afaik, this is a staple of stallion novel sex, too. I hate this trope with the fire of a thousand burning suns, and when I first read Scum Villain, I was afraid that Maigu Ridge would turn into that. And then it didn’t. Which blew my mind a little, because main couples in romance or erotica novels don’t have bad sex. Bingqiu are an obvious subversion of that bc they suck at sex even if it is consensual, but Maigu Ridge is that subversion times 100. Scum Villain talks a lot about satisfaction points, so let’s think about reader satisfaction here: For this entire novel, we’ve been waiting for Bingqiu to kiss and get together and fuck. And a romance story isn’t always over with the first time, but usually, such a scene is satisfying because it shows them finally coming together after chapters upon chapters of build-up. Usually, it’s good sex. It shows us that the main couple is meant to be together. (Wangxian's first time is a pretty good example of a sex scene that is more of a problem than a solution but is still good.) Apparently, the “Fuck or Die” trope is a lot more prevalent in the genres MXTX is commenting on than in stuff I know about, so that plays into it, too: It’s the kind of scene that’s meant to be satisfying, and Maigu Ridge absolutely fucking isn’t. This book, which is very much a romance novel, looked the “Fuck or Die” trope in the eye, said, “This would fucking suck irl”, and ran with that. And I think that owns.

Non-consensual romantic or sexual actions are a fucking staple of romance media, and while there can obviously be kinky reasons for that, the fact that it's so prevalent is awful imo. The amount of completely innocuous prime time movies targeted at girls and young women that I've seen where straight-up stalking and sexual harrassment are played as a romantic ideal is horrifying. Not to mention that Scum Villain is commentary on stallion novels, too, and the way non-consensual sex is portrayed in those – books targeted at an audience that is meant to identify with the rapist – is terrifying imo. It genuinely scares me that there are men out there who read these books uncritically and buy into that portrayal of women and consent. I could talk a lot about the nuances of this topic (bc it is nuanced), but let’s just say that it's so important to me to see a scene like this portrayed as the horrible, traumatic even it would be in a realistic setting (while still being a scene in a romance novel that doesn’t end the main couple’s relationship). Maigu Ridge is one of the main reasons why I trust MXTX to address and play with consent issues (as she does with Wangxian).

I don’t think that the message of Maigu Ridge is “The Fuck or Die trope/non-consensual sex in romance novels is horrible and shouldn’t happen ever” – MXTX does include a whole parody of super tropey danmei novels full of noncon with Resentment of Chunshan, which is portrayed as silly but harmless, kinky fun – but it invites us to think about these tropes and the implications they have. There’s a lot of nuance here that I appreciate, especially with the distinction made between the Scum Villain plot, which is situated in “reality”, and Resentment of Chunshan, which is very firmly fantasy. I’d love to read an analysis on this by someone who really knows their shit when it comes to danmei, stallion novels, and Chinese media tropes in general (My perspective on this is obviously very Western!) bc this is all I really have to say about this, but like. Bottom line is that it’s fucking baffling to me why Maigu Ridge is so often treated as the Big Problematic Scene of Scum Villain when it’s literally commentary on noncon tropes in media. If anything, this is the single least problematic Bingqiu scene! What the fuck are y’all talking about!

[barnes-n-nobles]

Temper (Dark! Druig Smut)

Request:  please another dark! druig smut 😍

Thank you for your request! Please reblog, like, and let me know what you think!

Warnings: Smut, noncon smut, kind of somnophilia, a bit of degrating, Druig has anger issues, breeding kink

Summary: Druig meets you at an event in the Stark Tower. He grows overly fond of you, almost to an obsession. 

18+ !!!! If you “keep reading” you are acknowledging that you are 18+ and that you have read the warnings.

Please Do not translate, no permission to repost any of my writing on any other platform, and do not copy this and claim it as your own.

“I don’t understand why we’re here. These parties are pathetic” Druig complained as he walked with the rest of the eternals through the Stark tower. “You think everything is pathetic Druig. Suck it up it’s for a good cause” Ikaris retorted. Druig let out a sarcastic scoff, “Good cause..you know they get a fat tax break if they label anything as a charity event. This isn’t because it’s in the goodness of their hearts, all rich humans are greedy conniving pieces of-” “Enough Druig. Behave” Ajak ordered. “I know this isn’t your scene but I greatly appreciate you coming here with us. It’s just for today and then you are free to do as you please.” She reassured making Druig soften up, nodding his head, understanding.

As the night when on everyone met each other and dinner was soon to be served. Druig spent most of his time walking around trying to avoid everyone. He is used to being surrounded with people who make him feel comfortable and perfectly controlled. The lack of was making it hard for him to stay calm. He walked around mad, his aura making it difficult for people to approach him. Eventually that became the goal for him. Druig got tired of all this and decided to bail, not caring what the rest of his family would say. As he got up from his seat Thena grabbed his hand, “where to?”. Druig swallowed not wanting to seem suspicious, “I’m just going to the bathroom, wanna join? I’m sure you can touch up your makeup there too” He joked making her chuckle, “not a chance. Hurry and come back, Kingo is going to preform soon” she said letting him go. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world” he sarcastically retorted before heading out.

When he got down to the lobby he controlled some guy in the bathroom to give him his clothes. He took them and erased the encounter from the guys mind. He was now in a leather jacket, pants, boots, and some pretty cool glasses that he got from homeboy in the bathroom. As he was walking out he heard his name being called out. Not in a way to get his attention but it was spoken out in conversation.

Thats when he saw you. Talking fast into the phone, rushing to get somewhere. “I don’t care. I got this little part time gig so that I can see him, I’m not missing out this opportunity just to go to a lame ass party. If Druig ain’t there then IM NOT GOING. I gotta go I’m incredibly late” you barked ending the call and heading towards the elevators. When you crossed him, it was as if you were walking in slow motion. You were captivating. Beautiful would be an understatement, you just exuded it in his eyes. You had the most beautiful eyes, hair, lips. Absolute perfection from head to toe. And to top it all off, you were there for him? He thought to himself not really understanding why anyone would want to see him. He decided it would be best to make at least 1 person happy so he followed you. When you got to the elevator, the door was about to close but then a hand stopped it making you jump at the sound. “Sorry, im going up too” he said smiling. He was expecting for you to fan girl, scream, cry, literally anything girls did when meeting their idols but you just nodded and went back to your phone, not really looking at him. “Going up to the charity event?” He spoke after a couple seconds of silence. “Yes! I’m working it until midnight, how about you?” Asking him and then turning to face him.

There was something super familiar about him, but you couldn’t really tell. You stared at him in a concentrated state trying to remember where the hell you could have seen him. “I’m in it as well. Sort of” he smiled trying to see if you would catch on. “Hopefully we work together! I literally don’t know anyone I’m only here because I want to see all of the eternals in person. They’re so cool” you confessed letting go of your attempt to try and figure him out. Druig smiled making the lines around his eyes apparent, you were so incredibly cute and sweet too? Such a prize. “All of them?” He asked nudging you with his elbow. You giggled, playfully pushing him with your hand, “Okay fine..you got me I’m here for only one in particular. I don’t know he just gives off really nice vibes. Not to mention incredibly hot. Like damn, let me have your babies you know” you joked following it with a light laugh. Druigs eyes widened and his mouth opened to form an O. He was so shocked at what had just come out of your mouth. He quickly felt his body get hot and his jeans started to feel a little tight. “Don’t act so shocked! We’re all thinking it. I mean this man has to have like a million girlfriends” you said again. Druig couldn’t believe you STILL couldn’t figure out who he was. He took his glasses off, staring right into your eyes. “I don’t actually” smirking.

Now it was your turn to drop your mouth to an O. He couldn’t be. Could he? You asked yourself. Druig eyes flashed gold letting out a gentle chuckle, “It is me” he said holding out his hand, his palm facing up, waiting for you to place yours into it. It finally hit you…hard. You couldn’t believe what was happening. This was something that happened in dreams, but it felt so real. Then it dawned on you what you had said a bit ago, your face burning in embarrassment. “Oh…my..God…I am so so sorry. I’m so sorry…I didn’t know it was you! I didn’t mean to disrespect you like that I’m so sorry ugh” you babbled taking your hands and covering your face in embarrassment . Druig just laughed taking your hands in his, “please don’t be sorry, I thought it was really funny. You’re the first mortal to make me feel this flattered” he said taking your hand in his and giving the top of it a kiss as he originally intended. His soft lips were moist when they landed on your hand, and the way he looked at you while he did it…w0w..you were in heaven.

The elevator finally opened at the very top floor and it was time to go your separate ways, “Well Druig it was so nice to meet you. I guess my plans are now exposed so I’ll see you during the event! Hopefully we can talk again soon. I already signed up for this thing so now I have to go through with it. Anyways my name is y/n, it was so nice to finally meet you” you said extending your hand so that he could shake it. Druig smiled and took your hand, but pulled you into a hug instead. He squeezed you tightly, rubbing his hand up and down your back making you get goosebumps. “Pleasure is all mine, my sweet y/n” he whispered before letting you go and exiting the elevator.

With each step that he took he couldn’t stop thinking about you. He wanted to keep you by his side, learn about you , see inside your mind. He wanted to be yours and for you to be only his. When he regrouped with the others, Sersi quickly noticed his change of attire. “What happened to your clothes?” She questioned making everyone else turn. “I think he looks great” Kingo said making Druig laugh. “I felt more comfortable in this. I just gave my clothes to a fan and they left, happily.” He lied. “ quote on quote “fan” he probably forced them to” Gilgamesh said smiling. Ajak took a deep breath, “No more of your tricks Druig. Just behave!” She scolded again. Druig just nodded, but wondered how long he would be able to do so when you were roaming around here somewhere.

When it was time for desert you had to go to each table and ask if they were having any. Being that this event was for the Eternals you were sent to them first, your heart pounding in your chest as you made your way to them. You knew Druig was there, making you excited yet nervous. “Good evening everyone, I hope you’re having a great time here at the Stark tower. Would anyone be interested in some dessert” you asked. You could feel Druigs eyes on you, your peripheral vision catching the slightest sight of him facing you. As you got everyone’s orders you passed by him smiling when both of you made eye contact. His flirty self decided to wink at you, making your face flare up, giggling as you passed. No one noticed as everyone was too busy and entertained in conversation, except for one. “Oh my god, I can’t believe you got a thing for the hostess” Kingo said making Druigs head snap toward him and ripping his eyes from you as you walked away. “I don’t. Mind your own business” he said taking a sip of his drink.

“Dude you know she’s taken right?” Kingo said in a dead serious tone, making Druigs face turn into stone. “She’s not” he stated firmly, feeling himself getting mad. “Yes she is! I literally saw her making out with captain America’s best friend..Bucky I think they call him” he explained. No this couldn’t be, could it? He felt dumb because he didn’t ask if you were taken or even see in your mind if you were. His anger got the best of him, gripping his hand too hard on the glass he shattered it making everyone turn around. Kingo mouthed a “what the fuck” giving his napkin over to Druig. “I was kidding! The hell is wrong with you” he whispered. Ajak saw the bloody cut on his hand and quickly healed him, “Go take a walk and clean yourself up. Don’t come back until you’re ready to act right” she instructed, reassuring everyone that it was just an accident. Kingo felt guilty, maybe messing with him like that wasn’t the best idea, “let me help” he said getting up to follow. “No..I want to be alone” Druig barked leaving the room while Kingo sat back down.

He tried to remember where he saw you disappear to and he remembered you were going towards the huge kitchens. He wiped his hands off before entering, eyes scanning for you. You were rushing trying to get everything nice and making sure the plating was perfect. “Are you busy?” A familiar voice called making you smile. “Never for you. How can I help” you asked turning on your heels. Druig melted at how loving and flirty you were. Just making it that much easier to fall for you. “Can I talk to you..in private” he asked motioning with his head that he wanted to take you outside. “Sure! But we have to hurry because these need to go out in 2 minutes” you explained. “I’m gonna need more time than that” he said motioning to the desert coordinator to come to him. “Take these out on time and excuse y/n for her absence the rest of the night. She’s taking care of some personal matters that have come up suddenly” he told him, his eyes turning to gold making the coordinator nod in agreement as he turned away. It was your first time seeing something like this, it was so fascinating. You’d only heard of his ability to control minds, you never thought that you would be the one seeing it this close up. Druig grabbed your hand and started pulling you out with him, swimming through the huge crowd of chefs, servers, and carts of food. “I can’t believe you just did that! It was so cool” you praised as he finally got you two out. “ we’ll believe it sweetheart, It’s my specialty” he said pulling you in to a room that seemed to be an office. “I noticed..now, what did you want to tell me” you asked impatiently, shaking his arm for him to tell you.

“I’m sorry of this is too blunt but are you seeing someone?” he asked softly, as he placed his hands on your cheek. You shook your head, your beautiful eyes looking up at his, a smile tugging at your lips. “That’s good” he said bringing you close to him, “Because now youre mine” He said, voice barely above a whisper. It’s sounded like he was joking but he also sounded a bit serious. “Druig..We just met. What if I’m not up to your standards?” You confessed hoping that he wouldn’t be turned off by this. “My beautiful y/n..I’m choosing you because you’re so captivating. I just can’t stop thinking about you. It’s been a very looong time since I’ve felt like this. It just feel so right ” he said bringing you into a soft kiss. His lips were so soft and plushy it made you want more. As he was pulling away you reconnected the kiss, this time Druig being caught by surprise. It didn’t take long for him to take the lead again, pushing you against a wall, he started to kiss you with hunger. He needed more of you, lifting your leg up as he ground himself into you, making you moan into him. It was all happening so fast so you broke away from the kiss, “Druig.. I think we should take it slow?” You asked looking at his needy state, his eyes laced with lust and noticeably darker. “I’m sorry y/n..I’m sorry.. youre just so intoxicating I want you so badly” he said pushing himself onto you again. “I want you to! But please I want you to get to know me better. I want to be worthy of you, a grand eternal. Please let’s us take it slow” you pleaded. Druig came back to his senses and remembered where the two of you were. He forgot how good it felt to want someone so deeply, he just lost a little control. Something he wasn’t very used to.

“Of course y/n, let’s take our time. But I have one tiny condition” he said holding his fingers to signify something little. “Yes anything!” You exclaimed. “You have to be my girlfriend, and I your boyfriend. Starting today” he stated. Thinking of it you let out a soft hum, wondering if this would be good. “I promise we’ll go slow on everything, I just don’t want anyone else to have you but me. That’s understandable right?” He said lovingly a he fixed your hair. “Okay Druig we can! But don’t be going all nascar fast on me. Remember..slowww” you motioned with your hands, joking. He laughed and smiled, “anything you want love but you might have to remind me one more time or two..or three” he said pecking your lips.

~~~~a month later~~~~~~~

As you two got familiar with each other it was as if you two were a match made in heaven. He was just incredible to you. He supported you like no one else had done in the past and protected you from anything, and everyone. He was so flirty most of the time but the thing that made you fall deep for him was how caring he was. Everything you’d ever wanted was bottled up and packaged nicely in Druig. On the flip side Druig was consumed by you. He loved everything about you, not wanting to share you with no one. He eventually convinced you to spend most of your time with him , not that you needed a lot of convincing, but he made it feel so comfortable for you to choose him over others. He loved to have you with him always and borderline begged you to sleep over. You thought it was so cute of him to be so clingy but it was soon to change as his obsession got deeper.

You were contacted for another event at the Stark tower and you were going to be working all evening until late at night. Druig was not pleased with this as he didn’t like you being out alone, specially at night. Your cute and flirty personality would certainly draw in unnecessary attention to you, making Druig feel restless as he waited for you to come home. He decided to just head to his house as he was tired of waiting in yours, but he was upset. In his mind he thought it would be a good idea to check in. He wanted to see where you were and what you were up to you. You were clearly busy because you didn’t answer him after the all the calls and texts he sent. He summoned many minds at once to try and find you, not taking long to do so. He was able to reach a person that was near you and Druig was able to listen in on what you were telling your coworkers. “you should totally come with us to the bar after work. Im sure your man wont mind” she tried to convince. “I dont think thats such a good idea, hes already very protective. The last thing I want is for him to be upset with me. Hes wanting me to head home right after work” you explained with a disappointed tone. Why though? Did you actually want to go be a slut for free drinks? Druigs mind was already starting to unravel with negative thoughts.

 “Thats so lame y/n, you never go out anymore. Ever since you started dating him, hes got you so trapped. Im guessing sex must be out of this world if hes trying to keep you that badly” she joked making you look down , as you fixed up a plate. “Actually we havent even had sex yet. I told him when we first started dating that I wanted to take things slow. Yeah we get all horny and touchy but I stop it. I think im ready though, I just dont know how to go about it” you confessed, now looking up at your coworker. She had a very surprised expression on her face, “Damn sis, no sex yet and hes being like this? Reedd flag” she said shaking her head in disapproval. Druigs temper has never been the best but this conversation here made him see red. He thought youd be able to confide in him, not vent to some raggedy coworker. Specially about sex. Hes been waiting far too long for you. During those Late nights, he pleasures himself thinking of all the ways he would make you his. How you would moan when he was deep inside you, unravelling under him. “Fuck me Druig..fuck me hard Daddy” the lewd image was burned into his mind, just imagining how fucking submissive youd be for him. So perfect. He had to dig into your mind a couple times to learn how you wanted to be treated during sex, what kinks you were into. The best feeling was when he found out that your kinks mirrored his own. He let go of the person that was listening to you and shifted in his seat back home, trying to readjust his hardened member. There's only so much a person can take, but tonight he had enough. You were going to be his in every way possible. He planned to explain it to you that he could no longer wait, and that he would promise to make it unforgettable.

When your shift was over you headed home. You called Druig and it sent you straight to voicemail. This was not good, he was surely upset. You were so tired from the nights work so you just let him be and hoped that he would cool off in the morning. When you got home, you took a hot fast shower and got into bed. Not a minute after you fell asleep, finally feeling pleased that you were going to rest. Druig eventually made his way back to your house, quickly slipping in as he had a key to your front door that you hid under the welcome matt. He was going to wake you up but as he was about to wake you, he heard you moan his name, making him freeze. “mmm Druig babyy..” your soft low voice grumbled. “y/n?” he whispered not sure if you were awake or asleep. “Daddy pleaaasee” you mewled as your hips shifting up slightly. He could not believe it, you were thinking about him in your sleep. You were having a wet dream. All of Druigs morals disappeared, knowing damn well what he was about to do to you. His eyes soon glowed gold as he kept you deep in sleep, but let your conscious go enough to feel what was going to happen. He uncovered you from the blanket and to his surprise you were wearing nothing. He licked his lips at the site, you were so perfect. He undressed himself and climbed into bed with you, his lips connecting with yours. You felt his lips on yours, making them move ever so slightly. Druig smiled as your body gave in to him willingly, encouraging him to go further. 

His lips went to your jaw, down to your neck where he took his time marking you. Feeling the sensation made you shiver, letting out soft moans. “My dirty little girl...youre so wet for Daddy and I havent even touched you up all the way” he grunted into your neck. In your mind, this was a dream. The most realistic and erotic dream, you felt in paradise. “I want y-” you stammered not being able to form a full sentence. “darling im going to give it to you so good, but Daddy needs to feel your yummy little mouth on his cock” he said positioning himself up. He supported his body with a knee right beside your head, his other leg was up, giving himself the ability to dip down his cock into your mouth. He grabbed your face and made you part your lips, pushing himself past them. “Suck me princess” he said, making you hollow your cheeks slightly as your mouth attempted to take him. Druig moaned and shuttered at the feeling of your hot wet mouth. He knew you would be better at this if you were awake but he couldnt have that right now so he settled with what you were giving him. A few pumps in and his dick was wet from your saliva, “youre such a good slut for Daddy, even when youre sleeping” he praised. He got up and positioned himself at your entrance, rubbing his tip along your wet folds, making you squeal and move your hips away. Druig smirked as he held them down, “where you going love, im about to tear into your needy little cunt” he darkly chuckled pushing himself inside you. Your face contorted in pleasure, panting at the feeling of being so completely full. Druig hissed at your tightness, leaning down to wrap his arm around you. His nose and mouth twitched at the feeling, his hips rolling into you as he held you. “Daddyy” you moaned, encouraging him to go faster. 

“My kitten..youre taking Daddy so so good” he whispred into your ear. The sound of skin slapping filled the room, the wet sound of him ramming into you was music to his ears. You were making a mess and he loved it. He held you as he fucked into you, whispering sweet nothings into  the crook of your neck. The feeling was too much, specially when your sweet moans were right in his ear. He was pushing into your gspot with every thrust he did, it eventually pushed you to orgasm, grunting as your body trembled in pleasure. With your erotic moans, he just couldnt control himself, “fuck y/n..im going to cum inside you..my breedable pet” he growled before spilling himself inside you, staying still as he drained himself inside you.He kissed your soft lips as he rode out his high, pushing his seed deeper and deeper inside of you.  When he finally pulled out, he cleaned you and himself up before slipping back into bed and falling asleep cuddling you. 

The next morning your eyes fluttered open looking at the sun that was poking in from your window. When your consciousness came back you remembered your dream about Druig. It felt so good and real, would it be a good idea to even bring it up? I mean he could see inside your mind one day as see that in there. As you were debating with yourself you rolled over only to stop midway. You quickly sat up scared, not knowing who it was immediately, “oh my god! D-Druig is that you?” you asked looking at his body, his eyes still closed. Your eyes roamed his body, you noticed he was shirtless and that the outline of his dick was showing under the thin bed sheet. He was totally naked! “Goodmorning beautiful..yes its me.” he said with his voice husky and full of sleep. “How did you get in here? wait when did you even come?” Druigs eyes finally opened, side eyeing you before closing them again, “The key under the matt. Stop asking questions, lets sleep some more” he said grabbing you and pulling you on top of him. “let me go..you cant just sleep here without telling me” you said getting off of him now feeling angry. 

With your anger, his followed. Before you got off the bed, he pulled you back  by your hair and pushed you down underneath him, his hands pinning yours on either sides of your head. “you better fix your attitude before I fuck it out of you. You havent been behaving lately” he said making you confused. “What do you mean?” Druig rolled his eyes, “you talking shit about our relationship to your coworker” he snarled, his grip tightening. “Druig please..i wasn't talking shit, and how do you even know about that. Did you go inside my head?” you asked, alluding to the fact that he couldnt do it because he promised not to. “I didn't have to, I have eyes and ears everywhere, have you forgotten?” he smirked. “Just let me go, I want to be alone” you said that last part barely above a whisper. Druig scanned your face, smirking and shaking his head in disapproval. “Thats not what you wanted last night. I recall you begging for me, princess” he teased placing a kiss on your lips. You didnt know what to say. “It was just a dream” you managed to get out. “are you sure about that? You felt pretty real to me kitten” he moaned as his hips were grinding into yours. What was he talking about? You were literally asleep...unless, “You didnt..” you whispered trying hard to get up. 

Druig laughed at your sweet attempts, “Oh baby..but I did and it was amazing. But dont worry, youll be awake for this one” he said pushing your legs apart with his knee, giving him direct access to your pussy. “No!..how could you” you cried moving your face from side to side so that he couldnt kiss you. Next thing you saw were his eyes turn golden, your body stopped its fighting. “Dont act all decent. I know you want me baby..Daddy wants you so much. Now you better act right, I dont want to have to get aggressive..” he said kissing your neck “unless thats what you want” he whispered making you get goosebumps. As he released you, his eyes changed back to blue his hands roamed over your body and stopped at your breasts, he groped them making you whine when his fingers played with your nipples. “Let me ride you” you abruptly said, making his dick twitch in excitement. “Thats my girl” he praised letting you get up. You brought him to your lips kissing him passionately, his hands pulling you on top of him, before you pushed him down. As you were straddling him, you got the idea to run. You swung your leg over and started to run towards the door. As you went for the knob, Druig grabbed you by your hair and yanked you back, making you fall to the ground. 

At that point you were scared, not knowing what he would do next. Druig bent down to you and grabbed your neck, keeping your head still and touching the ground. “You almost got me y/n, but I will always overpower you darling. Theres no need to fight me. I told you since the beginning, youre mine and only mine. Just take it and accept it” he said squeezing your neck. Your mouth fell open as you tried to breath, but to no avail. “I dont care if I have to break you. Ive been so patient for you, but now its my turn to do things my way. Do you understand me?” he said letting you go, making you cough as you sucked in as much air as possible. “ill give you 2 seconds to respond” he threatened. “Yyes..I Understand” you replied weakly. Druig flipped you over and held your hands behind your back. “Good girl” he said as he propped your ass up, “Last night I fucked you nice and good baby, I intend to do the same every single day from here on out. The only difference is that you'll be awake to enjoy every second of it. Your greedy little pussy is already soaking for me, just how I want it” he added. 

When he slid inside you, it felt so familiar, so deliciously full. You couldn't help but moan, truly disappointed at the way your own body was betraying you. “Thats right baby...Daddy has you filled up to the brim” he voiced full of lust. He grabbed your hips and started ramming into you, making you grunt out as he stretched you. Your face was on the cold floor, moving up and down slightly as he pounded into you. “God youre so fucking tight, I knew your juicy little cunt would never disappoint... Tell me who you belong to y/n” he demanded smacking your ass. “You Druig..” you babbled, your drool starting to pool under your lips. His hand hit your soft cheek a harder, “Try again, you know what I want to hear” he said thrusting harder into you. “Aaah..DD-Dadddyyy I belong to you Daddy” you stuttered too deep in your own pleasure. “youre going stupid kitten. My poor dumb little kitty is so full of cock that she cant even speak right. Thats all youre good for love, to lay there all ready for me to fuck and use, like a toy. Isn't that right baby” he  demeaned you. You couldnt even speak, all that you were able to mutter out was a simple, “mmhm”. Your brain not wanting to let coherent words escape your mouth. All his words were too much, the way he talked to you made you cum. The pleasure was too much, and you squirted all over the floor. Druig pulled out of you, watching the way you collapsed on the floor, shaking. It was a sight he knew would never leave his mind. It made him want to do it again. 

He bent down to your ear and whispered, “Who said you could cum?” making your eyes shoot open. He picked you up and tossed you back up into the bed. “For being a naughty girl that doesnt ask before she cums, youll need to be punished.” he stated, a sinister smile plastered all over his face. The last thing you saw was his eyes turn gold, then everything went black. You could still hear him and feel around though, “I cant see” you panicked when realizing that your eyes were still open. “Oh I know baby, I blinded you. Now lay back and relax. Im going to have some more fun with you but remeber my rule. Do.Not.Cum, unless I say so ” 

[yoonieper]

A Night to Remember | JJK

✵ Pairing: Jungkook x Reader (Also a bit of Taehyung x Reader)

✵ Genre: SMUT SMUT SMUT

✵ Rated: W for Wild Side

✵ Warnings: Foursome (kinda), shy jk, exhibitionism, voygerism, sex party, harnesses & leather, Jk and Tae are so sexy omg, jk is a sex party noob, long purple haired jk because yes, handjobs, fingering

✵ Word Count: 10.7k

✵ Summary: Taehyung somehow convinces Jungkook to go to one of his ‘special’ parties after years of a dry spell. Let's just say he was not prepared for the night ahead…

✵ Author’s Note: Enjoy freaks! Drabble series with these cuties coming up, yes sir >.<

No reposting, modifying. Translating is not allowed unless given explicit permission. Thank you so much : D

Bold words are in Korean :) (Convos between Jk and Taehyung when they are alone are in Korean— that’s a lot to bold, so just keep that in mind!)

Jungkook stared out the window, his palms were already so sweaty. The car ride just started and he was already regretting agreeing to go with Taehyung. How he ended up in this car in the first place seemed like a blur.

The forty-five minute drive was leading the pair to a destination at the edge of town. On the surface it was a party, but that wasn’t the issue. What's got Jungkook so scared? That’s the thing, he knew this wasn’t going to be a normal party. Taehyung had always been into some pretty weird things, and Jungkook knew that. It was long ago that he had figured out his friend had a wild sex life. Taehyung would sometimes tell him about the exciting excursions he and Jimin went on and would gently nudge Jungkook to come along occasionally, but he had always declined. That was until this time.

Today, Jungkook somehow found himself being dragged by his friend to this super rich guy’s house. It was there they were going to a place that was the complete opposite of his scene. Today Jungkook was going to a sex party.

The pair had been friends since college. While Jk had been mostly focused on his studies, that still didn’t stop the duo from having a slew of wild stories to tell from their college days. It mostly involved Tae and Jimin dragging him out to something he really didn’t go to, but still found himself at. Parties for him had been a scene of the past, it was something he could laugh about with his friends, but attending them had never been on the table for a while.

The reason he was somehow convinced to go, was well… a bit of desperation.

Jungkook had been in a relationship oh so many years ago. He had met this girl in college and he quickly grew to like her and so did she. Their relationship started in his second year and things continued until right after they graduated. The end was toxic, very very toxic. She hurt him in so many ways and coming from a person that he trusted and loved as much as he did, each thing that was revealed about their relationship cut so deep, it ruined him.

It had been 3 years since the end of that mess, but Jungkook had never once dated again. The minute things ended, Jungkook turned to the one thing that he knew would distract him enough to ease the pain. Work. He worked hard, so hard, only a few years after graduating, he was already working a very well paying job. He managed to get promotion after promotion, and even as the weeks turned into years, soon work became the only thing he could focus on. No longer did he have the time to go out with Taehyung to the random events he would find. It was work work work work.

That’s one of the reasons why he was insisting Jungkook to come tonight. He had kinda forgotten how to have fun and as one of his closest friends, Taehyung felt like it was his duty to get his friend out of that rut.

Another reason revolves around an awkward situation. Keeping it short and sweet, trying to save some of Jungkook’s dignity, Taehyung came back a lot earlier than Jungkook knew about (completely missing the text he sent before he left) and walked in on something he shouldn’t have seen. It sparked an awkward conversation (some days after, Jungkook couldn’t even look him in the eye at first) about how long it had been since he had last gone out, dated, or even got laid.

Even though it had been years and Jungkook was long over his last relationship, he still found it hard to even look at a pretty girl without remembering the fiery end of his last relationship. But that day they talked, Jungkook revealed he had honestly been thinking about finally getting back out there, but he wanted to take things slow. And by slow he meant, well not exactly a sex party, but he did wanna at least get out there kinda. Maybe go out to a party, a one night stand type of thing, which hurt Jungkook to say because his hopeless romantic ass hated one night stands. But he was horny. The last time he had sex was when he went out with Taehyung trying to forget his ex and experienced his first and last one night stand and that was 3 years ago.

Through Taehyung’s logically thinking he concluded that what he needed was to get out and have some fun and a sex party had the answers to all of those issues. It was 2 months ago that he put out the idea, and he brought it up occasionally to ask if he was going. For a month and a half Jungkook said he wasn’t sure or even a no, but it was two weeks ago that he, after having a conversation about if further, somehow found himself agreeing.

He must have been out of his mind that day because it sounded like a good idea back then, but now that he was in the car, shaking like crazy, suddenly he was regretting everything.

“Hey Jungkook.” Taehyung’s voice cut through his panicked thoughts, and he looked over to his hyung who was driving him to this crazy party.

“I can tell your spiraling,” Tae smiled, knowing his friend.

“You think? I’m just— I don’t know what I was thinking, agreeing to come with you.” Jungkook huffed, angry at himself for putting him in this situation.

“Hey, calm down. Deep down I know you’re excited. It was you who said yes.”

“I know and I hate it.”

“Come onnn, you’ll have so much fun when we get there. Even if you don’t have sex, just have fun, drink a little, get on the dance floor, actually talk to people.” Taehyung giggled, and Jk lightly hit his arm.

To say Jungkook’s been isolated for the past few years would be a kind understatement. If he wasn’t at work, he would be at home, and if he wasn’t at home, he was at work. Jungkook had turned from just a plain old introvert into a full blown hobbit.

“Why couldn’t we have just gone to a normal party?” He sobbed.

“Becauseeee you know as much as I do that you need to get laid.”

“But I thought you said I—“

The boys came up to a stoplight and Taehyung took this opportunity to turn towards Jungkook and put his hand on his shoulder. “Jungkook, think of it like this… When you’re teaching a kid to swim, sometimes it’s just best to throw them out into the deepest parts so they can learn faster. We’re throwing you out in the deep end, so you can get back in the grove.”

“Hyung, that made absolutely no sense at all. Wouldn’t the kid just drown?”

“But maybe not.” Taehyung said, proud of his analogy.

“But they could still drown… I really don’t understand how this is supposed to make me feel better.”

“I know this will be a great night for you, I can just feel it. You’re gonna have a great time and you’ll just keep thanking me for taking you~” Jungkook rolled his eyes. All he wanted to do was go back home.

The rest of the ride was relatively in silence as they got closer and closer to the outskirts of the city. Jungkook turned from annoyed to full blown terrified the minute they pulled up to the gated mansion.

As they drove down the driveway, Jungkook could already hear the music being blasted from the inside and saw a few people who were making their way into the mega house. This made him both a little at ease with the familiarity of it and 10x more terrified realizing he was here.

Jungkook stared wide eyed at the scene playing in front of him until Tae managed to find a parking spot, finally snapping him out of his trance.

“K, look at me Jungkook.” He listened to the command, a new found innocent and curious expression on his face.

“We’re not going in yet, we gotta get ready.” Tae turned around and got the bag he brought out the back seat. Jungkook looked at him confused.

“I didn’t think my outfit was that bad I—“

“It is, but that doesn’t matter, you’re not wearing any of your clothes.” Jungkook looked down at his plain white shirt that he tucked into black pants and his big round glasses sat nicely on the bridge of his nose. No exaggeration, this was the nicest thing he had in his closet, besides the suits he’d wear for work. The only thing special really was the fact he thought it would be fun to dye his hair purple for the party. It was a change he was hesitant about, but honestly was happy he decided to take the leap and do it. He thought he looked good.

“So I didn’t wanna scare you away before we even got here, that’s why I waited, but sex parties 101– dress sexy. They might have themes that are more specific, but if not…” Taehyung unzipped the bag and pulled out a harness, Jungkook already feeling his blood turn cold.

“Usually leather, bdsm type stuff, is worn. Now don’t worry, this doesn’t mean you’ll be doing actual bdsm, unless you would like of course, but the aesthetic is what most people will wear. Now—“ Taehyung started pulling more and more stuff out of his bag.

“Jimin and Bea picked this out before they left, but it isn’t too revealing or anything since this is your first time.” He handed him a harness and shiny leather pants. Jungkook just stared at the items, unsure of what exactly to do, and a bit flustered by it all.

He looked over and saw Taehyung hastily pulling his shirt over his head and he took a deep breath before doing the same. The leather pants were ok to get on, especially considering he was in the car, and Tae helped him figure out the whole harness situation. It was a simple one, it just strapped over his chest, but Taehyung’s was a lot more elaborate.

He wore leather shorts instead of pants, and his harness strapped his entire torso and upper thighs. Jungkook felt his face already starting to get warm.

“I don’t know about this…” he covered himself up slightly, not even outside but feeling the prying eyes of the world. “Eyyyy, Jungkook, you know you’re the last person who needs to be worried. You look great.”

“But—“

“No buts, now…” Tae reached in his bag and pulled out a little case. “You’re not putting on those gigantic googles you wear, I brought your contacts.”

“But—“

“I said no buts.” Jungkook rolled his eyes, but still listened to his hyung and took off his glasses. Taehyung watched the transformation unfold before his eyes and awed when Jungkook turned back toward him.

“You look great! I swear Jungkook, I don’t know why you still keep up that same look you had in college. You’re successful, you finally got contacts, you started working out, got tatted up like crazy, and grew out your hair which—“ Tae reached over and fluffed it up a bit, giving him that bedroom look.

“Looks amazing now. But nooooo, anytime you’re not at work all you ever wear are those baggy shirts, sweaters, and sweatpants. This is great, you finally get to show yourself off~” Jungkook looked down at himself, feeling a small wave of confidence. He really did try hard to move away from that look he had in college. It was mostly brought on because of how angry he still was at his ex, but he got himself a routine. The more Taehyung pointed it out, the more he realized how he had still been stuck on that day his ex ruined him. His life kinda stopped after that. This was good, he really needed to get back out there.

“I mean, thank you I guess.” He tried to say nonchalantly, but he really appreciated his hyung’s words. Tae smiled and noticed the faint flush of his cheeks.

“Anywaaayyyy, game plan for tonight. Once we go inside I’ll give you a little tour since me, Bea, and Jimin went here a couple times before. I’ll stay with you a little bit to make sure you’re comfortable before I go off and start mingling.” Jungkook rolled his eyes at the way he wiggled his eyebrows. “The party ends at 3 but if you’re waiting for me, we'll leave earlier.”

“Now rules… 1) Please don’t get crazy drunk. I’ll drive us back so you can have some fun, but please be courteous. You may not have sex tonight, but there are some people who definitely will be and they don’t want to see you acting a fool and vomiting all over the place, really gets people out the mood you know. So just watch it. 2) Consent is key. Just cause we’re at a sex party does not mean everyone is comfortable doing the same things. Make sure to check in and ask, if you end up with someone. 3) Don’t forget your own boundaries. You have a list right?” Jungkook nodded, but wasn’t entirely truthful. Taehyung told him the day after he agreed to go, to think of a list of what he would be comfortable doing in the odd case scenario he ended up having sex. It’s not that he forgot, it’s just he was kinda unsure of what he wasn’t comfortable doing, or even comfortable doing. He had a vague idea, but nothing concrete. “Good, do what’s comfortable for you. Don’t let anyone push you to do anything you’re not ok with. Ok and last but not least…. 4) Have fun! You’re not a hobbit tonight, get out there~”

“Oh and I almost forgot…” Tae reached back in his bag and pulled out condoms. “They have some inside, it’s just better to come prepared.” He handed one to Jungkook.

“Why do I—“

“You never know! Now put it in your pocket!” Jungkook sighed but listened and shyly stuffed it in his back pocket.

“You ready?!”

Jungkook hardly had time to say yes, before Taehyung was opening his door and getting out. He had started to ease up, but the minute he saw Tae coming over toward his side, he got nervous again.

Taehyung pulled open Jungkook’s side and dragged him out the car. As they made their way closer to the entrance, Tae was trying to get him excited and hyped, but it was obvious he was still very nervous.

“Confidence!” Was the last thing that Jk heard before the music and people got so loud it was hard to hear the person who was right next to you. It was coming back. That sensation anytime he would get dragged to a party with his hyungs, the memories he thought he had long forgotten suddenly came rushing back in a flood as they entered the doors.

It was just a little different.

He was unsure of what he was expecting, but it was exactly like Taehyung described. Taehyung guided him through a hallway that was filled with people, some just socializing, others already having their tongues down each other’s throats. It was a typical party scene, minus the outfits people were wearing. Leathers, harnesses, fishnets, lingerie, chokers, chains, covered the bodies of the party goers (just barely). Jk honestly felt dressed down in comparison…

The real fun started when they got to the main room. Again, typical party scene in the sense, there was a dj and people dancing, a bar off to the side, but on the couches that lined the room, Jungkook, even with the strobe lights, could tell they weren’t just kissing.

His face was warm as he showed him the house, by the time he was leading him back to the bar, he was feeling a bit overwhelmed.

They both took a seat and Tae ordered drinks for the both of them.

“So what do you think so far?” Taehyung tried to yell over the music.

“What?” Jungkook tried to yell back.

“I said, what do you think?!” He yelled louder.

“Oh… um. It’s a lot!”

Tae looked at him concerned. “Like in a good way or bad way?”

“Um, I don’t know yet. But it’s just been a while since I’ve been out like this.” Tae nodded understanding.

“Is there anything you wanted to do?”

Jungkook shook his head. “Wanna take it all in first, but you can go!”

“You sure?”

“Don’t wanna ruin your night because you’re looking after me, go! I’ll be fine!” Jungkook reassured. Taehyung waited a little longer. The bartender brought their drinks and he stayed until he finished it.

“Well that’s it for me, but enjoy yourself. If you need me, don’t hesitate to call or text. I might be busy, but I’ll be sure to get back to you soon if I don’t answer.” Tae sighed, still feeling bad he was leaving him here.

“Too bad Jimin and Bea couldn’t come, they would—“

“Go hyung, go have fun.” Jungkook giggled as he pushed him off the barstool.

Taehyung laughed before he waved and went into the crowd. Somehow Jungkook already found it hard to find him.

Sigh.

Well, now he’s all alone. Jungkook tried to repress the regret he felt sending Taehyung away, suddenly that overwhelming feeling came back.

It was weird, but the environment gave him the opportunity to think clearly for the first time since he started isolating himself after his ex. This was all familiar, minus the sex that was literally happening in every direction he looked, but parties, they weren’t a stranger to him.

Taehyung was right when he called his college days his ‘nerd’ phase, if that even still exists. He was a computer science major, he wore big round glasses, and dressed like he could give two shits. He was also very adamant on his love of video games, anime, mangas, and all the things people associated with the stereotype. They still were interests of his, that hadn’t changed, it’s just in between he was not what the stereotype suggests thanks to Tae and Jimin. They would often drag him out to their parties and even though he protested, Jungkook still found himself enjoying the night by the time they were headed home. It’s even where he met his ex.

Before the horrible end that was their relationship, Jungkook had thought they were some of his best years. They had a kinda stereotypical relationship, hot pretty cheerleader dating the quiet nerdy guy who adored her. The party also seemed straight out of some romcom. The more outgoing friends drag their quiet one out to a party he didn’t want to go to and after a riveting game of truth or dare, ended up making out with the cheerleader in a closet. It was weird but Jungkook had thought at the time this was the start of the love story he always dreamed of. At least till it ended.

Anyway— huh he’s rambling in his own mind. It’s sad, but that’s one of the reasons he couldn’t keep coming to these parties anymore. It made him think about her. The beautiful beginning and then the heartbreaking end.

Jungkook quickly asked for another drink, already feeling the emotions that day gave him, coming back.

He wished he could be in the moment and hates his ex for ruining him. Even after all these years she’s still in his life as much as he hates it, but Jungkook found it hard to let go even after all she did to him. He’s over her completely, but sometimes she dances in his head, or when he sees couples in the movies he watches he remembers the good times.

Fuck.

The bartender finally brought him his drink and he quickly chugged it. Taehyung’s words still echoed in his head, so he prevented himself from immediately asking for another.

He just wants to have fun, like he said. Just stop thinking about her, easy?

Jungkook’s eyes traveled around the room, the music, the laughter, the dancing, was something he wanted to get in on. Ugh, just stop thinking about her, you used to go out with just the hyungs, it wasn’t always her. He let his face fall onto the counter. Easier said than done.

Jungkook spent a lot of the time at the bar, both trying to drink his sorrows away, and finally working up the courage to go out and have that ‘fun’ everyone’s talking about. He might have honestly spent the whole night there if it wasn’t for you who sat right next to him.

Jungkook turned toward you and quickly snapped his head back to place seeing what you were wearing. Even with the quick glance he got, he already picked up on your cute lingerie set you were wearing, along with the harness that covered your torso, the shaw that draped over your form, and the stilettos that decorated your feet.

Fuck.

Jungkook had been trying his best to not stare too hard at what was going around him because he knew it would cause an awkward situation. The alcohol and the moaning that was happening in the background was mixing and he was already feeling a little funny. And then here comes… You.

He let eyes travel over you again, he noticed your profile and he fought the urge hard to stare. You were beautiful…

Suddenly his hyung’s words about getting out there echoed in head. Enough about his ex, there was a beautiful girl right next to him and at the very least he should attempt to talk to you! Yeah!

Well again, it was easier said than done.

As he tried his best to work up the courage to talk to you he realized just how out of practice he was, or really the lack of practice he had in the first place. His ex was his only girlfriend and prior to that he hadn’t even really attempted the whole flirting thing.

Suddenly your presence became overwhelming. What was he supposed to say, what was he supposed to do? Jungkook began spiraling like he usually does, but it was your voice that brought him back.

“First time?” You asked. Jungkook turned toward you again to see you were actually looking at him.

“Is it obvious?” He chuckled nervously, taking another ship of his drink.

You nodded. “You seem a little nervous~”

“That’s exactly what I didn’t wanna hear!” He laughed and you joined in.

“No you’re fine, everyone looks like that at their first party. It can be pretty overwhelming. I was you just a few parties ago so I saw a little bit of myself~”

“Really?”

“Yeah, if you saw me outside of here, you would know this isn’t really my scene.” This made him curious.

“What do you mean?”

“Basically I’m the opposite of this..” you motioned over your form. “Think like a sexy librarian.” Jungkook looked over you and boy was he imagining it.

“What so, good girl on the outside, freak on the inside?”

“If that’s how you wanna put it.”

Jungkook smiled. You were exactly his type. Keep your cool Jeon, don’t mess this up.

“So Miss sexy librarian, what are you doing here talking to me?”

You thought about it for a second. “Do you wanna have sex?” Jungkook nearly spit out his drink.

“I’m sorry what—“

You laughed, clearly flustered. “That line’s usually a great icebreaker here…”

“We couldn’t have started talking about the weather or something?!”

“It got your attention, what, you think it’s better if I ask your opinions on the weather today?”

“Well maybe not that but…” Jungkook’s cheeks were red. He was so tempted to just say yes to your proposition and you had just started talking. He wasn’t normally such an easy guy, then again it’s not like he had that much experience to say that definitively, but he thought he was so much more than the guy who sees a pretty girl and suddenly can’t act like a functioning human being anymore.

You had been talking for 5 minutes and his nerves couldn’t be any higher and his face couldn’t be any warmer.

“How about what’s your story?”

“Story?”

“Everyone has a story of somehow ending up at a sex party, what’s yours sexy purple haired tattoo guy~”

He was lucky the lights were dimmed, or you would have seen the stupid look on his face at the nickname.

Despite everything, he was still a little hesitant telling you the story as he worried it’d kill whatever vibe was happening between you guys.

“Tell me yours first…”

“Ok Mr. mysterious sexy purple haired tattoo guy… Well, like I said, I’m not really out there a lot and my pretty outgoing friends wanted to get me out of my shell… well a couple of months ago they took me here thinking that was the best way to do it, and wow. They were right haha~ I haven’t done the whole sex thing that comes with sex parties too many times, but I really just like getting dressed up and feeling… sexy.” Jungkook relished in the way you lit up as you spoke. He could tell this was important to you.

“Jungkook.” He smiled, already enamored.

You looked at him a bit confused “Jungkook?”

He quickly panicked, realizing how random that was. “Uh— that’s my name, I’m Jungkook!” You’re already messing this up wow…

“Jungkook…?” You said it a couple times, almost like you were playing with it, trying to place it exactly. After years of living here, he already knew what you were trying to do.

“I’m from Korea.” He smiled when he saw your face light up at his answer.

“Huh, you just keep getting cooler…”

Jungkook laughed. “Sorry it just felt weird you were telling me this and you didn’t even know my name.”

“You’re the sappy type?” Jungkook blushed but nodded, not even trying to hide it.

“Oh my gosh, and you’re fucking adorable.” You hid your face and turned away. He was so cute, it’s taking everything out of you not to scream.

You recollected yourself, faced him, and held out your hand.

“Hi Jungkook, I’m Y/N!” He giggled and shook your hand.

“Nice to meet you~”

“Anyway, now that we finally got introductions out of the way, you were saying you’re from Korea?! Do you live there or..”

Jungkook shook his head. “My family moved here when I was a teenager.”

“So if I wanted to see you again after this party, I won’t have to fly across the world… noted.” You laughed and Jungkook joined in.

“Just a 45 minute drive, if you really wanted to see me.”

By now, you both were clearly more relaxed. A comfortable, but flirting distance between you two was established. This man has charmed you enough to have you wanting to push it even further.

“Mmmm maybe I really would~” No doubt about it this boy was handsome. One of those people you gossip about to your friends that you couldn’t believe people like that exist, a ‘once and a lifetime’ handsome person. You honestly felt like you were in a movie when your eyes spotted his bright purple hair from across the room. You were normally not so forward, this being something quite out of the ordinary for you to do. The thought of passing up an opportunity to talk to the handsome stranger felt like you missing any chance that you would regret for the rest of your life.

You could already picture your future. Married to some ordinary guy, with the thought of that sexy purple haired tattoo sometimes crossing your mind when you wished for more. It was weird, and honestly a little insane, but it had you putting on your big boy pants and finally making your way over to the bar.

Already you could tell this was really a once in a life opportunity. A handsome stranger who had your knees weak with an adorable personality and a sweetheart. It’s usually one or the other but… the universe really does have its favorites huh…

You haven’t been talking for long and you already knew you meant your flirty words. You really did wanna see him again.

You saw the look of shock as your words started to process. You were using all your tricks you’ve picked up from the few parties you’ve gone to on him.

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see it was working.

“Wanna whisper something sexy to me?” You asked, mainly as a joke, noticing the way his brain seemed to be scrambling to find a way to respond to you, but you were shocked when he started moving closer. He brushed your hair behind your ear and whispered something in a language that wasn’t familiar.

Jungkook lingered for a second, knowing the meaning of the words, and his face just got redder.

You were left in confusion, but were relishing hearing how his tone seemed to change and how sexy he sounded. You weren’t sure what he said, and it didn’t matter. You were still turned on like crazy.

Jungkook pulled away red as ever but with an adorable smile on his face.

“Uh— what did you…?”

“Too embarrassed to tell you in English, but maybe you’ll find out later.” Maybe the alcohol was kicking in now, or he was finally getting that confidence, but Jungkook smirked when you flushed at his words.

“Can’t wait for that then...” That was an understatement, no words can describe how much you wanted to know what he told you. You were a mess just thinking about the possibilities.

Distraction was needed now.

“Anyway, I still haven’t heard your story~”

Jungkook groaned realizing he needed to tell you. “You don’t have to share if you don’t want to—“

“It’s not that, it’s just, I don’t wanna ruin the mood.”

“Now I’m curious.”

With one deep breath, he told you everything. He told you about his ex, the start of the weird relationship and then the crashing end.

“I was visiting her at her place, and came to hear her on the phone with one of her friends and basically heard her say that our relationship was a bet she made with her friends. I don’t know how much, but I know they were supposed to pay a lot if she did it. But that’s not even the worst of it. Apparently she had also cheated throughout the entirety of our relationship, and just the shit she would say about me behind my back. It really fucking hurt.”

“Wait— so you’re telling me, your relationship was fake, she cheated on you, and was talking shit behind your back?!”

Jungkook nodded knowing how ridiculous it sounded. It did then and it did now.

Then he told you about how he had put himself into his work and closed himself off way too much for the last three years and how a friend had somehow convinced him this was the best way to get back out there.

“My feelings for her are long gone, but I hate how all of this makes me think about what she did to me. I thought this night would be terrible but I’m glad you’re here,” he smiled and you did back.

Your conversation from there, like the start of it, was random. It was filled with random facts, anecdotes, tangents that would lead to nowhere. It was nice, and with a few more drinks in your system, you had gotten so close, the tension was so high, it was almost suffocating how much you wanted him to lean in and kiss you. Your gaze could hardly stay on his eyes, it was just so easy for him to lean in and do something, anything really. But judging by what you learned, you knew he was the shy type, and you weren’t much better, so it was just tension piling onto more tension piling onto more tension.

At some point you couldn’t take it anymore.

“Jungkook, let's dance!” You yelled over the music and got up from your bar stool to pull him to join you. At first he protested, but he was quick to get up and allow you to lead him to the dance floor.

When you got there Jungkook realized this was something he never did often. Even back in college, any party he went to, he was glued to either his hyungs’ or his ex’s side. Dancing really wasn’t something he did often…

It was right on queue that the upbeat music turned into something a little more sexier. You spun around so your back was pressed against his chest and you swung your hips to the rhythm of the song. Jungkook was quick to pick up on the pace you were setting and it quickly became a slow grind.

He may not do this often, but true to Jungkook’s nature, it did not mean he wasn’t good.

Over the course of the next few songs, Jungkook really felt his patience was being pushed to the limits. Your chemistry on the dance floor was good, too good if he was being honest. The way you would move against him, made it incredibly obvious what you were trying to accomplish. And it was quickly working.

3 years without sex made him so sensitive, all it took was a little work from your hips, your ass pressed right against him, and the sexy music, to get him embarrassingly hard.

The only thing keeping him from dragging you off of the dance floor and taking you like he wanted was well, the fear… again.

He basically had all the signs to go in. There was no way you didn’t know about the issue, considering the fact he was wearing these tight ass leather pants, there was no way he was hiding it. You had been giving him the physical signs, and not to mention you both had clearly been flirting all night. It was clear what he wanted and it was clear what you wanted.

Jeon please.

He was begging himself to do something, but he felt himself lose his mind in how you were just so close. Your bodies moved to the beat of the music, with you pressed against him, and gosh, you just smelled so good.

Now that’s just weird… But his thoughts were spiraling, nothing was making sense anymore.

Jungkook buried his head in your neck, lightly pressing kisses on your skin, and finally needed to just do something. He took notice of the little gasp you let out and from that moment on, dancing had become a long forgotten task.

You quickly spun around, this game now going on for way too long and wrapped your arms around his neck.

You looked at him right in the eyes. “Jungkook.” He looked at you with so much lust, it had you wanting to scream.

“Do you want to um… I really—“ You didn’t have to finish before he was hastily kissing you hard. The tension that was between you two, exploding in pure need and want all in that moment.

Jungkook didn’t know what happened, but suddenly your back ended up against a wall with his tongue down your throat. It’s kinda funny… he came in this party scared about the whole sex party concept, confused on how people could just do it right then and there with absolutely no care in the world.

It made sense now.

Maybe he was just way too horny for his own good, but even if this wasn’t a sex party he wouldn’t have cared. In the moment he kinda forgot where he was at all. Your lips were addicting, your hands roamed his body in a way that had him practically fucking you with your clothes on. It was filthy, enough pda to have anyone turn their head in disgust, but that’s not where they were.

Your hands traveled further down and it was only when he felt your hand gripping his length did the trance break.

“Want you baby please—“ you pleaded, sending another wave of arousal flowing through his body. You unzipped his pants and pulled out his cock and used your thumb to trance over the tip, taking notice to the precum quickly covering your thumb.

He could have cried at that very moment. His hips seemed to move on their own as he subtly used your fingers for friction, his whole body crying out and wanting more.

“Eeeng— fuck, wait, shit—“ you stopped at his cries. Jungkook finally took a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“Something wrong, did you wanna—“ you panicked but he quickly shook his head.

“Fuck no, don’t stop, it’s just um…” he leaned in closer and let his head rest on your shoulder. “Is there anywhere more private…?” He saw your face turn from concerned to amused.

“I keep forgetting you were a newbie… upstairs is the best bet we got, though I will warn and say there’s no doors.”

Jungkook didn’t even need to think about it. “Good enough, please, let’s go!” You smiled and hastily began taking him up the stairs.

Honestly, if it came to it, he wouldn’t have been opposed to staying in the main room downstairs. Jungkook wondered if it was the hormones traveling through his body that was making him be so daring, but if you said no, he wouldn’t have given two shits and taken you right there next to the dance floor. There was no way he was passing this opportunity, and with how desperate he was, there was no way he was gonna make that drive back to his place. The thought was exciting, exhilarating even, but he did want somewhere a little more private this time, the next, well…

The trip up the stairs was difficult indeed. Taehyung in his little tour he gave Jungkook, only briefly mentioned what was up there due to the sheer amount of people that crowded around the stairs. The traffic was still heavy as you tried to lead him through the crowd, and in his desperate haze, the urge to start shoving some individuals was all too high.

He needed you now.

When you both actually made it upstairs it was surprisingly peaceful. There were a couple people with drinks in hand, hanging outside the rooms, but it was clear as soon as they got up there, what people up here were mostly doing.

You lead the way, passing the rooms, peeking inside for one that was empty. As you continued down the hallway and all Jungkook saw was sights he really didn’t wanna see, he was this close to giving up and fucking you in this hallway, but the room at the end of the hall appeared to have been the saving grace you needed.

It was actually empty.

You looked back at Jungkook and saw his giddy expression as he pulled you into the room and quickly had your back against the wall once again ready to take you right then, right now. He should have known coming to this party, something would happen.

“Jungkook?” Upon hearing a voice, startled, he quickly turned around to see… well.

“Hyung?” Jungkook just stared, amazed and annoyed by the coincidence. The two of you just walked in on Tae and some lady on the bed, clearly in the middle of something.

He saw Tae’s eyes look right past him to you. “Y/N?” Jungkook turned toward you and watched as your expression turned from confused to delighted as you pushed past him.

“Taehyung!” You enthusiastically chimed as you went to hug the half naked man.

“I didn’t know you were gonna be here tonight~”

“Sorry I should have told you haha!”

“Oh wait if you’re here… where’s Jimin and Bea? Did I also miss them?”

Taehyung shook his head. “They wanted to come but Jimin went with Bea’s family on their annual trip, so it’s just me and—“

It was in that moment that his eyes turned back to Jungkook. “Hey Jungkook, I see you met Y/N~”

Jungkook was utterly confused and honestly a little embarrassed by this coincidence.

“Hyung, you know her?”

He nodded, a big cheeky smile on his face. “She’s great, seriously, I think you’ll like her~”

“Yah, what’d you say about me?”

“Just told Jungkook about that time in—“ you lightly hit his arm knowing what he was going to say.

“Shush, but tell me how you know Jungkook?”

“I’m the one that brought him, we’ve been friends since college.” Suddenly all the pieces of the story that Jungkook told started to make sense.

So Tae was the friend…

“Small world…” you smiled.

“Wait, how do you…” Jungkook trailed off, making you realize how confused he must be.

“She’s friends with Bea. They were us just a little while ago, Bea introduced her to me and Jimin.” Jungkook awed, realizing the connection. Definitely a small world.

“I feel like it’s been forever since we—“ Jungkook started drifting in and out of this conversation. He tried paying attention, but everything was just too much. What was the weirdest thing was instead of being weirded out, or dissuaded by the sudden appearance of his friend, but all that was going through his mind was how soon could they get out of this room because…

“Hyung! Um we should probably get going…” Jungkook finally stepped up and grabbed your hand.

“Oh yeah… sorry we interrupted, we thought the room was empty.” You shyly smiled, eyes flickering over to the lady who was laying behind Taehyung.

The foldable screen that was sat right next to the bed blocked your view. In a haste you didn’t check further, but you should have known with how late it was that someone was already in here.

“This is Amy by the way.” The introductions were quick and you felt the gentle tug of Jungkook’s hand trying to get you out of this room.

You were about to say your parting goodbyes, when Tae’s words stopped you dead in your tracks. “The other rooms are full.”

Both of your eyes turned back to him as he was moving back to Amy. “You guys could stay here if you want a little more privacy. You could join us on the bed or take the chair over there.” Tae pointed to the comfy, yet overly expensive chair that was at the side of the room.

He saw your eyes meet his as you looked like you were waiting for a response.

He should have said no, everything in his brain was screaming at him to pull you outside and just do it somewhere else, but it was not his brain that was thinking at the moment. Too much time, and Jungkook was turned on to a degree that even this awkward encounter was not enough to sway him in his quest to finally fuck you.

That’s why, he somehow found himself dragging you to the chair.

“Condoms are on the little table beside you and water if you need it. Have fun you two.”

You got on his lap and he swore, hands quickly coming up to grip your hips.

“Huh? You’re very bold for a newbie~” You teased, grinding on him slowly. He nearly moaned, but one look over at Tae and Amy had him quickly suppressing it.

“Sorry— it’s just…” he started but you shushed him with your finger. “No need to explain, it’s kinda hot.”

Fuck.

Jungkook pulled you in, kissing you hard. His hands roamed your body, exploring, feeling, gosh you were just perfect. Your hands also weren’t shy, running over his back and eventually pulling on his hair.

This make out session was so different from anything he’s experienced before. You were different from anything he’s ever experienced before. Everything felt so new and in the best way possible. He felt new and he wanted to explore that all with you. If doesn’t get inside you now, he might get too excited about this new part of himself he has yet to explore.

“Please, please, please—“ he broke away and pleaded as you started speeding up your pace. His face was on fire when he saw the look in your eyes. “I’m sorry, it’s just been a while…” he kissed your shoulder.

His hand moved from your waist to gently pulling on your panties. He looked up at you, his eyes begging for you to give him permission to continue further.

You hastily nodded. His eyes were hungry as he let his hand make it to your soaking core.

Holy shit.

He heard you laugh, making him realize he said that out loud. “Mmm what did you expect, you’re so sexy and make me feel so good. You haven’t even done anything yet…” you sighed. If only you knew how much these words affected him.

He hastily got to work, fingers already on your throbbing clit making you gasp. The desire to make you feel good, clouding the vision of his own lust. His fingers played with the bud between his fingers, having you crying out.

“Jungkook please!” You cried and he gave you exactly what you wanted? He stroked his two fore fingers between your slit, collecting the wetness, and easily sliding into your hole.

Oh gosh no no no.

Jungkook couldn’t stop his hips from rutting into yours, just feeling you around his fingers was enough to send him into a frenzy. You just felt so fucking good. Just imagining what this would feel like around his…

He settled with kissing you, your neck, your body to take his mind away from it all. The sounds you made seemed to drown out the music still blasting from downstairs, or the moans that were coming from seemingly everywhere. You were beautiful.

It may just be Jungkook’s hopeless romantic ass reading into this a little too much, but in a moment like this, he couldn’t help his heart flutter. Maybe it really was just him reading this into it too much, and casual sex was not really his thing. Hell, the amount of talking down Tae and Jimin had to do when he had that one night stand, to call, would make you think he was in some Disney movie or something. It could be that but this is also the first time since his ex that he finally felt like the cloud that she placed over his life was starting to dissipate. Even if this was just sex at the end of the day, already he felt eternally grateful for you being here.

“Make me cum, please Jungkook, please!” You begged once again. You asked and he wanted to please. He worked you till you were crying out as you came all over his fingers. Fuck you sounded so good, your cries go straight to his aching cock.

For some reason in that moment his eyes darted over to the bed to see Taehyung thrusting into Amy, maybe this was Jungkook’s secret voyeur awakening but he felt the sudden rush to join in on that pleasure. It’s been 3 years and he can hardly wait a few seconds…

At this point he passed a threshold for how much he could take, and as you came down from your orgasm, you were quick to notice his eagerness to get inside of you.

You smirked.

“Well we should speed things up, shouldn’t we?” Your hands unzipped his pants, and you were back to working his length before he even realized. Your movements were slow, but he was so sensitive that your efforts were enough to have him crying out that moan he had tried his best to suppress.

“Y/N… can’t, please” he begged, shame out of the question. You adjusted yourself on his lap and grabbed a hold of his cock and lined it over yourself. Jungkook’s eyes were so glued that he didn’t realize you were waiting.

“Condom~” you cooed, making him realize and quickly scramble over to the table. In a haste he grabbed one, tearing open the package and quickly sliding it on.

You smiled when you saw he was ready. You were about to sink down onto him, when suddenly his grip on your hips tightened. You looked up to see him with a worried expression on his soft features.

“What’s wrong?” You questioned, worried it was something you did.

“It’s just— it’s been 3 years since I last um, well you know.... I’m sorry if this isn’t uhhhh—” He was interrupted by you lightly kissing his cheek.

“Don’t worry, you already told me the story. I’ll understand.” your smile was warm and a bit of relief washed over him, knowing you understood.

“All that matters is that you feel good ok~”

“But you— oh!” You began to sink down on him, your heat happily taking him in and filling you up.

Jungkook wasn’t able to stop the moan as he felt the tight, warm embrace of your walls. It had been too long, way too long.

His hands came up and grabbed your hips instinctively when you took him in fully. It was overwhelming, all of it. This party, you, everyone and everything was suddenly too much in the best way possible.

“Oh fuck… oh fuck….” He breathed out softly.

“You ok?” You asked a little worried.

“Ennngg— yeah, just feel so good. Thank you so much I—“ he couldn’t seem to finish, his mind unable to create a coherent sentence.

“Huh, sex makes you sappy too~ It’s cute.” You leaned in a little so you could press a kiss on his cheek making him chuckle lightly.

“It’s just I— I thought this night was gonna be shit but…” he felt this breath get knocked out of him as you started moving your hips slowly. “You made it so good, just thank you.”

Maybe he was drunk, maybe he was just horny and this is just what happens when his hopeless romantic ass has sex. He didn’t know why he was suddenly spilling his heart out to you. He could already tell he would regret this soon, but he could care less. You were making him feel so good after such a long time. The only thing his mind could seem to do right now was thank you for that.

Jungkook laid his head back as your pace continued to increase. If he would have paid attention he would have noticed the delighted smile on your face at his confession.

But no. By now you had worked up to a pace where the only thing he could do was enjoy the pleasure of your walls around and focus all his energy on not cumming in that very moment.

You were so good. So good to him.

“Jungkook.” You said quickly.

He hummed.

“Fuck, how are you so perfect? Cute, sexy, sweet, mysterious, tattoos, long purple hair, amazing dick… gosh…” it was a hurried confession of your own, but it was enough to send him into a frenzy.

If only you knew what praise did to him.

Jungkook tightened his grip on your waist. “Oh shit… m’making you feel good?”

“So good.” He lifted his hips to meet with yours, it had you both moaning out at the feeling.

“So fucking good Jungkook oh my gosh.” You wrapped your arms around his neck riding him to no tomorrow.

Your moans for some reason had Jungkook’s eyes darting over to where Taehyung and Amy were, to see them both staring at you, how good he was making you feel as they continued with each other. Then his attention turned the people outside the room who were staring inside, clearly enjoying your performance.

It stroked his ego like no other, just seeing you losing yourself on top of him and the others seeing this all happen… He should be embarrassed, everything inside him was screaming for him to be. But he can’t, not with you doing this, not with the lustful look that everyone was giving, impressed and almost jealous.

Fuck.

It was all too much and not enough all at the same time. He was so close, but no, not yet, not yet….

He felt your pace starting to slow down, your thighs likely burning by now. “Y/N…” He moaned out gently, instantly getting your attention.

“Stand up…” his breath was labored but he was clearly determined. You gave him a worried look that was quickly extinguished when he looked over to the bed.

Without words you obeyed the command, getting off his lap, allowing him to get up with you. He quickly led you over to the bed, Amy and Tae clearly still going.

Their attention shifted when they noticed you sitting on the edge of the bed.

“So you decided to join us after all—“ Taehyung started but was cut off.

“Hyung, please shut up.” His tone was strict and demanding. It was hard to believe this was the same guy who was shaking as he walked into this party. Even though you had no idea what he said, you knew he sounded so sexy. It was unexpected and unbelievably hot. It just made you wonder how soon he was going to get back inside you.

Jungkook’s attention was quickly turned back to you. His hands ran over your body. Being over here meant he could actually see you better. The room was dim, but there was one bright light that shined directly above the bed. You were beautiful.

He hovered over your bra.

“Do you mind if I take this off?” He asked gently, switching back to that sweet guy you met downstairs. His duality is insane… is this guy even real?! Your gaze turned around to Amy and Taehyung, you thought about it for a second before ultimately deciding to say fuck it. You guided his hands underneath your shawl and to where the clips were, signaling for him to continue.

He was quick to act, with flushed cheeks he undid your bra, and you helped him remove it from your form.

Oh.

His eyes burned into your skin and you wanted nothing more for him to touch you. He seemed to get that just from your gaze because his hands came up to massage them gently. He was so soft with his touch…

“You’re beautiful…” he whispered, making you moan out. He’s just so…

“Jungkook please—“ you cried, needing him inside you now.

He smiled at your pleading. You sounded just so pretty.

Luckily for the both of you, the bed was high enough that he was already lined up. Even in his overly horny state, the thought about 4 people on the one bed was a little too much right now.

He spread your legs slightly and easily slid right back in, making the both of you moan as the feelings started coming back.

He buried his head in your neck and wrapped his arms around you.

It was just so good.

His ears were focused on you, but one quick glance made him realize that his hyung and Amy were close to finishing. He watched as the pleasure boiled over and their faces scrunch up as the waves of pleasure surged through their body.

It was weird but in Jungkook’s state the sight was enough to almost have him coming as well. He was already treading on the edge but just seeing that pleasure and with you wrapped around him, it was almost too much. He quickly had to look away before he thought about it too much.

Fuck, not yet.

He pushed you down so you were laying on your back and his pace quickened, hoping to get you there soon. He was so close.

Unknown to the both of you was Amy and Taehyung’s glances. Even though they both just finished and were in no mood to do anymore (you and Jk walked in a little late, let’s just say), that didn’t stop the excitement of seeing someone going at it right next to you. They looked at each other with a smirk.

“Can’t believe this is the guy who I had to beg to come here.” Taehyung chuckled and Amy joined.

“Seriously? You said this was his first time coming here?” She asked, unable to believe it.

He nodded.

“It is… guess I never knew how much of a freak he was. Maybe I should have known, he dated a cheerleader for years.”

“Oh yeah… you should have known.” She chuckled.

“Guess maybe it was because he always made fun of me, Jimin, and Bea for coming to these parties. Should have known, he was friends with us for a reason.” He laughed.

“You should see him outside of here, he can hardly look you in the eye.”

“It’s always the quiet ones you need to look out for.”

Tae turned back to Amy realizing she had a point.

“Anyway…. You think maybe we should help them?”

Amy nodded.

“Just don’t do too much, Y/N’s still pretty new to these things, and I don’t know how Jungkook will react.”

And that was the plan.

Taehyung moved so he was sitting by your head and Amy started making her way off the bed.

“Y/N…” Tae cooed lightly, making you open your eyes to see him right above you.

Upon hearing his voice Jungkook also opened his eyes. It was then that Amy started taking action and gently stroked his arm.

“Hyung… what are you guys doing?” He asked hurriedly.

“Just helping~” he smiled. Jungkook was about to say something when he stopped himself at what he said next.

“Y/N is he making you feel good?” Taehyung asked softly.

“Fuck yes, so good…” you answered so quickly sending a wave throughout his whole body.

Not you fueling his praise kink again….

“You look like you are, Amy and I could hear you when you were still in the chair… Jungkookie must be treating you well.”

You moaned instead of answering.

Amy was also getting braver with her actions, now lightly running her hands over his body.

Hell.

This was too much.

Jungkook’s grip on your hips tightened and you could tell he was getting close.

“Y/N don’t you wanna be good for Jungkookie?” You whined but nodded.

“Well shouldn’t you cum soon, look he’s getting close…” both his and your gaze looked at him who was clearly struggling to keep it together.

“He’s waiting for you and you know how much he’d like it if you came too…”

“Taehyung!” You moaned. “M’so close just…”

It was something about moaning out another guy's name while he was buried in you that had him seeing red. It was some weird weird mix of jealousy and somehow turning him on even more. He wanted it to be his name and that challenge had his pace quickening, getting closer and closer to the end.

Oh fuck.

“Come on, I know you can do it…” he coaxed, his fingers lightly tracing the features on your face. “Just imagine how good you’ll make him feel.”

He felt your walls tighten around him.

Oh fuck.

“You’re almost there baby, be a good girl hmm?”

Amy’s hands had now taken focus to his sensitive nipples.

Fuck, fuck, fuck…

“Y/N please please, wanna feel you please, can’t do this—“ His mind was scrambled, suddenly English was impossible for him to get out.

So close…

You didn’t even know what he said but the desperation in his tone had you crying in pleasure as your orgasm suddenly came crashing over you.

Immediately after feeling you let go, he cried out as his hips stilled inside you, waves of pleasure surged through his body as he filled up the condom. It was so intense for the both of you. It was clear how much you both enjoyed this.

This was a first for the both of you in a situation like this. Sure you’ve been to a party like this before, but doing this?! You hardly have had sex in public, this was a leap, a major leap, and all with a guy you never would have expected.

“Cmon, let’s give them their privacy. Jungkook I’ll be downstairs with Amy, we should probably leave soon so we can beat the traffic. Just text me when you’re ready~” The time had passed since they had come, ever since you joined he’d hardly paid attention to the time. It was now 1:38 in the morning.

And with that Taehyung led Amy out of the room leaving the pair only, heavy being the only thing to fill the newfound silence.

Jungkook smiled at you before pulling you up and into an embrace.

“Why are you so adorable?” You giggled as he buried his head in your neck.

He ghosted lips over your skin, slowly going up your shoulder, your neck, making it so he hovered over your lips.

Jungkook pulled you into a rough kiss, wanting you to feel him, taste him, need him.

You were a bit surprised but got into it quick, hands quickly coming up to tangle in his purple locks. You were left breathless when he pulled away…

“I’m a lot more that…” he chuckled.

“I know, you’ve definitely proved that~” It still threw you in a loop knowing how this was his first party and he’s got you doing all this.

He smiled at the words.

“I um… please call me, or text, or whatever I… I had too much fun today to say this is the last time I want to see you.” His face was flushed and had quickly gone back to that same nervousness had when you first started talking.

Cute~

You smiled and grabbed onto the little notebook and pen that was sitting on the nightstand. You were trying to make this seem like not a big deal but inside you were squealing. You were so happy he felt the same way.

You wrote the digits quickly, ripping the page off, folding it, and stuffing it into his back pocket.

You took notice of the adorable giddy smile on his face.

“Maybe we can do this again sometime~” You smiled back.

“Definitely… I really want that.”

Jungkook’s eyes turned toward the door. He buried his head in your neck. “Ughhh I can’t go down there.” He sighed and you immediately got the picture. The embarrassment and regret was setting in.

“It’s gonna be so awkward, and we have to ride home together, oh my gosh, what was I thinking.” You giggled at his cute reaction.

“Can I stay with you a little longer?” He mumbled. “Maybe stay and make out some more?”

“Even after all that you’re still not tired?”

He shook his head. “If I didn’t have to go back home with him, I would want you with me instead, only if you would like to of course.”

“Oh? You have more up your sleeve?”

“If we were somewhere a little more private and um alone.” You couldn’t stop the giddy feeling inside wondering if the circumstances were different, what he would do to you.

“But for now, maybe I can keep kissing you~ You’re so great at it and I feel like we didn’t do enough of it before…” his eyes could hardly stay on yours, your lips drawing him in.

“I guess we can keep going for a little while. If Taehyung gets mad at you, don't blame it on me.” You giggled and he did as well as he joined you on the bed.

You couldn’t stop the smile as he hovered over you, lips so close yet so far away.

You were far from done with him, if anything this just felt like a teaser of something better. You’ve only known him for a few hours, yet you wanted to be nowhere else.

[kanjukucompany]

【A3! Translation】 Sky Gallery (10/11)

previous chapter / next chapter

it's time for the play! this took forever to translate. some images scene change images missing due to tumblr's photo limit

(translation under the cut)

(glitch text ignore)

character reference:

Kazunari: Aoumi

Tenma: Shirato

Misumi: Shinonome

Muku: Moegi

Kumon: Sakurada

Yuki: Yamabuki

Chapter 10

Izumi: It didn't take long until opening day.

Tenma: This time around, it seemed like a lot of timed passed before play rehearsals actually started.

Kazunari: True, it's been fulfilling, but also a lot of hard work~.

Muku: Kazu-kun has been working on a lot of other projects too, huh.

Yuki: The play's been running side by side with work.

Tenma: But if you can pull this off, doesn't that mean you're ready to juggle all kinds of things as an UMC?

Kazunari: That's right~! So I've gotta see this to the end!

Yuki: Kazunari, your scarf's crooked. (fixes it)

Kazunari: Oh, thanks!

Kazunari: These costumes Yukki made for us are super cute, I'm getting hyped!

Muku: Come to think of it, the costumes this time around pretty modern and kind of fresh, don't you think? They don't even feel like costumes.

Misumi: So stylish~.

Kumon: I wanna go out like this in daily life!

Yuki: Absolutely not. They'll get dirty.

Kumon: Boo~.

Manager: We're about to begin!

Kazunari: Well then, let's huddle around.

Tenma: Take it away, leader.

Kazunari: Mm~, well, our usual Summer Troupe chant is nice, but this timeーー.

Kazunari: "We're not bound to someone else's idea of value, so let's deliver something that'll leave a lasting impression on each and every person who sees it!"

Kumon: Yeahー!

Izumi: (The stage this time is set at Sky Gallery, which is rumored to bring good luck to the college-aged painters who exhibit there.)

Izumi: (Aspiring painters gather here, believing in the jinx that, if they hold a solo-exhibition here as newcomers, their work will sell and they'll be blessed with good fortune...)

Aoumi: "Great work, Sakurada-kun. The exhibition was a huge success."

Aoumi: "It's quite amazing that even though it's only your second exhibition, nearly all of your works sold. Your fan base is steadily growingーー."

Sakurada: "Oh, I..."

Aoumi: "Sakurada-kun?"

Sakurada: "Just like I thought, I can't sell them..."

Aoumi: "Eh....?"

Sakurada: "All of my works are like my precious children! To think that I... I would do such a horrible thing as selling them is..."

Sakurada: "Everyone is going to be so saddddd..... I'm sorry! It's all my fault! But I can't agree to selling them!"

Sakurada: "Even if I have to live on water and bean sprouts again, we'll always be together...!"

Customer: "H-Huh? Um, isn't this for sale?"

Sakurada: "I'm sorry! Nothing's for sale! Please go home! I'll protect you, babies!"

Shirato: "H-Hang on now..."

Aoumi: "Sakurada-kun, please calm down!"

Sakurada: "Aoumi-san, if it were you, could you do such a terrible thingーsell your own children!?"

Aoumi: "W-Why wouldn't I...?"

Sakurada: "You'd want to take care of them yourself, right!?"

Aoumi: "U-Um, well, I guess so..."

Shirato: "Aoumi-san! Don't let him coax you!"

Aoumi: "Ah, sorry, sorry."

Sakurada: "I'm sorry, Aoumi-san. I know you've done a lot for me with this exhibition... But still, I...."

Aoumi: "Sakurada-kun, I understand your overflowing love for your artwork. In fact, I think that's their charm."

Aoumi: "But one day, your children are going to leave the nest."

Aoumi: "I believe that all of the artwork displayed here are filled with Sakurada-kun's love. They have the power to spread their wings and journey into the world."

Aoumi: "Don't you want to see your children leave the nest, find their own place in the world, and empower others?"

Sakurada: "Oh... I see... You're right. This is their chance to be independent.... Oh, I'm such an idiot!"

Sakurada: "I'm a failure as a parent! I'm so stupid! Stupid! Stupid!"

Aoumi: "I-It's okay. Please settle down."

Customer: "Um... So, can I buy it after all?"

Shirato: "Of course, sir. I'll take care of it for you."

Customer: "A-Alright."

Aoumi: "We look forward to seeing you again."

Shirato: ".....I was wondering if he'd do this again."

Aoumi: "Yeah, Sakurada-kun did this at his last solo-exhibition too, huh..."

Shirato: "So troublesome..."

Shinonome: "Heyyyー."

Aoumi: "Oh, Shinonome-kun, welcome. Your reputation proceeds you these days."

Shinonome: "Heh, thanks to youuuー."

Aoumi: "I'm glad I could help. Shirato-kun, could you fix us some tea, please?"

Shirato: "Yes."

Shinonome: "Shirato?"

Shirato: "Ah..."

Shinonome: "Ahhhー!! It's Shiratoooー!! What're you doing hereeeー!?"

Shirato: "....Long time no see."

Aoumi: "You two know each other?"

Shinonome: "We were friends in high school~. We were in the same art clubbbー!"

Shirato: "I didn't know you were having a solo-exhibition here, Shinonome."

Shinonome: "I didn't know you worked here either, Shiratoooー! Didn't you get a job after high school?"

Shirato: "Ah, well, a lot happened."

Shinonome: "I see~. But I'm happy I get to work with Shirato againnnー."

Shirato: "Not really, I'm just an apprentice."

Aoumi: "Why don't you join in on our meeting, Shirato-kun? It's about time for you to learn about beginning projects."

Shirato: "Eh....."

Shinonome: "Yay~! Let's get to work!"

-

Tsuzuru: (I wrote the up-and-painter, Shinonome, after Ikaruga-san's image....)

Tsuzuru: (I knew it, he fits him perfectly. It's like he brightens up the stage itself.)

Izumi: (After meeting with Shinonome, another college student brings his work to the gallery...)

Aoumi: "I'm Aoumi, the owner of Sky Gallery. It's nice to meet you."

Shirato: "I'm Shirato."

Moegi: "N-N-N-N-N-Nice to meet you, I'm Moegi."

Aoumi: "Let's get right to it, then. May I see your portfolio?"

Moegi: "Y-Yes! Um, this is-AWAHHー!"

(thud)

Shirato: "You okay...?"

Moegi: "T-Thank you."

Aoumi: "Well then, I'll take a look."

Moegi: "U-Um.....What do you think?"

Aoumi: "I think these are really good! You have a wonderful attention to detail."

Aoumi: "These works are close to people's daily lives, I'm sure our customer's will enjoy them."

Moegi: "Really...! I love this painting, too! Oh, also, this one has a really good color balanceー."

Aoumi: "Yes, yes. I agree."

Moegi: "And this, this painting has a cloud motif..."

Moegi: "The gap between the exterior and interior appearance of the clouds expresses the inner and outer aspects of human beings..."

Aoumi: "Mhm. We'll definitely hold a solo-exhibition for you."

Moegi: "Oh..... Um.... I'm sorry.... I'm not doing that...."

Aoumi: "Huh?"

Moegi: "I'm very sorry! Excuse me!"

(moegi runs away)

Aoumi: "Ah, waitーー."

-

Juza: (Muku can play a role like that so naturally.... That'd be a hard one for me to play.)

Izumi: (Following Moegi's sudden exit, another art student arrives...)

Aoumi: "These are good. I think many customers will appreciate the fact that the head-on seriousness in which you tackle themes is very apparent."

Yamabuki: "Exactly! I think they're really good too!"

Yamabuki: "This painting tackles the theme using a multifaceted motif, it's incredibly deep!"

Yamabuki: "The more you look at it, the more you see, allowing you to approach the theme from many different angles!"

Aoumi: "Yes, yes. Let's hold a solo exhibition together."

Yamabuki: "Ah... Um...."

Aoumi: "What is it?"

Yamabuki: "That...... I can't do! Excuse me!"

(yamabuki runs away)

Aoumi: "Ehh....."

Shirato: "Is this some kind of fad."

Aoumi: "Like ding-dong-ditch....?"

Shirato: "I mean, how rude is that? You shouldn't even bother with them."

Aoumi: "Err... Maybe there's some circumstances we don't know about, and after all, it's always up to the artist to decide what happens with their work."

Shirato: "Well, that's true, but still."

Aoumi: "However, I feel that everyone, famous or not, has a desire to share their work with others. It's an expression of themselves."

Aoumi: "And more than anything, I feel their artwork is asking to be seen.... We'll check again, and if that doesn't work, I'll give up."

-

Sakurada: "Hello....."

Aoumi: "Oh, Sakurada-kun, about the other dayーー.

Sakurada: "I'm so sorry!!! I apologize for all the trouble I caused, again..... "

Sakurada: "I told myself I would be happy to send my children away this time, but I was still regretful, so I just couldn't accept itーー."

Aoumi: "That's all right. That's a part of your work."

Sakurada: "Aoumi-san......!"

Aoumi: "Well, settle down, but keep up the good work."

Sakurada: "Of course! Now, if you'll excuse me."

Sakurada: "Huh? This portfolio..."

Aoumi: "Ah, yes. A university art student had brought it to me because he wanted to hold a solo-exhibition."

Sakurada: "He’s my junior."

Aoumi: "Really? His name is Yamabuki-san—"

Sakurada: "This is Moegi’s."

Aoumi: "Huh? Moegi-san?"

Sakurada: "Yeah, and if he holds a solo exhibition, I’ll definitely come and see it. Well, I’ll be off!"

Aoumi: "Oh, yes…"

(sakurada leaves)

Shirato: "So… Yamabuki-san actually brought in Moegi-san’s, huh."

Aoumi: "Then, whose work did Moegi-san bring…?"

Shirato: "….It’s not the work of the same person."

Aoumi: "Certainly, the artstyles are way too different. The way they approach the theme too, is also different…."

Shirato: "In any case, you shouldn’t trust someone who lies to you and brings in another artist’s portfolio."

Aoumi: "Hmm…."

Aoumi: "I’m just going to drop off some flyers, have a quick meeting, and then we can head back."

Shirato: "Wow…. So this is what an art school looks like, huh…."

Aoumi: "Huh? Those two, aren’t they——"

Moegi: "Why’d you do that? If it was Yamabuki’s work, it would’ve been recognized the second you showed them your paintings."

Yamabuki: "No way, that’s impossible. That’s why I brought your artwork, Moegi."

Moegi: "It’s not impossible! Because, actually, Aoumi-san wants to hold a solo-exhibition…"

Yamabuki: "Huh? What do you mean?"

Moegi: "….I’m sorry. I also presented your portfolio to Aoumi-san."

Aoumi: "Ahh…. So that’s the case."

Shirato: "Aren’t they two of a kind."

Moegi: "Aoumi-san!?"

Yamabuki: "Ah, I’m sorry, I——"

Moegi: "I’m sorry!"

Aoumi: "So, um, could you two explain the situation again?"

-

Aoumi: "So in other words, neither of you were confident in your own artwork, so you brought the other’s portfolio out of instinct… is that right?"

Moegi: "I figured if it was Yamabuki’s, you’d definitely accept it. I wanted to see his solo exhibition…"

Moegi: "But he isn’t confident in himself, and insisted that he wouldn’t do it…"

Moegi: "I wasn’t aware he approached Aoumi-san with the same plan."

Yamabuki: "That’s my line. You always said it was impossible for you to ever hold a solo exhibition, even though I’ve told you over and over again you’d be fine."

Shirato: "There’s no limit to their similarities…"

Aoumi: "Their artstyles are a different story, though."

Moegi: "Well, now that that’s cleared up, I’m going to decline my solo exhibition offer."

Aoumi: "Eh!?"

Yamabuki: "Same here, Aoumi-san’s recognition is enough for me. Nobody would come if I held a solo exhibition, anyway…."

Yamabuki: "And even if they did, I’m sure they’d look at Aoumi-san like he’s made a mistake, then run out of there as fast as they could."

Moegi: "Mine would be endlessly torn apart on social media, and even though I couldn’t bear to see, I wouldn’t be able to stop doomscrolling——."

Moegi: "The only way for it to stop would be for me to drop out of college."

Aoumi: "They’re also both extremely specific pessimists…!"

Shirato: "Well, we can’t force them to hold solo exhibitions."

Aoumi: "But, you both voluntarily came to Sky Gallery, right?"

Aoumi: "So don’t you have a desire to display your work there?"

Moegi: "That’s…"

Yamabuki: "Well…"

Aoumi: "But, your lack of confidence is getting in the way."

Moegi: "Yes."

Aoumi: "However, on the flip side, Moegi-san recognizes Yamabuki-san’s artwork, and vice-versa."

Moegi: "Yamabuki should definitely hold a solo exhibition!"

Yamabuki: "If it’s Moegi’s artwork, everyone will absolutely come to see it!"

Aoumi: "In that case, why doesn’t Moegi-san exhibit Yamabuki-san’s work, and Yamabuki-san exhibit Moegi-san’s?"

Moegi: "Eh….?"

Yamabuki: "That’s….?"

Aoumi: "Of course, this time, please credit the true artist."

Aoumi: "Since it’s the other’s artwork, which you are confident in, don’t you think that could work?"

Aoumi: "Then we can treat it like a two-person exhibition."

Moegi: "If Yamabuki's work is there too, people would come... and they'd be so entranced by his work, maybe they'd gloss right over mine...."

Yamabuki: "If Moegi's work is also there... everyone would go home half satisfied... we'd might even make it out with mixed reviews...."

Moegi: "Alright, I'll do it!"

Yamabuki: "Pleased to be working with you!"

Aoumi: "Let's do our best."

-

Taichi: (This time, Mu-chan and Yuki-chan play similar roles~.)

Taichi: (Their heights are about the same, and Yuki-chan's character complements Mu-chan's perfectly!)

Shirato: "Why do you go to such lengths for people who are such a pain in the ass?"

Aoumi: "I simply want more people to experience fine artwork."

Aoumi: "And I want artists to know the power of their work. Because that feeling, can only be truly understood when art is shared with others..."

Aoumi: "That's why I run this gallery, to experience that moment. Well, I got that line from my father, but the sentiment remains."

Shirato: "You inherited the gallery from your father, right?"

Aoumi: "Correct. Like Shirato-kun, I also worked as an assistant. It took a long time, but that's how I learned the job."

Shirato: "A gallery of your own, and in such a prime location too, I envy you."

Aoumi: "Yes, that's thanks to my father. It does add a lot of pressure to the job, though."

Shirato: "......"

-

Izumi: (After the successful end of Moegi and Yamabuki's two-person exhibition, preparations begin for Shinonome's solo exhibition....)

Aoumi: "Has Shinonome-kun contacted you?"

Shirato: "Nope, nothing."

Aoumi: "This is strange... It's already 30 minutes past our meeting time.... No matter how much I call him he doesn't answer...."

Shirato: "Well, he's always late."

Aoumi: "I'm worried that we can't get in touch with him."

Aoumi: "And if we don't decide on an invitation design soon, we won't have enough time to get them printed and distributed."

Aoumi: "Plus I still need his main painting, but I haven't heard an update on that either."

Shirato: "That reminds me... Back in high school, he suddenly missed school and didn't even return home. He was missing for a few days, the police had to end up getting involved."

Aoumi: "Ehh!? Oh, that would be a disaster... Let's hurry up and look for him."

Shirato: "For now, how about we head to his place?"

Aoumi: "Good idea."

Aoumi: "Shinonome-kun! Shinonome-kun, are you there!? There's no response...."

Shirato: "I just checked, and it doesn’t look like he's been to college either."

Aoumi: "Then, maybe his parents' house...?"

Shirato: "I don't know. His parents basically spend all of their time overseas."

Aoumi: "I see. Oh, where could he be.... Maybe if we give him a few days he'll return."

Shirato: "Speaking of, when I found him in high school, he was nearly freezing to death on a riverbed."

Aoumi: "That's definitely a pattern we don't want to repeat...! We need to keep looking for him, but it'll be dark soon..."

Shirato: "I'll take you to the different places he likes."

Aoumi: "Please do!"

Aoumi: "There he is...!"

Shinonome: "Ahh, you found meeeeー. I was just about to make my beddddー."

Shirato: "Quit building here. The cops are gonna arrest you again."

Shinonome: "You always find me, Shiratoooー. Why's thatttー?"

Shirato: "...Nothing special, I just know you. You're usually near your favorite scenery."

Shinonome: "That's rightttー. As expected of Shirato!"

Aoumi: "Your favorite scenery.... I see. It's quite rugged, I can see how Shinonome-kun chose this as a motif for his artwork."

Shirato: "Why'd you skip the meeting."

Shinonome: "Umm, because the weather's nice today?"

Shirato: "Shinonome..."

Shinonome: "Sorry, sorryyyー. The truth is, I couldn't make any progress on my main painting at alllllー."

Aoumi: "Ehh!? But, we need to finalize the invitations soon..."

Shinonome: "I'll bring the painting to you on opening day, so please just find a way to design them somehowwwー."

Aoumi: "I understand. Please focus on your piece, Shinonome-kun."

Shinonome: "Thank youuuー."

(aoumi and shirato walk away)

Shirato: "You sure you can trust him? That guy's got no concept of deadlines."

Aoumi: "Still, it's his exhibition. If he isn't satisfied with the art he created, it's not worth displaying."

-

Izumi: (The first day of the exhibition arrives...)

Aoumi: "Shirato-kun, any word from Shinonome-kun?"

Shirato: "Not yet."

Aoumi: "We're about to open. At this rate, the main wall will be..."

Shirato: "What do we do?"

Aoumi: "Customers are already lining up, we've got no choice to open. I'll explain the situation to our customers."

(aoumi walks away)

Aoumi: "Thank you for visiting. Before we open, I'd like to apologize to all of youーー."

Shirato: "Aoumi-san, it's here!"

Aoumi: "Eh?"

Shirato: "The painting, it's arrived."

Aoumi: "Really!?"

Aoumi: "Pardon me, everyone. Please wait a moment!"

-

Aoumi: "So this is Shinonome-kun's latest work... It's wonderful."

Aoumi: "It's got a slightly different atmosphere than usual, I'd like to hear if he's had any change of heart. Where is Shinonome-kun?"

Shirato: "He's not here, it arrived by courier."

Aoumi: "Is that so. Then, I suppose he'll stop by later."

-

Aoumi: "Now, it's time to begin closingーー."

Shinonome: "Sorryyy, I'm late."

Aoumi: "Shinonome-kun! Thank you for all of your hard work. Your latest piece is safe andーーWhat's that painting for?"

Shinonome: "I finally finished it, so I came bring it to youuuー. I made it in time for opening day, rightttー."

Aoumi: "Eh? But, then the painting that arrived this morningーー."

Shinonome: "Huhhhー? That? That's not mine."

Aoumi: "What....? Well, then, whose...?

-

Shirato: "I didn't verify the courier company. I'm so sorry...."

Aoumi: "It's not your fault, Shirato-kun. I explained the situation to the customer who bought it, and they understood."

Shirato: "I'm sorry but, I.... I'm quitting my part-time job here."

Aoumi: "Huh? Oh, no, Shirato-kun, you don't need to feel responsibleーー."

Shirato: "Excuse me."

(shirato runs away)

Aoumi: "Shirato-kun!"

-

(phone ringing)

Aoumi: "....He's not answering his phone, huh. I wonder if he was originally planning on quitting. He always so helpful and hardworking..."

Aoumi: "And a forgery, on top of everything. Honestly, I think it's perfection, and the artstyle is so similar... I wonder who painted it."

(knocking)

Shinonome: "Ahhー, Aoumin. Nice workkkー."

Aoumi: "Thank you for all of your hard work for the solo exhibition. It was another huge success."

Shinonome: "Thanks to youuuー."

Aoumi: "Shinonome-kun, about the forgery, has that ever happened before?"

Shinonome: "Ummmー. Don't think soooー. I'm not that famous, y'knowwwー."

Aoumi: "I see... Are they any students at your art school with a similar artstyle?"

Shinonome: "Not that I've seennnー. Come to think of it, where's Shirato? He didn't come with you todayyyー?"

Aoumi: "What? Didn't you hear? Shirato-kun quit."

Shinonome: "Ehhhー!? Really!? ......That sucksssー."

Shinonome: "That guy, he suddenly quit the art club during our third year of high school, tooooー. Even though he was a better artist than meeeー. He quit painting."

Aoumi: "Really?"

Shinonome: "Look, this was the art club's exhibit at the school festivalllー. So nostalgicccー."

Aoumi: "Wow, I see your artstyle was already establishing itself. By the way, what's this one?"

Shinonome: "Oh, that's Shirato's painting."

Aoumi: "Shirato-kun's..."

Shinonome: "I'm pretty sure I have moreeeー. Ah, this one, that one, this one over here..."

Aoumi: "The artstyle's a bit different, but the motif is similar to yours."

Shinonome: "Yeahhhー. When I'm sketching, I always turn to them for inspirationnnー."

Aoumi: "Then, could the artist of the forgery beーー."

-

Shirato: "I painted it. I'm sorry."

Aoumi: "I figured... But, why?"

Shirato: "I wanted Aoumi-san to acknowledge my art."

Shirato: "In high school, I joined the art club. I dreamed of going to art school and continuing painting."

Shirato: "But, I couldn't. I couldn't afford it, and my parents hated the idea..."

Shirato: "So, when Shinonome obviously went on to art school, I was envious of him. But, at the same time, I was angry."

Shirato: "Is everything determined by my own efforts, or something that's completely out of my control?"

Shirato: "Honestly, I didn't really trust Aoumi-san either, at first."

Shirato: "The person who made Sky Gallery so great, wasn't you, it was your father."

Shirato: "I thought even if I got a part time job here, I was going to quit as soon as I ever made something of myself."

Shirato: "But, when I saw how seriously you take your job, and the care you extend to each artist, I was so ashamed of myself..."

Shirato: "Even so, I wanted to see if my own painting would be accepted by you, Aoumi-san."

Shirato: "I thought that if you recognized it, I could let go of painting without regret."

Aoumi: "Shirato-kun, your artwork must be properly presented to the world, as your own. Lies will never touch anyone's hearts."

Aoumi: "Please show me your work, as the real Shirato-kun. I want you to learn the power of your artwork, too."

Shirato: "Aoumi-san.... Thank you."

-

Kazunari: Thanks, everyone!

Tenma: Thank you for coming.

Misumi: Thank you~!

[randomuniverses]

RWBY Volume 8 Crew Commentary Notes!

Here are the writer and director commentary notes for Volume 8 of RWBY! There were almost 4 hours of commentary to get through and it's often hard to figure out what the crew is trying to say at times, so if I missed something it's possible it slipped past me or I couldn't understand the intent. Also, it is often hard to translate what they are saying into a more concise written sentence- so if things seem a bit confusing, that's probably why. Enjoy!

Chapter 1:

Featuring Kerry Shawcross, episode director Kiersi Burkhart

·       Originally more Cinder stuff was going to be in this episode. But they figured that out after Kerry already did a draft of this, so Kiersi stepped in to write the rest of the episode and Kerry’s stuff was moved to later on in the volume.

·       Kiersi wanted a window in the whale.

·       Designing Monstra was a balance between realistic but not extremely gruesome

·       It was hard to write the scene where the whole team is talking because they didn’t want it to feel forced or long

·       To break up that scene more, they decided to do some cut away scenes as they were talking about their plan

·       Having the team divided was something they wanted to do correctly and in a way that made sense

·       These teams made the most sense on a base character level, says Kiersi. Ren is practical and wants to do the thing that seems the most correct ‘right now’. Whereas Nora and Ruby see the bigger picture

·       Kerry says that there are times in Volume 7 where things may have been a bit more flipped, but through their experiences in that volume they see things differently now

·       If they had more time they might have been able to show more about the owners of the restaurant the team was in. But they were able to get across that the place was now abandoned

·       Ruby has changed compared to V7 and knows she can no longer trust Ironwood

·       Originally they were going to show Clover’s corpse and then the Ace Op’s reaction, but decided to do the opposite to make things more emotional

·       The scene of Ironwood shooting a man was written in 2019 but as the world evolved, it became a harder scene to watch.

Chapter 2:

Kerry and Miles Luna and Paula, the director of the episode

·       It’s difficult to design a connected jail cell where they can all talk

·       There is a square on the ground that can lift up a toilet

·       Paula imagines the Happy Huntresses as older counterparts to team RWBY

·       Yang getting a hoverbike was a pre-volume 1 idea

·       The hound is shown 3 times in the background before its official reveal

·       Jaune’s shield grenades were originally supposed to be in V7

·       They wanted each team member to have a variety of different upgrades

·       This episode has a lot of set up for later things in the volume (Oscar and Ozpin, Jaune and Ren)

·       Paula has a headcanon that Weiss has visited the shipping facility before and loved it and takes pride in it

·       There was going to be more to seeing the Dust Refinery that the happy huntresses were at

·       Miles writing the introduction of the Hound was inspired by a Halo game where the Covenant started running from a bigger threat

 Chapter 3:

Kerry, Kiersi, and Dustin

·       All the writers were scared to write this episode because of the logistics of it. Kiersi wrote this one thought

·       Dustin was inspired by the anime Dr. Stone to make the 2D infographic explaining Ruby’s semblance

·       Pietro remoting into Penny is meant to be both funny and weird

·       They were nervous about the first big fight being in the third episode, since usually they show up before then

·       Dustin had to make a list to keep track of all the effects during the fight because there were so many

·       Penny has not had the maiden powers for long, but she does copy what she has seen from Fria and Cinder to start building her repertoire of moves

·       They always knew they wanted Nora to do a big super-saiyan move this season. They also wanted her hair to stand up/look fried for a long time.

·       The marks Nora got from being electrocuted were inspired by how scars look after someone gets hit by lightning

Chapter 4:

Featuring Kerry, Eddy Rivas, and Connor Pickens, the director

·       Some of the animation for this episode was done during the transition to work from home. Assets for this episode were done early so this episode was animated first.

·       They changed a board/animatic last minute in V7 to get Qrow and Robyn arrested

·       Chase scenes are a much different challenge than fight scenes to create. Star Wars pod racing was a big inspiration

·       A lot of the beats for the chase scene were already in the script, rather than all that being figured out in the animatic

·       Ren needed to be the MVP at the end of the chase scene to set up his resentment later

·       The outdoor sets aren’t meant to be seen from all angles

·       During their argument, originally Ren was also going to yell at Jaune for overreacting with Cinder in V5

·       Confirmed that Salem was tormenting Oz with the memory of their children (when Oscar is in the whale for the first time)

·       They always wanted Oscar and Salem to interact in this volume.

·       Eddy was concerned with how intense Oscar’s torture would be

·       There was originally a line from Salem that said “I’ll leave you three to it” while she was leaving Oscar after torturing him

·       There was originally more framing calling back to the two groups (Jaune, Ren, and Yang, and the other team) and why they split

 Chapter 5

Featuring Kerry, Miles, and Paula

·       Originally Pietro had grav-boots on the bottom on his chair and he was working on the outside of the tower, and Penny startles him and he drops his wrench

·       And then when Cinder was attacking, his chair would get deactivated. The episode got too long for all of this and needed a lot of trimming

·       There is some friction with Pietro and Penny because Pietro is overprotective

·       They knew that Pietro and Maria wouldn’t have much time in this season, but they wanted to give them a brief moment to shine

·       Originally it was supposed to be Maria in the mech fighting Emerald and Neo, but the scene got more dynamic as they developed it

·       UI (user interface) compositions are always more complicated than they seem to be, and this episode had a lot of them.

·       This is Cinder’s last moment of getting way over her head and fighting recklessly

·       They wanted to make clear that Penny will beat Cinder by doing something only Penny could do (super charge her lasers) since she is a robot. At the end of the season, Penny does not have this advantage

·       The way Cinder gets hit by Penny’s blast is a reference to how Cinder looked when she gets shocked with a shock color in the next episode (Cinder flashback)

·       This is the episode where Penny becomes a full person

·       Pietro remoting into Penny the previous episode was to show how often Penny does not have her own autonomy, something which will later change

·       The message showcases how many lives the heroes have touched and everywhere they have been because there is the opportunity for so many cameos

·       Watts is furious Ironwood chose Pietro over him, but he still cannot figure out what makes Penny herself (her soul)

·       The Grimm river was originally a much bigger part of the story

Chapter 6

Featuring Kerry, Miles, and Paula

·       Originally most of this episode was written for chapter 1

·       We were originally supposed to see this in V5, but it kept getting pushed

·       It was also an expensive episode to make since it had so many unique assets

·       This episode was to make you almost feel bad, but not sympathize with her too much

·       Cinder’s story is about flawed characters and a broken system

·       Every time Miles looks at Rhodes he sees Locus from RvB

·       They wanted to present the idea that even when Cinder is working under someone, it’s always temporary. She will always want to be on top.

·       They always knew this would be Cinder’s volume, but they had to figure out what she would do after Amity. But they figured out a way for Salem to keep Cinder in play

·       Cinder doesn’t yet have the strategic mindset with how to treat her underlings, unlike Salem who treats each one differently

·       Oscar/Oz/Hazel stuff was meticulously plotted out. The scene with Hazel was the most rewritten for this chapter

·       Originally they were going to show what was on Tyrian’s scroll during the scene where he is with Salem (joke about it having too many eggplant emojis)

·       This episode has the least amount of the main characters

 Chapter 7

Featuring Kerry, Kiersi, Miles, and Connor

·       The intro of the episode was inspired by Lord of the Rings

·       A character in the park wearing a hat is modeled after the producer

·       Its more costly to do more medium level action shots than it is to do a few crazy shots

·       They needed Emerald to see Salem being the Queen of death and destruction as she was drawing the grimm goo out of Monstra

·       They tried to have Ozpin get through to Hazel by manipulating him. So when Oz is in control the camera is moving around a lot. Whereas with Oscar he is straightforward, so the camera is still

·       At the Schnee Manor, they wanted to give the scene a different feel than usual. They wanted it to feel warmer so the fireplace is on.

·       The season takes place over 2.5 or 3 days

·       Kerry grapples with Ruby’s team drinking tea while there is chaos outside, but he also says they need a moment to rest while they think their friend is dying. As well as they don’t know where everyone else is, so they figure the Manor is a good place to wait for them.

·       Miles says its canon that Mercury only has 4 of the same outfit

·       Tyrian has issues, but is also extremely observant and is the only one that can actually see what is happening and is totally on board

·       Joke about Tyrian and Mercury buddy cop spinoff

·       This new aspect of Ren’s semblance needed to first appear at a moment of clarity

·       Kiersi now calls his semblance the vibe check

·       The scene where Klein returns originally was going to start up in Weiss’s room

·       Penny showi

·       ng up at the end was not her just crash landing there. But she was actively fighting off the virus as has been crashing into things

Chapter 8

Featuring Kerry, Miles, and Dustin

·       They wanted one episode just in the manor, and decided to make it a horror episode

·       Miles says he was inspired by Resident Evil when writing this

·       Miles says it was a justified piece of criticism that Blake and Ruby didn’t get a lot of screentime together

·       Some scenes also took inspiration from Jurassic Park (says this around when we get the scene with Ruby and Blake as well as Whitley on the computer)

·       The Cenituar was supposed to show up in V7C3 during the speed semblance comparison. Centinels would ‘evolve’ into Cenituars if you don’t take them out fast enough.

·       Miles compares the Hound to a Xenomorph

·       Throughout the episode the green on everyone’s clothes (Penny’s robot blood) gets dimmer as time goes on. If it was always super green they were worried it would be too distracting.

·       Originally the armor statue that fell on the Hound was going to be made of stone, but they wanted the pieces to fall apart so they changed it to be a suit of armor.

Chapter 9

Featuring Kerry, Eddy, and Paula

·       This was Eddy’s most anticipated episode besides the finale

·       Oz being back was not just some magic ticket to all their issues

·       There was an intention to show more of team FNKI. The Salem fight took priority.

·       There is a parallel between Hazel and Marrow, who are both questioning their loyalty and what their next move should be.

·       Jinn knows that Neo is in the room with Hazel, Oscar, and Emerald. Which is why she is taunting them with the line, “so you don’t have any questions for me?”

·       Jaune does a lot of growing this volume, as commented on by Ren (On how genuine Jaune’s courage is)

·       Salem realizing the lamp was missing and gliding away was a reference to the Yubaba glide from Spirited Away.

·       The alarm was raised because of the Seer. And it covered the alarm of Neo taking the lamp. These scenes were put back to back so it would be ambiguous as to what set off the alarm.

·       Marrow saying “Come on, Juan” was at one point going to be “Come on, Jim”. But that got confusing as to if it was referring to Ironwood.

·       Eddy referred to the payload (giant bomb) as Chekhov’s nuke

·       Winter being kind to Marrow delays his change of mind for a few episodes

·       Salem goes so hard at Emerald because Emerald’s semblance actually fooled her

·       There was going to be a moment where Yang hits Salem with her semblance activated and it does nothing

·       Hazel knows he will not win this fight again Salem, so he overdoses to do as much damage as he can and bide some time.

·       The shot where Hazel moves his fists to create fire was a reference to Henry Cavill in a mission impossible movie (bathroom scene)

Chapter 10

Kerry, Miles, Kiersi, and Connor

·       Reiterated that this is Cinder’s volume, and that includes her getting told off

·       Watts isn’t known for his physical strength- he is known for his mind and his mouth. So the scene where Cinder was about to kill him required him to go all out with his skills.

·       Originally Watts was going to be swearing a lot when he was telling off Cinder. It felt like what he would actually say, but they couldn’t do it

·       Blake calling Yang was originally after the scene where the Ace Ops recovered from the explosion. Neo skipping through the haze was going to be a transition to this scene.

·       It was difficult in the script to decide on how nice the team could be to Emerald, since at this point they are not supposed to be friends.

·       At one point in the script the gang at the mansion was going through the tunnels in the subway to get to the kids at the Monstra site and would have to push through crowds of evacuating people. It was too much to do, and was deemed unnecessary

·       Ironwood this volume is a reference to Michael Shannon in the Shape of Water. Desperate, angry man. Watching control slip out of his hands

·       It took them a while to figure out how Neo would present some much information, including Jinn’s name. And figuring out they could have her use a scroll was what worked best.

Chapter 11

Featuring Kiersi, Eddy, Miles, and Paula

·       All Miles sees when he looks at Winter is Mass Effect

·       The scene where RWBY + Oscar + Emerald are in the manor was trying to show each of the girl’s regressing a bit (Weiss is snarky, Yang is aggressive, Blake is closed off)

·       While Oscar, due to using a ton of magic previously, he is adapting a lot more of Oz’s mannerisms

·       Originally at that scene in the end they were going to pause at the door and Emerald was going to go “nice mansion by the way” and Weiss was going to reply “shut up”. To reinforce that they aren’t yet friends

·       This episode brings together many threads , some of which were volumes in the making

·       Nora getting her own journey in this volume and the last was super important to the writers

·       This episode had many drafts- it was way too long at first

·       They laugh about how Robyn is basically a “replacement birb sister”.  Paula says Robyn has seen what Qrow is going through before (getting disillusioned), perhaps with herself.

·       Yang crying in this chapter reminded Paula of the end of V3 where Yang was wallowing in her room after losing her arm. This is the reverse of that. Yang tries to joke at first but Ruby pushes her away.

·       Yang feels guilty with how she talked to Ruby in chapter 1

·       Paula thinks that had Penny not died at the end of the season, her and Nora would have been really good friends

·       In this episode they wanted to give Penny a hopeful moment before more bad things happen

·       Emerald swearing in this episode had Miles chanting “villains get to swear!”

·       In the scene where Oz finally talks to the team once again, they made sure to have Emerald in the shot a lot, since both Oz and Emerald are seeking apologies. They’re not quite part of the group yet.

·       Eddy loves the friendship name “Emerald City”

Chapter 12

Featuring Kerry, Eddy, and Dustin

·       This was one of the more difficult episodes to outline and write since so much had to happen and happen at different times

·       This is one of the most eventful episodes, and was very challenging to direct

·       They wanted the team (ORNJ) to have a victory after getting dunked on by Neo in V7, so Ironwood lost

·       Not a lot is written out in the script for fight scenes, so it is more about feeling when deciding on the final choreography

·       The Marrow and Winter talking scene was moved around a lot

·       The scene where the rules for the staff were laid out was tricky because there was so much that needed to be explained, while also not explicitly stating the plan

·       Ambrosius was known in the writer’s room as Merlin Daddy. However, he is not directly based off of Merlin. He was given that name because he is smart. Though at one point he was bearded and burly.

·       Initially they did not know if every relic would contain a character in it

·       When first writing the volume they did not know how they were going to use the staff

·       They wanted to do something similar to the last relic chamber, but since a lot of time would be spent in this one, they made this one simpler (less distortion)

·       Ambro does some finger-tutting, which is dancing using intricate finger movements. They wanted him to be super into making things. The way Ruby cheats by being what she wants with Ambro works because she already cheated once with Jinn (I think this was in reference to how she was able to get him to fix Penny)

·       Ship of Thesus Penny was mentioned, and how many viewers picked that up once the episode aired

·       Eddy mentions how he made a mini-bible for Volume 9 (in reference to how things are mapped out)

·       Penny hugging everyone was one of Kerry’s favorite scenes ever

·       At different points throughout the volume, the episode directors asked how brutal they could make certain moments

·       Initially Fiona’s semblance was going to give the team the idea for the walkways, but because Fiona was later not going to be in the same space as these characters, it needed to be changed

·       They initially pictured the walkway area as a Rainbow Road/Bifrost looking place

Chapter 13

Featuring Kerry, Kiersi, Eddy, Miles, and Connor

·       Miles loves the moment of Jaune getting hit by a rock

·       Kerry was worried about how showing Penny’s feet would be perceived

·       Miles was worried about people thinking that Watt’s verbal takedown of Cinder would lead to her having a change of heart. But nope, she hasn’t changed at all.

·       Eddy says they struggled a lot with landing Cinder’s plan and her taking swift action. They decided that her using the lamp selfishly made sense.

·       Marrow’s semblance takes a lot of out him, so when a robot hit hits and explodes, it’s enough to knock out his aura

·       It was never specified in the show who opened Ironwood’s prison cell, but Eddy confirms it was Watts who did it

·       They talked about the order of who was going to fall a lot. Yang ended up being the first one since it felt like a signoff due to her getting a lot of focus this volume. They only wanted one character to fall in this episode.

·       Weiss quietly holds her own now in this final fight, showcasing how much she has grown since the beginning

·       Vine and Harriet may seem like opposites, but Vine is sometimes the only one that can see to the core of something

·       They planned Qrow flying through a window to get to Harriet very early in the volume

·       The way Ironwood comes down the vault’s elevator was meant to call back to how Oscar went down it last volume

Chapter 14

Featuring Kerry, Miles, Kiersi, and Eddy

·       Eddy comments on how viewers were saying that Clover has a very similar semblance to Qrow’s, and it’s all about perspective. Having Qrow able to make this positive change was nice

·       Harriet is not a bad person, and the way that the rest of the Ace Ops were able to understand that she was in a bad place says a lot about how much they are grown since they were introduced.

·       The Ace Ops have also gone through trauma like team RWBY but have gotten no support to deal with it, which makes them do some not so great things

·       They decided to kick Blake and Ruby off the platforms at the same time to make it as shocking as possible, since they figured the audience would realize everyone was going to go down by then

·       There were many small, quiet moments for Jaune that shows he is willing to do the hard thing since he still has a job to do. And that carried through to the ultimate moment with him and Penny

·       Eddy added Jaune’s sword breaking while writing the episode- it wasn’t planned beforehand

·       Cinder originally had a line where she was like “peace out Jaune” before sending him off

·       The scene where Cinder goes to the vault was rearranged a lot

·       When planning the last three episodes, Kiersi had to start a graphical timeline to figure out where all the characters were at all times

·       A pre-season 1 idea was when the bad guys get everything they need from Atlas, they will walk past Ironwood and will not give him the time of day.

·       Atlas was called Chekov’s floating city

·       Originally Miles and Kerry thought that this Atlas arc was going to be season 3

·       Before volume 7 was started, this volume was going to be V7. But then when they started outlining V7 they realized that wouldn’t be possible