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yakocchi · 4 years ago

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Be My Princess Social // Yakov Chernenkov, Season 1, Episode 1

// The Great Prince of the Country of Ice

o wats this, self-indulgent crap?? haha the joke is that all the translations i post are self-indulgent crap, thank you for coming to the press conference

This is going to be part of a translation of the Yakov Chernenkov route for the Be My Princess Social Platforms (GREE, Joshige, Eternal Kiss, etc.)

I figured this should be… relatively all right given that it seems like Voltage is done with BMP Social games forever in terms having English versions. tbh kinda surprised no one ever took the task of doing it. publicly at least? i searched a bit, found nothing. if someone already did it pls tell me lol …..but i guess something like this is a stan’s job to do, right (ﾟ▽ﾟ*)

idk, we’ll see how this goes… only did 1 ep as a test run to see if i feel like doing this rn lol this is lengthy endeavor

Image-heavy!! Please credit if you take any of it, thenk u (･ω･*)

Intro & Legend

This route is similar to Zain’s in that they wipe just about everything from the Paid version (the one with Sergei and the Anastasia backstory…lol that was wild thinking abt it) and start anew with the character. But Yakov is different from all the other BMP1 characters in that they also changed his personality almost completely. This is reflected in his profile when they change his blood type and age from the Paid version (B → O, 25 → 31)

If you’re familiar with the Social Zain route, you can kinda see through his bits how they changed him. A BMP fansite master describes him as “high-handed, but charismatic - a person with the character of a king” which sums it up better than anything I could ever think up

So I guess it would be a good idea to not carry over expectations from the Paid app route to this route because that’s just a recipe for disappointment lol. i know a lot of people like the Yakov from the Paid route, so I wanted to put that out there. It’s a shame bc that character is effectively “gone” but… the yakov i stan is the social one, so if that had to happen so my 2d man could come into existence…well…

thank u for ur sacrifice

➤ are my own commentary.

➢ are the choices that pop up. For the most part I have both (iirc I don’t have one near the end bc I forgot I was trying to pick the wrong ones on purpose lol). Note that all my wrong answers are from the original version’s text and thus they may have been changed for EK. Correct answers are labeled with ❆

➼ at the end of a line signals that the choice text has “ended” and it returns back to the general text. The general text resumes on the line that begins with a ➼. This is mostly just for organization on my part - the docs I type+format these on get very, very annoying to scroll through, so

Bolded dialogue reflect the screencaps.

I hope you enjoy some part of it! ( ´◡` ) Thanks for reading

Episode 1 // The Great Prince of the Country of Ice

➤ Interestingly, the original title they used for GREE and Joshige is The Cold, Rational Prince of Sanct Sybil Kingdom. I dunno why they would change it except maybe it was too long for the title card to look pretty lol

When I opened the door at the sound of the chime, there stood a man wearing a gentle smile on his face. Taking note of my presence, he places his hand to his breast and gracefully bows.

[Zain]: “You must be Miss Kara Go. I am Zain, the personal steward of Nobel Michel Castle.” [Zain]: “As promised, I have come to pick you up.” [Kara]: “Y-Yes. I am indeed Kara Go.” [Kara]: “To go out of your way to come here - thank you so much.” (Am I really… not just dreaming here?) Pulling a letter out from my pocket, I recall the events over the past few days that had led up to today.

I had torn the seal of a blank-white envelope that had no written return address, and my eyes widened in shock. “I want you to become an exclusive designer.” In the enclosed message - along with a bit of contact information, the end of the letter had been signed by Nobel the XIII, the lord of Nobel Michel Castle. (This must be some sort of mistake… A-Anyhow, I should try to verify it.) Thinking that, I call the contact number on the letter…

But, indeed - the letter was not a mistake, and they spoke to me about wanting to have a proper consultation about the position. I was told that Lord Nobel wanted some time to talk in-person with me, and eventually the promised day where I felt that my dreams were coming over the horizon… finally came. (Even when it’s finally here, in front of me of like this, I still can’t believe it…) [Zain]: “Thus, His Grace awaits. Let us depart.” [Kara]: “O-Okay…” With a spring to my step, I get onto the limousine with Zain.

(It would’ve never crossed my mind that I’d be going to Nobel Michel Castle for a second time.) (And on top of that, I’ve been called here in terms of being a designer of all things…) I was pretty nervous the time I had come here for Jean Pierre’s errand, but now I’m even more nervous compared to that day. I felt my heart noisily thumping as I waited for Lord Nobel, and eventually the parlor door opened.

[Zain]: “My Lady, we must deeply apologize.” [Zain]: “His Grace’s conference is going longer than expected, so it seems you will have to wait a few moments longer.” [Kara]: “I see…” [Zain]: “Since you took your most valued time to come here― Would you like to take a look around the castle gardens until the conference is over?” [Kara]: “Castle gardens… you say?” [Zain]: “Indeed. Several varieties of the rare flowers we raise are currently in bloom– so if it pleases you, I can guide you around.” (You don’t get the chance to tour the Nobel Castle gardens everyday.) [Kara]: “Then, if you may.” [Zain]: “Very well. Shall we go now?” With Zain as my guide, I get to visit the castle gardens.

[Kara]: “Wow… it’s absolutely stunning.” [Zain]: “Thank you. Everyone who visits these gardens tend to voice similar sentiments about it.” The courtyard stretched over a vast space, and it was a feast for the eyes even with a simple glance. (In a way, it’s as if I’ve been sucked into a fairy tale.) As Zain explained the parts and features within it, I was completely enamored by the beautiful garden― When an teenage boy clad in a butler’s uniform comes running to us from the castle.

[???]: “Zain! So this is where you were.” [Zain]: “…Theo, you are before a guest.” [Zain]: “I must apologize, My Lady.” [Zain]: “This is Theo, who is training in this castle as an apprentice steward.” The boy called Theo – at being scolded by Zain, straightened his posture accordingly.

➤ i can’t believe bmp2 stans denied us from having the wacky family sitcom a theo route would have smh my head bro

[Theo]: “…I am Theo.” [Kara]: “I’m Kara. Nice to meet you, Theo.” [Theo]: “M-Mhm…” Theo, whose face still held remnants of childlike youth, averted his eyes shyly. Then Zain, who had witnessed all of this, lightly presses the boy in a gentle tone. [Zain]: “Theo, did you have any matters to discuss with me?” [Theo]: “Ah-, right! I was sent by His Grace to relay this message to you.” [Theo]: “He urgently wants your input on something, so you gotta come to the conference room.” [Zain]: “His Grace does?” [Zain]: “But, right now…” His eyebrows knit together, as if troubled. With a smile I turn to him. [Kara]: “I’ll be all right by myself. Though while I wait, may I take a look around the garden?” [Zain]: “Yes, of course.” [Zain]: “I apologize for being unable to guide you around myself for now– but if you could meet with me afterwards…” [Zain]: “Can you wait just a moment?” [Kara]: “All right.” Sounding apologetic in his words, he then goes with Theo towards the castle. (Being the exclusive butler to Lord Nobel must be quite the busy job…) I thought about that as I took a stroll around the calm gardens, sunlight beaming… When―

[Man]: “Please, at least, once more– Please consider thinking about it…!” The cries of a man at his wits’ end cut through the silence of the courtyard. (Is something going on…?) Looking in the direction of the voice, I find three men standing from the other side of the building. The shouting from earlier seems to have come from a man who looked slightly older from other two, and said man also seemed to be desperately calling for something. [Man]: “…The state of the administration right now still is unstable.” [Man]: “If we act too carelessly, the balance of the three nations could collapse once more!” [???]: “…I have long past made a decision.” The words that had answered the aggravated man were bound to a terribly icy voice. As this man stood with his back facing me, I was unable to see his face; but from pitch alone he seemed to be a young man. With his long, platinum-blond hair having been pleated into a single braid, he silently rebuffs the rage of the older one.

[???]: “Even if you did indeed manage to chase me all the way here― Decisions are not something to turn back from.” [???]: “That is all that need be said, so I shall leave first.” [Man]: “…Yakov–Sir, why are you this impatient?!” [Man]: “It can't be that you don’t realize that now is a crucial time for the country, is it…?!” In pure exasperation, the older man grabs onto the man called Yakov. But in doing so, a man in a butler’s uniform that had stood across from him swiftly yanks the man off.

[Butler]: “What are you thinking in that head of yours, grabbing onto someone of his (Yakov’s) status?” [Butler]: “Even if you get imprisoned for disrespecting the state, this is an inexcusable situation you’ve found yourself in.”

➤ so the term he uses is specifically for lèse-majesté, which is the fancy term for insulting the ruling sovereign, monarchy, ruling state, etc. etc. but i didn’t want to just throw in that term bc i felt like it’s not… very common? idk i feel like the bmp mc wouldn’t know what that is granted i guess you could do the galaxy brain take and be like “she doesn’t know what that term is and that’s why she couldn’t piece together that yakov is royalty”

[Man]: “Urgh…!” The older man was then pinned to the ground, and as his arms were confined behind his back, he groans in pain. The moment I see the expression on his face, a cry spills out from my lips.

[Kara]: “Ah…!” [Yakov]: “…!” Hearing my voice, the platinum-blond man whips his head around.

His eyes, peeking out from behind his long bangs and deep blue like the sea, then sharply leveled at me. [Yakov]: “…What is your business?” [Kara]: “Uh…”

(What should I answer with?) Menacingly asked to speak, I…

➢ I’m unable to say anything. ➢ “He’s in pain.” ❆

➢ I’m unable to say anything. (This person… has an awfully intimidating air to him.) Unable to say anything particularly impactful, I only turn my eyes to the man held to the ground. ➼

➢ “He’s in pain.” [Kara]: “I don’t know what’s going on here, but you’ve gone too far… He’s in pain.” [Yuri]: “Of course. It’s only natural for it to hurt when you’re bound down like this.” The man in the butler’s uniform answers me with a smile plastered on his face. (What the-… He’s smiling, but it’s honestly quite frightening-) [Kara]: “B-But… if you end up injuring him, that’d be terrible, no…?!” While paralyzed with fear, I managed to raise my voice at him. ➼

➼ With that, the platinum-blond man shifts his eyes to the man in the butler’s uniform. [Yakov]: “―Yuri, release him.” [Yuri]: “…” At his words, the one called Yuri immediately relinquishes his hold.

➤ Yuri’s name might actually be Urey, as one of Ivan’s Birthday Event routes note how Ivan’s wolf Urey and butler Yuri have the same name (by coincidence). But the JPN version always spells it as Yuri so I’m just used to it. Not that you should really be taking the app’s romanization as official though given they have stuff like “Lewis” (Louis), “Jean” (Jan), and the occasional “Robert” for Roberto ( ´_ゝ｀)

As the older man staggers back up from the ground, the blond man speaks to the two of them. [Yakov]: “Do not start trouble in the castle grounds of other kingdoms.” [Yakov]: “ ―Regarding what happened here today, I shall overlook it this time. Good?” [Yuri]: “Understood.” [Man]: “…My sincere apologies.” As the two men lower their heads, the man called Yakov then directs his piercing gaze towards me.

[Yakov]: “Forget what you just saw and heard here. Not a word to anyone.” With only those words to me, he leaves with the other two following behind him. (That “Yakov” person, and “Yuri” too… what terrifying people.) Alone in the garden, I was completely petrified to the spot from the overwhelming pressure those men had left me with.

[Theo]: “―Miss Kara, here is where His Grace’s been hanging o– awaiting your presence, rather.” Afterwards, Lord Nobel’s conference had ended and Theo had come to take me to him. While heading to the parlor where His Grace was waiting, Theo’s innocent self causes a smile to crack my features. [Kara]: “Just ‘Kara’ is fine, Theo. On that note, you don’t have to speak so formally with me.” [Theo]: “Uh- But…” [Kara]: “I’ll be more at ease and less nervous that way.” [Kara]: “Besides, I’m in a similar situation as you.” [Theo]: “‘Similar’?” [Kara]: “I’m only a rookie designer.” [Kara]: “So like how you’re an apprentice butler, it’s kind of a similar position.” [Theo]: “Gotcha…” At my explanation, Theo, apparently happy about some part of it, breaks into a smile. [Theo]: “…I get you. Then- When we’re together like this, I’ll be sure to do it.” [Theo]: “Since only super-distinguished people ever come to this castle, I get pretty stressed out.” [Kara]: “Hehe, I’m feeling the same too. Just entering this castle makes me anxious.”

[Theo]: “Right?! Lord Nobel and Zain treat me really well so it’s all right for now, but…” Theo wore a smile that was quite fitting for a young boy like himself. Calmed by his pure sincerity, I enter the reception room.

[Theo]: “…Your Grace, I have brought Miss Kara Go.” [Nobel]: “Thank you for your hard work.” [Nobel]: “Kara, sorry for making you have to wait on me when I was the one who called you up here.” Lord Nobel wears a merry smile on his face as he kindly welcomes me. I bow my head down in gratitude. [Kara]: “I am, indeed, Kara Go.” [Kara]: “Thank you for inviting me to such a meeting.” [Nobel]: “You don’t have to greet me so formally,” [Nobel]: “as the truth still stands that I was the one who summoned you today. I just wanted to talk with ya about something.” [Nobel]: “―So, Kara, do you know of the country of Sanct Sybil?” [Kara]: “Yes. I’m only knowledgeable with news and info that’s been reported to the public, but…”

Sanctis, Sybil, Versurk― Those three countries had united into one, and the resulting nation is apparently called “Sanct Sybil” from what I’ve heard. With this as my sole knowledge of the country, Lord Nobel speeds up the conversation.

[Nobel]: “Then I’ll cut to the chase.” [Nobel]: “The truth is that Sanct Sybil is planning to join the Nobel Michel Alliance.” [Nobel]: “As they’re still a new nation, they’re searching for talent both inside and outside the country.” [Nobel]: “In pursuit of capable individuals, the prince of Sanct Sybil has come to me for some guidance, so…” Cutting his own words short, a smile then markedly graces his features.

[Nobel]: “Kara, you are to be the exclusive designer of Sanct Sybil Castle.” [Nobel]: “I thought that I’d like to go see you work there.” [Kara]: “Uh-…” (I’m… going to be the exclusive designer… for a royal castle?!)

[Nobel]: “Besides yourself, I’ve been in talks with other talented folks in all sorts of industries.” [Nobel]: “It’s only the designer position that’s yet to be decided.” [Nobel]: “I personally wanted to recommend you, but… what do you think?” [Kara]: “Um… I’m truly grateful to be able to have this conversation with you, but…” [Kara]: “Since I’m still new to this, I don’t have any achievements to show for anything.” [Kara]: “Knowing that, why did you call on me for this…?” I can’t hide my own utter confusion from his sudden invitation. Voicing my bewildered thoughts with that question, the corners of his lips quirk up into a smile.

[Nobel]: “I learned about you through a list I asked from Jean Pierre.” Lord Nobel, upon consulting with the prince of Sanct Sybil, requested Jean Pierre to produce a list of designers with promising futures. (Jean Pierre himself put me on that list…) [Nobel]: “Certainly, you don’t have any prior accolades… but within the multitude of applicants, I saw your design sketches,” [Nobel]: “and I was considerably charmed by them.” [Nobel]: “I grew delighted just from simply looking at that design.” [Nobel]: “And for that reason I wish to bring you to Sanct Sybil, a nation newly born into this world.” [Nobel]: “I think that a person full of zeal like yourself is necessary for such a place.” [Kara]: “Your Grace…” [Nobel]: “By all means, please consider it for me.” (I’m simply unworthy to be having this sort of discussion…)

At Lord Nobel’s invitation, I…

➢ “Give me some time.” ❆ ➢ “If it is all right with the other party…”

➢ "Give me some time.” Having heard all of this from Lord Nobel so far, the feeling of wanting to give it a shot comes to me. (But…) [Kara]: “…Could you give me a bit of time to think about it?” [Nobel]: ”Of course. You should go ponder it a great deal before coming to a decision.” ➼

➢ “If it is all right with the other party…” [Kara]: “If it is all right with the other party, I feel that I would like to accept this offer.” [Kara]: “However…” There’s an uneasy feeling in my heart about it, and my words drift off. Then Lord Nobel, as if he understood my thoughts nods his head once. [Nobel]: “It’s all right if you don’t rush yourself to a decision.” ➼

➼ [Nobel]: “Can you give Zain an answer a few days from now?” [Kara]: “Understood.” Putting my answer on hold for a moment, I depart Nobel Castle.

(The chance to be the exclusive designer for a royal castle won’t ever come by me again, but…) (While Jean Pierre is having a hard time, I can’t just leave him like this.) Turning down the offer to be dropped off at my apartment, I head towards the office of Jean Pierre.

[Jean Pierre]: “Oh my, is that ma petite?” [Kara]: “Pierre!” Not expecting to meet him like this, I’m surprised to see him here. As if he had sensed something about me, he smiles.

[Jean Pierre]: “…With a face like that, looks like you got something to talk about, hmm?” [Jean Pierre]: “Instead of standing around outside to chat, please just come on in.”

Pierre unlocks the door to his office and I come inside. [Jean Pierre]: “You somehow came all the way here… Could it be that you had talked with Lord Nobel?” [Kara]: “…Yes.” [Kara]: “I received an invitation to work as the exclusive designer of Sanct Sybil Castle.” [Kara]: “But for someone like me, who has no experience nor achievements, to take up such a grand job is…” [Kara]: “I don’t really have the confidence that I can do something like that.” [Kara]: “And on top of that, I want to be further taught by you…”

[Jean Pierre]: “What are you saying?! Is this not a good thing? This is your big chance!” He looks at me with a serious expression. [Jean Pierre]: “In that list I submitted to Lord Nobel, there were also designers that had prior achievements.” [Jean Pierre]: “Despite that, I was convinced that you would be the one to be chosen.” [Kara]: “Why… is that?” [Jean Pierre]: “From your designs, I feel this power to them.” [Jean Pierre]: “There are some parts that are rough around the edges, but there’s this energy, one that can completely transform people, hidden within!” [Jean Pierre]: “Lord Nobel definitely sensed that too, I bet.” [Kara]: “Ah…” (Thinking about it, Lord Nobel did say something along those lines…) (He said that the designs- from simply looking at them, he grew delighted…)

[Jean Pierre]: “Please believe in yourself.” [Jean Pierre]: “I, as well as His Grace, would never recommend someone who we’d feel couldn’t do the job.” [Jean Pierre]: “I believe in your potential, ma petite.” [Kara]: “Pierre…” Even though he himself is in a difficult position, he’s so firmly supporting me in this. With my heart overwhelmed with such emotion that I couldn’t speak, Jean Pierre smiles. [Jean Pierre]: “I’m also going to use this moment as a source of encouragement for myself, as I plan to work hard as a designer once more.” [Jean Pierre]: “One day, no doubt in my mind― the offices of Jean Pierre will be restored!” [Jean Pierre]: “And that’s why, ma petite… without worrying about these offices, please just go and try what you want to try.” [Kara]: “…Thank you!” (I can’t let this chance from Jean Pierre and Lord Nobel just pass me by.) Urged on by Jean Pierre, a smile appears on my face as my chest is enveloped in this determination.

―That night. Resolute in accepting the offer of exclusive designer, I contact Zain as soon as I return to the apartment. [Kara]: “Concerning the aforementioned position of Sanct Sybil’s designer… I think that I will accept the invitation.” [Zain]: “Thank you very much. I think that His Grace will be quite pleased to hear that.” In a soft tone - As if thinking for a moment, Zain continues to speak. [Zain]: “If I can be honest with you, the prince of Sanct Sybil himself is actually coming to stay at the castle for official business.” [Zain]: “Normally, we would hold your interview over at Sanct Sybil, but…” [Zain]: “Since the prince will be coming over, how about you two introduce each other here at Nobel Castle instead?” (Is that so?) (Even if Lord Nobel is recommending me, it could become a situation where the prince of Sanct Sybil is not too impressed by me.) [Kara]: “I see… If you could reserve some time for that, that’d be great.” [Zain]: “Then, I shall make the proper arrangements and contact you again.” And with that, it was decided that I would meet the prince of Sanct Sybil.

A few days later―

I’ve been called to Nobel Castle once more. While having a spot of tea with Lord Nobel and Theo, I bow my head again. [Kara]: “―Thank you for granting me an opportunity like this.” [Nobel]: “Ohohoho.” [Nobel]: “At any rate.. you’ve become quite resolute about this.” [Kara]: “…Yes. Your Grace has given me words of immense appreciation, and Jean Pierre has also encouraged me.” [Kara]: “I think, as a designer, I want to take advantage of these chances given to me.” (But… with no achievements of my own, I wonder if the Prince will approve of me…) Anxiety running through my heart, Lord Nobel smiles while stroking his beard. [Nobel]: “I also have hopes for you, Miss Kara.” [Nobel]: “I believe that, surely, the prince of Sanct Sybil will indeed require your power.” [Kara]: “Thank you…!” When I beam at Lord Nobel’s kind words, Theo then cuts into the conversation.

[Theo]: “So Kara… really is a designer, huh.”

[Theo]: “But… if it were possible, I was hoping that you’d become the designer for this castle.” [Kara]: “Hehe, thank you.” [Kara]: “I think that I definitely wouldn’t be able to be the designer for Nobel Michel, but I hope one day I’ll be able to make clothes for you, Theo.” Replying to Theo with a smile, Lord Nobel watches us with a gentle look on face. [Nobel]: “Ho ho, looks like you two have become quite close.” [Nobel]: “As I thought, Kara, you seem to have this charm that just mellows out everything around you.” He laughed heartily when there came a knock on the door. [Zain]: “Please excuse the interruption,”

[Zain]: “For I have brought Prince Yakov of Sanct Sybil.”

➤ “op are u just making excuses to post caps of zain as much as possible” perhaps PERHAPS if im gonna need to break down the blobs of text, zain is nice to look at

(Ah…) I get up from my chair, and face the doorway nervously. But at the next moment, my eyes instinctively open wide. (That, person…) The figures that followed behind Zain were two men I was familiar with―

The platinum-blond man with the air of intimidating beauty, and the man in the butler uniform who had worn a smile on his face―

The people I had witnessed in the courtyard days before.

[Prince Yakov]: “―As I have heard that you have found a candidate for the designer position, I have come.” [Prince Yakov]: “Your Grace, I give you my humble gratitude for granting my request.” [Kara]: “Eh…” [Prince Yakov]: “…” I inadvertently let out a small cry of surprise, and the Prince finally meets my eyes. For a split second his eyes had widened, but almost immediately after it shifts into a sharp gaze. (A person like him is the prince of Sanct Sybil, of all things…)

Steeped in the shocking reality of it all, I stare dumbfounded at Prince Yakov―

➤ now part of me was thinking, do people really need all the screencaps of when he makes the -_- face but honestly him doing the -_- face for half of his portraits on this route is part of the experience

To be continued…

(Letter)

➤ so uh this might be a crapshoot in terms of placement bc there’s diff letters based on the special story you choose, and also i forget where the last few letters go loool but that won’t be a problem until later

From: Yakov Title: (untitled)

…So you are the designer recommended by Lord Nobel? If you come to my country, you will be treated to the finest hospitality. Therefore you should not ponder over unnecessary matters and just bring yourself here. Good?

―Yakov

holy fucc idk why this is more tiring to translate than other stuff. maybe bc this is a slow route where we have exposition and non-romantic chara development we have to tread thru first. also lol translating the bmp writers’ style seems like more work? vs stuff like cybird? idk it’s hard to explain. i’m not a super big fan of what i have rn…. in fact i’m like wtf what is this incomprehensible garbage i made... but i’m too tired to do revisions rn…… aye… but i’ll definitely look over it again in attempt to give it more clarity+readability so yea. there’s nothing’s “wrong” in terms of the literal meaning per se - it’s more like i’d like to make it flow better and actually follow grammar rules instead of cheating with dashes and line breaks hahaaa

anyway guess ill see u at the next part when (if?) i bother to do it. hrmmm i should try to make the chunks larger given that this story is 15 eps + 3 special stories (with ~3 variations for each story) + epilogue but fuuu ill get there when i get there

Next Episode…

“If you wish to hear of my tastes - you will have to ask me in a more alluring voice.”

yea thats rite im hitting u with the azn drama cliffhanger. well now i have to do this translation or else this would be mean….. this is a psychological effort to get me to not leave this unfinished

Again, thanks for reading!

#be my princess #yakov chernenkov #bmpYCS1 #yea thatll be my tag for this shit so feel free to block it #bmp

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normal-thoughts-official · 4 years ago

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aaaand we are back back again with malec livewatch! you can read the first and second parts before if you wanna, or filter out “malec livewatch” if ur tired of this absolute bullcrap

yes i know it’s been years. not my fault okay i was studying

today: post-wedding 1×12! and finally freedom from the terrors of s1

forever a slut for that scene where Magnus just does that hand movement and a bunch of shit starts showing up in the conveniently empty table ugh we stan. imagine if the special effects had been this good all the time they really used up 10 out of their 15 dollars and all the two favors from cousin Mike for this one. 1×12 was so inspired tbh only valid episode

Alec's clothes look so much better without the stupid ugly blazer? could do without the high waisted pants (why) but he looks so much better and also more comfortable. again i hope the costume department staff got a big, fat paycheck because the difference we see in him during the wedding vs post-wedding alone is just insane. he looks so much better and more comfortable and more himself, the blazer made him look stiff and again DOESNT MATCH THE REST. also nice touch that the blazer is the only part of his clothing with gold, the sh wedding color. he gets that off and everything looks so much better

Magnus looks even better post wedding too. like the clothing is already *chef's kiss* but he looks even prettier afterwards somehow. the hair is a little softer and he's less stiff as a whole (for obvious reasons), and aaaa hes so beautifulllll he's so prettyyyy look at his perfect soft little hair falling softly over his head and the PINK STREAKS possibly the best Magnus look i said what i said. especially with him all soft and smiley like that i big love him

sexiest thing about Magnus is how Jace does anything and hes like NO BITCH

the way he says "warlock tracking is stronger" with that smile......... hes so prety

that's a deep inhale he makes before using the tracking spell lmao u ok buddy?

oof i can only imagine how he felt when he was doing the tracking and he was suddenly hit with an image of Camille screaming and hitting in his direction,,,....,,,,,,, Fuck

love how Raphael just locked her in the basement thats so sexy of him we stan

"i punched her there's no way she'll help me" ugh still salty that clary of all ppl got to punch her but not Raphael or Magnus fuck this tbh

STOP MAKING ME LOOK AT CLACE

they both look so giddy and happy to be talking after the whole wedding thing + camille drama like don’t look at me. alec can barely look at magnus because he’s so agitated but you have the smile on his face and magnus is also smiling disbelievingly and i just doaudjsuoiadsa i love they

seriously tho the way magnus smiles..... so private and disbelieving but also so obvious and he’s even looking down like he never expected stuff to go down this well..... bro i stan

i had forgotten about the specific cadence in which alec talks? lmao. there’s a certain tilt to his voice when he says “it’s so INTENSE” that i really love

also that’s a really funny line like honey who the fuck are you to complain about anything being intense. ur the most dive or die bitch in this entire building. and we stan

alec’s WIDE ASS SMILE when magnus says “you certainly know how to make a statement” I CRY. magnus looks so proud of him and still disbelieving that alec went this hard for him and alec is just still on cloud 9 that he really Did That and came out and magnus is just proud of him and wow he really gets to have this and duahdsudhsadajsas???? i adore everything about them

the way maryse shows up and magnus immediately recoils and alec immediately straightens up like magnus is lowkey expecting rejection and alec is just bracing himself for one of the hardest fights of his life

also their expressions are so funny like maryse is LIVID she’s absolutely losing her mcfucking mind with anger homegirl’s head is about to explode and robert is just looking like he pissed on the carpet or something

the way alec doesn’t back down at all is so admirable too like!!!! it’s one thing to make a big fuck you gesture, it’s another to still hold your ground against your abusers after that fact. but he really stands there and goes “this isn’t about you” “i’m the same person i’ve always been” and doesn’t give her an inch of room for clownery. like again once alexander gideon lightwood makes up his mind there’s no stopping him and there’s no going back and he’s just so fucking strong??? he really said “from now on i’m out and you’re going to absolutely deal with that and i will not compromise a single thing” and the lightwoods just had to deal with that lmaoooo

you can see it in maryse’s face too, like after the “i’m the same person i’ve always been” she just pauses, realizing that she lost this battle without even knowing, she was on top of it a second ago and now there’s nothing she can do anymore and she’s just shook. and all that’s left for her is to scoff at magnus and leave, because that’s it, she lost every hold she had on him

alec’s little mouthed “what?” at “and all for a downworlder” too. i think part of him was like “wow she’s backing down already?” because you know he expected this to be a lot harder i think lmao. but i also like to think that there’s a side of “mom what the fucking fuck have you seen him he’s gorgeous and kind and smart and amazing and literally the best person i could have fallen in love with but go off i guess”

robert going all “just give her time” like he doesn’t understand what’s happening here at all. he clearly plays the “good cop” in the lightwood’s abusive dynamic tbh, like people often brush him off as being just spineless but i honestly think that he’s just the other side of her manipulative coin. specially with izzy, like, when izzy said fuck it and completely let go of maryse’s hold on her? that’s where robert came in, being the accepting, “nice” parent who listened to her and cared, and making sure she’d keep her loyalties. because he didn’t really stand up for izzy either and in the end he kept her still glued to the lightwood family through that, and kept defending maryse and izzy listened to him because he was robert. and i think that’s what’s happening here too, him trying to frame this as “don’t worry, she’ll come around” because he knows right then that alec is absolutely going to turn their back on them if that’s what it takes for her to be happy so he immediately slides in and reframes this under an affection light where everything will be alright! even if honestly i don’t think that’s what alec is really thinking about at all, i think he was 100% ready for a showdown

and robert is clearly so disapproving and yikes at the whole thing too but he pretends he isn’t and like lmao

shoutout to their faces when robert asks “are you two in love?” like magnus just turns around like oh hell no we’re not gonna have this conversation and alec lights up for just a second with a small smile before he’s like wait wait no shit shit shit we’ve just met no of course there’s no love (and like... i don’t think there is per se, because i think love is something that takes longer to settle in, specially for alec, but i think the idea that he could talk openly about being in love with a man and even fall fully in love with magnus one day makes him super happy you know?) lmao dorks

tho tbh i think magnus shuts down that conversation immediately to avoid heartbreak. because i think that for this whole thing he was expecting alec to say something he’d hate hearing to get his parents’ approval, you know? like like i said it’s really unexpected and surprising/inspiring that alec didn’t back down an inch there, and i think he was expecting alec to kind of fall back slightly now, like, he played his cards and now he would negotiate with them, you know? find a place to make them comfortable. instead alec gives them a complete fuck you and he’s like... damn obviously super pleased but also waiting for the other shoe to drop

he just steps in like “pls no” and stops that conversation right there

the way alec takes a deep breath and magnus opens his mouth then closes again quickly not knowing what to say and then changes the subject.... he’s really so scared of this talk and i just aaa

alec literally never fucking stops going from magnus’ eyes and lips in quick succession like alec. alec please. stop being horny for just a second man. please alec i’m begging you

it’s so cute how magnus mentions a date and alec is immediately like “hell YEAH we should do that” no hesitation like he’s 100% ready to leave immediately right now (i see his pause between “wanna... i don’t know, get a drink?” and “....sometime?”, i see it, you can’t fool me alexander) and also the fact that his first suggestion is something that he hates but that he knows for a fact magnus likes is so cute, like he immediately goes for magnus’ interests here and we stan

i also think that he’s come to associate drinking = dates after 1x06 and the way magnus called him specifically for a drink before he showed up too, like... it’s cute how he immediately came to associate those things because of magnus and just jumps into that because that’s what he knows. he’s so eager and like good for him

magnus’ SMILE when he says that like bro he can see how stoked alec is to go on a date with him they are adorable he is so fucking HAPPY i doubt he expected such a great outcome from this and yet here they are

ALEC DOES THE WHOLE LOOKING AT HIS LIPS IN QUICK SUCCESSION THING ONE LAST TIME BEFORE THE SCENE ENDS SHUT UP OH MY GOD HE NEVER STOPS. MATT DADDARIO THANK YOU FOR MY RIGHTS

next part

#malec livewatch #sh #malec #magnus bane #alec lightwood #abuse tw #maryse tw #camille tw #anti clace #meta

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sparrellow · 5 years ago

Text

i can be ur angle or yuor devil

“I literally called you sexy. I winked at you. Then you sat on me and gave me a boner.”

It just so happens that the company's plans to revive Rin's failing idol status brings her closer to her previous partner-in-crime.

rating: T+ genre: romance/humor ships: rin/len word count: 6,974

Life in the idol world was tough.

Rin knew as much, because she, unfortunately, was an idol.

She wasn’t even sure how she got herself into this mess, but she was talent scouted at an age too young by Western standards, probably, and then forced into a duet with some bratty kid called Len.

The whole farce was that they looked almost exactly the same, and were the same age, and ‘had the same family name’ (they didn’t, but that was a long story). So, they were marketed as like, twins-by-chance-not-blood or mirror-images or gender-bend-friends or whatever.

That worked for a while, until Len went through puberty and became way too hot to duet with Rin, and his own popularity sky-rocketed so much that they were basically forced to be their own pop stars.

Alas, Rin was kind of just too damn average to go solo. Especially with more appealing talents in the charts, like Japan’s darling idol Miku Hatsune, or just, Len himself, she had no chance. All that could be concluded from this was that Rin was just too ugly and untalented.

After Meiko had heard Rin’s internal woes, she patted her roughly on the back and sighed.

“Oh, Rin. You’re not ugly or bad at singing. You wouldn’t have gotten this far if you were.”

Rin sniffled, and blew her ugly face into her handkerchief. Of course she’d started crying during the whole monologue, which made her sound and look even more ridiculous than before. “But I’m literally sucking. Even the manager has called an emergency meeting about my lack of popularity.”

That was true. Earlier that day, the manager had sent a text into the Vocaloid Idol Group Chat™ calling for an emergency meeting to save a certain idol’s plunging fanbase. Even if he didn’t name her directly, literally everyone in the group chat knew it was about her.

How embarrassing. Even Miku and Len saw it. She wanted to die.

Meiko tutted, shaking her head. “You know, you’ve been a duet with Len for almost your whole career. Everyone knows you as part of a duet. So, of course your image might suffer a little with such a sudden change as you go into solo careers. The manager just needs to figure out how to market you in a way that shows idol fans how truly spectacular you are as a solo idol. That’s all.”

Rin wailed. “That’s the thing. I’m not spectacular as a solo idol. I’m just painfully average.”

“Lies!” her companion said. “Rin, you are so cute. Like, you can take anything and make it cute. And your voice is unique, like Len’s. It doesn’t have to be like Miku’s to be special, it’s already special as is.”

She dabbed at her tears and sniffled again. Her stupid idol makeup was running down her face, making her look like she’d just crawled out of a TV set showing a horror movie. Even Miku would still look painfully beautiful crying, and not like some unfortunate Halloween-costume-gone-wrong.

“Thanks Meiko,” Rin said. “I don’t believe a word you said but thanks for trying to comfort me anyway.”

Meiko rolled her eyes, giving her another rough pat on the back. “Would you believe me if I was Len telling you all that stuff?”

The mention of Len made her ears turn pink. “Hmm,” she said, knowing the point her senior idol was making.

Meiko smirked. “That’s right.”

The brunette then left Rin to cry like a baby by herself in the private idol lobby of their record company building. To be honest, it would be humiliating if anyone else saw her like this, but she couldn’t bring herself to move somewhere more private to cry. Besides, everyone knew her career was going down the toilet.

Perhaps she would’ve been able to bounce back more if things were different, but a certain Blonde Boy with a Very Attractive Face made it all the more complicated.

Here was the catch: Rin was totally enamored of Len.

It was a bit sad, really. And it hadn’t always been so cliched-romance-story, with her pining after his very nicely shaped ass. In the beginning, they actually sort of hated each other, with her wanting to kick his ass to the moon.

He was the most self-absorbed dingus at first, and he would play pranks on her constantly. They weren’t even good pranks—like, once he put a whoopee cushion on her seat during a meeting and found that hilarious.

Of course, with time, they grew on each other and actually became very good friends. They had secret jokes with each other, they played pranks on other idols, they watched horror movies until dawn and then slept on the couch together for the rest of the week because they were too scared to sleep in their own beds.

It couldn’t be helped that Rin eventually fell for Len. Daring, mischievous, but charming Len. He always knew how to make her smile (or tear her hair out with frustration).

But for the sake of professionalism, she never dared uttering her true feelings to him—only confiding in Meiko from time to time, since she was the only Vocaloid she could trust. It sucked, but she couldn’t risk ruining the relationship between them, thus ruining their career had Len demanded they should go solo.

Of course, then they grew up. Len’s voice changed, as well as his appearance, and soon his own popularity outgrew the popularity of the duet itself. The manager made the wise choice to break them up. He went solo, with much success.

Rin, however, flopped like a suffocating fish out of water.

With his success, he moved on to doing occasional collaborations with Miku Hatsune, the record company’s most popular idol. She was, by definition, probably a global superstar at this stage. She toured internationally. She had fans of all nationalities, ages, genders, so have it. She was beautiful and cute and talented, and Len had finally made it far enough to sing with her.

It made Rin’s blood boil, because she was petty and jealous. She was also worried. Miku was just so perfect. It was inevitable that Len would fall for her, right? They were perfect for each other. Perfect people love other perfect people.

Rin blew her nose noisily and sunk back into the lounge chair. This sucked. This sucked.

Gumi appeared, having heard her meltdown, and offered some makeup wipes to fix her face.

Rin took them graciously.

“Is this about the text from the manager in the group chat?” she asked, handing her another wipe after Rin had used up the other one.

Rin just looked at her and said nothing. There was no need to say anything.

Gumi didn’t press and fell silent. She was a nice idol. She wasn’t nearly as successful as the others, but she was quite popular in her own way. At least she was kind enough to not nag about the matter.

Another sad thing about popularity was that Len soon became distant once they parted ways. They used to be so close, but now Rin felt like she couldn’t even approach him unless approached herself. Of course they talked, but only occasionally. Their careers had drifted so far apart they barely saw each other anyway.

Had their friendship only survived because they were a duet? Was Len glad to be a solo artist now and not having to deal with her anymore? It was sad to think about.

Gumi squeezed Rin’s shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile. “It’ll all work out, Rin,” she said. Then she handed her her pack of makeup wipes. “You can keep them. I have plenty of extras anyway. Take care of yourself, okay?”

“Thank you,” Rin said, watching as she jumped up from the couch and skipped off. (Probably to do better things than comfort a failing idol.)

Soon came the time for the not-so long-awaited yet very-muchly-apprehended emergency meeting to fix Rin’s poor career.

She didn’t want to go. She’d rather be curled up in her room, stuffing her face with chocolate and crying over poorly-written teen romance on Netflix. But Meiko had practically dragged her to the meeting room, makeup-less and in her go-to comfort clothes: a stained, baggy sweater and yoga pants.

Rin had already been humiliated enough as is, so showing up in this state couldn’t be any worse.

Supposedly.

Like fate itself had it in for her, Len also showed up in the elevator on the way to the meeting. He did a double take when he saw her.

“Oh, Rin! I almost didn’t recognise you.”

Rin then promptly burst into tears.

Len blinked at her in confusion and panic. “I, uh, didn’t mean that in a bad way—”

Meiko just put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. She’s just being fragile.”

He looked at Rin with an eye of concern, but said nothing more.

They filed into the meeting room in silence, and Len took a seat at a distance from her. Much to her further dismay, Miku took the seat right next to him, and they started chatting and showing each other things on their phones.

Rin didn’t know if she was going to have a tantrum or a breakdown.

The meeting began with the manager going over sales-related information, and just general, boring business things. About half-an-hour into the meeting, though, he set aside his stacks of paper, clasped his hands in front of him and leaned forward; a look that meant serious business.

Oh boy.

“I’ve discussed with both the marketing and sales department leaders as to where to go next with Vocaloid’s image. As you know, the idol market is ever-changing and in demand of fresh concepts. We’ve decided on a new image for some idols, and we appreciate everyone’s understanding and cooperation with this change.”

Translation: Rin’s career is going down the toilet, so we need to make her more interesting or something.

“Miku and Len,” the manager addressed. The pair straightened up with serious expressions. “I want you two to have a new image. You’re both our most successful idols, and your fanbase is very supportive of your every move. This is why we feel it’s best for you to take on an image of innocence and purity. You will become Vocaloid’s angels.”

Rin was already sinking down into her seat. This was going so terribly awful. Miku and Len? Angels? Together? She couldn’t even see where this was going for her.

Unfortunately, she’d find out very, very soon, as the manager then fixated his gaze on her.

“Rin. Ever since going solo, your fanbase has been dwindling and sales for both your albums, new singles, and lives, have been suffering.” Oof. “The marketing department has acknowledged this is a fault of their own, for not better marketing your image as something new and fresh after splitting from your duet with Len. We didn’t anticipate Len’s popularity to skyrocket so much that it would overshadow your own success.”

Everyone’s eyes were on her. Including Len’s.

“Your image has always been cute and innocent, and while you fit it quite well, the market is flooded too much with idols like you. That’s why we decided, you will become our devil.”

Rin almost fell out of her chair. Her entire face lit up red like a traffic light.

A devil. A devil. They were going to make Miku and Len innocent and pure, and her evil and chaotic like Satan? Wow. Wow. Rin never wanted to die more than now.

“A devil may sound bad, but we want to combine your current cute image with something mischievous, cheeky, alluring. The current idol market lacks that sort of appeal, and we believe people would become quite attracted to it. You’ll be cute, but with a twist of something dark. We think this new image will suit you quite well.”

Okay, so, Rin representing evil was like a match made in heaven? Did she radiate chaotic evil energy or something? She literally couldn’t even kill a fly without wanting to cry with guilt.

“Any questions or concerns about our decisions?” the manager asked the group.

The room was silent.

“Good,” he said with a smile. “Miku, Rin, Len. Please stay for further discussion about our next campaign. The rest of you are free to leave.”

Meiko shot Rin a sympathetic look before leaving, and once the room emptied out, the manager motioned for the trio to move closer.

“First, do you three have anything you would like to say regarding these changes?” he asked them, sorting through his paperwork to find his notes.

It was quiet a moment, before Len slowly put up his hand.

“Yes?”

“Why are Miku and I involved with this image chance if we’re fine in terms of sales and popularity?”

Big oof. But, honestly, it was a question on Rin’s mind, too. Why were they involved with this miserable attempt at reviving her career?

“While you two are both doing very well, the sales department has noticed that you two have both, er, capped for your sales, and they're no longer increasing. They predicted that it could decrease as people become bored with your current images, so in order to prevent that, we wanted to take a different approach.”

It was Miku and Len’s turn to blush.

“Besides, your popularity will help promote Rin to a larger audience, which is why your next campaign will be together.”

Rin wanted to hide under the table.

“Any other questions?”

Everyone shook their heads, so the manager moved on. “As I said, your next campaign will be together. We were thinking of doing a photoshoot to promote a popular brand of clothing, and using that as a base of your new image. Respectively, Len and Miku promoting a more soft, pure style of clothing, and Rin, promoting a more gothic look.”

Rin? Gothic? Was she going to have to change her stage name to Darkness or Elvira or Raven Way to suit her image, too?

“We’ll see how this goes. If the campaign gains enough popularity, we’ll keep moving forward, perhaps on to new songs and collaborations with each other.”

The manager then relayed the information for the photoshoot, asked for any more questions, and after receiving no further response, dismissed them.

Miku said nothing much once they left the meeting room, simply excusing herself as 'she had business to get to'. Len stayed behind, staring at the carpet between him and Rin.

“So, uh, what do you think?” he asked.

Rin looked at him. “I’m so sorry you two have to get involved with me.”

Len snorted. “Don’t be ridiculous. We don’t care about that. But you care, right?”

“I guess I don’t really want to be Satan, but…” she said in a low voice.

He chuckled, and Rin’s face grew warm. “Yeah. I can understand it. But, not saying you’re evil or anything, I feel like some cute devil image would totally suit you.”

“Excuse me?”

Len dodged her elbow, stepping back. “I mean, you’re already cute. Putting angel wings on you would be boring. But you with some devil wings? I can see the appeal—”

Rin didn’t know whether to be flattered or offended. She stepped on his foot to stop him mid-sentence. “Don’t mock it!”

“I’m not,” he said with a grin. “I’m just saying, it’ll be interesting to see what they’ll do with your image.”

She flushed. “Yeah, well, I wonder what they’ll do with yours.”

He laughed and turned away, starting off down the hall. “Don’t knock it until we’ve tried it, Rin,” he said over his shoulder.

Rin sighed. He had a point… but.

Still.

She had tried it, and was ready to knock it.

Rin stared at her reflection in complete and utter mortification. Her wardrobe for the photoshoot was something she'd only be caught dead in. One outfit was a long, black dress that made her look a bit like a nun. The other outfit—her current one—consisted of leather shorts, a black corset top, fishnet tights, and lots of unnecessary ribbons.

Oh, and platform boots, but they were kind of cool.

She grimaced at the stupid devil accessories she had to wear. Seriously? A tail? Wings? Little horns? This was a nightmare.

Meanwhile, Miku could wear this pretty, floral dress and cute, frilly overall skirt. She looked so soft and fluffy and it made Rin want to throw herself into piranha-infested waters.

Len appeared behind her reflection in the mirror. He had matching overall pants to Miku’s skirt, and a frilly, white button-up shirt with a ribbon at the neck. Rin never knew she needed to see him in soft, feminine clothing until now.

“I told you it’d suit you,” he said with a shit-eating grin.

“I look like I just walked out of a 90s vampire-romance manga.”

Len snickered. “Yeah, well, you would fit in really well with the kids in Harajuku,” he said. “Anyway, you’re totally giving off cute-sexy vibes.”

“How can one be cute and sexy?” Rin asked, not sure to take what he said seriously, let alone as a compliment.

He began playing with her tail, using it to hit her in the legs. “I don’t know. But you somehow do it.”

Her face burst into flames. Thank god her makeup was thick enough to hide that (though her ears were giving away the secret).

Len then walked off, as if nothing ever happened, but that was basically his signature move. The guy was really good at making her melt and not noticing it at all.

The first shoot was with Miku, and the photographer seemed to be really into making it weirdly intimate, so it felt rather homoerotic. Not that Rin cared, because, well, even she felt slightly gay for Miku.

That aside, it was pretty uneventful. Miku was polite, and laughed when her tail kept knocking the set pieces over.

Next was Miku and Len. Since they were ‘angels’, they did, like, angel-ly things or whatever. Looking beautiful, eating grapes and watching humans make fools of themselves. (That was what the photographer said.)

Of course, some poses made Rin’s blood curdle with jealousy as she stood to the side watching, in between the makeup and hair artist fussing about her appearance. But her prayers were soon answered as Miku was sent off set and Rin called up to start her shoot with Len.

“So, you two were partners, right?” the photographer asked, as he set them up for the first pose.

“A duet, yes,” Rin said.

“Hmm,” the photographer said, in a way that was slightly concerning.

The first few poses were fairly tame. Rin being evil, Len being good. “Steal his grapes,” the photographer ordered. “Okay, good, now look sad because she stole your grapes.”

Why were grapes even a part of this weird shoot? What did they have to do with heaven and hell, or whatever the theme was?

“So, now, Len, I want you to look sad for your partner. She’s become evil.”

Rin frowned at the directions, and Len burst out laughing in her face. “Sorry, I’m sorry,” he apologised to the photographer.

“Rin, you want to lure Len over to the dark side.”

Len snickered again, his expression faltering just for a moment. Rin rolled her eyes, and followed the directions for how she should pose.

She placed a hand on his cheek, leaning over him and pressing a finger to her lips. He looked up at her with wide eyes, and for a moment she thought it was his actual expression, before she remembered the context of the photo and yada yada yada.

The photographer repositioned them a few times, telling Rin to play with his hair and Len to act as if he was pushing her away.

The whole time, Rin could only think about how bright red her ears were, and how the photo editor would probably have to photoshop them back to a human colour.

Eventually it came to the last photo of them together.

“Okay. Len, you have given in. Your devil has lured you to the dark side.”

Rin wanted to face-palm. Len raised his eyebrows at her and winked.

“Creep,” she muttered to him.

“Hey, you’re the one dressed in leather right now,” he said.

“Yeah, and it’s giving me a massive wedgie.”

Len snorted. “TMI, Rin.”

The photographer began unbuttoning Len’s shirt somewhat. “Rin, hold his collar and motion like you’re trying to take off his shirt.”

“Why,” she said without thinking, and the photographer stopped to look at her questioningly. Len was laughing into his hand. She cleared her throat. “Sorry, I was kidding.”

As if wanting revenge, the photographer then instructed, “Also, I want you to sit on his lap, so that you’re both facing each other.”

Len stopped laughing, checking to see if the photographer was serious. (He was.)

Rin, with the very last remaining bit of courage, reluctantly sat down so that she was straddling Len. Their eyes met, and they pretty much communicated silent apologies to each other.

She held onto his shirt as per instruction, pretending that she was unbuttoning it. A hint of his bare stomach peaked through at her, and she almost screamed.

Len was told to hold her waist. The poor boy seemed humiliated.

Imagine having to shoot something this grossly intimate with someone you’re incredibly not attracted to, Rin thought. That was probably what was going through his brain.

After being repositioned a few times, the photoshoot between them was finally over, and Rin leapt off his legs like she had been sitting on flames the whole time.

“I’m sorry,” she said to him, and Len looked at her with surprise.

“Why are you sorry?”

“Oh, just. That pose was a bit… Uh.”

He shook his head and patted her shoulder. “No need to apologise, Rin. It’s part of the job.”

Right. Right.

It’s part of the job.

She didn’t know why those words stung as much as they did.

The rest of the shoot was fairly tame. Perhaps the photographer sensed their discomfort with that one position, but he didn’t really force them into any intimate positions after that. Thank god (but Rin was also a little disappointed, you know, because …).

Once they wrapped up the shoot and returned to regular human form, Miku suggested that they order pizza and chill out at her apartment.

As they headed there in a taxi, Len nudged Rin and gave her this pouty expression.

“I’m so sad they didn’t let you keep the devil wings and stuff,” he said.

“Why, did you want to wear them?” Rin asked.

“No!” Len exclaimed, looking flustered at such a suggestion. “I—I—”

Miku chuckled at them from the front seat. “You two are really close, aren’t you?”

“What?” Rin said.

Miku and Len both looked at her, surprised by her response.

“I mean, we barely even talk anymore.”

A strange expression crossed Len’s face, and he opened his mouth to say something, before snapping it shut and turning away to stare out the window. Miku watched this, before looking back at Rin.

“Really?” she said. “It doesn’t seem that way to me.”

Then Miku turned back to face the front.

Rin was silent. Had she said something wrong? She thought Len would laugh about it or agree, but…

She sighed and turned to stare out the window as well. She could tell pizza was going to be awkward.

As expected, pizza was pretty awkward.

Len was very strangely serious with everything, and Miku tried desperately to lighten the mood. Eventually, Rin gave up and made some excuse about needing to get home so she could call her parents.

She stared at her long-untouched LINE chat with Len while waiting at the station for the next train home. It was only the truth, though; what she’d said. They'd used to talk every day, whether it be in person or through text. But then one day, he'd just stopped, and so did she.

Was it her fault, or something? She had tried initiating conversation before, but they’d died rather quickly. To be honest, today’s photoshoot was the first time they’d talked that much in like, a year or so.

So why was Len so upset about what she said?

He seemed to ignore her after that, or avoided her as much as possible. Even in the followup meetings between him, Miku, her and the manager, he avoided her gaze entirely.

The manager gave them some pictures from the shoot at their last meeting, saying their photos would be in the next volume of Sara, a pretty popular alternative fashion magazine.

One of the photos he’d given them happened to be that pose.

Rin stared at it. It felt incredibly unnatural and awkward at the time, but as a photo, it looked peaceful and natural, and the expression on Len’s face was something different, almost as if he truly was captivated by her or something. Had they mysteriously photoshopped all their humiliation out of the picture?

When she got home from work, she stuck it on the wall above her bed, alongside other photos from their many escapades in the years before. It hadn’t grown much since they went solo, so it was nice to have a new addition.

Rin still felt miserable about it all. She didn’t know if she should message him an apology, or try talking to him about it, because she just didn’t understand.

She pulled out her phone and called Meiko.

Meiko picked up on the third ring. “What can I help you with, Little Miss Devil?”

“Oh no. Let me guess. You saw the photos?”

“Of course. Miku and Len were showing everyone in the lobby. Your butt looked really nice in those pants.”

“Please don’t remind me of my trauma,” Rin moaned, thinking back to her killer wedgie. She was pretty sure she got chafing from those shorts.

“So, what’s up? You don’t just call me for small talk.”

Rin winced, realising she’d kind of used Meiko as a bit of a therapist lately.

Nevertheless.

“It… it’s Len.”

“Len, huh? What did he do?”

“It’s not what he did, more so what I did.”

Meiko was silent for a moment. “Hmm.”

Rin hesitated. “What?”

“I think I know what you did. Miku told me about what happened a few weeks ago, and was asking for context or whatever.”

“What did you tell her?”

“Nothing,” Meiko said smoothly. “Anyway, I was waiting for you to talk to me about it, because I only have one thing to tell you: Talk to him about it.”

Rin clenched her jaw. “Talk to him about it? Why?”

“Because I’m not Len and I can’t tell you what his problem is.”

“Wait,” she said. “Has Len told you about this?”

Meiko hummed. “Not specifically, but I know some things.”

Rin began to tug at her hair, anxious. “Wait. What. What does that mean?”

“Rin,” Meiko said in a firm voice. “From one experienced adult to a less-experienced adult: communication is key.”

Not letting her get another word of protest in, the woman hung up.

Rin stared at her phone in her hand. She was mentally pooping herself. What was going on? What terrible, awful thing was going to happen next?

Reluctantly, she opened her LINE chat with Len and began writing a message to him.

Much to her surprise, Len agreed to meet up at a cafe on their day off. It was one of those hole-in-the-wall cafes, so not really busy anyway, and they took a seat in the far back corner of the shop, where it was more private for a serious discussion.

He was very quiet the whole time, until they’d settled into their seats. He looked up at her, sitting back in his chair. “So, what did you want to talk about?” he asked, straight to the point.

Rin hadn’t elaborated the reason for the talk or anything, let alone even thought about how she would broach the topic. “Uh, um…” she said, staring down at the menu in front of her. Did she want milk tea, or something herbal? She wasn’t sure how pleasant the conversation was going to be, and if shit were to hit the fan somehow, maybe she should avoid dairy in case her (anxious) shit were to also, figuratively, hit the fan.

Len raised an eyebrow at her.

“About… the day of the photoshoot,” Rin finally said, settling on just getting straight to the point. “I’m sorry about what I said. I didn’t realise it was going to upset you. It… I didn’t say it to hurt you, or be mean, or anything.”

He shifted in his chair, picking up his menu to read. “You don’t need to apologise for it. I know what you meant. And it’s true.”

Rin bit her lip. “But I still upset you.”

Len looked at her over the top of the menu. “I’m not looking for your apology,” he said in a low voice. “I don’t want it.”

“Oh.” Ouch.

He put his menu down. “Have you decided what you want, yet?”

“Yeah."

“What do you want?”

Rin blinked at him a few times, before acknowledging he wasn’t going to move on before she gave an answer. “Er, I’ll just get some yuzu tea.”

“No food?” he asked, pointing at the cake and sweets menu.

She shook her head, and he stood from his chair. Was he going to leave?

Then he pulled his wallet out from his pocket. “Well, I’ll get you something anyway,” he said, and left to order the food before she could protest.

Rin stared down at her knees, tears stinging the corners of her eyes. She quickly wiped them away and willed herself not to cry in front of him. Again.

What did he mean about not apologising? What did he want, then? Was he just really, really mad at her?

She glanced over her shoulder to check he hadn’t just run away, but he was at the counter, making their order.

Right. She needed to pay him back for this, too. She pulled out her purse and checked she had enough change to give him.

“How much?” she asked when he sat down.

“No,” he said, eyes narrowing in on her purse.

Rin ignored his response, counting out her coins to give him. Before she could hand them over, he reached out and pushed her hand back to her.

“Really, Rin,” Len insisted. “You don’t have to pay me back.”

Sulking, she dropped the coins back into her purse and put it away.

They both fell into silence until their order came. Len had gotten honey toast for them to share.

It was like old times; when they used to always hang out together, when they would order something crazy like a giant parfait meant for four people and try to finish it all without making themselves sick.

Rin couldn’t help but frown.

Len paused when handing her a spoon. “Do you not like honey toast?”

“Huh?” she said, glancing up at him. “Oh, no. It’s fine.”

He raised an eyebrow at her.

Rin tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, digging the spoon into the dessert. “It’s just nostalgic, that’s all.”

Len gazed at her.

She looked away from him, embarrassed by the very intense-and-direct eye contact he was giving her.

He then said, “Rin, I know we’ve gone our own ways and fallen out of contact, but you do know I consider you one of my closest friends, right? Just because we don’t talk as much as we used to, or see each other that much anymore, doesn’t mean I don’t think of you as someone special to me.”

Rin flushed. She set down her spoon on the table, losing her appetite. “So, you are mad at me about what I said.”

Len opened his mouth, like he was about to protest, but then he hung his head. “It’s… not…” he said, before sighing in defeat. “It’s more so, I’m sad that… that’s how you think. I’m sad that things made you feel like we weren’t good friends anymore.”

She wanted to cry again, but held her breath in an attempt to stop the tears. “Mmmmmmm,” was all she could say.

He then rested his head in his hand, playing with his spoon in the other. “I guess maybe I’ve been a bit careless about it all and I haven’t really… thought about how you’ve been feeling. And what you said made me realise that.”

“It’s my fault,” Rin began to blubber. “I should’ve talked about it sooner rather than just making the assumption you weren’t interested in me anymore.”

Len glanced up at her, noticing her ugly crying face, and reached for a napkin to hand to her. She hid behind it, trying to silence her loud sobs.

“Rin, we worked together for so long. I couldn’t just throw away our friendship after that,” he said with a pained expression.

Rin wiped her face and sighed. “I know. I’m being unreasonable. But… seeing you with Miku and everything, it just…”

Len snorted. “Miku and I, we’re friends, well, more like colleagues, but we don’t, you know, click like you and I do. Sure, we hang out and talk and stuff, but with you… I can just be me. You laugh at all my jokes. With Miku, it’s not like that. It’s not always fun and easy and natural like it is with you.”

Her ears began to burn. “Len…” she said. God. Just rip out her heart right there. He was saying all these nice things about them being friends, and she didn’t know whether to be happy or sad. Well, of course she was happy, but… she wished it was more than just. Friendship.

Maybe it was time she just. Laid it flat on the table. Killed two birds with one stone. Set the whole kitchen on fire and just get it all out.

Len looked at her from across the table, spoon in hand, waiting expectantly for her to continue with what she wanted to say.

Rin sucked in a breath, pushed back her tears and smacked her hands on the table, making both herself and Len jump, and also everyone else within earshot.

He blinked. “Rin—”

“Len,” she said, before realising she had no idea what she wanted to say next. She’d stood from her seat and was leaning across the table, staring at him. Her face grew warm as panic began to set in. Okay, okay, just say something at least, because this was getting awkward. “Len.”

Len gulped. “Yes?”

Rin sucked in a shaky breath. Okay. Here we go. Here we go—

“Marry me please,” she blurted.

Len dropped his spoon on the floor.

Rin had never run so fast to the bathroom in her life. She didn’t even stick around to hear his response (nor see his reaction). She just high-tailed it to somewhere where she could emergency call Meiko for advice.

“I just proposed to Len,” she cried as soon as Meiko answered the phone.

There was a moment of silence, before she said, “Congratulations?”

“I’m serious,” Rin said. “I literally told him to marry me.”

“Good for you.”

“Meiko! What do I do? I can’t go back out there and face him after that!”

Meiko sighed. “Where are you?”

“In the bathroom.”

She snorted. “So you just left him there after that? Did you even wait for his answer?”

“No! Of course not! Why would I wait for rejection?!”

“How do you know he was going to reject you? Did you see the future, or something, Rin?”

“Well, no , but—”

“Rin,” Meiko said, her tone suddenly very serious. “I’m not your fairy godmother. I can’t help you out of this situation. Go back out there and talk to him. Len is your friend, isn’t he? Do you think he’d completely destroy you as a rejection? Does that sound like him? Think about it.”

Rin did think about it. “Well… no… maybe…”

“So, what are you doing? Don’t leave him there by himself to wonder what the hell is going on.”

She closed her eyes, leaned back against the back of the toilet and pinched the bridge of her nose. A few beats of silence passed, before she let out an exhale. “Okay. Okay. I’ll do it.”

“Good. Now, get your ass out of the bathroom, you disgusting creature.”

“R-right! Thank you Meiko!”

Rin hung up, sat on the toilet for a moment longer, before getting up to check her reflection in the mirror and emerge with caution from the bathroom. A part of her felt relief seeing Len still at their table, another part felt pure and utter terror.

He was on his phone with a serious expression, and she had no idea how to decipher that.

Without a word, she took her seat across from him and had a mouthful of her citrus tea (which had long gone cold).

Len glanced up, looking surprised, and just stared at her with wide eyes.

Okay.

Damage control.

Okay.

Rin took a breath. “So, um, I panicked…” she began to explain.

Len cocked an eyebrow.

“The truth is,” she said, staring down hard at the barely-touched honey toast in front of them. “The truth is that you’re really hot.”

Oh boy. This was going south really fast.

“Thank… you?” Len said, confused.

Rin smacked her forehead. “Yeah, like, so, um, I’m, you know…”

He tilted his head. “I don’t know.”

She sucked in a sharp breath, and it all began pouring out of her mouth like vomit.

“I’ve been really attracted to you for like ever and it’s been eating me up inside and everything just feels a lot worse because I really like you and I don’t know how to handle it but you know I’m happy to just be friends if that’s not reciprocated because I never really wanted to confess my feelings to you anyway and I know it’s not professional or anything but please don’t hate me just because I like you like way more than a friend because I also like being friends with you please don’t hate me.”

Len blinked several times, processing that flood of information, before opening his mouth to speak.

Rin clapped her hands over her ears and cried, “It’s okay! You don’t need to answer! I just wanted to get that off my chest! Let’s forget this ever happened and move on.”

He shook his head at her. “No.”

She lowered her hands. No? That’s it? Just no?

Well, okay then. Alright. Cool cool cool.

Rin sat back in her chair, dazed and uncertain how to take in such a completely cold rejection.

“No, I don’t want to forget this happened,” he continued. Wait. What? He averted his gaze to the table, rubbing his hands together. “I don’t really understand why you think I’d hate you or something.”

She gawked at him. “Wh… what do you mean…?”

Len dug a hand into his hair, scrunching up his fringe in his fist. He looked up at her from under his dark lashes. “Rin, I literally flirted with you the entire photoshoot.”

Rin almost choked on her own saliva. “You—wh—huh. ”

He pressed his palms together, using his thumbs to massage the space between his eyebrows. “I literally called you sexy. I winked at you. Then you sat on me and gave me a boner.”

Her soul left her body. It just upped and left. See you later, humanity. I’m outta here.

Rin slid down in her chair, looking up at the ceiling. “I didn’t even notice,” she said, feeling like the world’s biggest clown.

“I’m surprised you didn’t even notice,” he continued. “That thing was like rock hard. I was shitting myself. I was praying so hard no one else would notice. I never felt so close to death in my entire life.”

“Not the boner, Len,” she said. “I mean, I didn’t notice that either but—the flirting. I meant the flirting.”

“Oh.”

“I just thought your pants were really stiff or something.”

“Aha… well.”

Rin smacked her palm against her forehead again. “I can’t believe it. I just thought you were teasing me for having to be a devil or whatever.”

“While that is quite hilarious, I was way too turned on by you at the photoshoot to mock the fact that we were dressed like the occult.”

She was defeated. That’s it? She’d been panicking over this for… nothing?

Wait. Wait a minute.

Meiko… Meiko had totally pushed her to do this, despite the chance of her getting rejected. Which meant…

Meiko totally knew Len felt the same way.

That… evil…!

“So, like, does this mean we’re dating, or…?” Len asked.

Rin turned beet red at the mention of dating. Dating Len. Wow. Wow. Just wow. Big fat wow.

“Y-yes?” she squeaked.

He grinned at her, a mischievous glint in his eye. “So, does that mean I can have you sit on me again?”

“Never mind I changed my mind—”

“Noooo—”

Rin smiled and sat forward, leaning across the table. She remembered the look on his face from the photoshoot, with his wide eyes staring up at her as she had leaned over him, playing with his hair. She wanted to see that look. She wanted to see it again.

Len gazed at her as she reached out and grabbed the collar of his shirt. She brought her face close to his. “Only if we go to your apartment after this. I haven’t cleaned mine for a month.”

“That’s disgusting,” he said into her face. “Sounds good.”

Then she kissed him on the lips.

It was awesome.

#vocaloid #fanfiction #kagamines #kagamine mirrors #rin kagamine #len kagamine #kagamine rin #kagamine len #rinlen #lenrin #rinxlen #lenxrin #vocaloid fanfiction #wrote this in one sitting and it shows #honestly this was like a crack fic basically #enjoy tho #omg had to go fix all my line breaks realised they Didnt compute #rip

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0vorenation0 · 4 years ago

Text

Taming the King of the Skies

(Series #6) ~loyalty Part2

Story made for @KadeTheDragon6520 https://kadegreene18plus.tumblr.com/ on discord and tumblr. We worked very hard to make this two part story in the VoreNation series. If you are a member on discord server, then you will know that Kade is my pet dragon. This is explaining how we met. I really enjoyed making this so pls give it a like. Happy Vore Day as well)

After a few minutes the pain intensified and I passed out from shock and lack of oxygen. Outside the gut, the dragon had digested his meal without any problems. His prey was nothing but mush. Then, all of a sudden, the dragon felt a sharp pain in his wing and shoulder. It was so intense it made him roar with enough force to shake the cave. The broken wing healed and fixed itself, so the dragon stood up and gave it a few experimental stretches and flaps. The sudden movements caused some air to bubble out of his stomach. Buurrrppp... A skull of the King went flying across the cave, bouncing off a wall and clattering to the ground. The dragon sniffed it and gave a wide smile. He sat back down and curled up to take a long-needed nap. As he lay down, the skull began to shine and grow bright. He looked up, then turned his head and shielded his eyes. It shone so bright the whole cave lit up, and when the light dimmed, I stood in my skull's place, confused but fully aware. I stood up straight and looked at the wing. “Hey it’s fixed I told you it would work!!!”

"You're strange," the dragon said, in a soft voice. I was shocked. It could talk?? "Nobody's ever survived my gut before without a reformation machine."

“Wait what, you can talk? I said totally taken of guard

The dragon sighs with exasperation. "Yes I can talk. Why shouldn't I? I'm not some common animal."

“Well I mean sure, your a fucking dragon. I know I shouldn’t be surprised since I’m part werewolf, but why didn’t you say anything before I was eaten. Btw one of the weirdest experiences of my life. I still haven’t heard a thank you” Cal rambles on as he still try’s to comprehend a talking dragon

"Why should I thank you? You tried to kill me like five separate times in the last eight hours. I was just trying to return the favor."

"They were delicious, thank you."

The dragon circles the much smaller man, like a shark circling a surfer. "You flew into my storm. You want to protect your assets, I'm going to protect mine."

“Ummm dumb question how is a storm ur asset? It’s not like you created that storm heh heh” Cal nervously turns to stay in eye contact with the dragon. “So mister dragon, do you have a name?”

"Kade. Kade, the Great Dragon of the sky. So yes, it was my storm. I did create it. Are you familiar with Great Dragons, human?" Kade says, leaning in real close for that last sentence.

“Oh wow your breath is really hot umm, no I’m not that familiar with great dragons. I just became part werewolf and knew monster type creatures were real like 3 months ago. Uhh can I just um yeah uhh *boop. Your nose feels really good. Sorry don’t eat me again, I noticed it the first time u ate me” Cal says as he slowly back up. He’s not usually frightened of anything but a massive 40 ton dragon will make anyone weak in there knees.

"We're some of the most powerful beings on the planet. Godlike in power. One could call me the King of the Skies." Kade says, spreading his wings and standing tall, letting him bask in his glory.

"That is, if any of them respected me. I'm 'too young,' they say. I'm 24, that shouldn't be too young." The dragon is just complaining to himself at this point and seems to have forgotten that Cal exists.

“Ohh that’s sad, im sorry your not treated like the glorious dragon you are. Your so stunning, your big beautiful wings, big sharp teeth, long yellow tail, and these amazingly pointy horns. Your amazing, very handsome if I do say so myself.” Cal say, wondering if Kade the dragon is even listening

"I know right? But those stuck up higher-ups think I need to be a couple thousand before I... I'm rambling. Point is, I own the skies, and considering what you've done to me so far, you'll have to work hard to gain my trust." Kade says, slowly moving his wing around to emphasize what got hurt.

“Well how can I make it up to you? I’ve heard rumors that dragons like gold, I have tons of that back at VoreNation!!! I promise as long as I live no harm will befall upon you or any other dragons. It’s okay Kade I won’t hurt u ever again I promise. You know us humans are always shoot ask questions later” cal says jokingly, but cautiously

"Gold? How much gold?" The dragon's eyes might up with curiosity. Goldlust. Every dragon's fatal weakness.

“Ohhh ummm, as much as you want!!! You could have a hoard of gold if u want. VoreNation is very rich in gold, so most of it just lies around in my gold room. Also, to make it up to you you can be apart of the royals in VoreNation. Who knows maybe one day you will be a royal mount for me hehe!!” With happiness cal offers everything to Kade the mighty dragon

"Royalty? That's... More like it.." the dragon purrs, mind already simplifying to only base desires. "Who are you anyways?" He asks sweetly.

Ohh I’m no one really, you ever flown by VoreNation? It’s a massive city, I come from a long line of kings and queens. I’m the sitting king, ruler of all VoreNation. So yeah no one really.”Cals chest boasted as he clarifies with pride

“A king, wow that’s impressive. I would love to come stay with you. Hope there’s plenty of things to eat in this City.” Kade says as he lowers himself gesturing for me to hop on his back.

“Please don’t go too fast I don’t want to fall off and fall to the ground without a parachute.” Cal Climbs on Kade back.

They depart and head for VoreNation, a long trip, Cal would have to see Saladin another time. As they reached the city, people were scared. Running inside to get away from the massive dragon. We landed at the castle and went into the throne room. I knighted Kade and proclaimed him the Royal Mount of VoreNation. I had a special sable made to fit Kade, fit well and looked good on him. I hugged Kade, and gave him a kiss on the nose. Our bond had grown quite strong, and he was more than a pet. He was family, Kade grew quite protective of me. Though Kade was a lot of work and made big messes. He was spoiled rotten, got more gold than anyone could imagine. A prisoner was brought to me, for threats against the throne. I came up with a great idea, I snapped my fingers. The man stretched out and transformed into a beautiful leather collar. With gold designs, and edging that spelled out Kade. He moved his massive head down and I placed it on him. Kade wrapped me up in his tail and licked my cheek. I stayed there for a while and we both fell asleep, cuddling each other. The bond between a dragon and his owner was strong, what started from hatred. Evolved into a beautiful trust, and loyal relationship.

The end~

#vorenation #orginal #series

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caligobeltrao · 4 years ago

Note

I for one would love 2 hear ur thoughts on the hannibal novel 👀👀 - bloodybrahms ☺

ahhh thank you BB!! <3 I’m gonna throw it under a cut bc I know people aren’t gonna want my ramblings clogging up their dash lol.

Edit after I’ve written it: Holy shit this turned into a monster but tbf I did say I was going to rant. I think I miss writing college essays...

Also, I would like to note bc I’m about to bitch, I do still love Hannibal and Clarice and all of the franchise. Hell, I even love book Hannibal because I’m garbage and want to be special. So yeah. It’s a fond bitching.

Okay where to fuckin begin man... This novel was a fucking Shit Show, my dudes. It was like baby’s first fanfiction.

Let’s just jump in, shall we?

So by now, having read both Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs, I know Harris injects of lot of sexual shit into his novels, fine whatever, but the amount of pedophilia is insane. Like, Red Dragon with the grandmother threatening to cut his dick off by holding it in between scissors????? And then we have Mason Verger, worst human on the planet. Like jfc I’ll go into him specifically more later but just. Men. Why does it always have to be sexual.

Like that time Clarice wasn’t wearing a bra and she wanted to prove to Paul Krendler she wasn’t wearing a wire so she flashed him her tits?? Unnecessary, Harris. Bullshit on all counts.

Next, poor Ardelia Mapp. So he clearly wrote out her accent in Silence, which frankly reads racist since to me it seemed like he did it every time a character of color was met but he didn’t for Clarice’s Southern accent except for this book when she was talking to Ardelia. Now, that’d be a cool way to show how close they are, sure, but it just... She didn’t show up enough to warrant that reaction from me, plus all the other casually racist shit he throws in.

Ardelia’s literally there as the wise Black best friend to help Clarice along. She doesn’t feel like her own character, she’s only there in conjunction with her, or doing something for her. She was the fucking valedictorian for Christ fucking sake, she also works at the Bureau but if her department was mentioned it was only once in passing. She was not a full character which fucking blows because she could’ve been so cool.

And real quick before I forget, I hate how she’s treated in the end. I do like she gets a reference and that brainwashed Clarice sent her an emerald ring and a note saying she was okay, but Ardelia was abandoned by her best friend (that she had lived with) with not even a phone call and they will never see each other again and I think Ardelia knows it. It sucks and I’m heartbroken for this woman.

I’m gonna touch a little bit on the racism too. Now I’m white and not the most qualified to talk about this shit, but I do wanna mention it because it makes me mad. There’s just so many unnecessary slurs, any POC is more of a background helper character to Clarice than anything or a foil.

For example, Evelda Drumgo. She starts us off. Badass Black woman who runs a drug cartel. She chooses to shoot at Clarice and risk her baby’s life, and we have Clarice wash the baby off and save his life. Then Evelda’s mother is written as irrational when she slaps Clarice for visiting the baby in the hospital; I get Clarice’s impulse, but that woman just lost her daughter because Clarice killed her. I would’ve slapped Clarice too, even if it was a totally justifiable shot.

The baby himself is used as a foil throughout other parts, most notably to me when Clarice goes to visit Mason the first time. There are two Black boys from a foster home playing in a room with a camera so Mason can watch them, and it shakes Clarice up a lil bit because of the baby, but it says she’s getting more used to it.

Now this is half and half well written and shoddy to me. It’d be a cool moment, if the whole incident wasn’t nearly completely forgotten for the rest of the book shortly afterword. It could show growth, if Clarice had any growth to show.

And then the Romani people who are literally just used and thrown away. Sickening. Also very broadly used the stereotypes we hear which Sucks; the three we meet in any sort of depth are pickpockets, one was already in jail and Pazzi used his leverage as a police officer to get her to do what he wanted and threatened to have her baby taken away from her permanently, like it was just bad. And then the man got killed. Pazzi let him bleed out. Asshole.

The slurs. I could take out all of them and pretty much have the same damn thing. Like I get showing negative aspects of characters and just because a character’s racist doesn’t mean the author is, but with the characters already being as shitty as they are, fully didn’t need it to make them worse. Entirely unnecessary. Racism or the character being racist has no impact on the plot is the major thing, I think. And you can replace that with anything along those lines, like sexist, homophobic, transphobic. It didn’t impact the plot, they can still be shitty, you just don’t need to use them.

This also goes in reference to Margot being a lesbian. And the transphobia holy shit, it was disgusting. Harris had Clarice think something so cruel and unnecessary it’s like my guy why was that even remotely something we needed to hear. We didn’t. I wanted to stop reading because that’s not my Clarice, first and foremost, and second, this is supposed to be the character we LIKE. And now I don’t like ANYBODY in this damn book.

And he treats Margot like shit too, and Barney.

Their friendship was beautiful and great and finally for once something nice was happening in Margot’s life and I was happy reading it, and then FOR SOME REASON Margot goes to shower in the same room as Barney after a workout, which makes no sense, and then Barney tries to force a kiss on her (and he was hard, Harris made that very clear) and she had been sexually assaulted by Mason her brother and ruin the whole damn thing and none of it would have changed any other piece of the novel if you removed it!!!!!!!!! Entirely unnecessary!!!!!! And Barney had the gall to say well I couldn’t help myself like none of that was realistic in the slightest, she never would have went in the same room to shower with him.

Something you need to do is basically get some suspension of disbelief from your reader and maintain and stretch that as you go, right? Well mine was gone at that moment.

Also side note Margot is basically just there to show how shitty Mason is for the umpteenth time. Her whole thing is lesbian sexual assault victim.

Also heavily implied she was a lesbian because of the sexual assault. And we rarely see Judy, her girlfriend, so. Bad. Bad all around.

Circling back around to Clarice and how disappointing she is in the books as compared to the movies. Well, Clarice is also a poorly written character. She’s 1000x better in the movie. Hell, she’s even better in this book than she was in Silence, but that’s not fucking hard.

Pretty much all the characters are so flat they don’t even classify as two dimensional.

Like sure, maybe we wanna say Clarice didn’t really solve much in the first book and was just handed everything because she was a trainee and that’s what Hannibal wanted.

Like if you remember the John Mulaney sketch of Delta Airlines where he’s just going “Okay!” and running to the next place he’s told, that’s Clarice.

Okay so why does she get goaded into all this shit now? She should know better. She should know how to handle herself better. Like she messes up basic fucking shit like clearing a room before untying Hannibal, which was stupid, she seems oblivious to some of the politics at work even though she’s been in the FBI for like 7 years now, she would at least have more fucking contacts than Brigham who died in the beginning and Jack Crawford who died at the end by rolling over in his bed to his dead wife’s side and Ardelia who would be near the same level as Clarice I guess but I still don’t know her damn department???? Like you fucking network.

Plus after her final fall from grace with the FBI, we meet or are told of random side characters that go no where and do nothing just to say “hey look at my special little girl, everyone likes her and looks up to her!!” Why? Because she caught Buffalo Bill 7 years ago and then never got a promotion or even worked with the BAU? Again, it does not make sense. People may pity her? But a random girl in the lab wouldn’t be fangirling. Starling herself said her career had gone nowhere because of the politics and not sleeping with Paul. You need to show me why she’s likable in her actions not others words.

We spend more time away from her than with her anyways but Jesus.

AND HER IN THE ENDING. She was fucking BRAINWASHED????? Bull FUCKING SHIT. He completely ruined anything he even remotely might’ve had in this cluster fuck of a novel.

Case in point, difference from the movie, Hannibal spends weeks (possibly? it’s left purposefully vague and I’m guessing that’s because Harris didn’t know the ins and outs and wanted his novel done) meticulously brainwashing Clarice, he had stolen her father’s bones and she’s so far gone at that point she doesn’t care, and the whole scene where Paul is getting his brain eaten? Yeah, she happily indulges and when he insults her, she asks Hannibal for more. Fuck you, Thomas Harris.

And Hannibal’s a Gary Stu, fucking fight me.

In the movie he either is or he’s tap dancing on that line, don’t get me wrong, but in the novels it’s insufferable because it doesn’t seem earned. The pigs didn’t attack him because they didn’t smell fear on him. No. He’s easily able to drug and brainwash Clarice and take her as his lover. No. Go away. He’s so smart and one step ahead and can manipulate anyone and everyone into doing what he wants and blah blah blah shut up! A character being perfect isn’t interesting even if he’s evil!! We all know he’s never truly in danger because of how Harris writes him and that’s boring!!

And I personally have a pet peeve where the villain is described as a monster or unstoppable. That’s boring and I no longer care about your story. I know 9 times out of 10 your main character is going to find a bullshit way around the impossible and kill it. Or it’s just like a default personality and nothing else is added to it. And that’s Hannibal.

I’m on Hannibal Rising now and, spoiler alert, he’s very bland as a character. (Also Harris switched some details in the novel which kinda annoys me like get your own canon right my man but whatever.) The plot itself is pretty fun? I guess? Like there’s action and stuff and I’m enjoying that. But it’s the same set up where Harris’s Gary Stu always wins, like he was 13 in the book when he killed the butcher. Let. Your. Characters. Lose.

Also even more racist shit but what did I expect really.

Anyways, I have no idea who I’m supposed to root for in the novel because all the characters are just kinda shitty. It really just boils down to Harris not showing any redeeming qualities or actions from any of his characters. I liked Margot for a while out of spite but she never really went anywhere and the way she killed Mason (btw she sodomized him with a cattle prod to get his semen bc side plot and then stuffed his Moray eel down his throat and somehow I still don’t think that’s the worst part of the novel) just. No thanks really.

All the random little side plots were also pretty not great. How many time does Harris have to say Pazzi of the Pazzis? Like I fucking get what you’re going for, even if I hadn’t watched the movie I’d be like, “Oh this dude’s gonna get hung outta that window, dope,” the literal first time. Stop treating your readers like idiots.

And then Margot’s side plot was that the will their father left said she needed a biological heir to inherit because he was pissed she’s gay and we needed the homophobia I guess, so Mason got everything, and she was helping him with the Hannibal shit because he’s pretty incapacitated duh, and in return he would give her his jizz so Judy could be artificially inseminated and they could have a child and get some of her inheritance. I don’t care. It was all very gross, and Mason kept saying shit like suck me off you’ve done it before, I won’t be able to feel it anyway, maybe Judy’ll suck me off you think she’d like that. It’s all gross.

And I guess this is a good a time as any to finally start on Mason. So a great rule of writing to make everything work better and give your story more depth is to give everyone both positive and negative traits right, even and especially the bad guys? Like, rules can always be broken if you’re a good enough writer, but I believe I have established that Harris isn’t quite there yet, to put it nicer than I have.

Mason is one bad trait after another. It’s like when Harris was bored of constantly writing about plain ole pedophilia, he threw a dart at a board of horrible things and landed on topics such as: pedophilia but make it incest, extreme sadism, sadism but against children now, and good old fashioned racism! Fucking Cordell was supposed to collect the children’s tears after Mason would make them cry and put them in martinis for him. Realism went out the goddamn door real fast with this novel y’all. Like a fucking Scooby Doo villain over here.

And he loves talking about being a sadistic pedophile, he will literally not shut up about it to Clarice when she first gets there telling her about his trip to Africa and this portable guillotine he has and just. I get it was probably like trying to make her uncomfortable on purpose because he’s a Freak, but it went way too far if only because it was annoying, not even uncomfortable for me as a reader. I was bored real quick. Get to the shit I actually wanna know.

And it sucks because of the weird, over-the-top way of how he died, I got zero satisfaction from his death. I couldn’t even be like, “Well at least Margot got her revenge,” because that’s not how she originally wanted to kill him!!! She wanted someone else to extract his semen for the insemination but couldn’t find anybody to do it for her, and then Hannibal, whilst tied up, said use a cattle prod and you won’t have to touch him and when you kill him you can blame it on me, and I’m pretty sure even if she hit his prostate right every time and he COULD cum from that alone in addition to how his body is Fucked Up now, it would’ve been a lengthy, gross, and re-traumatizing experience for her because all she wanted to do was avoid seeing and touching her brother’s private parts again, which I think is a totally fair and rational desire.

So I have to live with the fact that she was desperate enough to not lose the house and business because of her homophobic father to go through her childhood trauma again. There’s no place in this book that has a somewhat positive conclusion.

Even the very last bit where Barney has a girlfriend and a ton of cash from Margot, all he wants to do is see every Vermeer in the world right? Well, because Hannibal and Clarice are in Buenos Aires where one of them is on display, Barney gets spooked and has him and his girlfriend leave before he can see it and it ends that bit with he never got to see it ever so he didn’t even complete his dream!!!

Also for good measure, Harris throws in that Hannibal and Clarice enjoy having sex regularly. For no reason. Just letting us know.

I know this seemed like just a bitch fest, because it was, but I kinda sorta enjoyed it? It kept my attention at the very least. It’s really disappointing because like I said, I love the movies, all of them, and have since I was little. To see the original not stand up to that image in my mind is a little heartbreaking. Especially Clarice. She was a strong female role model to me, but turns out she’s... just kinda there. And her ending is that of her no longer being herself and getting that agency taken away from her.

There is a reference to her waking up from a sleep, if she is asleep (that’s kind of how he worded it), that kinda let us draw our conclusions on whether she was just brainwashed into being good for him or if she was willingly going along with this and was in love with him I guess and it felt like a slap in the face. She turned from a hardworking, modest country girl working her way up to the FBI into a female Hannibal. Which on the surface sounds kinda cool because we love luxe serial killers, but that’s not what she wanted or who she was set up to be. And to insinuate that she would even remotely consider choosing that path for herself is at its best an insult to her and at its worst a complete erasure of her background, what little character Harris did set up. It also completely erases my own connections to her, as a girl from a small town myself who has bigger dreams than this and also... a good, strong set of morals. He just tossed that out the window.

Obviously if you’re on this blog, you like slasher x reader shit, and this is a novel with a slasher x a person, right? So why am I so mad about it? Because the whole point of this blog and reader insert fanfiction in general is that you are taken as you are and loved wholly as yourself and that you are worthy of that love (in a fictional setting, not really loving people who are like this, which I think we understand but I want to clarify). She was not taken as she was. He is not in love with her, she is not in love with him. She was transformed into what he wanted out of her. He couldn’t get her to be Mischa, his first plan, so he made her like himself. And the fact that he was so easily able to do it makes me upset, and even more so is that it’s not written like it’s weird or wrong. It’s written like they’re in love and this is a good thing.

He may have been going for the classic “everyone is capable of doing bad things” stuff we see a lot, but we got that from Margot already. And Barney, for stealing Lecter’s stuff and selling it. And Paul, and the entire FBI for turning on Clarice, and the kidnappers, and Pazzi, and random shitty side characters. And none of it was particularly well written or made some sort of strong statement. It just was. And that’s not a good enough basis for a novel.

Anyways, if you made it this far holy shit you’re a saint and I love you, let’s be friends?? <3 Have a good day y’all, thank you BB for giving me permission to ramble.

#bloodybrahms #ask #no joke i spent like 5-6 hours total writing this i had a Lot to say

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theshawnieboi · 5 years ago

Text

Boss Baby | pt. 3

boss baby pt. 2

Over the weekend, I was in contact with Nancy to prepare for a type of welcome slash congratulatory lunch party thing for that new author guy and the company. As Monday rolled up, we were busy preparing everything at the office pantry.

"Hey, Lexine.” Nancy called, looking through the list on her clipboard. “Are we good to go here?”

“Yeah.” I sigh. It was almost 11 in the morning, and we were expecting people to arrive by then. “This was tiring. How did you survive through this when you were alone?”

“I don’t.” She chuckled. “I die right after then come back to life.”

Shawn enters the room, looking much more edible than the food...

“Everything looks good here, ladies.” He said, eyes going around the room. He went to check on the mini buffet we got catered and scrunched his nose up at the last meal. “Why is there tomato pasta?”

I look at Nancy, confused as to why Shawn was asking about the tomato pasta.

“He doesn’t like tomatoes.” Nancy whispered, and I just nodded in understanding but still confused.

A few minutes later, employees from every department started to come and Shawn greeted them at the door.

Shawn called for me and as I went to stand by his side, Tyler arrives with his team. “Hey man.” Shawn greeted him and they did the man handshake hug type thing.

“Hi.” I gave them a small smile and ushered them to the buffet table, leaving Shawn.

“Lexine, right?” Tyler asked, looking like he was about to say something else.

“Yes.”

“It’s nice to see you again.” He said, letting his team go first.

“You too, and congratulations again on the book deal.” I smiled.

“Yeah, thank you! I think it was because of you, you’re kind of like a lucky charm.” Tyler joked which actually got me giggling.

“But really, it was all you. The book is amazing, I’ve just finished reading the unedited version you sent us.”

“Thank you. Have you eaten? Come eat with us.” He offered and put his hand on my back, as a gesture to get me to cut in front of him.

I took a step back to get his hand to fall from my back. I looked around the room to see if someone saw, but instead made eye contact with my boss who was slowly approaching us.

“No, you guys go ahead. I’ll eat when everybody’s done. Thank you.” I told Tyler with a small smile.

“Hey, let’s eat.” Shawn said, who now has his hand on my back. He smiled at Tyler before guiding me to the end of the line.

“I really should let everybody eat first.” I smiled nervously at Shawn but just got pushed back in line by the hand that was still on my back.

“Eat.” He said firmly, took his hand off my back and handed me a plate.

“Okay..”

When we sat down with our food, Shawn was just looking at me like he wanted to say something.

“What?” I asked.

Shawn shrugged, finally starting to eat. “Didn’t say anything.”

“Yeah, but why are you looking at me like that? Do I have something on my face?” I took a tissue and tried to wipe my face when I got stopped by Shawn.

"Nothing.” He chuckled.

I rolled my eyes at him, trying to stop the smile from forming on my face, which actually got him chuckling a bit more.

After the small gathering, Nancy and I were left at the pantry cleaning up, and Shawn and Tyler were at one corner talking about something.

Nancy nudged me on the side, and pointed to Tyler with her head. “Well, you never told me that the new author was cute.”

“Meh.” I shrugged.

“Not your type?”

“Nope.”

“But Mr. Mendes is.” She smirked at me.

“Nancy.” I hiss a little too loudly, making the two men look at us.

“Everything okay?” Shawn asked.

“Yes, sir. Uh, we’ll head back to the office now.” I said, grabbing Nancy by her elbow and pulled her towards the elevator, the both of us giggling.

“Would yah look at that.” She laughed once the elevator doors closed.

“Stop it. You’re going to get me in trouble.” I managed to say in between the fits of giggles.

“Whatever.”

When the elevator doors open, Nancy and I immediately went back to work mode and proceeded to our desks.

As Shawn walked out of the elevator, Nancy winked at me which got us both giggling again.

“Thanks for the lunch, ladies.” Shawn said.

“You’re welcome, sir.” Nancy thanked our boss for the both of us before he entered his office.

My phone beeped with a text from Annie at our group chat.

Anniebee sent a message to bestiez. lets dwink anniebee is sad

Johnnyboi sent a message to bestiez. ure always sad

Anniebee sent a message to bestiez. f u.

You sent a message to bestiez. hahahahahahahahahhhahh dwinks at my place then

Anniebee sent a message to bestiez. Y A Y

Johnnyboi sent a message to bestiez. see yall later mwa

I put my phone back in my pocket and got back to work.

The intercom buzzed followed by Shawn’s voice. “Lexine, tell Tyler to just come straight to my office when he arrives.”

I pushed the button and said, “Okay, sir.”

Tyler arrives not long after. “Hi, Mr. Mendes said that you can go ahead into his office.”

"Got it.” He replied with a smile and went into Shawn’s office.

I’ve got to say, he really is charming. I mean, your typical cutie next door with the blond hair and green eyes. You know, if you’re into that Jesse McCartney charm.

I was taken out of my thoughts by the very person in them standing in front of me. “Yes? Is there anything that you need?” I looked at Shawn’s office to see if he was coming out.

“Oh, no. The meeting’s over.” Tyler smiled at me and took out what looked like a business card from the pocket of his jacket. “I was kind of hoping that you’re available for dinner later?”

“Oh, uhm...I can’t.” I manage to choke out, a blush creeping up on my face, and took another glance at Shawn’s office. “I already made plans.”

“What about Saturday?” He raised his eyebrows at me, with a hopeful smile.

I was about to decline again when the intercom buzzed followed by my saviour’s voice. “Hi, Lexine. Can you please come in here. Thank you.”

“Sorry.” I cleared my throat of whatever was blocking it. “I need to go. Excuse me.” I quickly stood up from my desk and speed-walked to Shawn’s office, not daring to look back.

“Ah, Lexine. Can you please cancel all my meetings for tomorrow.” My boss said, looking at me briefly before turning his attention back to his phone. “I need you to help me with something.”

“Is everything okay, sir? Can I get you anything?” I asked, concern lacing my voice.

“I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.” He said, not going into detail.

“Uh, okay. Would that be all, sir?”

“Yes, thank you.”

I walk out of Shawn’s office and see that Tyler and his invites are gone.

“Hey, I think Tyler left something on your desk.” Nancy said with a smirk on her face.

I look at my desk, and on top of it is his card. Okay, spoke too soon, Lexine. I pick it up and see that his phone number is underlined by the purple pen on my desk, he also wrote ‘saturday?’ on it. I sigh, actually feeling like a teenager being asked out on a date.

The rest of the day was uneventful for the office, and I just couldn’t wait to get home and get that drink with my best friends. A very much needed drink.

I groan as Shawn was coming out of his office. “I’m leaving, don’t worry. You can leave too.” He snickered.

“Oh, shit.” I muttered. “No, I was just-” I stuttered, unable to find the right words. “Oh what the hell.” I feel my face heat up, and covered it with my hands, not having the courage to look at my boss.

“It’s fine. Let’s go?” He asked, still chuckling.

“Go where?”

“To the elevator, Lexine? We’re just going down together, don’t stress yourself too much.” He said, grinning, finally stopped laughing at me.

“Oh right, let’s go.” I followed him to the elevator without a word, afraid that I might say something stupid again. We entered the elevator, and I stood absentmindedly by the buttons.

“You okay there?” Suddenly Shawn’s breath was fanning my face, getting me out of my trance, as he leaned to press the ground button.

He went back to his place after pressing the button, and I dare to look back and see him standing there with a smirk on that perfect face. My face immediately heats up as I make eye contact with him.

“I hate you.” I mutter and looked at the buttons again, trying to hide my face with my hair.

been watching christian grey for some intimidating ceo vibes inspo

well that took long enough im so sorry for the delay and im so sorry for sucking

taglist: @ashwarren32 @ellascarlettangel @ilsolee @mx-and-mb @to-the-road @shawnmendes048 @miclarodeluna @someinsanefangirl @lili-alvarez @sweetheartmendes @coralchloe @vintageroses1014516

boss baby pt. 4

#shawn mendes #shawn peter raul mendes #shawn mendes imagine #shawn mendes imagines #imagine #imagines #fanfic #fanfiction #boss baby shawn #theshawnieboi

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frywen-babbles · 6 years ago

Text

Sounds of Silence pt5

A/N: TW: mentions of assault and violence, stalking

They stood awkwardly in the aisle, watching Oichi find her way through the clothing racks, picking up clothes here and there. After what felt like hours (but was probably no more than 20 minutes) Oichi wandered back to them with a huge pile of clothes in her arms and took her arm to lead her towards the fitting rooms. She looked helplessly at Mitsunari while being dragged away and Mitsunari couldn't help but follow.

Almost as soon as the door to the fitting room closed after her, Mitsunari felt his phone buzz in his pocket.

Mitsunari glanced at Oichi who looked like she was eagerly waiting for her to come out of the fitting room.

Several pairs of pants and skirts later Oichi handed her a sleeveless dress a wide smile on her lips.

“I’m sure it’ll look amazing on you. Go on, try it on!” Oichi ushered her back to the fitting room, but it took way longer than it should have for her to come out.

Slowly she opened the door and stepped out. The dress looked good on her, but it wasn't what drew his attention. There were faint finger marks on her neck and bruises on her arms.

Neither he or Oichi said anything. She turned her head away from them, hugging herself, but just when she was about to step back into the fitting room Oichi reached for her.

"It's a little cold for sleeveless clothes yet, don't you think?" Oichi draped a cardigan over her shoulders and offered her a smile. A smile she returned after a few seconds before bowing at her gratefully.

"I'm sorry," she said to him, "I didn't mean for you to see this..." She bowed to him as well, but he shook his head annoyed.

"It's not your fault what he did to you. Don't apologize."

"Sorry..."

"What did I just say?"

A silent laugh lit her face up. "Sorry, sorry!" she said again before she turned to Oichi and mouthed 'thank you'. "The dress really is nice, isn't it?" she asked, turning around in front of the mirror. All he could do was nod.

Somehow, Oichi managed to get bags filled with clothes for her, the poor bodyguards rendered to shopping assistants, their arms filled with shopping bags.

They were heading outside when he noticed she wasn't following them anymore. His heart made an uncomfortable thump before he spotted her at the electronics department, fingering large headphones excitement clear on her face.

He touched her shoulder to get her attention and she jumped a little bit, a sheepish smile replacing her surprise.

"People leave me alone when they know I can't hear them," she explained and was about to say something else when her eyes fell on a display a bit further down the aisle. "No way! They have the kitty ear headphones! I've wanted them as soon as I saw them!"

"Kitty headphones? Those are so cute! Do you want them?" Mitsunari was startled when he heard Oichi's voice next to him. He had been so mesmerized by her excitement he had completely missed Oichi’s arrival.

"Ahaha, I see this is the department I should have brought you for some stress relief shopping!"

The blush colouring her cheeks was so cute Mitsunari wished he could watch it all day. And the unguarded joy in her eyes when she finally held the headphones in her hands and tried them on was something that made him smile like an idiot.

***

The apartment she managed to find was already furnished. Something Mitsunari was sure Oichi had her fingers in but thought better of telling her about it. She felt bad enough already about all the things Oichi had done for her despite the fact it hadn't even been Oichi's idea to have her stay at the Oda residence.

The more she seemed to get her life back together, the lonelier Mitsunari felt. She had dragged him here and there to do some shopping, to her apartment to help her settle in, but now that everything was finished she mostly focused on working as much as possible.

His phone buzzed in his pocket in the middle of a lecture. He glanced at it to see who the message was from.

He didn't usually message anyone back but it was unusual for her to message him during the day.

He nearly dropped his phone in his haste to get up. The whole class turned to look at him when he collected his stuff and rushed out of the lecture hall.

The wait for the bus seemed like forever. And the trip didn't go any faster, the minutes ticked slowly by until he finally reached the bus stop closest to the store she worked at and ran inside.

When he found her, she was with a coworker, her face red from crying. As soon as she saw him she stood up and hugged him, burying her face on his shoulder. His first instinct was to crush her to his chest and hold her tight, but somehow that turned out as an awkward pat on her back.

Her coworker motioned he needed to get back to work and slipped out of the break room. Mitsunari pushed her away from him to get a good look at her face.

"Tell me what happened?"

"He..." she started but her hands stopped as soon as she had started. She looked at him searching his face for something.

"You can tell me," he tried to encourage her to speak.

"He has been waiting for me outside. Every now and then. For three weeks now."

"Three weeks?! And you didn't think to tell me?" Mitsunari closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm down. Now really wasn't time to lose his temper.

"I didn't want to worry you!" she tried to explain, biting her lip.

"This is exactly why I worry. You never tell me anything!" He ran his hand through his hair irritated before he continued. "So, what was different about today?"

"He came inside. He..." Her hands begun to tremble, but still, she continued. "He cornered me when I was alone. He asked 'did you think I wouldn't find you'. Here, I recorded it."

Mitsunari took her phone but looked at her sceptically.

"It translates speech into text." She held a small break before she continued. "I didn't want to read it."

He put the phone to his ear.

"-you, I know where you work. I have been very patient with you and given you plenty of time to return home now. How long do you plan to make me wait? Don't even think you can disappear. You know I'll find you no matter what, don't you? Hm, no, there's no problem, I was just talking to my wife. See you at home, darling!..." At the end of the recording, Mitsunari heard what he assumed to be her coworker's voice, asking her if she was okay.

It was clearly a threat. A threat his brain should have focused on. Instead, the words 'my wife' played in his head over and over again like an error code you couldn't get rid of no matter how hard you tried.

A touch on his arm rebooted him out of his momentary blue screen of death.

"Can you take me home?"

"No. We need to go to the police."

She shook her head, "No police. Just take me home."

Mitsunari closed the door behind him when they reached her apartment. She flopped on her bed face first and let out a deep sigh. Mitsunari sat next to her and tapped her shoulder.

"I think we need to talk," he said when she finally turned to look at him.

"Yeah..." she covered her face for a moment before she continued, "I've been meaning to ask. How did you find out my address?"

"I asked the librarians."

"And they gave it to you? Just like that?"

"No, they needed some convincing. But I told them I needed to return a book to you."

"That's like the lamest excuse ever." She sat up and crossed her legs before she continued. "Thank you for coming for me. I don't know what I would have done without you."

"You're married." It came out more like an accusation rather than a question like he had meant it to be. She stared at him her face blank.

"How did you know?" she finally asked.

"He called you his wife."

"I see." She stood up and turned her back at him. He stood up and tapped her shoulder to get her attention.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"But-"

"I'd like you to leave now." She walked to the door and held it open for him.

"What-" Mitsunari started baffled by this turn of events.

"Leave. Now." She pointed at the door and turned her eyes away from him.

Why was she being so difficult? Did she think this would change something between them? Sure, he was surprised by her being married, but nothing he'd done warranted such a cold behaviour towards him. The door slammed shut behind him leaving him alone in the hallway.

When he returned that night tired from training at the university dojo, he fell down on his bed. Maybe it would be good to retire early from time to time.

Except when he closed his eyes sleep refused to come. After an hour of twisting and turning in bed, he went to knock on Hideyoshi's door.

"Hideyoshi, can you talk?"

"Uh... sure... what is it?" Hideyoshi opened his door rubbing his eyes, a red pencil impression on his cheek. "Is this about her?"

Mitsunari didn't need to guess which 'her' Hideyoshi was referring to.

"Yes. She's married."

"She's what now?"

"I didn't realise your hearing comprehension was so terrible. She's married. To the man, she claimed to be her boyfriend."

"Uh... yeah... okay... Just... give me a moment." Hideyoshi rubbed his eyes again and yawned, "So she's married. What's the problem?"

"Why didn't she tell me?"

"Did you ask her?"

"... No."

"Well, there you have it. It really isn't that surprising considering her situation. She might be worried people try to push her to get back together with him."

Mitsunari stared at Hideyoshi in shock. Somebody would actually do something like that? Hideyoshi let out another big yawn.

"Look, if that was it, I really need to get some sleep. Good night, Mitsunari." he closed his door and after a few minutes, Mitsunari could hear soft snores.

Two days later he was at the library, trying to concentrate on reading. But his thoughts kept going to her again and again until he picked his phone up.

He stared at the message for a while before he pressed send. Her reply came after a few minutes.

<I’m not. I just want to know why you were lying about it.> <What?> <the mngr dnt wnt 2 get into trbl> <dnt wrry i found a nw 1> <and they paid me a mnth slry> <How can they just fire you?> <mde me resgn. didnt wnt mre trble> <I'm so sorry.>

He cringed as soon as he sent the message. How did apologies sound so bad in text.

He was so relieved she still wanted to see him. He hadn't even realised how worried he had been until he felt the tension leave his body.

***

The next day he hurried to the cafe after his lectures were over. She was already sitting there, headphones on her ears, her nose in a book.

He was only relieved Oichi's annoying friend and his fellow student wasn't on shift today. He didn't need her "encouragement" on his... non-date. Definitely not a date. Just two friends meeting over a cup of coffee.

He sat his cup down on the table and tapped her shoulder gently. She jumped a little bit and put her book down. Only then he noticed she had put some lip colour and his eyes were drawn to her lips. To her beautiful and very kissable lips.

"Sorry, I didn't see you at all. I was just getting at a good part." She took her headphones off and put them on the table.

"It's okay. How was your day?"

"Boring." Her phone on the table buzzed with a new message. "Except for that."

"What's 'that'?" he felt his brows furrow and he looked at her phone which buzzed with a new message.

"I ran into one of my friends and gave her my new number. Now she and my other friends keep messaging me."

"It's... nice they want to be in touch." Did that mean she didn’t need him anymore? Was that why she hadn’t been in touch for the last few days?

“I wish...” She unlocked her phone and pushed it towards him. The screen was filled with messages.

His mouth felt dry as he read the hateful messages that seemed to go on forever.

“How long... how long have you received messages like this?”

She poked at her cake with a fork and sighed.

“About two weeks now. Don’t worry, it’s not a big deal.” The way she pursed her lips and the angry poke her cake received told him it was a big deal. To be betrayed by the people you thought you could trust the must hurt. Did hurt.

@masamunesmistress @you-mass-effect-my-dragon-age @han-pan @dreamfar628

#slbp #slbp fanfic #ishida mitsunari #oda oichi #toyotomi hideyoshi #voltage fanfic #frywen writes #sounds of silence fic

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strawberryjeonginnie · 6 years ago

Text

Oblivious//Han Jisung

Requested: yes

Genre: fluff, bulletpoint, high school au

Additional: gender neutral reader, best friend Jeongin

Warnings: none

Summary: both of you were completely oblivious, and Jeongin wasn’t having it.

high school was kicking you in the ass

whoever the fuck said that “high school is going to be some of the best years of your life” better have been fucking lying, because this was bullshit

it’s like you could smell the depression and anxiety right when you walked through the front doors

,,, or maybe that’s the juul smoke,,,

it’s probably the juul smoke

anyways

junior year had been a bitch so far. with all the regular school work, topped with the pressure of college applications and tests,,, you—to put it kindly—wanted to die

didn’t help that u had senioritus already too lmao. like???? was it really so wrong for you to want to cry yourself to sleep at home and not have to sit through Coach Nolan drone on about Algebra 2?????

fuck u Coach Nolan

yet, you managed to push through first quarter. but u probably wouldn’t have made it without your best friend, Jeongin

its not like he helped you with school work, bc he was just as lost as you

“Jeongin, I need your help with the English homework or I’ll die”

“Then perish”

but he made things just a little bit more less awful

ur depressed??? he’s right there telling u stupid stories to make u laugh. feel like shit????? he’s in his way to give u some soup n watch Netflix (he’s skipping school out of love and boy because he doesn’t want to take his test in history)

most of the time he would cheer u up with stories of his numb friends doing dumb things. while most of his friends were your friends, there were some you only knew from classes, but you never talked to them.

your all-time favorite to hear him talk about was a boy by the name of Han Jisung

he was,,, to say the least; a crackhead

Jeongin told u about this one time Jisung got stuck in a tree and they had to call the fire department to save him and you nearly shot milk out of your nose

press f to pay respects

you really wanted to properly meet Jisung

from what you heard from Jeongin and your other friend, Chris—he was quite possibly one of the funniest and most outgoing people alive

plus, he sounded like a good friend :((

“you really want to meet him that bad?” Jeongin asked. You nodded your head.

“he sounds cool! I have him in my English class, but I’ve never talked to him because I don’t want to be weird,”

“you???? think Jisung is cool??? (Y/n), are you alright??? have I not been a good friend?”

“oh, shut up you big baby. just let me meet your friend,” you whined. Jeongin sighed, giving up.

“alright,,, I guess you can meet Jisung. he’s been wanting to meet you anyways,” he said, making your brows furrow in confusion

“you don’t seriously think I only tell you embarrassing stories, right?”

oh god dammit

“anyways, come meet us at the park this afternoon and I’ll introduce you two. he’ll be excited to meet you. he thinks you’re cute,”

wait,,,, what the fuck

“bye, (Y/n), see you later!” Jeongin walked off, leaving u confused

“dammIT JEONGIN, WHAT DID YOU MEAN BY THAT”

that son of a bitch

maybe you should look into getting a new best friend

school came and went and, before you knew it, it was time to go to the designated spot in the park that Jeongin had told you to meet him at

[Jeongin, 6:34 PM] meet us at the swings in 30 uwu

[You, 6:35 PM] never say uwu at me again i’ll puke

when you finally made it to the park you sat on the swings, waiting for Jeongin and Jisung, since you arrived a bit earlier

“hey, you’re (Y/n), right?” You hear someone say from behind you. looking back, it was none other than Han Jisung

“yeah! Jisung, right?”

wait

something was off

“where’s Jeongin???”

“I was about to ask you the same thing. he told me he was going to be here with you”

“,,, I’m going to kill him”

this bitch really left you, an awkward hoe, to fend for yourself

Jisung sighed, sitting on the swing next to you

“leave it to Jeongin to make me fend for myself around attractive people”

“you know you just said that out loud, right??”

“it’s okay, I love to make myself suffer”

even though the two of you were extremely flustered, you couldn’t help but to laugh

and you laughing made Jisung laugh

soon enough, it felt as if there was absolutely no awkward tension whatsoever

“alright, since we’re here—let’s get to know more about each other”

—

by the end of the night, you were in tears from laughing so much

“so you’re telling me that Jeongin got a pencil stuck up his nose and had to go to the E.R.???”

“yes! it was all because he was trying to impress Chris” Jisung choked out in between fits of laughter

you wiped a tear from your eye, making sure to keep this information to tease Jeongin with later

“I have to go soon,, but,,, could I perhaps get your number? so we can talk more trash about Jeongin later?”

“of course! maybe we could hang out again?”

“I’d love that,” you smiled

—

the weeks following were completely chaotic. not only did you have Jeongin—but now you had Jisung as well

but in all honestly, it just made everything better

like?? those two were so funny together???

and wow Jisung was really cute,,, like,,,, really cute

perhaps you had a crush on him

it didn’t help that he texted you all the time, made sure you were okay, and called u during his free time

he was so sweet and funny, how could u not like him :(

ugh and his smile :( and his caring personality :( and his pretty singing voice you got to hear one time :(

yeah u were whipped

Jeongin kept telling u that Jisung liked u, but ur stubborn ass wouldn’t believe him

“he talks about you literally every second of the day. HE LIKES YOU”

“nah”

and it was the same way the other way around

“they like you, you know. they talk about you all the time”

“it’s probably a different Jisung”

“you dumb thot”

Jeongin was done with the bullshit

he had to do something, and he knew the stupid “meet me at the park” truck wouldn’t work again

so, he came up with a totally original plan: “Meet Me at McDonald’s”

it was going to be foolproof

and it really was, as both you and Jisung showed up to McDonald’s

“he got us good”

you and Jisung hadn’t really spent any time alone since you first met, so you were kind of nervous

“so,,, (Y/n),” Jisung started

he looked really nervous

“I know why Jeongin did this, and I’m just gonna take a leap on this one. I like you a lot,”

you??? were so shocked???

“I like you too”

“I completely understand if you don’t like me back, and a McDonald’s probably isn’t the most romantic place to confess– wait what?”

“I said I like you too”

o h

“w-well,,, would you maybe like to go out with me??”

“how could I resist in such a romantic setting”

“I’m gonna take that as a ‘yes’”

Masterlist

#skzwriters #straykidswriters #forskz #han #han jisung #jisung #stray kids #stray kids imagines #reader imagine #x reader #fanfic #fanfiction #kpop imagines #imagine #fluff #high school au #yang jeongin

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super-cerulean · 6 years ago

Text

Two Way Street

Part One/ Part Two

Just as a quick note, thank you for so many positive responses to this story as well as my other ones. Seeing so many nice comments always makes my day brighter. <3

Request: Hi sweetheart, can I request a #10 & #13 from Jason Todd prompt challenge? Sorry to bother u. I love ur blog (The prompts were Jason being Jealous of the reader and Dick and the reader being jealous of Jason and Kori)

Warnings: Language

It took forever for you to figure out what had happened during the fight. Neither of them would talk to you about it for the longest time. In fact, Jason pretty much stopped talking to you In general. If it wasn’t absolutely necessary to see or talk to you, he didn’t do it. How someone who lived in the same space as you found a way to disappear 90% of the time was beyond you. You weren’t sure what it was, but whatever they had been fighting about, was apparently weighing down on both of their attitudes.

After they’d come out of the room and Jason had left with Kori, Dick was gone just as quickly. Within the span of a few minutes, you and Roy were the only two left in the apartment and there was a huge feeling of tension left in their wake. Later on, you tried asking Jason what happened, but that was when he started distancing himself and sometimes completely ignoring you. Not only that, but in all the time it took for someone to finally tell you what happened, you were stuck watching the effects of the argument spread into your own life.

In retaliation to whatever Dick had said, Jason was now “dating” Kori. You weren’t sure if it was real or not, but in all honesty it still got to you either way. Jason was your friend-probably your closest-, but it hadn’t always been that way. There was a time not that long ago where you had even larger feelings for him. It was long overdue, but it still hit you like a truck out of nowhere. You could still remember the exact moment when you realized your own feelings. Jason hadn’t even done anything really besides taking you out to celebrate one of your first deep space missions. Out of nowhere, you caught yourself looking at his teasing smile after making a joke and realizing that the warm feeling in your heart extended far past friendship. By then you were already too deep into your feelings to curb them. Obviously, that didn’t work out in the way you wanted, as you ended up roommates of the most platonic kind. You thought you were over that and done feeling that way about him, but now you weren’t so sure.

It wasn’t that you disliked Koriand��r or anything. Despite everything, you still enjoyed her company and liked her as a person in general. What brought the sickness to your heart was seeing them together. Especially since Jason wouldn’t talk to you. It felt like you’d been severed and he put Kori in the place you could never be. It hurt way more than you would ever admit. Of course, you didn’t say anything. Instead, opting to appear as blissfully ignorant as possible while you drowned in your feelings. This went on for days before you finally tracked Dick down and forced him to tell you everything that happened.

Dick sat beside you on a bench in BludHaven. Everything had reached a boiling point in your mind, so you tracked him down and caught him while he was leaving his day job at the police department. Even though you were in civilian clothes, you made sure to let him know that if he tried to run you had your power ring within reach. Thanks to that, he finally gave in and told you what happened.

“He totally called me out,” Dick explained. “He said he knew I was only talking to you because I wanted to piss off Kori and that I needed to end it.”

“So did you tell him the truth?”

“No, I told him he was being ridiculous and that he needed to mind his own business.”

“Dick!” He flinched at your voice, lolling his head onto the back of the bench.

“I know! I should have just told him the truth then and been done with it,” he defended. “But I was caught off guard. He was coming at me out of nowhere and I got defensive and we fought about it. That’s when he tried to call my bluff and said that he’d go ask Kori out if I wasn’t faking it.”

“And that’s when both of you stormed out of the room.” Dick nodded, tilting his head to look at you. You gave him a serious look, shaking your head before speaking again.

“You know you’re going to have to come clean and dig all of us out this mess, right?”

“You mean we?” You blinked, expression unchanging as you stared at him.

“Um, no. I mean you. I’m not the one trying to make Kori jealous so I feel ‘appreciated’.” Dick rolled his eyes and sat up again, turning so that he was facing you more directly with one leg resting on the bench. He hadn’t had a chance to change out of his uniform yet, so it felt kind of strange sassing a police officer in the middle of a park. Still, you weren’t letting him drag you in any further.

“Maybe not, but you’re the one making Jason jealous, so you’re just as guilty as I am.”

“Bullshit If Jason’s jealous, it’s not because of me. This was all your big idea.” You scoffed, actually processing what he had said after you responded. “Besides, he won’t even talk to me. If anything he’s mad I’ve been talking to his brother behind his back and once again, that’s on you.”

“It was my idea, but you agreed to it!”

“Dick, you’re five seconds away from getting lantern launched across this park, secret identities be damned. This is your mess and you’re gonna be the one to fix it.”

“I don’t want to do it alone! They’re both going to be mad at me for it,” he whined, tilting his head and looking at you with hopeless eyes.

“That sounds like something I warned you about before you started this shit.”

“You warned me about Kori, not Jason. If I’d known he was this into you I would have asked someone else. You should have told me!” You scoffed again, kicking your foot idly in the dirt beneath you.

“Oh please, Jason’s not into me.”

“I beg to differ,” Dick responded, suddenly becoming more animated and dramatic. “He almost ripped my head off twice because he thinks I’m trying to get at you. Just because you don’t see it and he won’t admit it doesn’t mean it’s not true.” Deciding you’d heard enough, you stood suddenly.

“Okay, this conversation is over. You’re fixing this and we’re all going to be done with all this unnecessary drama. Got it?”

“Fine, but this conversation isn’t over. Jason has a big fat crush on you and I’ll prove it to you if I have to!” You threw up your favorite finger over your shoulder as you walked out of the park. The last thing you wanted to be hearing was that Dick thought Jason was interested in you. That road led to nothing but disappointment. Hopefully Dick would just take your advice and talk it out with his brother. Of course, that would have been too easy.

“Why do you even care?!?! It’s not like I’m trying to steal your girlfriend!” You sat, head in your hands on the roof top of your apartment next to Kori as Jason and Dick went at it a few feet away. Why were you all on the roof? Because you were already one noise complaint away from getting kicked out of your building so you thought ahead and had everyone meet up there to discuss the situation. Thank god you had such wonderful forethought because now it had turned into a screaming match between the Wayne brothers.

At first you and Kori were trying to keep the peace and solve the problem, but somewhere along the line it turned into Dick goading Jason and the latter lashing out in response. You knew damn well he was trying to get Jason to admit he had feelings for you and at this point you didn’t care anymore. You’d even gone as far as to pull Kori aside and tell her the truth on your own while the others bickered. In response to your own confession, she also told you that she wasn’t really Jason either, which lifted what felt like eighty pounds of weight off of your chest. Whatever Dick was doing, wasn’t a part of the plan and you were just going to let him go off on his own until they tired each other out. Kori was at least was still paying attention to the argument and what they were saying while you dropped that shit ages ago.

“You and I both know why you’re really doing this and it’s disrespectful to both of them. Could you just act your age for once?!” Jason’s voice was almost a full on shout as he glared at Dick, who responded with just as much anger.

“Me? That’s rich coming from you. Why don’t you admit why you’re really mad and we’ll talk about this like adults.”

“You’re so fucking irritating. We’re not getting anywhere with this back and forth.”

“No! We aren’t!” You finally spoke up, raising your head from your hands. “Can you two just talk this out so we can all be done with it? This whole thing went further than it should have and now everyone’s angry and fighting over something stupid.”

“It’s not stupid. We’re fighting because Dick needs to stop dragging other people into his problems,” Jason responded, finally looking at you. It felt like it had been ages since he talked to you and of course it had to be when they were fighting.

“Okay, I understand that and I’ll talk with Y/N about it on my own. I don’t need my little brother butting into my relationships and telling me what to do.” Jason turned back to Dick again, shoving his hair out of his face as a gust of wind blew through the four of you. Despite the current situation, you felt your gaze linger on him for a bit longer than it probably should have. Even when he was in the middle of a huge argument, he still found a way to look breathtaking.

“I wouldn’t be butting in if you hadn’t decided to start dating one of my friends to make your ex jealous. You can’t just play around with people’s feelings like that!” You groaned, finally standing up and moving to stand between them.

“He wasn’t playing with my feelings, Jason. He came to me and told me from the beginning that he wanted my help to make Kori jealous. I should have said no, but I agreed to help him out, so that’s on me. I already apologized to her about it so there’s no need for everyone to keep screaming at each other. The only people who need to talking all this out are Dick and Kori.” Jason looked at you with a surprised expression and before he could get a word out, Dick was speaking again in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Exactly, and if you gave me the chance to explain myself before you started accusing me of being an asshole, I would have told you. I can’t believe you actually think I’d play around with Y/N’s feelings like that. I’m not that stupid.”

“Close, but not quite that dumb,” Kori said, joining the three of you finally.

“How was I supposed to know that?” Jason defended, still not completely over his own frustration.

“I don’t know, maybe if you asked me like a regular person instead of getting jealous and jumping down my throat the first chance you got!” And of course, Dick couldn’t have just dropped the subject now that everyone had calmed down. For a brief second you thought they just might be done fighting, but that would have been good luck.

“Oh here we go again,” you sighed, running a hand down the side of your face. Jason’s face flushed and he looked at Dick with wide eyes, glancing at you for a split second.

“I-I didn’t get jealous!”

“Oh please, Y/N said you’ve been stomping around in a hissy fit all week and you’ve been attacking me about it since you found out. You were pissed before you even knew we weren’t really dating.”

“That’s because I don’t want you fooling around with my friends!”

“This whole thing started because I was already in relationship drama with one of your friends, so that’s bullshit. You never cared that I was dating Kori; you only got defensive when it was Y/N.” Jason was about to produce another defensive response, but you cut him off.

“Why are you turning this on me now?! Can’t you two just fucking bro hug so I can go to sleep or something,” you interjected, glaring at Dick. You were getting sick of him trying to force the idea that Jason had a thing for you. You’d been living together and had been friends long enough that if he was going to make a move he would have done so already. Now Dick was just pushing him and the only thing that was going to come out of it would be Jason telling everyone why he saw you as a friend and nothing more. As much as you wanted to believe you were over it, that wasn’t true and you didn’t want to go through all of the grief and rejection again, especially now that you had to see him every day. He may have had the whole avoiding thing down, but you certainly didn’t.

“You can’t seriously be this blind. The only reason everything blew out of proportions was because Jason got so defensive over you. Anyone can see that he-“

“Listen, I’m glad we all aired this out, but I don’t feel like getting into this right now. Jason already said he wasn’t jealous, so just drop it.” You could feel their eyes on you after you suddenly cut off Dick’s statement and it only irritated your nerves further. “Fuck it, I’m so over this.” You yanked your power ring off of the chain around your neck and slipped it onto your finger. You were quick to suit up in a flash of green and walk away from the whole debacle, slipping into flight as you neared the edge of the roof.

Dick had been calling out to you before you left, but you ignored him. You flew high over Gotham and went as far away from the scene as you could. Despite how much you told yourself you were over everything, the feelings were cropping up all over again and you couldn’t stand staying there for another second. So instead you flew away and didn’t stop until you felt a hand on your ankle. Jerking your head around and coming to a stop, you were surprised to see that Kori had followed you into the night sky.

“What happened back there?” You huffed out a sigh at her question, relaxing into a less defensive position while Kori came to fly nearer to you.

“Nothing, I was just annoyed. He’s been talking about that shit for days now,” you responded, looking at the city below instead of meeting her eyes.

“It didn’t seem like that was it. You looked really upset when he brought it up.”

“I mean, yeah…” You paused, weighing whether you wanted to go into detail about the whole thing or not. This was something you’d never spoken a word about to anyone. There was a friendship between the two of you, but you weren’t sure if it was close enough to be sharing things like that. In all fairness, though, you already knew way too much of her business thanks to Dick. It seemed fair that she know some of yours in return. “It’s just a sore subject for me. In the past, I really did like Jason as more than a friend and I guess I’m not as over it as I thought. It was one thing to figure out that he didn’t feel the same on my own, but hearing him say it is another thing entirely. I don’t know why Dick is so hell bent on getting him to say something.”

“How can you be so sure that he doesn’t feel the same? Dick probably knows him better than most and he seems to think so.”

“Yeah, well his idea of romance is trying to make his girlfriend appreciate him by making her jealous so I don’t think he’s the best source of facts.”

“Okay maybe not,” she laughed. “But I spend a lot of time with him too. He’s different around you and the way he talks about you doesn’t feel entirely platonic to me. I think you should give him a chance to give you a final answer. If Dick was wrong, then at least you’ll know. That’s better than wondering, right?”

“That’s debatable.” Still, despite your apprehension, you knew she was right. It was a thought that had crossed your mind a few times, but one that you had refused to humor. Now that someone else was telling you, it really felt like the more logical response. “I’ll talk to him when I get back.”

“Good luck. I’ll make sure to talk to my boy wonder when I get back too. He needs it more than anyone.”

“Yeah, good luck to you too,” you laughed. “He’s a handful.”

When you and Kori got back to your apartment building, she and Dick left without much more discussion. Jason had already gone back inside, so you waved them off before beginning the dreaded descent down the stairs and to your apartment. The door was still unlocked, so at least you knew he wasn’t still acting like you didn’t exist. Still, your entire being was in a panic as you opened the front door. Starfire’s suggestion had propelled you into action, but now the actual nerves were setting in. The urge to just turn back around and run was almost enough to overwhelm your resolve. Almost, but not quite.

The kitchen and living room were empty so the next logical place for him to be was his room. The delay was only adding to your internal panic so much so that you had to pause outside his door to take a breath and shake out your clammy hands. After a that moment to regain some nerve, you pushed open his door and peeked into his room.

Jason was lying on his bed, previously looking at his phone before you’d come in. He was lying sideways so he had to tilt his head to look at you as you entered. He let the hand holding his phone sink down beside him and he shifted into an upright position.

“You okay?” You nodded, biting your lip as you walked all the way into your room. For some reason, your hand creaked his door closed behind you as if you needed some kind of privacy in an otherwise empty apartment. Once you realized what you’d done, you cringed a bit. Now you were trapped and so was he with the uncomfortable tension in the air.

“I…wanted to clear everything up,” you said finally, trailing off as you looked at him. Jason nodded, watching you come to sit beside him on the edge of his bed. You sat far enough away that you weren’t touching him, but close enough that you didn’t have to look directly at him. It was somewhat cowardly, but you had to do something to give your poor heart a break. Everything combined was pushing you towards cardiac arrest.

“Yeah, I’m sorry about earlier…and I guess for before that too. I’ve been pretty rude to you for the past few days and that wasn’t really warranted.”

“It’s alright,” you said, halfway thinking. Your mind was still on trying to get this confession out of your head, but you caught on to your own words. “I mean, it’s not alright because that was irritating as fuck to deal with every day, but I forgive you.” You heard him chuckle beside you and felt your own smile coming onto your face.

“And I forgive you for pretending to date my brother,” he retorted, causing you to groan, tilting your head to the side in mock anguish.

“Thanks for giving me a shortcut out of that apology.”

“You have to admit, it was a terrible idea,” Jason laughed.

“Yeah, I knew that. I just thought Dick would be the only one getting fucked over.”

“Oh so it was okay as long as it wasn’t you?”

“Exactly,” you both fell into the easy dynamic that you usually had. It was as natural as breathing sometimes and knowing this made you even more nervous to speak your mind. All of that could be ruined forever if you did. Pining after him in silence wasn’t a good option either, though.

“So, um. About what Dick said earlier...He kind of put us on the spot in front of everyone so I kind of panicked and ran,” you explained. Jason listened quietly, nodding his head and you could feel his gaze on you. With a quick glance, your eyes met his before you sighed and leaned back on your hands.

“That’s fair enough, if I could fly I’d have done the same thing.”

“Yeah, but it was different for me. I just…fuck this is hard to say.” You paused, looking up at Jason’s ceiling for a moment before regaining your nerve and finally looking into his eyes. “I left because what he was saying was too real for me. I didn’t want to hear you say you didn’t feel that way about me or that we’re just friends because I don’t want it to be true. I just…I really like you as more than a friend and I wasn’t ready to completely accept it was just me. But, I talked to Kori about it and realized that I need to deal with this instead of pushing it into the back of my mind, so here I am.”

Jason looked at you with a surprised expression, completely frozen. You sat in silence for a small moment before you found yourself rambling to fill the uncomfortable silence. “And, I’m not telling you this to pressure you into anything. You don’t have to say you feel the same or anything, I just wanted to let you know what was really going on, I guess.” You bit your lip, feeling the nervousness captivating you again as you looked away again.

“I-I should probably give you a minute to process all that, right. I’ll just…” Your voice trailed off and your mouth shut suddenly. Jason’s expression had softened and he was suddenly a lot closer to you than he had been a minute ago. You watched him, heart in a panic as the distance between the two of you closed.

“Can I speak now?” he whispered and you closed your eyes, mentally kicking yourself as you nodded. “Thanks.” He moved back into his own space, but held your eye contact.

“It wasn’t as different for you as you think. I freaked out and panicked when Dick brought it up like that too. The first thing I thought to do was deny what he was saying even though that wasn’t necessarily true.” His hand ghosted over yours and you responded by turning it over to him. He slipped his hand into your, smiling lightly at your response before his eyes returned to yours. “When I heard you and Dick were talking, I was pissed. I didn’t realize it until he brought it up that night we fought for the first time, but I really was jealous. I knew I felt different about you, but I wasn’t really sure what it was until now. I honestly felt awful not talking to you, but I didn’t know what else to do.”

His words were like sunshine breaking through the clouds after a week of rain. After feeling so stressed out and worried, you felt a lightness overtake your entire being. If you hadn’t had your ring dangling against your chest, you might have thought you were flying. A smile crept along your face at Jason’s confession and you couldn’t help your sigh of relief. A thought crossed your mind and you laughed lightly before speaking.

“So, long story short, we’re both complete idiots about this relationship stuff…” Jason laughed and nodded, using your hand to pull you into an embrace. He wrapped the hand entwined with yours around your shoulder, crossing your own arm over your chest. Your free hand pressed against his side and your head rested perfectly against his chest.

“Basically,” was all he said. You paused; savoring the moment before you finally said something else.

“And we’re definitely not admitting that Dick was right?”

“Not in this lifetime.”

Tag List:

@jason-todd-rh @chidroichan-blog @queen-fighter @hyp-oh-critical @roseangel013bf @jdroman5432 @redtodd @94-wonder-girl @immortalmurphy

#jason todd x reader #jason todd imagine #red hood x reader #red hood imagine #jason todd #red hood #request

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ovmatt-blog · 6 years ago

Quote

Chapter 5. The meeting with Eirene Clarine

6 a.m. – the face of my wristwatch was glowing eerily in the early-morning darkness. I was sitting on the steps of Wight Tower in the thick autumn darkness, still not believing that I had managed to return from Ireland in time. The Tower lobby behind my back was a luminous oasis, shining queerly behind the glass doors, promising warmth and shelter from the cold darkness…

At 8 a.m. sharp I was sitting in front of MAGI HR manager, staring at her. I had never seen such radiant hair, such glowing nails, and such stresses, sparkling upon her inch-long eyelids.

She smiled at me, and to my astonishment, I observed two even rows of white glistening pearls in her mouth. Deeply shocked, I could not speak a word, while she jabbered, “Cassandra is on vacation, you see, so I will deal with you instead… Well, this is your Contract and Confidentiality Agreement… Please, read it and if you have no questions, please sign here and here.” She handed a big rolled piece of parchment to me.

I flickered diagonally over the lines, wandering to the bottom of the parchment, but it unrolled and unrolled…

Witnesseth that the said Robert Lex Orion doth put himself an Intern (hereinafter Intern) to the said MAGI (hereinafter Company) to work in Management Consultancy the term of twelve months for the sum of … pounds lawful money during a probationary three months period and for the sum of …, assigns in all manner of lawful employment … beginning the 22 day of September… during which time the said Intern the said Company faithfully shall serve, the Company secrets keep, the Lawfull Commands of the Senior employees Obey, health&safety policy Adhere to. He Shall not Absent himself unlawfully from his Company Service Day or Night, with magic Artefacts, i.e. magic rods, swords… cursed artefacts, i.e. Nibelungen Gold…, Magic Creatures, i.e. Werewolves, Dragons…, bewitched Elements, i.e. Lightning, Floods … without preliminary safety training, but in all things as a Faithfull Intern he shall behave himself towards the said Company during the said Term...

… AND the said Company Best means it shall Teach and Instruct the said Intern the Art and Mystery of Magic AND doth hereby Promise and Oblige itself to provide for the said Intern the working conditions that Health and Safety Requirements Satisfy and against industrial injuries and occupational disease Guard. During the probationary period thes Employment may be terminated by either the said Company or the said Intern. …at the expiration of his term of servitude the said Company obligeth itself to pay unto the said Intern what the law allows in such cases & agreements . . . London, Isle of Dogs, 22nd Day of September…

I raised my eyes to the HR, “The wording is a bit odd … And September 22nd was yesterday…”

“Oh, never mind, the HR assistant is accustomed to the old-fashioned formulae! No wonder, as she has been working here for centuries! And the contract was prepared yesterday, the day of the autumnal equinox! Such an enigmatic day!” her pearls flashed at me in a wide smile.

I shuddered, recollecting the previous “enigmatic” night, and affixed my signature to the bottom of the parchment, which then rolled up by itself and faded into the air. While I was observing the phenomenon, she asked, “Whom should I put as a designated beneficiary in your life insurance policy?”

“Pardon?” I returned to reality.

“Why, the life insurance policy is issued for every MAGI employee as one of your employment benefits. So I need to put in the name of the person who would benefit from the insurance policy in case…”

“Okay, write in my grandaunt,” I snapped nervously, just wanting to be done with it, and spelled my auntie’s name out for her.

“Well, then we have finished… You will be informed about the start of your classes later on.”

“Finished? But… Well, I remember Cassandra mentioning I would be paid a relocation allowance the day I sign the Contract…”

“Cassandra said this?” She looked puzzled, “Well, according to our rules, the relocation allowance is paid with the employee’s first salary… Anyway you should wait until your bank card is issued…”

What could I say? It was a terrible blow! I hoped to get this money from MAGI as I couldn’t take anything from home, as there was nothing to take from there…

… I stood in the street under the autumn sun, recollecting the formulae of the contract… During the probationary period thes employment may be terminated by either said Company or said Intern… The wind was swirling the fallen leaves under my feet. Should I leave right now? Terminate the contract? Suddenly the tightly furled scroll appeared in the air and was suspended directly in front of my nose. And then the parchment, yellowish in hue and looking so ancient, as if it was going to turn to ashes, unfurled before my eyes and a sweet female voice sang the words, appearing line by line on the paper:

Magic Fundamentals classes

will be held at 2 p.m.

in Conference Room 5005,

50th floor, MAGI

Best wishes,

Training Department

I stopped, staring at the parchment in amazement and rereading the lines. The parchment hang in the air for a few more seconds and then rolled back and faded.

It was lunch time but as I was sparing each penny I decided to skip it and have a walk instead. At the appropriate time I set off for the first class, slightly dizzy with hunger…

At 1.45 p.m. I knocked on the white glass doors on the 50th floor. The receptionist smiled to me and the doors clicked open. There stood a guideboard with an arrow indicating the direction to conference room 5005. I went along the corridor until I reached the open-doored room. I entered and … who did I see? None other than rosy-cheeked Tin-Tin, swallowing the piles of double-decker sandwiches at the counter in the rear of the room! And with his mouth packed to final point, he still managed to chat with a bunch of guys!

He noticed me, waved his hand and lisped: “‘Obin, ‘ome ‘ere, ‘ere izz fee food!” “He means ‘free food,’ a blond guy with Ancient Greek statue features and perfect muscles burst out laughing. Then he stretched out his hand, “My name is Laska Valentine.”

“Laska?” my eyebrows lifted upwards.

“Yeah, shortened from Lasquar.”

“And I am Max Vitta,” a slim guy of medium height with curly chestnut-coloured hair and attentive dark eyes turned to me, holding a sandwich in his hand. His grammar was perfect and his very appearance indicated strictness. “Ernst Herbst,” introduced himself. He was the tallest of the guys with a very intelligent austere-featured face. Having noticed a bewildered expression on my face, he added, “Relax, friends call me Ernie...”

“Robin Orion,” I shook the hands of all of them and sprinted to the plate of sandwiches, cursing myself for not coming earlier. “What is the tastiest stuff here?” I nudged Tin-Tin and he started describing the ingredients with an expert air, evidently experiencing gastronomic pleasure, “Hawaiian avocado-and-mango roast beef sandwiches, Corsican rucola-and-peach chicken sandwiches, Mediterranean olive-and-lettuce salmon feta sandwiches…”

“Instead of all these sandwiches should have made Caprese,” snarled Max.

“Caprese, what’s that?” all the guys turned to him.

“It’s as simple as sliced fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, basil and olive oil.”

“Oh…”

“As it features the colours of the Italian flag: green, white, and red, it’s one of the most popular dishes in Italy!”

“Oh, you are from Italy?” everybody became interested.

“Well, my Mum is Italian, and Dad – Norwegian,” the answer followed.

“Cool! I’ve heard about Neapolitan pizza Margherita with the same colours!” Tin-Tin got excited.

“And Farfalle with tomato, spinach and plain flavours, sold together in a mix?”

Stuffing my mouth with all of this food and flooding it with sparkling sweet beer, I looked round the room. It was a hall of generous proportions, and its white walls and ceiling were gleaming slightly. Two lines of white wooden chairs, eight in each row, their bottoms and backs upholstered with dark blue velvet, were standing in the centre of the room.

“Tin-Tin, where do you live? I need to find a place to stay until I get my first wages…”

“They haven’t paid you the relocation allowance? The same story with me and Max. Only Ernie was lucky and caught Cassandra before she left for vacation and she ordered the accounting department to pay him his money in full…”

“Yeah, it was pure luck. And in several days I managed to find and rent an apartment,” said Ernie bit a piece of chicken happily, while everyone was watching him enviously.

“Why, we live in a hostel. Do you want us to show it to you tonight?” Max smiled gently.

“Wha —? Yeah, of course!” I jumped up excitedly.

“Well then, we’ll go after the classes. Don’t worry.”

“Cheers, Max! Blimey, that’s a load off!”

“Ha-ha-ha!” unpleasant laughter startled us and made us turn around. “You guys live in a hostel? And what hole have you come to the City from?” a tall fragile girl with long pure-white hair and eyes of blue ice asked mockingly, holding her sides with laughter.

Tin-Tin’s face immediately turned red and he blurted out, “It’s not your business, herring.” The smile faded off the girl’s face and her eyes narrowed. “No one has ever dared to talk to me like this before,” she said through gritted teeth.

“There's always a first time.” Several guys standing nearby laughed at Tin-Tin’s remark.

“Do you even know who I am? If you did, you wouldn’t be so brave, dunce,” the girl’s eyes nearly iced over. The temperature dropped.

“Whoa, we're so scared,” I jumped into the conversation.

“Yeah, desperately afraid,” Ernie echoed me.

“Oh, guys, you are maybe the bodyguards of this hop-o'-my-thumb?” Iceeye jeered.

Tin-Tin blushed so deeply that he was the same colour as the tomato from the famous caprese salad, but before he could open his mouth to respond to the insult himself, Laska, who was contemplating the squabble, leaning against the wall and chewing gum, intervened, “Hey, hey! Certainly, we all want to know who the Fair Lady is. You really managed to advance our mediocre level of intelligence. The whole room just lit up the moment you spoke. So tell us your name, the girl of my dreams?”

“Jess, you did find common topics to twaddle about with these tramps?” a pale lad came on to the scene. He looked a bit dishevelled – his raised white-blond hair was standing up like wheat sprouts in a field. “Great outfit,” his eyes flit over my ripped jeans “have you bought it for handouts?”

I rushed towards him, but ran into Laska, who moved so close to the Iceeye that his face was some inches from hers, “Jess? And what is your full name?”

“I won’t tell you, a blatant dolt!” she snarled, hiding a smile, and strode away, having pushed him with her shoulder. Having followed her with my eyes I continued observing the lads and ladies entering the room, and then I almost choked, as among them was… last night’s Greeneye from the Firefly Valley! Her brow lacked a flashing jewel and her dress was a simple white tunic, but her jolly dimples, brilliant green eyes, sunny smile…

I was coughing so loudly that she cast a glance at me and then turned away without interest. Having at last cleared my throat, I asked Laska, standing next to me, “Do you know her?”

“Who?”

“That blonde in the white tunic…”

“Why… No, I see her for the first time. By the way, she is cool… but this get-together has other beauties that deserve attention!” And he winked at me as he marched off.

Meanwhile, all present were taking their seats – I had never seen so many beautiful and strange people at once. While I was pondering this, a young woman in a dark blue swishing dress of silk with a long skirt, sweeping the floor, entered the room. Her long hair, shining as gold, was arranged into a huge bulk of tight locks, curling in all directions and composing a feet high and two feet long flowing lion's mane. A deep look from her sparkling sapphire eyes met the eyes of each of the sixteen students in turn, then she smiled and said in a warbling voice, “My name is Eirene Clarine, I am a Partner at MAGI and your tutor. Let’s get acquainted… I will tell you ten facts about me and you will guess which of them are true and which are false.” The sound of her voice made the impression of little bells ringing. Meanwhile, she went on, “So, let’s start. The first fact – I panned gold in the goldfields of Greenland. Is it true?”

Tin-Tin and I exchanged smiles. What could this refined lady do in the goldfields? Apparently the rest of the students held the same viewpoint, as “no” and “it’s false” resounded all around. “Still it’s true!” laughed Eirene, “Consulting projects at gold-mining companies are quite common at MAGI. The next one – I tamed lions in the Argentinian selva.”

I glanced around. The students were exchanging panicked looks. Projects in the Argentinian selva also are quite common? Muttering and whispers swept along the rows, but nobody was hurrying to say anything aloud.

“Don’t think so long! Any guesses?” Eirene gave us a sort of inquiring look. “Yes”, “no”, “no”, “yes” – opinions were divided. “It’s false! I have never been there!” confessed Eirene and went on, “I have lived in the polar circle…” The atmosphere grew relaxed and cries “no”, “no”, “no” could be heard.

“You are wrong and it’s true!” Eirene was grinning at us, “Once I went to Salekhard on a business trip. It’s the only town within the polar circle. And as the project lasted longer than had been expected, I spent there several months... Okay, the next one, I wield a sword equally well in both hands.”

The muttering came to an abrupt end. Students looked taken aback. What is going on? What is this lady talking about? Could fencing be her hobby? I couldn’t decide what to say and said nothing.

In the reigning silence, Eirene looked at us with laughing eyes, “Okay, I’ll answer this myself – it’s true and soon you would also be able to do this!”

Hues and clamour arose and nobody in fact cared her, while she asked the next riddle, “I am the descendant of one of the MAGI founders.” Students were discussing aloud the necessity of martial arts training, while Iceeye exchanged a significant glance with her neighbour, who had tilted her head to the side, coiling a ripe-wheat lock round her finger.

Probably Eirene was in a hurry, as having not awaited for the answer, she went on, “I can speak chirptongue…”

Every head turned to her, the silence only being broken by somebody’s noisy breathing. “No, you are joking, this can’t be the truth!” exclaimed a curly-headed chap, grinning from ear to ear. Eirene smiled in reply, “You are right, I am joking. But it doesn’t mean that this doesn’t happen!”

“What does she mean?” murmur swept along the rows again. The students put their heads together, whispering their concerns in each other’s ears.

Then she asked the next riddle, “I hear what a stream babbles about…” And suddenly, something happened with me, in my imagination I travelled to the dense deciduous wood, overwhelmed with bright sunlight… The birds’ singing, entwined with the sweet melody of the little bells, filled the forest. A crystal clear stream was flowing gaily across the glade. In its purl the whispering voices were speaking about distant journeys…

“Yeah, it’s true,” my own voice said those words. Eirene looked into my eyes with her dark blue wells. I was hypnotized, fascinated… then it was gone… I glanced around. Eirene was looking to the side, “I have witnessed the fall of Rome.”

Dead silence followed this statement. A cold and slithery snake crept into my soul and the grin slid off my face. Tin-Tin stole a frightened look at me. Everyone looked scared. “Oh, guys, do you believe the tales? I am not so old,” Eirene burst out laughing, “Okay, but enough about me. Now I would like to ask all of you to state your name and tell a few words about yourself. Would you mind if we started with you?” she said to the guy sitting on the left side of the first row, who appeared to be wheat-sprouted Jess’s defender. Hastily, I found a scrap of paper and a ballpoint pen and got prepared to copy the names down as I was very bad with names.

The wheat-sprouted guy, exhaling arrogance in every syllable, started, “My name is Vlad Valdash. My family owns an ancient Castle in Rumania…” But I was staring at his neighbour. Laska was right – beautiful lasses were not in short supply here. She had a perfect oval face with an ideal straight nose, almond-shaped eyes with long eyelashes that cast a shadow on her high cheekbones, seeming to be hewn of stone, and full lips, resembling bean pods, shining-creamy in hue. I had never seen such lips and much later I learnt that she never used make-up. This was a principle of hers, and her name was – “Camilla Eel” – which she spoke in a rich voice, “my Mum is the owner of a luxury Fashion House and I …” But before she had finished the sentence, Iceeye (Laska had far-sightedly taken his place near her) introduced herself in a cold arrogant voice, “Jessamine Gevellin.”

“Gui Shantolier,” a guy spoke through his nose, looking like a French aristocrat, but of quite repellent appearance. “My father is French and my dream is to enter the Sorbonne…” Peroxide blonde with mild features, giggling at something with a stupid expression, he was whispering non-stop in her ear, squeaked her name, “Letisia Cay!” and giggled foolishly again, showing her wonderfully even teeth to a fellow to her right. This was a short pumped-up bloke with blond hair, matching his light skin, splashed with freckles, an impudent glance of innocent blue eyes and sensual full lips, that voiced, “I’m Leslie Bello and I go in for body-building…” And with his shameless eyes he had almost devoured Greeneye, who appeared to be called, “Leda Winegrain!”

But I had to divert my attention from them, as my jolly black-haired and crystal-blue-eyed neighbour said, “Diana Dankwert…” And then I focused on a plump jet-eyed and jet-haired Oriental beauty, who was flapping her arched jet black mascara’d lashes like wings. I copied down, “Guiselle Liaison,” and looked at a fellow sitting to her left. That was the curly-headed chap, who hadn’t believed Eirene. A trifle simple, he seemed to be a laid-back guy, relaxed and easy-going, a goofy grin wandering across his thin lips. He introduced himself in a slightly hoarse voice, “Sebastian Gram,” and suddenly burst into contagious laughter. Everybody stared at him, also beginning to smile… Next to him sat a tall, thin fellow, his hair so red that it seemed to be set in flames. “Melwin Medwin,” he creaked and it was Tin-Tin’s turn.

When I copied down successfully all the names, Eirene said, “Now we will glance back at history for a while… There are four departments in MAGI – Murmaiden, Axamit, Gevellin and Ironsky, named after their Founders – great Wizards and Fays – Aquilline Murmaiden, Lato Axamit, Ruby Gevellin and Irik Ironsky.” The names of the departments developed in the air, written in golden letters, and hung there, slightly quivering. Eirene went on, “Maybe some of you know that the first letters of the department names form the acronym MAGI, which is the name of our company”. The first letters of the surnames flew to front and composed the word MAGI. “There is a legend about the founders of the company, according to which they united their talents and efforts, establishing a consultancy, dealing with magic matters, which became famous due to the outstanding skills of its founders,” and she half-recited, half-sang the verses:

Bird with iron wings

Soars through the sky in rings.

Doors he never knocks,

His whizz opens locks.

Weaver’s golden thread

Streams the river’s bed.

Looking through the ground,

He may treasures count.

Maid with gleaming scales

Wanders under waves,

Murmurs soft to sole,

Reading mortal souls.

Jeweller’s fine craft –

Giving stones his mind,

Searching artefacts,

Gets to mountains hearts.

Wonder skills alliance,

Magic knowledge science.

Fair code and ethics

Made the MAGI basics.

“As is told in the legend, Aquilline Murmaiden was a mermaid with the ability to “look into a human soul”, Lato Axamit was a golden weaver, able to find any hidden treasure, Ruby Gevellin was a famous jeweller, capable of adding magic components to gorgeous jewellery, thus endowing it with magical powers, and Irik Ironsky could turn himself into an iron bird and walk through walls... Throughout the centuries MAGI has been helping its clients to solve ticklish issues, i.e. finding lost treasures and creating magical artefacts…”

The students were sitting as quietly as mice, and all ears, while Eirene went on, “What is MAGI nowadays? Each department specializes in a specific area: Gevellin deals with magic artefacts, the Ironsky department copes with magic creatures, Axamit seeks out charmed gold and treasures, Murmaiden masters the Elements… The projects vary from taming miracle creatures to the stock-taking of magic treasures… Today you will start the five-week long Magic fundamentals course and you will pass the exam at the end of the course, which will show whether your skills suit MAGI. Then all of you will work on the projects till the New Year… You will participate in one or maybe two projects and your Seniors will estimate your performance and thus your internship will end with you being promoted to business analysts or leaving the company after the New Year…”

The statement hit like a bombshell. A sigh swept along the rows. Ignoring any reaction to her words, Eirene continued with her speech, “Now I’ll tell you about the career path at MAGI with the example of an ice-cream cake. As intern, you will mostly study on site and will be responsible for specific components of a project, such as conducting interviews and developing the knowledge of the clients' critical business issues. With your findings you will help the team identify the cause-and-effect relationships in the Client’s business.” With these words, she erected four ice-cream mountains on an invisible plate floating in the air, “pistachio flavour for Murmaiden, mango flavour for Axamit, strawberry flavour for Gevellin and bog whortleberry flavour for Ironsky.” Then she went on, “As an analyst, you will be given greater autonomy and responsibility in the projects. You will analyse clients' business issues and their performance, identifying their vulnerabilities and fragilities, as well as strengths and opportunities, and suggest solutions to problems.”

She poured pistachios, mango pieces, strawberries and bog whortleberry and vanilla syrup on each mountain. And when the sun suddenly popped up from behind the cloud and smiled through the windows, the mountains glistened in its bright rays.

Meanwhile Eirene went on, “After three years of project work, having acquired successful experience on the projects, you will be promoted to consultant. You will be challenged to take charge of complex aspects of team work – from performing profound analysis of the insights to conceptualizing solutions to cases and proposing ways to implement them.”

She topped the mountains with mint, melon, wild strawberry and black currant flavoured ice-cream and added marzipan paste to the green mountain, caramel to the yellow mountain, whipped cream to the pink mountain and liquid chocolate to the blue mountain.

“In the next three years you will be promoted to Manager, leading project. And your new challenge will be to coach and motivate project team members and guide the work of the whole team. You will sleep less and less, keeping one eye on the big picture and the other on the details. You will ensure that the project is delivered on time and within budget, while creative solutions to complex problems are developed.” She spri cashew nuts on the marzipan, waffle balls on the caramel, coconut shavings on the whipped cream, and crackers on the liquid chocolate.

“And one day you will be asked to become a Partner… What will you do then?” She paused, “You will be developing the company strategy, defining its culture and identity, with a focus on building client relationships…” She added marshmallow to cashew nuts, tangerine jam to waffle balls, fruit-paste sweets to coconut shavings and raisins to crackers. Now it was difficult to understand, whether these were icy mountains or a palace with towers and turrets in miniature.

“But that'll be a long, long ways off… So let’s return to more short-term matters. Being promoted to analyst, you will need to choose the department where you will work after the New Year. Now take your chance and, while I’m here, ask me any questions to learn more about each department. And by the way, enjoy the cake, and maybe its flavour will help you to decide what your department will be – pistachio and mint flavour with marzipan paste, cashew nuts and marshmallow for Murmaiden, mango and melon flavour with caramel, waffle balls and tangerine jam for Axamit, strawberry and wild strawberry with whipped cream, coconut shavings and fruit-paste sweets for Gevellin and bog whortleberry and black currant flavour with liquid chocolate, crackers and raisins for Ironsky…”

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theloniousbach · 4 years ago

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ON PHILIP EWELL AND LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN, TIMOTHY JACKSON AND HEINRICH SCHENKER

This post is adapted from an email I sent first to two friends/colleagues with doctorates in music who answered some initial questions prompted by a New York Times article of all things on the mess Timothy Jackson got himself into.

I then forwarded it to another learned friend whom I met through history of science but who is also an excellent violinist. It blows his cover a bit to say that I treasure the introduction to piano trio music he, his brother, and a friend provided when we stopped into his parent's summer place while on vacation.

I have tried to make it a bit more for the record, but frankly if they don't read it, then why should you? I'm just going to archive it over on my Tumblr and those start here.

Still I thank them for being the audience I was trying to explain my thinking to.

SCHENKERIAN ANALYSIS

On the basis of what I think I understand from the chapter in Cook and some Wikipedia articles for definitions, etc, I don’t see much reason to learn enough to go deeper with it. It won't deepen my enjoyment of music.

It seems like a formalism and, as such, seems more like a counterpart to the New Criticism that my undergraduate English professors incorporated/responded to when I majored in the field in the 1970s. I graduated in English, but I’d already shifted to history of science with a badly damaged ability to read fiction for fun. There I walked into the loosening grip of “internalist” history of science solely interested in the paper by paper advance of a scientific theory and discussion. So I think I know what you all are up against.

I didn’t get very far with a similar suggestion to look at Mann’s version of Fux on counterpoint with my young songwriter. I’ve been talking with her since shortly after the lockdown started about what I would have called “music theory” (chord structure, bass lines, melodic options). In that context, Mann/Fux, despite its own formalism, helped us think about some rudiments of composition. But, from the start, I have insisted to her that our exploration is to stop if the theory/knowledge inhibits her creativity.

A recent entry in JSTOR Daily offered an interesting discussion of how music education in South Africa doesn’t capture music making, particularly by kids. I bet so-called “whiteness” plays an outsized role, but it’s also a problem that all us academics/intellectuals have to grapple with—are we more committed to our subjects or our disciplines?

My FB thread this week reminded me of Edward Tufte’s quote to the effect that the world is more interesting than our disciplines. Good ol’ Edgar Anderson similarly said knowledge is of one piece but universities for administrative and bureaucratic reasons divide it into departments.

I’m willing to be un-“disciplined.” I always was in favor of industrial unions over craft unions and indeed a broader fight for the class as a whole rather than just the dues payers. But that’s about broader politics. Instead, let’s talk about

ACADEMIC POLITICS

Heinrich Schenker is a racist, even by his own time’s standards.

Timothy Jackson is woefully politically inept.

Philip Ewell is an interesting provocateur. He is really the only one worth commenting on.

What to make of the notion that Beethoven is merely "an above average composer" and we should pay as much attention to Esperanza Spalding as him.

I more know of Spalding than know her music, much less 12 Little Spells. She sings so I have to overcome that tic/prejudice to listen to her, but I love bass players I know her best from playing with Wayne Shorter who may well be the third jazz (African Diaspora Art Music?) composer after Ellington/Strayhorn and Monk. But, as that little intentional digression is meant to show, I take that iteration of Art Music seriously.

And it’s all folk music because I never heard a horse sings (that’s borrowed from Leadbelly or Louis Armstrong or somebody.). I also take non-Art music very seriously and read Ewell’s Beethoven essay with the Carolina Chocolate Drops on playing old time-y string band music (ur-bluegrass) to reclaim the Black contribution to it.).

In the grand scheme of music, Beethoven is, okay, above average. It’s a much bigger pool than Schenker and, frankly, your discipline considers. I’d put him way way up there in terms of European Tradition Art Music but in MUSIC where does he place with Monk, Doc Watson, and the Roms/Greeks/Jews/Turks (lots and lots of them) playing Tsiftetellis in the tavernas in Istanbul? Certainly above average, one among so much great music in the world.

So bring on the provocation, Dr. Ewell.

But, in my undisciplined way, I hear Cecil Taylor in parts of Piano Sonata #32 and some of the more out there Blue Note albums of the 1960s in the Grosse Fugue. When I heard Richard Goode play Sonata #28 this week, his touch reminded me of Kenny Barron's.

Music is more interesting than music theory.

But I sit at my keyboard trying to get little magic moments in jazz standards in my hands. That much theory helps me listen better. I hope one day to get similar moments of the European Tradition in my hands; it frankly is harder, not better just harder.

If I get to the point that Schenker helps even a little, then his relevance will still be pretty minimal.

Beethoven’s is not. Nor is Billy Strayhorn’s and Bill Monroe’s.

#2021 #european tradition art music #jazz

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cow3survivor · 4 years ago

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Ep. 2: “I’m Trying To Lay Low” - Jake

JENNET

plan worked fabulously purrrrrrrrr

(a little later)

maybe its me being paranoid but why are jake,jones, and lindsay always the last three to leave calls............ when i have a f2 with all of em....

JESSICA

Song of the day is ELVIS by AOA. My favourite workout bop. Silver got voted out! So sad, I wanted to play with him. But also, kinda cool! This is the only game I have played where I truly didn't know anyone (except my very first ORG). What an experience. I know last confessional I said Sam and Shane were both kinda on the fence for me in terms of if I wanted to maybe work with them or not. An update: I think I want to work with both! Both of them, unprompted, told me they wanted to work with me if we lost immunity, and I have actually been getting along well with both of them I feel now that our conversations are moving past the sort of awkward beginning stages. I still like Sammy even though I probably should talk to him more oops... and Daisy/Lovelis/Ethan are also still in my good books. I kind of keep forgetting Pete and Cloud are on this tribe but when I remember, I am happy they are here. That being said, I think Cloud or Madison will be the first to go if we lose. Cloud is very inactive. Madison is too but she was at least on the call tonight. It might come down to how immunity goes. I want to participate because it will bond us as a team. That way even if we lose, I was a part of the team effort and won't stand out as someone who people don't know or want to work with. Also while I personally want Cloud or Madison out as I know them the least, I am not going to push it. I'll let somebody else throw out a name and as long as that name isn't Jessica then I will consider it. I sort of chilled today with the social game and only messaged people as they messaged me. The vibe of this team is very relaxed from what I can tell and I didn't want to overdo it with conversations and come across as too much. Tomorrow, my goal is to talk to every single person for at least 1 (one) whole real conversation. I might have to start using my good ol' tactic of sending people random youtube links and saying "what do you think of this" to get something going.... Honestly nothing starts a conversation like David Hasselhoff and his cinematic masterpieces that we call music videos. I hope the other tribe is full of problems so that when we eventually swap, I have a very easy time in this game.

LINDSAY

no recording tonight because i have a headache:( anyways i'm apparently not in as good of a position in the tribe as I was hoping. got left out of a six person group chat bc I was associated w Silver and people were nervous abt this vote w me. Jake luckily looped me in but I'm kind of bummed out people didn't trust me enough to let me in on this. I know it's probably just cuz Silver and I had been getting along alright the past two days but that means I'm in kind of a yucky position in the tribe that is starting to gear me up to a S6 type deal from survivor umich and I'm not fuckin' vibin. I'm gonna try to reach out (Nash appears to be ignoring me currently tho so lol) and try to fix that. I still want to work tight w Jones and Jake but I don't want them to be my only options. I need some more connections than that. ALSO WHEN SILVER DID THE THING MY HEART STOPPED LOL SO THAT MIGHT BE WHY IM BEING IGNORED also "you kept laughing at silver's jokes" was a comment someone leveled at me today and i couldn't find a good way to level and say i laugh at everything because that's how my brain is trained to react to everything. monkey brain cannot comprehend emotions so i laugh everything off. anyways i guess this is my clue i've got to step up. i mean, it's fine if i'm under the radar some because it's not merge yet so like it's fine, but i'm... worried. if nothing else we're even tho bc the galaghers got revealed as well as the six person alliance so we're all even here. bottom line is, i'm winning this fucking scavenger hunt this shit aint happening next week

JAKE

https://youtu.be/amXasrOidh0

y'all I'm still shaking from tonight tbh....

PENNINO

https://youtu.be/_26B1wn1pDw

JONES

https://youtu.be/7FngYQfYMB0

PETE

Nobody will want to vote me out if I have kittens and share pictures of them muahahahahahahahahahaha

JESSICA

Oh no, we lost! I hope that Shane and Daisy want to be a final 3 because that is what I am envisioning in my hopes, dreams, and mood board.

SHANE

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mNEOfPVwOp-ltGoNTdEq59su-9Vl_Adm/view?usp=drivesdk

ETHAN

AHH TRIBAL IS SCARY MORE TO COME SOON BUT EVERYONE IS SO QUIET AND I DON'T LIKE IT BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE I AM THE TARGET BUT IF I AM I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHY IT IS JUST WEIRDLY QUIET AND MY PARANOIA IS EATING ME ALIVEEE

DAISY

https://youtu.be/tBDHsLvF8W8

NICOLE

WE ARE IMMUNE!!! I’m so excited to have flipped the vote on Silver AND got us immunity but, I’m gonna have to be more careful if I’m gonna go far in this game. I know I can be strategic, I can be a comp threat but I really have to work on making myself a little dimmer in the social department. If we swap or merge obviously down the line, I feel like I’m gonna have a LOT of different potential paths to the end but, it won’t matter if they all realize that. So I really really have to be careful here. I am playing this game with a level head so far and really trying to make my rounds daily to talk to people. I am close with Jake, close with Jones and close with Nash. I am working on forming better bonds with Jabari, Lindsay and Jennet right now and honestly to me, Pennino is a non factor as well as Mikey but I am obviously going to try to maintain being on their good side. So that’s all I got for this round it’s been pretty tame except for Jennet immediately leaking our alliance by accident. At this point I really don’t think it matters.

MADISON

Okay so our tribe is not superhuman and we finally lost a challenge so we will be attending tribal tonight. Nobody is really saying much in terms of what will happen which is extremely worrisome, however, I did hear Sam on call very subtly throw Cloud out there and I'm kinda hoping that Jessica and Shane heard that too and will kind of run with it. Daisy wants both of us to be safe and I feel the same way so I'm hoping that's what will happen. In other news!!! I have officially begun the idol hunt one round too late but perhaps that works out better because if something is found, I'll know it. So because of the way things were worded during the hunt, the idol has either been found already or whoever wrote this system wanted to through a red herring in there to trick us. I'm going with the latter because I feel like Jarod would do that. That's all from this neck of the woods for now, hopefully will be writing another one of these bad bois next round :*

SAM

https://youtu.be/liGOEuFKiFo

JENNET

I WILL die for jones btw...

(a little later)

Survived the immunity challenge... at what cost

(after falling asleep on the beach)

The way we accidentally won that comp is literally a joke.... period i guess?

PETE

so we lost cus we’re the beauty tribe not the brains tribe fuck math dude anyways, it’s been hella fuckin quiet like not a lot of people are on and aren’t really talking. Up until about, 4 hours before tribal Sam comes to me and says the vote is gonna be Cloud and i’m like what who why. All he said is “that’s what he’s heard” honestly i think it’s just his own idea but whatever. I don’t know Cloud at all so it’s fine with me. Sam, myself, Jessica, and Shane apparently are all agreed to vote Cloud and with Ethan’s vote that’ll be 5.

CLOUD

i have nithing to say other than i might just be the stupidest person on the planet. absolutley nothing is happening in my head ever. if i stay its pure luck HSKSHSNSKBSKS

NASH

smiles at immunity... this is cute it feels good to not be in danger for once! i’m honestly still worried my tribe might want to cut me at next tribal but at least tonight can be chill! i hope kiki is first brookeisa boot xoxo

SAMMY

honestly there is no tea, daisy found an idol and gambles her vote but she lost her vote early so no worries w that! I love her so much and i hope she doesn’t snake me...but daisy if ur reading this, in this moment i love dont snake me mwah!! I love Jess and I love Cloud but everyone’s telling me Cloud is the vote but I’m so sad because I had such a good time with them and they are one of the few funny ones in the game!! Anyways not much is happening we lost the challenge cause we are just bad at math...blinks...I don’t think I’m in any danger and this vote should be unanimous. I was also told someone said I was one of the few active people so that’s a check in my book!

JAKE

https://youtu.be/HmtSAjyQoJI

I'm trying to lay low so if I'm not very present on Discord the next day or so that's why hehe

PETE

so ethan is down for voting Cloud, sammy too. Cool great awesome hot. i’m just sitting here vibing and suddenly Sammy tells me that my (and Madison’s) name came up for a second. He said it went away and it’s Cloud for the vote but like jskdhd why do i aaalways get targeted bitch i’m literally just sitting here whYY can’t i relax for once?! Frfr every survivor game it’s always this person or me. I’m always the other option and i just don’t get why lmao

LOVELIS

This tribes been kinda dead until like an hour ago plss, a new alliance of 5 has been organised and somehow me and Shane managed to make it seem like it was Jessica’s idea? Don’t really know how that happened in all honesty but a vibe. Then Daisy also leaked that she’s in another alliance who’s actively idol hunting so that was a lovely bit of beef that I love to see - my guess is she’s in a duo chat with Jess and they’ve tried to get this group formed with people who they think are unconnected, unbeknownst to them that me and Shane have a final two deal and I kinda have one with Sammy as well that happened on day one but it’s not really developed as of yet, he’s not really tried to talk game with me as of yet, but all in due time I suppose there’s plenty of time for more shenanigans 😂

MIKEY

HONESTLY Chile. Not much tea going around since this round we won. Im very proud of Nicole as she literally carried us and I pray she'll do it again dhbhsfg. Ive started getting really close with Jones and she's so fun to talk to, im hoping me her and nash can form a little trio and work together but who knows. Jennet STILL hasn't replied back after like a week so idk what's up w them LMAO

JABARI

So our tribe loved it when we blindsided silver, it puts me in a much better position than before. Now I have to talk more to people and take time to realize what's gonna happen. As of right now I have 2 alliances. The big majority one and the one where its just me and Jake and Jennet.

JENNET

exactly....

https://open.spotify.com/album/0pWu9s2gPdVgqHpMR2LDEx?si=uOqh6Ar9RiqNLUfaBZEkvw

TRIBAL COUNCIL

youtube

#cowsurvivor #confessionals

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livingmybestfictionallife · 7 years ago

Text

Luckily Unlucky

Anon Request: Hi!! Thanks for your amazing writing, you are a blessing!! (A/N: you’re too kind :D ) Could you do a tom holland x reader where you've been together for a year or so but you have never really have had the chance to go and visit him on set because you're busy with school but when you finaly do you can't contain your excitement bc ur a really big Marvel fan and you geek out about everything, even the smallest things and Tom just finds you the most adorable human being and u also meet seb who's ur celeb crush and u freak out

Warnings: a little language

robertdowneyjr @tomholland2013 is bring his leading lady to set. Are we embarrassing him enough??

670,835 Likes | 2,335 Comments

It was hard to not scroll through Instagram without being bombarded with people tagging her in pictures hoping to be recognized by Tom, being sent direct messages asking for personal information about her and Tom’s relationship, and even having reporters pose as fans online. Social media became a form of hell for (Y/N) after she started dating Tom, but seeing the photo Robert Downey Jr. tagged Tom in earlier today had been a relief from the regular occurring torment.

“You didn’t tell me Benedict Cumberbatch was going to be there,” she gasped while turning to face Tom as he sat in the driver’s seat, maneuvering his way around Atlanta traffic.

“You’re such a Sherlock nerd I figured you’d deduce that much,” he replied with a smirk.

“Will you please just tell me who all is going to be there?” she begged.

“And ruin the surprise?” he laughed as (Y/N) continued to pretend pout in the passenger seat. As they pulled into a large parking lot surrounded by fences and electronic gates, (Y/N) shifted impatiently in her seat.

“Can you promise me one thing?” she asked as Tom looked over at her with a smile on his face as his eyes beamed into hers.

“Anything love,” he said softly.

“Don’t let me make a fool of myself,” she stated while only lead Tom into a lighthearted laugh. “I’m serious!” she quickly protested. “Don’t let me look like an idiot in front of anyone, okay?!” Tom continued to laugh and pursed her lips together and narrowed her eyes at him. Upon seeing this, Tom placed his hands on either side of her face and smiled.

“There is no way anyone could think you’re an idiot, (Y/N), but I will make sure you don’t turn into a luny fangirl in front of anyone,” he promised before placing his lips on hers.

“That is all I ask for,” she laughed in response as Tom pulled her into one last kiss before exiting the vehicle and hurrying to her door. From the outside, everything seemed normal; big white buildings towered over the trailers, golf carts hurriedly scurried through open pathways, and people walked wherever shade was available. There was nothing too different or exciting about set upon first laying eyes on it, and Tom knew this.

“What’s the matter?” he teased (Y/N), “Why aren’t you excited?” Figuring he was taunting her for getting herself worked up about a bunch of buildings, (Y/N) shrugged in a slightly defeated manner which only caused Tom to suppress the sly grin he had been hiding while his heart jumped from excitement.

“What are all these buildings?” she asked, trying not to sound let down but rather inquisitive of her surroundings.

“Different studios and such,” Tom continued while peeling away from his girlfriend’s side and bounding up a couple of metal steps toward a doorway. “This way, love,” he called to her as she continued her pace toward him. He opened the door and escorted her into the dark room. (Y/N) clung to Tom’s arm, afraid of getting lost and not being able to find her way out--a very realistic fear considering Tom once unknowingly abandoned her in an escape room filled with porcelain dolls.

Tom flicked the lights on, illuminating the room they stood in. Immediately, (Y/N)’s eyes flashed to Tom in excitement, anticipation, and a slight bit of fear. Looking around, she realized she must have been standing in the wardrobe department since individual sections for each of the sixty-something main characters wardrobe changes hung on racks beside their respective props.

“Am I even allowed to be in here?” she asked Tom who shrugged in response. Honestly, he didn’t know where (Y/N) could and could not go, but the wide-eye heart fluttering excitement that flooded her beautiful face was something he couldn’t pass up regardless of rules. “Is that--” she couldn’t finish her sentence before she took a few steps closer to the relic that appeared to Steven Strange: the cloak of levitation. “No way!” she yelled as her attention flashed to Red Wing, Anthony Mackie’s character’s ‘pet’ robot. “And the wing pack?” she gasped while picking it up and then hurriedly glancing at Tom. “Can I?”

“It’s not like Anthony’s my biggest fan anyway,” he teased and watched as (Y/N) slid her arms into the prop with its wings already extended. With her back toward Tom, she glanced down over her shoulder to look at the wing only to hear the snapping noise of Tom’s phone as he took her photo. “You look much better in that than Anthony,” he teased.

“Don’t you dare send that to him!” she shouted.

“Fine,” Tom sighed, “I won’t yet.” (Y/N) rolled her eyes and then quickly put the prop back where she found it before rushing over to Peter Quill’s prop and wardrobe station. Immediately she put on the helmet, strapped the walkman to her belt loop, and held up his blaster and waited for Tom to take her picture again. For the next hour Tom followed his giddy girlfriend around as she grabbed whatever prop she could find and posed dorkily with them. By the end, in addition to the photos Tom already took, he had pictures of her peeking over the cloak of levitation, pretending to pick up Mjölnir and then raising the hammer victoriously, ducking behind Captain America’s new shield, raising her fist in the air as the infinity gauntlet covered the better part of her forearm, and his favorite: fem!spidey. Tom and (Y/N) had started dating shortly after the premier of Spider-Man: Homecoming and so the idea of her wearing the suit wasn’t possible until today.

“What do you think?” she asked while pretending to shoot webs at him.

“Damn I love you,” he laughed while taking numerous photos of his girlfriend being a dork in his costume. Oddly enough it fit her surprisingly well and, though he would never admit it, he loved seeing her in it more than he loved being Spider-Man. “If Peter Parker ever does a gender twist like Thor, I’ll commission for you to take over,” Tom said while pulling (Y/N) into a hug.

“You’re a dork,” she laughed at him while wrapping her arms around his waist.

“You’re the one in the Spider-Man suit!”

“You’re the one getting off on it!”

“Shut up,” he muttered in a fluster as his cheeks turned a light shade of pink. “Change back, it’s nearly lunch and some people are excited to meet you.” Once (Y/N) was back in her t-shirt and shorts, Tom grabbed her hand and the pair left out the door they came in and started walking toward where the trailers were gathered.

“Where are we going?” she asked as Tom put his arm around her waist and she did the same to him.

“Downey Town,” he said proudly.

“I won’t want to go to town,” she said in a complaining tone, teasing Tom.

“When are you going be nice to me today?” he laughed while poking her sides. “You’re welcome for me making all of the mistakes you can learn from, by the way.”

“Thank you so much for embarrassing yourself back then so I can not seems as strange,” she replied, “but if you introduce me to Robert’s stunt double on purpose, I will hurt you, Holland.” The two arrived at a collection of trailers set up to remind (Y/N) of the way the cabins were described at Camp Half-Blood. Slowly, Tom and (Y/N) made their way into the grouping of trailers to see a large, standing extendable tent set up with benches and picnic tables placed underneath and a catering company setting up lunch. Throughout the courtyard were the various actors filming Infinity War this week. Paul Rudd, Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey Jr. stood beside Benedict Cumberbatch and Benedict Wong just outside under the awning of one trailer and Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie and the Chrises were gathered together under another awning.

“Are you okay?” Tom asked (Y/N) again as her grip on his waist tightened unexpectedly.

“Y-yeah,” she started, “it’s just...there’s a lot of people.”

“You wanted to meet them all, right?” She found herself unable to respond and instead quickly nodded her head. “Well then, come on,” he smiled to her and pulled her toward RDJ’s gathering of actors.

“Tom,” (Y/N) murmured quietly they approached.

“Uh huh?”

“Don’t let me say Bobby Newport in a menacing voice near Paul Rudd,” she hurried to say.

“Why the hell would you say that?”

“Just don’t let me,” she stated, “okay?”

“Okay, love,” Tom laughed and pulled (Y/N) against his side in hopes to make her feel more comforted and less anxious. Before she knew it, (Y/N) was face to face with RDJ and Mark Ruffalo, who just happened to be the first two people to turn around as stye approached.

“Welcome to the party, Tom,” Robert called while stretching out his arm and taking Tom under him in a side hug. “And this must be the lovely, (Y/N) I’ve heard so much about,” he said while pulling her into a warm hug and kissing her cheek. He left his arm across her shoulders and looked between Tom and (Y/N) before turning his attention back to the girl. “Blink twice if he’s got you under some sort of Stockholm Syndrome thing,” Robert joked, “it’s the only way a guy like him could get someone as gorgeous as you.” (Y/N) could feel her face blush a little at his compliment but was quick to humble herself.

“I’m the lucky one,” she laughed. “Had there not been a screw up with my hotel room, we would have never met.”

“And then we would have never met, and I mean, come on,” he said while raising his hands in the air and moving them up and down like a triple beam balance, “me, Tom, me, Tom. Me? Tom?” A smirk grew across Tom’s lips as he tipped his side of Robert’s imaginary scale upward.

“Tom,” he said with a smile as his fingers found their way toward (Y/N)’s. As soon as (Y/N) was beginning to grow comfortable in her situation, Tom, Robert, Mark, and Wong were whisked away to help with food set up, leaving (Y/N) in the company of Benedict Cumberbatch, AKA Sherlock Holmes, AKA her favorite childhood icon.

“Hello,” he said with a smile and then extending his hand, “I don’t believe we’ve met.” She graciously took his hand in hers and smiled.

“I’m (Y/N),” she said quickly. “I’m visiting Tom today on set--Tom Holland, not Hiddleston, but if you know where he is I wouldn’t mind visiting him either,” she laughed anxiously. To her surprise, Benedict began to laugh as well.

“You’re Tom’s girlfriend, aren’t you?” he said in realization and slight surprise. (Y/N) nodded. “How did you meet? I know he told me you were a fan.” (Y/N) bit her lip and swallowed hard before speaking.

“I flew out to LA for Comic Convention and there was a mixup with my hotel rooms. They gave me the wrong key and wrong room number and it ended up being Tom’s room. Oddly enough I was at the convention to meet him in the first place.

“Funny how things worked out,” Benedict smiled.

“Yeah,” she said hesitantly.

“He speaks highly of you, you know?” he continued.

“Does he now?” (Y/N) began to laugh.

“One of the first things he said about you to me was how he tried to introduce you to ‘Sherlock--’”

“And I had seen more episodes than him?” I finished and Benedict nodded with a light grin on his face. “Yeah, I had a teacher in high school who played series one for us in class when we went over induction and deduction. Its’ easily one of my favorite shows.”

“What did you think of the plot line with Mary?” he asked, his voice holding genuine interest toward her opinion. Out of the corner of her eye, (Y/N) could see Tom returning and hurried to speak before he arrived.

“I enjoyed her character as well as what she brought to both John and Sherlock’s lives, but I also see that, with her past, and with Amanda and Martin splitting, there was no other way for it to end for her than the way it did.”

“I agree,” he smiled as Tom approached. “I love Amanda and I loved working with her and Martin but--and here’s a little slip about the next series--I think John and Sherlock are going to go back to their roots a bit more but still have Mary as a guiding voice for each of them deep down.”

“I knew the conversation would turn to this,” Tom laughed as he came back.

“I don’t want to keep you for very long, but I’d love to talk to you again before you leave,” Benedict said while shaking (Y/N)’s hand in departure. Tom and (Y/N) said their farewells to Benedict and she followed him toward a picnic table to wait for lunch to begin. They were alone for a total of ten seconds before a figure slid in front of them, a smirk plastered across his face.

“Tom, I’ve got you a little something,” he cooed while sliding a tumbler in front of Tom on the table.

“Is this my juice?” Tom laughed.

“Yeah, and there’s a surprise in it this time,” Anthony stated as Tom took a sip. Immediately, Tom’s lips curled as an unexpected burning caused his tastebuds to tingle.

“Thanks,” Tom replied as he adjusted to the alcohol in his cranberry juice.

“Pratt’s idea,” Anthony said as Chris Pratt slid onto the bench beside Anthony, accompanied by Chris Evans, Paul Rudd, and Sebastian Stan. (Y/N) could hardly contain her excitement as she noticed everyone around her: Chris Evans on her left, Tom on her right, and Anthony, Sebastian, Chris Pratt, and Paul across from her, all awaiting lunch to be served, and for some reason, all excited to meet her: a nobody who was lucky enough to be unlucky when it comes to booking hotel rooms.

“We brought one for your lady friend too, if she drinks that sort of thing,” Chris Pratt said and slid a plastic cup in front of (Y/N). She took a quick sip of the ice juice laced with what tasted like rum and then turned her attention back to the group.

“I’m assuming you know us by how much Tom drones on and on about how amazing we are,” Anthony cooed.

“And we pretty much know you from how often Tom talks about (Y/N) this, (Y/N) that,” Sebastian smiled while teasing her boyfriend.

“Now that you’ve met her can you blame me for talking about her so much?” Tom laughed while gesturing toward (Y/N).

“Is it true you’re a super huge fan of the comics and all?” Pratt asked.

“Uh, yeah.” she said hesitantly and then took another sip of her drink.

“Okay, then who’s your favorite superhero?” Chris Evans asked.

“Marvel or DC?” (Y/N) asked in return.

“Both,” Anthony interjected.

“Well for DC it’s Raven, hands down and for Marvel, well as a kid it was Spider-Man; my dad and I would sit down and watch the Tobey McGuire movies all the time, and but once I really got into the comics, I was a fan of the Winter Soldier storyline, but I’ve gotta go with Domino, she’s pretty bad ass,” (Y/N) responded.

“Raven and Domino?” Pratt asked. “Not Star Lord?”

“Or Falcon?” Anthony chimed in.

“I could see you as Domino,” Sebastian said while looking over (Y/N)’s face and a small smile rose.

“But why those two?” Paul asked.

“They’re smart and can out wit anyone and are talented and strong enough to also overpower anyone as well.”

“What even is Domino’s powers?” Tom asked, turning toward his girlfriend as he continued to learn new things about her preferences.

“So long as she makes an attempt to avoid or prevent something, she’s able to. Say if someone was trying to shoot her, if she moves, or makes an attempt to move out of the way, she won’t be hit, no matter what.”

“She’s also super tactically trained,” Sebastian added in (Y/N)’s favor.

“That too,” (Y/N) said while taking another sip to cool her as the Atlanta heat overcame the air.

“And why Raven?” Tom asked.

“She’s easily the most powerful and most bad ass character in all of the DC universe!” (Y/N) couldn’t control her excitement while talking to superheroes about superheroes. “She’s half demon, has the ability to wield dark magic for good purposes, has basically no weaknesses, and mental powers are always more powerful and stronger than physical abilities.”

“That’s not necessarily true,” Tom tried to argue.

“My point was proven in Civil War. No one could touch Vision besides Wanda--the only Avenger to have a mental ability rather than a physical one. She singlehandedly fucked everyone up in Age of Ultron too,” (Y/N) defended.

“You really know your stuff, huh?” Chris Evans said with a hint of admiration.

“Don’t even get her started on Batman,” Tom murmured as food was slowly being placed in front of everyone.

“What’s wrong with Batman?” Anthony asked, leading Tom to groan and grab (Y/N)’s hand tightly in his.

“Please don’t do this,” he begged her.

“Why, what’s so wrong with Batman?” Anthony pushed as Tom glared at him.

“My best mate, Harrison, couldn’t talk to her for a week after she tore down every argument supporting Batman as being a superhero.”

“That’s because he’s not a superhero,” (Y/N) interrupted.

“Here we go,” Tom grumbled and then laughed. “Do you see what you did Anthony?”

“Wait, I want to hear this!” Sebastian said from across the table and then extended his arms to silence everyone and gave (Y/N) his full attention. “Please, go on,” he smiled and gestured for her to continue talking.

“There’s nothing about him that makes him ‘super.’ He has no ‘super’ human or advanced qualities about him.”

“He knows almost every form of martial arts,” Anthony countered.

“That doesn’t make him a super hero. It makes him a master of martial arts. Batman is nothing more than a person who knows things and has money. There is nothing about him that makes him ‘super.’”

“Then what’s the difference between him and Tony Stark or Clint Barton?” Paul asked.

“Clint know’s he’s a marksman and ex-spy. He may be a hero, but he know’s he’s not a ‘super’ hero. I try to avoid the Tony Stark argument because it goes both ways: you can say the arc reactor is something that makes him ‘super’ because it’s keeping him alive, but then again, it was developed by him: billionaire, genius, playboy, philanthropist; notice ‘superhero’ isn’t on the list.”

“Okay, then what about Black Widow?” Sebastian asked while leaning over the table and facing (Y/N).

“Trick question,” she muttered while mimicking his position. “How else would someone born in 1928 look like their only 29 in the year 2017? She received a similar variation of the Super Soldier Serum used on Steve and Bucky--which also explains how Bucky trained her in the Red Room.”

“Leading to their subsequent relationship,” Sebastian stated.

“Which the movies have been subtly hinting at.”

“Damn, you two are fucking nerds,” Anthony laughed as he and Tom agreed on something while laughing at Sebastian and (Y/N)’s back and forth.

“I told you guys not to get her going,” Tom laughed and then put his hand on (Y/N)’s leg as he looked at her with pride and admiration. The group continued talking as they ate their way through lunch. Conversation fluttered between comics, movies, books, and other things of entertainment, to (Y/N)’s degree in school, her and Tom recounting the story of how they met, and even bringing up the fact that Chris Pratt and Paul Rudd had worked together already, which lead Pratt into the scene where Ben, Andy, Tom, and Jerry were trying to make a negative ad about the Bobby Newport campaign. Sebastian, Anthony, and (Y/N) all joined in with him at Paul’s expense and toward the end of their meal, (Y/N) was more reluctant to leave than she was hesitant to arrive. Anthony forced Tom to promise to bring (Y/N) around more often and even invited the couple out with the rest of the cast that night, saying that bringing (Y/N) with Tom was the only way he would be allowed at the grown up’s table.

Knowing that (Y/N) was more than likely exhausted, Tom took her back to his trailer to rest where she was unable to stop thanking him for the amazing day and repeatedly telling him over and over how he was the best boyfriend and most amazing best friend anyone could ask for, and that she was so fortunate to have met him, let alone grow close to him in the way they have become with one another.

#tom holland #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland x reader #tom x reader #tom holland fanfic #thomas stanley holland #thomas stanley holland fanfiction #marvel #marvel fanfiction

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